Staying ahead of the curve and reacting to rapidly changing conditions requires vision and advanced, integrated tech solutions. Deloitte Cyber & Strategic Risk is with you on the frontline. Our team of strategists, engineers, and operators is committed to outcomes, with a long track record for driving peak performance, turning challenges into opportunities, and powering high-quality results.
Learn how we can help position your organization to thrive. Visit deloitte.com/us/MoveForwardFast
Editor’s Letter P7
Index P105
Andrew Brock brought his innovative approach to finance to Associa and transformed its IT operations
P32
Susan Twadell on how accounting taught her she could utilize business tools to be a leader in data intelligence
P42
Kenneth Miles incorporates lessons from his mentors as he helps grow First Fidelity Bank
P48
While automation guru Igor Krasnykh created PowerSync almost by accident, the company’s success is no happenstance
P70
Katarina Finneng addresses the nuanced issues others might miss to help Nordic Semiconductor boost its culture
P76
LivePerson’s SVP and Chief Accounting Officer Norman Osumi places high value on kindness, caring, and connection
P82
Sumeeta Maxwell nurtures top talent and motivates women to take a chance in their careers at Experian
P94
Randi Tangney decided to take control of her future after her daughter was born—and it gave her the confidence to land her dream job at Lockton
P97
Cofounders Ian Kieninger and Drew Lydecker built AVANT to empower trusted advisors, who find the best technology solution for their clients P9
Editorial Director
Frannie Sprouls
Managing Editor
Melaina K. de la Cruz
Senior Editor
Brittany Farb Gruber
Editors
Michele Cantos Garcia
Julia Thiel
Kathy Tun
Staff Writers
Noah Johnson
Billy Yost
Contributing Writers
Zach Baliva
Lucy Cavanagh
Marcos Chisholm
Peter Fabris
Will Grant
Frederick Jerant
Natalie Kochanov
Keith Loria
Rebecca Rakowitz
Joseph Stark
Designer, Profile
Anastasia Andronachi
Senior Designer
Vince Cerasani
Designers
Rebecca Kang
Arturo Magallanes
Senior Photo Editor & Staff Photographer
Sheila Barabad Sarmiento
Photo Editor & Staff Photographers
Cass Davis
Steven LeFlore
Contributing Photo Editor
Sarah Joyce
Creative Production Intern
Andrew Chang
CEO & Publisher
Pedro A. Guerrero
President, Group Publisher
Kyle Evangelista Chief of Staff
Jaclyn Gaughan
SALES
Senior Directors, Sales
Justin Davidson
Hannah Tanchon
Directors, Sales
Kemp G. Pile
Enterprise Sales Executive
Stuart Ziarnik
Lead Recruiter, Guerrero Search
James Ainscough
Senior Director, Corporate Partnerships & DEI Solutions
Krista Horbenko
Head of Digital
Aleksander Tomalski
Director, Talent Acquisition & Engagement
Haylee Himel
Talent Acquisition Managers
Josie Amidei
Jordyn Gauger Sales Trainer
Shannon Borner
Content & Advertising Managers
John Brundage
Samantha Eberly
Brandon Havrilka
Alana Martin
Annie Peterson
Gina Stephenson
Tayla Stuttley
Dominic Trento
Bella Wabick
Profile® is a registered trademark of Guerrero, LLC.
© 2023 Guerrero, LLC guerrero.co
1500 W. Carroll Ave. Suite 200 Chicago, IL 60607
Subscriptions + Reprints
AUDIENCE & ENGAGEMENT
VP, Hispanic Division
Head of Audience & Engagement
Vianni Lubus
Director, Events
Jill Ortiz
Events & Marketing Manager
Ashley Parish
Communications & Engagement Manager
Cristina Merrill
Social Media Manager
Suleidys Tellez
OPERATIONS
VP, Finance
David Martinez
Director, Circulation
Stacy Liedl
Staff Accountant
Natallia Kamenev
Senior Director, Client Operations
Cheyenne Eiswald
Account Manager
Abigail Stern
Senior Manager, Client Services
Rebekah Pappas
Manager, Client Services
Brooke Rigert
Office & Operations Coordinator
Sydney Churchill
Facebook: @profilemagazineofficial
LinkedIn: @Profile-Mag
Twitter: @Profile_ExecMag
Instagram: @profilemagazineofficial
For a free subscription, please visit profilemagazine.com/subscribe. Printed in China. Reprinting of articles is prohibited without permission of Guerrero, LLC. For reprint information, contact Stacy Liedl at stacy@guerreromedia.com.
I was introduced to technology during its apocalypse.
By that, I mean the Y2K era of the late 1990s, when the world fell into hysteria over an impending cybermageddon that claimed computer systems worldwide would fail once the clock struck 2000. I was five years old and just hoping my CD-ROM games would not be compromised.
Fortunately, the systems remained intact as we entered the new millennium, though it was highly debated whether the survival was due to the frantic $300 billion upgrades and Y2Kcompliance professionals or because the threat was minimal from the start. But whether the panic was warranted, technology improved greatly, and more than twenty years later, we’ve watched it revolutionize time and time again.
Back to the year 2000. What I remember the most about my first glimpse of the apparently resilient cyberland was its safety implications. The “stranger danger” concept no longer applied just to shady grown-ups in unmarked vans by the park; now, despite lurking behind a screen thousands of miles away, they could reach you in your home.
The warnings were clear: Stay out of chat rooms. Never share your real name or address online. Funny to think about how I borrowed my pets’ identities for my AIM screenname back then, and now I slide into backseats of unfamiliar cars, relying on anonymous drivers to take me to my destination, my bank account wired to the app that we’re both using to make it all happen.
The world is different. A global pandemic (plus sheer convenience) saw paper money head toward obsolescence, instead letting us tap our phones to make payments wherever we are. Wallets never have to leave pockets. All you need is an encryption code, a thumbprint, or a face. And that means the world isn’t just physical anymore—it’s equally as digital. We’re humans with personalities who seek to connect and to breathe. But we’re also vessels of intangible information—medical, financial, or intellectual. So, while we may wear jackets to shield ourselves from the natural elements, we turn to cyber protection programs to prevent those digital Bad Guys from getting to our personal info.
If all of this intrigues you as much as it does me, then you’re going to love this issue of Profile Read on another page and you’ll learn how the complicated world of tech is pretty simple when you get yourself a trusted advisor with the help of AVANT’s Drew Lydecker and Ian Kieninger. Keep going and you’ll meet the experts behind cybersecurity who want to arm you with everything you need to protect your digital self.
Their clever techniques to distill all the information you need to know is what inspired me to take everything that I learned from their stories and gamify it. At the end of this issue, you’ll find a cybersecurity crossword puzzle, which I hope you have as much fun completing as my designer Anastasia and I did creating.
Cybersecurity is there to stop hackers from harm. But it’s also there to let nothing stop us from enjoying the next era of technology.
Melaina K. de la Cruz Managing Editor
Twice a month, Profile delivers exclusive insights from business leaders straight to your inbox.
How Cofounders Drew Lydecker and Ian Kieninger are revolutionizing tech and empowering the trusted advisor movement at AVANT
By Will Grant Photos by Sheila Barabad SarmientoTechnology is changing faster than ever, fueling an increasing list of options for companies to choose from. With this rise of new and lesser-known technology brands, companies are at a disadvantage when it comes to understanding which options are best for their future technology needs.
This is where trusted advisors help you navigate the confusion.
Trusted advisors are brand-agnostic partners who go above and beyond being just a vendor. Their role is to find, source, and help implement the best solution for their clients—not the best solution that one company has to offer.
A key enabler of these trusted advisors and the movement is AVANT, the go-to platform that supports these efforts in solving the technology business needs of its customers. Trusted advisors receive access to intensive analytics, research, and engineering teams that deliver unbiased information and recommendations about cutting-edge IT solutions.
AVANT also helps vendors find success by sharing a deeper understanding of products and the right ecosystem for those products to thrive.
“We are the ones empowering the trusted advisors to help their clients make better decisions for their future,” says Drew Lydecker, cofounder and president of AVANT. “We’re the ones helping our vendors position how their products are sold to market. We’re the engine.”
Like Lydecker, Kieninger knows a thing or two about closing a deal. He recalls recruiting Lydecker away from AT&T to CDW, where they would ultimately get the idea for AVANT, as “the best sale I ever made.”
The pair initially met at AT&T while battling for sales supremacy, which led to building their friendship. Kieninger was primed to take a new role outside the company. He’d given notice, but the offer letter for his new role was sent to the wrong location three times.
This lapse gave AT&T enough time to realize what it was potentially losing. By the time the offer letter showed up, Kieninger was willing to stay with a new promotion and extended responsibility.
Staying with AT&T led to Kieninger taking on CDW, one of his biggest accounts. This
It’s the biggest industry you’ve never heard of. “If you don’t know what a trusted advisor is, it’s time for you to learn,” says Ian Kieninger, CEO and cofounder of AVANT.
“We knew [Zoom was] the next big thing, and eventually they recognized that we were, too.”
Drew Lydecker
led to CDW bringing over Kieninger, who in turn brought Lydecker with him. The pair built one of the largest trusted advisor practices and helped make CDW one of the biggest trusted advisors of all time—within just a few years.
But they saw a bigger opportunity as technology began transitioning to the cloud and companies like CDW didn’t have great partners or resources to aid this transition. Kieninger and Lydecker knew they could better serve their clients by connecting them with a wider range of technology options.
And thus AVANT was born—with a little entrepreneurial luck.
“I’m not sure any of this would have happened if they hadn’t screwed up sending that letter,” Kieninger says.
“Where would I be?” Lydecker injects, laughing. “Can you imagine the anxiety I have right now knowing my future depended on a letter getting lost?”
In 2009, Kieninger and Lydecker took the entrepreneurial leap and cofounded AVANT along with Executive Vice President
of Global Sales Jennifer Gallego and Executive Vice President of Strategic Partners Erin Christianson.
And in the past fourteen years AVANT found great success in disrupting the technology marketplace and enabling the trusted advisor movement. One in five Fortune 5000 companies have already partnered through AVANT’s trusted advisors to evolve their IT technology.
Case in point: AVANT’s partnership with Zoom. “We had been lobbying Zoom for such a long time because we saw the value,” Kieninger says.
It was a massive announcement, but it’s the timing of the deal that underlines AVANT’s status as always ahead of the game. The press release announcing the partnership was issued on March 9, 2020— the same week a majority of the American workforce was sent home for what was supposed to be a week or two.
Within two years of the partnership, AVANT was named Zoom’s global partner of the year.
“That deal combined with the timing was like putting rocket boosters on a rocket
Drew Lydecker
Ian Kieninger
ship,” Lydecker notes. “We knew they were the next big thing, and eventually they recognized that we were, too.”
Zoom is just one of the hundreds of technology companies that AVANT represents through the trusted advisor movement. Many of those technology companies also recognize AVANT as their number one partner.
The trusted advisor movement is having its moment, no doubt spurred on by AVANT’s incredible success. AVANT provides critical information for its network of thousands of trusted advisors as to where data centers and fiber-optic cables are located, and critical information about the latest and greatest tech innovations.
That’s all before its near limitless number of vendor partners that essentially create a viable business model for any up-and-coming trusted advisor business overnight.
“Our success is dependent on their success,” Kieninger explains. “Why wouldn’t we want to create the best platform, the best information, and the best resources for trusted advisors to become essential
“If you don’t know what a trusted advisor is, it’s time for you to learn.”
Ian Kieninger
Erin Christianson EVP of Strategic Partners AVANT
Because the demand hasn’t changed. If anything, it’s grown stronger. The trusted advisor of today is far more sophisticated than the trusted advisor of ten to fifteen years ago, and now many are providing business advisory services outside of traditional vendor recommendations and support. AVANT is committed to winning together with our trusted advisors and have taken steps to ensure our sales team is in alignment with the needs of our partners, regardless of where they are on their journey. This has meant staying ahead of evolving technology and taking advantage of the “as-a-service” movement to drive growth and success.
to any business that wants to get ahead of their competition?”
“If you’re a company that’s not leveraging a trusted advisor, you are letting your company down,” Lydecker adds bluntly. “If you’re an IT staff that’s running the same ten-year playbook, you could be terminally ill and you don’t even know it.”
Trusted advisors play a critical role in navigating the confusing world of technology decision-making, whether its telemedicine, sales interactions, or the ability to tie the salesforce into a larger system and autogenerate information with human interaction. AVANT is already there.
“This is the great awakening,” Lydecker affirms proudly.
What is a company without those who lead it? Executives provide their blueprint for cultivating a successful career.
Let’s be clear: Dwight Thompson is a genius. The Stanford PhD established himself as a talented circuit engineer with Analog Devices Inc. He earned his JD from the University of San Diego before he practiced patent law at Fish & Richardson PC. Yet he’ll be the first to tell you why his educational background is not entirely why he made it to where he is today.
“I went to school [for] a long time, and I think the key is to realize that you don’t need school to continue learning,” Thompson says. “You’ll always continue to learn. As long as you develop that learning process in your head and have expectations, you can learn a lot in terms of knowing your field and other fields. And that’s something that will stick with you throughout your life.”
Thompson—who joined SAS as a principal patent counsel in 2012—taps into the innovation potential of the largest private software company in the world. Even if his engineering days are past him, he brings an unparalleled level of tech savvy to SAS’ intellectual property operations and spearheads solutions to legal challenges the company faces.
“I’ll engage others in general to think about innovating,” Thompson says.
Consider how Thompson developed House Bill 776 in North Carolina. Because North Carolina law required documents to be notarized in person before COVID-19, residents and notaries lacked a safe way to sign them once the pandemic hit. So Thompson researched laws from other states that legalized remote notarizations and took matters into his own hands.
By MARCOS CHISHOLM“I noticed there were some other states that had remote notarization laws, such that you could do it online,” Thompson says. “You could just use DocuSign, for example. But we didn’t have that, so as an academic exercise, I had some legal interns and we just worked on that project. It was like, what if we just drafted an online notarization law for North Carolina?”
Sure enough, Thompson and his team drafted what became NC House Bill 776, which allows notaries to notarize documents remotely. North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall remodeled their version and
By leveraging his tech savvy and his legal expertise, Dwight Thompson ensures that SAS never has to settle for less
“The key is to realize that you don’t need school to continue learning. You’ll always continue to learn.”
DWIGHT THOMPSON
Congratulations Dwight Thompson!
PatSnap is proud to be a strategic IP partner with Dwight Thompson, Senior Principal Patent Counsel, and the rest of the SAS team.
PatSnap’s AI-powered innovation intelligence platform transforms billions of innovation data points into actionable intelligence for over 10,000 global customers in more than 50 countries. With an unrivaled breadth of data, including patents, drug information, technology news, market reports, scientific literature, and more, PatSnap breaks boundaries to connect innovators with insights. PatSnap.com
introduced it to the state representatives and senators. Then North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed the bill into law in 2022.
Meanwhile, what makes Thompson stand out among his counterparts isn’t his résumé or accomplishments. It’s how much he embraces the never-ending marathon of working in IP. No matter how many twists and turns come with it, he trusts the process and understands how it fits into the bigger picture. And this makes for a winning formula when he collaborates with internal teams and third parties.
“There’s a larger theme there, at least in terms of patents,” Thompson says. “It’s a similar theme that’s actually going to fit within the process to keep trying and trying and trying until you succeed and get something to work. And sometimes it doesn’t have to be much better than what’s out there. They just have to be different, they have to be your solution, and they have to be uniquely yours.”
After SAS lost a case in the US Patent Attorney’s Office, the company appealed the decision to the US Supreme Court. Despite having previous appeals denied in the federal circuit, the company noticed the court only proceeded with a handful of patent challenges. So it filed one more appeal, and the Supreme Court moved forward with SAS Institute Inc. v. Iancu
“They had a procedure that we disagreed with in terms of how we felt Congress instructed the Patent Office to do it,” Thompson says. Once the case ended in 2018, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of
the SAS Institute. Its decision changed how patent claims are reviewed. Now, if the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) conducts an inter partes review, it must judge every patent claim that petitioners contest.
“They have changed how patents, especially the claims of patents, are reviewed at the PTAB,” Thompson says.
Still, whether Thompson is in the classroom, the lab, or SAS headquarters, he goes above and beyond to deliver on DEI initiatives and invest in rising talent. He meets with teams to speak about the company’s mission and its goals. He gauges and analyzes feedback from diverse employee resource groups. Plus, he mentors students from law schools who land internships in his department.
“We ask the students to come into our internship at SAS for the semester,” Thompson says. “We have [had] some great students throughout the years, and so it’s just really nice to talk to them and have them reach out to you to tell them about what it’s like being a lawyer, [an] in-house counsel. To have them work on some projects, see them graduate, and take off in their careers is really rewarding.”
PatSnap: “Dwight, and the entire SAS team, have been a pleasure to work with on their IP goals and strategies. We admire Dwight’s tenacity and expertise; he is an engaged customer helping PatSnap build a product that empowers like-minded IP professionals. We are excited to continue this partnership and congratulate Dwight on this well-deserved recognition.”
–Paige-Ruby Dorman, Senior Account Manager“Sometimes [a patent] doesn’t have to be much better than what’s out there. They just have to be different, they have to be your solution, and they have to be uniquely yours.”DWIGHT THOMPSON
Waupaca Foundry is the largest producer of gray, ductile, austempered ductile, and compacted graphite iron in the world, and at the core of its internal benefits program sits Gene LeSage. Leading total rewards, LeSage took the position at the age of thirtyone, becoming the $1.5 billion company’s youngest director.
It’s an impressive feat but LeSage is no stranger to hard work. He grew up in a military family, with both of his parents serving in the Army for at least twenty-five years.
“At the tail end of my dad’s career, he was in finance, doing some controlling type stuff for the Army,” LeSage recounts. “I went to college initially for computer engineering, but had interest in the finance world, so I switched my major. I always wanted to end up in the corporate life.”
LeSage and his wife moved to her hometown in Waupaca, Wisconsin, where he became familiar with Waupaca Foundry. As the largest company in the area, LeSage knew he wanted to make a career there and accepted a role in the benefits department about seven years ago.
The HR sector wasn’t where LeSage initially believed he would end up, but the move was rife with opportunities. “I [took the job] for a number of reasons,” LeSage explains. “For one, it was to get into the corporate life structure, and the other is there was a lot of seniority and retirements happening, so I knew if I worked hard and put my nose to the grindstone, I would hopefully get promoted.”
It didn’t take long for the higher-ups to recognize LeSage’s strong work ethic, and he has since then steadily risen the ranks. Today,
LeSage on the
he’s focused on at Waupaca Foundry and his leadership philosophies that led to him becoming the company’s youngest director
By KEITH LORIA
“Taking over the department at just thirty-one, I was able to really put in my beliefs and strategies for what we can do for employees in the company.”
GENE
as director of total rewards, he is tasked with strategic planning and developing, building relationships with brokers, vendors, and the team, then coordinating it all with the board of directors and executive leadership.
“My day-to-day type of stuff utilizes my finance background, and I’m someone who believes there’s always a solution through problem solving—that Kobe Bryant, [Michael] Jordan mentality of, ‘I’m going to work harder than the next person to succeed,’” LeSage notes. “I’m not only figuring out finances but problem solving on how to get better and what solutions we can implement.”
LeSage is also in charge of employment engagement, leading a team of three to help employees with anything healthcare related.
“Taking over the department at just thirtyone, I was able to really put in my beliefs and strategies for what we can do for employees in the company,” he says. “One of my first initiatives was implementing our first employer clinic. We knew it would help our employees by offering another solution for our employees and families to receive healthcare and make it our own.”
The clinic has expanded over time, and LeSage even hired a specialist to manage it so the concept can be expanded to the company’s other plant locations, with two more planned by 2024.
Another of LeSage’s major initiatives was to reinstate family healthcare in areas where it has been eclipsed by mainstream hospital styles. “It’s about taking a leap of faith,” he says. “I think we’ve been stuck in complicated healthcare, but when you talk to physicians,
they just want to care for people. They don’t like corporate healthcare. I realized there was a disconnect. We have an opportunity to make a change.”
During the pandemic, LeSage notes the employment landscape changed considerably, and it’s the zero- to one-year employees that most companies are struggling with. Turnover, he shares, really comes from the rookies on the staff.
“In my department, what we’ve seen is a pool of employees that we’ve all supported healthcare costs together. But now we’ve maintained our senior workforce with their families, which tend to be the more expensive piece of healthcare,” he explains. “Now COVID-19 has flipped that upside down and we have to pay attention to what are our top spenders, and what’s going on. And now we must be more laser focused on specific solutions to solve those problems.”
Looking toward the next few years, LeSage sees a large focus being on diabetes and how to get the Type 2 population to a point where they no longer need to rely on medication or doctor visits to be healthy.
“Mental health is going to be another one that will be a big focus,” he adds. “We’re a heavily male population in rural America, so most people don’t like to talk about mental health, but it’s scary. The data is out there, the trends are out there, and if we continue to not talk about it, it will continue to be an issue.”
He’s also working with the state of Wisconsin to help politicians and leaders understand what healthcare actually is, how it’s paid, and who pays for it.
“We need to show why we need to do things differently, because it’s getting out of hand,” LeSage says candidly. “Within that, one solution I want to implement is direct employer pricing. For instance, if we have an employee who needs a hip replacement, if I go to the local healthcare network, it might be $60,000. Because Waupaca Foundry is selfinsured, we might end up paying $50,000 out of our pocket for that employee.”
However, if the company can partner with the local surgery center, the surgery might only be $40,000 and it would only have to pay $30,000 since the employee has a $10,000 max out of pocket.
“Those are real cost savings, and the employee will typically experience the same if not better surgery care with no readmission,” LeSage explains. “We had a study done from UnitedHealthcare that our trend in healthcare spend is down 7 percent over the last four years compared to the industry average of a 4 to 5 percent increase.”
His thoughtful and committed approach carries through in his day-to-day mannerisms. LeSage notes that when he walks around the office, his quote is “High five; look alive.” He’s high-energy, high-performing, and has high expectations for his team as well.
“I know they work hard, and I respect the work hard/play hard life,” he says. “But when they are here, I want smiles, I want communication; I don’t want excuses. If you make a mistake, let’s fix it and move forward.”
It’s a philosophy that has helped LeSage spend the majority of his career at the leadership table.
“I think we’ve been stuck in complicated healthcare, but when you talk to physicians, they just want to care for people. They don’t like corporate healthcare. I realized there was a disconnect. We have an opportunity to make a change.”
GENE LESAGE
Proudly supporting Gene LeSage at Waupaca Foundry for all of his work on delivering valuable benefits and services to employees and their families.
By NATALIE KOCHANOV
Any executive can come into a company and shake things up. But when Farouq Tuweiq accepted the role of CFO at electronic components manufacturer Bel Fuse Inc. in early 2021, he made a point of undergirding his pursuit of change with intentionality.
“The theme of me joining Bel was purposeful change. I was the first CFO in the company’s seventy-plus year history, and I was the first outside executive hire,” Tuweiq explains. “Bel itself is definitely evolutionary, as a company that started out very small and family oriented. Today, we’ve done over fifteen acquisitions, and every time, people are coming in with their own management style, subcultures, and worldviews.”
“I never really fit in anywhere. And when you’ve never fit in anywhere, you’re always trying to carve a pathway and create alignments and alliances, while also trying to be true to yourself.”
FAROUQ TUWEIQ
Tuweiq is right at home amid those diverse perspectives. He grew up in a remote part of Jordan in a bicultural family with a Jordanian father and American mother that held different views, which helped form his worldview.
Tuweiq moved to the US in 2000 after graduating from the local, public all-boys high school. That background gives him a leg up in appreciating the wants and needs of a diverse global workforce—knowledge essential to crafting Bel’s corporate identity. At the same time, he brings years of management, strategy, and finance experience to the organization, which he hopes to position for the present and the future through an ongoing series of initiatives that touch all areas of the company.
Upon moving to the US, he spent two years working in the accounting function of a nonprofit while taking night classes at the local community college. Tuweiq then transferred and graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in accounting before ultimately obtaining his MBA from Georgetown University.
Tuweiq was introduced to Bel during his time on Wall Street working at the Investment Banking Division of BMO. “Because I was on the financial services side of investment banking focused on M&A and capital raising, I spent a lot of time with people in the broader electronic components space, like Bel,” he says. “And I always had the desire to get into the game of the one being in the seat, driving and influencing outcomes.”
Coming from investment banking, Tuweiq introduced a new mode of expertise to Bel. “There’s a mismatch in terms of the value Wall Street is ascribing to [Bel] and what we think the true value of the company is. My focus here is about trying to bridge that gap
From humble beginnings designing fuses for automobiles, Bel has experienced decades of growth through new product development and acquisitions. It has continued to position itself as a company that supplies the components that power, protect, and connect its customers' designs.
Leveraging their expertise, our engineers partner with customers across broad markets, including Commercial Air, Consumer Electronics, Datacenters, Defense, E-Mobility, Medical, and Railway, to enhance designs and increase efficiency.
Visit our website to explore our array of products, including cable assemblies, fuses, inductors, interconnects, power supplies, transceivers, and transformers.
belfuse.com
by focusing on the real business drivers,” he says. “I ensure that no stone goes unturned when it comes to unlocking value, improving our margins, and setting us up for long-term success and growth.”
Bel’s recent growth has been driven by exciting products serving end markets with long-term tailwinds, but also closing two key deals during the COVID-19 pandemic. But each new deal creates its own challenges. For example, Tuweiq cites enterprise resource planning system inconsistencies across Bel’s various acquired businesses. “We finally meshed those systems together after a fouryear journey, for the most part, in July 2021. It opened up a whole new frontier of analytics and data visibility on the business,” he says.
Beyond leveraging those data points and streamlining internal processes, Tuweiq has focused on optimizing the organization’s manufacturing footprint, customer alignment tactics, and research and development strategies. In 2022 specifically, he solidified Bel’s SKU-level economics and initiated four concurrent facility consolidations—a major undertaking that required partnering with colleagues throughout the company.
On the people side, Tuweiq has strived to invest in employees and achieve a coherent
corporate identity, despite cultural variances across different geographical locations. “For us to be the best that we can be, we need to get the best out of our employees,” he says. “We need to have some universal guiding principles around what’s acceptable and what’s not, but we also need to defer to the local temperament and to the aspirations of the team.”
As a leader, Tuweiq embodies transparency, inclusivity, and accountability. His leadership model has evolved over the years, in part as he has reevaluated the tradition of deference toward one’s elders that he witnessed in Jordan. “Growing up in that kind of environment, then blending in the US side of things where you do challenge upward and try to get to the best outcome—it’s something I’m always trying to balance,” he admits.
“I never really fit in anywhere,” he adds. “And when you’ve never fit in anywhere, you’re always trying to carve a pathway and create alignments and alliances, while also trying to be true to yourself.”
For Tuweiq, being true to himself is an act of grounding. Remembering his first home helps him keep his feet on the ground in his current one, which in turn allows him to savor the best of what each world has to offer.
“I ensure that no stone goes unturned when it comes to unlocking value, improving our margins, and setting us up for long-term success and growth.”
FAROUQ TUWEIQ
In 2012, the US was fully engaged in the war in Afghanistan. David Oppenheim, a full-time corporate legal counsel, was serving as a senior officer and judge advocate in the US Navy Reserve. He had the difficult responsibility of informing other Navy reservists in his command when they had been selected for involuntary recall to active duty for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Oppenheim had served in Africa and Eastern Europe but hadn’t yet experienced the sacrifices associated with deployment to a combat zone like Iraq or Afghanistan. His oldest son was also about to graduate from college and receive his commission as an officer in the US Army, a deployment to Afghanistan likely in his future, as well.
To walk the talk, Oppenheim decided to volunteer for mobilization to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2012 to 2013. “A key part of our mission was to help the Afghan government legitimize
itself through development of rule of law and criminalization of the insurgency,” he says.
But returning to civilian life was its own kind of challenge.
“After returning home from deployment to a combat zone, where your mission is the defense of our nation, many veterans struggle to find an equivalent sense of purpose in their civilian jobs,” Oppenheim explains. “After my own deployment to Afghanistan, I benefited from the wisdom and perspective offered by a fellow veteran who observed that when veterans return to the civilian workforce they are contributing to the economic well-being of our country, and it is our strong economy which enables our national security.”
In many ways, that is all you need to know about Oppenheim. The softspoken, engaging veteran and attorney believes in service over self, and he lives by it. He put his career on hold to serve his country. The senior officer is now in his twenty-eighth year of service and holds the rank of Captain/O-6. He’s found equal
success in his parallel civilian career as associate general counsel at Early Warning, a fintech jointly owned by seven of the country’s largest banks and based in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Oppenheim is responsible for overseeing multiple functions, including enterprisewide litigation management, legislative and regulatory affairs, regulatory advisory support, employment advisory support, and legal department operations. He’s brought his military perspective to the table when establishing new approaches to legal service delivery.
Shortly after arriving at Early Warning, Oppenheim successfully designed and launched the company’s government relations (GR) function from scratch. “Our GR function plays a key role in driving strategic business value by protecting and promoting Early Warning’s interests with state and federal policy makers and regulators,” says Oppenheim, who’s also credited with establishing Early Warning’s litigation and legal operations functions.
Oppenheim gained prior experience as vice president and assistant general counsel for Discover Financial Services and its former parent company, Morgan Stanley, for nineteen years. In addition to successfully building the law department’s first-ever Center of Excellence for Enterprise Legal Solutions, he served as chief litigation counsel and managed a team of in-house attorneys and outside counsel. The team successfully secured a $2.75 billion settlement for the company in a high-profile antitrust lawsuit.
According to Oppenheim, his practice as both a military and civilian lawyer has been guided by the principle of serving as his clients’ partner and guardian. He strives to help clients achieve their business objectives through risk optimized solutions to legal issues (partner side) and protect and promote his clients’ interests (guardian side).
The key factors to his success? Oppenheim credits a growth mindset and versatility with a strong work ethic and sense of purpose.
“The inspiration that comes from a strong sense of purpose will motivate and inspire you to achieve your goals and objectives, even when confronted with seemingly insurmountable challenges,” he says.
Oppenheim also quotes author and leadership expert Simon Sinek: “It is not what you do that determines your success, it is why you do it.”
This philosophy has played a part in Oppenheim’s servant leadership style for large and small teams, in both the military and civilian worlds. In Afghanistan, he led a team of more than 150 uniformed lawyers, intelligence analysts, law enforcement agents, and linguists. Likewise, at Discover, he oversaw a team of twenty-six attorneys, paraprofessionals, and administrative support staff.
He is proud to have cultivated an ability to motivate and inspire his teams’ success by understanding and supporting each member’s ability to serve their purpose.
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP: “Congratulations David Oppenheim for the well-deserved recognition you are receiving as one of the country’s leading lawyers in the financial services sector. Your levelheaded approach to litigation management is appreciated and a valuable asset for EWS. Working with such an astute and personable lawyer has been a great pleasure.”
–Darin Gibby and Justin Krieger, PartnersPaul Hastings serves clients around the globe, advising on the full gamut of legal needs. The firm’s financial services team has extensive experience advising bank and nonbank lenders, tech companies, retailers, and others offering financial products and services. The team works with clients on high-stakes enforcement, litigation, transactional, and compliance matters in an increasingly complex regulatory environment.
To learn more, visit paulhastings.com/practice-areas/ financial-services-investigations-regulation-and-litigation.
“The inspiration that comes from a strong sense of purpose will motivate and inspire you to achieve your goals and objectives, even when confronted with seemingly insurmountable challenges.”
DAVID OPPENHEIM
When Andrew Brock started his career in corporate finance, he set standards for on-the-job success that rivaled those of a chief information officer.
“Early in my career, I created this reputation for automating myself,” Brock says. “I’d spend my day compiling data, building spreadsheets and reports, and then I would spend weekends and evenings learning how to code and automate that work.”
Why would Brock, a business school grad working then as a finance manager at
PepsiCo, spend his free time learning how to code? He knew what he brought to the table. Instead of spending the day crunching numbers, he freed himself up to partner with the IT business leaders he supported to learn the story behind the numbers. He wanted to help his PepsiCo bosses better understand the business of IT—not just the function—and how it could impact its business processes and bottom line.
Brock’s dedication paid off. He carved out his own lane at PepsiCo and got promoted to finance director of its global IT department. But when he received an offer to run
an entire IT organization for Associa, the largest residential property management firm based in Dallas, he took a leap of faith.
Brock was going to find a way to get the job done. After becoming CIO of Associa, he refused to hit the panic button over the fact the company was struggling to scale its IT services through decades of rapid growth.
Brock remembers when Associa’s IT department relied on systems that suffered from frequent downtime. With unreliable equipment, systems, and processes across its network, his team members faced roadblocks that prevented them from performing
Scan the QR code to be taken to the web story.their jobs well. He needed to build a digital portfolio that removed barriers and delivered results. He spearheaded investments in new platforms and integrations. Then he established revenue streams to offset the costs of maintaining and updating infrastructure. “We launched multiple lines of digital business and turned [the IT organization] into a profit center,” Brock says.
As these digital businesses began to make money, revenue came into the IT organization, helping to accelerate innovation.
“Now [in] our IT organization, we not only invest in security, growth, and innovation, we also generate revenue that allows us to reinvest,” Brock says.
Brock oversaw the development and launch of a mobile app designed for communities and management teams during the early days of social media, when property managers struggled to foster positive interactions with residents and conduct community business with boards via email
“Now [in] our IT organization, we not only invest in security, growth, and innovation, we also generate revenue that allows us to reinvest.”
ANDREW BROCK
and Facebook groups. Since the launch, there have been two million app downloads.
Revenue generated by these new business lines allowed Brock and his team to revamp Associa’s IT network. With its systems now consistently up and running without issue more than 99 percent of the time, and an environment in which team members could grow and succeed, he had created a work culture that earned the respect of his staff, and his organization earned the respect of company and industry leaders. Ninety-eight percent of his employees have stuck around in the last decade.
“We transformed the culture,” Brock says. “People want to win, and they want to be on a winning team.”
He believes every employee wants to thrive in their role. “I think, inherently, people want to do a good job,” Brock says. “If you recognize that the vast majority of people want to succeed, then the question becomes, ‘How do we help them?’”
Because of his altruism, he feels more motivated to set the bar high. “For me, it was about creating a culture of excellence,” Brock says. “Straight out of the gate we set our standards, and we’re not going to settle for anything less.”
Brock follows the same approach outside of Associa. He recently served as the president of the board for the Dallas Bach Society, an ensemble that produces early music concerts. He laid down the framework behind its Baroque Breakout program, which facilitates music classes, lessons, and performances for students at local high schools in Dallas.
“I am proud of my work with the Dallas Bach Society. We created an outreach and education program to introduce and encourage people who might not have necessarily had exposure or the opportunity for exposure to music education,” the president and CIO says.
Brock is also the chair at DallasCIO, a chapter of the Inspire CIO Leadership Network.
“We recently launched a national network and forum for sharing best practices across our chapters,” he says. “Throughout the pandemic, CIOs needed to act rapidly and lead decisively. We facilitated discussions of how successful companies were leading through technology and then shared those best practices nationally. The network has now grown into one of the leading communities of IT thought leadership in the country.”
In 2022, the InspireCIO Leadership Network named Brock the National CIO of the Year. It looks like he has accidentally found his calling. Systems Plus congratulates Andrew Brock. Andrew is a phenomenal leader, and we are honored to be working with him for ten-plus years. We have been collaborating with businesses to enable impactful digital initiatives since 1987. Our simplified approach ensures a perfect IT ecosystem with maximum business value. Visit us at systems-plus.com.
“If you recognize that the vast majority of people want to succeed, then the question becomes, ‘How do we help them?’”
ANDREW BROCK
When Kristen Bessette joined QBE North America as chief actuary in January 2018, she quickly realized that the insurance company needed to modernize its IT platforms and data analytics systems. At the time, QBE was behind the industry in data transformation and there was no set leader with ownership for an organization-wide data strategy. While she didn’t know it at the time, but she would soon become that owner and spearhead the transformation, taking on a career-defining challenge.
Before joining QBE North America, a division of the international insurer headquartered in Australia, Bessette had a lengthy stint with US insurance giant Liberty Mutual in various roles as a leader in the actuarial realm. While she had participated in and led similar projects, none of those experiences approached the scale and complexity of an organizationwide data makeover.
She made her case to corporate leadership for a major investment. It would be a crucial competitive step for QBE so that the company could benefit from advanced data
analytics and better serve customers, she explained. Top corporate leaders not only agreed but also said to Bessette: “Let’s do it—you’re in charge.”
Four years into a five-year digital transformation plan, Bessette and her team have made great strides. New systems have been built, and the data housed within is used throughout the organization. New capabilities have greatly sped up access to data for call center personnel and are powering the next wave of digital transformation. And the foundation for advanced analytics has been laid.
Great progress has been made and while there’s more work to be done, Bessette (who now serves as chief actuary, data, and analytics officer) has already gained key insights into digital transformation that other executives can learn from.
To start, Bessette and her team faced a critical challenge: QBE’s technology environment was a hodgepodge of disparate systems. The company had grown via acquisition, and many of the legacy systems of the acquired organizations were still in place. Company-wide, this varied architecture and the multiple different approaches to data capture made for inconsistent data analysis.
“You could ask two different people the same question and get two different answers,” Bessette says. She and her team needed to make data more consistent and upgrade analytical capabilities, and the best way forward was to scrap most of that older IT and construct a new cloudbased infrastructure. Though costly, that infrastructure would be a giant leap forward in usability and functionality.
Bessette felt strongly that this project should proceed with less long-range planning than typical technology projects. There would be too many variables and changing business requirements as the project evolved. If planning were to include every detail, “we would waste time on constantly revising the plan,” Bessette says.
The project had a few overriding principles at the outset. The development process would be iterative with a lot of adjustments expected as features were rolled out. Business continuity was a must—there could be no interruption of vital services. And project managers would have to build trust with business partners by working closely with them, being transparent about progress, and addressing concerns promptly.
Planning and development required close consultation with representatives from all major user groups. Once the infrastructure strategy was in place, development work kicked off in 2019, and weekly meetings including all project team members (as well as a weekly managers’ meeting) have been held ever since. Brevity is key to making these interactions effective and efficient, Bessette says. Long meetings are a drag on productivity.
To business managers looking to partner effectively with technology personnel, Bessette’s advice is simple: “Ask a million questions about technology.” This brings out the key issues for decision-making, and as understanding grows and goals align, tighter ties between business and IT specialists form. Testing newly developed
“[Business managers should] ask a million questions about technology.”
KRISTEN BESSETTEKristen Bessette Chief Actuary, Data & Analytics Officer QBE North America
As the world evolves, so will your opportunities — and your risks. Customized insurance from QBE can help you manage it all. Because insuring what's most important to you and your business takes the protection, service and expertise of a global leader. Together, we'll create a solution so no matter what happens next, you can stay focused on your future.
visit us at qbe.com/us .
features and systems before going live has been another critical practice that has been crucial to meeting the business continuity imperative.
With the project still underway, multiple benefits have already been realized. For example, a new data bot allows call center representatives to access data much faster. Also, underwriters have much less manual work to do to access key data, resulting in faster decision-making and better customer service. Currently, work is progressing to create sophisticated data analytics for actuaries.
This vital capability will allow actuaries to better understand risks in underwriting commercial customers in multiple industries with many risk variables. For instance, a one-hundred-site restaurant chain may have varied risks across its portfolio based on the nature of each site.
The hours during which each restaurant sells alcohol, for example, are an important factor and can vary widely among the same chain depending on local regulations. Underwriters must access that information, along with many other data sets, to come up with a competitive premium package for the whole chain.
While the ambitious project has been a serious challenge for the team, their hard work is in service of an accomplishment that will be a career highlight, Bessette says. “It’s part of a true change story,” she says. At the individual level, team members know listing such a project on their résumé is a valuable badge for career progression. That helps individuals push through when things get tough.
Outside of the office, Kristen Bessette shares a passion with her husband for rescuing dogs— specifically the Greater Swiss Mountain dog breed, also known as “swissies.” Bessette says, “We take in dogs that are hard to place because of medical or behavioral problems.”
Swissies are a large breed that can tip the scales at up to 140 pounds. “It’s like having extra people in the room,” she says. Bred as farm dogs, they were often used to pull carts of milk cans. The couple adopted their first swissie in 1998 at a time when the breed was fairly rare in the US, Bessette notes.
“They are big-boned, good-natured dogs,” she says. “We now have two. Four is the most we’ve ever had.” The couple has also taken in animals that are blind or need a wheelchair to get around. Bringing home the “hard luck cases” has been fulfilling for her, as she has always had a soft spot in her heart for animals.
Why swissies? “As a kid, I always liked the brown, black, and white coloring, and they have a great personality,” she says. “They are pretty independent-minded, and that
We’ll focus on risk, so you can focus on y r busi ne
By JOSEPH STARK
Over the past few years, cyberattacks against financial institutions and those they serve have increased at alarming rates. But even as cybercrime constantly evolves and grows increasingly sophisticated, so does America First Credit Union’s approach to protecting those it serves.
Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer Andrew Qualls and his team spend their days making sure that happens. They shield America First, which prides itself on prioritizing its members’ financial well-being from cybersecurity threats, ensuring data confidentiality and integrity.
In addition to preventing system disruption, managing risks, and identifying abnormal behaviors that could give way to data vulnerability, the team stays ahead of virtual warfare by utilizing cutting edge technology.
Some of the credit union’s most notable security features include high-grade network traffic encryption, chip-enabled cards, and Card Guard, an app that allows members to manage their America First Visa from their smartphones. Users can limit transactions by geography, set spending amounts, define which merchants can process transactions, and more.
Individuals are also able to turn off their card quickly if they lose it. On top of that, America First members utilize two-factor authentication, advanced fraud detection systems, and identity theft recovery services.
To supplement those protections, the credit union has been working to give members greater control over their personal data by accepting Utah and Arizona mobile driver’s licenses (mDLs) as a valid form of identification, a measure that’s only been successfully launched in a few other states.
In August 2022, the credit union launched this initiative for all 121 of its branch locations, enabling 930,000 members in Utah and
Arizona to utilize mDLs to access their financial information for all banking transactions. The licenses allow information like name or age to be confirmed without a person having to show or hand over their phone. This move will be expanded to other states with mDLs as they become available.
In a press release, Jeremy Deamer, manager of branch technology and innovation, said the initiative came as a way to secure member’s data and to reduce fraudulent activity. “The support and adoption of mobile drivers’ licenses is one of many steps we continue to provide to our members for an additional layer of security and ease of mind for their futures,” he said.
This initiative isn’t the only way America First is both protecting and empowering its members. Education has played a key role in strengthening the credit union’s cybersecurity strategies too. Members are provided with numerous resources to learn how to sniff out fraudulent activity—what to do if they’re in a scammer’s crosshairs, and how to report scams or fraud.
When he isn’t working to keep America First members safe from cybersecurity threats, Qualls strategizes ways to find qualified security professionals and keep them. According to a 2022 Cybersecurity Workforce Study released in October by nonprofit (ISC)², the cybersecurity industry faces a global shortage of 3.4 million workers. In the US there are more than 700,000 unfilled cyber security jobs, Fortune reported.
This led Qualls and America First to turn to Legato Security. “Legato first started working with Andrew’s team when—like most companies—AFCU struggled to find, attract, and retain cybersecurity talent,” said Legato’s COO, Jen Greulich. “Legato was able to provide the additional expertise needed by Andrew’s team to fill a critical function. Andrew is one of those dream customers who cares about the partnership being a success and our teams work together to help protect AFCU’s information systems from cyberattacks.”
At Legato Security, we live and breathe cybersecurity. From 24x7x365 Managed Detection & Response to customized firewall management, we are committed to delivering the high-quality, reliable security services our customers need. We ensure that all aspects of their organizations' digital assets and infrastructure are always under a watchful eye. With Remediation Services, security threats can be stopped before they have a chance to spread across your environment. From our advanced Cybersecurity Operations Center, we deliver premium security services to companies, governments, and organizations across a wide spectrum of industries and sectors. No company is too large or too small to utilize our technology agnostic, customized managed security services packages. To learn more about how Legato Security can make your organization more secure, visit www.legatosecurity.com or emails us at info@legatosec.com today.
Managed Detection & Response
SIEMaaS
SOCaaS
Vulnerability Management
Firewall Administration
Remediation
Third Party Risk Management
Managed Compliance
Penetration Testing
Security Assessments
Strategic Security Consulting
Threat Hunting & Management
Incident Response
White Glove Service
Managed Email Security LegatoSecurity.com
Twadell
Susan Twadell was living a dream come true. As someone who grew up near Atlanta, she was excited to be working in finance for the city’s iconic media conglomerate, Turner Broadcasting, helping close the deals that made special broadcasts like NBA on TNT come alive.
Today, she’s working for another supreme local firm—Cox Automotive—as the software company’s associate vice president of enterprise data management and enablement. It’s a complicated title, but Twadell has a simple goal: finding new ways to help the business leverage the mountain of information it has access to for crucial business activities.
Twadell is quick to acknowledge her nontraditional background as a data management leader. She didn’t study computer engineering, rise through the ranks in IT, or pursue an advanced degree in business administration.
However, she says her deep background in finance and her experience partnering with large corporations helps her uncover opportunities others may overlook. “Accounting was a great way to get a full understanding of how businesses work and how to use new tools to run them well,” she reflects. “I’ve seen how businesses run from the inside, how products and services help customers, and what levers you can pull to make an enterprise successful.”
That experience gave Twadell a broad perspective that helps guide her data management strategy today. She started with Cox as a financial analyst at its subsidiary Manheim in 2007 and helped deploy an Oracle financial management platform. Over time, Twadell migrated away from finance to process improvements, where she centralized transaction processing and found
new ways to reduce financial errors. Then, leaders asked her to put in a new enterprise resource planning and financial system to measure business progress. That led her squarely to the field of data and analytics.
Again, Twadell used her nontraditional background to guide her approach. “You shouldn’t have to have an advanced degree in tech to leverage data for business purposes. I want to make the use of data less intimidating and easier for my colleagues,” she says. She joined Cox Automotive in 2015 to get data into the hands of the data scientists and project engineers who are creating and enhancing key products at brands like Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book.
Having the right data in the right place at the right time ensures employees at Cox Automotive can build the latest and most effective tools like machine learning models and powerful algorithms into their products.
Twadell’s team has cataloged eight hundred data sets to build its enterprise data marketplace, a one-stop shop for discovering, sharing, managing, and accessing data safely across the enterprise. This information is gathered from millions of online visits, vehicle sales, credit applications, and service records.
The data marketplace is a key part of Cox Automotive’s DRiVEQ—a brand that uses Cox Automotive’s unparalleled data and dynamic AL/ML intelligence to create relentlessly innovative products for its customers. The project has far-reaching internal and external applications. Last year, Cox Automotive launched ten thousand product enhancements and dozens of new products and integrations backed by DRiVEQ.
Customers and clients are finding many ways to use DRiVEQ. Innovations from DRiVEQ reach many of Cox Automotive’s
products that are designed to use consumer, market, and vehicle intelligence to better service the full vehicle lifecycle across shopping, buying, ownership, and disposition.
Twadell is most proud of the data marketplace because she and her colleagues have made data and insights accessible. “People don’t want data; they want information and insights,” she asserts “They want something actionable, and that’s what we’ve provided by putting data at their fingertips so they can use it to power their lives and their businesses.”
Industry leaders agree. In 2022, Collibra named Cox Automotive as its data program of the year. Cox Automotive joins former winners from massive tech-centered companies like American Express, T-Mobile, and Freddie Mac.
If building a massive and powerful platform sounds intimidating, Twadell encourages others who aspire to impact customers through data to start small: Find out what customers are struggling with, ask what they need, and then ask why again. “Data is there to be analyzed and discussed. Talk about it and remember that relationships matter because collaboration brings results,” she advises. “Don’t get so focused on the ones and the zeroes that you rush by and leave people out of the value creation.”
For now, Twadell is focused on having deep conversations at Cox Automotive about how to scale its data marketplace. Her team is adding in automation, increasing data quality, and looking to do even more. Connected data is changing the automotive industry, and Twadell has Cox Automotive in the driver’s seat.
Drive innovation and high quality data across the enterprise
Your data your way
Control access with a few simple clicks
Deliver data everyone can trust
“You shouldn’t have to have an advanced degree in tech to leverage data for business purposes. I want to make the use of data less intimidating and easier for my colleagues.”
SUSAN TWADELL
With many workplaces becoming all-remote or hybrid, cybersecurity best practices are more important than ever. Meet the leaders who address the shifting security landscape and learn how they’re protecting company and customer data.
Although he went to college to study biochemical engineering, Kenneth Miles found it to be a bit boring and repetitive, so he searched for a new major. He took several psychology classes and did some computer programing and found great enjoyment in the challenge of the latter.
“I realized I didn’t think as critically and analytically as I thought I did in regard to programing,” he recounts. Before he knew it, he was programing in languages like C++ and Java, and learning more about servers. “It really just hooked me. Technology grabbed me and held on to me for the long-term.”
Miles started his career fresh out of college working for the state of Oklahoma as an application support specialist. “I knew after college that I didn’t want to program every day, but [being] given the opportunity to work for the state was probably the best thing for me,” he says, “because it afforded me the chance to work with people who had been in the business for a long time, who taught me about networking, about system administration, and the real-life application of the seven layers of the technology stack.”
While there, Miles wrote reports for the fifth-largest agency in the state and managed servers and infrastructure. He also got formal training on project management, business analysis, and disaster recovery.
Kenneth Miles VP and Director of IT
“I was really exposed to a lot of the industry,” he shares. “I stayed there about eight years and I felt it was time for me to do something new, so I left and took a job with Healthcare Partner Investments.”
But Miles quickly realized the management style wasn’t to his liking and found himself looking for new opportunities. A couple of jobs followed, including a five-year stint at MidFirst Bank, where he appreciated the supportive manager he worked under.
“I got great management feedback and was put in a position to really effect change for the organization,” he explains. One of his favorite moments was doing a fundraiser for Positive Tomorrows, a school for children who have troubled home lives, and through two campaigns, he helped raise $20,000.
In 2022, Miles found another new opportunity, taking on the position as vice president and director of information technology for First Fidelity Bank. He mimics the same management and leadership style from his former employer. “I have a much smaller team but much more responsibility,” he notes.
Miles’s responsibilities include meetings about infrastructure, making assignments to projects, managing his team, setting security policies, and working to build the bank’s national disaster recovery environment.
“One of the first things I did when I got here was take an assessment of the environment, and I looked at how we managed user-right distribution, and it wasn’t very good,” he shares. “I brought this to the attention of the organization, and they were apt to change for the better. The organization has allowed me to spend a considerable amount of money in an attempt to fix these issues. These are problems we needed to get a handle on now because the organization is growing.”
Along those lines, Miles has rewritten many of First Fidelity Bank’s policies to protect the company and provide more accountability to his employees.
“Your policies have to prepare for the most unexpected granular things,” he says.
“A lot of the policies here weren’t where I felt they needed to be, so the organization has granted me a lot of leeway to update
“I got great management feedback and was put in a position to really effect change for the organization.”
KENNETH MILES
You’re an authentic leader in an evolving, fast-paced business world. You’re a decision maker. And when you decide to partner with Arctic Wolf, you gain the power of our pack.
The Arctic Wolf Security Operations Cloud and Concierge Security® Model deliver 24x7 monitoring of your endpoints, networks, and cloud environments, helping you detect and stop attacks, remediate vulnerabilities, and harden your security posture.
End Cyber Risk with The Leader in Security Operations. arcticwolf.com/profilemagazine
the policies and put good technical policies in place.”
John Peterson, customer success man ager of enterprise at cybersecurity firm Arctic Wolf Networks, praises Miles’s prac tices in this realm. “Through Arctic Wolf’s partnership with Kenneth, we have seen the extensive experience and dedication he has to helping ensure that First Fidelity Bank and their customers are secure in an ever-expanding digital age,” Peterson says. “Arctic Wolf is proud to be a partner in that critical area of cyber protection.”
A big initiative of his is the Ivanti Proj ect, which touches just about every single business unit.
“It has multiple components and solves a lot of problems,” Miles notes. “We also per formed our very first disaster recovery test, and it was something that had never done before. I pushed for that in the organization to show them that if something bad was to happen, we’re going to be OK because we have a plan in place.”
Adhering to a leadership philosophy that resolves around honesty, communication, and strong relationships, Miles has become a trusted and well-respected boss to his team. He encourages his team to work together and talk about anything on their mind during his one-on-one sessions.
“My management style is a very open and honest one,” he says. “No matter how bad something is, I tell my team to not try to hide it, but tell me first, so I can manage the situation and speak to the board or the owner from a position of knowledge. I really want to build relationships with my teams beyond just talking about work.”
Miles doesn’t come from a wealthy background and got to his position thanks to hard work and support from his mentors and those around him. It’s his goal to help others achieve their career ambitions and become leaders themselves.
“Your policies have to prepare for the most unexpected granular things.”
KENNETH MILESAurora Black
By Zach Baliva
“Tell me about a time when you had to solve a problem.”
It’s a standard interview question, and as Shelayne Clemmer sat across from the hiring manager, she was ready for it. She had once found a creative way to make sure employees were still paid in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
On that fateful Tuesday in 2001, Clemmer was leading supply chain technology, financial services, and e-commerce at Valero Energy Corp., where she oversaw a systems and tech budget of $30 million. The Fortune 50 company had about two thousand retail locations all across the nation.
Its thousands of employees expected to be paid on time, but with critical infrastructure down, Valero was unable to mail paper
Shelayne Clemmer is taking a unified approach to compliance as four businesses join to harness the power of data and technology at Vericast
“There’s usually a tech solution . . . if you can creatively put all the right pieces together.”
SHELAYNE CLEMMER
checks as usual. Clemmer, who ran Valero’s money order program, had an idea. She worked with its vendor and found a way to use money order machines to pay all retail employees at their preferred location.
Recounting the anecdote helped Clemmer make her case and land her first in-house job as corporate counsel. What was her takeaway from the experience at Valero? “There’s usually a tech solution to problems if you can creatively put all the right pieces together,” she says.
Now, Clemmer is putting the pieces of her long and varied career together to serve as senior vice president and chief compliance officer at Vericast, a savvy marketing solutions company that offers digital, print, and payment solutions to Fortune 500 companies and thousands of clients across twelve industries such as financial services, retail, grocery, and restaurant.
The native Texan was born in the western part of the Lone Star State and grew up working alongside her siblings in a family business. Although she set out to study architecture, Clemmer’s plans changed when her mother was diagnosed with cancer.
Later, when it was time to resume her academic career, Clemmer sought something practical, steady, and reliable. She opened Angelo State University’s alphabetical course catalog, started in the A s, and picked a new major: accounting.
After starting her career tracking cows for a rancher and breeder, Clemmer seized an opportunity to interview with a business located above the cattle company and suddenly found herself working for a software start-up. Ten years later, she was its senior vice president of operations.
Clemmer learned all aspects of accounting, inventory tracking systems, and point-of-sale technologies during that time. She transitioned to start a retail software division for a business partner, returned
to her original company, and then joined Valero. When a colleague’s desire to continue his education inspired Clemmer to do the same, she enrolled at St. Mary’s University School of Law.
Clemmer completed a judicial clerkship for Texas’ Fourth Court of Appeals and then set out on a new career path that’s taken her through corporations, a litigation firm, and a cybersecurity company. She’s handled commercial issues, assisted on mergers and acquisitions, managed complex litigation, drafted agreements, built security and compliance programs, and provided a wide range of legal counsel. Much of Clemmer’s career was spent at a payment solutions company known as Harland Clarke.
Three years ago, Harland Clarke, NCH, QuickPivot, and Valassis came together under one new brand called Vericast. The integrated entity synergizes the capabilities of the four independent companies to bring clients a new level of data-driven solutions.
“We connect our clients with their customers, and we do it millions of times a day across multiple industries and verticals,” Clemmer says. “A harmonized strategy will help them offer a more powerful and personalized brand experience to those consumers.”
Since Vericast started, Clemmer has been busy creating a culture of compliance as various businesses come together under one name. Building a compliance department from scratch gave her the opportunity to tailor it to the organization’s structure and goals.
“Compliance departments can be different, and I was able to examine my background and experience to see where I could best influence and support the company based on who I am and what I’ve done,” Clemmer says, adding that the exercise helped her determine what aspects of compliance to prioritize.
The chief compliance officer worked behind the scenes to upgrade security protocols and privacy measures as Vericast moved towards the launch of NXTDRIVE, a new customer data marketing platform that “integrates first-party data management and marketing functionality in a single solution for at-scale targeting and omnichannel media delivery across print and digital channels.”
Vericast was already working on its unique platform when Google and other tech giants decided to remove third-party cookies from their browsers. Previously, advertisers used cookies to track users’ browsing history and deliver targeted ads. Now, they can use NXTDRIVE to create highly customized experiences in a compliant way. “We are helping our clients deliver effective, highly personalized ads to their consumers with a new solution that deeply respects the privacy of each consumer,” Clemmer explains.
NXTDRIVE and other solutions are helping Vericast to serve thousands of clients. Clemmer and her colleagues are giving those companies new ways to find and engage their customers in the fast-paced and fragmented world of marketing and advertising.
Our Adaptable Data Center® framework was purpose-built to navigate new trends and technologies to deliver business results while eliminating the risk of obsolescence. Utilizing the ADC framework, we deliver best-in-class Managed Services, Hybrid Cloud, AI, Security, Containerization, Data Management, Infrastructure and Hybrid Maintenance solutions. The ADC methodology provides simplification and scale to better understand, deliver, and implement disparate and disruptive technologies, such as AI, Security, Hybrid Cloud, Containers and Data Management, while identifying and removing technical debt.
“We are helping our clients deliver effective, highly personalized ads to their consumers with a new solution that deeply respects the privacy of each consumer.”
SHELAYNE CLEMMER
Jeffrey Jones has always had his eye on a target. He joined the military with the goal of earning a college degree— actually, the first of four. In the process, he learned valuable skills, from meeting hard deadlines to leading in stressful situations.
Today, he’s no longer responsible for launching cargo aircrafts. But that background has served him well over the course of a career that has required multiple pivots and laser focus as he worked his way to his current role as chief information security officer (CISO) at Milliman, an actuarial and consulting firm.
Initially, Jones intended to become a video game designer, inspired by his love of arcade games, particularly Tempest. When that plan evolved into an interest in software development, he knew he would need to study computer science. He enlisted in the US Air Force to leverage the tuition assistance provided through the GI Bill, but the experience benefited him in many other ways.
By Zach Baliva
Jones was trained in avionics technology, stationed at Travis Air Force Base in California, and deployed to Germany for operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. In that era, he supported all aspects of avionics on cargo aircraft. As he managed systems repairs, he established lifelong friendships, met his wife Cynthia, and finished the first of his four degrees while on active duty.
Later, during his undergraduate studies in computer science and engineering at the University of California, Davis, Jones completed internships with Pacific Bell and Lockheed Martin before embarking on the career journey that brought him to Milliman. His path there has been full of twists and turns that, although unexpected, have prepared him for the top tech spot. “Each different stop in my career has given me a new chance to reenvision how to use my skill set and find interesting ways those skills can benefit a company or organization,”
One of those unexpected moments came in 2003 when ADP acquired ProBusiness, where Jones was the director of internet engineering responsible for a suite of online products that supported thirteen million
Milliman CISO Jeffrey Jones draws on a background that has taken him from the arcade to the Air Force to the C-suite
users. Suddenly, in what he describes as a “crushing blow,” Jones found himself caught up in layoffs.
Instead of wallowing, the resilient Jones mined his network and took a step up into an information security officer opening at CoreLogic. “The key was recognizing that it wasn’t personal,” he reflects. “It was business.” From there, Jones transitioned to roles at Black Knight Financial Services and Kalles Group, where, as a consultant, he built a robust information security (IS) compliance risk and remediation management program.
In 2016, Jones joined Milliman as IS manager for the global corporate services team. Milliman is a Seattle-based firm with about 5,000 employees and 125 practices worldwide. Jones’s principal responsibilities include advancing the maturity and governance of its IS policies.
In the years that led to his promotion to CISO, Jones aligned cybersecurity endeavors to business objectives, managed incident response activities, and built an IS team whose contributions are valued by the firm. These steps are of critical importance, as each of Milliman’s practices operate with some autonomy while being guided by the policies and programs that Jones and his team introduce and maintain to keep Milliman’s network and data safe and compliant with privacy regulations.
Seven years ago, that team consisted of just three people; today, Jones has twentyfive associates working with him. The “red team” handles vulnerability management and penetration testing while the “blue team” focuses on cybersecurity operations, incident response, and other related areas.
As Milliman, its clients, and its employees adjust to life and business in the post-pandemic environment, Jones is implementing Zero Trust principles to support remote and hybrid work arrangements.
“Each different stop in my career has given me a chance to reenvision how to use my skill set and find interesting ways those skills can benefit a company or organization.”
JEFFREY JONES
Zero Trust is a security methodology that constantly screens, authenticates, and validates users who need access to data. He used a variety of solutions and the one that helped the most with segmentation was Zero Networks.
The landscape is changing at Milliman and beyond. According to Fortune, there are seven hundred thousand IS positions to be filled industry-wide. That means companies need to be realistic, creative, and flexible when it comes to employee attraction, development, and retention.
“IS leaders will be challenged to find candidates that have all boxes ticked during the vetting process. Creative and successful companies will navigate high employee demand and limited availability by getting creative and developing their own training programs for nontraditional candidates,” Jones says.
The respected tech leader expects threats to increase in the coming months and years. His peers and counterparts therefore need to have layered controls and engage in deep conversations with their business partners.
“Talk to leaders to know and understand what information must be protected against leaks and compromise. Otherwise, you could find yourself in a position of not being aligned with your organization’s risk
tolerance, which, in turn, can result in over spending or underspending,” he advises. Advising is a role near to his heart. Jones coached his sons, Brandon and Donovan, in sports when they were younger and now cherishes giving them career advice— Brandon, a computer science graduate student at UC Berkeley, is following in his father’s footsteps and working in the information technology discipline. Jones also is a mentor in a Milliman program and through 100 Black Men of America. “I benefited from coaching in my career,” he says, “and I value opportunities to pay it forward.”
As always, Jones is focused on moving forward and meeting the next challenge. “Work in the cybersecurity discipline is ever changing,” he says. “You must continue to hone skills in your field. Hard work and preparation are critical to success and get ting to the next stage.”
Zero Networks protects organizations of all sizes by providing an automated microsegmentation solution at scale and with the click of a button—without agents or hairpinning. By leveraging MFA-everywhere, Zero Networks blocks ransomware and completely stops lateral movement, all without interrupting normal network traffic.
“Talk to leaders to know and understand what information must be protected against leaks and compromise. Otherwise, you could . . . result in overspending or underspending.”
JEFFREY JONES
By Billy Yost
Before you’re awake, Elias Oxendine IV has risen from his bed at 3:30 a.m., headed to the gym, gotten a full workout in, and sanded down the chip on his shoulder—the chip that has motivated him his entire military and professional career— little bit further.
The scrawny kid from the middle of Georgia, who at one point in his naval career was responsible for equipping fourteen aircraft carriers and amphibious ships with intelligent systems to sustain for up to six months at sea, is now a chief information security officer at Yum! Brands, home to Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, and the Habit Burger Grill.
Oxendine grew up intimately familiar with having very little. His parents married and divorced early, and Oxendine lived with his mother who did her best to provide for her son. That was just part of the struggle.
“I think the best way to put it is that I’ve been racially challenged my entire life,” Oxendine says, frankly. “But I think I learned to process it to use it as a positive motivator in my journey. Like this job. I told my wife that I just had to take it. Quite honestly, as a Black man in cybersecurity, I felt that taking this role could also open the door for other minorities.”
The challenges Oxendine faced kept coming. He was repeatedly passed over for promotion in the Navy despite having been accepted to and later completing
a much-sought-after naval intelligence master’s program, a spot at least a hundredplus officers were seeking out. Oxendine is proud of his service and holds no ill will, despite those who may have intentionally held him back because of the color of his skin.
“Whether it was because I grew up small, or some of the challenges I’ve faced in my life, there’s always this little chip on my shoulder pushing me forward, seeing how far I can go,” Oxendine admits. “I’m not aggressive, but I have an edge. The gym keeps that in check, but I also think it’s very useful for the work that I do.”
Edge was something Oxendine was going to need in spades. He was lured to Yum! away from a role at Brown–Forman Corporation that he originally thought might be his home until retirement. But the chance to work for a Fortune 500 company and the scale of the organization was a challenge that Oxendine, and that little chip, couldn’t turn down.
Just over a year into Oxendine’s tenure at Yum! Brands, he got the chance to vie for his boss’s job. “Our CISO left the company. I just remember thinking that I was supposed to have more time to get my feet under me before assuming the role,” he says, laughing. “Each of our brands operates as its own entity, and each brand has a US and international arm. And as you can imagine, there are some major complexities there. But when that opportunity strikes, you just gotta go for it.”
After an extensive search, Oxendine was offered the position, one he accepted not just for himself but also for the visibility it would bring to the space.
When the CISO talks about some of the complexities of the role, he’s underselling. A whopping 98 percent of Yum! Brands restaurants are franchises, a structure which places a premium on clear communication, consensus building, and a service mindset. To protect Yum! Brands and its franchisees, Oxendine must market and influence the use of security services and controls to maintain an adequate risk posture, either through his global technology risk management team’s services or via a third party.
This new approach to providing franchisees options among in-house or approved third-party security services has just gotten
off the ground, but the response has been overwhelmingly positive thus far for a problem that seemed too complicated to tackle from the outset.
“I recently received a note from a brand president that thanked us for finding a cost-effective solution that allows franchisees to implement security controls in a smaller market,” Oxendine says. “I hope that demonstrates that we’re listening and working to be the best business partners we can be.”
These partners certainly have seen the best. “Elias is a strong cybersecurity leader whose upbringing and naval career has made him a humble, compassionate, yet driven and disciplined leader who will listen first and speak last,” says Vikram Rao, Deloitte’s managing director for cyber and strategic risk services. “He is the kind of leader who will remember your name and will treat you with respect regardless of who you are.”
Oxendine has only been in the CISO chair for a year and a half but given his track record thus far, and the fact that he’s awake four hours before the sun comes up, it’s clear that he’s making big things happen in short order. That’s the Gospel of Ox: Making the best of the worst, and making the worst bring out the best in you.
“Whether it was because I grew up small, or some of the challenges I’ve faced in my life, there’s always this little chip on my shoulder pushing me forward, seeing how far I can go.”
ELIAS OXENDINE IV
Elias Oxendine IV is willing to pull out all the stops to bring company eyes to cyber literacy. Whether it’s a rap video or Oxendine literally dressed up as a fisherman “phishing” for system vulnerabilities (complete with the Jaws theme and an unsuspecting intern), the CISO is harnessing social media to get his message across.
“You’ve got to meet people where they’re at today,” Oxendine says. “They want fast and interesting content along with important information fast, so we’re going all out— whatever we have to do to get people to pay attention. I’ll use auto-tune if it will get you to pay attention.”
“As a Black man in cybersecurity, I felt that taking this role could also open the door for other minorities.”
ELIAS OXENDINE IVChris Hawpe
A look behind the scenes of company-wide initiatives and goals, acquisitions, and brand development
Mark Meade, Goodway Group
Conor Molloy, SeatGeek
Igor Krasnykh, PowerSync
Thomas Trautmann, Pret A Manger
Many companies emulate Col. Nathan R. Jessup when it comes to sharing financial information with employees. There might be generalized claims of doing well (or poorly) but not a lot of detail. Things are different at Goodway Group, a global digital media and marketing services firm with an emphasis on financial transparency that has contributed mightily to its employee loyalty, award-winning culture, and bottom line.
Founded in 1929, Goodway started as a printing company that expanded its marketing services over time into channels such as direct mail, newspaper inserts, and the like. Things changed in 2006, when a Goodway client who was interested in digital marketing, something still in its infancy at the time, joined the company.
“You can’t handle the truth!”
“We’ve also been a 100 percent remote work company since 2010, and that lets us tap into significant talent, no matter where they’re located. If anyone moves, they can still work for us.”
MARK MEADE
Mark Meade CFO Goodway Group
“We experimented in it with our existing client base, and it worked so well that Goodway’s last printing job came off the presses in 2011. We’re exclusively digital now,” says Mark Meade, Goodway’s chief financial officer.
Meade has seen other changes since joining the company in 2008. Employment has exploded from just 35 people then to nearly 550 today. And that’s been driven by two major engines.
“When I came to Goodway, about 90 percent of our business was in the automotive industry; in 2009, that automotive market wasn’t doing so well,” he says. “We concentrated on bringing our strengths to additional clients across other growing industries, such as retail, healthcare, B2B, and more.
“We’ve also been a 100 percent remote work company since 2010,” Meade continues, “and that lets us tap into significant talent, no matter where they’re located. If anyone moves, they can still work for us.”
Every employee is treated like a meaningful stakeholder in the company, and that sense of belonging translates to better business. “It’s a sort of infinity loop,” Meade explains. “Our staff strives to solve business problems for clients, not simply take their orders. And they tend to treat the clients’ advertising budgets as their own, making sure funds are spent wisely. Their active stance drives more business through the door.”
But one of Goodway’s most distinguishing characteristics is its level of financial
transparency. In good times and bad, the company pulls no punches.
“We laid the groundwork in 2018,” Meade says, “with a year of webinars and other training for our employees so they could understand financial reports and other documents. In 2019, we took it live.
“Every month, we present a ten-minute video, including a PowerPoint presentation that walks everyone through our financial standings; the clients’ contributions to our revenues; a review of our billings; and how we are tracking for the year,” Meade continues. “And the response has been terrific. Everyone knows what is happening, and staffers are eager to show how they’ve contributed to our success. As with anything else, you have to remain authentic. We’ve taken a serious topic and infused fun by having a blooper reel at the end. It seems to drive more organic engagement.”
The approach paid off handsomely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Goodway’s revenues plummeted in April 2020 when many clients were forced to significantly pull back on spending. In May, the company gambled that its financial openness could pay off.
“Rather than engage in layoffs, we kept the entire team together,” Meade recalls. “We cut everyone’s salaries by 20 percent to free up operating capital. But we also promised to pay everyone back at the end of the year if we had generated a profit by then.”
Goodway’s monthly video reports gave employees a clear view of the company’s status as business picked up during the
“The response [to our financial transparency] has been terrific. Everyone knows what is happening, and staffers are eager to show how they’ve contributed to our success.”
MARK MEADE
following months. “By the end of November, we were able to reimburse everyone’s pay shortfall. Everyone pulled together because they weren’t kept in the dark—they felt like they were actively dealing with this unknown situation,” he says. Not only was every penny paid back, but that year, employees earned bonuses as part of their profit sharing.
Financial clarity also drives Meade’s current initiative: subdividing the business lines. “We grew so quickly that all of our clients were being run by the same teams,” the CFO says. “Because the internal financial data was mixed together, it was hard to tell how each line of business was independently performing. In 2022, we realigned our internal teams into lines of business based on the type of client being serviced which aligned our talent to which also benefited our clients.
“It’s made the finance teams job more complex,” Meade adds, “because each line is treated as a distinct business. But the benefits of gauging the financial health of each segment outweigh the additional work.” To add to the complexity, the team also handles the financial aspects of Goodway’s UK entity CvE and was part of a cross-functional team responsible for two acquisitions in 2022.
Meade guides his team of eighteen in collaborative and empathetic ways. “Years ago, you had a personal side and a business side. Today, it’s harder to separate the two, and people often bring their personal lives to work,” he says. “When we acknowledge that, our staff is more fulfilled. And if
someone’s distracted by a personal issue, the rest of the team can help them get over the rough patch.”
The CFO also conducts monthly “on track” meetings, in which he discusses employees’ goals and performance, development plans, progress, or even a desire to move to another department. “We’ve done away with annual reviews because with this system, everyone knows where they stand all the time.”
Apart from the obvious benefit of continued corporate growth, Meade says these management practices pay off for staff, too. “We care about their well-being, and their professional and personal development. And as Goodway gets bigger, more opportunities for growth—whether in my department or in another—will emerge,” he says confidently.
Meade offers some advice for other managers: “Treat your employees as stakeholders. Take an interest in them and their growth, and that becomes a win-win situation. Employees will be more engaged, and clients will know that. And trust your staff with good information; they’ll reward you for it.”
Though only a little over a decade old, SeatGeek has become one of the biggest players in ticketing
By WILL GRANT
When it comes to concerts, live sports, and even theater events, SeatGeek has become the go-to mobile platform to buy and sell tickets. The company has only been around since 2009, but boasts box office clients like the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys, the National Basketball Association’s Brooklyn Nets, and the English Premier League’s Liverpool Football Club.
Even if you haven’t used SeatGeek yet, you’re probably well acquainted with the product. The company is a sponsor of popular podcasts like Talking Baseball and the Chris Rose Rotation ; and if you’re looking up the latest high-profile sports controversy, you’ve seen the company on commentator Jomboy’s infamous YouTube “breakdowns.”
“The way we reach consumers today is different to how we did it ten, even five years ago,” said Ian Borthwick, vice president of influencer marketing at SeatGeek, in a statement about its nontraditional advertising path. “We took a leap of faith, standing behind new media brands and creators from the start—now, we’re well positioned to continue growing and evolving with today’s consumers.”
The partnership with Jomboy was formed after SeatGeek reached out to its community, asking fans who they thought its next partner should be. The success of the partnership has earned SeatGeek the reputation of being well ahead of the curve in identifying up-and-coming talent.
That vision has paid off: 2021 included a record fourth quarter with $82.5 million in revenue, up 45 percent from its Q3 reporting, with revenue predicted to double at the end of last year. Unsurprisingly, everyone wants a piece—the company has seen a 96 percent partnership renewal rate.
In August 2022, SeatGeek announced it had raised $238 million in Series E financing, with evaluations of the private company at $1 billion. The bulk of the fundraising was undertaken by Accel with additional participation from Wellington Management, Arctos Sports Partners, and Ryan Smith, the founder and executive chairmen of Qualtrics and founder of Smith Entertainment Group.
SeatGeek’s success can partly be attributed to its desire to revolutionize the long-stagnant ticketing world. In 2021, the company announced SeatGeek Swaps, the first-ever ticket return feature to be offered by a major platform. Previously, those who weren’t able to use the tickets they purchased were limited to learning a lesson about time management or trying to resell the tickets, a potential extravaganza of shenanigans.
SeatGeek Swaps seeks to remedy the anxiety. The program allows customers to return tickets up to seventy-two hours before an event, and in exchange, they receive a twelve-month promo code credit for another event.
“Consumers expect flexibility in every purchase they make these days, but until now our industry didn’t have a way to offer that,” said SeatGeek Cofounder and CEO Jack Groetzinger in a prepared statement. “SeatGeek Swaps changes the equation and is another step in creating more ease and delight in ticketing for fans.”
New ideas come from those unburdened with the weight of “how it’s always been.” Talent like Senior Director of People Conor Molloy is bringing energy to traditional roles that can also benefit from evolution. Molloy is relatively young to be in his leadership role, but it makes sense that he’s at SeatGeek, where innovation is everything. Initially brought on as head of total rewards, Molloy was promoted to his position in July 2022.
Prior to joining SeatGeek, Molloy accrued significant consulting experience across multiple firms and spent a year and a half at Freshly. The director has a master’s in human capital management from Columbia University, and if his rate of promotion is any indication, Molloy is well on his way to redefining his role at a company that is redefining the ticketing industry.
TKTKTK TKTKTKThere’s no sleight of hand when it comes to recurring revenue and automation guru Igor Krasnykh’s founding and creation of PowerSync. The company sits at the forefront of right-sizing Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento) and Salesforce technologies for companies big and small. But, like any good magic trick, the timing was perfect.
Krasnykh had ping-ponged back and forth between the corporate world and entrepreneurship—his true hope to create something himself. In one of his last projects at a former employer, he was asked if he could find a way to help migrate data from Magento to Salesforce. This was the informal founding of PowerSync, he just didn’t know it yet.
Krasnykh ultimately pivoted his focus to building a more generic, robust, and flexible solution that could benefit other merchants. He spent a few weeks crafting the new integration and posted it for sale
on the Magento Marketplace, a hub where developers upload apps to be used to extend the Magento platform. He made two sales in the first month.
“Two different companies bought my product,” Krasnykh says, a small sense of pride still evident all these years later. “PowerSync was almost created by accident.”
Business was good, but it was still his side project. If he had the opportunity to pitch his integration solution, it would have to be on a weekend, his lunch hour or, more likely, not happen at all.
If he put his company up for sale prior to focusing on the business full-time, Krasnykh knew there would be buyers, but the valuation of the business would be fairly small. The founder and CEO of PowerSync knew the time had come to make the scariest leap for any entrepreneur: the all-or-nothing bet.
“At that point, I understood that the business I had created heavily depends on me,” Krasnykh remembers. “When you talk about business valuations, the amount of work I was doing and the different hats I
Scan the QR code to be taken to the web story.“We choose customers who put their end-users in the center, customers who want their end-users to have the best-in-class experience with their brand . . . I want to be proud of the work, products, and services we deliver.”
IGOR KRASNYKHIgor Krasnykh Founder and CEO PowerSync
was wearing made me an indispensable part of the company. If I wanted to do this right and grow this company, I would need to build a mechanism that can operate without me someday.”
And PowerSync grew. At first it was one new developer; now there are entire teams. Krasnykh was able to make the company his sole focus in 2019.
According to Krasnykh, what makes his organization different than its competitors is rooted in empowerment. PowerSync looks to educate its customers on the best practices and guide them to implement solutions that can scale globally.
Sometimes the solutions are uncomfortable. In fact, Krasnykh built PowerSync as a refutation to unhappy customers blaming an outcome they didn’t want as one they didn’t need. Transparency is key, he affirms, and it’s his mission to help customers define their minimal viable product and understand that not everything they want is possible within their allocated budget.
“I know it hurts our business at times, but there are many times when we have to say no,” the CEO explains. “If you are asked to build a car [and] the budget is only one hundred dollars, some agencies will jump at the chance without asking any questions, and deliver something straight out of the Flintstones : a vehicle you have to push with your feet.”
While some might balk at their vision being reconsidered, Krasnykh counters that he’s challenging his customers to think differently.
“We choose customers who put their end-users in the center, customers who want their end-users to have the best-in-class experience with their brand, customers who want to provide value to their end-users again and again,” he explains. “I want to be proud of the work, products, and services we deliver. Unfortunately, that can be an outlier in our [industry].”
Krasnykh understands being an outlier. He emigrated with his family to the United States from Russia in 1997 while he was still in high school. He racked up community
college classes in technology and digital design, only to realize that he could learn more at his own faster pace.
He learned by doing, first through a small start-up with a friend, then increasingly complex tech roles in the corporate world before stumbling upon then-Magento and Salesforce. These platforms would ultimately shape the rest of his career up to this very moment.
One of PowerSync’s defining moments that would shield, if not enhance, the company’s financial health during the pandemic was shifting to a recurring business model. The move was recommended by an interested party from Finland that he met while on vacation in Mexico. Krasnykh admits he was surprised how well the recurring business model ended up working for his growing company.
“This person believed in my business and told me that if the loss due to the shift towards a recurring model would remain after six months, I could switch back and he would compensate the difference,” Krasnykh remembers. “The first six months, our sales declined between 30 and 40 percent. Can you imagine that? The [next] three months, sales spiked, and we had broken back even, and things just continued to get better. It revolutionized our business.”
While PowerSync has continued to expand, its abilities to react nimbly and immediately are still among its hallmarks. Krasnykh says too many businesses have a culture that is resistant to change. While he understands the hesitance, it’s not the way PowerSync operates. In the fiery debate over what automation means for the future, the CEO only sees possibilities.
“I see more value than fear,” he explains. “You can either see how much time and money implementing automation will take from your bottom line, or you can see the additional revenue that will ultimately be generated and the more meaningful work you’ll allow your people to engage in. We want to be on the edge of possibility. That’s where we want to live.”
“If I wanted to do this right and grow this company, I would need to build a mechanism that can operate without me someday.”
IGOR KRASNYKH
By JOSEPH STARK
Fresh food and organic coffee aren’t the only things Pret A Manger has been serving since it opened its doors in London in 1986.
The international sandwich shop franchise has offered customers convenience and quality, all while helping communities with initiatives to alleviate poverty and hunger.
Even as the brand transforms in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pret is still meeting people where they are. But this time, it’s in the comfort of their homes or during their daily routines.
With the launch of the Pret Coffee Subscription, customers can enjoy their favorite coffee or tea every day with a monthly subscription price that’s equivalent to paying for two drinks a week. Customers can subscribe via the Pret app on iOS or android devices, which allows them to order menu items ahead for pick up and to earn free rewards. In addition, the company has expanded its delivery services.
For Thomas Trautmann, senior vice president of finance, real estate, supply chain, and franchising for Pret A Manger North America, the expansion of the company’s digital footprint was a way to revitalize what the brand stands for and to bring more clarity to the brand image.
Trautmann feels the expansion will help the company prepare for the future, especially after grappling with trying times at the start of the pandemic. At the time, Pret had to close seventeen units across the US when domestic sales fell 87 percent. It also had to permanently shutter thirty locations in the UK.
Company leadership decided it was time for Pret to reinvent itself and redefine its brand in the face of those losses. Out of those considerations came a new vision to “spread joy at every interaction with the brand,” according to Marketing Interactive Jane Walker, global brand and communications director at Pret, told the site that the new brand identity is “freshly made for the
digital age while also being deeply rooted in Pret’s legacy as a generous brand.”
“Our business has gone through huge changes over the past two years, and we recognized the need to bake our new identity into every asset, interaction, and touchpoint,” she said. “As we expand into new markets and channels, many people’s first interaction with Pret will be outside of our shops, so we wanted to ensure these customers get that same feeling as those visiting in-store.”
Armed with a new vision and purpose, Pret closed out 2022 strong across the world. It announced a partnership with Dallas Holdings last December to build a network of restaurants across Southern California. A unit is also slated for Hudson Yards in New York City. In England, Pret opened new shops in Essex, Twickenham, and Harrogate, while forming new partnerships in Ireland, Canada, and the Middle East.
“We’ve been seeing steady growth week over week as customers and businesses continue to return to the office,” Jorrie Bruffett, president of Pret A Manger North America, told Restaurant Dive in December 2022. “This shift has aided in our recovery efforts and even our coffee orders have now surpassed pre-pandemic levels. We believe this is the right time to identify new partners to help us enter new markets where we know there is a demand for Pret.”
“Working with Thomas is a pleasure. Very pragmatic and able to find solutions swiftly. Challenges views to reach positive and innovative outcomes. Thomas is certainly able to adapt to various areas from finance, property, legal, and operations. Looking forward to growing a presence together through parts of the US.” –Shane S. Thakrar, CEO, Dallas Holdings Inc.
Keen-Summit Capital Partners is a leading real estate brokerage, workout, and investment banking firm specializing in special situations, restructurings, bankruptcies, and receiverships. Clients benefit from its reputation for excellence and integrity, extraordinary industry experience, in-depth market knowledge, deep industry relationships, and exceptional execution capabilities. Call us: (646) 3819222 or visit keen-summit.com.
How leaders cultivate inclusive environments that allow both employees and companies to thrive
Ashlee Collins, Inspirato
Nordic Semiconductor has doubled in headcount since Katarina Finneng joined the wireless technology company in late 2019. Fast growth brings both challenges and opportunities.
While many leaders in her place would focus on systems, Finneng says it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Instead of simply shoring up procedures and processes, she’s working to add value and make a real difference by changing what lies below the surface.
The visible parts of the employee and workplace iceberg include vision, strategy, structures, procedures, and goals, which Finneng describes as “the way we say we get things done.” The large portion—the part that remains hidden, the organizational culture—holds the invisible items that really influence a company, like beliefs, biases, perceptions, assumptions, values, attitudes, and undefined rules.
Finneng is Nordic Semiconductor’s executive vice president of people and communication. She’s looking to enhance the intangibles of corporate culture to support the Norwegian-headquartered company as it scales. “Leaders who only develop systems and structures without focusing on behaviors won’t get very far,” she explains. “We have to understand what’s going on below the surface if we really want to be effective.”
How does one understand and influence what’s going on beneath the surface? Finneng does it by prioritizing relationships, leading with transparency and communication, and leveraging her eclectic professional experience.
The Swede once intended to become a police officer like her grandfather until a multiyear admission freeze forced her to change career ambitions. Finneng’s interest in people and behavior led her to study social psychology and anthropology in her country’s second-largest city, Gothenburg, before enrolling at the university’s school of public administration. She started her career at Volvo Group within human resources, met a Norwegian man and moved to Norway, and eventually took on roles within communication.
The experience underscored for Finneng the importance of learning new things and keeping an open mind. Although she already had an MS degree with specialization in policy analysis, public management, and organization studies, she enrolled at the BI Norwegian Business School to earn an executive master of management degree, focusing on communication and change management.
The strategic move helped her land a job at Norwegian Air Shuttle, where she combined her talents and training in HR and communication as deputy chief human resources officer.
The roles she had at Norwegian, Norway’s largest airline, inspired Finneng to do more. The company’s start-up mentality, its international profile, and the access to the board of directors presented new opportunities. “I became passionate about challenging existing truths and the status quo,” she says. “Future-oriented leaders are willing to rethink existing methods and behaviors.”
That’s what Finneng is doing at Nordic Semiconductor. The company provides wireless communication technology through Bluetooth Low Energy, cellular IoT, and Wi-Fi that powers the Internet of Things. Finneng is focused not only on attracting the relevant people to contribute to the company’s journey but also on maintaining and developing the relevant attitudes.
“I believe in asking questions, listening, and giving everyone the chance to contribute,” Finneng says, adding that she’s been working with her colleagues in the executive management team and with strategic partnerships to change how the organization traditionally views its people function and that function’s value add.
Part of the success has come as Finneng prioritizes relationships. Her ambition is not to be a manager of employees but rather a leader of people. “Management is about a title or position, while leadership is about earned trust,” she explains. “Once people see you as a dedicated leader, they will not only comply but go above and beyond.”
As a leader, Finneng knows and admits she’s not an expert in everything. Instead
of having all the answers, she relies on the teams she’s helped build to work together as one.
The approach has been especially important as legacy employees and new hires come together. In this critical time a quote from a Dan Millman character named Socrates has served as Finneng’s inspiration: “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old but on building the new.” Finneng keeps this idea in mind as she leads change and role models how HR is a business enabler and not merely a transactional function.
Today, Nordic Semiconductor is operating with about 1,450 employees worldwide. Finneng relies on a human capital management system and other tools to empower line managers and streamline support.
Leadership training and development programs make the company’s diverse workforce—known for its engagement, respect, performance, and accountability— even more resilient. Continuous learning demands practical training. The development foundation also includes strategic partnerships to create momentum.
One of these strategic partners is Dale Carnegie Training (DCT) Norway, who supports Nordic Semiconductor’s practical on-the-job training. “Katarina’s method leverages transformation through a growth mindset. She knows exactly which next steps will tackle existing challenges,” says Sebastian Grupe, trainer and consultant at DCT Norway. “Thinking, ‘What’s best for Nordic Semiconductor?’ she combines business strategy with leadership and people
“Management is about a title or position, while leadership is about earned trust.”
KATARINA FINNENG
as an amplifier. Trusting us with her most vulnerable assets—her leaders—she aims to reduce risk and increase productivity while also challenging us as a training provider to deliver simpler, more impactful, and more client-centric [solutions].”
Although the supply side of the business has been challenging, the high demand for semiconductors has experts optimistic about 2023. Smart devices are increasingly popular, tech start-ups are flourishing, and more electronic devices are being connected to the internet. Finneng and the rest of the executive management team’s efforts to strengthen the foundation of Nordic Semiconductor’s culture iceberg has the company prepared for a new wave of opportunities.
“Leaders who only develop systems and structures without focusing on behaviors won’t get very far. We have to understand what’s going on below the surface if we really want to be effective.”
KATARINA FINNENG
Norman Osumi
SVP and Chief Accounting Officer
One of the top leadership practices Norman Osumi follows may seem simple, but it’s incredibly powerful: smiling. Lots and lots of smiling. It’s an act that matches his naturally kind disposition, and one that he hopes counteracts any misconceptions people may get from his self-described “serious face.”
“I consciously make an effort to smile more,” he says. “It tends to put people at ease and make them feel comfortable approaching me.”
It’s just one of many ways the extremely friendly senior vice president and chief accounting officer of the global technology company LivePerson works to make each member of his team feel like they can go to him. He also has frequent personal conversations with his staff, doing his best to understand more about their mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual state. The latter two can be hard to decipher, he says, but understanding where their hearts and minds are at is very important to him.
“It’s a really important part of building trust and connecting with my staff and colleagues,” he says. Taking the time to develop those relationships leads to more candid communication and increased
Norman Osumi was granted a second chance at life and is devoted to leading with kindness, caring, and connection at LivePerson
By REBECCA RAKOWITZScan the QR code to be taken to the web story.
“This is business, but that doesn’t have to mean it has to be cold and impersonal. It can be warm and inviting.”
NORMAN OSUMI
efficiency, both of which are necessary to keep the finance department of a company that made half a billion dollars in revenue in 2022 on track.
A big initiative at present is moving LivePerson over to the cloud. There’s a lot to consider when it comes to reliance on third parties in that way versus keeping the company’s IT infrastructure in-house. Going to the cloud means a provider would help manage activities around key resources. The jury is still out regarding which path will prove to be the best, Osumi says, so they will have to see how the migration to the cloud plays out.
It all reminds him of one of his favorite quotes from the infamous baseball player Yogi Berra: “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is,” Berra said.
In practice, Osumi is always tracking the numbers, overseeing the finance department, assessing internal efficiencies, and searching for ways to automate and improve processes. All the while, he is looking to help manage the stress of his employees.
“I try to gauge the team’s bandwidth and balance the load as best as possible,” he says.
He must also do the same for himself. This has been especially important since April 2019, when Osumi was suffering from severe congestive heart failure and was admitted to the hospital. He was hooked up to machines that kept his heart functioning
At KPMG, we never underestimate the power of an individual with passion. That’s why we want to recognize Norman Osumi for his outstanding contribution to coach LivePerson leaders in modernizing the company’s IT infrastructure. You’ve exceeded expectations.
kpmg.com/us
It’s always a pleasure to recognize the achievement of our clients.
RSM is pleased to congratulate Norman Osumi of LivePerson for being recognized by Profile Magazine.
properly and had no idea what the future would look like. Transplant patients can wait months or even years on the transplant list, but just four days later, Osumi was in an operating room about to receive a donor heart.
“I remember when I was about to be pumped with anesthesia, I thought to myself, ‘I may not wake up here. I may die right here, and I may never see another day,’” he says.
Thankfully, a few hours later, Osumi came to in the recovery room feeling grateful for his “second chance at life.” Each day, he does his best to not let that chance be lost. He is intent on doing the best he can, being the best person he can be, and focusing on the positive.
This positive state of mind is a good outlook to have since the doctor’s orders include maintaining a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and minimizing stress. Given the stress-reducing effects of smiling, it is good that it is already integrated into his routine.
Osumi has also added breathing exercises to his schedule. He regularly takes three minutes to do some very deep breathing: breathing in for fifteen seconds, holding it for fifteen, and then breathing out for fifteen. That, unlike smiling, is not as easy as you might think.
In the course of nearly forty years in the accounting and finance industry, Osumi has learned a lot. He has learned that your
twenties should be a time of apprenticeship and learning and your thirties should be a time of taking on as many projects as you can and applying that knowledge. Once you reach a leadership level, a lot should be about people skills: developing your team, practicing empathy and patience, and of course, developing a culture of kindness.
“This is business, but that doesn’t have to mean it has to be cold and impersonal,” he says. “It can be warm and inviting.”
Even the not-so-fun parts of his job, like talking to employees about problems, can be done in a warm way—“focus on the problem, not the individual”—and is a task that Osumi looks at with positivity. That’s been especially true since he received his new heart.
“The fact that I’m alive and can have interactions with people and help solve problems as a human being having been given that second chance . . . I just feel so grateful for that,” he says.
In an evolving landscape, businesses succeed by making better decisions, faster. At KPMG, we bring the insight and capability needed to enable your success. Drawing from deep industry and functional expertise, we use advanced data and analytics to unlock new sources of value and drive sustainable growth. Whether it’s navigating complex transactions, improving business performance, or reshaping your strategy, we will work with you to rapidly realize the vision for your organization. With KPMG, you have the insight to turn opportunities into transformative and real results.
“I consciously make an effort to smile more. It tends to put people at ease and make them feel comfortable approaching me.”
NORMAN OSUMI
When Inspirato went public in February 2022, Ashlee Collins couldn’t help but feel a sense of achievement.
“I got to go to the bell ceremony on the Nasdaq floor with many of the employees, who had been with us forever. It was a milestone I never imagined I would see in a lifetime,” says Collins, who serves as senior vice president of technology and product at the luxury travel subscription company.
To share that moment with her colleagues made it all the more special. “It was a great way to celebrate ten years of success,” Collins adds.
Since joining Inspirato in 2013, Collins has grown with the company, and it’s helped her realize that it’s not only important to focus on caring for her team, but herself, too. Her commitment to self-care permeates all aspects of her life and work, including her approach to leadership at Inspirato, where she continues to drive innovation and strive for new heights.
Collins honed her understanding of technology implementation methodologies and solutions in the world of consulting, first at Big Four firm Deloitte, and then at local boutique consulting firm RAS & Associates in Denver. Inspirato became a client of hers— and ended up being her final one.
“It was mutual love, right from the beginning,” she says. “At the time, the company was still a startup, and they were looking to scale to their next wave of growth. I was brought in to help outline their operational process opportunities and come up with a strategic roadmap.”
Collins’s first full-time role at Inspirato entailed building out the organization’s product team. Over the years, she acquired further areas of oversight, such that her purview now encompasses everything from product design to management to software engineering to data, IT, and security. That means toggling between meetings with the Inspirato executive team, her own leadership team, and individual contributors.
“We are always looking to grow the company across the board, but it’s important for us to do so in ways that scale efficiently,” Collins explains. “It’s about mobilizing all
Ashlee Collins prioritizes keeping her own cup filled to ensure that she can give it her all as a product and technology leader at Inspirato
Ashlee Collins SVP of Technology & Product Inspirato
“If you neglect selfcare for a while, it does then require a huge effort to fill your cup back up. But if you take just a few steps every day, it is so impactful in the long run.”
ASHLEE COLLINSCourtesy of Inspirato/Ross Bothwell
of the teams that we’ve built throughout product and technology and pointing them toward key company goals or problems, so that these teams of smart and enthusiastic people can work to implement solutions that make an impact.”
Beyond collaborating with the executive team in preparation for Inspirato to go public, Collins facilitated the implementation of a customer relationship management solution, as well as the end-to-end development of Inspirato Pass, the first-ever luxury travel subscription product.
All the while, she needed to remain conscious of how Inspirato handles customer data. “There is definitely a role for technology in the compliance, controls, competence, and security of the company and the platform,” she emphasizes.
To ensure her team can fulfill that role, Collins leads from a place of authenticity and empowerment. In particular, she strives to set an example when it comes to defining her own priorities around work/ life boundaries and self-care. “I was always intermittently focused on self-care, but it became a number one priority for me after I had my daughters,” she says. “I realized that, as a leader of a big team that I care about deeply, with a family that I also care about deeply, my cup is being withdrawn from all day long as I give out to others.”
To keep her cup filled, Collins begins each day by getting up before the rest of her household and taking time to meditate, read, and set her daily intentions. She believes strongly in practicing self-care first thing in
the morning, but urges others to establish a routine that works for them.
“Whatever you can keep up, that’s the thing you should be doing,” she confirms. “If you neglect self-care for a while, it does then require a huge effort to fill your cup back up. But if you take just a few steps every day, it is so impactful in the long run.”
Once she has gotten into the right headspace to begin working, Collins supports her team by showing that she understands and values them as people, not just employees. “I want to know what their hopes, dreams, and fears are, so that I can help them get to where they want to go, while delivering on the results that I need them to deliver on,” she says.
Collins likewise recognizes the duality of the personal and professional in herself. “I’m equally ambitious on both sides, personal and professional. I feel very invested in my family, my personal life, and my personal goals,” she says. “As for Inspirato, there are infinite ways for us to revolutionize luxury travel. We are just getting started, and it’s awesome to have a front-row seat and get to play a big part—and have my team play a big part—in making that happen.”
Credera is a global boutique consulting firm focused on strategy, transformation, data, and technology. Our four thousand consultants across the globe unlock tangible business results for our clients. We partner with authentic and people-first leaders like Collins, on a mission to make an extraordinary impact for our clients, people, and communities.
“As for Inspirato, there are infinite ways for us to revolutionize luxury travel. We are just getting started.”
ASHLEE COLLINS
Credera is a global, boutique consulting firm working at the intersection of strategy, transformation, data, and technology.
Leaders highlight successful outcomes of initiatives, whether within their companies or the communities they serve
By ZACH BALIVA
Given the organization’s name, it should come as no surprise that its employees say it takes a special type of person to work at Epiq Global. The tech-first global legal and corporate services provider tackles grand and complex tasks with confidence. Therefore, its employees need to be bold, daring, ambitious, and bright.
Alison Wisniewski is Epiq’s chief legal officer. The veteran corporate attorney came to the organization as corporate counsel on a three-member legal team in 2010. She found the room and latitude to grow and develop at Epiq, stepped into her current role in 2017, and still draws energy from the team and culture around her.
“Our work can admittedly be fast paced and stressful, but it’s endlessly rewarding,” she says. “I didn’t have to leave the organization to seek growth and development elsewhere. Epiq has allowed me to develop my career over time and that keeps things exciting.”
There was a time when Wisniewski believed life as an attorney to be dull. In fact, the stories her father shared about his work as a patent attorney drove her to try a different path. She went to college at
Northwestern University as a theater major before switching to communications.
Upon graduation, she faced a crossroads when she took a job as a paralegal at a large global law firm. “I realized I could either be a struggling actor hoping to make it big one day, or head to law school and take my career down a completely different path,” Wisniewski explains.
A good score on the LSAT solidified what Wisniewski already knew—she had the aptitude to pursue a legal career, but needed
to find the area of law suited to her interests and personality. She would find a home in transactional and corporate law.
Wisniewski logged four years at New York area firms, where strong female partners trained and mentored her. She seized the opportunity to work on securities filings and other aspects of public mergers and buoyed that specialty expertise by mastering the basics of transactional law.
By 2010, Epiq needed someone to support sales teams for its e-discovery and class action businesses, and Wisniewski fit the bill. She took her first in-house role, primarily negotiating client agreements for the business units.
Epiq, a publicly traded company, acquired four different companies in five years to grow its geographical footprint as well as its service offerings before it was taken private in 2016. By 2017, Wisniewski was asked to lead the legal and compliance teams. Now, she manages all legal tasks, advises business leaders, serves as corporate secretary, and oversees all compliance issues.
Three years ago, Wisniewski partnered with another leader to serve as an executive sponsor for Epiq’s official diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program. Although an informal and volunteer DEI group was already in existence, Epiq was ready to formalize its efforts by adding more structure and intentionality. The company launched employee resource groups (ERGs) in 2021. “We’re committed to evolving Epiq’s culture. ERGs and DEI initiatives help us connect with our employee base in meaningful ways,” Wisniewski says.
A more empowered and diverse culture will not only create good internal culture but
also ensure Epiq is aligned with its clients and customers. Epiq now has about 5,500 employees spread across eighty offices in fourteen countries . Of those, 44 percent are women and 45 percent are people of color. In 2021, 56 percent of all employees hired were women and 56 percent were also people of color.
While others might find the work Epiq engages in to be intimidating or even exhausting, Wisniewski thrives under pressure. She credits her dedicated team with helping her navigate the many and varied challenges that come their way and says she gives each person she works with the freedom to get work done and tend to personal matters at the same time.
“We want to do great work, enjoy what we do, have fun together, and avoid burnout,” she says. This approach, which was already in place, became even more important as Epiq navigated the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wisniewski’s dreams of professional theater may be on the back burner for now, but that doesn’t mean she’s forgotten her passion for acting. The hardworking professional was able to make time during COVID-19 to participate in a few community theater cabarets. While it can be challenging to find the time to participate in a full-blown production, an occasional role may be in her future. For now, she’s focused on helping Epiq be at its best so its clients can achieve success.
DLA Piper’s employment practice leverages our deep experience to solve every type of HR and employment challenge, from day-to-day issues to high-stakes litigation and sensitive investigations. With over four hundred-plus employment lawyers worldwide, we remain a trusted partner in the marketplace for clients’ most sophisticated matters.
“We’re committed to evolving Epiq’s culture. ERGs and DEI initiatives help us connect with our employee base in meaningful ways.”
ALISON WISNIEWSKIBy BILLY YOST
Sumeeta Maxwell is the very definition of “casually inspiring.” She doesn’t leap out to pull you in. There is nothing aggressive or pressing about her. But you walk away from a conversation with her just feeling better. It’s the mark of a top-notch HR professional, one who understands the value of truly connecting with her peers.
Maxwell is senior vice president of human resources for the global technology and security teams at Experian, where she has been since 2019. As she continues to double down on the development and recognition of Experian’s talent, she’s also on a mission to empower women to take more calculated risk in their careers. Or, as Maxwell puts it, to “just apply!”
The SVP’s hope for women of the future is, in many ways, colored by her own experience.
Early in her career, the Indian immigrant says she was willing to do the unthinkable— and then she did it a couple more times.
“Early on, I took the leap of faith and made a lateral move in my career,” Maxwell explains. “My philosophy was that it may have been a lateral move pay- and job grade-wise, but from a career and ambition perspective, it was a huge jump that gave way to more huge jumps. Since that decision, I’ve made other lateral moves, and every time I’ve done it, it’s been a springboard to something bigger and better.”
It may sound cliché, but a lateral move is only that if stagnation is the goal. For Maxwell, a chance to learn a new area of her profession, build a new skill set, and grow professionally wasn’t lateral in the least.
At Experian, Maxwell is undertaking two exciting initiatives to develop the top talent in Experian’s global technology and
Sumeeta Maxwell talks
nurturing top talent and motivating women to take a chance in their careers at Experian
Sumeeta Maxwell Global SVP of HR
We honor your vision, leadership and impact.
Sumeeta has been a repeat partner on C-suite, complex searches with Egon Zehnder. These often involved multiple stakeholders, which Sumeeta aligned effectively to ensure everybody was focused on the same goal. Together we navigated an unprecedented demand for tech talent during Covid. Throughout this, Sumeeta was a constructive and dare we say fun counterpart for us.
security teams. The WeExceed event is the new way to honor the highest performers. It’s also a way to provide skill-building and leadership development for those who are already on the way to making great leaps in their careers.
Additionally, the team is partnering with online coaching platform BetterUp to provide its future leaders with career and leadership training.
“The reason I’m so excited about this is that all of the participants are getting to experience coaching from a holistic perspective,” Maxwell explains. “It’s not just about career development and not just about the next promotion. It’s thinking through how they can develop so that they’re ready for that next role or opportunity when the time comes.”
Through these and other HR initiatives, Maxwell is determined to help more women take those leaps of faith that she herself has made time and time again.
“I have been that person who didn’t check all of the boxes, so I didn’t apply,” Maxwell explains. “Fortunately, I had a husband who said, ‘Just apply. What’s the worst that’s going to happen?’”
Maxwell says women need to be willing to take the chance of getting turned down, to seek out feedback, and to not fixate on the negative but learn where they can grow and continue to develop.
“Sometimes I just try and remind people that they have been successful before, and they will figure it out,” Maxwell says. “And if not, I think you can be amazed at what you can accomplish if you’re open to taking feedback. Doors will open, I assure you.”
Maxwell’s own doors never really get a chance to close. The SVP owns a global role, and that means emails are hitting her inbox every minute of every day. Fortunately, this is the executive’s sixteenth year in this type of position. She seems more energized by the constant buzz of activity than drained by it.
“Experian offers its people the opportunity to work flexibly, in a way that works for them. For me, this role means some very early morning or very late-night phone calls, and it has taught me how to manage my time,” Maxwell says. “But I thoroughly enjoy it. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have ‘normal work hours,’ and I just know that I would get bored.”
Working across countless time zones and cultures for so long has taught Maxwell the importance of cultural competency and flexing different muscles depending on where she is working. The SVP says the challenge is always fun for her; she actually enjoys the reset and contemplation of how she needs to approach work in a new city, country, or jurisdiction.
Regardless of the location, Maxwell says nurturing top talent almost always comes down to development and recognition. How can someone continue to grow and evolve in an organization, and is their work being recognized and acknowledged?
“You have to learn what people want and where they want to go,” Maxwell says. “And you need to know how they like to be recognized. It’s not one-size-fits-all, but those are two huge components of making sure your top talent is happy and growing.”
“I’ve made other lateral moves, and every time I’ve done it, it’s been a springboard to something bigger and better.”
SUMEETA MAXWELL
Randi Tangney can pinpoint the moment her career perspective shifted dramatically. The vice president and employment and litigation counsel at Lockton, the world’s largest independent insurance brokerage, doesn’t have to think too hard about what prompted the change, because she sees it every day: it was the arrival of her first daughter, now eight years old.
“It was that moment when I decided that I could be the driver of my career and my future,” Tangney remembers. “Despite what anyone might say or think, I could do things that seemed out of my reach or
decided to take control of her future after her daughter was born—and it gave her the confidence to land her dream job at Lockton
“I gained the courage to go after things, and I let that fear of failure fade away.”
RANDI TANGNEY
difficult to achieve. I gained the courage to go after things, and I let that fear of failure fade away.”
At the time, Tangney was a successful lawyer in private practice, but she was all too aware of the stereotypes and sexism that had affected her career. Experiences such as being confused for a paralegal or just being the only woman in the room in a maledominated industry had affected Tangney’s confidence and often made her feel like she was coming up short.
“It is easy to feel inadequate due to people that you encounter early in your career,” she says. “Many people, but especially young women, fall victim to those who try to succeed not on merit but by intimidation, humiliation, or condescension. Many of those people I encountered early on seemed imbued with this confidence and self-assurance— frankly, for no discernible reason.”
Here’s what Tangney wishes she could go back in time and tell herself: Allow yourself the confidence you perceive in others. Be secure in yourself because you’re going to figure it out. You’re not as inferior as others would have you believe.
But eight years ago, everything changed. Motherhood brought the knowledge that Tangney was no longer living just for herself. She wanted to help create a world where her daughters wouldn’t need to feel those same insecurities or doubts.
“I want my daughters to feel comfortable standing up for themselves, and I don’t think that necessarily needs to be confrontational.”
RANDI TANGNEY
Randi Tangney
VP and Counsel of Employment & Litigation LocktonNicole Griffith
“I want my daughters to feel comfortable standing up for themselves, and I don’t think that necessarily needs to be confrontational,” she explains. “I just want them to be comfortable enough with themselves to stand their ground and not ever feel like they need to go along just to get along.”
Eight years ago, Tangney decided to aim high professionally. She was drawn to Lockton, which had made a name for itself across Kansas City as not just a highfunctioning professional organization but also one that put its people ahead of its bottom line. Tangney wasn’t sure if she had enough experience to land the role, and she went after it anyway. Had it been even a year earlier, she admits, she probably wouldn’t have even tried.
“I felt like the job was made for me, though,” she says. “I’ve come to care so much about this company because of how it values its associates. Lockton has given me the opportunity to pursue what I love doing while also being a working mom. There’s just an understanding here that we are people with obligations and responsibilities outside of the office, and as long as client needs and deadlines are being met, we can do what we need to do.”
Parental leave, childcare, and other benefits for working parents in the US lag far behind the rest of the developed world. But Tangney says organizations that don’t
support or show grace to their employees while they are tending to family issues increase the likelihood that those employees won’t return it all.
“I think more organizations should consider looking at parental leave from a different perspective,” she explains. “What if you viewed it as an investment instead of a cost? Then how would you feel about it?”
At Lockton, Tangney has been focused on aiding the organization’s significant growth: its workforce has doubled in size since she started, and the VP is involved in its onboarding process. Tangney says that Lockton is an organization that truly values diversity, equity, and inclusion, and that focus makes the work she does even more fulfilling.
“You just feel proud to be part of this place because I know that the business wants everyone here to feel equal and feel valued. It’s one thing to claim to be a family company, but Lockton lives its values, truly,” she says.
Outside of her role at Lockton, Tangney serves on the board of directors for Safehome, a nonprofit that provides shelter and services for victims of domestic violence in the Kansas City area. Tangney says she will be part of the organization for as long as they’ll have her. She wants to help those who have nowhere else to go, and she knows that they too can find the strength within themselves to move forward.
Before stepping into her first chief information officer role in 2019, Jennifer Hohman already had a few ideas about what the position might entail.
“I had all these theories about the role of a CIO,” Hohman admits. “But I knew I wanted to build a technology team where I was very transparent and genuinely myself, where I cared about my employees both professionally and personally, and where honesty and ethics were valued.”
That is exactly what Hohman achieved at offshore drilling company Seadrill during her three-plus years as vice president and CIO. However, the leadership strategies and IT expertise underlying her tenure extend far beyond any one role or organization. They are the culmination of her experience in the tech and energy industries up to this
point—and the foundation for wherever her career will take her next.
Hohman discovered her passion for IT in an unexpected place: a dental office. She had planned to go into dentistry herself, until the realities of the profession started to dawn on her in young adulthood. “I realized I didn’t want to look at people’s teeth all day,” she says with a laugh.
Instead, Hohman began working on the computers and networks in use at dental practices. As her interest in tech grew, she decided to complete a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer program at Southern Methodist University. “That led me to a role at Halliburton, working for a company called MicroAge on a huge PC migration project,” she explains.
While working on the migration, Hohman unearthed rampant computer theft that she reported to MicroAge. When
Jennifer Hohman
Halliburton later severed ties with MicroAge, she pivoted to pitch the idea of staying on at Halliburton with a skeleton crew—and the fossil fuel company took her up on the offer. “In every role, I’ve tried to keep good moral values, be very ethical, and get to know people,” she says.
After several years at Halliburton, Hohman left the organization to develop her ideas for an application to facilitate PC migrations in collaboration with tech titan Hewlett-Packard (HP). She traveled the world as a consultant, but a desire to grow her family eventually made her want to stay closer to home.
“I was young, fell in love, and—at the time—was consulting [and] traveling. And raising a young family seemed harder to do back then. I had maintained my relationships at Halliburton, who had been asking me to come back, so I decided to leave my software baby in the hands of HP,” Hohman says. “It was an emotional shift because I’d had so much passion for what we were doing, but with my family-first values, I went back to Halliburton to run their IT service management program with incident and change management. And I loved it.”
Hohman then continued to grow her experience in the fossil fuel industry through a six-year stint as director of IT at ConocoPhillips. “Most people think the industry is extremely mechanical and industrial,” she says of fossil fuels. “But what they don’t understand is the level of technology it takes to power the world. Now that we’re going through this energy transition, we are actively and aggressively looking for technologies to help decrease our carbon footprint and improve our efficiencies.
“What most don’t know is we also heavily invest in the areas where we operate and live,” she continues. “We care about the social issues facing our communities.”
For Hohman, those challenges keep the industry—and her career—exciting. Across her roles, she has retained a strong focus on decreasing costs, driving revenue, contributing to margins, and enhancing internal and external customer service, and Seadrill was no different. Her first order of business there was bringing down costs, which her team did by 40 percent. It also created an IT
“We need leaders to model behavior that is conducive not only to making money but to making people feel like they’re a part of something bigger than themselves.”
JENNIFER HOHMAN
revenue stream by selling data to rig operators and capitalizing on the company’s emerging digital technology products.
Hohman and her team turned to Birlasoft, which they had chosen to replace Seadrill’s previous outsourcing offshoring provider, to help navigate economic uncertainty at the company and around the globe. “Birlasoft helped us greatly by bringing in their team and replacing that incumbent provider,” she says. “We created a relationship where we were very transparent in telling them where they were successful, where they needed to improve, and what our business and technology challenges were. Outsourcing and offshoring takes a lot of collaboration and team building to achieve the level of quality that you can afford and need.”
Jigar Vakharia, SVP and global head of new sales at Birlasoft, speaks highly of the company’s work with Hohman as well. “An astute and empathetic professional, Jennifer brings in a very deep understanding of energy sector. Her knowledge of how IT transformation can give competitive advantage to business makes a significant contribution in implementing complex projects. Jennifer brings together a rare combination of strategic vision and operational agility.”
Her authentic relationship with Birlasoft reflects Hohman’s broader commitment to open communication. She believes in keeping it real with her team members, valuing them for the roles they play at home as well as at work, and investing in their futures.
“We need leaders to model behavior that is conducive not only to making money but to making people feel like they’re a part of something bigger than themselves,” she emphasizes. “I’ve been proud to inspire other people to give back. I’m heavily involved in my community when it comes to advocating for children and women and men who have been trafficked for sex, and I encourage my team to seek out their own passions.”
Inspiration will remain front and center as Hohman looks to challenge herself in the next stage of her career. “I’m being extremely conscientious about the type of company I join. I’m looking for a culture and a leadership that will support a great people team focused on delivering shareholder value,” she says. “I’m not a fan of job titles and pretentiousness. They tend to put you in a box. I’d love the acronym CIO to be [rather than information] chief inspiration officer.”
Until she decides on her next opportunity, Hohman plans to live gratefully in the moment—and stay, as ever, true to herself and her family values.
“I’m looking for a culture and a leadership that will support a great people team focused on delivering shareholder value. I’m not a fan of job titles and pretentiousness. They tend to put you in a box. I’d love the acronym CIO to be chief inspiration officer.”
JENNIFER HOHMAN
America First Credit Union P39
Associa P32
AVANT P9
Bel Fuse Inc. P24
Bessette, Kristen P35
Brock, Andrew P32
Clemmer, Shelayne P53
Collins, Ashlee P86
Cox Automotive P42
Christianson, Erin P9
Early Warning P29
Epiq Global P90 Experian P94
F First Fidelity Bank P48 Finneng, Katarina P76
Goodway Group P64
Gallego, Jennifer P9 H
Hohman, Jennifer P100
Inspirato P86
J
LeSage, Gene P21
LivePerson P82
Lockton P97
Lydecker, Drew P9
Maxwell, Sumeeta P94
Meade, Mark P64
Miles, Kenneth P48
Milliman P56
Molloy, Conor P68
Nordic Semiconductor P76
Oppenheim, David P29
Osumi, Norman P82
Oxendine IV, Elias P59
PowerSync P70
Pret A Manger P73
QBE North America P35
Qualls, Andrew P39
SAS P18
Seadrill P100
SeatGeek P68
Tangney, Randi P97
Thompson, Dwight P18
Trautmann, Thomas P73
Tuweiq, Farouq P24
Twadell, Susan P42
Vericast P53
Waupaca Foundry P21
Wisniewski, Alison P90
Yum! Brands P59
Jones, Jeffrey P56 K
Krasnykh, Igor P70 Kieninger, Ian P9
ACROSS CONTINUED
8. A successful hack to gain control of a network and leak its data
10. A scan hackers run to detect areas of weakness via sending messages to identify active users
12. A type of computer network device that interconnects with other networks using the same protocol
13. An intermediary server between a user and the internet that protects the enterprise from outside intrusion
15. The practice of adhering to standards and regulatory requirements
DOWN
1. An AI-manipulated video in someone’s likeness to spread misleading information
2. Malicious software often in the form of spam emails
3. A misleading computer program with a name deriving from Greek history
4. A scam perpetrated by a hacker posing as a legitimate business
6. A small update to fix bugs in existing programs
9. A special code to protect your digital information
11. An internal computer network closed to outsiders
14. A network that disguises users’ IP addresses with its own to deter hackers
ACROSS
5. Software that monitors user activities and reports them to a third party
7. A type of recovery test that outlines the steps to restoring data after a severe setback
