Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference_ 2021

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INNOVATIVE

Enterpreneur Ecosystem

BUSINESS

Sustaining Entrepreneurial Spirit Without Being Complacent

LEADERS 2021 MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Joe Fisher CHANGING THE WAY PEOPLE, GOODS AND ENERGY ARE BEING TRANSPORTED VOL 02 | ISSUE 03 | 2021

Editor’s Desk Thinking Out of the Box to Provide Most Innovative Solutions

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eadership is not just about position, but it is about making a positive contribution in the lives of others by coming up with some innovative ideas and solutions to the challenges in the industry. Leadership is more about service and contribution and less about titles and position. Today, leaders need to be aware of all the issues in the industry and need to be part of the solutions to the issues in the industry. It is important for leaders to be in harmony with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Leaders need to be able to tap the power of talents, skills, abilities, and resources to be part of the solutions. Leaders need to have the ability to think deliberately and act on the conclusion of logical thought to come up with innovative solutions. It is important for leaders to be logical, analytical, and rational in their business approach. Leaders need to ensure innovative approach but that should also be ethical.

Leaders should think from the sustainable development point of view. The leaders should come up with solutions that are not damaging to the environment.

To be a successful business leader requires lot of selfdiscipline, patience, determination, enthusiasm, hard work, and resilience. One needs competence, sufficient research skills and innovative approach to be a business leader who can make positive difference in the lives of people. To be an effective leader one needs to have crystal clear vision and goal-oriented strategy to make a difference in the industry.

To make a sustainable and tangible difference in the industry one is working for requires adaptation and implementation of innovative technology that can improve the quality of solutions in the business world.

To be a great leader, one needs to be a great follower of another good leader. Only good follower who has taken

sufficient training and guidance from a good leader can be a good leader. Many of the world’s most popular companies have some very smart people at the helm. What is more important for the leaders is, whether they are running a start-up or overseeing an already established brand, they need to be innovative to keep the company fresh and exciting. Those who can grasp the potential of new technology at a rapid pace and are quick enough to implement that latest innovative technology into their businesses are the leaders who can be ahead in making a difference in the industry.

In this edition of, “Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference, 2021” we have published innovative leaders from different backgrounds who have pushed their boundaries, have thought out of the box, and they have come up with innovative ways to improve the businesses and their offerings.

Take a look at the innovative contribution of these leaders to the industry.

Sourabh More

sourabh@insightssuccess.com

Joe Fisher CHANGING THE WAY PEOPLE, GOODS AND ENERGY ARE BEING TRANSPORTED

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Leaders Insight What A Teach Ceo Can Teach Your Business About Digital

28

Enterpreneur Ecosystem

Sustaining Entrepreneurial Spirit Without Being Complacent

16 Arun K. Singh

20 Ellen Voie

An Epitome of Visionary Leadership

A True Inspiration For Emerging Woman Entrepreneurs

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30

Mark Rippen

Neil Sinclair

A Highly- Skilled Visionary Leader

An Expert In Counter-Terrorism & Financial Crime

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44

Paul Lammers

Ran Rachlin

A Result- Driven Biopharmaceutical Executive

A Visionary Tech Proficient

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52

Rob Leslie

Walter Paley

Protecting The Privacy Of The Person

An Expert Of Marketing And Organizational Communication

Featured Person

Company Name

Brief

Arun K. Singh CEO

Ilantus Technologies ilantus.com

Ilantus Technologies specializes in the Identity and Access Management domain.

Ellen Voie President, CEO

Women in Trucking womenintrucking.org

Founded in 2007, the Women In Trucking Association is a nonprofit organization with the mission to encourage the employment of women in the trucking industry, promote their accomplishments, and minimize obstacles faced by women working in the industry.

Joe Fisher Co-founder & CEO

Lithium Werks lithiumwerks.com

Using patented technology, Lithium Werks focuses on longterm partnerships with its clients to provide powerful, inherently safe and reliable battery systems.

Alertgy alertgy.com

Alertgy has recently been founded by a small team of innovators that have collaborated on challenging technical programs over the years, specifically to address the highly desired ability to measure blood sugar levels with an external wearable sensor device.

Mr. Max Ng Associate Director

AsiaPay asiapay.com

Founded in 2000, AsiaPay is a premier digital payment solution and technology vendor in Asia, strives to bring advanced, secure, integrated, and cost-effective digital payment processing solutions and services to banks and e-businesses around the world.

Neil Sinclair National Cyber Lead

Police Digital Security Centre police-cpi.co.uk

A police-owned organisation that works on behalf of the Police Service throughout the UK to deliver a wide range of crime prevention and police demand reduction initiatives.

Paul Lammers President & Chief Executive Officer

Triumvira triumvira.com

Triumvira Immunologics, Inc. (“Triumvira”) is an immunotherapy company co-founded in 2015 with the vision of developing novel T cell therapies that are safer and more efficacious than current cancer treatments.

Ran Rachlin Co-founder, CEO

Ubertesters ubertesters.com

Ubertesters is a crowd-based, complete mobile apps/web testing solution provider.

Rob Leslie CEO & Founder

Sedicii Innovations Limited sedicii.com

Sedicii provides identity and security solutions to prevent financial crime.

SafeLogic SafeLogic.com

SafeLogic provides CryptoComply, a family of drop-in encryption modules, and RapidCert, the service that accelerates the FIPS 140 validation process and delivers a certificate in your name in less than 8 weeks with no additional effort or interaction with a lab.

Marc E. Rippen President & Founder

Walter Paley VP of Communications

Editor-in-Chief Sumita Sarkar Managing Editor Anish Miller

Executive Editor

Assistant Editors

Rohit Chaturvedi

Jenny Fernandes

Visualizer

Art & Design Director

David King

Asha Bange

Associate Designer Kushagra Gupta

Co-designer Kartik Balapurkar

Senior Sales Manager

Business Development Manager

Kshitij S

Peter Collins

Marketing Manager

Sales Executives

John Matthew

David, Martin, Irfan

Technical Head

Business Development Executives

Jacob Smile

Steve, Joe, Rick

Technical Specialist Aditya

Digital Marketing Manager Marry D'Souza

SME-SMO Executive Amol Wadekar

Research Analyst Frank Adams

Database Management Stella Andrew

Circulation Manager Robert Brown

Technology Consultant David Stokes

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Currently, Joe serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the company. He has envisioned and executed the management buyouts of the assets of Valence Technology, Inc. and the Industrial Division of A123 Systems, creating a $50m revenue global company while amassing a patent portfolio of over 400 patents including a world-leading portfolio of lithium iron phosphate batteries, as well as several other game changing cathode materials, cell designs and battery management systems. Not only this, but he has also been instrumental in raising $25m in new capital to fund the acquisitions and position the company for both fast organic and inorganic growth, leveraging many global contacts, relationships, and experience in the industry. He has held various senior management positions in leading companies, and has overseen a range of restructuring and growth initiatives in this fast-changing sector.

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I believe in the three T's: Technology, Team and Timing.

One needs to have all three in place and then provide clear goals and support.

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fter spending more than three decades in the battery industry, Joe Fisher along with Christian Ringvold founded Lithium Werks in 2017 to enable the energy transition from fossil fuels to clean renewables, such as solar and wind power. The goal was to create a sustainable, modern life by providing safe, reliable and mobile energy solutions. Realizing the growth potential in the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) market, due to its outstanding performance, safety, and cycle life, the pair set out to bring industry expertise and the right technology together. Lithium Werks provides safe, reliable and mobile energy solutions through energy storage and transportation.

Considering the proficiency and persistent efforts of Joe in revolutionizing the portable power vertical, CIO Look recognizes him as one of the “Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference, 2021”. Let's find out more about his entrepreneurial journey in an exclusive interview:

Lithium Werks is a global lithium battery company focused on providing portable power solutions to help in the move away from fossil fuels to the clean energy transition. Our product portfolio includes cells to battery modules to large battery systems.

Kindly take us through your journey on becoming an innovative business leader.

Have you drawn professional inspiration from other business leaders? Tell us about someone who has inspired you.

I have been fortunate to have an interesting international career that has prepared me for the current opportunity with Lithium Werks. I started my career in finance and controllership with Union Carbide, then a multinational in the Dow Jones Industrial Index. I then moved into general management with international assignments as country managers in South Africa, Argentina, and Spain. And then had the unique opportunity within Energizer to set up two new global businesses within the corporation – one being in specialty batteries and the other in rechargeable batteries.

Both allowed me to travel extensively in Japan, Korea, and China as well as all continents of the world, making extensive and long-lasting friendships and contacts and experiences.

Finally, I took a leap of faith and set up my own consulting business, which led me to oversee several turnarounds of battery companies, and ultimately led to the founding of Lithium Werks leveraging all the previous experiences and to manage a buyout of the A123 Industrial division, and then followed up with a leverage buyout of Valence Technology.

Describe the company and its extensive energy solutions which address all the needs of its customers.

I was particularly inspired by my grandfather, who only had an eighth-grade education, but went onto build a successful tire and service station business in a small mid-western town. He always focused on honesty, ethics, and excellent customer service.

What have you learned about leadership, entrepreneurship and mentoring in your three-decade experience in the battery industry?

Treat people the way you expect to be treated. Also, I have learned not to give up; do not be discouraged. If it was going to be easy, other people would have done it before you. Plus, the battery industry is not like the semiconductor business, but is one of many small, incremental improvements, not like Moore's Law. How do you achieve work-life balance?

I must admit this is one thing that I have struggled to do over the years. First, I do not consider what I am doing to be work because I enjoy what I do. I always try to put my family first and am fortunate to have a very supportive wife who was willing to give up her successful career to be willing to move over twenty times in 40 years of work.

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We want to enable the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy by providing reliable energy storage.

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Several of these were international assignments. We just celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary, so she has helped make it possible.

How do you cope up with capricious technological trends to boost your personal growth?

I am constantly keeping abreast of many industry newsletters, and daily Google updates of competitors, suppliers and new technology developments and attend conferences. I often wonder how we did things so effectively before we had the internet. But we used the telephone, telex, and fax machines, as well as just had face to face meetings. Just good old-fashioned communication.

What values are important to you as a business leader?

I put a real importance on honesty, truthfulness, and open communication. I like to manage by walking around, which has been difficult the last year with the global pandemic.

But we use Microsoft Teams meetings and Zoom calls.

Innovation, setting clear goals, and follow-up is also important.

What would you tell emerging business leaders who are just starting to work?

Do not be afraid to ask questions to your supervisor.

Volunteer for the tough assignments. Get a mentor. Be willing to go the extra mile. And set goals and work toward them.

What would you like them to know?

It will be a lot of tough work. It will not always be easy.

There will be defeats, but do not give up. The sun will shine again. And learn from your mistakes. Just do not make the same one twice.

What are your future endeavors/objectives and where do you see yourself in the near future?

We are in the middle of a major fundraising within Lithium Werks. It is my goal to help enable the global move away from fossil fuels and to drive towards clean energy and to leverage our core technologies into better, long-lasting, and safe products.

& & 20 The

Most

SUCCESSFUL

BUSINESSWOMEN to Watch, 2020

kimberly Khoury

Paving her Way in Sustainability Development

Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference, 2021

Arun K. Singh An Epitome of Visionary Leadership

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he professional journey of Arun K. Singh aptly exemplifies visionary leadership.

Arun started his career as a cryptographer and security research professional. Later, he moved onto building and driving cybersecurity businesses for multiple global organizations. He started his professional journey in India and worked for HCL & Infosys Technologies. He created a focused group to drive innovative solutions for HIPAA compliance at Infosys and published many research papers.

After Infosys, he worked for about 10 years at Wipro Technologies and developed many cybersecurity services under the theme of Applied Innovation. Wipro won multiple awards, including “Global Product Excellence” from Info Security Product Guide, for innovative services and established a strong global brand in cybersecurity. His success at Wipro got attention from Accenture, and he joined them as Managing Director and Global Lead for Managed Security Services (MSS). At Accenture, he started the MSS business from scratch and collaborated with Accenture Technology Labs to develop cutting edge MSS solutions such as data-driven cyber defense, active

authentication, deception networks, and integrated cyber risk platform. Working with Accenture labs was an enriching experience where he was able to combine the power of East and West to deliver innovative solutions to clients globally.

Arun joined EY LLP in 2016 as Americas Risk Advisory Leader and Partner to build a new line of business on “Cybersecurity-as-a-Service” (CaaS). His work also involved building the business case for this new business and obtaining funding from the Advisory Investment Committee. He worked with EY’s global teams to select and implement the right technologies to create innovative services. CaaS solutions covered Digital Identity, Data Protection, Threat Detection & Response and Threat Exposure Management. These innovative solutions leveraged Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation, Threat Intelligence, and Security Analytics tools to cover IT, OT & cloud environments.

Last year, Arun decided to take the next level of challenge in his career and joined Ilantus Technologies as CEO and Board Member. He is currently accelerating growth for this company based on innovations in solution offerings.

Source of Inspiration Arun says that he was fortunate to learn from many worldclass inspiring leaders. At Wipro, he drew a lot of inspiration from Mr. Girish Paranjape (CEO) on his leadership style. He was fortunate to have Mr. Andrew Wilson, CIO as his mentor at Accenture who inspired him a lot in managing diverse teams. At EY, he was thoroughly impressed by Mr. John Latham, Global Client Service Partner for his client centricity for innovation and growth.

His current Chairman, Mr. Binod, inspires him through his passion and dedication.

Making IAM an Exhilarating Experience Ilantus Technologies is a leader in the Identity & Access Management domain, backed by over two decades of

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Arun K. Singh, CEO, Ilantus Technologies

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extensive experience and deep insight gained from thousands of IAM implementations for some of the biggest brands in the world--including Fortune 500 companies.

Ilantus’ Compact Identity product is uniquely positioned to present a cloud-native, risk-aware, all-in-one Converged IAM solution that is built on the Zero-trust framework to provide Identity centric holistic cybersecurity solution to clients. Ilantus’ Compact Identity is known for innovation and simplicity. It is well recognized by leading industry analysts like Gartner and KuppingerCole.

Maintaining a Better Work-life Balance Arun’s formula for work-life balance is based on maintaining a strict work discipline, setting boundaries for himself, and prioritizing critical tasks. He believes that work time and personal time should not be mixed together for better results. He has always focused on aligning his work with his passion which reduces unnecessary stress and enables a better balance.

It's all about Having Strong Leadership When asked about Arun’s take on entrepreneurship, he mentions entrepreneurial skills are essential for all leaders to define their vision, to take the right amount of risk, and to drive innovation that enables them to stay ahead of the competition. Business success cannot be achieved without having strong leadership coaching and development skills.

Besides, Arun is also of the opinion that mentoring is not focused on a specific skill, but it is more about overall development--where mentor and mentee share their personal experiences to seek advice or test new ideas.

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Aiming to be a Purpose-Driven, Transformative Leader In order to stay ahead of the curve, Arun always keeps himself updated with capricious technological trends. He learns a lot from client discussions and real-life problems in their environment. He keeps up with current and future technology trends through his membership in the Forbes Technology Council and Gartner’s TechCEO program.

Apart from this, analysts’ conversations, CEO roundtables, panel discussions, and security conferences are other sources for him to gain technical insights.

Arun mentions that his future endeavour is to become a purpose-driven, transformative leader. In the near future, he would like to be part of the Board of Directors for multiple technology companies and work with investment firms to support cybersecurity start-ups.

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Every day, I wake up with a passion to encourage every person to dream big and relentlessly pursue it.

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Arun advises emerging leaders to understand the power of networking and to practice it in their work lives. He also emphasizes on the importance of emotional quotient (EQ), the ability to understand, empathize, and connect with the people around them. According to him, a high EQ is not only essential to become a great leader but also an effective team player to drive innovation.

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Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference, 2021

Ellen Voie

A True Inspiration for Emerging Woman Entrepreneurs

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ntrepreneurship has become a viable means of economic self-sufficiency and nowadays many women are choosing an enterprise connected to transportation to be part of their career aspirations. One such inspiring business woman is Ellen Voie, Founder, President and CEO of Women In Trucking Association.

Through her work and leadership skills, Ellen is breaking the barriers of occupational segregation and encouraging the employment of women in the trucking industry, promoting their accomplishments, and minimizing obstacles faced by women working in the trucking industry.

Focused on the transportation and logistics industry, Women In Trucking Association is a non-profit organization with over 5,000 members in ten countries. The goal is simply to increase the percentage of women in the trucking industry. It represents the women who design, build, sell, own, fix and drive trucks. The company asserts “We are very proud that fifteen percent of our members are men who believe in our mission. We're not FOR women as much as we are ABOUT women.”

In an interview with Insights Success, Ellen described her journey, challenges, success, and how she became an inspiration for millions of women.

Below are the highlights of interview: Kindly take us through your journey on becoming an innovative business leader.

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Since childhood I have always challenged myself, both in learning new things and in pushing myself beyond my comfort zone. I've never stopped the quest to learn and to experience new things. I participated in sports and took industrial arts class in high school. I was trained in Traffic and Transportation Management, which gave me the skills to later manage my own consulting firm while I raised my family. I later earned my credentials as a Certified Association Executive (CAE) and accepted a position as the Executive Director of a non-profit organization called “Trucker Buddy International.” I ran that program for six years before I accepted a position at a large midwestern carrier as Manager of Retention and Recruiting Programs.

That was in 2007 when the Women In Trucking Association was formed. I copied a lot from a female pilot's organization but tapped into the people who supported this mission. I had a great team who shared my passion, and we put together a fantastic staff, board and support group. Here we are, nearly fourteen years later, with a success story I could never have imagined.

Have you drawn professional inspiration from other business leaders? Tell us about someone who has inspired you.

There are many woman who I admire for their tenacity and aspirations that drive their success. We've found at Women In Trucking Association that mentorship is extremely important. To have someone to help you manoeuvre through challenges, steer you away from mistakes and to

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Ellen Voie Founder, President and CEO Women In Trucking Association

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help you work through problems is invaluable. I have had man mentors, and I have mentored others. There are many women in leadership roles willing to take on a mentee, but we don't need to limit our mentors to women. In fact, men can often elevate us in our careers through their networks. Gender shouldn't be an issue when you're looking for a mentor.

What have you learned about leadership, entrepreneurship and mentoring?

The trucking industry is very interested in creating a more diverse environment and is actively seeking women to fill roles in safety, dispatch, leadership and as professional drivers. An advanced degree is always helpful, but not required to be successful in transportation.

Technical skills are valued, and a safety director, mechanic and dispatcher can find great careers without earning graduate degrees.

I believe that humility and compassion are crucial to success. No one wants to be around someone who takes credit for others' work, who doesn't acknowledge the input of others and who wants to be the center of attention. Success is about raising those around you instead of elevating yourself.

A positive attitude will bring more people to you as a leader. It's very hard to be around someone who keeps looking backward with remorse and looking forward with despair. In order to motivate, we need to be focused on bringing our teams with us to success.

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How do you achieve work-life balance?

Since my children are grown and I am single, I can tell you that I don't have a great work life balance. However, my job allows me to travel and visit other countries, so I take time to enjoy these sights. If there is anything that allows me to find balance it would be my daily walk. I walk four miles each day and listen to books on tape, or music, as my mood dictates.

How do you cope up with capricious technological trends to boost your personal growth?

Technology is only a tool. Once you recognize that this tool is something to be used as needed, you can control your “submission” to it. I don't allow it to rule my time, and the silence button is used often.

On the flip side, knowing what applications benefit your productivity can enhance your personal growth. I have apps that track my steps and my calorie intake as well as apps to help me in my extensive travel schedule, but I don't use apps that distract me from doing my job.

What would you tell emerging business leaders who are just starting to work? What would you like them to know?

My advice for budding entrepreneurs is to truly determine what you can bring to your industry, your community or your social network. You have something to contribute to empower others, but you need to identify what that skill, talent or passion is and stay true to your mission. Don't get side-tracked by others who want you to accommodate their goals.

Write it down and read it back daily if not more often. Stay focused.

What are your future endeavors/objectives and where do you see yourself in the near future?

As the founder of the organization, I have been the face and the voice since its inception. Now, we are in a transitional phase to bring on my successor. We recently hired a vice president who will eventually assume my role as President and CEO. This will be a shift in our identity in the coming years. Retirement is in my future!

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Living by self-imposed expectations sets an example for others to raise themselves to the same level.

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Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference, 2021

Marc Rippen A Highly-Skilled Visionary Leader

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eople having diabetes are at risk for health difficulties like blindness, kidney failure, increased risk of heart attacks, and nontraumatic lower-limb amputations. In addition to the human costs, there are economic ones as well. Marc Rippen, Chief Executive Officer of Alertgy Inc. addresses this issue by solving it with real time, on demand blood glucose monitoring devices.

Marc Rippen is blessed with a proven ability for outof- the-box thinking. This is combined with a very broad education and experience base that has provided his clients and employers truly unique and sometimes paradigm-shifting solutions to their problems.

Marc is experienced in raising venture and angel capital, strategic planning/sales management, business capture, and execution management. These skills have allowed him to support the transition of technology from the lab into a startup business, and then to a publicly traded corporation.

In business development, Marc holds a demonstrated ability to close and execute on intangible high-risk research and development programs, as well as on contracts to develop and deliver very complex analytical instrumentation and engineering systems.

An Interview conducted between Marc Rippen and Insights Success addresses to eliminate these barriers on a daily basis. Below are the highlights of the interview: Describe the company and its extensive solutions/services which address all the needs of its customers.

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Alertgy provides the first non-invasive wearable continuous glucose monitor and alert system to measure the true blood glucose. It sets diabetics free from having to think about taking glucose measurements by allowing for fully automated, continuous monitoring with pre-set alerts for low or high glucose levels, as set by the user.

The medical device and diagnostic industry are constantly growing and changing, with new technologies being introduced to the market all the time. We are entering a new era of medicine that will be significantly impacted by the incredible growth and breakthroughs in wearables, cloud-based IoT sensor systems, application of AI 10, and digital health.

How do you cope up with capricious technological trends to boost your personal growth?

I embrace change. I take each challenge as an opportunity to learn something new and to better my ability to accomplish both Alertgy’s and my personal goals. The end result is meeting milestones by working smarter.

Have you drawn professional inspiration from other business leaders? Tell us about someone who has inspired you.

I draw inspiration from Elon Musk who has recognized major human needs and met them using technology. He is a visionary leader who understands that success is driven by failure. We learn from our mistakes more than anything else. He has brought to life electric cars and is making space travel more practical.

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“

FORTUNE Favors the

BOLD … Virgil

Marc Rippen CEO Alertgy Inc.

What have you learned about leadership, entrepreneurship, and mentoring?

What are your future endeavors/objectives and where do you see yourself in the near future?

Don’t be afraid to fail. Learn from your failures. Do not give up, think outside the box, look at life as if you were a sailor dependent on the wind - if you have to change course, do so and you will get to your destination and perhaps learn something along the way.

Currently, we are focused on first bringing our device to over 90% of the diabetic population made up of non-insulin dependent hyperglycemic Type 2 diabetics. By numbers, this represents over 400 million people around the world - our goal is to easily and effectively alert them if their glucose levels are too high or low. Most importantly, we aim to drive compliance and get them to measure their blood glucose continuously without the need for invasive and expensive systems.

In business, it’s always best to create win-win situations where all parties truly benefit from the relationship. It’s important to take the time to help those you mentor to meet challenges that will enhance their abilities and allow them to be successful in achieving their goals.

How do you achieve work-life balance?

I set aside time for family, friends, and myself so that I can recharge by getting out and doing things together in a COVID-safe manner.

What would you tell emerging business leaders who are just starting to work? What would you like them to know?

Alertgy will be pursuing an alert and surveillance application for FDA approval. Given that 1/3 of the world’s entire population is borderline diabetics and we can help them better manage their lifestyles by keeping them from becoming diabetic. In the future, there is no limit to what our technology can provide in the way of monitoring and diagnostics. Published research indicates that our technology has the potential to track other metabolites and cellular markers within the body that could pave the way for Alertgy to be a premier leader in diagnostic technology.

Do something that you are passionate about, enjoy the pursuit of your dreams. If you can do something you like to meet your customers’ needs and make them successful while supporting the goals of your business, then you are blessed.

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S ENTREPRENEURIAL USTAINING

SPIRIT Without

Being Complacent

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Enterpreneur Ecosystem

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ntrepreneurial spirit is crucial not just for starting the business, but it is also important for leading an established brand more successfully by implementing the innovative ideas with the aim of improving efficiency of the businesses, improving profits and availing competitive advantage in the industry.

Entrepreneurship is about calculated risk-taking, essential for growing businesses that are at the potential risk of losing the start-up approach through the gradual course of improved infrastructure, process and control, along with increased efficiency and capability.

Organizations need to have properly tuned, predictable organizational systems that assist existing clients and technology. This does not mean that they should stop innovating and using creativity. Business leaders need to sustain their innovative and creative spirit so as to continuously evolve in the offering of their solutions.

Business leaders need to embrace the potential of latest technologies to improve the quality of their solutions.

Sustaining innovative and entrepreneurial spirit is essential for leaders without being complacent. If leaders are complacent in adapting the latest technologies, then they may be at the risk of losing the game in the ever-changing world.

In the tough, ultra-competitive enterprise business market of today, success in business needs innovation, fresh ideas, and implementation of advanced technologies. There is a risk of being stuck, stagnancy and failure if innovative thinking is not embraced. Therefore, it is essential for the leaders to have innovative thinking. Business leaders need to be sharp enough to grab the potential business opportunities most diligently. Business leaders can’t afford to be complacent if they want to make a tangible difference in the industry.

Leaders must not be overwhelmed by conventional thinking and the status quo and initial success. To sustain the initial success, they need to go on innovating and implementing latest technologies to come up with the most innovative and advanced solutions. It is important for leaders to be creative, innovative, and analytical in their approach. This creativity needs to be embraced even if businesses face internal resistance, since new ideas may render existing skills redundant or require new ways of alignment and working.

more advanced strategy and thought process to be part of the solutions. Learning experiences help one to be sharper and more clever next time. Experimentation is essential.

Leaders should ensure that they are guided by successful mentors. It is always advantageous to have the right people around the corner. This helps the leaders to avoid mistakes and take right actions for right reasons.

Business leaders need to see every isolated event in context of the larger picture. They need to be more logical, thoughtful, creative, innovative, smart, analytical, and rational to build most innovative solutions. Leaders need to have the open-minded approach to learn from each other and implement latest technologies in their organization to improve what they have to offer to the world. Best opportunities come most rarely, and business leaders need to be clever, alert, and sharp enough to grab the wonderful opportunities most diligently. Business leaders need to build a strong team that is skilled enough to deliver the positive results along with the improved efficiency.

Business leaders need to lead by being most exemplary so as to inspire the employees in the organization. As leaders, so are the followers. Therefore, it is essential for the leaders to set the right tone for their team so that they contribute with utmost efficiency for the cause of organization.

Employees need to be empowered and feel secure so that they can contribute more effectively. Encouraging creativity and innovative spirit among the employees is certainly fruitful for the organization. Leaders need to set the vision and direction and must create an inspiring and productive work environment. There needs to be a systematic, organized, and conscious cultivation of innovative spirit in the team members to come up with more advanced solutions.

Competitive approach helps one to avail edge over others.

Leaders should foster the competitive spirit in their team so that they are not complacent in being more skilled so as to deliver the most advanced solutions. Leaders should utilize the talents, resources, skills and abilities in their team to be part of the solutions to the challenges in the industry. This will certainly create profit both for the organization, employees, and the clients. Ensuring the all-round success of everyone is the most important task of leaders.

Entrepreneurs may not get everything it right the very first time, but they need to use every experience as a learning experience, keep learning from mistakes and come up with www.insightssuccess.com

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Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference, 2021

NEIL SINCLAIR An Expert in Counter-terrorism & Financial Crime

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ybercrime is one of the fastest-growing threats to businesses. Additionally, 40% of businesses do not take any action to identify these cybersecurity risks. What can be done in such a situation? Neil Sinclair the National Cyber Lead at Police Digital Security Centre comes to our rescue. Neil has worked in UK counter-terrorism policing for over thirty years and has been involved in many of the Metropolitan Police’s biggest Terrorist Operations.

An Interview conducted between Neil Sinclair and Insights Success answers why he was considered as a key member of the National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit and is now a major influencer for cyber security. Below are the highlights of the interview: Kindly take us through your journey on becoming an innovative business leader.

Once a reputation begins to precede you, it becomes a case of spreading the word through as many channels as possible. Where the Police Digital Security Centre’s mission is concerned, this means encouraging small businesses to take simple cybersecurity seriously and, in my case, emphasizing that it does not have to be an expensive part of the business plan but that investment now, before becoming a victim of a cyber breach, is money well-spent, even though there is no obvious ROI. The hardest part for me as the Cyber Lead at Police DSC is encouraging businesses to invest in our digital awareness and resilience programmes, and for vendors to appreciate the merit of our Providers accreditation.

Have you drawn professional inspiration from other business leaders? Tell us about someone who has inspired you.

What a difficult question! I think Dr. Ian Levy OBE of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) was a great inspiration in the beginning. He was billed as the “Rock

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Star” of cyber security and his very down-to-earth and accessible form of delivery did influence me. But the cybersecurity sector is huge and there are a number of people trying to do the right thing, and some do put it across very well. I think I now take a little bit from a number of people. The key, as in anything, is to listen and cut the filling from the good stuff. I base my delivery, whether to my Police DSC colleagues, my peers, or a wider audience, on keeping it simple, straightforward and, I hope, memorable.

Describe the company and its extensive solutions/services which address all the needs of its customers.

The Police Digital Security Centre is a not-for-profit company that is part of the wider security-focused Police Crime Prevention Initiatives. Police DSC is a small outfit but with a national reach. We work very closely with the UK Police forces and follow the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) guidance. Our unique selling point is that we actually go out to the High Streets and physically interact with small businesses (SME) that otherwise would not be aware of their digital risk or not know how to tackle it.

Of course, during the pandemic, we quickly and successfully moved this to online delivery but we are itching to get back to the real world! We offer a very simple, non-technical assurance for every business so that they can have some confidence that they are taking the right steps to be safe online, and have something that has resonance with customers and the supply chain – police backed endorsement. This is our Digitally Aware & Digitally Resilient schemes.

At the other end of the landscape, we offer a Digital Providers and a Digital Innovators certification. We have partnered with the world-renowned BSI (British Standards Institution) to provide cybersecurity vendors with a certification that demonstrates to potential customers that www.insightssuccess.com

Neil Sinclair, National Cyber Lead, Police Digital Security Centre

www.insightssuccess.com

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the vendor is reputable, trustworthy and that their products have achieved a demonstrable level of “doing what it says on the box”. In the long-term, I expect this to greatly empower the wider cybersecurity message and go a long way to joining up to ends of a fairly disconnected landscape.

What have you learned about leadership, entrepreneurship, and mentoring?

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Delivering something people need is far harder than delivering something people want.

The satisfaction from doing good outweighs everything else.

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When mentoring, my knowledge and experiences do have a far greater value than I think it does (this is probably true for anyone who has stepped out from a career in Government law enforcement and intelligence services).

People do want to listen and there really is no need to embellish anything.

From an entrepreneurial standpoint (which I honestly don’t consider myself to be) I do think it is vitally important to consider whether you have the drive and financial awareness to pursue the dream. I talk about this elsewhere.

And leadership? Make sure you know your own people. It can surprise you who has extraordinary talent in unexpected fields, often way beyond their pay grade. But just because someone is brilliant at, for example, writing programmes doesn’t mean they’ll be able to sell it!

How do you cope up with capricious technological trends to boost your personal growth?

It has been a good learning experience. Technology is undoubtedly fast-moving and we are ever more aware of the unimaginable becoming reality in our field. But what I have seen is that the vast majority of businesses are still at the start of the cybersecurity journey. So talk of digital transformation, AI, even threat intelligence, is way down the list, not only of priorities but of awareness. The vast majority of businesses employ a tiny number of personnel and most are struggling to come to terms with two-factor authentication and installing adequate anti-virus.

What are your future endeavors/objectives and where do you see yourself in the near future?

I would like to see Police DSC make a significant impact on our target audience. I want to see more businesses demonstrating that they are doing the “right thing” where cybersecurity is concerned and an assured platform for security vendors. I would hope that my profile will continue to grow as I think it is inextricably linked to the Police DSC’s growth.

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PAUL

LAMMERS

A Results-driven Biopharmaceutical Executive

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n leadership, it is difficult often to be daring, difficult to be willing to take on that potential risk to the business.

You have to weigh pros and cons, mostly based on available information of data, but sometimes it still comes down to following your gut. Having such an astute approach and shrewd leadership qualities is Paul Lammers, the President & CEO of Triumvira Immunologics. Let’s find more about his exclusive journey in an Interview conducted between Paul Lammers and Insights Success.

Below are the highlights of the interview: Kindly take us through your journey on becoming an innovative business leader.

I was fortunate relatively early in my career to become a member of the management team at a company with numerous products on the market, as well as with about 1,100 employees in the US. Therefore, I got a lot of exposure to business and people management issues, and as always, you learn most from the things that do not go that well.

Furthermore, I quickly realized that in pharma and biotech, “innovation is an imperative”, that you continuously have to evolve as a company but also as an industry professional and as a people manager.

Describe the company and its extensive solutions/services which address all the needs of its customers.

We are an engineered T cell therapy company focused on bringing new therapeutic modalities to cancer patients. Our technology, which will enter its first clinical testing in Q2 of 2021, is well- differentiated from other engineered T cell approaches, and we hope, will offer clinical efficacy and a good safety profile in patients who have progressed already

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on other types of cancer therapies. We are building a broad pipeline of different cell therapy products, all based on our proprietary TAC (T-Cell Antigen Coupler) technology.

Have you drawn professional inspiration from other business leaders? Tell us about someone who has inspired you.

I have learned from every one of the different President and/or CEOs that I have reported to over the course of my career before I became a CEO myself. One was a phenomenal businessman but a horrible people manager; some were incredible micro-managers, which I have learned to absolutely hate, so I refuse to do that in my own team, which truly helps build a stronger team by showing that you trust people to get the work done without constantly looking over their shoulders. Ultimately, you have to develop your own approach on how you feel would be best to manage your business and your people.

What have you learned about leadership, entrepreneurship, and mentoring?

As a CEO you sometimes have to make a tough executive decision, knowing full well that some people in the organization might not be pleased with it. But that creates a situation where mentoring becomes important as well, to make people understand why you had to make that difficult decision. Furthermore, mentoring people can happen in oneon-one situations or meetings, but even in larger group meetings.

Professional development, as well as personal development, are extremely important to create and maintain a workforce that is up to the task in an ever-changing biotech environment.

Personally, I do not mind taking a calculated risk, but I try to avoid taking a stupid risk. But as mentioned earlier, www.insightssuccess.com

Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference, 2021

Dr. Paul Lammers, President & CEO, Triumvira Immunologics

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What would you tell emerging business leaders who are just starting to work? What would you like them to know?

“Be a sponge”, i.e., learn as much as you can about your business, learn from the people you work with and/or for. Be open to new ideas, not just from your Management Team members but also from anyone lower in the organization. Be open to criticism, whether about the business or about yourself, whether from outside the organization or from within.

What are your future endeavors/objectives and where do you see yourself in the near future?

People work in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry because ultimately, they want to make a difference in a patient’s life, especially, in the life of patients facing a serious or even life-threatening disease. As a biotech company developing a therapeutic for cancer, it really starts to count when you actually can start treating patients in a clinical trial setting. But it takes years, a team, patience, lots of money, and a healthy dose of good luck before you finally get to enroll the first patient in that clinical trial. Therefore, for me, the key near term objective is starting our first clinical trial in Q2 of this year, not just a major milestone for the company, for the team, but also for me personally.

“innovation is an imperative” in biotech, and that means, willing to be entrepreneurial.

How do you achieve work-life balance?

I have learned over the years, to not try and take on too many tasks at the same time. Hiring a great team, and trusting that great team, allows me to delegate tasks, knowing that the team is equipped to take those tasks on themselves. However, it took me several years to develop this type of trust, afraid that people might blame me should there be an error in planning or execution of a plan.

How do you cope with capricious technological trends to boost your personal growth?

Versatility and flexibility are very useful traits to have when one is involved in drug development. Murphy’s Law will apply to most drug development programs, and bizarre, unplanned events might occur which might be headscratching when first discovered, but then, it is critical to swiftly assess and analyze the situation and come up with a plan on how to be tackle or handle. This makes you grow as a professional and as a person, as “calmness under stress” is what a good leader should show.

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“

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.” - Johan Wolfgang Goethe.

www.insightssuccess.com

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About the Author Pam Bateson is an expert coach and mentor in business, training others to Masters level qualifications and supervising coaches. She has worked within the NHS , retail, hotels, construction, media, agencies, education and public sector. She specialises in Coaching, Mentoring, Employee Engagement, Change Management, Learning and Development and Organisational Design. She has worked with all levels in organisations from graduates to the CEO/VC. She has designed change programmes that connect projects, outcomes, training and coaching. The performance outcomes have been outstanding. She is the founder of Zinnia Consulting and cofounder of Thrive Partners.

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Leaders Insights

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am Bateson set up Thrive Partners, an on-demand coaching company, three years ago. In this article, she shares her point of view on how important humans are in a more digital world, what she’s learned as a tech CEO, and what this means when you’re looking to use tech in a way that’s both disruptive and works for customers.

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In October 2015, I gave up a successful career as a management consultant and coach to set up Thrive Partners. Lots of people thought I was crazy. I was approaching 50, with two children still at home. But for the decade running up to that decision, I’d been thinking about a better way to deliver coaching – supported by digital, to share more widely the coaching tools I’d used to help clients for many years.

This was the business I set out to build three years ago. Today, we’re working with 25 clients on five continents – delivering our own brand of ondemand coaching, backed with insights for the whole business. The learning curve has been steep – particularly for someone who, by their own confession, didn’t have a lot of experience in learning technology. So here, I wanted to share some of the things we’ve learned – and what it might mean for your business.

Dream big I didn’t really set out to build a business that would be considered disruptive, but my background as a lean engineer and coach did mean that we ripped up the rulebook when it came to the coaching industry. We scrapped the idea that you needed to meet face to face, and that sessions had to last an hour, or even two hours. And we made it a lot easier for people to access a coach to answer the questions they had there and then – increasing access so people could chat to an expert within an hour.

Working with my co-founder, we then rebuilt the industry by asking the biggest questions we could imaging.

What if we could make coaching available to whole organisations? What if we could get listening as valued as speaking? And what if we could help organisations learn as quickly as individuals?

I found these questions irresistible: I wanted to do for coaching what Uber had done for getting a taxi, Netflix had done for home entertainment, and

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Tinder had done for dating. It’s these big dreams that have galvanised our success in the last few years – and which has set us in the right direction for the future.

The whole-system insights we produced has helped to make sales processes smoother, improved communications and created more opportunities for people to learn.

Build for modern users Despite big dreams, we’ve also made our fair share of mistakes! A lot of them mistakes happened when we took our attention away from our end customers. It sounds obvious to see it there on the page. But it can be easy to lose sight of the customers that matter most, especially when, as a tech CEO, sometime we get preoccupied with a shiny piece of new technology.

Keep it human With suicide being the biggest killer of men under 45, loneliness sweeping through developed economies in epidemic proportions and a third of all young people suffering from anxiety, I strongly believe that we have a duty to keep talking to each other as a society.

So, what to consider first when it comes to users? The main thing to bear in mind is that they expect experiences that are easy and fast to access – a shift brought about by what we call the ‘Amazon Prime Mindset.’ In this era, clunky user experiences reduce the chances of uptake of services. In short, if your technology can’t match or exceed the quality of digital experience people get in their everyday lives, then you’ll need to go back to the drawing board.

Create wins for the many So, if users come first – who else can we harness the power of technology for?

Our answer? Everyone else in the system.

Early on in the development our MyThrive platform, we realised that delivering digitally would enable us to do more than just scale and facilitate coaching in global organisations; it would also mean we could spot trends and patterns within communities of users, in organisations or society at large. Just as carefully listening has a powerful and transformative role in one-to-one coaching conversations, carefully listening to and analysing anonymised version of the conversations we host has a powerful and transformative role within whole organisations.

We believe that keeping the art of conversation alive in this digital age is essential; only humans can master creativity, empathy, humour and imagination in a way that’s compelling.

Information is everywhere, so we’re using technology differently – to offer real human experiences at scale, at any time of the day, whenever our clients need a conversation, for everything you can’t Google.

And what of the future? Curiously, even the structures of artificial intelligence and machine learning look set to mimic human patterns. It’s still early days, but leaders in this space talk of ‘deep learning’ with AI – by layering up different tools that connect in the same way as our brain’s neural networks.

And so, the next three years?

My recent experiences have led us to ask even bigger questions than we did to begin with – which I suspect will lead to our next irresistible set of adventures! What if we could transform learning management systems into learning ecosystems?

What if any community of learners could connect with any community of teachers? And what if a better understanding of outcomes from learning could help both individuals, organisations and society to thrive?

I for one believe there are exciting times ahead.

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Ran Rachlin A Visionary Tech Proficient 44 | FEBRUARY 2021

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Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference, 2021 “

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e help our clients sleep better knowing they can launch their digital product with confidence, convinced it was well tested by real users, in their actual target market and it's bugfree” says Ran Rachlin, CEO and Co-founder of Ubertesters.

Ubertesters is a global provider of a comprehensive, cloud-based, process management tool for mobile applications beta testing projects. Ran asserts “I'm really proud that I was able to build Ubertesters from the “ground up” and to create a culture of excellence.”

Ran started the company by defining a clear vision for the company's goal and purpose. The vision was well communicated to all employees so that they feel part of the vision and not just focused on their daily tasks.

In an interview with Insights Success, Ran exemplified about his journey, and how he became a strategic global business leader.

Below are the highlights of the interview: Kindly take us through your journey on becoming an innovative business leader.

I'm proud to have massive global experience, managing and leading new initiatives from inception to implementation and significant sales as well as managing large global organizations in different countries. Before starting Ubertesters I held several high-profile management roles in several large companies. I also hold an MBA degree with honors.

My travels around the world and the fact that I lived for more than a decade in a different country shaped my cross-cultural experience. Also, holding managerial roles in large global corporations gave me the essential experience to manage global teams in different parts of the world, as well as international clients.

Another major step was the ability to successfully storm the global economic crisis of 2008 while leading my organization to “safe-harbor”. This thought me how to make sure organizations survive an economic downturn.

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Describe the company and its extensive solutions/services which address all the needs of its customers.

Ubertesters offers a complete software testing solution for digital products to help organizations beta test their digital products prior to launching it. The complete solution includes: (1) a SaaS product - a comprehensive platform to manage the mobile beta testing process and teams; (2) a crowdsourced testing service of global testers for hire with devices (using the 'power of the crowd') for most flexible and cost effective global testing under real-life conditions; and (3) offshore outsourcing services of QA experts based in the company's East European facilities.

Thus, any organization in a need for beta testing can find the right solution with Ubertesters to help them launch their product with confidence.

Have you drawn professional inspiration from other business leaders? Tell us about someone who has inspired you.

Richard Branson's amazing leadership style of taking care of employees first and only then the customers. His vision that “If you take care of your employees, your employees will take care of your customers” has revolutionized the business world and allowed him to create an amazing organization. Further, his willingness to take major risks as well as he doesn't necessarily see failure as a bad thing, but rather as the foundation for success – makes him a true inspiration in my view.

The most inspiring quote I've ever heard was “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing” by Walt Disney. I have this quote framed on my desk and I believe it was one of the first things I told myself just before starting Ubertesters.

How do you achieve work-life balance?

To achieve good work-life balance I focus on two main things – time management and setting boundaries. Since my daily workout is extremely important for me, I get up early and spend the first 1.5 hours of the day, each day, for my workout. It can be a 10K run, or a gym workout, but it's part of my calendar. When I get to work I set daily priorities, create a schedule, and try to eliminate

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distractions. Then, when I finally get home, I try to keep my laptop, mobile device and other “interruptions” shut down to allow me to spend some quality time with family and friends.

and excel. One person can't do it all himself, thus, must build a great team around you and allow them to contribute.

How do you cope up with capricious technological trends to boost your personal growth?

David Cronenberg, a Canadian film director, once said: “I see technology as being an extension of the human body” and I fully agree with his quote and can see that technology is more integrated than ever in our lives. Therefore, I try hard to keep up with technological trends. I do it first by embracing web content. I do it through blogs, podcasts, forums, resources from trusted businesses, or a simple query on a search engine. Further, I follow Industry Social Media accounts (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter) of companies and individuals that are considered true innovators. Lastly, I make time for online training and virtual events and webinars. All these measures allow me to stay informed about the latest technologies and for me to boost my personal and professional growth.

What are your future endeavors/objectives and where do you see yourself in the near future?

In the next few years I see myself continue to develop my company, Ubertesters, and make sure it continues to grow through creativity, invention and innovation. We will continue to put the 'voice of the customer' in the center, listen to our customer's needs and add new exciting services to our portfolio.

The 2nd most important thing is the ability to delegate and allow others in the team to thrive

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Then, in a few years from now, I'm really hoping I could build a new company to find a product that will help humanity by improving the quality of life and life longevity. After all, I strongly believe in what Henry Ford said once: “To do more for the world than the world does for you, that is success.”

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Don't wish for it, work hard for it and make sure to stay away from your comfort zone during the process.

“

What would you tell emerging business leaders who are just starting to work?

What would you like them to know?

Emerging business leaders should have the ability to act based on the inner vision they have. Many people wake up every day with new ideas and have no ability to create something out of it. The true innovative leader will apply solutions where others fail and will see the vision becomes a reality and success.

Lastly, leaders must have commitment and passion and being able to inspire others and communicate their vision effectively.

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Innova ve Business Leaders Making a Difference, 2021

Rob Leslie Protecting the Privacy of the Person

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eing a successful business leader takes a lot of selfdiscipline, determination and hard work. One needs patience, perseverance, and persistence to be a good business leader. To be an effective leader one needs to have vision and goal-oriented approach to make a difference in the industry. Rob Leslie is one such visionary and goaloriented business leader. He is the CEO and Founder of Sedicii. Rob Leslie’s vision for Sedicii is to make technology a safer, more efficient, and risk-free place for everyone who uses the internet. In tandem, through the global federated identity platform businesses can be more cost effective, respected and trusted using Sedicii’s services.

Rob did not set out to be a serial entrepreneur or an innovator – it happened organically for him.

the other party, and while being GDPR compliant. This is achieved using Sedicii’s patented Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) protocol which is at the heart of its KYC, KYB and AML services.

As a child growing-up Rob wanted to be an engineer or a pilot. He chose the former route and graduated as an Electronic Engineer in the early 1980s from Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland. Following graduation, he moved to Japan where he worked for 20 years, firstly with established Japanese companies and subsequently became part of the initial management team to launch Dell into the Japanese market and as part of the team grew the business in its first four years from zero to 300 employees and a turnover of $300m.

Inspired by Great Leaders There are several business leaders who are on Rob’s bucket list to meet. Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States is one. Obama’s charismatic leadership skills and “can do” no nonsense attitude to life, building trust and problem solving are very appealing to Rob. Having spent 20 years in Japan another person that Rob greatly admires and draws inspiration from his book “Made in Japan” is Sony Corporation’s founder Akio Morita. Morita’s words ring true to Rob when he said: “I then realized that having a unique technology and being able to make unique products / services are not enough to keep a business going. You have to sell the product / service and to do that you have to show the potential buyer the real value of what you are selling”, for all Rob’s six start-up businesses but especially Sedicii with its state-of-the art ZKP component.

Then Rob’s real entrepreneurial journey began as a Partner in PTS Japan. After five years, having achieved a valuation of $33m at exit, he returned to Ireland. In 2007, he cofounded Kyckr (ASX:KYK) now listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. In 2013, while still working at Kyckr, he founded Sedicii and remained in dual roles until 2016 when he relinquished his role at Kyckr and moved to concentrate all his energies with Sedicii. Using a novel cryptographic protocol known as a zero knowledge proof (ZKP), Sedicii is creating the Kriptan Network to facilitate the verification of identity data without the need to expose the underlying data, thereby protecting the privacy of the person.

Strong Privacy Features Sedicii is building a global federated identity platform that has strong privacy features at its core. It is being deployed

by Governments, financial institutions, telcos, and national utility service providers to verify, in real-time, a person’s identity without either party divulging their information to

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Sedicii has won multiple industry awards for its Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology, most notably its recognition from The World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer. Using Sedicii’s services, customers and service providers receive transaction information in real-time which makes organizations more efficient, costeffective, reliable and decreases the threat of fraud, theft, misappropriation, and impersonation and heightens confidence in the service providers.

Responsible Leadership The truth is Rob does not – or certainly didn’t - have a good work life balance prior to Covid 19. Pre 2020, he probably travelled 40 weeks of the year. However, with the restrictions he has found a better balance and when he can he plays tennis and enjoys walking. In a perverse way, his work – life balance is better since March 2020 than it was for many years. In his defence, being an entrepreneur and running a start-up business means that you have people dependent on you for their livelihoods and this is a responsibility, which Rob takes extremely seriously.

Certainly, the past 12 months have made him realize that when success happens you need to take the time to enjoy it. www.insightssuccess.com

Rob Leslie, CEO and Founder

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Recognizing Importance of Mentor Benjamin Franklin said, “By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail”. In Rob’s experience this is certainly true when starting up a new business venture. Research and preparation are paramount before one starts a new business thereby giving the enterprise a better chance in succeeding.

So, Rob would advise anyone with a good business idea to do a lot of research before commencing; have a good – but realistic – business plan. Initially, it may be a one-person business, so Rob suggests to not be afraid to ask for help.

He advises to seek out a trusted mentor and other entrepreneurs in one’s sector and learn from their challenges. He suggests using one’s resources wisely. He advises to refine one’s plan as business grows, revisit one’s finances, hire help for the best return at a given stage in one’s business. He asks to expect and take setbacks as challenges to improve and fine-tune one’s product or service. And most importantly, when success happens, he advises to take the time to review and enjoy the fruits of one’s hard work.

Minding the Welfare of Stakeholders Currently, Sedicii is a multi-locational company of 14 employees based in Ireland, Belgium, Canary Islands and United Kingdom. Its headquarters are in Waterford Ireland with development and finance at base, innovation and strategy is located in the U.K. and software development is divided between Belgium and Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Being a diverse group, the welfare of its employees

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is paramount in these Covid-19 pandemic times. So, looking after staff, continuing to find Governments, national agencies, and financial institutions to join its federated network are its important objectives. Other objectives of Sedicii are: Growing the company to scale and of course rewarding its investors for their belief in what the company is achieving and making the BBVA Fintech Awards prediction by the former Head of Open Innovation, Marisol Menendez, the reality of “Sedicii being the start up with the greatest potential to transform the financial sector in the next 10 years.”

“Sedicii’s mission is to build the global federated identity platform which will give internet users back their basic human right to privacy – that is a legacy worth working towards.”

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Walter Paley, VP of Communica ons

SafeLogic

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Innova ve Business Leaders Making a Difference, 2021

Walter Paley An Expert of Marketing and Organizational Communication

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he role of a Communication Leader in an organization comprises multiple jobs such as corporate communications, leadership communications, reputation management, internal communications, and counselling top administrators in decision-making processes. The job profile is closely connected with C-suite executives, and accountable in driving the overall business success.

Meet Walter Paley, VP of Communications for SafeLogic. He is responsible for strategy, content, marketing, and outreach. His prior experience included several start-ups and companies in growth stages, including Nukona (acquired by Symantec) and Bitzer (acquired by Oracle).

In an interview with Insights Success, Walter disclosed his journey, challenges and what he learned about leadership, entrepreneurship and mentoring.

Below are highlights of the interview: Kindly take us through your journey on becoming an innovative business leader.

I took a non-traditional path, to be sure. My parents did not earn degrees and were entrepreneurs, so that combination of nature and nurture led me to blaze my own trail to college at UC San Diego and found myself doing things differently than my peers - front-loading my course load, nearly reaching graduation in just three years, trying to life-hack before that term existed!

That mindset, avoiding the “way it’s always been done”, served me well as I helped several startup companies get off the ground with marketing and awareness campaigns that diverged from the norm. When I joined Ray Potter for the branding and launch of SafeLogic, it was a great fit and I’m happy to still be here today.

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Describe the company and its extensive solutions/services which address all the needs of its customers.

SafeLogic addresses the hurdle of FIPS 140 validation for encryption. It is a compliance initiative mandated by the U.S. federal government and carries relevance in many other verticals, including finance, healthcare, and utilities.

SafeLogic simplifies and accelerates the process by providing cryptographic modules that have already satisfied all testing requirements, so customers can inherit our capabilities and certification in less than 8 weeks, instead of doing it from scratch over 18+ long and painful months!

What have you learned about leadership, entrepreneurship and mentoring?

I gravitate towards reading books about, or - even better memoirs written by notable leaders and entrepreneurs. My hope is always to get just one significant take-away. More would be a bonus, but I aim to drill down to one major point.

For example, Phil “Buck” Knight’s ‘Shoe Dog’ memoir about the early days of Nike was surprisingly candid about his failure to communicate with one of his most valuable allies. Knight allowed his colleague’s enthusiasm to wilt by not responding with encouragement, even when specifically prompted. It’s difficult to build a company, and it’s even more difficult when you’re alienating even the most energetic teammates. Collaboration and communication are crucial to growth, and while Knight succeeded despite this mistake, I strive to avoid it altogether.

Have you drawn professional inspiration from other business leaders? Tell us about someone who has inspired you.

I recently dove into Edward Burns’ book ‘Independent Ed’.

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“Never too soon, never too far.

Every idea and concept should be considered on its own merit.”

from acting in movies such as ‘Confidence’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’, but I found his point of view as a director and independent filmmaker to be extremely compelling.

Burns walks the narrow and difficult path of an artist, balancing creativity with commercialization. He was willing to scrape by, shooting short films in his free time, just so he could explore the artistry… but it’s a lot easier when you have the financial backing to make it your fulltime job to write and create. He operates in a vastly different world from mine, but I found it very inspiring and found many parallels.

How do you achieve work-life balance?

The old adage that one works to live, not lives to work. It is not easy to remember that a commitment to excellence extends to family, friends, and self, but it’s important to be opportunistic and take advantage of any time you can take.

Personally, I find it extremely energizing to capture daylight hours, so a walk-through nature with my family in the afternoon between work calls really fires me up to finish the day strong.

What would you tell emerging business leaders who are just starting to work? What would you like them to know?

Emerging leaders and students finishing their degrees should seek to know themselves. Recognizing your own strengths will be a huge advantage when you’re identifying the next steps in your career, whether it’s weighing offers from a huge corporation against a small boutique firm or different types of roles and responsibilities. Finding the right fit to challenge yourself and grow is not easy, so take the time to learn about where you thrive.

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What are your future endeavors/objectives and where do you see yourself in the near future?

I would like to understand international markets at a sophisticated level, in the context of pursuing ways to open new opportunities. The cultural differences are much more than just a language barrier, but I believe that with more exposure, I will find ways to strategically integrate solutions across international borders.

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