www.primeview.co | VOL-II March 2021
10
Leader of The Year
Business Leaders
Charikleia Stouka ALMA REAL ESTATE (Founder)
EDITOR’S NOTE
The Soulful Stories That Behold the Power to Transpire Upright, Self-motivated. Confident. Optimist & Positive. Accountable. Courageous. Full of Humour, Passion, Integrity, and Respect for self and others. And most important, Likable. These are some of the traits that sets a person on the wheels of leadership or frames them in broad light as people who inspire. But with the changing times and entry of new blood in the entrepreneurial world, it is time for the entrepreneurs to reinvent themselves upright and up now. Coming from diverse education & professional backgrounds, these entrepreneurs have become the epitome of change and are looked upon for inspiration and motivation by not just their employees but the society too. Just like a fresh breeze of wind, these entrepreneurs bring fresh, innovative ideas, and Silicon Valley like work culture that has already transformed the way people here perceive being an entrepreneur. On the other hand, we cannot demean the efforts that our local entrepreneurs have put to bring in a change in the perception in the grass root level. Today they are not just creators of job who have huge followers, but one who believes in creating more leaders throughout his/her journey. But many a times, their story remains untold, and unheard, which when brought to light have the power to transpire generations alike. Saluting such inspirational souls and bringing to you their untold story of hardships, successes, failures and motivation, Prime View dedicates the current edition to “The 10 Most Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference in 2021”. We believe these stories when read will leave you awe-stuck and inspire you and take up challenge to change the world you want to see it like. Do let us know what you think! Prime View Magazine editor@primeview.co
The 10 Most Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference in 2021
SONAL K
STEVE R DAVID S
DNYANESH K , JOHNSON J.
SAM K.
RICHARD D.
ALEX S. , ALEN A.
Visit: https://primeview.co Email: editor@primeview.co
CONTENTS CHARIKLEIA G. STOUKA Cover Story
ALMA Real Estate Hellas
Five things that have changed in sales because of COVID that will never be the same as before Ana Aldea
Datasocial (Founder)
Founder
Anil Goyal
CapSavvy Consultants Pvt Ltd (Founder & MD)
Dr. Sean James Miller
Pluripotent Diagnostics Corp. (PDx). (founder and Chief Scientific Officer)
Walter Marin Plug The Sun
(Founder & CEO)
How Passion Drives Innovation Dr. Darya Yegorina
CleverBooks (Founder)
ALMA Real Estate Hellas Founder
Cover Story
CHARIKLEIA G. STOUKA A BUSINESS WOMAN FOCUSED TOWARDS EMPOWERING REAL ESTATE CLIENTS WITH HER VENTURE, ALMA REAL ESTATE
Revolutionary indeed, both Charikleia G. Stouka and her venture, ALMA Real Estate Hellas continue to lead ahead while breaking new ground and innovating world-class solutions in the real estate industry. Today, Charikleia is recognised by Prime View Magazine as one of The Most Innovative Business Leaders Making a Difference in 2021.
A Global Business Excellence Awards winner, Charikleia founded ALMA Real Estate Hellas in November 2001, in Athens, Greece, with the mission to empower clients, through a combination of industry experience and resources, to make smart and informed real estate decisions. Twenty years on, ALMA is a leading full-service real estate company that sells, rents and manages residential and commercial properties and land in Athens and throughout Greece. ALMA also performs Broker Price Opinions (BPOs) and supports international investment in Greece by specializing in Golden Visa residency properties. With 20 years of successful presence and experience in the Greek real estate market, Charikleia and her team draw on their considerable experience and knowledge of the industry to offer immediate and effective service that is tailored individually to each customer. Thus ALMA ensures that clients experience the complete satisfaction of seeing their real estate dreams come true. Dedicated to providing excellent service and results, the company is committed to understanding the real needs of its customers, is actively engaged in continuously modernising and improving working methods, and supports team members to stay up-to-date with industry knowledge and practices through a strong lifelong learning culture.
FIRST STEPS IN REAL ESTATE Charikleia’s journey into real estate started around 2000. A graduate in civil engineering from the University of West Attica in Athens, she was already active in the broader real estate environment and was also managing a handful of smaller family properties. Realising that every transaction is a roller coaster ride full of frustration and stress, Charikleia decided to remedy the chaos and use her knowledge and expertise to help people navigate and overcome the obstacles involved in safely buying or selling property.
Soon enough, Charikleia had the opportunity to join a small local real estate office, and it was during her time there that it became clear to her how much she truly loved the work. Within a few months, she ventured out on her own, initially running her business out of a makeshift office in her parents’ living room. Over the years, her passion developed into a successful career, and thanks to her determination to never stop studying and learning more about her field, Charikleia is now one of just 20 Realtors® working in Athens.
CLIENTELE AND CORPORATE ETHICS Today, ALMA’s clientele reaps the benefits of the agency’s considerable knowhow and industry experience. Buyers and sellers alike enjoy immediate and personal service, with 24/7 support from the team, who work to provide actionable solutions to clients’ real estate problems, add value to their properties, and help them make smarter buying decisions that maximize their real estate investments. Building on their knowledge, personal experience and expertise, Charikleia and her team are focused on helping clients avoid the various pitfalls, mistakes and wrong investments, all while supporting and pursuing their interests and cultivating a relationship of trust and respect that ensures clients turn to the team whenever they need real estate advice, secure in the knowledge that the advice they receive is correct.
HURDLES ON THE WAY One of the main hurdles that Charikleia has had to overcome was hiring someone who was not a good fit. There were significant costs involved, both financially and in time invested, in training the new hire and helping them fit in with the team and the company, and in the end the business suffered. And there is also the danger of causing dissatisfaction within the team when one member requires so much attention.
CHARIKLEIA’S SUCCESS MANTRA The key to Charikleia’s success can be summarised in her mantra: Work hard and work smart! Her motivation to achieve goal after goal has stemmed from her desire to help clients perform secure transactions and to free buyers and sellers from stressful arrangements, hidden
defects and difficult situations. The fierce competition also helped a lot: Success was a matter of life or death.
SUGGESTION FOR A MORE BALANCED AND EQUAL INDUSTRY Equal opportunities for men and women and meritocracy in the workplace, based on each individual’s abilities, supporting the strong while also helping those who may be weaker but are determined to succeed. Payment and benefits should reflect employees’ abilities, not their gender.
A DAY IN THE LIFE Charikleia’s days start early, with a 05:30 wake up, even on weekends! There is a lot of preparation to be done before the day’s appointments, a lot of research on the latest real estate news and developments in the real estate market, as well as sorting out documents. Appointments generally start at about 11:00 and finish at about seven o’clock in the evening, making it difficult to keep regular routines for things like mealtimes, although she aims to go to bed by 22:30. Charikleia loves spending her free time pursuing her passion for photography and travelling.
“
You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence is not an event - It is a habit - Aristotle
FAVOURITE BOOK THAT INSPIRES CHARIKLEIA How to Survive Under Siege by Aeneas Tacticus; it is a 4th century BCE treatise on how to defend a besieged city! FUTURE PLANS AND OBJECTIVES In Charikleia’s own words: “Everyone in business expects to increase success, cash, and market share. However, especially nowadays, the future is unpredictable. We hope to make the best use of future trends while being safe from potential hazards at the same time. As it is seen, the workplace of the future is going to be digital. Every business has to adapt and invest in this transformation in order to survive. I am optimistic. The way I see it, these pandemic-era restrictions are preparation for greater achievements.”
FEATHERS IN THE CAP • Global Business Awards 2020 Winner for the categories: Outstanding Public Relations, Outstanding Entrepreneur, and Outstanding Customer Service Initiative.
• Corporate Excellence Awards Winner 2021: “Most Influential Leader in Real Estate 2021 – Greece. • Business Partners magazine: inside cover and central interview in the magazine’s celebratory 100th issue. (January-February 2019)
• CIOLook magazine: featured in “The 10 Most Innovative Business Leaders Revamping the Future 2021”. • Who is Who Women Leaders: featured in this annual, luxury edition, collectible encyclopaedia of prominent Greek women in both the 2019-2020 and 2021 editions.
A PIECE OF ADVICE FOR FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS “Women, especially young women just starting out in business, should find something that holds meaning to them but that is also useful and adds to people’s lives. This could mean that they develop a brand new product or service or that they build upon and improve something that’s already out there. Either way, it’s important to be driven by purpose, not just profit,” Charikleia points out. “They should be on the lookout for opportunities, keeping in mind that these may not always be all that obvious, and they should not be afraid of making mistakes, trying new things. However, they should always hold some capital aside to cover any missteps along the way. And of course, it’s paramount to always strive to improve their skills and learn new things throughout their whole life. Hard and smart work is necessary if they want to claim a page in the book of success!”
PROPERTY SALES & MANAGEMENT
Founder & MD of CapSavvy Consultants Pvt Ltd., Anil Goyal is the living example of classic entrepreneurial spirit that pivoted an employee to become an entrepreneur. It was back in 2019 when he started the journey towards greater heights of achievements after working for 25 years for different companies. Mr Anil is a certified Business Strategist and a rank holder Chartered Accountant and has expertise across diverse industries and sectors towards ROI focused services to businesses. His areas of specialization include Debt fundraising from banks and institutions, Equity fundraising from PE Funds, Strategies for ROI improvement, Insolvency and Bank Settlement matters, Project Development advisory, Start-ups advisory, Education advisory and many more.
ANIL GOYAL
CapSavvy Consultants Pvt Ltd (Founder & MD)
“The one-stop financial and business advisor for managing the challenges of the modern fast-changing business world.”.
Anil had been associated as Director/ CEO with Mexus Education, Meril Life Sciences, Mangalore SEZ, SAIL SEZ, IL&FS and advisor to many large corporates, small & medium enterprises, state governments and central government on matters related to financing and implementation of greenfield and expansion projects, city developments, joint ventures projects etc. Anil has successfully competed for fundraising for more than 180 corporates and greenfield projects with an aggregate Project Cost of USD 5 Billion (INR 35000 crore) involving funding to the tune of USD 2 Billion (INR 13000 Crore) through various Banks, Institutions and Private Equity Funds. Anil has participated as a speaker across various business platforms such as CII, Assocham, CRISIL and ILFS. His articles have been published across various leading newspapers viz Hindustan Times, Business Line, Indian Express, Deccan Herald etc. Anil had been a panellist in a live TV Show.
CapSavvy & Service Portfolio
Clientele & Corporate Ethos
CapSavvy, an award-winning ISO 9001:2015 company, is an expert financial and business advisor that focuses on providing multifaceted advisory to cater for the growing demands of modern businesses to compete globally and thrive in a fast-paced & challenging economy. CapSavvy’s range of services are designed to upgrade businesses and fast forward their growth through a bouquet of services such as- Business Strategy - Start-up Advisory and Funding - Financial Restructuring - Equity Fundraising - Debt Syndication - CFO Services - SEZ Services
CapSavvy has been providing business and financial advisory to various type of organisations from SMEs and large corporations and covering new-age sectors such as E-commerce and start-up to well-established sectors such as Real-estate and infrastructure. Currently, CapSavvy is serving clients in E-commerce, Home-Appliances, Health Products, Sports Equipments, Aircraft Maintenance, Shipyard, Real Estate, Food sector, Plastic Industry, Logistic and so on.
Backed by an experienced advisory panel of chartered accountants, bankers, technocrats and management professionals, CapSavvy becomes a partner for the growth and progress of the business in today's fast moving digital world and lets the promoters focus on their core business activities.
The Turning Point in the Journey After passing the Chartered Accountancy final exam with national rank in 1995, through campus placement, Anil could get an opportunity to work with IDBI in the credit division, where his role was to evaluate project funding cases and keeping track of their business progress through various check-points. Working with IDBI and especially under Mr Debasish Mallick gave a rock-solid platform for Anil’s career growth. Post IDBI, Anil had worked at leadership positions with SKIL Group, IL&FS, Mangalore SEZ, Mexus Education and Meril Life Sciences. While managing Mexus Education as Managing Director & CEO for more than 10 years and leading a cross-functional team of more than 1500 people, Anil gained the rich qualities of an Entrepreneur while dealing with various organisational challenges. Having born in the Agarwal family and with the deep understanding gained during leadership positions at various organisations, Anil decided to become an entrepreneur with the support of his family.
CapSavvy’s approach is modern and unique while serving the clients. They work with their client through the “Business Partner Approach”. Under this unique approach, the CapSavvy team gets into the shoes of their client and understands their business needs through their eye, so as to ensure personalised and effective advice.
Hurdles on the Way During the initial period of CapSavvy, a major challenge was to look for the right candidates, who are like-minded and believe in CapSavvy vision and objectives. Being a new entrant in the already crowded advisory space, it was difficult for CapSavvy to hire good candidates. However, because of the past reputation of its founders, CapSavvy could get associated with a good mix of teams. Another challenge at CapSavvy during the initial phase was to tie up with the right ERP agency to manage clients’ projects and internal service team. After a lot of research, CapSavvy tied up with Zoho Suite, which is currently the best among all available options in ERP.
The Success Mantra Anil reflects on his past journey and his achievements and says that his success journey is a mix of the outcome of two factors, One, it is because of the professional traits that he followed while working in leadership positions and secondly, because of continuous guidance and support from his mentors, his superiors, friends and family members. Anil’s mantras of success are:
• Always be punctual
• Always be eager to learn • Share your knowledge with others • Be polite in your talks/ discussions • Listen very carefully and understand another person’s
1. Shri Debasish Mallick, former Dy Managing Director of EXIM Bank joined CapSavvy Board as non-executive Vice-Chairman.
• Always deliver more than what is expected from you
2. CapSavvy featured on Cover Story of Silicon India and being awarded as Best Financial Services Startup in Mumbai.
Creating a More Balanced and Equal Industry
3. CapSavvy brand nominated as Best Service Brand for quality excellence jointly by CNBC Awaz, Benchmark Trust and BSE
viewpoint
Anil shares a few common suggestions and strategies that can be adopted by companies to stay connected and afloat and create a balanced and equal industrial economy: 1. The focus of core competency and quality enhancement 2. Outsourcing non-core products/ work to vendors 3. Maintaining a healthy relationship with stakeholders 4. Managing employees & related optimization
A Day in Visionary’s Life Anil’s average day comprises an early start, with mostly a planned routine in the middle for a jam-packed day. After morning walk and routine exercise early morning, Anil does his prayer and meditation for about 1 hour, which is followed by breakfast with family members. Average daily tasks include; a) Managing team for client servicing/ mandate execution, b) Client meetings, c) Meeting with associates/ service providers, d) Meetings with Banks, Investors and Funds, f) Webinars/ Newspapers for knowledge gain g) Media Interactions and h) Networking Meetings
Favourite Book - “The Secret” Road Head CapSavvy foresees to become the best financial and business advisor in managing challenges of the modern business world and to achieve this, CapSavvy dedicatedly provides genuine & customized services that lead to high ROI.
Feathers in the Cap CapSavvy has received many awards and accolades in a short span since its inception. A few of the prominent awards and milestones include;
4. CapSavvy is an internationally acclaimed Quality Management Certified Company with ISO 9001:2015 Certification. 5. DIPP, MoCI, Govt of India has recognised the initiatives of CapSavvy and issued Certificate of Recognition. 6. CapSavvy gained recognition from Central Vigilance Commission, GoI for its efforts in following good governance & ethical practices.
A Piece of Advice be for Female Entrepreneurs Although they are traditionally underrepresented in the business world, women have always been entrepreneurs. Women have been driven to start and maintain businesses of their own throughout history. Women are now starting businesses at a rate 1.5 times higher than the average. Women entrepreneurs often underestimate their own potential and fail to dream big enough. It is important to tap into the inner reason behind your business and really think about the legacy you want to leave behind.
By Dr. Darya Yegorina, CleverBooks
B
Building a company is never an easy task. Things that look so easy outside are most likely to be the hardest ones. The journey of building a company from an idea is the way to chase a dream leaving your comfort zone behind, taking risky decisions with the goal to control your destiny and change the world. Who are those people? What do they have they believe will help to achieve their dreams? Those people rise from bottom to top. They may not necessarily have the skills that entrepreneurial journey demands from them but what is that that they have? These people have passion, a strong internal drive that converts their idea into a venture with time. Each business idea is born out of passion and inspiration. CleverBooks was born out of a deep passion for the education and technology of an inspiring leader and the founder of the company - Dr. Darya Yegorina. She truly believes that each individual is in charge of changing the way we educate our kids. Dr. Inna Armstrong, Co-Founder of CleverBooks joined the leadership team as a senior executive at the early stage of the company development. Inna's desire to empower students learning through a strategic application of most innovative EdTech. Today, CleverBooks influences Digital Transformation in the Education system worldwide. Present in 62 countries, with over 17000 students and 4200 teachers using CleverBooks STEM EdTech products based on Augmented Reality (AR) technology that bring learning to life where kids can see, hear, and touch the knowledge. CleverBooks has been featured in multiple international media including Forbes and Inc. Magazine, Reimagine Education as a Bronze Winner 2020, enrolled in one of the biggest EU funded projects HORIZON 2020 and Erasmus+ to participate in the research on the topic of AR in Education.
Has this all happened overnight? Was it so easy as it sounds? Two determinate leaders behind this idea made it a reality. Why? Because they had passion and strong internal motivation to bring their idea to reality, make a change and leave footprint behind. CleverBooks is a company who breaks through the education industry with innovation – the application of Augmented Reality for educational settings and making this technology affordable, promoting quality of content and equality in education from all income families around the world, all special needs kids around the world. It all started with Darya’s dream to influence the change and help transform education. Darya wanted to become a teacher never thinking that in five years upon graduation during an internship at school, she would be face a brutal reality of been pushed to teach with the same books she had at school herself. This made her always think that “Education is the product of time” because the main goal of education for each generation is to have people who are able to adopt to the world around them. This realization that education system is struggling forced a dramatic shift in her carrier. So, she set herself on a mission to find the way to disrupt the education. Today, Dr. Darya Yegorina is a TEDx top global thought leader on a journey to disrupt the Digital Transformation in the Education system. She inspires new generation from early childhood to develop necessary skills using immersive EdTech to help them survive the digital era, thus shaping a sustainable future society and influencing future economic growth. Darya believes that the major global issues (climate problems, poverty, fear of innovation and tech) are coming from lack of their understanding, i.e. support from the side of education. Education is the key creative force to deal with the problems that humanity faces.
Today, Dr. Inna Armstrong is a Thinkers 360 (2020) Top Thought Leader in AR/VR together with Darya helps educators to embrace 21st-century teaching. She envisions a world where educators are empowered to help kids to develop the necessary skills through strategic use of technology, breaking old-fashioned pedagogical barriers, building bridges between teaching and tech focused on increased engagement of students in the classroom with an interactive and immersive learning environment. What the stories of two co-founders can’t teach us? Is there any advice they can give? Here is a short summary of advice from passionate and innovative co-founders of an edtech venture:
• Get used to rejection and “no”, don’t take this personal
• Help people to grow. By helping others, you grow too.
Inna Armstrong (CoFounder) “A dream is just a dream until it’s put into action”. Darya is the winner of Digital Female Leaders Award in the category of Entrepreneurship in 2018, named as Innovator by Irish Times in 2018, awarded Young Irish Entrepreneur in 2016, Women in IT 2019, Young European Leader in 2020/2021 (#EYL40), Top Thought Leader in B2B, AR/VR by Thinkers 360 (2019, 2020) featured in Inc.com, Forbes and other global media as a promoter and facilitator of education technology for the best future of the kids in the world. Inna on the other hand, had begun her career path as a Law Student never thinking that in couple of years, she would exchange it for a «Gipsy» expat life around the world. She worked at International schools in Switzerland and Japan. Her adventures continued in Austria, Germany, and China in the international schools’ expat community and eventually brought her to a professional field of international business development aiming to help companies in their journey to successfully expand their business to the global market.
• The feeling of regret is way worse than not trying • Face the risks and fears • Think of your success, be relentless for growth • Be passionate and innovative on projects that align with who you are as a person.
Dr. Sean James Miller, a renowned neuroscientist with well over 1000 scientific citations, is the founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Pluripotent Diagnostics Corp. (PDx). A researcher with experience and insight, the doctoral degree holder from the prestigious Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Sean James has a career spanning more than 13 years. Over the years, he has successfully transformed the lives of thousands of patients by introducing advanced technologies in stem cell and neurodegenerative medicine.
Dr. Sean James Miller
Pluripotent Diagnostics Corp. (PDx). (founder and Chief Scientific Officer)
"We believe people with passion can change the world for the better. That's what we believe. And we believe that those people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones that actually do." Steve Jobs
PDx is focused on early disease diagnostics for aging-associated neurodegenerative disorders, beginning with ALS genetic screening with results in 5-7 days, and longitudinal comprehensive client biological analyses on an annual subscription or as deemed necessary. PDx ships sterile FDA-approved cotton swabs for easy nasal or oral cavity sampling for their clients. Upon return to PDx, they perform a computational and genetic disease classifier analyses to detect ALS associated genes at an affordable price. Due to the majority of ALS patients having sporadic etiology, they will sequence annually with their subscription service to detect for any de novo or spontaneous mutations that arise during life.
The Inspiring Story of the Visionary Dr Sean James was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, at the time it was statistically one of the country’s poorest and most dangerous cities. In studies, Sean was excellent but after school, he used to execute illegal behaviours in the evening for money. Due to this, he was expelled from school and sent to maximum security juvenile detention. Sean did the majority of
his secondary schooling in a Pennsylvania’s “Alternative Education” program for students deemed an issue to society. In Sean’s senior year, he returned to public high school because of his academic capabilities and promise. During this eventful year, Sean had his first child, Yasmine Elizabeth Miller, worked >30 hours per week at Target Corp., maintained exceptional grades in advance placement courses, and finally got admission to Drexel University on a Dean’s Scholarship in the Organismal Physiology Bachelor degree program.
a three-year National Science Foundation (NSF) fellowship, seven first-author manuscripts, co-authorships, and holds an international patent on the modulation of neurons in neurological disorders. At this time it became a greater pivotal point in Sean’s life… Sean was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
In 2018, Sean moved to Silicon Valley to pursue his Post-Doctoral studies at Stanford University School of Medicine in Neurology. Sean focused his studies on understanding the demise of the blood-brain-barrier in aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Months before departure to Stanford, Sean was awarded a highly prestigious fellowship from the American Federation for Aging Research and the Glenn Foundation. After Within the first year at Drexel, Sean held >3.75 GPA arrival, Sean published a solo-authored paper in Fronand was accepted into the Students Tackling Advanced tiers in Cellular Neuroscience; among the top 10 Research (STAR) program at the Pennoni Honors percentile of all Frontiers journal articles. College at Drexel to conduct molecular research to understand the neuropathology of Alzheimer’s disease In 2019, Sean finished his post-doctoral studies at under the mentorship of Dr Aleister Saunders. Sean Stanford and founded Pluripotent Diagnostics Corp. genetically engineered fruit flies to recapitulate (formerly Pluripotent Diagnostics LLC) in an apartAlzheimer’s disease pathology including dementia. ment in Mountain View, California. The approach at This model is being utilized for drug screening for Pluripotent Diagnostics (PDx) was overarching and Alzheimer’s disease. His contributions have led to innovative. The mission at PDx is to provide early several internationally peer-reviewed publications. In disease diagnostics for our patients prior to clinical three accelerated years, Sean graduated from Drexel onset for immediate therapeutic interventions. and moved to Boston to further his research on Alzheimer’s disease at Harvard Medical School. In this time since 2019, PDx has several peer-review manuscripts in review, an international provisional patent on Methods to Detect Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, full feature on CEO CFO Magazine, listed as “Top 10 Most Influential Leaders in Biotechnology for 2021”, partnerships with NVIDIA, Oracle and Amazon, press releases in NBC and CBS news, and sponsorship with California’s Molecular Medicine Research Institute. The sky's the limit for PDx.
At Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Sean continued in the neurogenetics division on Alzheimer’s disease under the mentorship of Dr Rudolph E. Tanzi. During this time, Sean advanced the therapeutic and biomolecular comprehension of neurodegeneration. His contributions led to several authored manuscripts in journals including two in Science. With the knowledge and experience Sean obtained at Harvard, he felt more passionate about finding a cure for neurodegeneration.
What Influenced Your Decision to Start this Venture?
In 2013, Sean matriculated into Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the doctoral program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine. Sean performed his doctoral studies in the Department of Neurology and the Brain Science Institute under the mentorship of Dr Jeffrey D. Rothstein. Sean was awarded prestigious funding opportunities such as a
Mental disorders impact our entire community and are historically ill tolerated or helped. Throughout my life, I have witnessed friends, family, and myself with mental disorders and diseases such as ALS and Alzheimer’s disease. One in three elderly dies with dementia allowing it to become a global burden and world war. This comes with the complete inability to cure or significantly prolong lifespan. This has for over the
decade driven my passions for the sciences to directly impact our patients. Early diagnostics means early therapeutic intervention, before neurons die”, Dr Sean shared.
The Foetal Stage Challenges One of the biggest challenges was finding exceptional scientists to work on sweat equity for the PDx mission. Scientists, like most people, need to pay the bills and live with as little stress as possible.
Keeping up with the Rising Technologies “For the first time in mankind, early disease detection will be globally available… The World War is dementia, and we are on an overarching mission to dedicate our life to take innovative approaches that are out of the box but focused”, Sean shared while talking about his future plans.
A Piece of Advice for Female Entrepreneurs Female professionals are facing an obstacle that has always been there but only now being appreciated. Keep pushing and pushing, your dedication and brilliant minds will pay off and help us all push to a world of equality. Most people don’t it their first run, but as I like to say, in the future you can always remember “this is not my first rodeo” and kick some ass.
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Walter Marin, Founder & CEO of Plug The Sun, is a successful versatile leader with extensive global experiences across domains and solar management. He is spearheading the company’s rapid growth with his vision to create a transformation in the world of the emerging solar home system and micro/minigrid, making a difference in the lives of people globally. Besides a vast experience of about almost four decades , Walter is passionate about the culture and the knowledge to share for the best of the humanity.
A Pioneering Brand in Solar Arena
Plug The Sun (Founder & CEO)
“Solidarity and democracy are the foundation of our future. But without proper energy access, people cannot hope for development and better personal prospects. We think that energy is not a simple matter for technicians but also a matter of life.” - Walter Marin
Plug the Sun design, develop, and manufacture the most innovative solar off-grid solutions. It is the next generation producer of Solar Home Systems, Hybrid and Mini-Grids solutions suitable for houses, businesses, and communities. The company was founded in 2016 and within 4 years, its footprint has reached South-East Asia, South America and Africa. Since its inception Plug The Sun’s mission has been to provide electricity for everyone on three axes:
• To boost economic growth. • To reduce the carbon footprint by using solar energy. • To increase the energy capacity ensuring that digitalization and technological improvment can take place.
Until now, the off-grid industry was mainly focused on generating enough electricity to power a few basic appliances such as light bulbs, fans, and television sets. These first steps are a significant improvement, but their vision for energy access is significantly more comprehensive and robust. They believe that electrification efforts that focus only on basic solutions will not deliver transformative growth so they designed a series of off-grid solutions that go from 150 Wh to 20000 Wh and more.
Mushrooming as a Differentiator
• The devices are extremely durable and made of
The energy revolution is dominated by renewable, built based on areas, and rely on a model where producers and consumers are the same entity. Through distributed networks of electricity, each area will have its own energy supply system sized to their needs. By making customers self-sufficient and interconnected, it’s easier to create a system that provides constant, clean, reliable energy.
• Plug-and-play or easy instalment.
high-quality materials.
Delivering zero-kerosene solution which protects the environment and zero-defect products which minimize the impact of electronic waste.
The off-grid industry in Africa has made great strides but this is only the beginning. As prices for solar panels and battery technologies fall, the compact design improves, and the pay-as-you-own model “We can all be Green Energy Producers. When a building, a shop, or a neighbour, produce and store the proves its effectiveness and becomes widely adopted, the goal now is to make it sustainable. energy they need, the power supply system will be changed. They will all become micro, clean energy Walter Marin and the team are thinking long term. To power stations. Our main priority is to deliver electricity to those who don’t have reliable sources of avoid future impediments to the growth of the solar industry, they are creating capital-efficient solutions power or are looking for a primary one. Our last for customers who need more than just subsistence generation solar home systems make it possible for houses and businesses to produce their electricity in a levels of energy. Increasing the level of electrification in rural Africa is an important step towards building safe and environmentally friendly manner,” shared an inclusive future, but it won’t guarantee the Walter Marin. sustainability of the energy sector. “Thanks to our proprietary technology, all the products Instead, they aim to start the adoption of off-grid solar feature high-density power electronics and smart home systems with the economic prospects located in energy management systems to achieve the best urban and peri-urban areas, which will then allow reliability and performance for our customers’ power them to subsidize part of the costs of expansion to needs. The RAY Family is our series of off-grid solar rural communities. This approach is a more home systems. The home systems are uniquely commercially sustainable approach and will help them designed in Italy and made from high-quality reach equal distribution inclusion in the long term. By materials using the most innovative technologies,” he targeting SMEs and farmers at scale, they are helping further added. them to grow their businesses and improve their living conditions, as well as creating a ripple effect at the The RAY Family has nine devices that range from community level. 150Wh to 16000Wh. All the devices are designed to use photovoltaic solar energy and battery storage to Creating and maintaining the sustainability of these provide electricity without the grid. Solar energy is solutions in Africa is key to meeting long-term harvested through photovoltaic panels. These panels economic growth. They envision energy investment as are positioned on a building and are connected to the the first step towards urban and rural resilience. device with a cable.
The Secret Ingredients The Ray Family devices are individually sized to suit the consumer’s needs for households or businesses. The Ray Family features: • Noise and emissions-free. • Setup for a Pay-As-You-Own model.
Primary Challenges & Support System Find the right people at the right time was one of the major hurdles in the way of Walter Marin. His university and PhD studies and his father taught him to work hard and humbly.
The global energy revolution offers an unprecedented opportunity to transform the energy sector in all aspects. They see an opportunity to harness the power of natural resources to leapfrog the fossil-intensive energy regime for the unfulfilled electricity market. They are extending their footprint in the sub-Saharan Africa region so it can bypass the conventional path of energy development and maximize directly the use of solar power through distributed networks of solar home systems and water pumps, which are efficient and environmentally friendly. They are testing new sustainable models and work closely with local stakeholders to extend a green and prosperous future to millions of people.
Feather in the Cap Plug The Sun is honoured with Hong Kong’s Most Outstanding Innovator in CleanTech.
CEO’s Periscope “The innovation lies in the ability of our system to deliver high-density power electronic circuit and smart battery management which could keep healthy and prolong the life of the battery; together with pay as you go and fintech solution, it provides a package to the end-user to improve and change his life.”
Favourite Book- ‘The Bible’ Expansion Binge To help to achieve the sustainable development goals set by the UN in particular decent energy access for all by 2030. The team is working with strong partnership especially in Myanmar, the Philippines, South America and Africa to achieve the SGD 7 target to have energy access for all.
“The core of our strategy is to create long-term growth and improve economic livelihoods by generating energy to power appliances that increase productivity and improve the quality of life tools such as laptops, water pumps, and water purifiers. We want to see in Africa a thriving private-sector where everyone is financially included and globally connected.” “Our priority is to provide decentralized, reliable and affordable energy solutions but this is just the enabler for other services and opportunities that can create sustainable growth and urban and rural resilience. To this end, we work with private investors, real estate developers, financial institutions, governments and no profit to provide unique solutions.”
Five things that have changed in sales because of COVID that will never be the same as before Since COVID began impacting our lives many people have reached out to us at Datasocial seeking help with an updated sales process now that face-to-face networking is basically gone. There are severe doubts about whether we will go back to selling on golf courses and restaurants when the pandemic passes. The pandemic has accelerated some changes due to the absence of physical relationships, yet many of them will never be the same as before.
1. The growth of Smarketing
Founder at Datasocial
Traditionally the sales and marketing teams teams have been at each other's throats, but today they need to learn to work together. Thus, marketing has grown faster than ever. Why? Sales have always given very little value to marketing leads because they could generate their opportunities at expensive restaurants and golf courses. But with everything closed, they have had no choice but to look pleadingly to their peers for leads to work with. And this has led to more and more talk about the "lead hand-off" - what the mechanisms are for handing off leads from marketing to sales and what each of the teams has to commit to. Who calls the leads? How long do sales qualify the leads they receive? None of this is new, but COVID has given it the importance that sales teams have traditionally tried to take away. In this scenario technology tools can bridge the gap between sales and marketing and the tech is continually growing.
2. Prospecting by providing value is the answer What if inbound can't give me the leads I need? You simply have to pick up the phone or email and try to generate leads by providing value. And providing value is the most important part. Finding opportunities so that in the sales process, the other prospect receives value even if they don't buy from you, for example, with an audit of their website or CRM. It's no use calling everyone with nothing to offer. We are past that time; it is the time to provide value, even if it is remotely.
3. Automation and value The automation of sales and marketing tasks is here to stay. It did not arrive with COVID; it has been with us since the 90s when the first marketing platforms were born and have been evolving ever since. According to Gartner, "A marketing automation system is a system that helps marketers execute multi-channel marketing campaigns by providing a scripted environment for creating business rules and interfaces to a variety of third-party applications." These tools, mostly from the marketing world have been overtaking sales and today many sales tasks can be done semi-automatically, such as importing leads into a CRM or sending sequences. Far from worrying about the tasks that teams no longer do, there is an opportunity to add value to the tasks we don't automate, spend time on the leads that are truly qualified, and focus our time on creating meaningful and value-adding relationships.
4. Sales teams have begun to value CRM. In times of scarce opportunities, each one must be carefully nurtured and worked on. CRM, which most sales forces see as a divine punishment, has become an ally that gives them context about the relationship with the potential customer, informs them about the technology that customers use, about revenues and employees, tells you about the interactions that other departments have had and in some way sheds light on the customer relationship as a whole. Now that we do not meet our partners in the corridors or at the coffee machine and we cannot share customer
information face-to-face, it is key to have real-time and updated information about the opportunities we are working on. Therefore, it is more necessary than ever that technology is at the heart of the relationship between the customer and the company.
5. A connected technology stack Now that people can't see each other, it's time for applications to "talk to each other". The switchboard can no longer be a horrible room full of underpaid people, where everyone is shouting simultaneously, but a cloud application that connects the whole team and is synchronized in real-time with the CRM to which it constantly sends information. The same goes for the other applications where we interact with the customer, which are many and create silos of information that are not accessible by the other team members that may contain very valuable information. It is time to have a connected technology stack and a CRM that reflects all interactions with customers, wherever they are.