The 10 Most Impactful Leaders in Healthcare, 2022 July2022

J J Farook

Farook

Driving the Future of Value-Based Care

Healthcare - The Bright Way Forward

Editor’s Desk

Raunak Mhetre

Raun ak raunak.mhetre@insightssuccess.com

he most incredible breakthrough in healthcare

Thistory was discovered recently, earlier this year, when a drug named Dostarlimab was found to eliminate all the tumors in its first attempts. It was a piece of fantastic news for the healthcare community worldwide who has been battling the incurable disease helplessly.

Since the discovery of cancer and its dreading effects on the human body, scientists and doctors worldwide have worked in unison to save the most precious thing that mattersHuman Life.

After hitting many roadblocks in their quest for medical success, a life-saving drug was discovered, giving hope to millions of people who were counting on science and medicine to save their life from the clutches of the deadly disease.

Giving People Hope- That is what healthcare does.

Medical science is no longer a human-specific domain.

Science and technology have enabled healthcare professionals to innovate and go beyond the boundaries of human perception, giving rise to accurate and advanced healthcare.

Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AR and VR) have equipped medical professionals to ease medical complications, making life easier. The industry is collectively involved in fulfilling the aim of high-quality healthcare using scientific armory.

The healthcare industry has been assisted with MedTech, a word drawn from the combination of medicine and technology. It has provided an extra cushion to doctors and healthcare professionals to get a greater insight into the complex mechanisms of the human body. It cannot be denied that the quality of healthcare provided is significantly enhanced when machines and AI intervene.

Working together, doctors and their machine-oriented counterparts are making the best use of science to serve patients. Artificial Intelligence can be currently looked upon

as a supplement and not an alternative for a human doctor. AI-assisted surgical robotics are helping doctors to eliminate the possibility of human error, giving a close to perfect result every time. This decreases surgeons' errors' during surgery and helps doctors operate better during interventions, hence obtaining superior patient outcomes.

Inducing ML approaches to traditional equipment, surgical robots can search through millions of data sets to find crucial insights and cutting-edge procedures. A medical procedure hence gets the luxury of life-enhancing equipment loaded with accuracy while also cutting down the cost of the process.

The worth of doctors' time is equivalent to the value of a patient's life. Technology has enabled healthcare professionals to save much of their valuable time and divert it towards improving patients' lives. Even a minute could be the difference between a patient's life or death. And there is no better use of science than saving precious lives. The healthcare industry is moving in a direction that leads to a future where there is an amalgamation of humans and machines purposed to improve the quality of human life.

Envisioning bright times in the healthcare industry, some pathbreakers are leading the charge for generating a smooth and fast healthcare infrastructure. Barge into such impactful personalities through “The 10 Most Impactful Leaders in Healthcare 2022” edition of Insights Success, where you'll get insights into the latest healthcare industry trends.

Accompanying them are the articles related to the industry that will provide readers with an all-around experience. You don't want to miss this one!

Featured Person

Ardy Arianpour CEO and Co-Founder

Arnaud Mascarell Co-founder and CEO

Carsten Mahrenholz

Founder and CEO

Dan Prince Founder, and CEO

David H. Mowry CEO

Helmy Eltoukhy & AmirAli Talasaz Co-CEOs

Javier Garcia CEO

Jerry Lepore CEO

JJ Farook

Founder and CEO

The Most Impactful Leaders in Healthcare 2022

BriefCompany Name

Scqster scqster.com

FineHeart fine-heart.com

COLDPLASMATECH coldplasmatech.com

Scqster is a SaaS-based healthcare technology company.

FineHeart is a French medical device company focused on creating innovative technologies in the cardiovascular field.

COLDPLASMATECH provides the solution to killing multiresistant bacteria and treating chronic wounds.

illumisoft is a custom software development company that makes healthcare better illumisoft illumisoft.com

Cutera, Inc. is a leading global aesthetics device company. Cutera cutera.com

Guardant Health guardanthealth.com

Viralgen Vector Core viralgenvc.com

MobileSmith mobilesmith.com

InfoMC infomc.com

Nicole Martin CEO and Founder

HRBoost hrboost.com

Guardant Health is a leading precision technology company.

Viralgen was created in response to the unmet need for manufacturing of gene therapies.

MobileSmith Health is a leader in the digital health and mobile development sector.

InfoMC is a leading provider of cloud-based healthcare management and care coordination software.

HRBoost is Shared Services HR firm specializing in building HR from scratch and implementing practices that add value

Cover Story

JJ Farook Founder and CEO InfoMC

Farook

Future

As the healthcare industry shifts toward value-based care, organizations are transitioning from their traditional fee-for-service models to a world in which they are incentivized to keep patients well. With an entire community of providers joining together to deliver care, organizations must integrate communication, coordinate care plans, and manage care beyond the traditional care settings and into the community to fully address patient needs. JJ Farook , founder and CEO of InfoMC , is helping organizations successfully navigate these challenges.

Behavioral Health Roots Make InfoMC Uniquely Suited for Value-Based Care

InfoMC was founded in the mid-1990s to pioneer the use of behavioral and social determinants and community resources to more efficiently and effectively manage an individual’s health. Initially, InfoMC was focused on Farook's passion—filling a void in the managed behavioral

health field by leveraging technology to treat people with complex issues. Connecting social determinants to mental health and substance abuse—and helping clients manage those connections—was a core business model for InfoMC’s first 15 years in business.

“I watched a family member struggle to manage behavioral health issues through a primary care doctor who had little understanding of how to help people like her,” said Farook. “I believe that technology has a strong place in supporting behavioral health, because if the right information isn't available at the point of treatment, people get lost in the system.”

When the Mental Health Parity law was passed in 2008 to put physical and mental health on par, followed by the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the spotlight was on treating high-risk, high-cost individuals. InfoMC saw an opportunity to innovate around the integration of physical and behavioral health and has been doing that ever since.

“I wake up every morning thinking about how we can help these vulnerable individuals, some of whom don't even know that their behavioral health and personal circumstances are impacting their physical health,” said Farook. “Behavioral health needs to be part of every conversation, another disease that needs to be integrated into our everyday thinking, without the stigma that can obstruct effective treatment.”

Treating the Whole Person

Whole-person care focuses on achieving and maintaining a person's well-being rather than fighting individual diseases. The foundation of this approach is the belief that a person's emotional, social, mental, spiritual, and behavioral needs have just as much of an impact on their overall health as their physical body. Addressing all aspects of health, not just the physical ones that are the traditional focus, is the basis of whole-person care. InfoMC believes that this approach—integrating medical treatment with behavioral, emotional and social services—helps identify and remove barriers that make care less effective so people can get the most out of their healthcare.

InfoMC technology, called the Incedo platform, helps organizations manage how care is authorized, coordinated, and delivered so they can more efficiently and effectively care for populations with complex and interlocking physical

and behavioral health conditions. Organizations use InfoMC technology to share data and automate and streamline communication and business practices across payers, providers, and community partners so that the right care is delivered to the right people at the right time to improve outcomes.

Whole-person care is especially important for those with chronic diseases and comorbid conditions, as they require a “village” of social services in addition to medical and behavioral providers to address the entirety of their needs. Collaboration must be an ongoing process that drives joint communication and decision-making across an interdisciplinary care team, with a high level of coordination to ensure treatment is efficiently delivered across disparate providers to support the big picture of care. InfoMC makes this level of collaboration possible.

Managing Care for Vulnerable Populations

The impact of care management on vulnerable populations such as Medicaid and managed long-term care is huge, but funding can be a challenge, particularly for behavioral health services. Organizations can use InfoMC technology to stretch every dollar to help individuals who don't have the means or ability to help themselves and to monitor, measure, and improve how those patients are cared for. Much of InfoMC’s focus is how to make the treatment of behavioral health more efficient and impactful for the Medicaid population and integrate it more effectively into physical health to improve the experience for both patients and providers.

One of the biggest challenges with these programs is to identify people who will benefit most from intervention—those vulnerable individuals who are the highest utilizers of care—and enroll them into appropriate care management programs that prevent highcost emergency care. InfoMC’s Incedo technology helps organizations stratify populations to detect individuals who are high- and rising-risk and automatically trigger program enrollment. Once enrolled, completion of the individual’s health risk assessment drives personalized, best-practice plans of care to give interdisciplinary care teams a blueprint for collaboration that integrates

physical health with behavioral and social determinants of health. This results in a more complete approach to care that is consistent, informed, and personalized to individual needs and results in fewer emergency department visits and better outcomes.

Another challenge is staying current in such a highly regulated, constantly evolving industry. The Incedo platform is highly configurable, enabling InfoMC’s clients to personalize their implementation to meet their assessment, workflow, program, and reporting needs. This capability enables clients to be more agile, manage multiple programs, and adapt quickly to changing business and regulatory needs, so they are responsive to their populations while remaining compliant with state and federal requirements.

“We believe that technology can be a game-changer, automating workflows and decision-making across disciplines to improve how care is delivered and how healthcare resources are utilized,” said Farook. “Our technology optimizes delivery for all types of care so organizations can use their clinical resources in the most effective way. That gives staff more time to do what they do best—caring for people.”

Vision for Future Innovation—A System of Wellness

With the fast pace of innovation in the healthcare technology space, InfoMC is looking toward the future to drive more value into the management of care. An entrepreneur at heart, Farook surrounds himself with people that have that same spirited mindset and passion about making a difference to the health of the populations they serve. The InfoMC culture drives innovation and excellence at all levels through collaboration, trust, and empowerment, enabling the delivery of quality products and services with the highest standard of customer satisfaction. “Our work is not about selling software—it’s about helping our customers improve lives,” said Farook.

Today, one in 10 individuals cared for by InfoMC’s clients are influenced by care management, typically the most vulnerable and complex populations. Seeing the impact care management can make for high-risk populations, InfoMC wants to apply the model not just to the riskiest patients, but to the population as a whole—because the other nine individuals not under care management may end up as next year's costliest patients.

“Our vision is to take the model we’ve built at InfoMC with a small but impactful population and expand it not only by reaching more organizations, but by leveraging the solution with our existing clients to benefit more patients,” said Farook. “Many people, not just the most complex, have interconnecting medical, behavioral, and social issues that affect their health. Figuring out how to find those risingrisk individuals and making sure they stay well—i.e., developing a system that is proactively focused on wellness instead of just reactively treating the sick—is how organizations can really make an impact.”

Farook acknowledges that changing the mindset to focus on wellness is challenging for many organizations. Because members switch health plans, health plans are not incentivized to think long-term. “Investing in the future

InfoMC enables a more comprehensive, person-centered approach to care that is consistent, informed, and personalized to individual needs and results in healthier populations.

means that you do the right things for the health of each individual today, and outcomes will improve across the board,” said Farook. “We need to find a way to push the ownership of health back onto the individual, making each person accountable for his or her own wellness and care.”

InfoMC is doing its part to innovate so that its tools help drive this change. The company is making it easier to connect with patients so that engagement is meaningful and efficient, removing siloes and integrating data to make collaboration harmonious and informed, and automating processes to free up staff to engage in preventive care. The company believes that this work will pave the way for wellness-focused whole-person care that will improve outcomes for all populations and empower each individual with the tools they need to self-manage their health.

“We are passionate about working with our clients because they understand the value of prevention in creating the best outcomes,” said Farook. “Our mission is to build technology that makes this possible.”

Inspiring the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

Farook believes that healthcare, particularly care management, needs more entrepreneurs. More companies doing care management creates more competition, he says, which leads to more innovation that will benefit the consumer and ultimately lead to better care.

He has two concluding pieces of advice for entrepreneurs:

•Don’t start with a big vision and mission—break it down and add to it later. Start with your passion (as Farook did with behavioral health) and grow from there.

•Culture is critical. Find and bring in people that share your passion. Otherwise, it’s an uphill battle to achieve your goals.

“As entrepreneurs, we take risks, but they are calculated risks because making the wrong move will hurt not only our employees and our customers, but our customers’ customers,” said Farook. “At the end of the day, it’s about doing the right thing and doing it well to improve the lives of over 25 million people our clients serve.”

ARDY

ARIANPOUR

Visionary HealthTech Leader Delivering Patient Experience and Transforming Healthcare

In today's world, data is one of the most critical assets that one can possess to improve and innovate in almost every industry. Leading professionals who understand the value of data have discovered technologies that can flourish over time, and the healthcare industry isn't an exception. These leaders are developing technologies for organizations to drive accurate and efficient healthcare via data. Ardy Arianpour , the CEO and Co-Founder of Seqster , is one such leader who is on a mission to make patient-centric interoperability a reality and lead the nation with his venture.

We at Insights Success caught up with Ardy Arianpour in our endeavor to find the "Top 10 Pioneering Leaders Redefining Healthcare, 2021" and interviewed him to share his expertise and how he is bringing a meaningful difference to the healthcare world.

Below are the highlights of the interview.

Brief our audience about your journey as a business leader until your current position at Seqster. What challenges have you had to face to reach where you are today?

My journey as an immigrant to the USA began at the age of 6 in 1986. Fast forward to the 2000s, when I became a young executive, and then leading to my position as CEO/Founder of Seqster from 2016. I'm used to challenges. I thrive in uncertainty because I have a strong sense of purpose, and the same can be said about my company; Seqster's mission is centred on breaking down data silos to improve patient lives at scale, which is the biggest healthcare challenge. To do this, we focused on how to create a platform to put the data in the patient's hands, empowering them to collect, own and share their data on their terms.

Ironically, the first patients we were able to help were my grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer's Disease, and my father who was diagnosed with colon cancer. I witnessed firsthand the impact of the Seqster platform for not only the patient but for the entire family's care journey. Seqster makes health data access seamless and easy to share in a highly private and secure manner.

What is really remarkable is that for most companies, their vision is in a distant future, far, far away. At Seqster, we executed our vision early in 2018, while delivering on our mission by setting the standard for patient-centric interoperability and real-time data access.

Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in the healthcare niche through your expertise in the market. I knew early on that DNA/genomic data is meaningless unless it is paired with high-quality, high-fidelity medical record data. Health records have been a static snapshot that captures a person's health profile at one point in time. A dynamic, real-time view of health is critical for better monitoring of health conditions and more timely medical interventions. Seqster has automated the collection of longitudinal health records, and further, we have created the first and only platform that ties together DNA, fitness/wearable, and health records data in one place.

My career has always been focused on empowering patients. We are all patients at one time or another.

“ “

The stars have aligned at the right place and at the right time. There is a massive push towards healthcare consumerization, simplifying the patient experience and improving the patient journey. The focus is increasingly on the patient, from the latest patient access and interoperability guidelines worldwide to how the information is intuitively displayed for the patient, their physician, and the care team to readily understand. My career has always been focused on empowering patients. We are all patients at one time or another.

What people, what books, what life factors have influenced and impacted you?

Steve Jobs inspired me at a very young age as a visionary entrepreneur who made Apple what it is today. I was also inspired by Bill Gates when I met him in 2018 after being asked to deliver a private presentation, in which he suggested that we take Seqster enterprise in order to scale. As far as books go, his monumental book Business @ the Speed of Thought taught me the importance of trusting my instinct and executing quickly. Additionally, both my maternal and paternal grandmothers suffering from Alzheimer's led me to realize how important multigenerational data is for society.

We have had special requests from patients to use our platform. After granting access, we realized how lifechanging being on the Seqster platform is. When my father was sick with colorectal cancer, I was able to get him diagnosed immediately and in surgery in days instead of weeks by running a tumor board in 6 hours with his health data. These personal stories, as well as remarkable stories

from patients who have used the Seqster platform, keep our team working hard every minute of every day.

Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives Seqster.

Everything we do at Seqster is patient-first, which means we run a culture that is fast-paced, passionate, and engaging. We are a nimble ninja team that is used to executing quickly and effectively. When it comes to either the patient or how I run the company, there is no "Plan B." We strive for excellence in everything that we do. Failure is not an option because our mission is so critical that I never have a "Plan B." We only go by "Plan A.”

What is your opinion on the necessity for businesses to align your offerings with newer technological developments?

Seqster aligns well with the newer technologies, such as virtual care, specialty pharmacies, and virtual clinical trials that require a longitudinal 360-degree view of the patient's health. A static snapshot of a person's health does not tell a complete story. Seqster provides a real-time, dynamic view that is unique in digital health and healthcare.

Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run, and what are your future goals for Seqster?

In the long run, I could see our technology at Seqster impacting patient lives at scale in the same way that Amazon or Netflix has made it seamless for consumers to order a product or watch a movie. I couldn't be more excited about what lies ahead. We are just getting started and are in hyper-growth mode.

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into healthcare?

Entrepreneurship is one of the most challenging and rewarding things that you can do with your life. When you layer in healthcare, on top of how challenging entrepreneurship is, it feels impossible most of the time. The only way that you can get through the tough times is by fully aligning with the mission. My advice is that if you want to venture into healthcare, make sure that you are 100% committed to your mission. If not, I guarantee you will fail. The mission is the soul of the company and is a must-have.

Arnaud Mascarell Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer FineHeart

Trailblazing the Effective and Innovative Technology in Healthcare

Heart failure is one of the major diseases the current world faces. To avoid such mishaps, people nowadays are becoming more and more healthcentric. The saying goes, "With a healthy heart, the beat goes on." However, heart failure can lead to various dreadful consequences, and the treatment process is even more complex. To address the ongoing need for innovation, Medtech companies continue to develop devices to improve the heart's pumping capacity. However, most options risk internal damage to the heart. FineHeart has developed an innovative device that provides temporary and permanent support for this crisis to prevent internal damage.

One of the brains behind FineHeart is Arnaud Mascarell, the Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer. Arnaud leads with a charge and has defined groundbreaking strategies to make FineHeart a well-known and esteemed organization in healthcare. He utilizes his immense experience to ensure the clinical development plans are on track to fulfill the FDA requirements and other competent authorities.

A Fine Journey to the Heart

When Arnaud received his Biomedical Engineer degree from UTC (Technological University of Compiègne, France), he started as a research engineer at Air Liquide Santé. After serving a brief period, he later joined Medtronic as a Field Clinical Engineer. He quickly realized that he would also have to explore the business side of medical operations to expand his skills. Arnaud went on to pursue an MBA from IAE Paris in 2000. His decision came

to fruition as the degree reoriented his career, and he began to focus on sales and marketing. After a decade, he jumped into his entrepreneurial journey and co-founded FineHeart in 2010.

Utilizing Technology for Competitive Lead

According to the World Health Organization, heart disease has remained the leading cause of death globally for the past 20 years. Arnaud mentions that the second leading cause of death in the United States and Europe is heart failure. It has become a global pandemic affecting an estimated 64.3 million people worldwide, with a steadily rising incidence (over one million new cases in G8 countries). Heart Failure is a degenerative disease where the heartbeat weakens over time, becoming more and more severe. This results in reduced quality of life, frequent, costly hospitalizations, and early mortality. A quarter of problems are electrical, which can be treated with pacemakers. The other two-thirds are muscular, which can ultimately only be resolved with a heart transplant.

The shortage of donors limits heart transplants, so a device called an Left Ventricle Assist Device (LVAD) is implanted to improve the pumping capacity of the left ventricle. Despite the urgent need, current LVADs are bulky, which causes significant myocardial damage. They are associated with a risk of infection, bleeding, and thrombosis, which is why they are almost exclusively implanted on very severe patients with short life expectancy. In the event of a cardiogenic shock, it is often necessary to wait to decide

whether to implant an LVAD and force physicians to resort to temporary circulatory assist solutions.

FineHeart has invented a breakthrough device called the ICOMS FLOWMAKER®. This device can provide both temporary support (with no time limit and preserving the patient's mobility) and permanent support if the patient does not recover sufficiently from the shock, which constitutes a paradigm shift in how severe Heart Failure patients will be treated.

The ICOMS FLOWMAKER® is like an electric bicycle, as it increases the blood flow and is synchronized to the natural heartbeat.

The entire ICOMS FLOWMAKER® system is fully implanted in the left ventricle. It is powered by a miniaturized internal battery that is rechargeable by transcutaneous energy transfer (TET). It eliminates the risk of driveline infection, a significant determinant of post-VAD morbidity and mortality. Maintaining trans-aortic flow supports increases left ventricle unloading, improving myocardial recovery chances and faster device weaning possibilities. The wireless device is programmable, like a pacemaker, and the operating modes can be customized for individual hemodynamic requirements, which preserves pump efficiency in case of increased cardiac demand.

According to the patient's point of view, ICOMS FLOWMAKER is designed to deliver improved quality of life by providing untethered freedom and supporting the patients' return to daily activities.

Overcoming Severe Challenges

One of the biggest challenges that doctors face is the lack of long-term treatments for heart failure patients, especially those who have progressed to the most severe stage of the disease. These patients bear the brunt of the economic burden, but most treatments do too little to help them.

FineHeart is determined to disrupt the deadly cycle of heart failure and address the unmet needs of patients. ICOMS FLOWMAKER is the only device that will preserve the heart's natural pumping function, as it synchronizes with the heartbeat to augment blood flow.

Stepping Up in Tough Times

Discussing the impact of the COVID pandemic, Arnaud expresses that the issue with the pandemic is that it has monopolized the health community. However, with heart failure being a degenerative disease, patients' treatment delays have worsened the condition.

“Addressing the unmet need of patients with severe heart failure.”

Fortunatey, FineHeart has been able to continue developing its device through pre-clinical trials and has not been overly impacted. His concern with the pandemic is that numerous patients have suffered heart problems with severe forms of COVID-19, which could lead to a higher risk of severe heart failure in the future.

Over the Horizon

Moving ahead and chasing milestones, Arnaud's efforts have helped FineHeart recently close an $18M series B funding. This financing was accomplished with a pool of industrial and independent investors. The collective action brought together know-how from the world of technological excellence and renowned medical expertise, shown by the substantial contribution from cardiologists, who individually invested. This consortium of shareholders represents a new approach, going beyond the cookie-cutter approach to secure financial support.

It is one example of how FineHeart will continue to push and find innovative ways to deliver the disruptive treatment that the ICOMS FLOWMAKER embodies. The organization now holds all necessary resources to ramp up development and is on track to target First-In-Human clinical trials next year.

Follow Your Heart

FineHeart faces all the challenges of a start-up in the Medtech Industry, from R&D and product trials to the difficulties of raising finance regularly. Arnaud understands the entrepreneurial drive and the challenges, so he advises up-and-coming entrepreneurs to believe in their products.

"If you believe in your product and the potential disruptive treatment it can bring to save patients' lives, you must keep going and find solutions," says Arnaud.

Carsten฀

Mahrenholz

A leader is visionary, inspiring, and able to transform markets, changing the lives of millions of people for the better. These aspects, combined with high values, boldness, and charisma, are bound into Dr. Carsten Mahrenholz, a great leader who innovatively implements his expertise.

Carsten is the Founder and CEO of COLDPLASMATECH, which pioneers in plasma medicine – focusing on chronic wounds. His healingcentered approach to restoring patients is viewed as superior to the actual care-oriented solutions that will disrupt the advanced wound care market.

A Highly Distinguished Rebel

"I'd rather focus on my next goals than celebrating victories" is the short answer of the visionary. As the CEO of COLDPLASMATECH, Carsten received a plethora of awards and merits within the last years. His goal is nothing short of solving two of the biggest problems of modern medicine: chronic wounds and infections with multiresistant bacteria. "Sometimes a system needs rebellious minds to change." And he is one of them.

Apart from passion and scientific expertise, the principles of the honorable businessman play a major role for Carsten. "We are all part of an economic ecosystem, and I enjoy taking responsibility – for my employees as well as

patients," he explains his patient-centered approach. The company focuses from the beginning of its existence on market and patient needs. In order to leave the scientific ivory tower, he and his team had to master a technology that sounds like science fiction, cold plasma, find out the principles of a market that was built around treating chronic patients, not healing them, understand stakeholders and medical procedures and in the end, find a solution to helping those patients suffering from a non-treatable condition: chronic wounds. And he succeeded. In 2020 his

I try to make problem-solving a mental challenge and define my job inside the company as a troubleshooter – making sure everyone can perform.

Carsten Mahrenholz

Photo Credit : Kim Pottkämper | kimoment.de

vision became a reality. Science fiction became applicable to science reality. The Plasma-Cube and the Plasma-Patches started revolutionizing wound care.

A Problem Solver, Curious and Innovative, and a Bit Unconventional.

Consequently, working in the field of plasma physics and medicine, his co-founder Tobias Güra was not a scientist but a medical economist. "We brought in engineers and scientists after we defined market needs and a target for our development. A rather blasphemic approach in a research institute", Carsten added. "The only way out of an ivory tower is to look outside." Subsequently, they added talented people to their team. "You have to surround yourself with people who want to make the impossible possible. We are still just a small team - now 12, which is actually a success factor: With this company size, it's possible to fail sometimes without putting the whole company at risk. And not to forget, we are flexible and can react quickly to opportunities or threats."

Today, the CPTcube and CPTpatches are approved as class IIb medical devices and have demonstrated their strengths. A threat to the old wound care market – and a transformation towards the wound closure market. "We are now working with great passion, opening up our treatment centers all over Germany and bringing our former vision to patients - and in doing so, perhaps make the world a little bit better," he concludes.

Impact on the Chronic Wound Market.

Today, the chronic wound market—like the diabetes market—is centered around making patients a cash cow and exploiting the situation for monetary benefits. There is more focus on treating the wound rather than healing and eradicating the root cause behind it. Contrary to the market norms, COLDPLASMATECH primarily focuses on solving this problem. "We don't want people to live better with the wounds. We don't want people to be treated with those wounds. We want those wounds to heal," asserts the distinguished CEO. Furthermore, the application of plasma, namely faster, hands-free, optimal treatment, safety, reliability, etc., are some other prominent factors that differentiate COLDPLASMATECH's product from older handheld plasma devices. This is why the product is viewed as superior not only to the current standard of wound healing but also as a solid basis for the newly emerging field of plasma medicine.

Photo Credit : Kim Pottkämper | kimoment.de

The Technology and the Problem Solved.

COLDPLASMATECH uses a cold version of plasma to treat chronic wounds. A wound that has not healed properly even six weeks after appearance is generally considered chronic. Up to five million people a year are affected in Germany alone. It is often the result of diabetes or pressure ulcers in patients with bedsores.

Cold plasma provably inactivates anti-healing germs that are common in hospitals, including those that are multiresistant to current antibiotics. It also promotes the growth of blood vessels and tissue perfusion and stimulates wound healing. There are now various medical devices that use this technology, but they are either very bulky or can only treat certain wounds.

Apply. Push the Button. Wait 2 Minutes. Done: A Simple Guide

This is different from COLDPLASMATECH. Its offering consists of a handy box called CPTcube and the almost square wound dressing CPTpatch. It is also suitable for the treatment of large, deep wounds. This does not hurt and only takes two minutes per treatment. Positive changes can be detected after just a few days. Dr. Mahrenholz, who founded COLDPLASMATECH in 2015, likes to speak of "Star Trek Technology" because the whole process has a touch of science fiction. This impression is reinforced by the bluish shimmer that the wound dressing spreads during application. "It's important to make complex phenomena comprehensible. The simplest way to explain our technology is by using Starship Enterprise: There is the dermal regenerator - a manual device that closes wounds with luminous blue rays. In principle, we have developed something just like that. The blue glow is in reality actually purple, and the technology behind it is called cold plasma", he explains.

"There is another even larger problem in hospitals: multiresistant germs, and we are providing a solution even to this problem." Bacteria and fungi coming into contact with cold plasma are dying. "Of course, our company has not invented plasma; we just made it applicable - in the form of wound dressings," Carsten continues. This was an important step this great procedure required in order to help a high number of patients. For the user, the application has to be simple; in the case of the CPTcube, it only requires the push of a button.

The Advanced Wound Care Market.

The advanced wound care market is still a rather noninnovative market with huge turnovers for stabilizing products. This is a huge disadvantage for health care systems and costs billions of Euros per year. More effective technologies and innovations are needed and should be fostered. However, centered around patient benefits and not only around economic benefits. "We treat humans and not business cases. Some companies seem to forget that", the CEO states. There also should be a change in thinking within the market, and innovative technologies such as cold plasma therapy should be made available to all patients with chronic wounds. To Carsten, medicine will change from treating patients to restoring them.

Advice from a "dreamer" to the next generation of aspiring business leaders

"My usual advice to everyone would be to find what you love and start working on it. You will notice that your performance and endurance will increase when you like what you do. A friend once told me I was a dreamer because my goals and visions are often unrealistic to achieve. That bothered me for a while until I understood that I actually was a dreamer. However, as soon as I started dreaming about something, I started to think of ways how to make that dream a reality. I now understand that bridging the gap between visions and the real world is something I am very good at. So, yes, I'm a dreamer, and my advice would be to not be afraid to build bridges to your dreams, instead of seeing dreams as unrealistic ideas.”

Photo Credit : Kim Pottkämper | kimoment.de

Scommunication over documentation," such is the belief of Dan Prince, the Founder , and CEO of illumisoft. He is a futurist who believes in continual improvement, personally and professionally, and believes technology can considerably extend our average lifespan.

implicity over perfection, people over processes, and

to take advantage of this opportunity to build his own business in support of his son.

A Tale of a Techie

With the benefit of having entrepreneurial parents, Dan got an early start. They were early adopters of computers for their deposition service in the mid-seventies. Having access to those allowed him to learn about computer architecture and coding early. Back then, playing with computers was like a game to him, and he played on the computer much as he played on his Atari. He never imagined that it would turn into a life-long interest or a career.

In his 20s, Dan worked in construction, and it wasn't until he was a father of 4 with all the bills that accompany them that he decided to get a college degree. He worked parttime, and his wife watched the kids while he went to school full time for four years to earn the piece of paper that would begin his journey into professional technology development.

Dodging Bullets

Dan was given an ultimatum at work, and he wound up quitting that job in May of 2015 after a year of working on Unidoor's project on the side. In June of 2015, Unidoor pulled the plug on the project. His income suddenly dried up. He knew he could've gotten his job back, but at that same time, it made him feel a bit guilty. One of his sons was working hard trying to grow his business and struggling with it. He wasn't throwing in the towel, and as he pondered what to do next, he felt obligated, as a father,

Another time, in early 2018, Dan had found a considerable number of new clients and new projects and were humming right along. He hired 20 people when suddenly, the majority of the work was either completed or was canceled within a short time. Dan found himself unable to make payroll more than once, and as a result, he let everyone but three people go.

It was a very dark time for him. Dan considered throwing in the towel and even looked for a CIO position for a few weeks. But, it dawned on him that he still had clients who needed their projects finished, so he continued to work. He and his team changed their model from onshore developers

to offshore, from the rapid turnaround time to scheduling projects further, and they made it through.

Influencing the Healthcare Industry

Being centered around helping others is why they at illumisoft have focused their services on the healthcare industry. They realized several years ago that building great solutions feels good, and delighting their clients feels great.

As of today, they have done about 42 projects worth over $10M. Their projects have helped 30 different clients and changed the lives of 100's of thousands of children and families of children with diabetes and other diseases. They have had ZERO failed projects, although they could not complete one due to a shrinking budget and cost overruns. They have 100% 5-star reviews. After all these efforts, illumisoft was awarded the 2021 Globee Awards Gold Medal for Best Healthcare & Medical Innovation.

Philosophy and Ideologies

illumisoft's culture all starts with its values. Dan revisits the list below whenever its team members face difficult times and the need to deliver difficult news.

•Continuous Personal Improvement – They cannot be the best in business if they cannot be their best selves.

•Craftsmanship – They do it right. Right means it solves the solution in the simplest, lowest-cost way.

•Consistency – It is not enough to be the best only part of the time.

•Confidence – Confidence comes from having built the skills through personal development.

•Courageous & Tactful – It can be difficult to voice opinions to a client, but necessary. Well-earned confidence allows for tactfulness.

•Honesty and Accountability through Transparency –They communicate to their team and their clients their achievements and the challenges they face, and their plans to overcome.

Work Culture

As CEO of illumisoft, Dan takes much pride in the fact that his company, as a result of its people, is about as modern as you can get. The illumisoft team members are 100% remote, focusing on high-quality customer service as the utmost priority in any client relationship. They mean it.

Dan further adds, "At illumisoft, our mission is to provide the healthcare industry with a technology partner that helps them make the technology changes necessary to provide the best healthcare results possible. Our vision is to make technology work out of healthcare work. We'll do the tech stuff that enables you to do healthcare at your best."

Keeping Up with the Evolution of Technology

"We implement technology on the cutting edge in our industry because the biggest leverage you can get on technology is found in newer things…before people even realize it is possible. The truth is that our challenge is that, realistically, you can't adopt every technology as soon as it comes out. Our approach is to balance adopting technologies with letting other people vet them first," Dan shares.

Looking Ahead

Looking towards the future, Dan and his team members see illumisoft becoming the go-to custom solution provider for hospitals, private practices, and research centers across the United States. Eventually, they will spread worldwide, as they have already seen a consistent, incremental increase in their growth, and they expect that to continue at an exponential rate. Additionally, they plan to become a product company and combine that with their service offerings. They have several product ideas in the works, and they have a couple of products already built that they are beginning to market now.

A Piece of Advice to Budding Entrepreneurs

Dan's piece of advice: "I've got a lot of advice for aspiring business leaders, but it does depend on their situation to a certain extent. If I had to give general advice for entrepreneurs, I would say: read, and read constantly. Learn everything that you can learn through reading. It's inexpensive and truly beneficial in all areas of life. Next, understand that people are flawed and that you have to accept them for their contribution rather than their proximity to your ideal.”

David H. Mowry

Creating the Future of Medical Aesthetics by Aligning Company Leaders Around a Singular Vision, Goals, and Objectives

t is nearly impossible for organizations to sustain great

I results without alignment among leaders. To achieve alignment, leaders of successful organizations willingly put company and team goals ahead of their own. Aligning leaders and helping them achieve a singular focus is one of the most crucial responsibilities of any chief executive. This focus is what accelerates the path forward to organizational efficiency, effectiveness, and excellence. A common trait among pioneering leaders is the ability to transform the culture of their organization by remaining true to top priorities, which in turn enriches employees, delights customers, and creates value for shareholders.

David H. Mowry is one such pioneering healthcare leader who likes to create a culture where the team is aligned to a singular shared set of goals and objectives. David is the CEO of Cutera and is a seasoned executive with history of success in the Medical Device space and a proven track record of execution and transformational results.

In an interview with Insights Success, David shared about his journey and his contribution through Cutera.

Below are the Highlights of the Interview:

Please brief our readers about the composition of the leadership team at Cutera.

Cutera is a story about execution, and the most critical indicator of execution is having the right leadership team in place. So, my highest and most urgent priority upon joining was the installation of a reliable and unified leadership team committed to a singular value creation game-plan.

The incumbent leadership structure lacked two main ingredients; 1) technical excellence in several critical functions and 2) leaders aligned and committed to subordinating their personal goals for the benefit of the company's goals. Since my arrival in the summer of 2019,

we have turned over nearly 85% of the senior leadership team. Our focus in recruiting new leaders was first on functional competence and subsequently on collaboration and teamwork. The result of the process has given Cutera an amazing group of committed senior leaders who have earned one another's respect and who provide commitment and support.

Describe the company, its innovative medical aesthetics products, how it is differentiated in energy-based aesthetics, and how Cutera meets the needs of the customer.

Cutera was founded by veteran laser engineers and the spirit of innovation continues to drive the business. Somewhere along the way, our approach to innovation shifted to that of a fast follower, where our devices brought increased capabilities, but also greater complexities and costs. To correct this, we have made two fundament shifts: first, we innovate to great value – either "better outcomes at same costs," or "same outcomes at lower cost," or, most appealing, the homerun of "better outcomes at lower costs." Our second shift is that we are moving away from overengineered, fast-follower devices to being first to market for unmet clinical needs.

What were the challenges you came across since joining the organization?

There have been both micro and macro challenges. Certainly there is the obvious macro challenge presented by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Cutera, like others, needed to take significant and immediate action to survive, which we did. Looking back, I am very pleased with our efforts during this time as we not only survived the challenge, but we also emerged leaner, better aligned and more focused on our customers. We strengthened our balance sheet while also upgrading our commercial talent. As for micro challenges, we had weak supply chain and high costs which

David H. Mowry CEO Cutera

have been significantly improved through our margin expansion programs, improving profitability and enabling great reinvestment into our business to fuel longer term growth.

How would you describe your leadership style and how is that impacting the people at Cutera?

I spent some time in the Army after getting my undergraduate degree and I learned two things very quickly: first, that it is possible to learn something from everyone. Humility is a catalyst for open exchange of ideas and almost always surfaces the best solution to a problem. The second take-away for me was the value of people. People are and will always be the most critical resource. We should always respect our teams and employees, which includes sharing the data, actively communicating, empowering them, and allowing them to fail from time to time. Some other related leadership style tidbits that guide my style include the idea that you only fail when you stop trying. I also believe leaders should take the time to recognize effort and whenever possible, publicly reward results. Another belief I hold dear is that perfect is often the enemy of good, and that we must take our gains now and keep moving forward.

Describe in detail about the work culture and the values that drive the company

At Cutera, we have adopted a series of what we call Transformative Values with the belief that embracing and incorporating these values into who we are and what we do will accelerate our advance toward our shared goal of "Creating the Future of Medical Aesthetics." These values are taking hold and helping drive the culture we seek. These values include:

1. Aligned – Working as a singular team to a shared set of goals/objectives.

2. Bold – Stretching outreach, expanding our impact.

3. Data-Driven – Using data versus opinions to settle disputes increases alignment.

4. Focus – Doing fewer things, better.

5. Fun – Enjoying the work you're assigned and the people you're working with.

What would be your advice for emerging business leaders aspiring to venture into the healthcare industry? I have found my 30-plus year career in medical devices and healthcare to be enriching because of the ability to participate in some small way within the value stream of improving the quality of life for others. We have all heard the phase, "do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life." I have found this saying to be true for each of my assignments in the healthcare industry, regardless of sector, business structure (public or private) or company maturity (start-up or large cap strategic company). I can't imagine leading a company outside healthcare.

How do you sustain in the current unpredictable market and hectic competition?

There is no doubt that this a hectic and competitive environment coming out of COVID-19, but companies and leaders need to stay the course by continuing to listen to customers and employees and providing differentiated offerings that bring value. And sometimes just slowing down and doing what is right can calm the pace, refocus the team, and relieve pressures that are not constructive to the process.

What is future vision for the company? And what would be the best roadmap for getting there?

At Cutera, we have a clearly stated vision, which is to "Create the future of Medical Aesthetics." This includes being the partner of choice for our core customers, which are dermatologists, plastic surgeons and "med spa" physicians. Doing so ensures we stay focused on the right conditions, we look for first mover opportunities to meet unmet clinical needs, and we provide our offering as a true partner. As we speak, all of Cutera is well along on this journey.

Cutera is a leading global aesthetics device company with a comprehensive product portfolio and a global distribution footprint.

Comforting PatientsEmpathy with

Empathy and compassion play vital roles in every relationship within the social and professional circles. It is the ability that helps people to understand better and try to encourage and comfort others. The emotional intelligence of a person plays a significant role in behaving empathetically with others. Empathy is an essential quality that healthcare professionals should have as they directly deal with patients suffering from pain or illness.

The importance of empathy is much more than in healthcare than in any other industry. Healthcare professionals pay meticulous attention to ensure that the empathetic culture is ingrained in their organizations to deliver proper treatment to the patients with care. Empathy and compassion cannot be separated from each other, just like sweetness cannot be separated from sugar.

Comforting the afflicted people is the most crucial, and it is not as easy as it sounds. The more one understands oneself; the more one will understand others. How healthcare leaders present things or how they deliver services to patients through their healthcare companies is critical. Healthcare leaders should promote the culture in their companies so that they sensitively deal with patients and minimize the pain and suffering of patients.

Clinical empathy has more to do with a detached mode of understanding with patients. At times medical professionals are more practical and rational. Clinical empathy is not an emotional but an intellectual understanding of patients' emotions so that they can forge a proper solution. They understand it is stressful and disempowering to be sick. Therefore, healthcare professionals should empathetically deal with patients to minimize their stress and reenergize them.

In people's lives, at some time, suffering is inevitable due to unavoidable circumstances, but the pain is optional.

Someone who has good counseling skills can deal with people empathetically, give them much comfort, and minimize their pain. Empathy can make a significant difference in the lives of people's physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual levels. The healthcare leaders should invest in educating and training healthcare professionals in developing empathy and other important qualities to serve the patients better and help them feel better on all levels.

Healthcare companies can have tangible business results if they try to deliver their services empathetically to the patients. The empathy in healthcare leaders and professionals will help them develop more patient-centric, innovative, and modern solutions for the better treatment of patients. When patients are treated with empathy, it builds trust. Empathy in healthcare leads to better patient outcomes, better patient compliance, better patient satisfaction. Empathetic leaders are better able to communicate with patients and have improved and intellectual perception of the emotional state of patients. With more relatedness and understanding of patients, they can suggest the best course of action to free them from their pain or illness.

When physicians treat patients with a high degree of empathy, they naturally feel much better, and their panic level decreases. Studies show that the diabetes patients treated with empathy showed a significantly reduced rate of metabolic complications. When patients are treated with such a high level of empathy, they feel much better, and such patients recommend the company's services positively to other people. Naturally, the customer retention of healthcare companies increases to a great extent and can lead to greater profitability and an opportunity to serve more people in the coming times. Leading with empathy increases the credibility and trustworthiness of healthcare companies, and they can make a huge difference in patients' lives by treating them empathetically.

Helmy Eltoukhy& AmirAli Talasaz

Conquering Cancer with Data

The battle against cancer has been fought for years, and healthcare leaders have continuously tried to come up with new and reliable solutions.

Innovative technologies are constantly being developed and improved upon to find feasible ways to detect and treat cancer, including at its earliest stage. Two pioneers in the fight against cancer are Co-Founders and Co-Chief Executive Officers of Guardant Health, Helmy Eltoukhy and AmirAli Talasaz.

Helmy and AmirAli are both serial entrepreneurs in the biotech field and have known each other for about two

decades, even working in the same lab in their graduate school at Stanford. They shared the belief that applying ultra-high-scale DNA sequencing to the clinical markets could fundamentally improve the trajectory of patients’ healthcare journeys. They co-founded Guardant Health in 2012.

The dynamic duo of Helmy and AmirAli believes that the key to conquering cancer is to expand efforts to detect the cancers most likely to be cured through early intervention and access to their molecular information throughout all stages of the disease.

Helmy Eltoukhy Ph.D, Co-Chief Execuve Officer Guardant Health

AmirAli Talasaz Ph.D, Co-Chief Execuve Officer Guardant Health

The Inception Overview

Cancer being a disease of the genome made it an area where DNA sequencing could make a significant impact if cancer could be found early enough and tracked in real-time through a simple blood-test. This idea became Guardant ÒHealth, and its first product, Guardant360, was launched in 2014. One challenge Helmy and AmirAli have had to overcome is making this new technology, liquid biopsy, accepted in the industry given that tissue biopsy had long been the standard of care. At Guardant Health, their now widely used liquid biopsy tests aim to transform cancer care management across all stages of the disease.

Their Guardant360 CDx test is the first FDA-approved comprehensive liquid biopsy for patients with advanced cancer, and now the company sets its sights on potentially bringing to market the first FDA-approved blood test for cancer screening with the potential to increase the cancer screening.

Since founding the company, Helmy and AmirAli have scaled the company to almost 1,500 employees and launched multiple commercially available products across the cancer care continuum.

The Mission and Vision

Helmy states that the mission of Guardant Health is to conquer cancer with data. Since day one, their vision has been to develop a simple blood test that screens for cancer at its earliest and most treatable stage. To get there, the company has taken a beachhead strategy starting first where the greatest unmet medical need exists – advanced cancer –

“and where the DNA shed from a tumor into the blood is easier to detect.

Helmy says, "Our company's blood tests for cancer profiling and monitoring are easier, faster, and less invasive than traditional tissue biopsy-based approaches. Our tests enable physicians to stay one step ahead of a patient's cancer at all stages of the disease and help identify the latest breakthrough treatments, which are increasingly targeted to the molecular makeup of the tumor and much better tolerated than traditional ‘one size fits all’ chemotherapy.”

AmirAli expresses that they are closer than ever to achieving the goal of providing a simple blood test that screens for cancer at the very earliest stage, among averagerisk, asymptomatic people.

"We are excited with our progress in our historic ECLIPSE trial with over 10,000 participants, which is evaluating the performance of our blood test to detect the earliest signs of colorectal cancer, and if successful, will support our submission to the FDA. The promise of blood-based cancer screening is quickly becoming a reality, and we see a brighter future for humanity by improving population health and reducing the harms of cancer," says AmirAli.

A Soaring Impact on Biotechnology

From a technology application standpoint, the company's significant impact was unlocking the data generated from next-generation sequencing with minimal loss, that is, identifying just a few molecules of mutated tumor DNA from an entire tube of blood or what is known as “a needle

“

Cancer does not sleep, and neither will we until we’ve accomplished our mission of conquering cancer with data.

– Helmy Eltoukhy

in a haystack” problem. Using the collective expertise of Helmy and AmirAli, they solved two challenges to liquid biopsy that were previously unsolved – sensitivity and specificity.

With sensitivity, many technologies for sequencing in the market were losing 95% of DNA before getting to the sequencer. Guardant Health developed new chemistry that successfully converted nearly 90% of the DNA in a tube of blood, i.e., “the haystack”, to search for potentially a single mutated tumor NDA, i.e., “a needle”.

The other problem was that sequencing technologies had a high error rate of 1 in 100, masking with deep signals and noise. The company's technology lowered the error rate by a thousand-fold. So now, it sees a 1 in 3 million error rate instead of 1 in 100, or in 1000, like other technologies.

Guardant Health continues to update its technology and believes it is the highest performance technology on the market today.

The Significance of Technology

The science of liquid biopsy has been around since the 1950s. Advancements in the last decade have been the tipping point. There's been a confluence of different genomic technologies, extraction methodologies, and highpowered bioinformatic tools. The affordability of applying next-generation sequencing to routine testing has enabled Guardant Health to get much more sensitive and specific in seeing the trace fragments of either DNA or proteins contained within a tube of blood.

Until the company launched Guardant360 in 2014, off-theshelf DNA sequencing technologies were not only

unaffordable but not sensitive enough to see these trace fragments in blood. Now their FDA-approved Guardant360 CDx provides doctors and their patients guideline-complete genomic results with a turnaround time of seven days.

Setting Goals for the Long Run

Guardant Health focuses on what will have the greatest impact on the most patients. AmirAli mentions that too many families are losing loved ones every day to cancer, a disease that remains the second leading cause of death. AmirAli says, “At Guardant Health, our calling is to guard the quality of human life from a debilitating disease and offer patients more time. There are a lot of opportunities to offer value to cancer patients, particularly around increasing cancer screening rates across cancer types and populations by bringing to market a simple blood test for screening that is FDA approved and widely adopted. Even with our test for complete genomic testing in patients with advanced cancer, which informs potentially life-changing treatment, these testing rates remain tragically low. We cannot consider innovation alone success; we must continue to increase adoption of the innovation to truly make an impact on human health.”

Guardant Health’s informatics platform is a machine learning platform, so the more data it gets, the better. “As we continue to test more and more patients with cancer, at all stages, we continue to exponentially increase our knowledge about the disease. This not only fuels profound innovations in the detection and monitoring of cancer, but in treatments that may one day fight the disease before it is even born. Cancer does not sleep, and neither will we until we’ve accomplished our mission of conquering cancer with data,” concludes Helmy.

We cannot consider innovation alone success; we must continue to increase adoption of the innovation to truly make an impact on human health.

– AmirAli Talasaz

Javier García

Developing Strategies for Life-Saving Therapeutics

For over the past three decades, gene therapy has consistently tried to improve its method to cure diseases by developing several mechanisms. Industry experts have researched meticulously to allow doctors to treat a disorder by replacing genes. Javier García, the CEO and Co-founder of Viralgen Vector Core, has incorporated new technologies for medical treatments that improve the health and lives of people.

In recent years, Javier García has led the strategy and implementation of several projects that have marked the forefront of the global biotechnology sector. He has become a global reference as a manufacturer of AAVs for gene therapy. This prompted its acquisition by Bayer in 2020 as part of the AskBio acquisition, for $4 billion.

He is also the co-founder of Columbus Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focused on driving the most disruptive early science and its translation into the market. After the success of Viralgen and other projects in the first two funds, he has just launched a third one with 120 million euros.

Social responsibility is a key aspect of his activity. He is the co-founder of Columbus Children's Foundation that started in Spain in 2017 and expanded into the US in 2018. The Foundation is specifically aimed at accelerating treatments for children with ultra-rare diseases.

We at Insights Success caught up with Javier García to know more about his journey and how Viralgen is meeting the unmet needs for manufacturing gene therapies.

Below are the highlights of the interview:

Brief our audience about your journey as a business leader until your current position at Viralgen. What challenges have you had to overcome to reach where you are today?

My main professional motivation has always been the creation of value and transformation in the healthcare

industry. To devise and develop new projects that have a real impact on people's lives and wellbeing has been a constant. I started my first entrepreneurial experience in 1986.

I end up working for Eli Lilly for 25 years. I developed my career in Information Technology and later in Business Development. In IT, I lead the digital transformation of the company in the R&D and commercial areas. As Vice President of Business Development, I was involved at the core of innovation acquisition and licensing.

In 2012, I became an independent consultant for biotech companies and research centers. It was in those years that I met my partner, Damià Tormo, with whom we decided to create Columbus Venture Partners in 2015. We have now three funds and more than $250M under management.

The main challenge I faced was to ensure that I really could have the freedom to create a vision and execute it outside a pharma company. Pharma companies are great places to work and learn but leaving a pharma company from an executive position and finding a meaningful place to make a difference is not so simple. It requires discipline, a very definitive commitment to learn and adapt to the world without the protection of a large corporation.

Tell us something more about your company and its mission and vision.

Viralgen was born in response to one of the most pressing needs of the gene therapy market. There was a manufacturing bottleneck that Viralgen helped to address with unique technology, a world-class team, and extra production capacity.

Viralgen's goal is to provide access to AAV gene therapy solutions for people with genetic diseases. To achieve this, its mission is to accompany its customers throughout the entire process, from development to commercial

Boost science for a better life.

manufacturing, so that they get the best quality product at the right time and on the right scale and price.

Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in the BioTech niche through your expertise in the market.

I believe that the key is to make a correct reading of what is happening in the market, understand where it is heading, anticipate events by assuming the risks that this implies. There is great science in institutions, but there is not so much knowledge in how to bring it to the market. Ensuring people have access to this knowledge and to those who have the experience is the key to success.

In a nutshell, I believe the role I play is to bring traditional capital and intellectual capital to produce real and tangible innovation. Today capital and knowledge need to be brought together in ways never seen before. Smaller organizations can leverage this new model better than the larger ones and produce even greater results.

Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives your organization.

It is precisely Viralgen's corporate culture that enabled us to attract highly qualified talent, suppliers, and customers. Our culture is based on four core values: expertise, empathy, humanity, and trust. Patients are at the center of our decisions. That is the reason that quality is at the top of our expectations.

This is manifested in the human approach of the organization, and how we work with the Columbus Children's Foundation to advance gene therapy programs with no commercial interest through our contribution in manufacturing.

We are the custodian of a potent technology that can transform the lives of many people, and people that work at Viralgen honor that commitment.

The commitment and pride of belonging that drive the corporate culture is synthesized by this idea - inspired by Dr. Jude Samulski (one of the fathers of gene therapy, and founder of Askbio): "people at Viralgen don't only come to work, but they come to change the world".

Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run, and what are your future goals for Viralgen?

I will be developing innovative projects that drive a relevant benefit for the wellbeing of people. I feel that this is my vocation, my passion, and my place in the world. Combining for-profit with non-for-profit makes lots of sense, and I believe it is the new model for the pharma industry and biotech.

I also believe we have to transform the world by giving global access to cures. It is almost as wrapping non-forprofit biotech as part of what we do. This is why we value so much the work we are doing with the Columbus Children´s Foundation. It is a reality that if we don´t do anything about neglected diseases and global access nobody will as we are the ones who understand the technology and what we can do with it.

What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the BioTech sector?

There are four areas that entrepreneurs need to develop: a vision to establish a differential position on what they want to achieve, leadership to ensure they know how to drive

toward the vision and face the challenges, courage to overcome the barriers and deal with setbacks, and compassion to be able to understand patient suffering and urgency.

Anybody in this sector needs to be ready to get feedback, network, and listen to perspectives from different angles. Science is not everything; it is necessary but not sufficient. I see many great projects failing because the leader didn't take the right actions at the right time.

The final advice is that failure is not a negative thing. I know that myself firsthand, and we need to take a different attitude about that. Attrition of projects in biotech is high, and failure is expected, but there will always be a great project waiting, and the accumulated learning from failures is very valuable.

Positive

Leading with Right Skills

Strong leadership is essential in every field to accomplish something worthy for the welfare of human society and higher purposes. Ensuring the good health of people is the most important aspect of any civilized society. Good healthcare should be the first priority above all because no one will be able to contribute their best to the world without good health. To ensure good health in all people, there is a need for a strong healthcare system under the able guidance of good healthcare leaders.

Institution or any industry or field is only as strong as the leaders in that field. The Healthcare sector comes under the essential services, and the importance of strong leadership in this sector is huge, as this field directly deals with the most important aspect of health in the lives of everyone, and there is no room for any complacency and negligence. Below are some of the necessary skills every healthcare leader should have:

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Emotional Intelligence: Healthcare leaders should be emotionally intelligent to make a positive difference in the lives of people. They should connect with people by understanding their issues and trying to resolve them by using all their assets. They should lead by balancing compassion and efficiency. Compassion for the public and efficiency in the profession is the hallmark of good healthcare leaders.

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articles. They can make a conscious change in the lives of people by educating them on the habits and behaviors that are more favorable for good health.

Innovative Approach: Healthcare leaders should have an innovative approach. They should be courageous enough to break the status quo and implement innovative ideas in their organization to improve healthcare services. They should step outside their comfort zones and should be open to new processes and implementing new technologies for the better delivery of healthcare services.

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Good Decision-making ability: Healthcare leaders should have good decision-making ability. They should have enough situational intelligence and presence of mind to take high-value decisions even at the spur of the moment. They should take logical, thoughtful, analytical, and calculative decisions.

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Being Judicious: Complacency in any profession is dangerous, and they should promote the approach of not being complacent but being judicious in the profession.

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Having Character and Competence: Healthcare leaders should have good character and the right intentions to be able to make a positive contribution to the lives of many people. They should lead with a touch of human sensitivity and a welfare approach. They should be competent to deliver greater results.

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Good communication skills: Healthcare leaders have to come across a lot of people, and they should have the ability to effectively communicate their ideas and thoughts to everyone.

Above are some of the necessary skills for being a sound healthcare leader and making a valuable contribution to people's lives.

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Educating Others: Healthcare leaders should educate people by spreading awareness about important factors that play a significant role in maintaining good health. They can do this through the medium of blogs or

In a nutshell, we can say that healthcare leaders should talk empathetically, demonstrate credibility and accountability by setting exemplary standards, and contribute to quality, affordable, and accessible care.

Nicole Martin CEO & Founder HRBoost, LLC

Nicole Martin

Taking the Team Forward with Dedicated Efforts

o you know a leader who manages an HR

D department that delivers a great return on investments to generate award-winning and highperformance talent strategies to scale a high-growth business? The answer is Nicole Martin, the CEO, and Founder of HRBoost, a company specializing in building HR from scratch and implementing practices that add value. Nicole is helping companies contain costs, minimize employer-related risk, and relieve the administrative burden of HR while creating results that rival big competition.

Adding Purpose to the Journey

Nicole Martin loves what she does, and she does it remarkably well. "I'm the accidental entrepreneur," said Nicole, "I looked back after starting my own business and said, 'I started a business. Whoa!'" Nicole didn't set out to create HRBoost, LLC. She followed her passion for helping clients understand the importance human resources can play in developing a strong business. Today, Nicole is a successful entrepreneur and an HR industry innovator who is dedicated to helping small to midsize businesses realize their potential through their employees.

A self-professed "country girl in disguise," Nicole Martin grew up in Montana, where, she says, "Everyone knows you and greets you on the street." She was also lucky to have a great mentor early in life: her mom. "My mother is highly spiritual, and she raised me with the philosophy of being

happy," said Nicole. "She always believed that you are a special person—she ingrained that in me—and you are capable of anything."

At 18, Nicole was ready to start proving her mom right. She left Montana and moved in with her godmother in Libertyville, Illinois. Right out of high school, Nicole got a job as a receptionist at a pre-Y2K firm, where she found her passion quite by accident. "They were hiring all these computer experts from overseas, but when they arrived, the company just put them in the reception area because they didn't know what to do with them," she recalled. "It was just inhumane."

Nicole was working on a training program for a college human resources class during the same time. "I wanted to help these guys out in the hallway, so I just marched into the director's office and asked him if he wanted to see the training program I created for school." When she finished her presentation, the director created a human resources department for the site, hired a manager, and moved her from reception to human resources.

Nicole has been building HR departments from the ground up ever since. She says that her approach is unique because she begins with the business' vision and creates HR programs that are completely integrated with that vision. From the hiring process to annual reviews, Nicole's programs are designed to further the business, boost productivity, and help employees understand why and how their contributions are meaningful.

Investing in PEOPLE

The CEO's job is to need a human capital and financial capital to scale, grow, and invest in talent. Nicole took a calculated risk to invest in talent and her bench strength. She put down a process, hired capable talent, and disappeared to let them work, the process proved through; and now, and she believes she can do it again, and again, and again. She focuses on trusting the people and trusting the process. When it is time to take a calculated risk, she invests and works towards maximizing the impact.

She shares, "Success is relative. Many people would read my resume or some printed article about me, but the real success comes in the joy of doing what you love every day. It is amazing, however, when you turn around and see many others who work for you and source Joy and Purpose

through our shared work and creation. Work and life should be integrated, not compartmentalized. I love that there is no real dividing line between work and play for me."

Nicole is positive about her investment in women. The fact that less than 2% of the money invested in the United States in women-owned businesses is disturbing for her. The bottom line, women remain an opportunity and can develop teams that foster collaboration. She works on creating a healthy work culture. Creating a culture conversation that takes rigor where a two-way exchange is fostered and upheld. Boost is considered the Best & Brightest Company to Work for in Chicago before the pandemic. Regardless, any organization committed to excellence knows culture can change with every promotion, hire, or termination. Put separation and a pandemic in the mix, and more conversations were needed. She explains, have a common language for how leadership lives across the organization, morale can suffer. We implemented pulse Covid Surveys in addition to our standard culture surveys and metrics. Anonymous pulse is important, but we also began more company check-ins across peer levels. We have kept Monday Motivation, Happy Hours, and Wellness Wednesdays with the long term in mind as we feel we created a deeper connection during these tough times. We also had Chaplains in the workplace before Covid-19." Nicole has created an environment that is psychologically safe for anyone to discuss anything and come up with compatible solutions.

Building Effective Teams

HRBoost offers small and midsize businesses HR services on an ala carte, project or retainer basis. The team meets its clients wherever they are on their journey to be an employer of choice and also at their pace and budget. The company's Shared Services approach allows it to build HR departments from scratch and align them to business strategy. While the team sees great value in the middle market, it does have some larger companies that augment their internal HR teams with strategic project initiatives from the team. The team focuses on building a high-performance culture that drives innovation and profitability and requires leaders at all

brings you joy before investing time, energy, and dedicating diligent. Anything you love will be worth it."

She feels honored to lead her high-performing team to garner success personally and professionally. She values each team member for their contribution and feels happy when they express their gratitude for making their lives better.

She shares, "We have always trended with growth year after year; however, amidst the pandemic, we were hard hit like many. Thankfully, we have successfully returned to pre Covid-19 revenue levels, and this is something we are pleased with, given the level of uncertainty in the market. We have revealed some new innovative ways to reach our clients, and as talent shifts occur, we are ready to help the businesses that seek to retain talent. Ironically, the biggest threat to the marketplace is talent, even now. Only the truly forward-thinking companies will make winning moves even in the downturn of the economy.”