The 10 Most Inspiring Tech Leaders to Watch, 2022

Wayne Zwiers,

A Combination of Technology and Great Product Delivery

Editor’s Desk

Raunak Mhetre Raun ak

e are surrounded by technology. In the world

W we dwell in, we are constantly flocked by software and products with tech as their base ingredient. The work that goes behind putting out a product that feels smooth and simple for the average user is huge to fathom. Engineers and Computer Architects work around the clock putting their ideas and technical knowledge into a piece of technology to solve the real-world better than anyone else. They strive to create experiences that make our daily lives easier. While this picture forms the background, there is a focal point to this story.

When the finest engineers around the world are at their absolute best, putting out cutting-edge technologies, weekin and week-out, there has to be a leader who knows to bridge the process and people, which forms a formidable duo. A technological leader or tech leader is a developer and commercializer fit into a single role that brings out the best results keeping in mind the technical as well as relatable aspects. A leader in this position secures the existence of a successful ecosystem driven by technology in addition to producing products.

Looking into the process of generating tech products, engineers form the core of each department. They build from scratch, creating extraordinary products that we use every day. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, the greatest companies in the world, are based upon the principle of delivering value to consumers in an easy and affordable way. For technicians, the joy of creating problem-solving tech is what drives them to innovate and re-innovate every day.

A wise leader lets the product creators use their imagination to fuel the machine of creativity to produce fine products that appeal to the users. When there is a free hand to deliver great products, great ideas flourish.

A leader is the one who fuses the creative talent to the right process- a setting for a blockbuster tech product.

Moving on to the second process of managing the cycle that goes on before and after the creation of new technologies, leaders have to keep in mind some aspects. A great leader knows the market conditions well, has a good hold of his knowledge, and knows the exact product-market fit.

When these conditions are explained to their teams, there is no reason why fine tech will not be created. Great companies know how to impress their new users as well as their loyal customer base with their new products and services. To maintain the standards set yet produce something that is out of the box every time is something a leader does effortlessly. In the era-of technological innovation, tech leaders are playing a major part in shaping the future of the industry.

While we were searching for the best tech leaders who form the elite class in the technological industry, we zoomed into ten such pioneers who are making it big. The Insights Success edition of “The 10 Most Inspiring Tech Leaders to Watch 2022 ” has these leaders who are the forward trendsetters.

Do flip in for an enriching read accompanied by some articles written by our in-house editorial team and CXOs crafted by the leading industry experts.

Enjoy the read!

Cover Story

The 10 Most Inspiring Tech Leaders to Watch, 2022

Featured Person

Aimée Madden, Head of CSP segment

Anil Kumar, Founder, Chairman and CTO

Benjamin Buchanan, CEO

Brigitte Falk, CIO and COO

BriefCompany Name

Movoco AG mavoco.com

Cavisson Systems Inc. cavisson.com

SBT

( Smarter Building Technologies) Alliance sbt-alliance.com

Forcam forcam.com

Secret Double OctopusDr. Shitmrit Tzur- David

Pam Bateson, CEO

Paul Ford, CEO

Thrive Partners thrivepartners.co.uk

MAVOCO is a software specialist for telco BSS with the most advanced IoT Connectivity Management Platform (CMP) for cellular networks.

Cavisson is a leading full-stack software provider of application performance testing, monitoring and diagnostics technology.

SBT Alliance partners with small, medium, and Fortune 500 customers to design, deploy, and support IoT-enabled solutions, systems, devices and technologies.

FORCAM supports companies with innovative digitalization solutions to successfully master the digital transformation towards the Smart Factory and to solve three key challenges of today and tomorrow.

Secret Double Octopus made its mission to break the traditional paradigm of cybersecurity that bonds better security with higher friction and costs.

Thrive Partners on-demand digital coaching, learning, and mentoring platform

Acin helps firms objectively manage the risk control landscape, based on a network of the peers and serves as the foundation for more objective decision-making. Acin Acin.com

Rocelo Lopes, CEO and Founder

Victoria Pelletier, Vice President and Senior Partner, North American Talent and Transformational Leader

Wayne Zwiers, CEO and Founder

Stratum Blockchain Group stratum.bt

IBM www.ibm.com

Basalt basalt.co

Stratum emerged in 2017 from the need of growing and internationalization of CoinBR, a company active in cryptoeconomics since 2013 and which sought foreign investments to expand its business and reach new markets.

For more than a century IBM has been dedicated to every client's success and to creating innovations that matter for the world.

Basalt is a global Fintech studio focusing on designing and developing digital banking and insurance solutions for the future.

he only way to discover your limits is to go beyond

Tthem. “Limits are created by society. People who surpass these limits have the potential to move beyond the possible to achieve the impossible, but it requires leaning into discomfort.” Throughout his career in digital marketing and technology services, Wayne Zwiers, CEO & Founder of Basalt Technology, realised the gap for a bespoke software company that could provide quality code on time and on budget. With 85% of all digital transformation projects failing (as Forbes recently reported), there was a huge gap for highly-skilled engineers that deliver projects that succeed.

Zwiers saw the gap in the market and decided to start his own technology consultancy. And today, Basalt Technology is an award-winning software development consultancy that brings the best engineering talent together to disrupt the Financial Services Industry, offering a comprehensive suite of custom software development services, ranging from rapid MVP development to custom re-engineering, testing, and UX design.

With over 12 years of experience in the technology space, Wayne's long-term vision for Basalt is to bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots through technology –solving challenges not only within the financial space but also within the housing, water, sanitation, and education sectors, to name a few.

Start of the Dream

Wayne originally started off in the creative field, specialising in fine art, until he moved to the UK. Once there, he took on a client service and business development role in a digital marketing agency. And just like that, he was hooked. He loved being involved in the end-to-end development of each website, application, or solution he worked on.

Moving up and into an MD role in various digital marketing agencies in South Africa and the UK, his fascination with the development side of projects intensified. But he became aware of inefficiencies in the IT consulting space with unnecessary processes and blockers that slowed down projects and caused delays. Wayne wanted to build utilities that truly answered real-world problems for people and that would change people's lives and behaviour, so he decided to start his own disruptive technology company. “There was a massive opportunity to revolutionise the financial services industry through technology, but the IT consultancy models

out there were complicated, large, and badly structured to deliver. By aligning skilled, small autonomous teams around a central user goal, we were able to embed ourselves in our clients' businesses and deliver software that answered to the end-user needs as well as delivered commercial success for the client,” says Zwiers.

Leaning Into Discomfort

Zwiers recognises that the road to success is often not smooth. “Things don't happen overnight, and the entrepreneur journey certainly has its ups and downs, but I am lucky to have found a great team and some loyal clients that have supported me along my journey,” says Zwiers. This solutions-oriented mindset has served him well in life and in business and has been the driving force behind his success. He says that finding like-minded people with a shared purpose is the true challenge. Finding the right clients and team members and scaling a business effectively (whilst maintaining a strong culture) requires constant effort. Luckily, Wayne is surrounded by advisers and highly skilled people that give straight and direct feedback and are invested in growing the business and its people.

Defeating Old Ways with Tech

A guiding principle at Basalt is to identify timeconsuming/onerous tasks and then remove human dependency through automation. The net result is improved efficiency. Basalt hires highly skilled engineers who find opportunities to improve how people work and build solutions to meet these needs. This ensures that Basalt builds intentional technology for the greater good, rather than building projects with minimal ROI or impact. Surprisingly, about 70% of digital transformation projects fail to deliver on business success due to inadequate planning, resourcing, and processes. Basalt focuses on the 30% of projects that succeed, with a proven process for delivery, on time, every time.

Ideology of Basalt

The Financial Services industry is still contending with legacy systems, red tape, regulations, and compliance - at the expense of innovation. Creating software is complex, and people often get it wrong. Due to unknowns, blockers, inexperience, and bad decisions, projects go way over budget and deadlines. There are a lot of software development companies out there, but where projects fail, it's mainly due to a lack of communication and

misalignment. Basalt hires highly specialised small teams that work autonomously to help their client deliver and remove blockers in the way.

Culture is What Really Matters

“Culture is like a shadow; it is dynamic and changes with time,” says Zwiers. Since Covid, businesses were forced to go fully remote, and Basalt was no exception. Thankfully, the company quickly shifted the business online with no downtime. However, the company faced challenges in creating a culture remotely. It is constantly working to ensure its team members are working seamlessly, taking mental breaks, and not becoming overloaded.

Learnings and Wise Words

In Wayne's words, “Leadership is less about what you do at

work and more about what you do when you are not at work. It requires constant investment in yourself to ensure you create an environment where people can thrive, develop and grow. No textbook can teach someone to build and run a successful startup. It's a lot of internal strength and resilience to know how and when to pivot.

Building a successful company is not done by one person but by a collective of many great and talented individuals, working together in synchronicity to deliver on a shared vision. Business leaders of the future need to have a great Vision and make sure that all stakeholders buy into that vision.”

Bound to Changes

The technology landscape is constantly evolving. “We see many trends with RegTech becoming critically important, in terms of compliance and legalities around usage of personal data and security. As we evolve into AI, machine learning, open banking, and blockchain, we need to ensure innovative technologies meet compliance regulations, and it's a constant balancing act,” says Zwiers. Basalt is currently building a Procure Tech solution to align institutions and suppliers through streamlined work processes regarding RFP and RFQ workflows, which involves a thorough understanding of all privacy legalities to automate the process for clients.

Another key change in the IT consultancy sector will be hiring and retention. There has always been a shortage of high-skilled talent around the globe, and the next innovations will be around effective talent sourcing and retention. Wayne and his team are seeing a multi-sourcing approach to ensure the best engineers are allocated to the projects, where collaborative projects with tech companies, banks, and consultants are becoming the norm.

Earned Respect in Society

Basalt has partnered with top banks and insurance companies in South Africa to build some of the most innovative solutions on the market, having been awarded accolades as African Tech company of the Year in 2020 and Top Tech CEO of the year in 2021. But ,Wayne and his team prefer to measure their success by the impactful technology they have built. Recently, Basalt worked on a project with one of the largest banks in South Africa that changed how small 'unbanked' business owners could make and track payments - all from their mobile phones, allowing them to save admin time and unnecessary costs and truly

streamline their businesses. The Basalt team members fully immerse themselves into the client's world, from understanding the core systems that the platform had to integrate with, to making educated decisions on the best possible way forward with respect to those integration patterns.

The organisation is also actively involved in NGO work. Its recent project with Book Village, an NGO focused on childhood education, is revolutionising how children learn through online content and democratising education. The online application assists learners with their reading challenges and difficulties by allowing students to access a large amount of digital content with the assistance of an online tutor. Basalt built a functional MVP for Book Village to take to market and get investors. The focus was to select a number of key features to be able to get a workable version out in a short period of time. Basalt is currently building out the application further, as Book Village successfully landed their investment.

As Zwiers says, “Technology can fundamentally change people's lives for the better - and we are privileged to get to work on a variety of projects from grassroots to big investment and wealth management portals that significantly impact the end consumer.”

What's in Store!

Taking the South African Talent learnings and successes, the company is scaling its business to the rest of the world and expanding further into the UK and Europe. EMEA is a mature Fintech market and benefits from the same time zone and language (native English) as South Africa, not to mention the exchange rates creates a cost-effective arbitrage model for European clients.

The 10 Most Inspiring Tech Leaders to Watch, 2022

Adela Mehic-Dzanic

Playing the Infinite Game

t is a characteristic of leader that he or she is motivated

I by the spirit of contribution to the society by using technological advancements. This is what makes him or her an influential leader. Giving back and serving the community are essential traits of an influential leader. Such a leader wants to be part of something great and make the world a better place. Adela Mehic-Dzanic genuinely believes in giving back and serving the community. Apart from making the impact within the industry, Adela, the Head of CSP segment at MAVOCO AG works making sure each customer of MAVOCO AG loves company’s software. She is actively involved within two communities, WU Executive Academy Female Leaders Network as well the Businesswomen of BiH (as the Vice President), with the mission to empower, connect and share among themselves; under the motto “Together we are stronger.”

Apart from that, Adela has started her mission “1000 Women” to share her career story and inspire more women to pursue the career in the Tech industry and to follow their dreams. As we all know it, the role models, and stories we share to lift one another are crucial and that is why Adela is committed to working with the future leaders, be it through her mission or serving as a mentor in the various communities, such as the BOSNIA and Herzegovina Futures Foundations as well the WomenTech Network.

Passionate About Technology

Adela’s journey started back in 2015 when she joined the Tele2 M2M /IoT Global Unit as a Solution Consultant responsible for the CEE (Central Eastern Europe) market. This took her career to a whole new level and enabled her to work with customers and partners looking to launch global IoT solutions for the very first time. As for someone who is passionate about people and technology and committed to making the world a better place, IoT is the place to be. Her recent move to the software company MAVOCO AG was a strategic move to go even deeper into the world of Data and IoT platforms and influencing the Telecom industry while deploying the connectivity management platform of the new generation.

Huge Market Presence

Adela says that MAVOCO AG’s core market includes world largest telecom operators that are using the company’s connectivity management platform & subscription billing software to manage, analyze and bill their subscribers. However, the very same platform and its capabilities are perfectly suited to be deployed for the needs of the global MVNOs as well the large Enterprises (such as the Automotive industry sector) who have the volume and resources to manage their own connectivity deployment. At the end of the day, it is a matter of configuration. MAVOCO AG is currently working with the customers and partners that bought the private 5G license and they as well have the needs of managing their connectivity and their customer base.

Appreciating Culture of Experimentation

Adela believes that passion, vision, perseverance, and generosity are the essential traits every leader should possess. She is currently reading this book from Simon Sinek “The Infinite Game” and she highly recommends it to every business leader. Adela believes that the culture of failure and experimentation and playing the infinite game is beneficial. She asks to experiment, be open to new ideas, collaborate with the startups and be ready to try it all over again as well to pivot. It is a greenfield and the rules are yet to be written. She suggests looking beyond one industry and to be curious about the other industries and their approaches to tackling the challenges.

Empowering Employees

There are endless ways to create new sets of data and start or apply a new model. The data can be re-created, as it is not a limited resource.

Adela considers it is important to empower one’s employees, set high priorities on diversity and inclusion, and make sure that the product reflects one’s customers. Unfortunately, we still read about too many examples where women are completely left out and women are the half of population. Adela thinks that women must be at the

table discussing the products and services meant to make their lives better.

From Adela’s experience, a healthy company culture with strong values and a vision is way more than just profit and a short-term game. Of course, with the opportunities to grow, leaders do take time for their employees and create a culture where they feel appreciated and safe to raise their voices and have their opinions heard. It is not about the ping-pong table, free coffee, and goodies. Quite the opposite.

Being Updated with Latest Technologies

Adela keeps herself updated with the latest technologies using books, workshops, trainings, podcasts, magazines, LinkedIn community and respective feeds as well as various groups and communities focused on the specifics, such as IoT, AI and Data science etc. She tends to mix it up and use the best of all the options available out there.

Gratitude to Colleagues, Mentors, and Managers

Throughout her career, Adela has been the only woman and the youngest team member, as well woman in tech and working in the multicultural environment. It was not once that she would get a reply to her email as “Mr.” and during the customer meetings that they would ask her male colleague to answer the technical question, even though he was in sales. On the other hand, it was a major advantage, and she feels grateful for the colleagues, mentors and

managers who believed in her from the day one and cultivated the culture of talents, hard work and supportive environment.

Valuing Culture, People and Values

If there is one advice Adela would like to give to her younger self is to choose wisely your boss and the company, you are joining. Back in 2014 when she moved to Austria from her home country Bosnia and Herzegovina, and when deciding the company to join, her priority was the culture, people, and the values. Once she felt aligned with those values, she did not think for a second and used every single opportunity along the way, to grow, learn and connect. Then it is true what they say, nothing is impossible.

“Think bigger than you can imagine, keep your eyes open and push through against all odds. Then the opportunities will come!”

Leaders

Engineering is in our DNA.

“

Most Inspiring Tech Leaders

Benjamin Buchanan

The Best IoT Professional

Over the years, many technological innovations quickly rose to prominence but ended up falling off just as fast. What happens to those systems beyond? Odds are those systems no longer work, leaving those businesses up a creek without a paddle! That’s why Benjamin Buchanan, Chief Executive Officer sets out to create something better, something smarter at SBT (Smarter Building Technologies) Alliance.

An interview conducted between Benjamin Buchanan and Insights Success identifies his leadership development by fully embracing innovative thinking and building an all-star team to help drive the SBT mission forward. Below are the highlights of the interview:

Kindly take us through your journey to becoming a proficient tech business leader.

From my humble beginnings in this industry as a project designer, I saw the importance of working hard to bring the customer more than what they expected and making their project truly valuable. There are plenty of examples of projects built with cheap products, and I knew the customer had left so much on the table. So I made it my purpose to educate myself on all the technology available to marry them with the customer’s needs perfectly. This technologyfirst approach guided me from lighting into the world of wireless IoT systems and now is a cornerstone to SBT’s mission, bringing true value through technology to our customers and suppliers alike.

What business roadblocks or challenges have you faced? And how did you overcome them?

As with any business, leadership position, or professional role within an organization, roadblocks and challenges are abound – there’s simply no way around it. You’re going to hit roadblocks and confront challenges – be it cash flow, funding, sales, employee relations, productivity, etc. The question then becomes, will you persevere, or will you let them defeat you and knock you down? Perseverance and persistence is the path to success, in my opinion.

It is only through perseverance and persistence that I’ve overcome business (and personal) roadblocks and challenges.

How do you diversify your organization’s offerings to entice the target audience?

SBT is committed to a business model that is product and technology agnostic. This approach allows our product and IoT solutions teams to engineer solutions for clients that answer specific data-related questions about their facilities while also solving critical business challenges. A one-sizefits-all approach simply doesn’t work in the sphere of IoT and technology-led solutions. It sounds nice, but proper IoT solutions are an amalgamation of many technologies, devices systems, and solutions that, when pulled together, create the enticing solution offering that meets our target audiences’ needs. That’s why we stand out with our clients; we don’t try to sell them something they don’t need. We partner with them to solve business and operational challenges and design a mix of solutions to achieve that goal.

What culture change do you suggest for companies that want to embrace the full power of AI?

The full power of AI, machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT), more broadly, honestly depends on each customer’s needs. In B2B – which is the sphere that SBT operates – it isn’t necessarily a question of culture change, rather a better understanding and realization of what’s possible when using the advanced technologies of IoT to solve business challenges. It is more about education and proof points.

What are the vital traits that every business leader should possess?

Leaders in any business setting should encompass some of the following traits/approaches, as I’ve identified in my own leadership development and shared by many of my leadership mentors within the business community. I chalk these traits into five vital characteristics of successful leaders:

Benjamin Buchanan, Chief Executive Officer, SBT (Smarter Building Technologies)

1. Effective leaders need the ability to streamline and clarify the complex.

2. Passionate leaders must fully embrace new thinking –that’s what primes innovation.

3. Confident leaders must have both self-assurance and humility – they inspire, not belittle.

4. Compassionate leaders must set high standards but modesty to admit when wrong.

5. Responsible leaders need to be honest, truthful, and transparent – that’s what builds trust.

How do you keep yourself up-to-date with the latest technology?

As a technology-forward company, SBT and our team technicians and IoT thinkers keep me in the know, along with our industry partners with whom I continually meet. As I mentioned earlier, the SBT model focuses on product and technology agnosticism, so we’re continually meeting exciting new technology companies and learning how they approach IoT, AI, and machine learning. To me, there’s no better way to keep up to date than getting right in there and being hands-on with innovators as SBT does every day.

What does it take to attract and retain tech talents?

As I mentioned earlier in this conversation, it is my firm belief that if a leader takes to heart the five vital characteristics that I reviewed, they will set the stage and environment that will attract, retain, and encourage tech (and non-tech) talents. It’s about building an atmosphere

that allows folks to contribute and help SBT deliver on our mission and reach our vision to transform how IoT products, services, and technologies are delivered to the market and optimized by customers.

Where are you focusing your energy now, and where do you hope to make an impact next? Right now, we are in the whirlwind that comes with scaling a technology-focused company. I am keen to drive SBT forward to continue making the impact we are for our customers, industry partners, and the facility management space as a whole. My immediate energy is focused on continuing to build an all-star team of SBT team members who evoke our CIVIC values as a company and as individuals. These include:

ommitment

ntegrity

alue

nnovation

ommunity

“

SBT partners with small, medium, and Fortune 500s to create smart spaces that futureproof businesses.

prominent personality in the international IT

A Industry, Brigitte Falk is setting a striking instance of impactful leadership. Brigitte brings 25 years of management experience in the IT industry to the table.

Currently, she is serving as CIO and COO at a IIoT software company FORCAM, with a strong focus on the innovation environment, digitalization, and agile working methods.

Brigitte started her professional career in 1996 at SAP as Product Manager Oil and Gas. During her tenure over, she worked in corporate development, innovation management and event management. In 2004, she took over the Business Operations department as Marketing Director. Having worked for several years there was a substantial learning experience accompanied by management & leadership techniques, innovation methodologies, product management know-how, intercultural and interdisciplinary teams.

After graduating with Malik MZSG Executive Diploma, Brigitte Falk founded the Simplicity Company to support consulting firms, analysts and investment banks with strategic consulting worldwide. In 2014, she took over global responsibility for Marketing & Sales Applications at Celesio AG (today McKesson Europe). In 2017, she was appointed Division Lead Organization & Information of CRONIMET Holding GmbH.

Brigitte's interdisciplinary studies of arts, humanities, and natural sciences, complemented by an open spirit, are the

foundation of where she is today. She inculcates strategic thinking through work with venture capitalist in a startup environment, followed by taking on European ecommerce IT assignment in a challenging environment. Her achievements have been reflected over the last three years as “CIO of the year 2018” (CIO Magazine Germany), “CIO of the year 2019” (Bonhill – Women in IT Awards Europe), and “CIO of the Decade 2020 Germany” (Confare & EY).

Customer Centric Approach

FORCAM FORCE™ is the first turnkey and manufacturerindependent IT platform for the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The company's claim that it delivers results in productivity remains a solid foundation since its establishment in 2001. Almost two decades ago, FORCAM celebrated its debut and first deployment at Mercedes-Benz. The iconic automobile company has since celebrated many accolades, including the “Factory of the Year” award in 2007, 2008, and 2012. The most recent award in 2020 is the Manufacturing Leadership Partner Award by the National Association of Manufacturers.

Since then, the company has evolved into a comprehensive IIoT solution partner with a high-performance manufacturing 4.0 platform and a vital ecosystem. Today, its turnkey and freely extensible cloud platform is used by large and medium-sized companies including Lockheed Martin Audi, BMW, BorgWarner, Daimler, KUKA, Pratt & Whitney, Schaeffler, Swarovski and many more.

The 10 Most Inspiring Tech Leaders to Watch, 2022

Brigie Falk COO and CIO FORCAM

Today, more than 100,000 machines are monitored with FORCAM technology worldwide.

Having Brigitte at the helm, the company is about to launch two new IIoT product lines by introducing “Customer centricity” as guiding principle. They are based on

market gap: connecting supposedly “non-connectable” older brownfield machines to the internet (FORCAM FORCE EDGE) and leverage their data potential and

the need for fast, easy and low-cost connection of production lines of SMEs or smaller subsidiaries to the internet (FORCAM FORCE SaaS)

A Culture Change to be Adopted

According to Brigitte, to embrace full power of AI, companies must show openness towards disruptive business models and the respective digital transformation across all parts of the business. They should unlock the hidden potential of their current staff, encourage them to take on bigger tasks beyond their usual level of comfort, agile principles (inspect and adapt), and take related responsibility.

Besides, it is also important to attract and retain tech talents. She mentions that for companies, it takes a bold vision, creation of jobs for people from tech background based on their ambitions and strengths, and encompassing empowerment to attract and retain tech talents.

Thought Leadership in the IIoT Domain

Currently, Brigitte is focusing her energy to market the FORCAM solution portfolio geared towards real-time datadriven decision making on the shopfloor, grid connectivity and machine data lake offerings as foundation. Now, all her efforts are in the direction to drive vision and thought leadership in the IIoT domain.

Besides, Brigitte keeps herself updated with the latest technological trends by reading, meeting, talking with an outmost heterogeneous, interdisciplinary audience and network from all over the world. She also keeps openness for inspirations from unusual sources beyond the mainstream.

A Take on Sound Leadership

When asked about essential traits every business leader should possess, Brigitte is of the opinion that every leader should focus on empowerment. They should always put strategic thinking and innovation into practice for every decision they take and communicate a related vision with everyone. A sound leader is one who leads by example, builds on trust, integrity & transparency, and actively listens.

Dr.Shimrit Tzur-David

Providing Passwordless Authentication Solution to Enterprises

Influential business leaders are those who carry good decision-making abilities, courage, and presence of mind to lead businesses successfully. Those who are in technology sector possess the ability to recognize the smart technology that solves a real problem. They identify the market for that need, and with their shrewd business acumen they leverage the same to build a revolutionary solution that solves a real problem in the market. One such influential business leader in tech is Dr. Shimrit TzurDavid , the CSO and Co-founder of Secret Double Octopus . The Secret Double Octopus is the passwordless authentication solution for the enterprises. It liberates endusers and security teams from the burden of passwords with the simplicity and security of strong passwordless authentication.

In an interview with Insights Success, Dr. Shimrit TzurDavid shares about her journey and contribution through her leadership in Secret Double Octopus.

Below are the Highlights of the interview:

Kindly take us through your journey on becoming a proficient tech business leader. Since I was young, I had a passion for computers. My older brother studies computer science and I remember that I went through my brother’s books, began to copy code and write it on the computer, just to see what it does. Back then, it was clear to me that this is what I want to do in my life. I studied computers in high school and then I completed my BSc in Computer Science. I continued my studies to MSc and PhD right after graduated. In my MSc and PhD, my research focused on information security, so when I finished my PhD, I continued my research as a post-doc researcher, first in the Hebrew University and then in Ben Gurion University. In my research, I thought of a new approach for data-in-motion security that use the same algorithm that is used today to protect the nuclear weapon launch code in the USA. I remember the moment I told this idea to the Professor I worked with, Prof. Dolev.

I wanted to pursue an academic career and I thought it was a great idea academically, I wasn’t interested in a career in industry, but Prof Dolev immediately understood it is a great idea that can have great applications. I remember him giving me a very intense look and saying that he thinks we should go meet Vcs.

The rest is a history. Secret Double Octopus was founded in 2015 by me, and 3 other co-founders. Secret Double Octopus is the Leader in Passwordless authentication for the workforce.

We delight end users and security teams alike, by replacing passwords across the enterprise with the simplicity and security of strong passwordless authentication. From being named a Gartner “Cool Vendor” in 2016, our platform is now serving mid-sized to Fortune 50 customers around the globe and we are backed by leading global Vcs.

What roadblocks or challenges were faced by you in a corporate business? And how did you overcome them?

At first, our product was a site-to-site security solution for VPN. After a year, we felt we had a great product in our hands, but customers weren’t rushing to buy it. They all agree that we have a groundbreaking product, but the problem it solved wasn’t a high enough priority for them. We were running out of funds and needed to show some success stories for the next round, and we began thinking about pivoting. We worked on the authentication solution which is a security risk that really bothers the industry today. Once we had a working prototype that got popularity in the market, we made the full pivot, and the new product is selling very well.

How do you diversify your organization’s offerings to entice the target audience?

We offer passwordless authentication to each and every service in the organization, including web-applications, legacy applications, and workstations login, both for online

To success, you must have a smart technology that solves a real problem, a market for that need, and a good team.

“ “

and offline modes. Our product can be installed at the customer pace, per-user, or per-service. In addition, the product can be installed fully on-prem, this helps many conservative organizations install our solution without any fear regarding leaking information.

Besides the basic installation that includes our Octopus mobile application, our server is FIDO certified so any FIDO authenticator can work with our solution without the need to use the Octopus application. In addition, many of our customers already have a password-based MFA, such as Okta or RSA. In that case, instead of coming with the approach of replacing the current installation, we are integrating with the already installed MFA to provide our full coverage of secure passwordless authentication solution to all services, but the users continue to use their current way to authenticate so the transition will be transparent to rdthe users and the customer investment on the current 3 party MFA solution won’t be lost.

What, according to you, are the vital traits that every business leader should possess?

I think that the two most traits that a business leader should possess are the ability to make good diagnosis and courage. The basic 3 things that a startup should have are a smart technology, a market, and a good team.

In some cases, the technology must be replaced along the way, and to make that change after you invest as lot on the current product, a business leader must have courage. another important thing is choosing the right team to walk with you, for that, you must have a perfect diagnosis when it comes to people, otherwise, you can waste a lot of time and money.

Where are you focusing your energy now, and where do you hope to make an impact next? These days we are focusing on making strategic collaborations, those that, in one hand, can sell our product in large scales but in the other hand, will not add too much bandwidth. In my dreams, I can see every employee that comes into the office and logs in to the many services without passwords at all. Secret Double Octopus breaks the long-standing security paradigm, proving that organizations can have better security with a better user experience while reducing costs.

Bringing Information Opportunity Together &

The 10 Most Inspiring Tech Leaders to Watch, 2022

In today’s changing environmental landscape, business leaders recognize that sustainability is fundamental to remain competitive. The global pandemic is accelerating the need for digital reinvention and adoption in the organization and has become more vital than ever.

Meanwhile, Victoria Pelletier feels fortunate working for IBM - an industry leader in IT & Services with a phenomenal learning and skills platform. An interview conducted between Victoria Pelletier - Vice President of Talent & Transformation for North America and Insights Success shares her experience, feedback, and opinions to drive successful outcomes.

Kbecoming a proficient tech business leader.

indly take us through your journey on

points and then advising and co-creating with them, the solutions with technology, that enables the people and processes to deliver against the strategy and outcomes desired.

I have been a very early adopter of technology most of my life, and my career has centered around technology being a business enabler. I transitioned early in my career from being a heavy user of technology to leading technology teams as I transitioned into the world of Business Process Outsourcing leading very large teams of sales, customer service, and technical help desk operations supporting many business clients.

My success in leadership in this space, however, has not been by selling technology – it has been about solving challenges for clients; understanding their strategy and pain

How do you diversify your organization’s offerings to entice the target audience?

The most important criteria, in my opinion, is to understand WHO your target audience is – what challenges they are facing – often not a singular problem, but a multidimensional problem set. Once you understand your audience and frame their pain points, then there is an opportunity to create a differentiated solution that targets these challenges and tells a story about how your solutions will solve these challenges.

How do you keep yourself up to date with the latest technology?

I am a voracious reader and have subscriptions to many digital news and media publications and also have alerts set up for many of the favorite topics that I follow. This includes news and social posts from some of the top technology and business leaders that I follow.

What roadblocks or challenges were faced by you in a corporate business? And how did you overcome them?

I have faced many challenges in my career – one of the earliest was becoming an executive at aged 24 – just a few months after giving birth to my first child. I had to balance an extremely demanding role with long hours and significant travel with the needs of my young family. I have also faced being the only woman, or one of very few, at the executive table for a vast majority of my career and have faced discrimination, bullying, and some mudslinging, as a result.

I have also faced the types of challenges that I thrive in –organizational change and transformation. I have personally been a part of 18 mergers or acquisitions and often sat at the heart of the integration and transition – something I deeply love as the challenge of building something new and different is extremely motivating to me. I have overcome significant adversity in my life that has driven me to a philosophy whereby I believe that I am unstoppable, always finding solutions for the challenges I face. I live a life of #NoExcuses - I use this hashtag liberally, signing my social media posts with it, and even had a custom phone case made with this motto on it!

What culture change you suggest for companies that want to embrace the full power of AI?

I believe that there are a number of key elements to creating a culture and environment that will be successful in both adopting and adapting to AI in the workplace. Importantly, it’s about creating a place that fosters a growth-mind set with continuous learning and feedback – of creating a vision and allowing the team to work in a very agile way to achieve the desired outcomes. New kinds of skills are required for this moment, especially as employees are working outside a traditional office and increasingly apply digital tools and emerging technology to how they work.

Also, critically important is creating an open, transparent and empathetic culture that promotes differing points of view, and public dissent as necessary, however, all with a

Be the type of leader who you needed when you were earlier in your career.

high degree of integrity and ethically based and data-driven decision making.

What does it take to attract and retain tech talent?

Retaining top tech talent, and quite frankly, retaining ALL talent across an organization, is about creating both a positive culture and a highly engaging environment that offers career development and advancement. For leading organizations, artificial intelligence will increasingly play an important data-driven approach to all these areas of personalized career and skills, compensation and performance management, and creating an environment of engagement and belonging.

This approach is very multi-faceted and includes strong leadership – those operating with transparency and authenticity and modelling the values aligned to the business they joined. It is also about individual development opportunities with a particular focus on skill development and/or reskilling; this is especially important in technology given the rapid acceleration of change and the shortened shelf-life of skills.

Retention is also linked to transparency in performance management and pay; that is – clarity in expectations and goals to measure performance and doing so across a multidimensional set of goals, not a singular measure and ensuring that pay is linked to performance and also tied into the demand for the skills that one brings to and develops in their role. One of the most critical areas is also around creating a place where people feel comfortable bringing their true and authentic whole selves to the workplace.

Where are you focusing your energy now, and where do you hope to make an impact next?

I have been spending my time and energy very focused on culture, talent strategy, diversity, equity and inclusion, talent and skills development, and the enabled workforce of the future. My role at IBM is leading our Americas Talent & Transformation business unit supporting clients, so not only is this a space that I am passionate about, but I get to help companies in these areas.

A very focused area, both within and outside of IBM has been my work on DE&I given the escalation in social unrest and the need for better cultures and outcomes in the workplace and in our communities. I want to have an impact and leave a legacy around my work in creating better workplace culture and environments to live and thrive in.