Leadership at Forefront
Strong Work Ethics
Breaking the Bias
Rise to Glory
Suezann Holmes VOL-05 | ISSUE-04 | 2022
ScaleXP
CEO
www.insightssuccess.com
Editor’s Desk An Engaging Present to a Dependable Future
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ompanies in the economy have shown immense growth and promise this year and show no signs of slowing down anytime. The factors leading to growth are excellent market conditions, favorable consumers, and hardworking and motive-driven employees. However, the most important factor is the contribution of leaders behind the scenes to ensure a smooth road for others to follow. Leaders are the trendsetters of the organization; the environment they set radiates through layers. One of the exponentially growing trends is the rise of women leaders, who are the reason behind the growth of many companies, and leaders in their fields. This edition of “The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022” covers ten such inspiring leaders who are pioneers in their field. I will take you through some of the main reasons they have successfully led their respective companies to greatness. The number one trait of successful women leaders is being a lifelong learner. Leadership skills do not grow overnight. Though some ideas are enough to become a leader, a good leader means being a life-long learner. No matter the education qualification one carries, women remain forever students as far as life experiences are concerned. A leader may have to face many situations or problems, and most of them are not taught at colleges or business schools. A good leader develops strength, leadership skills, and leadership techniques by gaining knowledge from the right courses and training programs. Reading leadership books for women and learning from mentors are qualities seen in great women leaders. Being a good leader means being fair and reliable in making judgments that help create a healthy working environment and work relationships. Being a leader comes with the responsibility of all employees in an organization, their ideas, conflicts, and timely resolution. Eliminating a
system with uniform rules for all which are restrictive help in positively influencing the people in the organization. Women leaders are friendly with subordinates which automatically instills discipline in the team. Resolving and negotiating conflict requires emotional intelligence, a quality synonymous with women leaders. They can balance emotional needs with practical thinking to achieve a result better for all. Women leaders maintain a rapport with all team members, which helps them see the underlining qualities each one possesses and use them to achieve a great performance. Most of the women we asked possessed a common ambition of mentoring young women to become capable leaders. Women in leadership roles are the best place to mentor young women just starting their careers. Guided by their own experiences, both good and bad, women advise their juniors to tackle the unique challenges they will face. Creating strong networks helps established leaders solve women's grievances who face problems in any field. By doing all things correctly, women are grooming the next generation of standout leaders who will take their place in the coming years. This edition sees the best women leaders with a hint of qualities that we can expect from future leaders. Enjoy reading the amazing profiles written by our inhouse editorial team, which will impart great knowledge and learning.
Raunak
Raunak Mhetre
raunak.mhetre@insightssuccess.com
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C O V E R S TO RY
Suezann Holmes A RT I C L E S
26
Visionary Leadership Accomplishing Most Worthy Goals with Cheerful Leadership
Tech Talk The Need to Embrace Tech-Transformation Approach
38
C X O The Need for Compassionate Leadership During a Global Pandemic
Leader’s Viewpoint
Delivering Accessible Marketing Solutions
16 Deirdre Mc Gettrick
30
Sabrina Khan
48
20 Katy Barfield
Driving the Ongoing Transformation in the Telecom Industry
Helping Businesses Tell Their Stories in Compelling Ways
40
Angela Earl
Offering Wide Range of Furnishings
Shifting Tides as the Food Waste Warrior
Leticia Latino
34
Paige Arnof-Fenn
An Epitome of Hardwork, Passion and Perseverance
Fighting Forward
24
44 Vanessa Mbonu
Editor-in-Chief Pooja M Bansal Managing Editor Anish Miller
Executive Editor Raunak Mhetre
Assistant Editors Jenny Fernandes
Visualizer
Art & Design Director
Associate Designer
David King
Shyam Sonawane
Sonia Raizada
Senior Sales Manager
Business Development Manager
Kshitij S
Peter Collins
Marketing Manager
Sales Executives David, Martin
John Matthew Technical Head
Business Development Executives
Jacob Smile
Steve, Joe, Saurabh
Technical Specialist Aditya
Digital Marketing Manager Marry D'Souza
SME-SMO Executive Atul Dhoran
Research Analyst Frank Adams
Circulation Manager Robert Brown
Database Management Stella Andrew
Technology Consultant David Stokes
sales@insightssuccess.com May, 2022
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Featured Person
Company Name
Brief
Angela Earl Vice President Global Marketing
RFPIO Inc rfpio.com
RFPIO brings together teams and increases win rates through in-app collaboration, advanced content governance, and more integrations than anyone.
Bianca Rangecroft Founder & CEO
Whering whering.co.uk
Your wardrobe, digitised. Whering re-empowers women with the tools to take back control of their wardrobes.
Deirdre Mc Gettrick Founder
ufurnish ufurnish.com
ufurnish.com partners with 100+ furniture retailers, bringing over 1 million of their products together onto 1 website.
Katy Barfield Founder & CEO
Yume Food Australia yumefood.com.au
Yume works with leading food suppliers and farmers to sell surplus stock, that may otherwise have been wasted, to smart hospitality and retail businesses – and their happy customers.
Leticia Latino CEO
Neptuno USA neptunousa.com
Neptuno creates significant value by providing competitive pricing, excellent quality, innovative solutions, responsive customer service, honest intentions and unparalleled commitment to help its customers succeed in their goals.
May Winfield Global Director of Commercial, Legal and Digital Risks
Buro Happold burohappold.com
Buri Happold values human wellbeing, curiosity, embrace mutual responsibility and genuinely care about the impact and legacy of its work.
Paige Arnof-Fenn Founder & CEO
Mavens & Moguls mavensandmoguls.com
Mavens & Moguls works with venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and business executives who seek expert marketing advice and innovative ideas without the overhead of a full-time marketing staff.
Sabrina Khan Chief Financial Officer
Aptorum Group Limited aptorumgroup.com
Aptorum believes that by facilitating the development of medical innovations, particularly in those that able to meet current unmet medical needs and significantly improve clinical and surgical experience.
Suezann Holmes Founder & CEO
ScaleXP scalexp.com
ScaleXP was formed to give ambitious companies the tools to reach their potential by bringing the power of data to your screen, highlighting performance against target.
Vanessa Mbonu Vice President, Digital Marketing & Communications
NAACP naacp.org
NAACP is the home of grassroots activism for civil rights and social justice.
COVER STORY
10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022
C O V E R S T O R Y
Empowering high-growth
companies with automated insights
Suezann Holmes FOUNDER & CEO - SCALEXP Women in Tech Excellence
'Entrepreneur of the Year 2021'
Raised $5B as CFO in corporates & Tech Track 100 companies
ScaleXP was formed to give ambitious companies the tools to reach their potential by bringing the power of data to your screen, highlighting performance against targets.
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professional career spread across the globe, working primarily in corporate finance and M&A, along with significant business turnaround projects on behalf of world banks, Suezann Holmes imprinted her mark in the business world with her expertise. Today, she leads with a vision of growing with confidence as the CEO of ScaleXP. With a growth mindset, Suezann has always grasped new skills to increase her impact on work in multiple roles. Amid her professional journey, she took a break to pursue an MBA in finance at Wharton Business School, combined with the Spanish stream of their Lauder program.
Her versatile approach to business allowed her to be the CFO of various corporations working in London before turning attention to high-growth SME businesses. Suezann's transition to a smaller but more aggressively expanding businesses led to the formation of ScaleXP. "I expected information in a click; my highest growth customers this year compared to last year and then in a few more clicks an analysis of common characteristics (sector, size, location, the title of our contact). Ultimately allowing identification of similar companies to target as new customers, so as the CFO I could make a meaningful impact on growth."
COVER STORY
10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022
Empowering high growth businesses with automated insights "This data is shockingly difficult to access and understand, but with my professional and tech experience, I knew that the problem could be solved," explains Suezann.
Suezann expresses that diligent and hardworking companies wrestle with manually constructing complicated, error prone spreadsheets to grasp the basics.
Becoming a game-changer
Each 'information cycle' takes days.
As the CFO across corporates and highest growth companies in the UK, Suezann learned first-hand about the challenges of sustaining a 200%+ CAGR. More importantly, she learned how noncorporates are typically limited by the lack of affordable software solutions for unraveling and learning from their data.
The insights generated by benchmarks and extensive KPI options should be instantly accessible and always at the fingertips of CFOs, CEOs, and the wider executive team.
A moment of insight and inspiration may start the journey, but building companies capable of realising a vision requires very practical insights.
Suezann mentions, "Combining my technical and finance experience, we have brought the power of software to bear; specifically, we have harnessed the accessibility and cost benefits of 'Software as a Service" (SaaS). As a result, ScaleXP is becoming a gamechanger in the B2B software space. Making automation and streamlining the reporting process affordable allows finance professionals to deliver insights with customer-centric advice. I would like to think that this groundbreaking approach is what led to my receiving runner up in the UK Female Entrepreneur of the Year awards." Grow with confidence ScaleXP's mission is to help high growth companies use the power of their data to make the best decisions for their business. Large corporations have invested in multimillion-dollar systems and business units to solely focus on crunching their data. ScaleXP makes this capability affordable and operable for one finance professional - democratising the opportunity to gain business advantage from data. The cloud-reporting software integrates financial, sales and marketing data into one dashboard to facilitate data-driven decisions and fuel growth. It aims to help you confidently make well-informed decisions as a founder, startup, or investor. By using its interactive dashboards and insights, growth trajectories and potential impediments can be shared across your teams, the board or even investors.
ScaleXP's automated revenue repo ts
The software includes over 100 automated KPIs tailored to your business type and industry – no need for manual calculations and formulas on your spreadsheets!
picture by integrating data from accounting systems (Quickbooks, Xero, Sage) and sales systems (HubSpot, Salesforce).
Days, even weeks, are saved. ScaleXP's vision is to be a must-have tool-set within the global high growth business community, opening up the power of internal data and putting it at the fingertips of all ambitious business leaders.
Its CEO and CFO dashboards highlights issues. Impressive and comprehensive presentations no longer take hours to prepare. The graphs and financials are prepared for you. You add the commentary, saving literally hours of tedious admin.
Suezann shares, "We are a business formed and forged against a backdrop of disruption and confusion. Our culture is one of persistence and dedication in exposing information that leads to self-understanding and awareness; both for ourselves asmembers of the ScaleXP team, ScaleXP as a company, and for our clients and users."
All of which is achieved on its servers, then delivered to the user via the Cloud, i.e. as a SaaS solution.
Deep Tech ScaleXP is a deep tech platform, integrating data from accounting and sales systems to automate dashboards and reports. The platform provides a comprehensive business
Data analytics shift ScaleXP's fundamental mission is to democratise what has been the expensive preserve of larger corporations. Systems Integrators have been installing and operating analytical systems sitting on complex and convoluted data warehouses, data marts and data lakes for decades. Suezann states that early stage, high growth businesses don't need to wait until they can afford a data analytics department operated by 50+ people operating these legacy
COVER STORY
10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022
Empowering high growth businesses with automated insights
Assuming you have a great idea and team that have created a product. I have to say (with a little tongue in cheek bias) that when it comes to raising money, you really need your business's metrics on hand and presented coherently, in short, you need ScaleXP.
ScaleXP's Dashboard for CFO's
Guiding the next generation Suezann understands that a journey of an entrepreneur is intensely personal and has its unique factors. She says, "Armed with a great idea, you should assess what areas you most need help with; make a thorough, honest appraisal of what skills you don't have. Then go out and find your partners who complete the skill set requirement. But be aware that this is very, very hard; personalities, ability, and dependability are difficult to measure. In many ways, this is your greatest challenge. Many VCs will tell you that they would rather back a great team with an okay idea than a weak team that has invented the next wheel." "As an aside, in February 2022, ScaleXP hosted an event for entrepreneurs 'Funding in 2022: What the experts are saying'.
ScaleXP's built-in fundraising pack
In the event, we had a panel of industry experts based in London give their input to the key areas like invoice factoring, venture capital, and how to reach out to investors," Suezann concludes.
systems; they can bypass all this and start now thanks to the progress of technology. She shares, "A major change which is set to deliver huge benefits in the 'data-driven industry' is AI-powered business analytics or intelligence. ScaleXP already partners AI leaders in academia where we collaborate in very practical research.” Above and beyond ScaleXP's immediate focus is to continue to deliver an awesome product and a growing army of high growth companies across the World. It will continue to explore, research, and deploy enhancements and best practices that further de-risk its clients' ambitions, but it also learns from its community of users as they uncover new situations. "In the longer run, I very much would like to see our client community becoming a point of value in itself; like-minded professionals open to a mutual understanding of how their relevant sectors are performing, where the opportunities and threats lie," clarifies Suezann.
Sta t automating your insights with ScaleXP by booking a demoà
Angela Earl
Vice President Global Marketing RFPIO
The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022
Angela Earl Delivering Accessible Marketing Solutions
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ord of mouth, brand loyalty, advertising, and in a multitude of other ways, effective marketing heavily influences our purchase decisions.
Remember that jingle that you couldn’t get out of your head? Or the funny commercial you couldn’t forget. And of course there’s that one time your best friend kept raving about that new something and you had to have it. Memorable moments may seem like magic, but it’s just good marketing — and unquestionably the most efficient way for organizations to succeed in getting their products or services into the hands of their buyers. And while jingles and billboards work as well today as they did in the Mad Men era of advertising, digital channels have opened up a nearly unlimited number of ways marketers can capture attention and drive sales. With experience spanning many facets of business, Angela Earl, Vice President of Global Marketing at RFPIO has seen her share of challenges and innovative solutions. She credits her success to the relationships and amazing people she has met throughout her career and to the lessons she learned in some of the hardest times. "From tactical lessons in time management to lifeimpacting ones like putting people first, my journey has challenged me and made me a better person.” These life lessons have led Angela to where she is today. We asked her to share what she’s up to today and some advice from these experiences. Aligning Values Angela embraces a mantra of empowering others in all
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areas of her life and her work at RFPIO is no exception. “Find a company with values and you believe in,” she advises, “and the work won't feel like work most of the time. RFPIO’s mission to create software users loved and their goal to empower organizations to unlock their potential fits right in line with Angela’s focus. “RFPIO is reinventing how customer-facing teams create content, respond to opportunities, and meet prospects' needs to drive true results,” says Angela. The company is the leading provider of response management software, and is trusted by successful and growing organizations of all sizes to streamline their response processes. One client, Microsoft reported saving an estimated $2.4 million and credits RFPIO for the success. RFPIO is also striving to be one of the best places to work. Angela is one of 10 leaders at RFPIO who focus on prioritizing work-life balance, promoting diversity and inclusiveness, and instilling a true sense of ownership and belonging for all employees. "We believe that automation needs a human touch and that teams, including our own, can unlock their full potential when they are empowered to invest time in impactful and meaningful ways,” shared Angela. Software People Love Technology helps businesses worldwide do more, work smarter, and achieve better results. RFPIO believes that instead of spending time looking for information and tracking down colleagues, organizations should democratize their knowledge, resulting in faster response times and improved customer (and employee) experiences. May 2022 | 17
Prioritize Experience Technology stacks are getting more complicated, and data is becoming more and more siloed; since starting her career in marketing, Angela has focused on leveraging and aligning technology to improve outcomes. She believes that alignment to business processes and goals is critical and is excited about the roadmap and RFPIO's ability to continue to meet the needs of customer-facing teams inside growing organizations. Angela has seen a notable shift in how businesses are buying and selling software. “Ten years ago, software was shifting from large providers who did “everything” to point solutions focused on solving specific problems.” Angela notes, “Today we see the pendulum swinging back toward the middle. Buyers want to simplify their tech stacks and are looking for functional solutions that can solve more than one problem, and more importantly integrate easily with other solutions.”
Angela has worked in B2B software since 2007 and believes RFPIO is a shining example of technology done right. “Our customers love us, and not just because we have an awesome team, but because the software is easy to use and makes achieving their goals significantly easier.” RFPIO has consistently been rated #1 by customers on G2.com and was recently ranked the fastest growing company in Oregon on Inc. Magazine’s Inc5000. The company proudly took home 8 Comparably awards in 2020 including Best Company for Diversity 2020, Best Company Work-Life Balance, Best Company Perks & Benefits, Best Company Happiness, Best Professional Development 2020, Best Leadership Teams 2020, Best CEOs for Women 2020 and Best CEOs for Diversity 2020.
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RFPIO is a relatively young organization despite its size and growth. Founded in 2015, the company has sustained incredible growth every year even through the economic uncertainty that started in 2020. From its humble beginnings, the focus amidst this growth was always on building a culture and company that people would want to be a part of. Looking ahead, Angela and the other leaders are focused on supporting the growing team while protecting and prioritizing customer and employee satisfaction. Words to Live by Angela recalls advice she received from a mentor years ago, "You can't give what you don't have," and encourages others to prioritize self-care, especially those in leadership roles. Time, energy, confidence, and peace all fall under this mantra, according to Angela, ”Take care of yourself, and you'll be better able to take care of your team.”
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Deirdre Mc Gettrick
Founder and CEO ufurnish.com
Deirdre Mc Gettrick Offering Wide Range of Furnishings
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hile architecture provides the framework for space, setting up vibe and mood requires suitable furnishings and interiors. A welldesigned room speaks volumes about the atmosphere one wants to convey. To provide customers with the perfect furnishing products that they seek, Deirdre Mc Gettrick, founded ufurnish.com, which has a mission to change the way we all shop for furniture and furnishings. As the CEO, Deirdre provides a platform that enables consumers to easily search, discover, compare, and shop furniture products on one website across the entire retail market. In our endeavor to find “The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022,” we came across Deirdre. We talked with her to understand how she elevates different aspects of her business. Below are the highlights of the interview: Brief our audience about your journey as a business leader until your current position at the company. What challenges have you had to overcome to reach where you are today? As a child, I loved all things interiors, visiting furniture shops, and looking at images from the property section of the newspaper. After a career in banking spanning a decade, I bought my first home and was super excited about the prospect of furnishing it with all my saved inspiration designs. Alas, the excitement turned to frustration as I was www.insightssuccess.com
unable to find the perfect products for my vision. This led to the business idea that has become ufurnish.com. I was solving a consumer problem, and that consumer was me. Leaving my career in banking meant walking away from a well-remunerated role and taking the risk of starting a company, something I had no experience with. I had to overcome all my doubts and really believe in the solution I was bringing for consumers. The key I realized to starting and growing a business is that you need help. You will never be the best at every skillset, so get people on board who can complement your skills. Together we are stronger. Tell us something more about the company and its mission and vision. I am the founder of ufurnish.com, an online search, and discovery website for home furniture and furnishings. At ufurnish.com, we bring 150+ furniture retailers onto one website to make finding the perfect item of furniture easy for the consumers, akin to how Autotrader aggregates cars, Skyscanner aggregates airlines, and Rightmove for real estate search in the UK. At ufurnish.com, your dream home is our mission. Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in the industry through your expertise in the market. I started the business from the perspective of a consumer who wanted to recreate a home design based on all the home inspiration I had collected over the years. By being the person, you are actually solving the problem for; it May 2022 | 21
The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022 helps to keep clear in your mind the solution that is required while putting aside other influencing factors such as shareholders, retailers and all other stakeholders. The consumer is always kept at the core of my decision-making process. Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives your organization. We have five core values at ufurnish.com, Honesty, Integrity, Fairness, Simplicity, and Sustainability. We describe ourselves as akin to a sports team; we are highperforming with a desire to deliver results. We work hard to create the change required in the furniture industry. To do this, however, we need to be open, transparent, and honest in our opinions and feedback. We encourage people to speak up, share their views, but once a decision is made
based on the facts available at the time, everyone lines up behind that decision for the overall good of the team. We keep simplicity and fairness at our core and operate in the most sustainable way possible, both for 1) the environment and 2) maintaining sustainable relationships with all our stakeholders from team members, retailers, consumers, and shareholders. Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your solutions resourceful? For ufurnish.com, what is critical is developing autonomous systems that serve many purposes within our business, whether it be data processing, integrating disparate systems, or the use of machine learning tools to improve the
ufurnish.com allows you to search furniture and home furnishing ranges from 150+ retailers all on one website.
accuracy and quality of data. These are the things we constantly implement, analyze, and refine today and will continue to do so into the future. If given a chance, what change would you like to bring to the industry? I am the ultimate champion of the consumer, and if the industry can change to make improvements for the consumer, that is always a step in the right direction. I am passionate about increasing the amount of choice available to consumers to help them make better-informed buying decisions. By bringing together all retailers, regardless of size, the strength of the brand, marketing budgets, or a number of products, I believe ufurnish.com is creating that change. What, according to you, could be the next big change in the industry? How is your company preparing to be a part of that change? The supply chain will be the biggest challenge over the coming decade, with the impact of limited resources, expensive shipping rates, and ever-changing trading rules (such as Brexit in the UK), meaning that the supply chain will be interrupted. As ufurnish.com is one step detached from the supply, we seek to help the consumer find their perfect furniture items by showing them what is actually available in the market.
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Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run, and what are your future goals for the company? The vision of ufurnish.com is to be the world’s largest search and discovery platform for home furniture and furnishings. That is my core focus for the future, as it takes years to build a truly successful company. For example, Airbnb is over 13 years old, having been founded in 2008. I envisage myself leading the company through the startup phase into growth and entering maturity as a globally recognized brand. What would be your advice to budding women entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the industry? Network and learn from others who have achieved similar things to your goal. You can’t and won’t avoid every mistake, but something you can learn from others’ journeys to help you achieve your goal easier.
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The Need for Compassionate Leadership During a Global Pandemic - By Eileen Willet Co-founder Cucumber Clothing
Leader’s Viewpoint
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wo years ago, when Nancy and I decided to dip our toes into the world of start-ups, we had absolutely no idea where it would take us. We were both mums in mid-life. Between us, we had two dogs, six children, a strong friendship and what we thought was a damn good idea. At the time Nancy was involved in the charitable sector (formerly at Saatchi and Saatchi), and I was running my own successful accessory brand (having helped start up Nicole Farhi Menswear). Hindsight is a great thing, at the time, we thought Cucumber Clothing would fit into our lives. Instead, it soon became a nineheaded hydra disguised as a start-up, swallowing up as much time, energy and passion as we could muster. We can honestly say we’ve enjoyed the challenges, the highs and lows and the wonderful people we have met every step of the way. Then Covid arrived. Which company can say honestly that they were prepared for a global pandemic? I would venture, absolutely none. The past two years have brought us more intense, demanding, and tough hurdles than we could have imagined. The flip side is that we have been stretched, stimulated and forced to be both exacting and flexible all at the same time. What has this taught us about leadership? Mainly that leadership, in particular compassionate leadership, becomes even more essential in times of deep stress, both professional and personal, as well as in times of conflicting demand. The ability to invite opinions and truly listen to them; the ability to retain high standards, and yet remain flexible; the ability to sometimes accept that something cannot be achieved. The ability to be compassionate. These are all lessons we have learned and taken to heart in these tumultuous past months. Broadly speaking, compassionate leadership can be broken down into four pillars with the consistency of application and open communication throughout being key (all definitions taken from merriam-webster.com) : Listening – to hear something with thoughtful intention Understanding – to have sympathetic awareness or tolerance Empathising – to understand and share the feelings of another Helping - the act or an instance of doing or supplying something to make it easier for another to complete a task, deal with a problem, etc.
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Regular and open communication allows these pillars to be fully used. Each member of a company then feels able to safely raise issues that may otherwise remain buried, only to arise at a later in possibly a much more inconvenient shape, size and time. It is no surprise that matters can take a negative turn when employees feel that compassionate leadership is lacking. When leadership is reactive, not proactive and issues are dealt with only after something has gone wrong a cycle of negativity is created, particularly when issues are raised and even then, there is no change. Compassionate leadership ensures a greater likelihood of creating a productive and harmonious workplace whatever the external pressures – for example, a global pandemic! may be. Properly using and integrating the above four pillars of compassionate leadership into a company’s functioning allows for a collective focus and corresponding collective responsibility on issues arising in the workplace in achieving and maintaining goals and targets – a huge win for any company. This in turn, leads to a workplace where the collective good is prioritised over individual needs and reduces friction between both individuals and groups regardless of status, again an enormous positive when, especially in times of increased pressures. Whether an SME or micro business, I believe compassionate leadership is key to keeping a company functioning well at any time, and absolutely critical in times of huge stress. Investing in and ensuring that the simple pillars of listen, understand, empathise and help are in place, can make the difference between the survival and failure of businesses in a bruising world of change. Two years in and no business can have any real clarity about what 2022 will bring. The best way to prepare is to commit to ensuring that your own business is emotionally robust and prepared for the worst while very much hoping for the best. With compassionate leadership baked in, it will have every chance.
May 2022 | 25
Accomplishing Most Worthy Goals with Cheerful Leadership
26 | May 2022
Visionary Leadership deliver great results by their remarkable ability to hold people together for accomplishing the most cherished goals of the organization they are leading. Leadership is not just about philosophy but about proving it practically. Common people follow what great leaders do. The standards set by great leaders become the norm for the common people. Charismatic leaders lead by being genuinely exemplary. They live the essence and preach it. They say what they mean, and they mean what they say. Their brilliant personality and brilliant traits help them to bring out the best in others for great causes.
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eadership is the ability to inspire people to pursue the most important business objectives. It is the ability to bring out the best in others to get the job done most diligently and creatively. One essential trait that counts to lead by example is being charismatic. Charismatic leadership is a potential leadership style to lead the people in the right direction for the worthiest causes. It is driven by inspiring traits like excellent communication skills, exemplary attitude, cheerfulness, harmony between words and actions, persistence, and an appealing personality. Charismatic leadership is characterized by a great balance of amazing talent as well as brilliant temperament. Charismatic leaders have happiness in their smiles, gravity in their voice, grace in their walk, and command over their words. They have the knack of pushing others to great heights. They become good mentors and good guides. In the world of temptations and distractions, everyone needs a charismatic leader to help them stay away from unnecessary temptations and distractions. Charismatic leaders keep people focused on achieving their goals. They
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Charismatic leaders are not rigid. They are highly flexible. They ignore or overlook the minor offenses or mistakes by their employees or teammates. They inspire their employees to make mistakes as learning experiences. They don’t force their opinions on others. They respect the individual’s will and their creativity. This helps them in nurturing the creative spirit in the organization. They sharpen their personal and professional attributes to be the most effective business leader. Coolness, common sense, communication practice, charm and cheer, confidence, honesty, and humility are the most essential traits of charismatic leaders. Moreover, they are very cheerful in their approach. They always think of win-win solutions. They respond to situations with coolness and common sense. They are very good communicators because of their great communication practice. Charm and cheer is the most attractive trait of charismatic leaders. They know that half the job is done if they succeed in making themselves and their employees happy and cheerful. They believe that care of another half job will be taken by hard work and their ability to divorce themselves from negativity and stay joyful, and maintain the same joyful atmosphere in their team members. Confidence, honesty, and humility are in their genes. They understand that confidence is fundamental to success in any field. Their honest and humble approach helps them to be grounded to pursue their goals with grit and determination. They are high vibrational at all times. They don’t tune into negative frequencies. They know that they can get the job done if they stick to the process. They enjoy the process than just celebrating the result. They fight with competence, confidence, and cheerfulness and celebrate success without being complacent or casual. They keep themselves calm in all situations and aim to deliver more than needed or expected from them.
May 2022 | 27
The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022
Katy Barfield Shifting Tides as the Food Waste Warrior
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educing food waste can significantly lessen stress on the environment, and several significant initiatives can assist the food industry by implementing better procurement. Several organizations and individuals operate at different levels to find an alternative way to deal with surplus food. Finding an innovative solution to deal with the food wastage crisis, Katy Barfield founded Yume Food Australia, allowing food manufacturers and primary producers to sell their quality surplus products to commercial buyers at a discount. As the CEO, Katy has dedicated her life to this cause, designing and implementing award-winning solutions to fix the market imbalances that generate food waste and loss. Her venture is the first Australian tech platform that allows the food industry to sell, donate and buy clearance and excess food. Insights Success caught up with Katy to understand how her efforts have disrupted the food industry for good making her one of the most inspiring women leaders.
thing of the past. Currently, the commercial sector in Australia wastes 3.2 million tons of food every year. This is happening before food even reaches supermarket shelves, let alone our homes. Yume's vision is to see all good food getting to where it belongs by connecting clearance and excess food to other businesses in the food industry and to those who need it most via food rescue organizations. Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in the industry through your expertise in the market? Yume has only been able to make an impact on the food industry by listening to the industry's needs and collaborating to create technology that is actually of value. One of the reasons food waste occurs is because of inefficient processes along the supply chain. By listening to Yume users, we've been able to find solutions to these problems. So far, this has seen Yume technology prevent 3.1 million kilograms of food from going to waste.
Below are the highlights of the interview: Brief our audience about your journey as a business leader until your current position at Yume. What challenges did you have to overcome to reach where you are today? The biggest challenge you face as a startup founder is money and time or lack of it. You have a plan, but more often than not, when dealing with innovation, nothing goes according to that plan. It's a constant interactive process to find that elusive product-market fit, and when it's technology-based, it's an expensive process. I've found it always takes three times the money and four times the time you thought it would, and you have to dodge mister left field on a daily basis!
Food waste is an unfortunate reality of supply chains. Yume is here to do something about it.
Tell us something more about Yume and its mission and vision. Our mission at Yume is to make commercial food waste a
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Katy Barfield Founder & CEO Yume Food Australia
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If given a chance, what change would you like to bring to the industry? Ultimately, we believe in the creation of a circular economy, where nothing produced is wasted. Yume has already started to facilitate repurposing projects, for example, the creation of a beer brewed with upcycled cereal byproducts. What, according to you, could be the next big change in the industry? How is your company preparing to be a part of that change? The big change happening right now in the food and beverage industry is that companies are waking up to their food waste problems. Writing off stock has been an ingrained and accepted process for a long time, and leaders are stopping and asking, "why?". They want to do something about it. Yume technology is here to support this shift. Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run and what are your future goals for the company? Eliminating food waste is one of the most actionable levers in reducing CO2 emissions. Our planet is at a critical juncture, and we need to do everything we can to change how we think about food. Yume's goal is to show all food manufacturers in Australia how valuable their food is and why it is so important that it is eaten and not wasted.
Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives your organization. The Yume team is a passionate group of food waste fighters who are driven by the power of technology in creating a more sustainable future. We value integrity, grit, boldness, adaptability, curiosity, and lively foodie discussion!
What would be your advice to budding women entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the industry? The most important thing about doing business for good is to be surrounded by people who get the vision. They need to have the passion, integrity, and resilience to disrupt industries that don't really want to change. You can't do it alone.
Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your solutions resourceful? Innovative technology is who we are here at Yume. The Yume platform is an ever-changing solution to the issues we uncover in food manufacturing that are causing food to be wasted. Our most recent advancement within the platform was building technology that streamlines how food manufacturers donate excess food to food rescue organizations.
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Leticia Latino CEO Neptuno USA
The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022
Driving the Ongoing Transformation in the Telecom Industry
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rom working for Merrill Lynch and Nortel to joining the family business, Neptuno USA, and bringing its name, legacy, and know-how to the US, Leticia Latino’s 20+ years of experience in the telecom industry has been enriching. Under the leadership of Leticia, Neptuno has patented several tower designs, applied 3-Dimensional technology to Site Surveys and Tower Mapping, created telecom assets virtual libraries, and helped develop Telecom Asset Management Software and is taking an active role in the Smart Cities movement. Inspired by her vision, we at Insights Success talked with Leticia to learn more about her journey and how she is leading by example. Below are the highlights of the interview: Brief our audience about your journey as a business leader until your current position at the company. What challenges you had to overcome to reach where you are today? When I was a little girl, my father used to take me to his office all the time. I envisioned what it would be like to one day run his Telecom Tower Company, “if I come to work for you is only to make the company three times bigger,” I used to joke to tickle his ego. Interestingly enough, right after I graduated from Business School, instead of going to work in the family business, I felt I needed to forge my own path and accepted a position at Merrill Lynch. I
wanted to pursue a career in Investments but it didn’t take me long to realize that I didn’t enjoy managing other people’s money; something about it didn’t fit with my personality. I then decided to leave Venezuela and come to Florida to pursue a dual degree Master’s program at the University of Miami, which upon completion, landed me a job offer from Nortel Networks, which is how I “officially” got into Telecom. I spent several years at Nortel before the company started having financial troubles triggering massive lay-offs and its ultimate demise. It was after going through that traumatic experience that it became clear to me that if I was ever going to work as hard as I did at Nortel, it better be for the family business, and that’s how exactly 20 years ago, I accepted an old but always outstanding job offer from my father, which by the way is the best mentor and boss one can hope for, and joined Neptuno. Tell us something more about the company and its mission and vision. The story of Neptuno is one that has all the ingredients to make a good movie. Italian immigrant arrives penniless in South America and, through a lot of hard work and sacrifices, creates a company that is credited with engineering, manufacturing, and installing towers for many of the first cellular networks in the Americas. The founder’s
We like to tackle old fashion problems with innovative tools.
three kids each have their own professional journey but eventually join their father to protect his legacy and lifelong work. The company has a major setback because it’s headquartered in Venezuela, a country plagued with political instability and socio-economic challenges, prompting it to transform and pivot in a major way to avoid going under as most Venezuelan companies have, since the late 1990’s. With a high moral compass that has integrity as the main North, in 2003 the company’s mission became making important inroads in the US market and becoming a key player in helping advance bridging the digital divide, and supporting telecommunications stakeholders in the plan of enabling connectivity for all. Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in the industry through your expertise in the market. Having been raised playing around wireless construction sites and telecommunications technicians, I have what I call an “insiders perspective” on the challenges that not only construction companies face but also our workforce. My father has always been someone that has treated the field crews like family. We have tower climbers whose grandfathers started with my dad back in the 1970’s. I was raised with humanity to understand that the telecom workers are the ones making the ‘magic’ happen, but unfortunately, their contribution is often overlooked. The Telecom Industry is so large that people making decisions from the office often forget that the “heart” of this industry is in the field. In 2019, I was appointed by the FCC Chairman to the Broadband Development Advisory Committee and was also asked to chair the Jobs and Skills Working group. The work we did was incredible, and we produced a detailed report that was unanimously approved, with actionable recommendations on what the industry could do to help solve the workforce shortage. This is one of the reasons why I am so passionate about developing a highly-skilled workforce and leveraging apprenticeship programs such as TIRAP to do so, because I know firsthand the difference that training and a formal certificate can have in someone’s life. Of course, being a woman who has spent over two decades in a very male-dominated industry also provides me with relevant perspective around what can be done to ensure that our industry is more diversified and equitably represented.
contribute $1.7 trillion to the economy, create 4.6 million jobs, and enhance everything from how we communicate to the way farmers raise their crops over the next decade, and this will be a big change and huge growth for our industry. To help create those jobs, Neptuno became a Telecom Industry Apprenticeship Program (TIRAP) Employer in 2020, which is a Department of Labor Program whose national Sponsor is the Wireless Infrastructure Association and it aims at skilling and training a more diverse and inclusive telecom workforce while promoting an incredible ‘earn as you learn’ apprenticeship model. Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run, and what are your future goals for the company? I envision myself continuing to get Neptuno involved in initiatives that bring impact to bettering the way we conduct business and create positive change for the industry all together. Someone once said to me that while my father was at the center of the wireless revolution, I seemed poised to be at the center of the SmartCity revolution, and that is an exciting thought to me. I am also very passionate about nurturing genuine connections and that’s why three years ago, I created a podcast called “Back2Basics- Reconnecting to the essence of YOU”, in which the guests share their stories about how through failures and successes they have stayed connected to their essence and to what makes them tick. Inspiring change is ultimately what makes me tick, so I do as much as I can to live with the alignment of my inner and outer goals. What would be your advice to budding women entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the industry? In my opinion, there has never been more exciting to join the Telecom Industry than right now. Even if many times it is only with the goal of making a diversity quota, Women are finally being given opportunities that were unreachable just a few years back. There is a new platform being created, and our perspective is finding a voice in it. And as mentioned before, the infrastructure bill and 5G deployment are bringing an insurmountable number of new opportunities, and all help is needed to fulfil very aggressive deployment goals, so if you want to join in, this is the time, and everyone is welcomed!
What, according to you, could be the next big change in the industry? How is your company preparing to be a part of that change? Thanks to advancements in 5G technology and the historic investment in broadband expansion included in the recently signed bipartisan infrastructure bill, 5G deployments will
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The Need to Embrace Tech-Transformation Approach
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Tech Talk
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here is a wide world out there full of opportunities that test us in every part of the journey. But along with success, what follows opportunities is challenges. So, what makes this journey tolerable for companies and especially for business leaders? It is the transformation brought by technology that has changed the life of everyone and made things easier for us. The industries welcome this transformation, and even the leaders are embracing it. The implementation of innovation and technology in the workplace has created many opportunities, due to which companies and leaders were able to bring much-needed changes in their respective sectors. This shows that everything is possible - only with the right intent, knowledge, and the approach of always learning. Circle of Transformation As they say, if you stay in one place for a long time, you become that place. That is why you need to keep updating, innovating, and re-innovating yourself continuously. Today, the drive to turn innovative in their approach has become a necessity for leaders. This journey goes through a lot of challenges, failures, and ultimately successes. But it is the experience that matters the most. Evolving according to the situations and rising in all the challenges will define you. And today, there is a dire need for businesses and leaders to leverage technological advancements to thrive in their domains.
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Recently, the pandemic emphasized the need to embrace digitalization as many businesses had to go digital. The bottom line is business leaders will always have to be prepared for such unprecedented times, and technology is one of the factors that will keep you ahead of the curve. Leading Strongly A leader with diverse talent is the first choice for many companies, and it is about a matter of time that it becomes a criterion for today’s business leader. Today, many leaders are focused on building their successful business careers in the technological field. The great news is that we are building a generation of business leaders who are bringing a change to make this world a better place to live. Sundar Pichai, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, etc. are some prominent names who have brought a drastic transformation in the business world. Conclusion There are many possibilities brought by technological advancements that are yet to be explored. Finally, we can conclude by saying that by combining technology, innovation, and business acumen, business leaders will cross their paths with transformations they want to bring in this world.
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The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022
Paige Arnof-Fenn Helping Businesses Tell Their Stories in Compelling Ways
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eet Paige Arnof-Fenn, an avid marketer who turned her love for building brands into a profitable business called Mavens & Moguls.
Paige did not plan on starting a company. She always wanted to go work for a global business and be a Fortune 500 CEO. When she was a student, she looked at leaders like Meg Whitman & Ursula Burns as her role models. She started Mavens & Moguls after beginning her career on Wall Street in the 80s and having a successful career in Corporate America at companies like Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola and then working at 3 different startups as the head of marketing. All 3 startups had positive exits. She took the leap right after 9/11 when the company she worked for cut their marketing. She had nothing to lose. Running a global marketing business provides her a platform to do work she truly enjoys with and for people she respects. "I get to set my priorities, I have time to travel (pre-Covid) and hang out with my inner circle, and I work out every day. It has been a journey to get here, but I am lucky to have found it. I love the autonomy, flexibility, and the fact that I know every day the impact that I have on my business," expresses Paige. When Paige worked at big companies, she always felt the ball would roll with or without her, that if she got hit by a bus, someone new would be in her office right away. Now her DNA is in everything she does. She can trace every decision and sale to something she did or a decision she made, which is incredibly gratifying and fulfilling. Like most entrepreneurs, Paige is working harder and longer than ever, and she has never been happier. She asserts, "Working for yourself and building a business you started is incredibly rewarding and gratifying. It has been a lot of fun. I joke that I am an accidental entrepreneur. I knew I had made it as an entrepreneur when Harvard wrote 2 case studies on my business a few years after I started it. We
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were very early to pioneer sharing resources on the marketing front (before my company, it was really only done with HR, legal, and accounting/finance).” Inspired by her passion, we at Insights Success got into conversation with Paige to learn more about her journey and how she and Mavens & Moguls are meeting the branding needs of businesses. Below are the highlights of the interview: Tell us something more about Mavens & Moguls and its mission and vision. My company's mission is to bring world-class marketing talent and expertise to organizations that want to make a difference in the world. We believe every organization deserves the right words and pictures to tell their story in compelling ways. Our vision is that all companies, regardless of size or budget, should have access to the best marketing talent on an outsourced basis.
Mavens & Moguls provides ideas that work to help our client partners build sustainable brands and profitable businesses.
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Paige Arnof-Fenn Founder and CEO Mavens & Moguls
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run and what are your future goals for Mavens & Moguls? Successful businesses post-pandemic must be adaptable/agile, strong communicators, and have a growth mindset. They will be inclusive and collaborative because we never know when the next crisis will hit, so being able to adapt to change is critical. Staying nimble today is core to survival and ultimately success. We are measuring productivity going forward by what we get done; it is based on accomplishments, not activity. My goal is to continue to build growth mindset teams because they never stop learning/experimenting. They are focused on the future and see opportunities ahead by creating a culture of learning/growth. It takes effort and a commitment to excellence for people to continually learn/grow, especially in a virtual/remote environment. I do not think there is one habit to keep teams sharp/fresh. I am using a combination of reading/learning online and off/attending conferences/talks/networking/ newsletters from influencers/TED talks/podcasts/finding mentors/listening to all feedback, good and bad. To stay relevant/keep growing, I try to encourage the team to prioritize professional development to keep skills fresh and stay on top of new trends/technologies.
Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in the Marketing niche through your expertise in the market. We are storytellers and content creators who help our clients in compelling ways by finding the right words and pictures to create interest for their products and services. Creating content is a great way to build your brand, increase your visibility more broadly, raise your profile, and ultimately attract more attention/clients/customers. I have always loved telling and listening to stories since childhood. In the early days of mankind, stories were a great way to communicate around the campfire, they are critical to the Bible, and they are still effective today. People do not remember facts and figures, but if you tell them a story that touches them emotionally, you get their attention, and they want to hear more. People need to be educated, informed and/or entertained, so I love to figure out how best to tell a story in a way that makes people pay attention and breaks through the noise. When you share what you know -- your passion, your war stories, the good, bad and ugly -- the content will flow and pour out of you. The stories will be interesting, and the lessons will be real; people will remember you and come back for more.
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What would be your advice to budding women entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the Marketing sector? So much of success in marketing is about effective communications online and offline. My advice for success is to be a student for life, walk the streets and notice your surroundings. Do you know which movies won at the box office? Books on the NYT best seller list? Top Billboard and Grammy songs? Oscar winners? Why was Game of Thrones popular? Even if it is not your taste, you need to know about these things and have an opinion. A career in marketing and communications is about relevancy, so every day, I try to pay attention to pop culture, trends, etc. You have to keep your antenna up! You have to be driven, focused, intensely curious, and always be looking for the next way to make something better, be a good listener to clients, colleagues, feedback, the market to show respect for great ideas, and be a great communicator. With these traits and a strong work ethic, you increase the odds of succeeding.
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The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022
An Epitome of Hardwork, Passion and Perseverance
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chieving excellence in any field requires consistent efforts, diligence, and patience. It is a mark of great leaders that they stick to the process and eventually embark on the journey of success. They fight through challenges with hard work and persistence. They attain expertise in their field by learning and developing themselves and help the companies to reach new heights. One such persistent leader is Sabrina Khan.
accounting professional focusing on daily financial operations, IPO, and M&A projects which further helped in building her technical skills and knowledge. She then joined Aptorum Group Limited as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in 2017 and helped Aptorum Group to successfully get listed on Nasdaq in December 2018 and as the first biopharmaceutical company to dual list on Euronext.
Let’s shed some light on her journey and how she is spearheading Aptorum’s financial objectives.
Throughout all these days in her career, Sabrina failed countless times, but her personality and attitude helped her a lot in going through all these challenges. She likes to learn new things and take up challenging tasks as she enjoys the process and the satisfaction it brings. She believes that challenges are not beyond our control, and there is always a solution.
Sabrina started her career as an auditor, where she was trained and obtained her Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Title. After that, she worked for a few companies as their
Tackling Unmet Medical Needs with Life-Science Innovations Aptorum Group is a UK-based biopharmaceutical company with a focus on the discovery and development of therapeutic assets for the treatment of a variety of unmet medical needs, including orphan diseases, infection diseases, and metabolic diseases. The group focuses on diseases that are currently largely unmet or do not have effective treatment available. It believes that patients in these disease areas often suffer from the lack of choices of (effective) drugs and are faced with limited therapeutic options available. On this basis, the company’s product objective is simple – ‘to bring effective drugs to these patients and tackle these diseases’.
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Sabrina Khan
Chief Financial Officer Aptorum Group Limited
Aptorum Group has a strong pipeline of candidates under development with 4 core assets showing significant progress: 1) The Rapid Pathogen Identification and Detection Diagnostics (“RPIDD”) technology, a rapid, accurate, costeffective, and untargeted method to identify and detect existing or emerging unknown pathogens through liquid biopsy. Such unknown pathogens include DNA/RNA-based viruses such as coronavirus, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, fungi, etc. 2) SACT-1, a repurposed drug candidate for treating neuroblastoma discovered through its Smart-ACT® drug discovery Platform. 3) ALS-4, a small drug molecule candidate for the treatment of infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus, including Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). 4) NLS-2, a dietary supplement for the relief of menopausal symptoms.
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Making Use of Expertise to Contribute and Save Lives Sabrina expresses that many people find accounting tedious, and accountants are only to help companies do bookkeeping, prepare financial reports, and tax filings. She asserts, “Companies need an accountant to meet certain regulatory requirements, but no one would ever think accountants can help to build their business or even the society.” After Sabrina left Big 4, she worked for a few healthcare and biopharmaceutical companies and started building her network in the industry. She realized accountants can also make good use of their knowledge and network to help raising capital and connecting companies for joint ventures and other collaboration. This can help provide scientists with sufficient resources to continue their clinical trials and speed up the drug development process. She is happy to be part of the team and make use of her expertise to contribute and save lives.
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“Aptorum aims to become a worldclass player in the biopharmaceutical industry with emphasis in science, collaboration, and entrepreneurship.” Strengthening Team to Meet Evolving Needs Sabrina states that because of COVID, many people are now more health-conscious and have put more emphasis on the study of infectious diseases. One of Aptorum Group’s key development focuses is on infectious disease with the support of the team from the University of Hong Kong, which is very famous in the area globally. Aptorum Group would like to further strengthen the team as COVID proves that the current pace of medical development is far too slow and cannot meet the current needs. Contributing to Advancement in Global Medical Development Talking about the culture, Sabrina mentions that Aptorum is determined to continue developing therapeutic treatments with a novel approach in targeting unmet medical needs and contributing to global medical development. She believes that there is a need to think quickly and cope with the everchanging environment. She always encourages open discussion and asks her team members to share their views and suggestions. When encountering any difficulties, Sabrina usually guides them to get their answers than providing them a quick solution. She puts, “Getting their answer is the best way to inspire them to think and build
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their commitment to the team and what they do. I want them to seriously understand why they are doing it that way and what they are doing instead of blindly taking instruction from above.” Developing Different Innovative Approach We asked Sabrina about the change she would like to bring to the pharmaceutical industry, to which she says, “I would like to use Aptorum as an example and inspire the industry to work together and develop different innovative and novel approaches in tackling medical needs and stop using antibiotics because abuse use of antibiotics would cause drug resistance and even the manufacturing process would cause environmental pollution.” Contributing Expertise in Finance Sabrina would continue to seek different breakthroughs in her life through Aptorum. She wishes to contribute her finance expertise to global medical development. Sabrina advises budding entrepreneurs in the most concise words, “Everyone, no matter what you do, your background, it’s the attitude that counts. You can do if you believe you can.”
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The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022
Vanessa Mbonu Supporting the fight against racial prejudice is Vanessa Mbonu, the Vice President, Digital Marketing & Communications, utilizing her experience as a communicator to work advancing social justice through media and technology. The Storyteller Vanessa knew that she wanted to tell stories for a living from a young age; thus, she received a degree in journalism from St. John's University and a Masters in Global Media and Communication from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She then interned at Maxim Magazine and worked as a production assistant at Voice of America until landing her first paid job as a content creator for AARP the Magazine. Following her drive to tell stories that positively impact people's lives, Vanessa made a conscious decision, pivoting into public relations for non-profit organizations and started her journey at the NAACP as a Communications Associate. NAACP created a fostering environment where she could learn and innovate on the job. Her agility aided her in climbing the ladder in the organization to become the Vice President of Digital Marketing and Communications. While constantly being challenged with learning the ins and outs of public policy to keep up with the ever-changing digital landscape, innovative strategies, and campaigns at a legacy organization, Vanessa tries to be a bold, supportive, and motivational team leader. She asserts, "With any career
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transition, there will always be a learning curve, but I've been fortunate enough to learn from a team of inspiring women leaders. After all, the NAACP is the nation's first and largest civil rights organization and it’s led by a C-suite made up almost entirely of women of color." Sustaining Democracy Digitally Vanessa oversees, protects, and manages the NAACP brand online. Her work directly impacts people's lives, which is why she doesn't take it lightly. Understanding the power of words, every email, tweet, and ad that engages the audience brings them one step closer to sustaining democracy. Vanessa sees millions of opportunities to impact when viewing analytics, metrics, and numbers. Vanessa has reached audiences across the country and beyond by conducting extensive research, testing, and strategy. NAACP’s email marketing program is incredibly successful, surpassing industry engagement standards by more than half. She says, "We've been able to do this, as a small team at that, by taking the time to STIR the pot. Strategize, Test, Implement and Report. Sometimes you stir the pot too much, and you end up burning your food. That's okay. Fail, but fail fast. You can't build award-winning campaigns by playing it safe." Fostering Encouraging Work Culture Vanessa mentions that the culture of the NAACP aims to reflect the world it advocates for, valuing diversity, inclusion, and equity, and believes these should be fundamental principles of every organization in the 21st
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We are two million+ activists united in the ght to end racial inequality.
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here are thousands of untold stories that could have changed the course of humankind. For decades, people's voice has been suppressed, creating racial hatred and discrimination. Even now, millions of people are fighting the arduous battles against racial prejudice to receive proper civil rights and social justice. For over a century, (NAACP) has led the fight, ensuring all persons' political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights and eliminating race-based discrimination.
Fighting Forward
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Vanessa Mbonu
Vice President, Digital Marketing & Communications (NAACP)
digital ads, and geo-targeting have proven themselves invaluable on that front. Though technology can be a huge helping hand, it can also disrupt the flow, so it is a huge responsibility to ensure it is not inherently discriminatory in nature and use it to advance society. Vanessa expresses, "We've tackled tech giants like Facebook for negligence and malpractice in the spread of misinformation on its platform. We've fought back against mobile carriers for rules such as "10DLC," which make it harder for organizations like us to reach our subscribers through text message." The Upcoming Transformative Shifts Vanessa sees a gradual growth in the non-profit industry and wishes that there would be more innovation. She says, "We can't fight 21st-century problems with 20th-century weapons." Millennials and Gen Z are increasingly more in tune with the world around them, demanding more transparency, committing to make the world better than how they see it today. Vanessa sees them as self-starters, having the entrepreneurial spirit of starting more organizations and bringing the change.
century. The NAACP also prides itself in fostering a culture where every staff person is encouraged to show up as their most authentic self. The organization genuinely invests in the wellbeing of staff, knowing the importance of the work they do. The NAACP recently launched a Find Your Fit initiate, with programs, tools, and resources that help the staff enhance their physical, financial, professional, and emotional wellbeing. Vanessa asserts, "We're dedicated to improving the country for people of color, and we do that by starting from the inside out." The Responsible Use of Technology The technological advancements have made it more straightforward for the companies that work as B2B and B2C; however, the NAACP is a non-profit organization that tries to leverage technology to improve, protect, and change communities. Vanessa is constantly looking at data analytics, researching the latest marketing trends, and diving deeper to figure out how to leverage them. The primary goal is to mobilize activists, and social media,
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From ME to YOU Sharing her thoughts about the future, Vanessa envisions herself building a life where she is pouring back into the community more than it has poured into her. She has seen firsthand, people dedicating their entire lives to the betterment of their communities, leaving incredible legacies for the next generation. She heartily expresses, "If I can achieve just 10 percent of what some of the most notable people who've come from this organization have done, I will be feel accomplished." Tell Your Tales Vanessa advises budding women entrepreneurs to find a mentor. She notes, "Whenever people ask me how I've been able to achieve what I have at such a young-ish age (I'm 27), I always tell them I only did 60 percent of the work. The other 40 percent came from the Black women who've helped me along the way. Even if you don't have someone in your immediate circle that can serve as a mentor, go on LinkedIn, open up a business journal, find someone who emulates the career path you desire, and follow their journey. Read their articles. Listen to their talks." Last but not least, You need to see people like you achieving what the world has told you is impossible, Vanessa concludes.
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