Most Impressive Leaders in Tech, Making Waves in the Industry 2023.pdf

VOL 03 I ISSUE 08 I 2022
Dr. James Kent
CEO & Co-founder
Black Rainbow
Impressive
Tech, Making
Industry
Impressive
Tech, Making
Industry

ciolook.com
Leadership and
learning are
Indispensable to
each other
Leadership
Indispensable

E
D
I
T
O
R
S
N
O
T
E
s technology is becoming more and more prevalent, it is
Aimportant to find great leaders in the field. New tech
leaders often take inspiration from others whose styles
and techniques they admire. They look at the successes of those
who came before them and emulate approaches that make sense
to them.
As they evolve more deeply into their roles, they can learn what is
working for them and adapt their methods as needed. Vision,
communication, innovation and empathy are some of the principal
qualities a leader needs to successfully direct a tech organization.
The most successful tech leaders are able to communicate
effectively with their teams. They know how to articulate their
vision, listen and take criticism in stride, and are comfortable
making decisions that will affect other people's lives. They are also
skilled at communicating with people who don't share their
technical expertise.
They find ways to translate complex concepts into language that
non-technical people can understand, and they make sure that
everyone on the team understands their role in achieving goals.
Confidence is a crucial trait for great tech leaders. These
personalities are constantly making decisions that affect their
team, the company's bottom line, and even the lives of their
customers. They have to be confident enough in their decisions so
that they can make them with confidence- even if they aren't sure
how things will turn out.
The Horizons of
Magnificent Advancements

They are not afraid to put their ideas and solutions before the group. One of the hallmarks of great tech
leaders is their ability to put aside personal feelings and beliefs when it comes to making decisions that
affect their team, company, or customers.
Great tech leaders take risks because they know that failure is part of success-and. If you never fail at
anything, then you've probably chosen not to try something challenging enough. They are constantly
curious and always asking questions, and they make it a point to be well-versed in the latest technologies,
trends, best practices, and industry standards.
Mapping the journey of these tech leaders, CIOLook sheds light on “Most Impressive Leaders in Tech,
Making Waves in the Industry 2023,” who are enabling advancements and enhancing the facets of the
dynamic industry.
Flip through the page and indulge in the journey of sheer innovations with leadership attributes.
Have a delightful read!
Abhishek Joshi
Abhishek Joshi

C
O
V
E
R
S
T
O
R
Y
Providing Best-in-Class Innovative Solutions
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28
18
24
32
Henry Balani
Propelling the Horizons of
Enhancements
Steve Daly
Using Technology to Help Companies
Stay Future-Ready
Shyamala
Prayaga Enriching the
Aspects of Experience
Tejas A Stalwart and an
Innovative Tech Leader
Chopra

CONTENT
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Sales Executives John, Rohit
TECHNICAL
Technical Head Prachi Mokashi
Technical Consultant Victor Collins
March, 2023
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Brief
Company Name
Shyamala Prayaga
Senior Software Product
Manager
Shyamala Prayaga is a self-driven evangelist for UX and
Conversational AI technology and recognizes the societal and
cultural benefits of voice tech evolution.
Dr. James Kent
CEO & Co-founder
Dr James is proudly working with the best to deliver innovative
solutions to the Digital Forensics, Security and Quality
marketplace.
BlackRainbow Ltd.
blackrainbow.com
NVIDIA
nvidia.com
Dr. Henry Balani
Founder
Dr. Henry is an industry Executive and Academic with Board
level of expertise in maturing high-growth regulatory
technology firms towards successful exits.
Encompass Corporation
encompasscorporation.com
Steve Daly
Vice President
Technology
Steve is a highly qualified professional with a 30-year career
history of providing IT solutions to start-ups, local, state, and
Federal governments, Midmarket, as well as Fortune 500
companies and organizations.
Fusion Alliance
fusionalliance.com
Netflix
netflix.com
Tejas Chopra is a Software engineering leader at Netflix. He
works on architecting infrastructure solutions to support Netflix
Studio Platforms.
Tejas Chopra
Senior Software
Engineer
Featured Person
Impressive
Industry
Tech, Making

Providing Best-in-Class Innovative Solutions
C O V E R S T O R Y
The learning and years spent
applying investigation skills with the
added edge of technical
understanding paved the way for
my next journey.
Dr. James Kent
CEO & Co-founder
Black Rainbow

ith an exciting detective career that
Wdiverged toward Digital Forensics and
Cyber Security, Dr. James Kent made it big
with a continuous learning curve in his service.
When an opportunity struck to give back to the
Investigation and Security community, James Kent
jumped on it and co-founded Black Rainbow. With
software that simplifies complex investigations and
drives efficiency at the forefront, Black Rainbow was
formed in 2017 with the sole strategic intent of
providing a modern and innovative solution for
organizations within proactive and reactive
investigations and operations.
We caught up with James and discussed his exciting
career and how his role as the CEO of Black Rainbow
tackles several challenges that have changed over time
and how the future of digital security looks.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
James, please brief our audience about your journey
as a business leader until your current position at
Black Rainbow. What challenges have you had to
overcome to reach where you are today?
My journey has been an interesting and varied one.
Starting life as an engineer, then followed my true
vocation and served as a detective in the police service.
A pivotal point in my life was in 1999 when the police
decided each force area should have a high-tech crime
unit dealing with the new field of digital forensics and
Cyber security. At the time, this was quite a step change
from murders, burglaries, and rapists and, of course, an
incredibly steep learning curve; however, it turned out
to be the best thing I had ever done.
The learning and years spent applying investigation
skills with the added edge of technical understanding
paved the way for my next journey. I decided to leave
the police force and start a consulting and training
company in the field of Digital Forensics, Incident
Response, and Cyber security serving all law
enforcement and government agencies. We quickly
became advisors to government and national agencies
around Hacking, Security, and Incident Response. This
was relatively short-lived as a global consulting firm
purchased the business. I then joined a Security and
Investigation Software company as the CEO of Europe,
the Middle East, and Africa based in London.
The business grew exceptionally well, and after a few
years, I moved out to Virginia as the CEO of North
America to build out the American market. Once again
continually having to adapt and learn new challenges,
new technologies, and new customers whilst juggling
the scale and geography of the North American market
for Investigations, Digital Forensics, and Security.
Some years later, after establishing the European and
North American businesses, I found myself returning to
London as a global Investigations and Security advocate
traveling the globe, visiting customers, and following
the speaking circuit until finally deciding to take a back
seat and retire gracefully and concentrate on my other
passion of classic car restoration and family. The
business ended up floating on the stock exchange a few
years later with a more than $1bn valuation.
My retirement plans were short-lived as I received a
call from my friend asking what you are up to. Do you
fancy starting something new? Black Rainbow was
born. The purpose was to give something back to the
Investigation and Security community and build
software to simplify complex investigations and drive
efficiency.
Tell us something more about your company and its
mission and vision.
Our mission is to reduce the investigation lifecycle
through intelligence, efficiency, and integrity. We have
and are transforming the way intelligence,
investigations, and evidence is managed, solving
inefficiencies and managing risks faced by Law
Our mantra has always been
about providing usable
technology to the industry we
have all worked and served for
many years.
“
“

Enforcement, Government, and Intelligence
sectors with our NIMBUS solution.
Our NIMBUS solution is the first integrated
investigation case and quality management
system available to the investigation and
intelligence market. Our customers say
NIMBUS is transformative.
Our heritage comes from Law Enforcement
and Government agencies; however, we
have seamlessly transitioned NIMBUS into
the corporate and financial sector simply
because the system is architected to render
the market segment irrelevant as the
problem is similar across markets,
geographies and customers.
Enlighten us on how you have impacted
the computer security niche through your
expertise in the market.
We are streamlining how investigations
have previously been managed by providing
a configurable and agile solution to evolve
and adapt to emerging challenges.
Organizations no longer depend on
spreadsheets, unsupported open source, or
siloed systems for their investigation
management requirements. The NIMBUS
suite provides complete control and
visibility of the investigation lifecycle,
supported by defensible evidence tracking,
task management, and reporting, all
underpinned by compliance with the latest
quality standards and procedures.
NIMBUS suite provides a centralized
platform for all stakeholders to work in,
helping investigation teams to deliver
efficiencies when creating and managing all
types of investigations within the
organisation.
NIMBUS now becomes the digital room
assistant empowering Investigators to
accelerate investigations by combining the
four vital principal phases of any
investigation:
Collection: Multi-source human and digital
information, data, and evidence can be
collected remotely via mobile devices and

Our NIMBUS solution is
what makes our business
and ensuring that it
remains robust in the
evolution of technology
and the digital
challenges we face.
“
“

sent via a portal to the core application. Controlled
exhibit handling and chain of custody for continuity
driving efficiency and integrity from the outset.
PRODUCTIVITY: Being able to work with the data to
produce actionable information. Digitise decision logs
and represent them in dashboards reflecting the
decisions made. Activities are visualized live as they are
taking place and updated with action trees to show the
quickest route between essential events, providing a
complete audit history of what took place, when and by
whom.
ANALYTICS: Visualize the case to reveal hidden
connections and sequential events in timeline views
along with building your canvas graphs, allowing you to
tell the story visually.
REPORTING: Minimizes the burden of reporting and
disclosure management from the initial data entry,
saving time—auto-populate case information into
statements and reports without the need to double key,
avoiding errors. Send and view an electronic case file on
mobile devices driving paperless investigations, court
reports, and feedback.
NIMBUS has numerous capabilities, and every bit of
information is recorded in a coordinated way enabling
investigators to see the bigger picture and optimize
decision-making with a practical and defensible audit
trail. It is The Investigation Platform.
Describe in detail the values and the work culture that
drives your organization.
The company culture is driven by four key areas,
Respect, Innovation, Transparency and Continuous
Improvement:
Ÿ Respect for our colleagues, suppliers, customers,
other stakeholders, and yourself.
Ÿ Create, share and drive Innovation throughout
Black Rainbow, working towards being efficient,
more effective, and maintaining competitive
advantage.
Ÿ Transparency in being honest in areas of
communication with colleagues and customers to
build trust and build the growth of a successful
business.
Ÿ Continuous Improvement with our software
product, the delivery of it, and our business
processes as we evolve to the needs of our growing
business.
Ÿ For all the Black Rainbow staff, the ability to be a
part of a mission and a team that has something to
achieve drives our motivation.
Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in
almost every sector. How are you leveraging
technological advancements to make your solutions
resourceful?
As investigations become, more complex and time-
sensitive, physical and digital information needs to
efficiently make its way into the central source of the
investigation/operations command. NIMBUS absorbs
this information rapidly to understand and build a
visual sequence of events. Historically, gathering and
converting this data into relevant, usable information
for presentation as potential evidence has been
complex. NIMBUS is designed to streamline this
process, reduce data duplication and optimize decision-
making while maintaining investigation integrity and
disclosure rules.
Our NIMBUS solution is what makes our business and
ensuring that it remains robust in the evolution of
technology and the digital challenges we face. The days
when hosting software on-premise are slowly
disappearing, and Cloud is being utilized along with AI
technology. When designing the architecture that
NIMBUS is built on, we were mindful and forward-
thinking of this change. This puts us ahead of the game
with many other competitors in the market.
We have also built flexible software. Once deployed,
our customers can manage the user interface with
configurable changes to allow them to adapt to how
they work now and in the future. This brings enormous
advantages to our end users as they do not have to wait
or incur additional costs, another differentiating factor
from other software in the market.
What, according to you, could be the next significant
change in the computer security sector? How is your
company preparing to be a part of that change?
Quality Management of data gathered within
investigations or intelligence sector. Ultimately this
comes down to – what processes are carried out and
whether they are in line with legislation andregulations.

Who conducts the activities, and are they competent
and trained to do this? What equipment is used, is it
validated and tested? Not all countries are subject to
the same regulations/legislation. However, should any
case go into the justice system, the evidence can be
scrutinized, which comes down to quality.
We have already invested in quality management by
integrating this into our solution and systematically
reducing the administrative burden, ensuring
evidenced conformity to quality and operational
requirements. Along with our NIMBUS' flexible
workflow engine, processes and procedures can be
digitized, enabling NIMBUS to always be current,
relevant, and a primary driver of risk management and
productivity improvements throughout the
organisation.
For some time, the disciplines around intelligence and
investigations have been separated. Dealing with siloed
data naturally incurs time penalties in time-sensitive
situations, and this has come through legacy working
practice lacking technology. Today, the technology
exists from the inception of any intelligence through to
the conclusion of the case to be in one secure,
permissioned environment. This allows reporting,
sanitization, dissemination, and analytical work to
benefit any permissioned user utilising the technology
via watchlist, notifications, and alerting. Once again,
driving efficiency to provide the correct information to
the right person at the right time.
NIMBUS has a further integral capability specifically for
intelligence generation, management, analysis, and
reporting. These are partly accelerated by the Elastic
Search platform and therefore are scalable to the
petabyte level. Building on the primary case or incident
data available within Operational Analytics, and
depending on the use case (Policing, Counter Terrorism,
Cyber, National Intel, etc.), all or a filtered subset
(People, Objects, Locations, Events, for example), can
be automatically targeted and added to the engine,
giving real-time access to potentially invaluable
information. Utilizing the Orchestration module, this
can be automated in the background depending on the
risk profile of the case. This rich source of pertinent
data can enable important pattern matching across
cases where no apparent links were previously known.
The NIMBUS intelligence module can also search third-
party databases on an aggregation model or, in the case
of legacy databases, extract all the data within a DB and
store it locally. Access to additional databases such as
number plate and driver's license data, passport and
border control, international watch lists, corporate
ownership and director listings, etc., when linked with
the Investigation Toolkit within NIMBUS, can
significantly assist in accelerating the investigation.
Where do you envision yourself in the long run, and
what are your future goals for BlackRainbow?
To complement our current Americas customers, the
next phase for Black Rainbow is further growth and
resilience to meet the market evolution; our offices
have just opened in Reston, VA. Our mantra has always
been about providing usable technology to the industry
we have all worked and served for many years. As a
team, Black Rainbow genuinely wants to help and make
a difference in how we all go about our daily work and
continue to engage with our customers and focus
groups on enhancing NIMBUS at every step.
What would be your advice to budding entrepreneurs
who aspire to venture into the computer security
sector?
Many organizations are delivering the same thing, some
better than others. You do not need to reinvent the
wheel if it is not broken; however, understanding where
gaps or significant improvements are required can be
gold dust. Listen to what the market, industry, and laws
are saying, and most of all, be passionate and driven,
find the niche, and own it.
NIMBUS suite provides a centralized
platform for all stakeholders to work
in, helping investigation teams to
deliver efficiencies when creating and
managing all types of investigations
within the organisation.
“
“

Dr. Henry Balani
Global Head
Industry & Regulatory Affairs
www.ciolook.com |March 2023 |
18

Dr. Henry Balani
Propelling the Horizons of Enhancements
A
tech expert has a technical background,
experience, and skills to fulfil IT tasks. Such a
specialist is qualified to use technology to solve
various problems. The role of tech leaders is much
broader. Tech leadership requires excellence in the
field, awareness of the business and technological
environment, and the ability to optimize speed, quality
and resources.
Tech leaders are enthusiastic learners with constant
endeavor for professional development. A strong
leader possesses a holistic vision of a project from the
ground up. They are adept with technical details, know
business processes, clearly understand the overall
project, and efficiently perform management functions.
Standing out as one of the eminent leaders with such a
significant skillset is Dr. Henry Balani, Global Head of
Industry & Regulatory Affairs, Encompass
Corporation.
At Encompass, Dr. Balani advocates for regulations
supporting technology firms and writes about new
technology that can impact the financial services
industry.
Along the way, he also obtained a Finance Doctoral
degree, recognizing his passion for academia and
teaching.
In an interview with CIOLook, Dr. Balani shares his
professional tenure and highlights his journey so far as
a tech leader in the dynamic business arena.
Below are the excerpts from the interview:
Brief our audience about your journey as a business
leader until your current position at your company.
What challenges have you had to overcome to reach
where you are today?
I started my journey way back in university, where I was
fortunate to join AIESEC, a student-led business society
focused on raising internships in foreign countries. ,
One summer I worked in Istanbul, Turkey, followed by a
placement with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture)
in Chicago, USA. The fundamental lesson learned here
was the ability to interact confidently with colleagues,
associates, and friends from all walks of life and
worldwide.
My career has been international since working for
global technology firms supporting financial institutions
in the fight against financial crime.
Challenges, as expected, are numerous. Life gets in the
way – both positive and negative. I recognized early the
need for managers and senior executives that could
support my career path. I have actively looked for
mentors/other leaders to collaborate and discuss with.
Creating these types of deeper relationships can be
challenging – you need to demonstrate your value, be
willing to take their advice and show progress – but the
rewards far outstrip the effort.
I was fortunate to move to roles where I could exercise
my leadership skills and contribute to growth at the
same time—raising a family, while not a challenge in the
traditional sense, forces one to make choices in terms
of where to allocate your time. One can plan for life as
much as possible, but unplanned events can take your
career off track.
I recall one leadership role I had, where I had to
terminate 13 staff before I was made redundant, as one
of the most challenging experiences I have had. Flying
around the country, meeting staff at public locations
like coffee shops and airport lounges while terminating
them and asking for their laptops was not at all pleasant
– especially when I knew I had to leave after the
exercise. Staying professional at all times was vital. One
can be empathetic and understanding, but representing
the company was paramount.
mission and vision.
www.ciolook.com | March 2023 |
19

Founded in 2011, Encompass Corporation transforms
regulatory compliance and customer onboarding with
Know Your Customer (KYC) automation. Its advanced
technology, unrivalled data coverage and industry
expertise help clients to grow their businesses and fight
financial crime safely.
The Encompass Corporation platform reduces the cost
of KYC and improves time to revenue by providing KYC
due diligence on demand, powered by intelligent
process automation. Customers include leading global
banks and financial institutions.
Enlighten us on how you have impacted your niche
through your expertise in the market.
There is a common perception that any regulatory
penalties or introduction of new anti-money laundering
regulations on banks is a negative for the financial
services industry. It would seem logical that if a bank
receives a fine for failing to address regulatory
compliance issues, there would be negative
consequences beyond just the fine – for example,
customers will close their accounts, or the market
would dump their shares, leading to lower valuations.
I pursued a Finance doctoral degree and, over four
years, managed to research and publish my findings. I
examined European banks and their stock valuations
over a period of 10 years using thousands of data points
with the introduction of the Fourth Anti-Money
Laundering Directive (4AMLD) and established the
opposite was, in fact, true – that, with the introduction
of regulations, the valuation of bank stocks over
actually increased.
Regulations provide structure to banking operations
and, when introduced, provide clarity to compliance
operations, meaning banks can follow processes
developed to minimize money laundering within their
banks. With the 4AMLD, investors now feel more
comfortable that banks comply, leading to greater stock
buys in these banks.
I published my findings in academic journals, meeting
frequently with regulators and bank executives globally
to demonstrate the results and was able to influence
the banking industry by showing that regulations are, in
fact. good for stock prices.
Encompass Corporation has been rapidly growing over
the past 12 years, with locations globally in New York,
Amsterdam, Belgrade, Singapore, London, Glasgow and
Sydney. From a ‘start up’ to what is now a ‘scale up,’ the
focus has always been to put the employee first. The
recent pandemic certainly put a strain on work-life
balance, with employees having to work out of their
homes instead of physical offices.
Technology firms have been more fortunate in that
virtual conferencing and other remote working tools
were not unusual even before the crisis, which helped
with maintaining productivity and keeping a positive
spin on work.
Understanding why we do what we do is also very
important. We are not writing software or creating
widgets; rather we are helping in the fight against
financial crime. As a regulatory technology firm, what
we produce directly makes a difference in finding the
‘bad guy.’ Banks need our solution to not only comply
with regulations but also stop the proceeds from illicit
activities that lead to money laundering. This difference
Encompass Corporation makes is a powerful driver for
all employees and helps them stay committed.
Employees are also given time off to support charitable
work and various ESG activities are always in play. Each
office tries to reflect the company ethos and, being a
technology company used to remote offices and
employees, this comes across well, with employees
regularly recommending Encompass as a great place to
work.
resourceful?
Because we are a technology company, innovation is
our lifeblood, to ensure our clients receive maximum
value from their investments. We are all exposed to
new technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine
Learning, Robotic Process Automation, Web 3.0 and
other cutting-edge applications.
Our Product and Engineering teams review the market,
attend technology conferences, and develop sandbox
20

solutions in the name of developing efficiency and
scalability in our solutions. In today’s world, the use of
sanctions to punish errant jurisdiction and individuals is
becoming more pervasive. Banks need to comply with
increasingly complex rules and regulations to identify
the ‘bad guy’ with more and more penalties and bad
press.
Encompass’ Corporation focus is to make the complex
act of mapping out corporate structures and ultimate
beneficial owners more consistent, reliable and
scalable, all while making it cost-efficient. Cloud
technologies and ‘Software-as-a-Service’ have been
introduced, allowing banks to sign up for a license to
use the platform, with new features being continually
added without having to conduct expensive software
upgrades.
Clients can turn features ‘on and off’ as needed and
change how they comply with policies without having
to change code (a new advancement known as low code
applications). With the introduction of ‘Application
Programming Interfaces’ (APIs), different applications
are easier to connect to.
However, what is important is to ensure these new
technologies create efficiencies that positively impact
the Compliance Officers and Operations teams. It is not
just new technologies, but the application of these new
technologies, that is important to success.
What change would you like to bring to your industry
if given a chance?
Understand that technology solutions will actually
make life easier for Compliance and Operations teams.
Internal company inertia and a lack of budget often
prevent banks from investing in new technologies.
As an advocate for these solutions, I have seen where
technology has failed, not because of the technology
but because of the politics surrounding the
implementations. Existing staff are entrenched in their
current ways and reluctant to change. Processes that
used to take hours can now be completed in minutes
through using technology.
change in your sector? How is your company
preparing to be a part of that change?
is a technology-oriented
company; innovation is
our lifeblood, to ensure
our clients receive
maximum value from
their investments.
“ “
21

APIs continue to be refined, making data integration
across multiple platforms easier and more scalable. As a
company, we will continue to monitor these emerging
technologies and apply what we feel is beneficial.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run,
and what are your future goals for your company?
I have always felt that technology solutions have a
central role to play in productivity improvement,
especially in financial services. I have always attempted
to introduce this across my different roles.
As a company, we will continue to work with both our
clients and strategic partners to create relevant
solutions that will benefit the ecosystem. In terms of my
individual aspirations, I will continue to indulge in the
academic world, researching, teaching and sharing my
experiences with students.
who aspire to venture into your sector?
Technology trends come and go; fads will always be
introduced. It is important to be at least aware of these
trends and do your research into what you feel will
make a difference. There will always be misses and be
prepared for these.
Venture capitalists are happy when 2 out of 10 of their
investments bear fruit. Failure is an opportunity to
continue to improve. For the long haul, there will be
opportunities to get it right. Perseverance and a
positive attitude are key.
Artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and
Natural Language Processing (NLP) are the next new
technologies that can make a significant impact. The
challenge facing banks is the mountain of data they
have to process in order to find relevant matches – akin
to finding a ‘needle in a haystack.’
There is just too much data out there, and these new
technologies can be used to identify financial crime by
analyzing large amounts of data, such as transaction
records and customer information to detect patterns
and anomalies that may indicated illicit activity.
Models can be developed and trained on historical
financial crime data to recognize specific types of
money laundering. Statistical analysis can be used to
identify patterns of financial data. Clustering
algorithms could be used to group together similar
transactions based on various features, and then
identify the clusters that are most likely associated with
illicit activity.
Natural language tools can be used to generate
language explanations of its findings, making it easier
for compliance offices to understand and act on the
results.
22

Shyamala
Prayaga
Enriching the
Aspects of
Experience
A
positive product experience fulfilling the
necessities is one reason, among many others,
why the customer opts for a specific service
from the plethora of modern market competition.
Intuitive experience, coherent design, and user-focused
accessibility all of these add to why a user chooses to
interact with a service from a business.
Recognizing the societal and cultural benefits of
customer satisfaction by utilizing accommodating user
interfaces, Shyamala Prayaga, Senior Software
Product Manager at NVIDIA—a self-driven evangelist
for UX and voice technology—offers leading-edge
services that enhance usability.
She holds insights and knowledge with an
experience and leadership from her technical
development and design roles. Her design and
research work are presented nationally and
internationally to general and field-specific
audiences. She has 18 years of experience
designing mobile, web, desktop, and smart TV
interfaces.
In addition, Shyamala has more than six years
of experience designing voice interfaces for
Connected Home Experiences, Automotive and
Wearables.
CIOLook had the privilege to interview Shyamala,
where she discussed her vital contribution to the
industry of UX and voice tech.
Shyamala
Prayaga
Senior So ware
Product Manager
NVIDIA
24

Shyamala, enlighten our readers about your
professional tenure so far in the industry and shed
some light on your novelties that are enhancing UX
and Voice technology.
As Senior Software Product Manager of Conversational
AI: Deep Learning, I drive NVIDIA's Speech AI GUI
product suites by owning the roadmap and working
with cross-functional teams to realize it. I previously
worked for Ford Motor Company as a Product Owner
Digital Assistant, leading the roadmap for voice and
chatbot innovation across traditional and autonomous
vehicles. My product, the SYNC 4 Digital Assistant, an
intelligent, voice-activated, in-vehicle assistant, was
introduced in Ford's F-150 and Mustang Mach-e
models in 2019.
Prior to Ford, I worked with Amazon and Voicebox
Technologies to lead user experiences for voice
applications. I was part of the Alexa Gen 1 (a voice-
activated smart speaker) launch in 2014, which became
an overnight sensation. My career began 22 years ago
as a User Experience (UX) designer designing mobile,
web, smart TV, and desktop applications. Citibank,
Toyota Shopping Tool, and VidyoMobile were among
the first mobile applications I designed. Over the past
decade, I have designed voice interfaces for
automotive, wearables, and connected homes.
Tell us more about yourself, highlighting the
exceptional skillset that makes you one of the most
impressive tech leaders who are enabling
advancements in the modern industry.
I have always been fascinated by Artificial Intelligence,
even during my undergraduate years. Over the course
of my career, I have always focused on creating user
experiences for cutting-edge technologies. My journey
with Conversation AI started a decade ago during an
Amazon hackathon when I prototyped an augmented
reality application called the ‘Junglee Shopping Tool.’
There are still many people who don't feel comfortable
buying things online because they want to try them out
first. Using emerging technologies like augmented
reality and voice, I envisioned enabling e-trials to
encourage online shopping. As a result of the proof of
concept, I won the ‘people's choice award.’ Later, the
As Senior Software
Product Manager of
Conversational AI: Deep
Learning, I drive NVIDIA's
Speech AI GUI product suites
by owning the roadmap
and working with cross-
functional teams
to realize it.
concept was introduced by many leading retailers in
their online stores, including Amazon.
I worked with the Department of Transportation to
fund an ‘Omnichannel Digital Assistant’ research
project to enable people with disabilities to easily
access autonomous vehicles. My idea was to leverage
conversational AI technologies such as Automated
Speech Recognition, Text-to-Speech, Natural Language
Processing, Automated Sign Language Detection, and
Voice Biometrics, as well as adjustable touch screens
with tactile surfaces to provide maximum utility and
control to the disabled in the self-driving car.
It is my belief that everyone should be able to access
products, regardless of their age, abilities, or
circumstances. My opinion is that self-driving cars will
change the number one rule for driving: The vehicle
needs an able driver who is licensed and fully qualified.
Vehicles that can operate themselves will not need a
licensed driver. Anyone who can enter an autonomous
vehicle and give it a destination can use it.
I introduced the five pillars to empower inclusivity in
autonomous vehicles: 1) Trust, 2) Independence, 3)
Understanding, 4) Recognition, and 5) Response. I
believe that ‘when a vehicle becomes the driver, the
voice becomes the companion.’ Omnichannel Digital
Assistants can be game changers not only in
automotive but kiosks and retail setups. All it needs is
proper orchestration.
25

Voice interfaces have made many advances and are the
most natural form of interaction, but there are still
challenges and gaps in language, understanding, and
recognition. As a result, the products have limited
utility and trustworthiness. I recently published a book
called ‘Emotionally Engaged Digital Assistant:
Humanizing Design and Technology’.
The book lays out several key frameworks for
implementing voice interfaces that build trust.
Additionally, I introduced six principles of emotional
engagement: empathy, ease, transparency, relationship,
confidence, and delight. In the book, I discuss how
technology and design can be humanized through the
use of the six principles and the framework.
Looking at the recent improvements in conversational
AI and Deep Learning, share your valuable opinion on
how these emerging technologies ensure reliability in
modern-day operations.
We have always imagined a voice assistant we can talk
to, and the rise of voice-enabled assistants is proof of
that dream. With advancements in conversational AI
and deep learning, it has become possible to talk to
these voice-activated assistants and automate
repetitive tasks. A survey of over a hundred people I
interviewed for my book ‘Emotionally Engaged Digital
Assistant - Humanizing Design and Technology’ found
that almost everyone owns at least four voice-enabled
devices and uses them to set alarms, schedules, and
reminders.
Speech is the most natural form of communication for
humans. In contrast to technology use, speech does not
require any learning curve. These voice assistants are
becoming easier to communicate with advancements in
AI and deep learning. As AI advances, we can now
converse with these assistants in a natural and
conversational way instead of relying on ruled
interfaces.
From automotive applications to customer service use
cases, conversational AI technology is becoming
increasingly useful. In automotive, it allows customers
to get directions, play music, and get information about
nearby points of interest, reducing the distractions that
come with using smartphones behind the wheel. To
optimize their ordering and fulfillment pipeline,
retailers are experimenting with voice-activated drive-
throughs.
With the advancement in text-to-speech, we can now
generate high-quality emotive synthetic voices with
very small data compared to days' worth of data. In
addition to helping content designers who create audio
content, TTS also provides voices for people with
disabilities. As a result of advancements in natural
language processing, bots and humans are able to
converse with each other in a high-quality manner. This
is supported by large language models. Virtual
assistants, IVR systems, and other applications can
benefit from this content generation.
As a professional technology evangelist, tell us about
the social and cultural benefits of voice-tech
evolution.
26

During one of my podcasts, ‘The future is spoken’
episodes, I interviewed a person with cerebral palsy
who relies on a wheelchair to get around. His
immobility prevents him from doing many everyday
tasks efficiently. As a first-time dad expecting a baby, he
voice-enabled his entire home so that he could enjoy
fatherhood as any other person would. To assist him in
holding and putting back his baby, he built a voice-
activated cradle that can adjust based on height. It is an
example of the power of voice-enabled technology to
assist everyone and to enable access for everyone.
From urban innovation to women's safety, voice
technology is being explored in many different
contexts. Voice assistants are being used by seniors in
senior living for companionship and emergency help. A
study is being conducted that aims to use voice to
detect Parkinson's disease and COVID-19, which can
be detected by how certain phonemes are pronounced.
India's rural areas are exploring voice technology to
assist digitally illiterate people in finding information
related to agriculture.
Voice technology offers numerous benefits, and these
explorations are evidence that many possibilities
remain unexplored.
What is your primary role at NVIDIA, and what
inspires you to galvanize enrichments in the voice and
UX niche?
In my role as Senior Software Product Manager of
Conversational AI: Deep Learning, I own the roadmap
and vision for NVIDIA's Speech AI GUI product suite,
which allows customers to customize Speech AI with
self-service offerings requiring little or no code. In the
conversational AI industry, customers are increasingly
demanding the ability to create their own synthetic
voices.
There are many possible applications, such as
preserving the voice of a cancer patient or powering a
metahuman's voice. Traditionally, creating a custom
voice requires hours of data and technical knowledge
to train the model and create a production-grade clone.
No-code and low-code platforms are lowering the bar,
enabling more people to customize their voices with
minimal data and coding.
Originally, I studied architecture but switched to UX
because I love simplifying complex user interactions. As
a child, I watched my parents struggle with technology,
which inspired me to design usable products. No matter
how many great features a product has, it isn't worth
the cost if it isn't usable. It is my firm belief that UX is
the soul and heart of every product. I base my designs
on the premise that a fifth grader should be able to
understand them. The average person wouldn't
understand if it wasn't easy for a fifth grader.
So far, NVIDIA has been a significant game-changer in
the world of technology; How is your expertise
helping the company to scale its progress to greater
heights, eventually?
I assert that any product's heart and soul is its user
experience. It is likely that there will be ongoing utility
and more feature requests if the product is easy to use.
Customers will abandon a product if it is not usable.
I design every product and feature from the user's
perspective. Every step of my design process involves
extensive user research and validation with users.
When a product is designed with the user in mind, it will
always be usable. This facilitates not only utility but
also scalability.
What would be your advice to the budding aspirants
who are willing to venture into the UX niche in the
near future and develop voice-assistive software?
Take part in industry events and meetups, build
connections, and learn about conversational AI and UX
through books, podcasts, and events. Become familiar
with key concepts, tools, and processes. Make use of
the skills you have learned to create capstones and
sample applications. Make sure you master practical
skills. You cannot gain confidence until you put it into
practice, no matter how much you read and study. Get
to know industry experts and what they do on a daily
basis. Establish meaningful connections.
Where do you see yourself in the long run, and how
are you working towards achieving your future goals
in this niche?
It is still the early days for the conversational AI
industry. Technology enablement and enhancement are
still a long way off, as is defining unified standards and
adopting them across sectors. It is my goal to bring all of
these together to create an omnichannel and inclusive
experience.
27

Steve Daly
Steve Daly
Using Technology to Help
Companies Stay Future-Ready
T
oday’s market forces, economic realities, and
customer expectations shift constantly. To keep
up, companies need the flexibility to pivot fast. In
the past, enterprise organizations often tackled digital
transformation piecemeal, taking a project-based
approach to problems at the business unit level. In
today’s world, companies can’t afford a siloed approach.
To be successful, they need a holistic strategy for digital
transformation.
Over the course of his 30+ year career, Steve Daly has
watched that evolution in real time, and with his hands
on the keyboard. As a technology leader with experi-
ence across a wide range of industries and applications,
Steve provides a unique strategic viewpoint, combined
with an ongoing commitment to apply emerging
technologies to solve business problems.
In his current role as Vice President of Technology at
Fusion Alliance, a New Era Technology Company,
Steve oversees powerful digital transformation
solutions that keep companies moving forward in a
rapidly changing world.
CIO Look sat down with Steve, to hear about how his
30-year career shapes his perspective on technology
innovation.
Below are highlights of the interview:
Being diagnosed as an adult with Attention Deficit
Disorder (ADD) gave me insight into why I always
struggled with the longer timelines of digital transfor-
mation projects and why Agile processes and method-
ology have been an absolute game-changer for my
career. Developed to facilitate software delivery, Agile’s
iterative, incremental approach separates projects into
short-term milestones. Applying an agile mindset to
projects helps me focus my attention so I can make
measurable progress and iterative improvements. In
addition to revolutionizing my productivity, this
framework helps me surface patterns and anticipate
challenges. The Agile framework has helped me turn my
struggles into something of a superpower.
Could you talk more about Fusion Alliance? What are
its mission and vision?
Fusion helps companies evolve and scale by delivering
end-to-end digital transformation solutions that
position organizations for whatever the future holds.
How have you impacted the IT sector through your
expertise in the market?
Over the course of my career, I’ve worked in a wide
variety of industries and had my hands on the keyboard
for 30 years of innovation. That broad exposure to
different ideas and ways of working helps me approach
projects more creatively. I’m passionate about using
technology to solve problems and finding ways to bring
cross-industry applications to life.
Could you talk about the values and culture that
drives your organization?
At Fusion, we’re passionate about digital transforma-
tion, and committed to leadership at the intersection of
digital, data, and technology solutions. Our people are
experts, but they’re also team players who work
collaboratively to deliver for our clients.
28

At Fusion, we’re
passionate about
digital transformation,
and committed to
leadership at the intersection
of digital, data, and
technology solutions.
Steve Daly,
Vice President of Technology
Fusion Alliance, a New Era
Technology Company
29

30

almost every sector. How are you leveraging techno-
logical advancements to achieve resourceful and
successful solutions?
Our teams stay connected to the leading edge of
technology, but we also look for ways to apply those
breakthroughs to the daily business problems our
clients face. Applying trends to real-world scenarios
democratizes technology and helps companies, even in
very traditional industries, stay future-ready.
What do you believe will be the next significant shift
in IT, and how is Fusion Alliance preparing to be a part
of that change?
We’re entering a shift toward smart automation,
implementing AI at every layer of technology. This will
revolutionize IT operations. Even now, we’re seeing this
with natural language processing in code development,
self-healing application architectures, and other
exciting developments. I think we’ll see this trend
toward the adoption of AI in infrastructure and opera-
tions continue.
Where do you see yourself in the future?
I still spend dedicated time each day on research,
looking for ways to make connections between what’s
emerging in technology and how it can make the world
a better place. I think that will always be part of my
work, but I’ve also started thinking about how to pass
knowledge on to others. As I look ahead, I see my work
developing into more of a mentoring and teaching role,
but I never want to lose that problem-solving edge!
To expand upon this question, what are your future
goals for Fusion Alliance?
Fusion does a terrific job of helping mid-market and
enterprise organizations evolve their digital maturity.
Our near-term strategic moves are geared toward
expanding our cross-disciplinary approach and offering
more comprehensive partnerships—from strategy to
design, implementation, and managed services—so that
our clients can access our flexibility to enhance their
own ability to pivot to meet the market.
and professionals who aspire to move into the IT
sector?
Technology only works when you understand the
business. Too many people in the industry get hyped on
the technology, but they fail to achieve lasting impact
because they overlook or misjudge the business
problem they need to solve.
Anyone who wants to succeed in the technology field of
the future needs a strong business background.
Understanding how markets work, how to interpret
data, and what's going on in the economy will help you
be more empathetic to your clients and gain a better
understanding of the impact of your work. You can sling
code all day, but until your client knows you understand
their context, you won’t be effective.
These are exciting times in technology, with a lot of
possibilities just around the corner. Technology is
always cool on its own merits, but when you use it to
solve real business problems and make the world a
better place, that’s when you really see the impact of
your work and find deeper satisfaction in what you do.
Fusion does a terrific
job of helping
mid-market and
enterprise organizations
evolve their digital
maturity.
31

Tejas
A Stalwart and an Innovative Tech Leader
E
ntertainment and technology influence and are
influenced by each other. As technology is getting
enriched with significant advancements, artists
have been stretching the limits of their imagination to
amuse in increasingly better and more innovative ways.
Tejas Chopra is a Senior Software Engineer at the
worldwide famous entertainment company Netflix. He
is an expert in building on-premise and cloud-native
distributed systems at scale, software as a service
(SaaS), API & micro-services. Tejas is working on cloud
and distributive systems that are designed to help
artists create content from any part of the world.
Tejas is also an International Keynote Speaker, and he
periodically conducts sessions on Blockchain, Cloud
Architecture, Software Development, Micro-services,
Distributed Systems, etc.
Netflix provides internet entertainment services for
watching movies and television shows. The company
offers TV shows and movies such as original series,
documentaries, and feature films through an internet
subscription on TV, computer, and mobile devices.
In an exclusive interview with CIOLook, Tejas shares his
journey in the tech industry, the challenges he faced in
its dynamic landscape, and the impact that he is making
on the entertainment industry by leveraging
technology.
Brief our audience about your journey as a business
leader until your current position at your company.
I started my journey in the US in 2010 when I pursued
my Masters in Electrical & Computer Engineering from
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. As an
immigrant and a person of color, it took me some time
to adjust to the lifestyle and culture of the east coast.
While at CMU, I interned at Apple.
That gave me exposure to Silicon Valley, and I
absolutely loved it. This is where my journey as a
software engineer focused on distributed systems and
storage commenced. Over my career, I have focused on
writing software for scalable systems, starting from
GNU Debuggers at Cadence, to a novel log-structured
file system for Android devices at Samsung, followed by
architecting metadata and data stores, and data
management primitives at Datrium.
In the
entertainment industry,
there is a need to
build better technological
solutions to enable
artists to work from any
part of the globe
on movie assets.
32

Tejas Chopra
Senior Software Engineer
Netﬂix, Inc.
33

At Box, Inc. I used my skills to help build an optimized,
scalable and performant cloud content management
system. At Netflix, I initially focused on building a
media-aware cloud file system called Netflix Drive, and
currently, I am focused on building transfer and storage
solutions for Netflix Studios.
Along with my work, I have also built my brand by
participating as a speaker and a panelist at several
conferences. I educate leaders on Cloud Computing,
Blockchain, and Engineering Leadership. I also advise
companies on leveraging both the Cloud and
Blockchain to build futuristic privacy-preserving
solutions.
Some of my biggest challenges have been applying my
skills to adapt to both the nimbleness of a startup, as
well as the scale of a large organization.
34

As my career progressed, I learned that as technology
is radically changing and evolving, there is a need to
continuously stay abreast of the latest software and
not be too attached to your design or implementation.
mission and vision.
Netflix is an entertainment company. We provide our
users with content that they value and enjoy and
provide joy. Our mission is ‘To entertain the world,’ and
our corporate vision is ‘To continue being one of the
leading firms of the internet entertainment era.’
Enlighten us on how you have impacted your niche
through your expertise in the market.
I have been working on Cloud Storage and Distributed
systems for the past decade. I have been able to apply
some of the optimizations and performance benefits of
local storage to the cloud, thereby helping enterprises
with scale and cost savings at petabyte and exabyte
scales. My expertise has helped scale backend systems
and save millions of dollars in infrastructure costs at
Box & Netflix.
My organization is Content Infrastructure Solutions.
We are the infrastructure layer for Netflix Studios’
content management. We provide point solutions for
building performance and efficient infrastructure that
is both cost-effective and turn-key for our partners. We
strive to seek the right balance between futuristic
initiatives and building non-complex pluggable
architectural solutions for our partners.
resourceful?
We strongly leverage some of the cloud primitives
exposed by AWS, such as S3, EC2, Kafka, etc., to
build our infrastructure. We consciously evaluate
our build v/s buy decision process and converge
on what provides maximum value to the business
and keeps us focused on our vision.
What change would you like to bring to your industry
if given a chance?
I would like to explore how machine learning and AI can
help with the infrastructure instead of just on the
application layer. There is a lot of potential for exploring
efficiency initiatives using these technologies. In the
entertainment industry in general, there is a need to
build better technological solutions to enable artists to
work from any part of the globe on movie assets.
change in your sector? How is your company
preparing to be a part of that change?
Some of the partners and vendors in the movie-making
industry have been using the same tools and techniques
for the past few decades and have not completely
embraced the power of the cloud. Netflix is pioneering
the idea of a Studio in the Cloud where artists can work
from any part of the world to make delightful content. I
believe this is the future of movie-making.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run,
and what are your future goals for your company?
As a Sr. Engineer at Netflix, I would be working on
cutting-edge technology to make movie making as
advanced as movie streaming. Netflix is a leader in the
streaming segment, and some of our learnings can
apply to movie-making as well, and we have a lot of
potential to scale and optimize, which is where I can see
myself providing value.
who aspire to venture into your sector?
Keeping an open mind to technological innovations in
all sectors and exploring ways to apply them to the
cloud and distributed systems. Learning about your
customer and the tools and techniques they use will
provide you with a lot of insight and will help you design
and architect better solutions. And finally, rolling up
your sleeves and working on multiple layers of the
software stack is a very beneficial and fulfilling skill to
possess.
35

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