20 Best Performing CEOs to Watch in 2020

VOL 08 | ISSUE 02 | 2020
SWAPNIL
AGARWAL
A Dreamer, an Achiever
and a Passionate
Business Leader
Performing CEOs
to watch in 2020
Best
The
Industry Today
The Impacts of Pandemic in
Pharma and Biotech Laboratory
Better Approach
Build-On EdTech
for a Better World

Leading Together,
Achieving Together
he chief executive role is a big one to fill.
TBeing a CEO of a company, whether that’s a
big or small company, takes a lot of work.
Mostly, it takes years of experience and climbing the
corporate ladder to become one and lead the next
chapter. But real meaning of a CEO is a title, which
comes from those people one surrounds him/herself
with, knowing that responsibilities need to be given to
capable and trustworthy people. Even for a CEO, it is
impossible to know everything and doing it all alone,
that is why having a strong team by side is so critical.
Having a strong team is very crucial for successful
leadership but it’s not easy to figure out who those
people will going to, according to a research, there are
at least five major traits that one business leader
should look for when adding someone in a supportive
role. Below are the values should be checked when it
comes to hiring people who is going to work
alongside the head of the company and expected to
succeed in a stressful position.
• Resourcefulness
Of course, skills for the job are primary criteria but it
is also necessary to know how to utilize the resources.
A resourceful and active employee can change the
whole scenario of the situation and turn the tide on
positive side.
• Team Work
It is believed that a business is only as good as the
employees who work for it. An employee who learns,
teach and helping others thrive in their professional
careers is a complete pack with an extremely valuable
skill.
Editor’s Desk

• Ready to Listen
Opinions are based on personal experiences,
learning and capability of understanding but
being great is about not putting self-ego when it
comes to collaborate and working together
• Always Ready to Learn Something New
Learning is the life long process and lessons are
learned through trial and mistake. Always playing
safe and repeating the same will not get you
anywhere. It is important to experiment so you
can learn new even from failures.
A good CEO wants to understand the thought
process of his/her employees, so, when necessary,
they’re able to offer productive feedback when
presented with something. It also helps when
solving difficulties together as a group, keeping
things organized when each employee offers an
idea.
This is all about Insights Success’s new edition
“The 20 Best Performing CEOs to Watch in
2020.” where it listed some exceptional leaders
who believe in teamwork and achieving together.
rohit.chaturvedi@insightssuccess.com

ARTICLE
10
Swapnil
Agrawal
36 26
Industry Today
The Impacts of Pandemic in
Pharma and Biotech Laboratory
Better Approach
Build-On
EdTech for a Better World
COVER STORY
and a Passionate
Business Leader

C O N T E N T S
Christopher Carter
Leading a charge in SAP Solutions
22
Gary Olson
Protecting People and Business
Through the use of Artiﬁcial Intelligence
18
Katherine Colombino
An Excellent Dedicated Professional
40
Shanaz Ramzi
Bringing Perfection in PR and
Event Management
48
Feras El Hajjar
An Ingenious Leader in Digital
Transformation and Business
Management
32
Karsten Boehrs
Revolutionizing Education and
Communication through Simple
Accessible Resources
44
Rob Leslie
Advancing Business Practices
with Digital Identity
30

sales@insightssuccess.com
August, 2020
Editor-in-Chief
Senior Sales Manager Business Development Manager
Marketing Manager
Technical Head
Technical Specialist Digital Marketing Manager
Research Analyst
Database Management Technology Consultant
Sumita Sarkar
Managing Editor
Anish Miller
Executive Editor
Rohit Chaturvedi
Assistant Editors
Jenny Fernandes
Visualizer
David King
Art & Design Director
Asha Bange
Associate Designer
Kartik Balapurkar
Kshitij S Andy Mitter
John Matthew
Sales Executives
David, Martin, Sagar
Business Development Executives
Steve, Joe, Aidan, Sanket
Jacob Smile
Aditya Marry D'Souza
SME-SMO Executive
Amol Wadekar Frank Adams
Circulation Manager
Robert Brown Stella Andrew David Stokes
Kushagra Gupta
Co-designer
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Brief
Company Name
Approyo
www.approyo.com
Eileen Kiernan
CEO
Airolink Group
airolinkgroup.com
Esther Poulsen
Founder and CEO
Gary Olson
Founder & CEO
Ian Charles Dench
Chief Executive Officer
Infosysta & App4Legal
app4legal.com
GT Digital Ltd
gtdigitalltd.com
Raaresolutions
raaresolutions.com
Charles Brindamour
CEO
Dr Anil Pillai
Chairman & CEO
Feras El Hajjar
Founder &
Chairman of Infosysta |
Founder &
CEO of App4Legal
Christopher Carter
Founder & CEO
Geoff Garrett
CEO
Ooredoo Oman
www.ooredoo.om
UM Worldwide
umww.com
Intact Financial Corporation is the largest provider of property
and casualty (P&C) insurance in Canada and a leading provider
of specialty insurance in North America, with over CAD$11
billion in total annual premiums.
Approyo provides full SAP service technology with extensive
capabilities in hosting and managed services, upgrades, and
migrations for our customers, running any SAP supported core
functionality.
Airolink focuses on a wide range from pre-construction
services to complete turn-key construction projects.
UM is a strategic media planning and buying agency that
leverages Better Science to create Better Art that drives Better
Outcomes for its clients.
Raare Solutions is an award-winning Operational CRM Agency
specializing in the design, execution and support of CRM and
Marketing Platforms, Campaign Orchestration, Email
Execution and Analytics.
App4Legal is a comprehensive Legal Practice Management
Solution addressing the entire market of legal practitioners, in
law firms and in-house legal departments.
GT Digital is the first AI technology that can analyze and
correlate all this data to help professionals prevent violence and
criminal intent. Using Artificial Intelligence to save lives and
protect property is essential today.
Syspro
syspro.com
SYSPRO is an industry-built Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) solution designed to simplify business complexity for
manufacturers and distributors worldwide.
It is a community-focused business and belives to have
responsibility to its customers to help contribute to the social
and economic development of the communities the comapany
operates within.
Intact Financial
Corporation
Intactfc.com
Featuring Name
Johan Jemdahl
CEO
Greencarrier
greencarrier.com
Greencarrier is one of the Nordic region’s largest privately
owned companies specialising in global transport solutions.

Brief
Company Name
Software & Services
Consulting
SRL ssc.com.py
Moses Baiden
CEO
Egypt Express
egyptexpress.com.eg
Rob Leslie
CEO & Founder
Stefano Romano
CEO
StarLinks
starlink.com
NextFuel
nextfuel.com
Sedicii
sedicii.com
Karsten Boehrs
Co-investor & CEO
Mohammad Shaheen
Managing Director
Shanaz Ramzi
Katherine Colombino
Swapnil Agarwal
CEO
Margins Group
marginsgroup.com
simpleshow is the industry leader of explainer videos. The
explainer video format takes complicated topics and visually
explains them simply and coherently in just three minutes or
less– using visual tools like paper drawings, two hands, and a
well-composed mix of text, images, and sounds.
Software and Services Consulting SRL is positioned as the
number one partner in Paraguay of SAP Business One.
Confidence, Clarity and Constant Accompaniment are some of
the terms used by its clients to describe what SSC means to
them.
Egypt Express (EE) is a joint stock company registered in
Egypt and has been the licensee of Federal Express Corporation
since 1998. Its headquarter is in Cairo and it employs more
than 700 employees.
Margins Group and its subsidiaries are connecting people and
solutions over secure physical and virtual platforms, ensuring
that as its customers’ needs evolve, the company is innovating
and evolving its products and solutions to keep pace with
change and to exceed customers’ requirements.
Sedicii is creating a federated, global identity verification
network which enables real-time identity verification by
certified, trusted identity providers (governments, banks,
telco’s, utilities), ensuring that businesses can react quickly to
new government, regulatory and industry demands for real-time
identity verification, authentication and trust services.
Starlink is on the leading edge of on-orbit debris mitigation,
meeting or exceeding all regulatory and industry standards.
NextFuel AB offers innovative and highly scalable industrial
technology for converting fast growing grasses and other types
of inexpensive and abundant biomass into a clean copy of coal.
Nitya Capital &
Karya Property
Management
nityacapital.com
Nitya Capital, based in Houston, TX, is a privately held real
estate investment firm that owns and manages ~$2 billion in
real estate assets across the US. The firm is vertically integrated
to have deep focus on acquisitions, asset management and
property management.
Simpleshow
simpleshow.com/us-en/
Featuring Name
20Ce s
Best Performing
The
to Watch in 2020
Vanessa Ogle
CEO and Founder
Enseo
Enseo.com
Enseo is one of the fastest growing technology service
providers in the U.S. offering solutions in hospitality,
education, senior living and healthcare.
Shelley Sullivan
CEO
Modelco
modelco.com
Modelco's products have been tailored to better reflect the
everyday consumer, with a curated edit of purposeful beauty
essentials that expand across tanning and cosmetics.

SWAPNIL
AGARWAL
COVERSTORY
and a Passionate Business Leader
When you're an entrepreneur, you got to be a risk-taker.
You got to be able to hustle and have never give-up
attitude and being able to maneuver and go through
tough situation.
“

Swapnil Agarwal
CEO Nitya Capital Karya
of &
Property Management

grew up in very workforce housing, or I would say
IClass C apartment complexes, so, my goal was to
provide nice, clean, safe place for people to live who
could not afford it. And that's how I started my venture”
says Swapnil Agarwal. From coming to America as an
immigrant in the age of 15 to becoming the CEO of Nitya
Capital and Karya Property Management, Swapnil's life
itself a story of success, passion and determination.
Swapnil graduated from the University of Texas in finance
and secured an investment banking job out of college in
Houston. He also worked in a private equity fund which
was investing in real estate assets all across Asia-Pacific. In
2013, he founded Nitya Capital, a real estate investment
firm. He states “I've always had this entrepreneurial urge to
be able to start my own business.” He wanted to provide a
vertically integrated platform where not only one buys the
assets, but also is able to manage and operate it. He bought
his first asset in March 2014 and now, the company has
close to 20,000 apartment units across the country for about
two and a half billion of assets with approx. 800 employees.
Outlook on Business, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship
Swapnil considers risk-taking ability as a number one
quality that somebody needs to be an entrepreneur. Most of
the people in the world, they all want to be entrepreneurs
and start their own business, but only less than 0.1%
actually end up being an entrepreneur. The reason behind
that most of them cannot take the risk. They have pay check
security fear, and most of them always thinking about the
worst case, that is, "if I start a business, and what if I fail?”
But people rarely think about on the opposite, like “what if
they start a business, and get successful”. Swapnil opines,
“When you're an entrepreneur, you got to be a risk-taker.
You got to be able to hustle and have never give-up attitude
and being able to maneuver and go through tough
situation”.
According to Swapnil, when people start a business, the
number one thing that they think about is profit. But the
reason to start a business can never be to make profit.
Making profit is always the end result. He asserts “When
you start a business, you need to have a bigger purpose.”
In his case, the bigger purpose was to improve people's
lives, to improve people's living conditions because most of
them are tenant base, blue-collar middle class, lower-
middle-class families of America, which is 90% of the
population of the country. All they need is a nice and clean
place to live, where they can raise a family, and feel safe.
And if the profit ends up happening, that's the end result of
a successful business.
On leadership, Swapnil states, leadership and winning
comes at a price. One cannot be the nicest guy. He asserts
“You have to be a firm leader, but then also protect your
people, whether it's your investors, your employees, or your
stakeholders.” He further adds, demand hard work and
good attitude; a great attitude from employees, investors,
and stakeholders.
For Swapnil “if you don't push your people, then that
leader is not firm enough. As a leader to get successful, you
have to demand hustle, a lot of hard work. And then at the
end of the time, you have to protect your employees. You
have to protect your stakeholders. In my opinion, that's a
sign of a great leader.”
Integrity and Excellence are Essential
Integrity and excellence are the two values that are the most
important for Swapnil. He believes anything one does as a
business leader, as an entrepreneur; first of all, one has got
to be a person of high integrity. “You've got to have the

right intention. There might be different ways to achieve
what you're trying to achieve, but your intentions need to be
pure,” says Swapnil. He further adds “Your actions may be
aggressive or how you go about doing it might be more
risky or somebody else might not do the way I'm going to
try and get things done. But if my intentions are clean, if my
intentions are to returning profit or to improve people's
lives, however I go about conducting my business, it takes a
second step.” After integrity, excellence is second most
essential value that every business leaders should possess.
Swapnil asserts “whatever you do, you've had to give your
best shot. You cannot take mediocracy or you cannot be an
average entrepreneur. You got to have the passion for
excellence in anything you do in life. And if you have that,
then you'll be a very successful entrepreneur.”
Learning from Global Leaders
Swapnil admires two global business leaders, first is Elon
Musk and the second one is Alibaba CEO, Jack Ma. Jack
Ma, started the business in China, which is a communist
country, a socialist country and to be able to succeed in an
environment which is so anti-capitalism, it's very
praiseworthy. Same thing goes for Elon Musk. Elon Musk
was one of the founders of PayPal, and he sold PayPal.
With that he made approx. $100 million, but then he was
able to take that money and invest it back in Tesla and
The 20 Best Performing CEOs to watch in 2020

When you start
a business, you
need to have a
bigger purpose.
“

SpaceX because he's so passionate about his dreams. He's
thinking about 10 steps ahead, where normal people are just
thinking about the past or the next day. Here, Elon was able
to go in with his passion. He was a risk-taker and he was
willing to risk it all for the greater good.
Balance Between Life and Work
Being an entrepreneur is 24 hours job. When someone is
doing something with passion and having a long-term
vision, sometimes it does affect the personal life. “We might
not be in the office but for me, managing hundreds of
investors and hundreds of employees and thousands of
tenants those live in our apartments is a lot of work” says
Swapnil. He further adds “every morning I wake up and I'm
still excited about the next day as much as I was excited
yesterday. I try to manage to spend time with my son, my
wife, and my parents. I try to keep myself fit by getting good
exercise every morning. I love sports because I really think
that sports, that playing the team sport or looking at the
passion of these athletes for excellence, inspire me.”
Swapnil is a big fan of basketball, baseball, football, cricket
because he grew up in India. And for him, that's a great
getaway from daily busy business schedule. It's almost like
meditation for him. He says “When I'm watching sports, I
forget about the business for a little bit, for a couple of
hours and I am enjoying something competitive.” And that's
how he takes his mind away from work even though he is
working all the time. However, it's difficult to maintain
work life balance when one is passionate about something
and so many people's lives, depending on a single person;
it's hard to relax for even for a few minutes.
Visioning to get Global
Swapnil's objective is not only to grow in his space which is
real estate but also grow in other business fields and
geographies within America and other parts of the world as
well. The company wants to be a conglomerate not just
limited to being in real estate but have different businesses
and different industries and that's where it is headed. The
company is doing investments in technology firms through
its venture capital fund. It has investments such as
restaurants and office buildings and retail.
Never Fear and Never Give Up
“The biggest and the best advice I can give anybody is
don't be afraid of taking risks. If you're passionate about
certain things, don't think about that homerun idea or the
next Apple or next Facebook. Find something you're
passionate about and just do it better than somebody is
doing it today. And don't be afraid to take risks,” says
Swapnil on advising emerging business leaders. He further
says “The worst case if you fail you can always go back
and get job. So my advice is just go out, take risks, live your
life so that you don't have to look back and regret later that
I wish I did it when had the opportunity to do something.”

Vol 10 | Issue 04 | 2020
+
Ponari
CEO
A Procient Business Leader with Extensive Work Experience
Best
Performing
CEOs
toWatch, 2020
The
20
Incentives
Solutions
A True Partner
and Reliable
Strategic Advisor
Tech Insight
Haseeb Awan

Christopher Carter
Founder & CEO
Approyo
18 | August 2020 www.insightssuccess.com

CHRISTOPHER
CARTER
Leading a Charge in SAP Solutions
When the focus of attention is on the IT
sector, SAP is considered to be the
most important IT infrastructure that
has always been useful in coping with all the
changes. As technological advancements have
affected every sector effectively, SAP has seen
rapid growth and demand over the last few years.
With this ever-growing technology, it becomes
essential to possess a firm understanding of how it
can be applied adequately.
Meet Christopher Carter, Founder & CEO of
Approyo, who has over three decades of
experience working in the SAP industry. A
confident leader who has always led his company
towards success by creating a clear-sighted vision
and delivering ground-breaking results.
Below are the Highlights of the interview between
Christopher Carter and Insights Success.
Describe your background and, what did you
do before you started, or
came into this business?
I like to say I have always been a technologist. I
went to college with a Commodore Vic20 under
one arm and an Apple 2e under the other. They
were my first computers, and it’s what I learned to
code on. My first code was to make birds fly
across my screen, it was fun and exciting for me.
This is how I got started in computers, what got
me on the road to SAP, and what led me to
owning and creating businesses.
Describe your company and its cutting-edge
franchise services which address all the needs
of your customers.
Approyo is a part of the SAP PartnerEdge
Ecosystem. As a partner of SAP, we provide SAP
software as a service. We provide SAP
consultation, hosting, and managed services, as
well as implementations and migrations onto SAP
platform systems. Approyo is made up of a global
team of SAP experts, who currently manage over
200+ SAP landscapes and have done over 100
migrations for our customers around the globe.
Over the years, we have worked to bring firms
running R/3 up to S/4 1909.
What strategies do you undertake to make
your employees resourceful?
The easiest way to make sure your employees are
most resourceful in the SAP industry is to provide
them with the tools they need to do so. At
Approyo, we provide our employees with access
to any training they desire. If they want to learn a
new platform or get a new certification, who are
we to stop them? We will pay to allow our
employees to grow and succeed. The more
success they experience inside their job, the more
success we will experience as a team. The most
The 20 Best Performing CEOs to Watch In 2020
August 2020 | 19
www.insightssuccess.com

important thing is to make sure that your team is ready to
go through an implementation or migration at all times.
What are some of the vital attributes, in your opinion,
that every leader should possess?
In my opinion, there are a few. First, be humble, but know
the buck stops with you, so make the decision and go on
with it. Do not second guess yourself. I fully believe that
once you make the decision, you must live with it.
Next, your staff is your lifeline always, you treat them like
gold, and they will treat your company, your clients, and
you, with the respect you show. You get what you give.
Lastly, learn your numbers. You are the leader, so you
should know your data on all customers on a day-to-day
basis, including the ROI, the spending, the revenues, etc.
It’s on you and no one else.
What is your greatest life achievement?
My greatest personal life achievement is the family I’ve
been blessed with, having my two incredible daughters with
my wife. Business-wise, it is that we created the first
virtualized SAP R/3 and S/4 environments for production
usage by real customers. Our team had customers ready for
launch pre-certification and then we held a certified launch
at the SAP Sapphire Now Event. My everyday achievement
I am proud of is that I am able to help and educate
customers around the globe with SAP landscapes.
Where do you see your industry in five years?
I see the industry growing. In five years, it will be 2025,
leaving just two years until the SAP S/4HANA deadline.
With such an important deadline in place, those who are
currently on SAP platforms will be forced to move to the
next biggest and brightest platform. With the success that
SAP has shared over the past year alone, I think that it will
attract more and more companies to join the SAP
community. Our world is run off of business, and successful
businesses have ERP systems in place. Those who have not
implemented one yet will soon realize that having one is
truly the only way to take them to the next level.
What one thing, more than anything else, do you want
to accomplish in your business before you get out?
I want to provide the SAP ecosystem with quality SAP
Managed service and support, allowing the clients to sleep
well at night. Our goal is to help in any way shape or form.
When I leave this planet, I want to have made an impact on
people, and I want them to say that I was able to help them
personally and professionally.
What advice would you like to give to the emerging
entrepreneurs?
Just do it. Find the details of a path you want to go down,
get the motivation, and do it. If you want to grow and, get
going then jump into it, but make sure that you are
passionate and dedicated to your mission. You can do
whatever you put your mind to if you believe that, in the
end, you will get the results you work for.
How do you sustain your entrepreneurial spirit in this
changing technological era?
I love technology, and it allows me and everyone to grow! I
meditate every morning at 6:00 a.m. to get my mind ready. I
spend a lot of time learning about new technology in the
marketplace. I love to learn and I love to share my
knowledge with the world. I’m constantly on the internet,
doing research and learning about new technology, whether
it be about SAP, Artificial Intelligence or Digital
Transformations.
“Take care of your staff
they take care of the
customers, you will
find success.”
&

An Ingenious Leader in Digital Transformation and Business Management
FERAS EL HAJJAR
Feras El Hajjar
Founder & Chairman of Infosysta,
Founder & CEO of App4Legal

Enjoy what you
are doing every
day. Focus on the
positive side.
Digital transformation is vital/crucial for any
business. It has become mandatory for business
leaders to rethink old operating models with the
new one, to become more experimental, and more agile in
the ability to respond to customers and competitors.
Feras El Hajjar, Founder & Chairman of Infosysta, and
Founder & CEO of App4Legal is an exceptional leader
who has managed to make his mark in the business world
with his outstanding performance in IT as well as
management sector.
Usually, the integration of digital technology into all areas
of business results in fundamental changes regarding
business tactics. If done correctly, this can prove much
more beneficial for the company. is one of the
Infosysta
leading companies to provide digital transformation
solutions for your business by challenging the status quo
with market-proven strategies.
Moreover, Legal technology is quite essential, as it
particularly provides and aids legal services. Currently,
most of the companies struggle to acclimatize their
practices and are falling behind hence, the rise of legal tech
has considerably influenced the concurrent legal markets.
App4Legal is a provider of best-of-breed Legal Practice
Management Software that provides solutions to keep your
Legal Teams ahead of time with a detailed and organized
approach.
Into the Shoes of Leader
Meet Feras El Hajjar, the Founder & Chairman of Infosysta,
a company specialized in the Digital Transformation in
EMEA and the Founder & CEO of App4Legal a company
specialized in Legal Technology. With more than 18 years
of multi-national experience in the Software industry
including CRM, ERP & HRMS solutions, Feras proved
himself as an expert in Information Systems. Being a
Software Engineer with solid Management and leadership
skills, graduated from Ecole ParisTech in 2002 & Paris
Dauphine (Paris IX) in 2003, has earned years of
experience in multi-national companies in Paris, Singapore,
Dublin, Beirut, Riyadh, Cairo, & Dubai. This solid
experience in the domain of Information Technology, with
the most known solutions in the market, is the success key
to building a sustainable two mature multi-national
companies.
Moreover, he is a permanent speaker at Agile Summits in
the Middle East and a board member of different
organizations including Heriot-Watt University in Dubai,
Industry Advisory Board and also at Atlassian Partners
Board Member in San Francisco.
“Nowadays, it is crucial to align the business with
technology. Follow the right processes and, using the right
tools can be a game-changer when it comes to reaching
objectives, on-time,” adds Feras.
Appreciating the Talent
Feras states that with a clear strategy and communication
plan, employees of his company are involved at the early
stage of strategic decisions and company’s yearly
objectives. Employees are becoming partners of decisions
instead of Task Achievers. Talents are compensated and
accelerating their careers by giving them all the needed
sponsorship to excel.
Overcoming the Volatility in the Markets
Feras states that, he and his team firmly focuses on the on-
going as well as upcoming technology and the market needs
to swiftly overcome any dilemmas. The company helps
people to be agile and how to be more flexible in order to
adapt to changes. It also build quarterly objectives at the
management level and cascade them down to all teams and
employees. He also addresses that the objective may or can
August 2020 | 23

change from a quarter to another and the dynamics of the
market are the main drivers of the company’s objectives.
Eye-opener for Better Life Appraoch
In 2012, Feras resigned from his job as an IT Director in a
multi-national company in Paris to exercise his
entrepreneurship skills and build his first company,
Infosysta from Beirut to become in less than 6 years the
leader in the Middle East in the Agile & Digital
Transformation. Later, he launched a unique solution called
App4Legal, helping lawyers and legal practitioners to
resolve their daily issues with one complete solution to
innovate their legal practice. In 2019, App4Legal became a
leader in GCC and a major player worldwide recognized by
Gartner as a Legal Technology leader.
Advice to Rely On
Feras believes in the word Focus. He advice that, one must
move by small iterations to close milestone by milestone
until one reach its goal. Also suggesting that one must
accept the fact that every individual need to sacrifice some
‘less important’ activities while focusing on the ‘critical and
high’ ones.
He also emphasizes on some of the attributes that every
leader must posses. By quoting, “the Skill to stay macro and
to go micro when needed are the ingredient of a successful
CEO Genuine Leadership
”, he states that is showing the
way to others. An excellent communicator who can by a
simple email or a meeting pitch gets actions into efficient
executions.
He also put some light, on why is it necessary to be an
organized person driven by objectives. As he states, an
objective-driven organized person knows where to stop
putting efforts and where to focus.

Build-On
EdTech for a Better World
he education technology industry has even
Tbecome important in this pandemic world.
The Edtech industry is providing education to
every single student. The effective use of technology
with education is building a culture where it has
become accessible and effective for the students.
The digital platform for education supports both the
teachers and the students. With the tools, the EdTech
offers to build a community of learners is developing
in society. For example, if a student has a doubt, being
close with the platform solutions are shared
immediately.
It is a platform where mentors, educators, guest
speakers, hosts can serve their wisdom and
experiences for the students. This also creates interest
among the students when learning from a
technological method which is the need of the hour.
Comparing it with the traditional way of teaching
students cannot relate to the methods and the
examples, as we have come a long way forward.
We should consider ourselves very lucky to be a part
of this digital revolution where larger engagement of
students can be involved. Already the lockdown has
caused enough damage to the education world. Be it
national or international, schools and universities are
disturbed completely.
Thanks to the EdTech offerings of providing online
education to continue teaching worldwide with
customized learning and activities. Thinking from a
global perspective it supports the sustainable literacy
goals of increasing the literacy rate in the world.
Students also participate in higher amounts as it
reaches the most remote locations of the world as
well. It is the duty of the government to make
available infrastructure facilities available everywhere
in the country. So that 100% participation engagement
is possible in all the areas of the world.
The Teaching method will see the revolution post
covid with the EdTech ecosystem. The teachers have
to review their old and conventional methods of
teaching with innovative and technological tools. The
EdTech will become more relevant because it matches
the career aspirations of the students.
Finally, no matter how good the technology is, it is
upon the humans to decide how good it is. The use of
EdTech with a personal touch should be the goal of it.
No matter how good it is, if it lacks the human touch
of teaching it will be of no use.
Today, there are a lot of platforms available for
EdTech companies. The EdTech industry should
always aim to reach every single student even the one
who is far remote from the technology and build a
network of education. The government will have to
support this cause by building all the facilities
required to make this dream come true. And, ensure
all the children across the world reach their highest
potential.
Better Approach
August 2020 | 27

Gary Olson
Protecting People and Businesses Through
the Use of Artificial Intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming almost
everything connected to human life, including
employment, economy, communication, public
safety, privacy, security, healthcare, etc.. To make the world
a better place to live and save lives using AI, GT Digital
Ltd., uses Cognitive Intelligence technology that connects
the dots from accessible and available digital information to
help identify potential threats and intention to prevent
events that will protect lives and property.
GT Digital Ltd. is led by , a
Gary Olson, Founder & CEO
thought leader, technology designer and strategist in the
media technology industry. Gary designed GT Digital’s
flagship Artificial Intelligence solution MediaMaestro, the
first technology that connects the dots by correlating video
and data to uncover and prevent physical threats.
Firm Foundation
As a serial entrepreneur, Gary started and operated several
successful businesses. Each of these businesses focused on
designing new technology solutions for the media
production industry merging video with data. Gary has been
on the forefront as the broadcast and production industry
transitions to computer-based technology from proprietary
technology.
Gary is one of the industry leaders and has been an
evangelist in the convergence of video and data as media
production and distribution moved to file based and IP
technology. The 2nd Edition of his book "Planning and
Designing the IP Broadcast Facility" was just released after
the success of the First Edition.
The problem our first responders and public safety services
face is preventing horrific and violent attacks on society. To
address this challenge, Gary developed the concept to use
artificial intelligence connecting the dots by correlating
video and data from all available and accessible open
sources. This idea was a natural outgrowth that brought
together all his areas of knowledge and expertise.
Cutting-Edge Services
According to the company, organizations in every industry
are drowning in video and data. These organizations are all
challenged by the overwhelming amount of data collected
that appears in many formats and types coming from
multiple sources. AI tools can help analyze this data and
quickly provide information that allows analysts to discover
solutions.
Gary states, no human can manage or process the
overwhelming amount of digital information, including
video, social media, online, sensors, and other sources
being collected for research and security. There is a need
for artificial intelligence technology to help identify strange
behavior or announced intentions to commit crimes. GT
Digital is the first AI technology that can analyze and
correlate all this data to help professionals prevent violence
and criminal intent. Using Artificial Intelligence to save
lives and protect property is essential today.
What the Future Holds?
Gary knows that AI continues to evolve, and as the tools
and technology improve, AI will be beneficial in all aspects
of society and business services. As science continues to
progress on quantum computing solutions, this will vastly
improve the ability of AI technologies and expand some of
the exact capabilities.
Giving Back to the World
Gary states statistics show that over 75% of mass shootings
are committed by people who spend a lot of energy
announcing their intent long before they commit the act. It
is time to save lives from these mass shootings and acts of
domestic terrorism. He would like to see his technology
help predict to prevent as many of these as possible.
Different Perspective on Technological Advancements
Gary is fortunate that he was raised with an innate sense of
curiosity and wonder. Continually excited about the

“Connecting the
Dots - Predict to
Prevent to
Protect!”
changes in technology he is also a bit of a pragmatist in its application.
He thrives on new challenges and loves figuring out new technology
solutions or "inventing," a solution using components from typically
disassociated sources or industries.
Pave Your Own Way
Gary believes leadership is team building. It’s crucial to any successful
business to have full participation and support from your team. Find
the right people and trust them. It’s more important to have smart
people on your team than have them think you are the most intelligent
person in the room. Another essential rule to remember is everyone
has their style and way of doing things. Different is not wrong, just
because it is not the way you would do it, as long as it gets the same
result. Do not impose your way of doing things on others.
Being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean doing everything or knowing
everything. It means surrounding yourself with a team that has the
knowledge and skills that are not your strength. Not everyone is strong
in business or is a financial expert, and sometimes a great technologist
is a horrible manager. Hire others with the skills you lack and allow
them to excel and trust them. Gary says, “If you can’t trust your team,
you brought in the wrong people!”
Gary Olson
Founder & CEO
August 2020 | 31

Technological innovations take time to enter the
growing market. For an entrepreneur, monitoring
and providing the best user experience is a quest
that can’t be achieved over night. Open conservations about
setting goals and defining timelines for the product
development, paves a creative way towards success.
Besides, learning, adapting, and improving are the keys for
becoming a successful CEO of an organization.
One such agile personality, having a focused vision to
achieve his goals is Karsten Boehrs. While helping his
children in studies, Karsten realized that education and
learning processes are continually witnessing changes. His
son’s passion for gaining knowledge through online videos
inspired Karsten tremendously. This advent of technology
in the education sector and its rapid digital transformation
motivated him to become a Co-investor and CEO of
simpleshow.
Karsten started his career working in the logistics and sales
industry. He has an excellent experience of working at
management positions with various multinationals
including Axel Springer and Otto Group for over two
decades. Now, in his role at simpleshow his focus is on the
strategic expansion of the company’s market position
through internationalization and focused technology
development.
About simpleshow
simpleshow is the leading professional explainer video
production with several thousands of videos produced in the
global market. The company with its production team
delivers services essential in creating videos and interactive
eLearning courses for corporate customers in a variety of
different styles and formats. With the mission to provide
simple and effective explanations for everyone and
anytime, the company is developing intelligent solutions for
wide target groups, such as the online DIY video maker
mysimpleshow.com
mysimpleshow.com offers business and enterprise plans
with premium features directed across all small-scale and
large-scale companies. The intelligence behind the
application includes text inputs running through a semantic
analysis, a natural language processing stack, and an
integrated world knowledge database to produce iconic
Karsten Boehrs
CEO & Co-investor
Karsten
Boehrs
Karsten
Boehrs

visuals. These are then arranged and animated by an
intelligent layout algorithm resulting in a video, which the
user can individualize, download, and share.
With over offices in ten countries, the company builds on a
universal and scientifically proven methodology that blends
simple messages with visuals that stay in mind. Under
Karsten’s guidance all of the company’s offerings follow
this approach, focusing on five fundamental elements:
Context— An effective explanation ,looks at the topic from
the target group’s perspective, providing a context the
audience can refer to.
Simplification— An effective explanation focuses on the
essentials. This entails reducing the topic to its core
messages and simplifying the language.
Storytelling— An effective explanation is embedded in a
story, as stories help to create identification and are easy to
remember.
Visualization— An effective explanation uses the power of
visuals.
Multisensory— An effective explanation stimulated several
senses.
A Visionary Leader
Karsten’s love for the sports made him an enthusiastic
cyclist as it combines all the qualities and values mandatory
for understanding the roles of a CEO. He believes, the key
enablers for his achievements are passion, perseverance,
strategic thinking, smartly adapting with changes, constant
learning and improvement. With the vision that the people
are the most valuable resources of a company he states “I
always try and develop my corporate family to be the best
they can be”.
An example of his leadership style that focuses on
empowering others, Karsten recalled a meeting in New
York, where he was really impressed meeting a young
freelance creative writer. He kept supporting him
throughout the years that made the writer a confident and a
trusted decision-maker. Today the former concept writer co-
leads the company’s 50 people operations in the US.
Besides, leading and nurturing a smart and loyal team, he
states “We have so much potential to seize opportunities,
tackle challenges, and grow our business”.
Under the leadership of Karsten, his team has created an
online browser-based tool ‘mysimpleshow’. This tool allows
its users to create their own simple explainer videos,
transforming the way people communicate. The company
has integrated AI into this tool, which is referred to as its
‘Explainer Engine’.
Karsten’s entrepreneurial vision is to change the world for
the better. With simpleshow his idea is to revolutionize
communication and learning through simple and accessible
resources.
Catalyzing the Market Change
Karsten’s idea of creating learning and communication
resources is changing day-by-day with the growing
digitalization. simpleshow is investing time and resources
into creating amazing tools, products, and content resources
to catalyze to this evolving change. They are constantly
improving mysimpleshow.com as a software product and
establishing brand awareness to be the go-to DIY explainer
video creation tool.
Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs
Karsten’s advice to new-age entrepreneurs is to stay
focused. Defining the goals with agility will help them to
achieve milestones. In addition to produce a business
model, he adds, “Decide how your product and
methodology will stand out from your competitors and
make those distinctions your unique selling points”.
As simple as
possible, but
as complex
as necessary.
August 2020 | 33

The Impacts of Pandemic
in Pharma and Biotech
Laboratory
The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was
and is a world-changing event that has touched
the lives of everyone on the planet, but on a
positive note, it was an accelerant of technology and has
forced companies to innovate. Companies that can do it
better, faster, cheaper, more efficient, and have more
creative approaches to problem solving will leapfrog to
the forefront of the industry. We will see more of a focus
to develop and implement technology that can deliver
transparent, secure, and reliable data sharing remotely.
When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, the industry
rapidly responded with efforts put into place to
effectively protect patient safety in their trials. Across
the world, clinical trials answering important healthcare
questions were stopped, or temporarily paused to
possibly restart later, some with important modifications.
Pharmaceutical companies and clinical research
organizations greatly felt the effects of the COVID-19
outbreak on the clinical trial life cycle and began to
incorporate remote ways of working to mitigate
disruption. Over the last decade, regulators have been
advocating for greater use of technology, virtual trials,
and SMART trial designs. In the era of COVID-19,
ongoing studies were now faced with new challenges
like site closures, quarantines and limited access to study
documents. As a result, clinical study teams are now
relying heavily on remote monitoring and a more secure
means of document sharing in order to meet clinical
study timelines.
As a laboratory solution developer for the Pharma and
Biotech industry, it's important to highlight this
background as an important framework which provides a
basis for the direct impact of the COVID-19 era on the
bioanalytical business today as well as providing insight
of what the lab of the future needs to become. For
example, direct impact for the laboratory when pharma
companies moving toward more efficient SMART
clinical trial adaptive designs, which allows for the
continual modification of the trial based on interim data,
is that in in addition to help in shortening development
time, such designs may reduce the total sample size
needed thereby reducing the number of samples that
would need to be analyzed by the laboratory. So, in a
business very much driven by the number of samples to
be analyzed, when trials are delayed or producing much
less samples, labs have to pivot more towards a focus on
other activities such as the emerging market for
biomarkers in order to fill the void from lost sample
count to analysis types that would generate the same
revenue.
In addition to evaluating different business strategies,
labs need to be able to have access to information
technology to be able to manage operations more
efficiently including managing all processes remotely. In
order to be effective, everyone needs to be well versed
and comfortable using this technology. Use of
disconnected spreadsheets or non-database sources are
Industry Today
August 2020 | 37

from home, how can we reduce the need for “essential”
lab sta ffto work on site? Is the lab of the future one
which places much less burden on needing so many
scientists to be on site and instead leverages integrated
operational robotics, machine learning and remote
control of these laboratory systems?
Tools that enable a flexible business model, are cost
effective, and allow for remote access will be in high
demand moving forward and will allow us to get beyond
just managing data more efficiently. This allows us the
opportunity to start doing interesting things with that
data. Technologies that facilitated the ability to do this
have been brought to the forefront in lieu of the more
typical investments of continually just adding more
people and more instruments.
As virtual and remote working prove to be sustainable
methods of laboratory operations, it is unlikely early
adopters will revert back to the more laborious and time-
consuming methods involved in the previous, high-
contact model. Consequently, companies will require
comprehensive platforms that address their changing
unmet needs and evolve their expectations of what an
integrated ecosystem can provide. Having a good
understanding of how much work is taking place
digitally will accelerate the technology enabled remote
work. At Metrendalytics, we have always recognized the
value of online work situation and had the infrastructure
in place to do so, therefore our operations did not skip a
beat during these pandemic times.
While the new normal is still unfolding, it is becoming
increasing clear that the future will be anything but
normal. We will begin to see more decentralization,
technology, and the need to make important decisions
not at the office. It is always important to remember
that during these times of disruption, uncertainty and
challenge, those who can reinvent themselves and move
forward will open a gateway to an abundance of
opportunities.
no longer a viable option
because they are
problematic for real time
sharing of information.
Despite the significant
investment that pharma has
made in technology, the #1
problem still facing the
scientist today is “Finding
data when I need it”.
Historically, technology has
focused on just replacing the
existing paper process with
electronic counterpart. We
must ask ourselves, are we
going to continue to build tools to
support existing business models and
existing ways of working or should we
begin to think about tools to reinvent the way
we do business?
Labs have now learned that they can and must work
remotely for many tasks without significant impact on
performance. Roles relating to project management
particularly fit this new paradigm very well but only if
the tools to do so are in place and folks are comfortable
with using them. The upside is improved quality of life
for sta ffwho can significantly reduce commute time,
stress and costs. Time gained can be re-invested into
actual work for clients and conducting more science. For
the laboratory operations sta ffwho are typically required
to be on-site as “essential” lab personnel, in addition to
adhering to typical lab safety requirements, new
pandemic related items such as spatial distancing, masks
etc have been included. Lab space available was the key
driver to ensure this was achieved. But what we have
learned is labs can actually reallocate space previously
used by project management and other remote sta ffand
even reduce their fixed costs on building office space etc
needed by giving folks who can work remotely the tools
and training to do so. Acting on both these learnings will
only become more important depending on how long this
pandemic lasts, and also as proactive preparedness for
the next one. Perhaps we should already be building for
this next phase? If non-essential folks can mostly work

An Excellent Dedicated Professional
ith more than 80 successful implementations and
Wa highly qualified team with more than 20 years
of experience leading the most challenging
projects in the country, Software and Services Consulting
SRL is positioned as the number one partner in Paraguay of
SAP Business One. Confidence, Clarity and Constant
Accompaniment are some of the terms used by its clients to
describe what SSC means to them because in each step the
company takes together, as a team, it looks for ways to help
its clients strengthen their projects and evolve sustainably,
what today makes it differentiate the company from the
competition. One such highly qualified team member is
Katherine Colombino – Chief Executive Officer with a
very clear objective to pull all its energies towards a single
focus: Customer satisfaction.
Strong Knowledge of Business
Katherine completed her education from Asuncion
Polytechnic Faculty and the National University of
Asuncion. She joined Consulmatica SRL as Systems
Development Manager. After 5 years in that position and
having put the system on the market with great success,
Katherine held the position of Support Manager for more
than 6 years, so her orientation was customer satisfaction.
She has incorporated more than 50% of clients as Sales
Manager at Infocenter S.A. actively, she had collaborated
with marketing campaigns and events for SAP
development, conflict resolution, in addition, to support
tasks of definition and development of solutions to specific
problems of the client, always having as focus, excellence
in attention to the customer.
Teaching how to work, how to confront difficulties, skills
that one was learning in her career through the years and
the example itself are her strategies that she tries to make
everyone imitate to the best of their ability. The company
also participated continuously in training courses and
interpersonal skills.
A Glimpse into Katherine’s Journey
Currently, Katherine Colombino is the CEO of SSC -
Software & Services Consulting SRL. She is a specialized
consultant in Sales, Implementation, Development,
Training, and Support of SAP systems, also holds a Degree
in Systems Analysis, Post-degrees in University Didactics
and English Teaching Staff. With extensive experience in
the area of management of Work Teams, Katherine holds
various positions of Headquarters for more than two
decades. Before the opening of SSC SRL, for 4 years, she
was in charge of the Business Unit of SAP Business One in
Infocenter S.A., a Paraguayan partner of SAP and an IT
company with an exemplary track record in the national
market and with more than 20 consultants in different areas.
It is also an SAP Certified Consultant “FI” and “MM”. She
has developed from Market plans, sales, personal
motivation policies among others within the unit and
contributed progress towards the project goal.
Millennial Paradigm
Being informed is essential, and knowledge is necessary to
understand the great changes that are already there and
which SSC faces. Just as it happened with the millennial
paradigm, telework, etc. that break into the lives without
asking permission. The company has to be in constant
change to adapt easily. It works nowadays exclusively with
SAP BUSINESS ONE Systems, and everything that
involves development, deploying, licenses sales, support.

Katherine Colombino
Chief Executive Ofﬁcer
August 2020 | 41

Any company must-have technology, without technology,
the company is going to die. We are in the era of
Technology. You can choose, you are in, or you are out. But
that decision will mark the future of your business.
Strength and Commitment
Katherine Colombino had a car accident, with her father, at
the age of 8 years. The diagnosis was a paralysis in her legs
due to a spinal injury. Although she has to move with
wheelchairs, she had all the same capabilities as any person.
That incident made her stronger, and with a great capacity
to adapt to difficult situations, she also developed her best
in several areas. They have to be strong because leadership
must be something that others have to feel about you. Many
times all is not given by knowledge, but the strength of your
heart and your commitment is transmitted by your voice,
your gestures, your life.
“Inspire the ordinary to become extraordinary. Be resilient.
Set goals and motivate continuously to achieve. Encourage
feedback without judgment. Hire people who align with
your culture and aligned with the goals of the company. Put
the right person in the right role. Get to know your team.
Empower employees to unlock their ‘zone of genius.
‘Remember that leading is an inside job”, says Katherine.
Optimizing Processes in Time
Software and Services Consulting wants its clients to
recognize them as strategic partners to accompany them in
their growth and expansion processes. The company is
highly competent professionals, motivated and aligned with
an internal knowledge management policy and the
development of human capital. It provides commercially
attractive solutions that respond to the real needs of the
customers. Collaborate with the country, generating highly
qualified professionals. Reach the sources (universities,
colleges, companies) and provide their training services.
Education does the country well, produces citizens aware of
their duties and obligations. And above all, first-rate
professionals, without discrimination, “exportable” to any
first world country.
SSC’s greatest value is customer satisfaction, honesty, the
obligation to be the best in the area it chooses, the
company’s commitment to the present and the future of
keeping up to date with the technological areas and
providing first-level knowledge and services.
The limitations in life are
not given by your
physical or situation itself,
they are given by you, if
your mind changes, your
world too.

Advancing Business Practices with
Digital Identity
riven, persistent, optimistic, a multi-tasker while at
Dthe same time listening to and being unafraid to ask
for help” says Rob Leslie. For Rob, these are the
vital attributes of a leader. He adds being a leader can be a
very lonely place. However, he opines “the benefits far
outweigh everything else. There is no better feeling in the
world than taking an idea and seeing it blossom into a
successful, vibrant, profitable business.”
Rob is the CEO and founder of Sedicii, a federated, global
identity verification network which enables real-time
identity verification. In 2018, Sedicii won the BBVA Open
Talent / Fintech Award and it was commented that “Sedicii
has the greatest possibility of transforming the financial
sector in the next 10 years”. As a visionary leader, Rob
wants to see this become a reality together with having
enriched the lives of all his company's employees by
leaving a healthy, profitable company before moving onto
his next challenge!!
Below are the highlights of the interview conducted
between Insights Success and Rob Leslie:
Describe your background and what did you do before
you started, or came into this business?
I am an Electronic Engineer by profession having graduated
from Dublin City University (DCU) in Ireland in the
1980's. I'm a serial entrepreneur – Sedicii being my seventh
(7th) start-up company. Prior to Sedicii I was co-founder of
Kyckr which was floated on the Australian Stock Exchange
in 2016. In my earlier professional life I worked in Japan
for 20 years before returning to Ireland where I am
currently based. While in Japan I was part of the initial
management team in Dell Japan that established and grew
the business there to almost 300 employees and $300M
turnover in its first four years. It is now a billion-dollar
business. I was also a partner in a Japanese computer
services company called PTS which was acquired in 2000
by a Singaporean firm as part of their entry into the
Japanese market.
Describe your company and its cutting-edge services
which address all the needs of your customers.
Sedicii is developing a platform to manage digital identity.
We develop software as a service for KYC, AML and for
the identification and authentication of people, vehicles,
products and other physical and virtual goods using our
unique, patented ZKP (Zero Knowledge Proof) protocol.
Sedicii is creating a federated, global identity verification
network which enables real-time identity verification by
certified, trusted identity providers (governments, banks,
telco's, utilities), ensuring that businesses can react quickly
to new government, regulatory and industry demands for
real-time identity verification, authentication and trust
services. Included in our identity network are products
including authentication software, a KYC and Customer
Onboarding solution and a Collaborative AML Monitoring
Platform which we believe is unique in the world as it
assesses both sides of a payment for AML risk compliance.
What strategies do you undertake to make your
employees resourceful?
Sedicii is currently a small team of 15. We have an all-
inclusive strategy holding weekly meetings with the team
which are multi-locational in Belgium, United Kingdom,
the Canary Island of Tenerife and our headquarters in
Waterford in the south-east of Ireland. This is a high-level
meeting where everyone is encouraged, and dare I say,
August 2020 | 45

expected to participate. Ideas are bounced and expanded
upon and the team feel empowered and an integral part of
Sedicii. I believe that the success of a company is
dependent upon its people and I encourage everyone to
share their ideas which in turn drive them to be resourceful.
There's nothing like a feeling of being valued and listened
to, no matter your role in a company, to spur you on to do
better and go the extra mile in my opinion.
What is your greatest life achievement?
The pinnacle of my professional life to date would certainly
be the accolade of being named a World Economic Forum
(WEF) Technology Pioneer and speaking at Davos; the only
software company in Ireland to be afforded this accolade
makes the achievement all the more rewarding. Add to this
the fact that Sedicii has consistently won – year on year –
varying technology awards which now number over 20.
What advice would you like to give to the emerging
entrepreneurs?
Be prepared to listen to advice. Don't be afraid to ask for
help. Refine your thoughts and have good sounding boards
from trusted advisors. Be prepared for good times and
challenging times before you succeed – never give up on
your vision and believe in yourself. Be realistic in terms of
what one person can achieve. Persist. Persevere.
How do you sustain your entrepreneurial spirit in this
changing technological era?
A person's sustainability is a positive attribute rather than
something to be tolerated. Technology is an integral part of
our day-to-day lives, like it or not, it's here to stay. I've been
described as a glass half-full person and believe in
technology and embracing it for the betterment (rather than
the detriment) of everyone. I see our technology as a way
and means to preserve a person's fundamental right to
privacy whilst, at the same time, the absolute need to ensure
that fraud and criminality can be tackled through better
compliance and always up-to-date identity records. This is
for the benefit of the world economy and the protection of
all of us.
“
Never lose your
vision and always
believe in yourself.

Shanaz Ramzi
Chief Executive Ofﬁcer

Shanaz Ramzi
Bringing Perfection in PR and Event Management
n an interview with Insights Success, Shanaz
IRamzi—Chief Executive Officer of StarLinks
emphasizes on her impeccable journey of gaining a
successful stature in current hectic markets. Her unique
ideologies and methods assisted in achieving many
milestones in her pathway.
Shanaz started her career as a freelance journalist in
1994 and wrote prolifically for various publications, both
local and international, including for their leading
English newspaper Dawn. In 2004, she was hired as
Head of PR and Publications by an upcoming television
network, HUM, and while continuing her writing, she
joined the organization as one of the founding team
members. She stood with them for eleven years, finally
resigning in November 2015 from her position as GM
PR and Publications to start her own PR and event
management company called StarLinks.
A brief on StarLinks
StarLinks PR and Events is basically a PR and event
management company that has a strong CSR component
as well. While the company offers pro bono services for
various charitable institutions, she and her team also try
to involve the company’s clients in CSR activities to
enable them to give back to their country. They believe
in going the extra mile for all their clients and have fast
developed the reputation of under-committing and over-
delivering. Company’s small team of 12 people works
dedicatedly through its head office in Karachi, while it
has linkages in other cities of Pakistan as well, as in
different parts of the world, which have helped StarLinks
to do PR for events in Dubai, London, Houston, Toronto
and Colombo.
Increasing Efficiency
Shanaz and her team holds daily meetings to discuss the
progress of projects/clients on hand and to brainstorm for
future endeavors. She states that daily targets are set by
the entire team and end of the day reports is to be
submitted so there is clarity in how much each has
succeeded in meeting their targets. An increment system
has also been put in place based on the employee’s
productivity, pro-activeness, resourcefulness and
creativity which works wonders to motivate the team to
put in their best. Further she adds that a fixed
commission is also given to those employees that bring
in new clients or projects.
Her traits led Impeccable Achievements
Shanaz strongly feels that every leader, and particularly
one in the PR business, should and must have a cool
head, tons of patience, and the ability to listen, as well as
delegate. Through quoting, “A good leader is one who is
accessible at all times, and who inspires confidence and
respect,” Shanaz implies that the leader should be hands-
on and know their work thoroughly, so that they can’t be
hoodwinked.
Moreover, she also mentions some of her achievements,
yet she often wondered what she considered as her
August 2020 | 49

greatest life achievement – her marriage of forty years to
her childhood sweetheart; her two beautiful children; her
book, Food Prints published by OUP, the first of its kind
in Pakistan; or her two international awards received
soon after establishing her company for Start-up of the
Year, and Best CEO of the World. She states, perhaps, in
retrospect, in a post Covid-19 world it is simply staying
healthy and being in touch with her childhood friends all
across the globe digitally.
Having said that, she would like to add here that there
are two projects that she considers her greatest work
achievement to date, which she would like to specifically
mention. The first is the launch of the biggest mall in
South Asia, LuckyOne Mall, which she and her team
were entrusted with in the very first year of her
company’s existence. It was humbling enough that the
company landed the mammoth project in the face of stiff,
and far more experienced competition, but what was
even more over-whelming was that it landed up
extending its launch activities from three days to thirteen
full days, with her team staying at the mall day and
night, in order to ensure footfall, for most important
shops had not opened up on time.
She also states that the second project was a three-day
international conference for INTBAU Pakistan—
International Network for Traditional Building,
Architecture and Urbanism – that she and her team
carried out last November. With 30 foreign delegates,
five foreign students, and over 250 local participants
taking part in the conference, which provided boarding
and lodging to all the foreigners, as well as to over 60
local delegates in the interior of Sindh – in custom-made,
eco-friendly resorts – as well as in Karachi, the most
challenging part of the event was not the logistics or the
conference itself, but the fact that the president of
Pakistan and his entourage attended the opening day. The
nightmare of meeting the protocol requirements and
security measures made everything else pale into
insignificance, but the fact that the company managed to
pull it off to rave reviews by one and all, was a feat they
are all very proud of.
An advice for Triumph in Tech-oriented World
Shanaz finds her work extremely challenging and the
times we live in constantly evolving, and feels one must
be grateful to this ever-changing technological era. She
states that she is learning something new from her young
colleagues daily, and while there is the occasional time
when she misses the way it used to be, by and large she
is grateful for the changes for it does make connectivity,
gathering information, keeping records and so much
more, a lot easier and quicker. One has to learn to move
with the times, and rather than being daunted by the
head-spinning technology, she find it exhilarating and
exciting.
She also states the fact that there are many emerging
entrepreneurs in their industry as it has been growing
rapidly this past decade, but many of them are one-
person shows with no overheads, no legal standing, and
are not registered as taxpayers. Her advice to all these
youngsters is that there are no short cuts in life – if they
want to truly succeed and make their mark, they need to
go about it the right away, even if it means making a
substantial investment into their business.
“My parting words -- Never fear
competition; help others to
succeed, forge partnerships, and
success will be yours.”

August 2020 | 51

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