The 10 Most Inspiring Businesswomen Making a Difference, 2021 aims to bring forward the inspiring stories of some exceptional businesswomen who have made a difference in society & have been managed to be role models for other budding leaders. Source: https://ciolook.com/the-10-most-inspiring-business-women-making-a-difference-2021-january2021/
The 10 most inspiring business women making a difference, 2021
1. JACQUELINE
Hudson
Taking Digital Marketing to the Next Level
BUSINESS
WOMEN
Making a Difference, 2021
Most
Inspiring
10
The
VOL 01 I ISSUE 01 I 2021
Women in Tech
Women Who Are
Leading The
Tech World
2.
3.
4. From Leading a Family
to Leading a Company
unning a company has nothing to do with the
Rgender. It only demands reliable leadership skills.
And women with their exemplary leadership
skills have brought a drastic transformation in almost
every sector by climbing to the top of the corporate
ladder or by starting their own business.
There is a dire need for more employee engagement,
empowerment, and consensus building in the current
corporate world. Women are believed to be empathetic
leaders and thus, this need is been served by them. This
empathy comes from mothering and leading a family.
Carrying an urge for taking the charge accompanied
with a desire to create a better world, women have
played a crucial role in changing the landscape of the
business world. Not only they have imprinted their
marks in various sectors, but also have set an example
for upcoming women leaders.
CIO Look through this edition “The 10 Most Inspiring
Businesswomen Making a Difference, 2021” aims to
bring forward the inspiring stories of some exceptional
businesswomen who have made a difference in the
society and have been managed to be the role models
for other budding leaders.
Featured on the cover of this edition is Jacqueline
Hudson. Jacqueline has set an indispensable position in
the market through her digital marketing agency
EDITOR’S NOTE
5. named as LUXE Digital Now LLC. An award-winning digital marketer, Jacqueline has
been in the industry for over a decade as a major influencer in the digital landscape. She
specializes in strategic planning and management, project leadership and design, data
analytical designs and architecture, technology development, and all digital marketing
principles.
In her role as a communications and brand asset executive, she is also experienced with
designing and implementing communication campaigns using channel success metrics.
Apart from this, she has also been an achieved communications executive (inhouse) and
consultant across multiple industry sectors including Fortune 500, technology, beauty,
cosmetics, fashion, luxury, and real estate.
Delve into more alike and inspiring stories of such inspiring leaders and spread the word
about their contribution in making this world a better place.
While flipping through the pages, make sure to scroll through the articles written by our
in-house editorial team and CXO standpoints of some of the leading industry experts to
have the know-how about the industry.
Happy Reading!
Abhishaj Sajeev
abhishaj@ciolook.com
7. Amie Reiman
Breaking the Stigmas Surrounding
Cannabinoid Therapies
18
22
Anne Krog Iversen
Driving TimeXtender to Higher Growth
through Purpose-driven Leadership
28
Elena Herweyer
An Entrepreneur who is Defining
Courage, Vision, and Success
36
Jillian Hamilton
A Futurist in the Workplace
Risk Management Space
8. May Yap
From an Admin Clerk to
a Chairwoman
42
50
60
46
56
Nancy Zeffman
Making a Difference through
Fresh and Effortless Fashion
Rita Lindenberg
The Epitome of Compassion
and Efficient Leadership
Tuula Jalasjaa
Empowering Women to make
Sound Financial Choices
Veronica Crisafulli
Exemplarily Inspiring
11. Brief
Company Name
Tuula Jalasjaa
Founder
Veronica Crisafulli
Co-founder
Elena Herweyer
CEO and Founder
May Yap
CEO and Managing
Director
Art Fresh is a multi-award winning full-service marketing
agency, focusing on marketing strategy, brand design,
marketing communication, building a brand and managing it.
The Women’s Collection was created with the fundamental
belief that educating and empowering women is the key to
economic growth, political stability, and social transformation.
MO Tecnologías and KEO World's innovative and alternative
Artificial Intelligence credit score platforms use non-traditional
variables and Machine Learning to predict the creditworthiness,
and the probability of defaults of a potential borrower, either
banked or unbanked, who has no access to traditional credit and
no credit history.
Established in 1977, LHT has grown to be a leader in the
industry with an annual turnover of more than S$30,000,000
and is also one of the largest manufacturing company of high
quality wooden pallets, boxes and crates in Singapore.
Anne Krog Iversen
Chief People, DNA, &
Culture Officer
TimeXtender is an automated data management platform that
helps implement and operate data lakes, data warehouses, and
data marts – without writing code – automating the process of
getting documented data in the right place, in the right form,
and ready for analysis.
TimeXtender
timextender.com
Art Fresh, Inc.
art-fresh.ca
LHT Holdings Ltd.
lht.com.sg
Amie Reiman
CEO & Founder
HipLives is a digital community that specializes in helping
women improve their health and well-being.
HIP Lives
myhiplife.ca
Nancy Zeffman
Co- Founder
Cucumber Clothing makes luxurious clothing for everyday. It
means clothes that give women confidence.
Cucumber Clothing
cucumberclothing.com
MO Tecnologías and
KEO World
motecnologias.com
Jacqueline Hudson
CEO & Founder
LUXE Digital Now innovates, design and strategize the best
delivery in digital marketing and technology solutions. From
building social media campaigns, e-commerce and content
management platforms that strengthen businesses.
LUXE Digital Now
luxedigitalnow.com
The Women's Collection
thewomenscollection.ca
Jillian Hamilton
Founder and CEO
The Safety Governance Institute of Australia is the leading
association for boards, chief executive officers, safety
professionals, governance professionals, directors and risk
managers.
Safety Governance Institute
safetygovernanceinstitute
.com
Rita Lindenberg
SVP Human
Resources
Entersekt is a global fintech company. The company pioneered
phone-as-a-token, out-of-band push authentication – over a
decade later, the de facto market standard – collecting the first
of 60-plus patents that recognize innovation in digital security,
payments, and user experience.
Entersekt
entersekt.com
Featuring Person
12.
13. JACQUELINE
HUDSON
Arecent article suggests that the role of a CMO in certain
industries was speculated to be redundant. However,
marketing initiatives on digital platforms have surged
exponentially during the pandemic. The necessity, being rather
obvious, created an impact so significant that its ripples spread
almost across all industry verticals, laying an implied emphasis on
the need of pivoting one's business and related processes to
everything digital.
Considering this necessity, the competition between companies
in seeking quality marketing experts has become intense. In such
a scenario, Jacqueline Hudson has set an indispensable position
in the market through her digital marketing agency named as
LUXE Digital Now LLC.
COVER STORY
14. Take every tactical
advantage you can,
build successful
teams, believe in
the power of
education in
your field.
‘ ‘
‘
‘
15. An award-winning digital marketer, Jacqueline has
been in the industry for over a decade as a major
influencer in the digital landscape. She specializes in
strategic planning and management, project
leadership and design, data analytical designs and
architecture, technology development, and all digital
marketing principles.
In her role as a communications and brand asset
executive, she is also experienced with designing and
implementing communication campaigns using
channel success metrics. Apart from this, she has
also been an achieved communications executive (in-
house) and consultant across multiple industry
sectors including Fortune 500, technology, beauty,
cosmetics, fashion, luxury, and real estate.
Her extensive skills set in the digital arena include
but not limited to editorials, senior writing,
copywriting, brand marketing, project management,
and creative content management expertise in all
digital platforms. Besides, her knowledge base in
web-based content management systems includes
data analytical systems, ComScore, Google
Analytics, Quantcast, SEO, SEM, and social media
developments.
Jacqueline earned her PgD from the Digital
Marketing Institute, in Dublin Ireland. Being a global
speaker at the BCMA (Branded Content Marketing
Association), she has lectured to 14 countries
globally. She has been honored to contribute to the
MusiCares Grammys', featuring Sir Paul McCartney,
Barbara Streisand, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond
and Aretha Franklin.
She was also named Top 40 under 40 in the Top 100
Magazine within the U.S and was award winning
AMA nominee at the American Marketing
Association. In addition, she is also an award
recipient of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime
Achievement Award and inductee for 2020.
A Purveyor in Digital Marketing Technologies
LUXE Digital Now LLC was founded in 2018 with a
mission to be the best and most innovative in the
industry, developing and restructuring the landscape
in digital marketing, especially being the purveyor in
digital marketing technologies and AI (Artificial
Intelligence) technologies for the industry. It is a U.S.
based digital marketing and technology software
solutions company located in Portland – Oregon.
The company was set to be the leader in the digital
marketing technology industry not only in the U.S.
market, but across the globe. The company has
revolved all its efforts around its premier software
technology AiDAS.
AiDAS is an artificial intelligence cloud program,
designed exclusively for global corporations to gain
complete autonomy of all their digital marketing, e-
commerce and digital technologies data.
The company also has dynamic technology for the
beauty and luxury industries, including Liquid Beauty
AI, a premier product for the AR/AI smart mirror
cosmetic technology solution.
Success is not an Overnight Triumph
LUXE Digital Now has transformed from a boutique
digital marketing agency to a technology solutions
developer on a global scale that specializes in luxury
brands. Jacqueline mentions that the path to success
is never an overnight one, this triumph is thanks to a
decade's worth of research, hard work, team
development and education. Having to build long-
term and valuable relationships with corporate
beauty and luxury clients is a feat in itself. Excelling
in project solutions and partnerships with its clients
is what sets the company apart from its competition.
It believes in being the best and offering the best.
Besides being passionate about digital marketing,
Jacqueline also has a love for travelling, yoga, fencing
and academics.
Current Scenario of Digital Marketing
According to Jacqueline, the digital industry has
evolved tremendously over the years, with the new
development of social media platforms to stronger
data usage for marketing purposes. The revenue
16. generated in the industry has grown tremendously
over the years. The digital marketing technology
industry will continue to experience sustained
growth, as the proliferation of digital devices, such
as tablets and smartphones, provide new streams
of income.
Another common trend in the digital marketing
industry is the majority of digital marketing
companies no longer rely on traditional media for
advertisements, they now fully embrace new
digital media and technology trends. As a result of
this trend, they no longer settle for clients within
the location where their physical office is located
but also from any part of the world.
The truth is that with the advent of the internet, it
is now easier for a digital company to work for
clients in any part of the world. For instance, a
digital company can be located in the United States
and have their biggest client in United Arab
Emirates or in China.
The digital marketing industry will continue to
evolve due to the advancement of computer
technology and software applications designs
globally.
Empowering Emerging Entrepreneurs
All the efforts of Jacqueline are in the direction to
pursue her goal of seeing LUXE Digital Now as a
unicorn company; innovating digital marketing and
data technologies around the world.
In her advice to aspiring leaders, Jacqueline says
“As entrepreneurs ourselves, we understand the
landscape of the ever-changing business world. Take
every tactical advantage you can, build successful
teams, believe in the power of education in your field.
And most of all carry the torch of ambition – it will
take you places you never dreamed possible as success
is there for the taking – believe in it, and take it,
because it's yours.”
17.
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19.
20. Amie Reiman
An Undulating Journey
For Amie, HIP Lives is more than her company- it's an
extension of herself. As Amie herself puts it, “I started
HIP Lives because I saw how few resources were
available to women who struggle every day with mental
and physical health issues while trying to put food on
the table and raise kids, many of whom are special
needs. The world doesn't need another aspirational e-
commerce site to sell vaginal eggs. HIP Lives is about
helping real women, many of whom are struggling to
just get out of bed in the morning.”
Amie knows all about mental health issues. From
overcoming a violent sexual assault to then battling
analgesic meds addiction and severe depression after a
car accident left her in excruciating pain, Amie knows
trauma firsthand. The knocks didn't stop with her own
health. In 2015, Amie's now 10-year-old son was
diagnosed with fragile X, a genetic disorder considered
part of the Autism family with side effects that include
severe ADHD and anxiety. Fed up with the mind-
numbing effects of prescription medications on both
herself and her son, Amie began to explore holistic
alternatives. Her son has one of the first pediatric
prescriptions for medical cannabis Canada and a result
Amie possesses an immense wealth of knowledge on
how to use this potent natural medicine.
Amie knew she wasn't alone in these struggles and
realized that there was no definitive resource or
support system for many parents, children and
corporations in terms of coping and taking a positive
approach to health solutions. Through controversial
research and personal development, Amie launched
HIP Lives from a desire to convert her and her child's
medicinal regiment to one entirely based on medical
cannabis.
Breaking the Stigmas Surrounding Cannabinoid Therapies
If one person embodies the old adage
“adversity makes you stronger”, it's Amie
Reiman.
An ardent working professional and single
mother of one, Amie knows firsthand how
precarious one's health can be. Through her
website and blog, Amie shares her wellness
journey in the spirit of wit and honesty. From
finding the right cannabis dosage to help her
special needs child to teaching other women
how to be “boss-bitches” in male dominated
fields, no topic is off-limits on Amie's blogs,
podcasts and social channels.
| January 2021 |
18
23. Advocating Medicinal Cannabis
As a result of her advocacy, Amie has been able to
become both an influencer and connector in the
burgeoning cannabis industry. Having come from a
marketing and sales background, Amie thought she
could support the supply chain while helping others
gain access. In only a few short years, Amie has become
a sought-after marketer, consultant and connector for
those seeking broader exposure and invaluable
industry contacts. Amie shares the benefits and the
challenges faced in the Cannabis Industry from her
hands-on professional experiences in the space.
At the core of Amie's platform is motherhood and one
of HIP's main pillars is Help in Parenting. Amie says, “as
moms we need to learn it's ok to ask for help- lots of it. I
don't mind being the lady you call at 2 in the morning
when you need to calm your child from an autism
related seizure or just need reassurance that you're
going to make it through another day.”
This leads to another of HIP's beliefs; health is not an
overnight miracle, but rather an endeavor that can only
be successfully achieved through small steps, quite
literally HIP means Health in Progress.
Aspiring to Make Cannabis a Global Option
Ask Amie her long-term vision for HIP Lives and she'll
say very clearly, “In a perfect world moms anywhere in
the world could click on my site and find out how they
can have access to cannabis for both themselves and
their children. With partners and networks all over the
globe, this is what I'm working towards.”
Amie knows that cannabis is not the panacea for all
problems. This is why she also offers access to a wide
array of holistic therapists and therapies that she
herself can proudly stand behind as well as various
products that have benefited her own recovery and
coping mechanisms. Hip CBD launched recently with a
specific set of formulations vetted for healing in both
women and children which aligns with the Hip Lives and
her own mission towards a Health in Progress.
With 2021 speaking engagements and a monthly voice
as a co- host on the popular Cannabis Podcast network,
The Canna Mom Show, Amie plans to keep aligning with
other like minds and hopes to inspire other women. “I
have found such synergy with other strong female
leaders in the Cannabis community” she says, “There is
so much to gain through collaborating and sharing the
mutual passion for the plant and it's medicine with
other like minds. We are all pioneering a new industry
and female mentors have truly empowered me to stay
strong no matter what obstacles we face, not only in
the Cannabis community but in general, health itself.”
Humanity driven, Amie is looking forward to the work
and growth for Hip Lives ahead, 'It is an exciting time in
plant medicine and I am so grateful to be involved in the
learnings and growth in its early days”.
Enlightening Aspiring Businesswomen
Stay compassionate, stay true to yourself. I think that
having compassion rather than just my own passion has
got me where I am. I often think that going after that so
called “shiny thing” doesn't always prove to be the best
approach. You may see something and want it so badly
that it almost becomes a necessity, and eventually, the
greed takes over. It may come from a good place in your
heart, but I think that compassionately things fall into
place when you lead with integrity. Do things humbly
so that you're giving back at the same time as
you're receiving.
Difficult roads lead to
beautiful destinations.
| January 2021 |
21
24. Anne Krog Iversen is a different kind of entrepreneur.
S
he is the Chief People, DNA, & Culture Officer
at TimeXtender, and a Co-founder, along with
her husband and CEO Heine Krog Iversen,
both of whom founded the company in 2006.
TimeXtender has been growing in revenue,
customers, partners, and employees ever since.
Given the company's 14-years of success, for that
accomplishment alone, Anne is a successful
entrepreneur. But her entrepreneurial spirit goes
much deeper, and is shown day in and day out with
her innovation, inventiveness and ideas for
organizational progress and resilience.
Along with being an entrepreneur, Anne is also what
we might call an “intrapreneur,” one who creates and
implements new business methods and models
inside a company. At TimeXtender, she has identified
a unique corporate DNA, and from there, built,
advocated for and advanced numerous initiatives to
guide a thriving workforce at this growing company.
A great example of this has been her leadership
during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown that
has occurred across many regional economies.
We've all felt the pain of the global pandemic.
Layoffs. Shutdowns. Remote. It's been a turbulent
2020 for sure, but TimeXtender, a global software
company providing the fastest way to build and
manage a modern data estate to support advanced
analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), has had the
good fortune to continue to move ahead and actually
achieve new levels of business growth.
The company has had to adjust, like most
organizations, to maintain business continuity while
moving from office workers to dispersed teams and
remote work; all this, while trying to adjust to
slowing business economies. However, given its
purpose-driven leadership, and strong grounding in
core beliefs, the company has fared well and better
than one might expect: TimeXtender is on course to
exceed 70 percent in new customers compared to
the same time period last year.
This is quite remarkable given the uncertainty of
these times. So, how was this achieved?
It starts with a combination of technology innovation
and work-culture innovation. For its work culture
and progressive workplace, TimeXtender has been
recognized time and again. Led by Anne, the HR team
regularly evaluates its culture and keeps a close eye
on business climate, looking for ways to improve
operations, systems and programs for the
organization as a whole.
Just prior to the global pandemic hitting, Anne and
TimeXtender's management team implemented
organizational purpose circles (OPCs) throughout
the company. With OPCs, TimeXtender was able to
adapt rapidly with a “new workplace” and continue
its business progress as, what Anne calls, “One
Global Team” – working from anywhere.
While technology innovation is at the heart of
TimeXtender's mission, its creative, technical
developmental focus could not reach its potential
without this supporting – and innovative – work
culture.
The OPCs run alongside its long-standing corporate
mindfulness program and its following of Stephen
Covey's “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”
program. All in all, purpose-driven leadership has
become the central theme for the company, as OPCs
| January 2021 |
22
27. enable TimeXtender staff to be mostly self-managed,
translating into an organization that has become
more innovative, creative, and sustainable. This has
also led to an environment that is adaptable and
suitable for current times.
OPCs have propelled TimeXtender to improve
processes by leveraging freedom, strengthening
trust among employees, and achieving greater
success with a structured framework. Purpose
circles inspire individuals to get more involved
across different areas of interest. This modern-day
organizational framework is helping the company
advance to new levels of agility, productivity,
sustainability, and innovation, inspiring employees
towards greater personal and organizational growth.
With OPCs, group synergy has come alive with
extensive idea sharing, mentoring, and learning.
Blending individual purpose with organizational
purpose provides encouragement for each person to
strive for a higher purpose in life and at work.
Team members have responded favorably to working
in a culture that enables sharing of the
responsibilities of technical leadership, management,
planning, implementation, and delivery assurance of
final solutions. They cherish the opportunity to strive
for a bigger purpose while working with colleagues
to try and reach new heights, greater success, and
ambitious goals and objectives.
And here's where TimeXtender's technology
innovation and work-culture innovation meet. The
company's OPC environment is supported with a
focus on automating workflow, speed on the job,
efficiency of tasks, and utilization of technology,
driven by purpose, focused on strategies and results
-- all without mid-level supervision. In other words,
OPCs are designed with innovation at the heart of its
purpose.
TimeXtender's innovative and progressive work
culture has shaped out nicely with OPCs as the
primary business accessory. The company's
corporate mindfulness and other resilience training
initiatives also plays a keen role as it is now available
on virtual platforms and helps to support its
refashioned, remote workplace.
All in all, purpose-driven culture continues to help
TimeXtender flourish and maintain its roots as a true
technology innovator, even in the midst of the global
pandemic and with teams dispersed around the
world that are working remote on different time
zones.
For their work in the area of building a modern-day
business culture, TimeXtender and Anne have won
many industry awards, most recently and most
®
notably, being named the winner of the Gold Stevie
Award in the HR Department of the Year category for
Employee Relations Team of the Year.
For these reasons, Anne can be considered a “10
Most Inspiring Business Women Making a
Difference for 2021.” We expect to hear more great
achievements coming from Anne, the Xtended
leadership team and the X-People (as they call
themselves) at TimeXtender in 2021.
“Purpose-driven culture
continues to help TimeXtender
flourish and maintain its roots
as a true technology innovator.”
| January 2021 |
25
28.
29.
30. Elena
Herweyer
An Entrepreneur who is Defining Courage,
Vision, and Success
he current pandemic crisis brought to all of us
Tnew challenges and tough questions that we
have to respond to. In marketing, the media
channels and business models must quickly assimilate
new time requirements and technologies to help
businesses survive and even find a way to grow. In this
new economic era of high-speed changes in the market
where new technologies bring new ideas and
opportunities to open new amazing horizons, and Elena
Herweyer, founder, CEO and creative director of Art
Fresh, Inc., and her team work hard for the clients'
objectives and strive to exceed their expectations.
Elena is a talented, proficient and award-winning
creative director. She is having expertise in creating
visual concepts and communicative tools for branding,
marketing and web strategies. Art Fresh is growing and
strives to respond fast to the new reality, digital
technologies and creative innovations and to be on the
cutting edge of all innovations in a fast-changing
market.
Speed is the keyword in today's business world. She
asserts “With an increasing volume of information that we
receive every day, fast changes in the markets, new
economy realities we must be more creative in brand
development and obtain a deeper understand of the target
audience, the sales drivers in order to find new approaches
and media channels for effective communication of the
brand values. We never stop to sharpen our marketing tools
to develop a brand vision and methodology to deliver new
more effective solutions that will work and help our clients
build powerful brands in the highly competitive
environment where the Covid-19 crisis has changed the
businesses significantly.”
Elena is known for increasing brand recognition for
well-known international organizations such as
Kimberly-Clark, L'Oreal, Proctor & Gamble, Kraft
Foods, Giorgio Armani, Gillette and Samsung.
A Born Leader
Elena likes to take responsibility and organize people to
achieve the results. She always wanted to be an
entrepreneur and start her own business even being a
professional fine artist and graphic designer. She is a
team player and loves to work with like-minded people
who are passionate about what they do, who want
continuously to develop professional skills, who have
an open mind and who dare to make the impossible
possible.
| January 2021 |
28
32. “Follow your
passion, do your
best at what you
love and the
impossible will
become possible"
| January 2021 |
30
33. In 2009, Elena came to Canada from Kyiv, Ukraine. She
understood that here is the chance to make her dream
come true and she decided to start her own business.
She says “My startup was launched without partners or
investors — only based on my passion and expertise. It may
sound like a crazy idea to start a new business being a
newcomer to Canada without entrepreneurial experience,
but intensive learning of new business tools such as
marketing, business management, and accounting helped
me gain new clients and develop my business into the multi-
award winning full-service marketing agency that I have
now.”
A Team of Mindful People
For Elena, Business is an intellectual sport and, like
every team, she and her company aim to win and want
to be a leader in the market. She asserts “Our creative
team of like-minded professionals wants to be the best at
what we do and to deliver the most effective business and
marketing solutions for our clients. We always look deeply
at the root of each problem, each challenge that clients
bring to us, which can require sometimes creating a new
business strategy or do repositioning of the product to
obtain the desired results.”
For the team, it is very important deeply understand
the current business position in the market, the
uniqueness of the client's product to offer a right
solution which can require improving of the business
offer or a stronger focus on the ideal target audience
with its desires to help grow the business in the highly-
competitive business environment.
Using this comprehensive methodology, Art Fresh, Inc.,
helps businesses save time and budget by taking the
right steps in achieving their goals much faster. It
transforms visions of brands which lead to the business
transformation and the opening of new exciting
opportunities.
The AF team has a strong passion and love to help
businesses reveal their passion to the products or
solutions that they provide in the market to grow and
succeed even in the uncertain times like now.
Advice from a Proficient to Novices
“Business requires constant developing of not only your
professional skills, business intellect, but also your personal
and human qualities” says Elena. She believes the key to
business success is a clear vision of the objectives that
one want to reach, the ability to be a good team player
and to learn fast every day and to not be afraid to take a
risk to try something new that one never did before.
“You have to have open mind, not be shy, and be “a student”
when you learn from your own experience or experience of
others. Another vital trait I think is a strong love and
passion to what you do,” she adds. This all is true for
women as well for men in business.
Continuing Excellence
The challenges, Elena is facing to grow the business, are
to organize the business process in such way as to not
lose the creative spark, to develop a fresh approach and
new vision for the services that Art Fresh, Inc. provides
to its clients and to strive to exceed the clients'
expectations and deliver much better results that it
promises.
Empowering Women
Recently Art Fresh, Inc. was a proud sponsor of the
campaign “New Life Girl” of The Vulnerable Children
Society (www.vulnerablechildren.ca) that was created
to rescue girls from the sex trade, and over a period of a
year, provide them with skills training, counseling,
personal hygiene education; and when possible, reunite
them with their families. The company believes that all
together we can make a big difference in the lives of
those who need help, even if it is seems a small
contribution from a global perspective.
Future Objectives
Elena has a strong passion and love to help businesses
grow and succeed as entrepreneurs indeed are the
ones who change the world. She asserts “In a new
economic era with high-speed changes in the market where
new technologies bring new ideas and opportunities to
open new amazing horizons, my team and I will continue to
work intensively for our clients' objectives in order to
exceed their expectations.” Marketing, new media
channels and industrial design quickly assimilate new
trends and technologies to transform businesses, so her
goal is to further grow the marketing agency to the
level where the company is able to address the new and
more complicated business challenges of the clients
and help them grow their businesses quickly. She adds
“For Art Fresh our clients' success is our success.”
| January 2021 |
31
35. WOMEN
WHO ARE LEADING THE
TECH WORLD
IO Look has always been appreciative of people
Cwho make the difference, and more so, if they
come from among those who have an inherent
disadvantage;Women. They work on farms, fields,
factories, homes and everywhere. And yet, it has taken
to be their “duty” to do so beside in most cases being
subjected to discrimination, consciously or otherwise.
But for every hurdle that they negotiate and every jibe
that they take in their strides, there is a motley bunch
among them who do not let opportunities pass, remain
gritty, ever perseverant and patient, and mark their
presence with more than expected results! We mention
below twelve such women who have done wonders in
the world of technology, and who shall keep being
torchbearers to humanity, man, or woman, to take
hurdles in their strides and aim for the skies.
1. Aarthi Subramanian, Chief Digital Office, TCS
Over three decades of first-hand experience in
technology, the CDO of the formidable TCS of India
leads the group’s various initiatives in the digital
domain that bring forth the group innovations and
technologies. Promoted from the position of Executive
Director, she is a much-known name in the field of
technology who has served markets as wide apart as
the North America (US and Canada), Europe (Sweden)
and India. A product of the NIT Warangal, she went on
to do her MS from the University of Kansas in the US
and was adjudged the Tech Leader of the year 2019 by
ETPrime.
2. Julie Linn Teigland, Managing Partner and Global
Leader, Ernst & Young
She is the Managing Partner for a huge swath of the
world economy which includes Europe, Africa, India
and the Middle East forming 90 countries where under
her stewardship she oversees the working of an
astounding hundred-thousand employees providing
critical business services ranging from complete digital
transformations, to guidance in tax laws across
continents and in audits. With close to two decades
with E&Y, her tenure known for its unwavering
integrity and managerial sense, is said to have shown
marked growth in central Europe including Austria,
Germany and Switzerland.
3. Virginia Rometty, IBM
Virginia “Ginni” Rometty has been with IBM for close to
three decades where her stint led to tech innovations
and advances. Otherwise, she is known for as an
‘inclusionist’ who introduced diversity into not only the
working at IBM but the entire industry, as also
furthering of tech-based education worldwide.
4. Julie Sweet, Accenture
An alumnus of the Columbia University’s Law School
where she did her Juris Doctor, Julie Sweet’s
association with Accenture commenced as the Head of
the Legal Division besides the position of the Chief
Compliance Officer. In these positions she has seen
closely the working of Accenture’s defence and
aerospace divisions.
5. Kelly Manthey, Kin + Carta
She is a B Sc in Business Administration from Kent
State University who went on to do a plethora of
professional certifications from the famed Harvard
Women in Tech
| January 2021 |
33
36. Business School. With close to 25 years of experience in
the field which includes a stint with a pharma company
which she successfully turned into a digital-ready
entity; she is today the Group CEO of Kin + Carta for
the Americas.
6. Riju Vashisht, Genpact
Genpact’s Global Transformation Services business has
her as its head-honcho where she has been
instrumental in Robotic Process Automation,
transitioning and finding complete digital solutions.
With close to two decades with Genpact (not taking
into account some years that she worked form Walmart
in India) where she held varied roles in markets and
locations as far apart as South Africa, SE Asia and India,
she is equally known in the field for her role in learning
and development. At Genpact she has fronted roles in
healthcare, retail, life-sciences and consumer goods
worldwide bringing about perceptible transformation
and engagements across markets and verticals.
7. Jennifer Kilian, McKinsey & Company
As a Design Partner of McKinsey & Company since
2014, she has been instrumental in getting effective
and efficient design and UI/UX as standard offering to
the organization’s clients. Helping her in this activity is
her experience into actionable client insights. She has
to her credit having served a range of industries and
entities including those on the Fortune 500 list like HP,
Disney and Chrysler.
8. Patricia Brown, SAS
A Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina
Patricia Brown is one of that rare breeds who has
served with the US Marines as a paralegal. An extensive
experience of over three decades gives her the edge in
terms of knowledge and experience bringing her to the
present position as EVP & CLO of SAS from the year
2019. She is today responsible for legal and licensing
services worldwide prior to which she worked on
protecting Intellectual Properties and governance at
SAS operations worldwide.
9. Katie Ebrahimi, Unisys
A Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from California State
University, Sacramento, she did her industrial and
organizational psychology from the San Jose State
University. Ebrahimi is the VP & Chief Human
Resources Officer of Unisys, a company with global
fame in Information Technology and related aspects.
She has in the past worked with Landec Corp, Sutter
health, Clorox Com leading to her acquiring immense
knowledge and experience in HR roles and what it
entails. Diversifying to Info tech companies including
McAfee, Sun Microsystems, and Cisco, she knows the
field with special emphasis on Info-tech and digital
enterprises.
10. Teresa Barreira, Publicis Sapient
A Bachelor of Arts with majors in Economics and
Political Science from the Massachusetts University
followed by an MBA from North-eastern University,
Teresa Barreira has over 25 years of experience in
creating client-centric digital strategies for marketing,
branding and solutioning. At Publicis Sapient she is
known for transforming and branding, reinventing
marketing strategies, launching new products and
organization, and driving growth of business that see
exponential changes.
11. Shelby Austin, Deloitte Canada
She is today the Managing Partner of a subsidiary of
Deloitte Canada, Omnia AI and Growth Investments
who has done her BA from an American University
besides a Degree in Law from the University of
Western Ontario in Canada. She is the founder of ATD
legal services that used advanced technology in the
area of documentation and its review and managed to
quickly scale up the venture. Its success attracted the
right attention and in the year 2014, ATD was taken
over by Deloitte, world leaders in audit, consulting, tax,
and advisory services to the world's most admired
brands. Shelby then became part of Deloitte heading
Omnia AI which specializes in end-to-end AI-based
solutions meant to enhance client experiences and
thereby accelerating growth.
12. Phebe Novakovic, General Dynamics
As a woman in the male-dominated military-industrial
complex of one of the world’s most renowned
manufacturers, she serves in an industry where “few
women have gone before” and not many men would
care to! And she does that in a very powerful manner in
a very powerful position. Phebe Novakovic is the
Chairman and CEO of General Dynamics, a world-
renowned defence-related manufacturer and has been
so from 2013. So powerful is her position that she
appeared on the Forbes’ raking of powerful women in
the world in 2018.
If you though she is guns blazing all the time, you could
be wrong! She is on the board of a handful of charitable
societies, is on the board of Abbott Labs and North-
western University!
These by no means are the only one thought they do
hold a torch to what women can do and are doing!
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37.
38. JILLIAN
HAMILTON
JILLIAN
HAMILTON
“We are treacherously exploring the great
ever unknown which is the now century and
tomorrow's already redundant.”
J
H
A Futurist in the Workplace Risk Management Space
Realization is not enough to bring change; it requires
constant efforts to build a roadmap for making
transformative difference. Jillian Hamilton, the Founder and
CEO of Safety Governance Institute has been one such
change-maker.
Jillian is a known expert in Australia within the discipline of
Safety Governance, serving on various Boards and regularly
advising boards and senior leaders. As a global business
leader, Jillian creates an environment for change and
emergence of true safety governance. Her entire working
career in Risk Management has been successful on one
factor – the ability to influence purposely and consciously.
This process began when Jillian worked for a business where
safety was not a cost of doing business; it was a true cost
and noted as “the dark side”, quite literally as it was seen as
a hindrance to being commercial savvy. During her five years
in that business she realized the value of damage.
| January 2021 |
36
40. Realization that led to the Inception
Jillian realized that unless businesses could converse
with their audience and decision makers via their
language i.e. money, they were speaking in a language
they did not understand.
Whilst primary safety ideals have been born from
compassion or influence, she knew that this did not
affect everyone and primarily the ones who made key
business decisions.
The first evolution was to make safety a business case
and commence a conversation about damage costs and
®
the costs of damage via Risk Dollarisation. The next
conversation is about safety governance and safety
getting its seat at the Board Room table globally to
ensure less damage and increased quality of life.
TM
Safety-Trust & Safety Governance will be a feature of
TM
Non-Financial Risk . These are all words, phrases,
aspects, and acumen that Jillian has brought to the
business and safety tables. These are specific terms she
has coined and used first for the industry.
Patenting the Idea as Doctorate
Jillian was able to export Risk Dollarisation. She chose
to patent the idea as “her doctorate”. As a self-funded
business owner, she could not afford the time to
complete her doctorate at this stage but she had a
unique and key idea that has emerged as brand new and
in our safety world of ’file - save as’ she had to mark it as
her own. She wanted to make sure that her theory of
safety relativity was known, marked, and measured as
she did it first!
This approach has had much challenge within the safety
community as she did not do it under another
university professor. This ruffled a few feathers, but
also, she made a connection of safety, risk, and
business.
A crevasse which has merely been crossed in the past
and for most safety professionals without a business or
financial acumen, this has really placed some confusion
at varying levels.
“Safety for years has struggled with the key part required to
sit at a Board Room Table with confidence due to lacking in
influence – “influence” at board levels, primarily as safety
professionals often fail to take a full risk view and have even
lesser understanding of macro-economic and micro-
economic factors and drivers which push and mould a
business, which in turn means a safety professional speaks
| January 2021 |
38
41. in a different language to business leaders and board
people,” asserts Jillian.
The emergence of Jillian’s work has paved the way to
export this process of non-financial risk management
and applications in many nations of the world. Jillian is
seen as a futurist as she is predicting outcomes and
suggesting future workplace risk management.
A Leading Association
The Safety Governance Institute of Australia is the
leading association for boards, chief executive officers,
safety professionals, governance professionals,
directors, and risk managers. Its membership is open to
professionals with qualifications and experience in the
field of safety governance. Being a member is the ideal
way to advance in one’s career, expand their network
and build on their skills. It provides the exclusive
certificate in Safety Governance in Practice and is a
business advocate for safety getting a seat at the
boardroom table.
Within the SGI business is the newly formed “Global
Framework Project Team” dedicated to development of
a Global Framework of Safety Governance that will be
accepted by businesses, nations, and regulators globally
for the governance of non-financial risks.
TM
Safety-Trust has become a vital key, as revisiting
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs sees people focusing more
on core lower-order needs for safety of service and
product more than person ideations (self-actualization)
of success, trends and excitement and adventure.
Further to this end, Edelman found 90% of customers
want to see brands “protect the well-being and financial
security of their employees and their suppliers, even if
it means suffering big financial losses until the
pandemic ends” (Edelman & Reis 2020). SGI will assist
companies to achieve these product goals and
organizational survival of stakeholder capitalism and to
drive this contribution throughout the global
community.
Vital Attributes
According to Jillian, Consistency, Honesty, Ethics, and
firm handling of finance are some of the vital attributes
every business leader should possess. She has displayed
these attributes through her work. In her career, she
has set a path from the very beginning and that is, to be
the absolute best person in every room she is present.
“As a business owner in advisory and consultancy, it is
critical for the success of my business that I be known as an
expert, agent, a go-to, elite, guru and person who can
provide straight, honest, ethical and practical advice to my
customers,” says Jillian. She made sure that she knew
her topics and only when she had had years of working
in businesses of various sizes, did she think she was
qualified enough to provide advice and consultation to
other businesses. Her ethos and mindset have always
been focused upon goal setting and directional
ideation.
When she decides to go somewhere, she makes the
proclamation, then she makes a plan, and then takes the
desired steps to achieve it.
A Roadmap for Future
Jillian is committed to promoting safety governance
and the safety governance institute. She will be
releasing her book Safety Governance in Practice later
this year. Safety governance is a new space which needs
more attention that she will drive to reduce deaths
globally. She realized that the quality and style of
teaching in this area is some of the key reasons for
errors in understanding and action in this area. She is
committed to repairing this area of safety governance
education gap and creating a framework and guideline
for international use.
Jillian aspires to work with and influence the World
Economic Forum in this area. She has created all the
opportunities for herself and has done this intentionally
and purposely.
She will continue to drive the path for safety
governance globally and to help grow and develop
board leaders, leadership and safety professionals to
deliver safety trust at work and best outcomes for
society by eliminating loss from work processes, no
matter the stage of work.
| January 2021 |
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42.
43.
44. From an Admin Clerk to a Chairwoman
T
hey say difficult roads often lead to beautiful
destinations. May Yap has also overcome
numerous hurdles to earn the coveted position
of Chairwoman, CEO and Managing Director at LHT
Holdings Ltd. Her entrepreneurial ride had lot of
undulating moments. Let us uncover her journey of
becoming a businesswoman in an exclusive interview
with CIO look:
Give a brief overview of your background and your
role as a businesswoman.
In December 1977, after graduating from my GCE 'O”
level, I joined former Lian Hup Timber Trading Co and
commonly known as “Lian Hup” by the pioneer
generation of the timber industry in Sungei Kadut,
before its rename to “LHT Holdings Limited”.
At that time, the firm “Lian Hup” had around 10
employees and on leasing land size of less than 100 sqm
situated in the Mandai Village in a rural area. As a
teenage admin clerk, I handled multiple positions
including receptionist, delivery arrangement, stock
inventory, accounts, and housekeeping, amongst
others.
In the year 1999, the Lian Hup Timber Pte Ltd went listing
in the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and was renamed to LHT
Holdings Limited. I was then a senior sales manager and
took the opportunity to buy a ten percent of the company
shares.
For this reason, I was appointed as Sales Director in charge
of all sales and marketing functions. Perceiving the
opportunity to be an Executive Director, I took up to be one
of the major shareholders during the company's
reconstruction.
LHT has been one of the largest manufacturing companies
of high-quality wooden pallets, boxes, and crates in
Singapore. LHT has staff strength of 180, serving the areas
of administration, manufacturing, and warehousing.
Another opportunity came by when I was appointed as
the acting Managing Director in 2016 and followed by
re-designation as the chairman, Managing Director, and
CEO in 2017.
And now, with over 20 years of experience, I play a key
role in seeking opportunities in the markets. My
responsibilities rest in monitoring market
developments and to assure that LHT's product
development efforts are in line with the industry.
What people, what books, what life factors have
influenced and impacted you?
The only person who influenced me was my mother,
even though she had little education or none. She was
the only person who looked after eight children. She
can single-handedly built a chicken and duck farm, and
a vegetable farm. She was a tough woman, even the
weather was never her concern. She spoke little but her
actions were great which remind me the statement
“Action speaks louder than words”. She was
perseverant, determined, with a never-say-never
attitude. My mother works better than any man does,
and the money she earned from the farming was used
to pay for our siblings' school fees and our daily needs.
What is your vision for the company for the next five
years?
Green products and sustainable business with
digitalization will be key success factors for our
business. Technical Wood: Compressed wood formed
of original tropical hard fibers. The new wood
| January 2021 |
42
45. “ is one major cause of climate change.
Deforestation
Recycling is one of the many efforts that reflect our commitment toward
mitigating climate change and global warming”
May
Yap
Chairwoman, CEO
& Managing Director
| January 2021 |
43
46. substitutes the natural wood made from wood waste
material.
The Innovative Process Product Conversion (IPPC)
Pallets: A strong foothold in the arena of green
products designed and produced to reduce carbon
footprints. The environmentally friendly packaging
solutions enable customers to comply with
international eco-friendly standards and regulations.
ECR Leasing Pallet: The 'Efficient Consumer Response',
or ECR is a strategy to improve consumer choice,
satisfaction, and service and at the same, reduce total
costs, inventories, and physical assets.
Industrial Packing: Providing services and solutions to
customers' large machineries, unique design shapes
that require special care, and the packaging that starts
from a commercial sales point and arrives at the
consumer as a sales unit.
RFID Technology: Enhances productivity by eliminating
all unnecessary manpower wastage on information
retrieval for customers' verification documentation,
provide accuracy, control, and efficiency for your
business.
Our Green Energy: Recycling wood waste to 'Technical
Wood' and waste management. Technical Wood is the
raw material and bio-products that are used to make
furniture components for Greenflo Doors (fire-rated)
and flooring strip.
How do you sustain your creative leadership spirit in
this changing technological era?
Wood pallets have been traditional for more than 60
years since World War II, to entice our target audience
we need to provide a competitive one-stop solution.
Besides selling wood and plastic pallets, we have
technology pallets known as system pallets that
cooperate with the RFID system. We also manufacture
environment-friendly pallets that are made from
recycling wood waste.
By 2013 we took over a big plant at Johor, Malaysia for
Green innovative GPAC molded pallet production and
became a multi diversity of wide ranges of ECO Green
pallet leadership to distribute all kinds of wood
packaging and champion in the green journey and
scaled the company with a more effective business
model and longevity sustainable for success.
What advice would you like to give to the emerging
businesswomen?
There is no advice I would give to the emerging
businesswomen of today, as I believe these women are
already making the move towards their destiny. The IoT
or I would rather call it “IoE” (internet of everything)
gives them access to the knowledge on what they want.
I would only say, where there is a will there is a way, and
never give up till your very last breath.
What are your future objectives and where do you see
yourself in near future?
The Covid-19 pandemic is a testament that our
company is sustainable over the majority of companies
that were shut down due to the lockdown period and
we were one of the few companies that provided the
essential services to the community as well as the
society.
Even though we are in business as usual, we will not
stop here. In good time and through a good
opportunities, Mergers and Acquisitions will be a part
of the near future of our global expansion journey and
also R&D collaboration to develop green products with
our resources.
| January 2021 |
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47.
48. Nancy Ze man
Making a Difference through Fresh and Effortless Fashion
Nothing great was ever achieved without walking the extra mile. It is certainly
a zealous mindset and perseverance that have taken people closer towards
their goals. The story of Nancy Zeffman aptly exemplifies this chain of
thought. She has worked her way up to the top along with her co-founder Eileen
Willett to establish Cucumber Clothing.
Through Cucumber Clothing, Nancy is making women feel confident through
effortless dressing. Let's find out how in this exclusive interview with CIO Look:
Kindly take us through your journey on becoming a proficient leader.
The foundation of Cucumber happened organically. I love to work out, as does my
Co-Founder Eileen Willett. We also love to wear our gym kit and found ourselves
hardly changing out of them as the material used are so comfortable, crease-free,
and easy to care for. They keep us cool and dry as we go about our busy lives,
whether that's trail running, downward dogging in hot yoga, jumping for the ball in
basketball, walking the dog or popping to the local shops.
Our light bulb moment came when we realized there must be a way to reproduce
this, but with a material that looked as gorgeous as it felt. We wanted to replicate all
the qualities of our gym kit, but in more stylish, everyday luxury pieces that we would
want to reach for time and time again.
It took about two years form having the idea to reaching market. This time was spent
researching the market, materials and making up samples (and testing them), fine
tuning our designs, photography and setting up our website, plus so much more, in
time for our first capsule collection that launched in September 2017.
How do you diversify your organization's offerings to entice the target audience?
Our clothes are part of balancing a busy lifestyle. We use the latest technical fabrics
that feel soft and luxurious, that are super easy to care for and style them into
flattering designs for all body shapes – we go up to a UK size 20 in some styles.
How do you strategize your game plans to tackle the competition in the market?
Our customers are women looking for a solution. Our fabrics are long lasting and
require minimal care. We care about how we create our products and consider every
step of our production to minimize our environmental impact. We are building a
Cucumber community where we encourage customer engagement and offer an
exceptional level of customer service.
What are the vital traits that every businesswoman should possess?
I think that to launch a brand takes three main characteristics; determination – if you
want to go for something, you have to give it your all and see it through; organization
– there is always so much to do and not all of it can be done at once; which leads me
onto prioritizing – and this means in a personal capacity too. You have to learn to
| January 2021 |
46
50. prioritize yourself sometimes so that the business can
be supported by two mentally and physically fit and
happy co-founders.
As per your opinion, what roadblocks or challenges
were faced by you in a corporate business? And how
did you overcome them?
We have had to learn some hard lessons along the way.
For example, quite early on, we decided to outsource
our fulfilment (picking, packing, and shipping to the
customer). We pride ourselves on excellent customer
service – we personally answer every email and actively
encourage feedback. Fielding out this part of our
business was nerve-wracking as this was the first time,
we had no control over part of our customer's
experience with us. We were horrified when we began
receiving complaints of wrong garments received,
double order sent, and boxes marked 'shoes' (we only
make clothing)! It was a month-long very expensive
experiment with endless firefighting, but it underlined
to us the value we place on customer service.
Have you in any ways contributed towards the cause
of women empowerment?
We make luxurious clothes for every day. Our clothes
empower women by using the latest ultra-modern
performance fabrics that work to dissipate sweat and
odors away from the body to leave the wearer feeling
cool, uncrushed, and confident to get on with her day.
We marry technical, high performance fabrics to
cleverly cut-to-flatter designs that function optimally
and always feel amazing next to the skin.
Clothes should do more than just dress a body. Our
clothes breath, they cool, they stretch but don't crease;
they move with your body; they are easy to care for and
are made locally, ethically, and sustainably. Our all-in-
one style was created to fit seamlessly into every
woman's wardrobe – dress up, dress down, sleep,
stretch, work, train, travel. Cucumber is effortless
dressing that keeps you feeling fresh 24/7.
What kind of support was required and gained, by you,
while emerging as a business forerunner?
Launching a brand (on a shoe-string budget) and setting
up a website are one thing; driving traffic to it is quite
another. We have had to really put ourselves out there
and shout about our brand to anyone who will listen.
In terms of support, we have been lucky to have
attended some courses run by the London College of
Fashion, that helped us hone our business plan and
gave us the original confidence to launch. During Covid,
we have been receiving excellent help from the London
Growth Hub, that supports SME's and in turn, the DIT
(Department of International Trade). These are all
amazing free support networks that have helped us
navigate the ever-changing landscape of the business
world.
We are also part of various female entrepreneur
forums in the UK that have provided support and
encouragement.
What are your future endeavors/objectives and where
do you see yourself in the near future?
We have been expanding into luxury spas around the
UK and have also been involved in various pop-up
events which have worked very well. Despite the
uncertain situations due to covid-19 pandemic, we
believe we can build on our existing wholesale
customer base. We are also expanding overseas and are
stocked in a sustainable concept store in Amsterdam, as
well as a French on-line store.
We are hoping to grow in this area, whilst also
constantly reviewing and upgrading our website to
offer a fantastic shopping experience online.
We hope to be established as the premier fabric led
fashion brand for women in the UK; will have a firm
foothold in countries where we have already started to
make in-roads, namely the US, Australasia, South Africa
and the Middle East.
Don't sweat the small
stu ; so ma y things
can get in the way of
your bigger dreams
and aspirations.
“
“
| January 2021 |
48
51.
52. If you want to
improve your
organization, you
must continuously
work at improving
yourself and the
employees will get
pulled up by you.
“
“
Rita Lindenberg
SVP Human Resources
Entersekt
| January 2021 |
50
53. RITA
LINDENBERG
Take our readers through your professional journey
that led you to your current role as the Senior Vice
President of Human Resources.
I started my journey by ensuring that I had a solid
foundation of relevant skills, which I achieved by
studying at a tertiary level. I completed a diploma in HR
consulting, a Bachelor's degree in Industrial
Psychology, an Honor's degree in Public Development
Management, and a Master's degree in Leadership,
Performance and Change. I completed the latter while
in employment, which made the theory much more
relatable and gave me the opportunity to apply my
leadership skills in the workplace.
One of my first jobs was leading an organizational
diagnostics function in a small management consulting
practice. Here, I was able to hone my skills in using
survey data to improve employee engagement.
After four years, I transitioned into the corporate
financial services sector as a human capital consultant,
advising line management on people practices. From
there, I moved into the niche domain of global fintechs,
which are typically smaller in size, fast paced and
complex.
From the beginning of my career, I made sure I learnt as
much as possible from the senior leaders I reported to
or worked with. I selected role models that I could draw
on. I am naturally curious and fascinated by people's
behavior, and this curiosity encouraged me to ask
questions, conduct research, observe, and distil
information so that I could form a clear picture of how
things work.
Tell us more about Entersekt.
Entersekt has a lean HR function serving 150+ globally
dispersed employees. To ensure we remain relevant
and add the most value to our stakeholders where it
matters, we automated a large part of the function
through an integrated HRM system that provides
reporting, data, a recruitment platform, and
THE EPITOME OF COMPASSION AND EFFICIENT LEADERSHIP
In an interview, Rita Lindenberg, Senior Vice President of Human
Resources at Entersekt, shares with us her journey, experiences and
opinions on impactful female leadership – and indeed its necessity in
the contemporary corporate landscape.
Below are the highlights of this insightful conversation with Rita.
| January 2021 |
51
54. performance management, amongst other functions, to
take care of the vital HR processes.
This gives the team more time for value-add functions
such as understanding and addressing the changing
needs of our employees. We also partner with selected
leadership consulting firms to bolster our employee
training and development offering.
We have also implemented an OKR (objectives and key
results) methodology in the business to help us focus on
meaningful strategic objectives with clear key results
that are measured quarterly. HR has also designed a
team brand, underpinned by our values, and we revisit
this brand promise and goal attainment on a regular
basis.
What, according to you, are the vital traits that every
businesswoman should possess?
Women tend to have an innate ability for empathy and
kindness, which are very powerful traits. If we lead by
instilling values such as treating others with respect,
extending empathy and compassion, practicing
gratitude, and constructively managing conflicts, then
kindness becomes the cornerstone of your business
culture. In this way, women can become organizational
architects – and the bridge builders that connect
people.
What roadblocks or challenges did you face in a
corporate business? And how did you overcome them?
While I prefer not to dwell on my career challenges
(and there have been many), they were the moments
that provided the most opportunity for personal
growth.
In a corporate environment, I find myself working
12–14-hour days and having to compromise personal
relationships. I have found that the best way to deal
with this is by having open and frank discussions with
my manager and asking for additional support, team
members or resources.
The key is to approach the problem with your end goal
in mind. Try to propose a solution to the issue rather
than waiting for others to change your world.
I regard myself as an experienced HR professional, and
as Oscar Wilde once said, “Experience is simply the
name we give our mistakes.” I have made lots of
mistakes along the way, but the important thing is to
always learn from them!
Have you contributed towards the cause of women
empowerment?
Absolutely! I actively hire women and enable their
career development and promotion. I have also
supported women's activities in business by helping to
establish a women's network forum. It is important for
women to have an equal voice, and the status quo
needs to change so that we do not need to establish
specific forums or special provisions. We should be able
to “just own it”.
What are your future objectives and where do you see
yourself in the near future?
As SVP Human Resources of a global fintech company,
my objectives are aligned with that of the business: “To
create a world where everyone can interact and
transact digitally without fear or compromise.” And, to
create a work environment where our employees can
thrive.
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55.
56.
57.
58. TUULA
JALASJAA
“Whatever stage of life you are at, make wise financial decisions” is one advice you will always
come across. Financial literacy is the ability to understand how money works. Its understanding
how someone makes, manages, spends, and invests money and effectively use various financial
skills including personal financial management, budgeting, and investing. It is important to have
some platform that helps to make those choices less difficult.
It is important because as worldwide wealth increases, women's wealth and incomes are also
growing rapidly. Women will increasingly need more financial knowledge (and advice) because
their finances are often more complex than men's. For example, women's longer life expectancy
can result in sudden additional and assumed financial responsibilities relatively later in life.
There are many other life events that are unique to women and impact their finances negatively
or positively. Because there is a lack of knowledge on how to deal with these situations, financial
literacy for women is increasingly in demand and absolutely required.
Rectifying Financial Issues
After being in the industry for many years and recognizing its complexities as well as seeing very
unfortunate situations happen to women due to lack of financial literacy, Tuula wanted to build
something that could rectify these issues. The Women's Collection was the perfect name
Empowering Women to make Sound Financial Choices
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59. Tuula Jalasjaa is the Founder of The
Women's Collection. She is a financial
services and wealth management senior
executive with extensive experience
domestically and internationally,
spanning 23 years successfully managing
various retail, commercial and corporate
businesses for a major global financial
institution. She has run several key
wealth management businesses
including HollisWealth, Scotia Private
Investment Counsel and Institutional
Investment management distribution
and, Scotia Asset Management U.S.
Tuula Jalasjaa
Founder
The Women's Collection
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60. because although one can find resources in many
places, there is no true “collective” of them in one place.
Simply put, The Women's Collection is a collection of
knowledge, resources and tools supporting financial
literacy, financial wellness and financial security for
women making it 'Simpler, Accessible and Engaging'.
Increasing Female Financial Literacy
Tuula has pioneered and led several initiatives for
women throughout her career and is a tremendous
advocate for achieving more diversity in business for
women and raising the number of female leaders and
board directors globally. She is also passionate about
empowering women with their finances and financial
futures with a keen focus on increasing female financial
literacy rates around the globe.
To this end, she founded The Women's Collection to
empower Canadian women to make sound financial
choices to achieve their goals and financial wellness.
The program uses a combination of “education,
networking, tools, and resources” as well as a digital
investment platform (a.k.a. robo-advisor) “designed for
women, by women.” This robo-advisor, called Smart
Money for Her, was recently launched by Tuula and is
Canada's first and only robo-adviser platform for
women.
Strategic Direction of Wealth Management
Tuula is also working with senior leaders to help shape
and guide the strategic direction of wealth
management across the Caribbean, including how to
better serve female investors in all segments as well as
business owners, to increase their financial knowledge
and empowerment.
Tuula holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
designation and an International MBA from the
Schulich School of Business in Toronto. She has also
Have passion and a
love for what you are
trying to accomplish.
Passion will keep you
on your journey and
push you to succeed.
“
“
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61. earned the ICD designation from the Rotman School of
Management Corporate Directors Program.
Leading by Example
There are many traits of an effective leader but for
Tuula, a true leader helps others reach their goals and
leads by example. Due to adverse market gaps, it was
important for her to champion and lead the
development of a platform to educate women on
financial wellness to achieve their financial goals.
Assessing Opportunities
Tuula's journey has been exciting with lots of twists and
turns along the way. She says that there was never a
dull moment. She learns from her mistakes and
celebrates every accomplishment and milestone. The
biggest roadblock for her was trying to do everything
and capture every opportunity and finding not enough
hours in the day. Her biggest learning has been that
setting a framework to assess opportunities and
sticking with the principles of that framework are uber
critical.
Unique Online Investing Platform
Smart Money for Her is a unique online investing
platform, the first robo-advisor designed specifically for
women in Canada. It has a goals-based approach, which
is an intuitive way of investing that starts with the
question, “what are you saving for?”
Women are able to learn investing in a simple fashion
because it is index investing,” she said in an interview
with The Globe and Mail. “It's a tool to help women
apply their financial knowledge and just get their feet
wet when it comes to investing.”
The purpose of Smart Money for Her is to help women
by offering a live resource to implement what they have
learned through the learning modules offered on The
Women's Collection platform. It is a key component of
financial literacy initiative.
Wealth Creation for All Women
The future for The Women's Collection looks very
promising with interest in the platform from other
countries growing. Tuula can see herself driving a global
platform and mission that democratizes wealth
creation for women around the world.
The Women's Collection develops content that
educates women on how to wisely make financial
decisions that are right for them and their families. The
program offers online and offline educational learning
programs; combined with events and additional
information sources to support women in building their
confidence.
Leaving a Legacy
When starting her own company, there were so many
nuances Tuula came across that differ significantly from
the corporate world. She thinks she would have taken a
course early on how to start a business so she could
have been more prepared for all the things that arose.
The most pertinent driving factor for Tuula was to
pursue a dream and passion that helped others and to
create a legacy that her daughters would be proud of.
Her advice to other women leaders is to follow their
passions and do not let roadblocks stop them but make
them wiser and stronger.
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63. Veronica Crisafulli
Exemplarily Inspiring
C
uriosity is the foundation of innovation. Everything new that has been
emerged in our world may it be from necessity or just accidental inventions;
all have been derived from a curious mind.
In this exclusive interview, we are showcasing one such curious mind, Veronica
Crisafulli – Co-founder of MO Tecnologías and KEO World. She is currently leading
a FinTech company that is on its way to revolutionize the credit space by empowering
credit inclusion for businesses and customers. How is she doing that? Let us ask
Veronica:
Describe your background and what did you do before you started, or came into
this business?
'An earthquake', 'the lady with a luggage' or 'the dreaming girl' are some of the ways
my family used to call me when I was younger. My willingness to know the world and
to make of it a better place never changed during the years. I have done my studies in
Italy, from the University Bocconi of Milan, where I was born.
During this period, I had the chance to do an exchange program for 3 months in Cuba
at Universidad de la Habana, and a 6 months exchange in Madrid at Carlos III. Both
opportunities opened my eyes and made me realize I wanted to discover the world,
traveling as much as possible, to then find the way to start my own business
somewhere. Then, I finalized my studies in Spain at ESADE and Denmark at CBS
studying international management.
Describe your company and its cutting-edge services which address all the needs of
your customers.
I co-founded MO: a fintech that revolutionizes the credit space empowering credit
inclusion since 2016. MO is targeting the 3Bln users worldwide without access to
traditional credit. Mo has a SaaS business model licensing the technology to partners
of all verticals from the financial industry to fintech, as well as non-financial
industries such as CPGs, GIGs, BPOs and service companies. Mo generates revenues
through a simple and scalable commercial model mainly based on a recurring fee per
user or product scheme.
It also has a proprietary, complementary, alternative, and innovative credit scoring
technology which uses non-traditional variables along with Artificial Intelligence and
Machine Learning models to evaluate the creditworthiness of a client. Additionally,
o
MO has been focusing in creating a 360 credit solution for our partners: from the
digital on-boarding through a white label open-data platform to a credit management
platform.
I co-founded KEO World: an innovative lending Fintech focusing on promoting
financial inclusion by giving its clients´, both consumers and small businesses, the
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64. possibility to access credit on fair terms and with an all-
digital process, independently from their credit history
(or lack of it).
What strategies do you undertake to make your
employees resourceful?
I always try to find a good balance between work and
fun moments. I know that if I do this well, I can maintain
high motivation, high productivity, and efficiency. What
I do is pretty simple but it's a successful recipe.
First of all, I believe each one of them is the best person
for the job, so I help them to take responsibility without
leaving them alone in the journey. Secondly, I share my
experience and knowledge every time I can, or if they
ask for it.
Thirdly, I think it is important to give recognition when
a job is well done. And finally, I am always myself with
my employees, I think being authentic is fundamental to
be trusted. I believe in the magic of the teamwork, so I
push for it every day keeping alive a company culture of
positivity and reliability.
What are some of the vital attributes, in your opinion,
that every businesswoman should possess?
I love what I do, I am confident, and I am a risk taker and
I believe these are important traits for a
businesswoman to have these days.
I have the courage and I am able to make decisions
rapidly understanding the business and related risks.
Besides that, I have always looked for the human side,
because it is a big and valued differentiator.
Being positive and enthusiastic it is also something that
makes a big difference. I focus my attention on the
positive ways of looking at a fact or problem and on
how to solve it. That helps me cope with any type of
situation on top of the fact that it makes the working
environment more pleasant.
Last but not least, a businesswoman should never feel
less than somebody else.
What is your greatest achievement in life?
My greatest life achievement is to still feel myself
passionate, dedicated and in love with my family and
friends as when I was a teenager. I am still that positive,
with the same willingness to do something for the good
and to be an inspiration for all the people around me.
I am also very happy to have achieved and co-created
two companies because it was a long-term goal. Being
an entrepreneur is challenging but at the same time
very rewarding. Today, I feel grateful for all the
experiences and all the people I have met in my journey.
Where do you see your industry in five years?
The Fintech industry will keep growing fast over the
next 5 years. First of all, a collaborative environment
between financial institutions and fintech firms will be
totally normal. Banks are finally changing their mindset
to perceive fintech as competition, understanding the
need to work with technology startups to succeed.
Secondly, disruption will come from the following main
fintech area: digital lending, payments, blockchain,
insurance and digital wealth management.
Additionally, disruption will definitely come from an
increasing variety of business models across
geographies, segments, and technologies. Thirdly,
artificial intelligence, machine learning models, robotics
and big data will become the day to day solutions. As a
focal point, we will start seeing more consolidation as
larger players get involved in mergers and acquisitions
to satisfy their expansion goals and this will lead to
better fintech valuations.
What one thing, more than anything else, do you want
to accomplish in your business before you get out?
The one thing I would like to accomplish is my vision to
outlast me. I really hope to leave a mark, leaving behind
a lasting innovation that improves people's lives in a
tangible way every day, giving access to credit in an
easy and fair way.
I believe in
embracing financial
easiness through
credit inclusion
“
“
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65. In order to do that, I want my team to be empowered
and able to move forward with the right principles
whenever I'm out of the game. It's a sort of
entrepreneurial legacy concept that motivates me
every day and drives the majority of my decisions more
than the only financial and sustainable success.
What advice would you like to give to the emerging
entrepreneurs?
My advices for the emerging entrepreneurs are as
following:
Ÿ Do not be afraid if your life feels like a roller coaster
ride. I ensure you that you will enjoy the entire
journey. Even if you will be moving up and down, you
will learn so much.
Ÿ Have a concrete idea and take action. Do not start
just to be a wantrepreneur.
Ÿ Make a plan (project plan and business projections)
and focus on the plan but be flexible enough to
change it in any moment and more than 1 or 2 times.
Ÿ Share your idea with a mentor or people in the
ecosystem to avoid as many mistakes as possible.
Ÿ Start it with the best team. 3 people could be
enough, but you need to be very aligned on the
company's norms and values.
How do you sustain your entrepreneurial spirit in this
changing technological era?
We live in a dynamic world where the changes are
constant and not the exception. For me, the key to
maintain the entrepreneurial spirit alive has been to
dedicate time to read about what is happening in the
ecosystem of different countries and different sectors.
I always look around and think about consequences and
future outlooks, supported by an internal dedicated
team for innovation. I constantly organize
brainstorming sessions, as well as challenges for new
ideas. We definitely work to anticipate better and
actively be a part of the change.
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