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ISSUE 01 | VOL 04 2021

BUSINESS

LEADERS REVAMPING THE FUTURE 2021

DEAN

BARTLES AN INGENIOUS MIND TRANSFORMING ADVANCED MANUFACTURING

Connecting Cloud Is the Cloud Right For you? Leader’s Tech For a better future

EDITOR’S NOTE Advanced Minds Transforming Companies

n innovative business leader is one who is a proliﬁc reader of business-related journals, magazines, and newspapers. Additionally, it’s important to stay ahead of upcoming trends and technologies which can have a direct impact on leaders in the long run of the business. Furthermore, an innovative business leader needs to surround himself or herself with diverse staff and technological experts which helps for opinions and challenges in the leadership role from time to time. Technologies that afford connectivity are important for leaders as it is a basic step for any startup that should be employed in its initial stages. They want to see where their process lacks in terms of growth. It brings transparency in the working of the organization. Transparency in the organizational process means transparency for leadership which is a win-win situation. It is a long process of Research and Development which is carried out with the help of current and emerging technologies to determine which ones should be explored for adoption and which ones should be put aside to watch. Although there are a couple of options out in the market, but not all are worth-adapting. It will be difﬁcult without technology to survive in a highly competitive market. Technological and innovative developments constantly affect the working methods of the leaders and the organizations. To cope with this challenge, any leader, as well as its experts, need fresh and up-to-date knowledge and skills. Therefore, continuous upgradation of knowledge, skills, and abilities is crucial for the leaders in any organization. Today leaders need to continuously train themselves as they gain knowledge in a competitive advantage and they will be

prepared not only to follow the latest trends but to act as a trendsetter. Inspiration, Motivation & Dedication are the keys to success. Above all dedication is the most important and a gamechanger. True leaders never give up, they maintain consistency. There is no shortcut or trick only hard work accomplishes results. And not to forget that any business in the world requires demand and supply, so without good marketing and sales, there is no business. Any aspiring business leader needs to possess qualities like Persistence, perseverance, and patience. Finding and joining like-minded people and hiring them in the organization is always an added advantage and seek out a trusted mentor. To keep the company of the right people is also equally important. Finally taking the time to enjoy the success when it comes is bliss. The road ahead is full of challenges but adapting to it is the real quality of the leaders. With such an approach, CIO LOOK comes forward with its upcoming edition “The 10 Most Innovative Business Leaders Revamping the Future 2021”. With a commitment to advance business throughout the world by driving innovation and accelerating growth and featuring on the cover of this edition is Dean Bartles, President and Chief Executive Ofﬁcer at MTDG. Dean is driven by a passion to help small and medium manufacturers, the lifeblood of American Manufacturing, get better. He ﬁrmly believes the best way to do this is through the adoption of digital manufacturing – smart manufacturing technologies. He has served in numerous volunteer Board positions over the last ten plus years including the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the North American Manufacturing Research Institute, the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition, the National Tooling and Machining Association, etc. Delve into more of such inspiring journeys, and stories from many such innovative business leaders of this issue. Also, 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 a brief knowledge of the industrial know-how. Happy reading!

Abhishaj Sajeev abhishaj@ciolook.com

COVER STORY

08 Dean Bartles An Ingenious Mind Transforming Advanced Manufacturing

ARTICLE

30 Leader’s Tech For A Better FUTURE

C O N T E N T S

Connecting Cloud Is the Cloud Right for You?

14 Charikleia Stouka Unrivaled Work Ethic, Integrity, and Honesty

22 Laszlo Dellei

Inclusive, Adaptable, Innovative and Exemplary Leader

26 Ofer A. Lidsky Leading through Example and Innovation

32 Rob Leslie

Protecting Individual Privacy & Preventing Financial Crimes

36 Yuryi Ferber Building Better Companies and Better Ecosystems

Abhishaj Sajeev Editor-in-Chief

CONTENT

Senior Editor Alan Swann Executive Editors Rohit Chaturvedi Alex Spellman

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January, 2021

Featuring Person

Company Name

Brief

Chandra Pandey CEO

Seceon seceon.com

Seceon goes beyond the traditional approach of employing silo solutions to build a comprehensive security posture for an organization.

Charikleia Stouka CEO

ALMA Real Estate almarealestate.gr

With 20 years of successful presence and experience in the Greek Real Estate Market, ALMA Real Estate oﬀerd immediate and eﬀective service, tailored individually to each of its customers.

Dean Bartles CEO

National Center for Defense Manufacturing & Machining ncdmm.org

NCDMM leverages the expertise of its team to deliver innovative and unbiased manufacturing solutions that produce real and substantial results.

Dellei László György CEO

KERUBIEL kerubiel.com

Kerubiel Consulting Ltd. is a 100% privately-owned company specializing in the provision of ICT and information security and privacy services.

Jose Cil CEO

Restaurant Brands International rbi.com

Restaurant Brands International Inc. is one of the world’s largest quick service restaurant companies with approximately $32 billion in annual system-wide sales and 27,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries and U.S. territories.

Markos Demetriou CEO

iResTech irestech.net

iResTech Ltd is a Cyprus-based company that was formed in the spring of 2015, in order to continue the IrisPhone development.

Ofer Lidsky CEO

Excellent Brain excellent-brain.com

Excellent Brain Ltd. is an innovative start-up developing advanced brain technologies and Neurofeedback solutions.

Rob Leslie CEO

Sedicii sedicii.com

Sedicii is creating a federated, global identity verification network which enables real-time identity verification by certified, trusted identity providers.

Yuryi M. Ferber CEO

BRITech britech.global

BRITech is a B2B Vertical SaaS FinTech company with 300+ customers in 13 countries and more than 80 dedicated full-time professionals, processing + US $ 1 trillion AUC daily.

Zorka Raicevic CEO

Eastwest Voyage Montenegro eastwestvoyage.com

Eastwest Voyage Montenegro is designer of holidays, conferences and incentives for individuals & companies since 2011, in Podgorica and Tivat.

COVER STORY

Dean Bartles An Ingenious Mind Transforming Advanced Manufacturing

We leverage the expertise of our team to deliver innovative and unbiased manufacturing solutions that produce real and substantial results.

Dean Bartles President and Chief Executive Ofcer Manufacturing Technology Deployment Group, Inc.

‘‘

Transparency for customers also means transparency for leadership which is a win-win.

he future of manufacturing looks promising after it has adopted digitalization accompanied with evolving technologies. At the helm of this transformation are some proﬁcient leaders, who have come forward to advance the manufacturing space. Amongst those leaders, one such leader is Dean Bartles, a leading light behind the inception of the Manufacturing Technology Deployment Group, Inc. (MTDG).

Dean is serving as President and Chief Executive Ofﬁcer at MTDG. The group was formed with a commitment to transforming the advanced manufacturing industrial base throughout the world by driving innovation and accelerating growth. Creator Since Childhood

Dean grew up in a home where his father’s welding and machine shop was located literally in the back yard. At a very early age, he began working in his Dad’s shop and quickly learned the basics of how to operate a lathe, milling machine, drill press, welder, etc. This hands-on education sparked an interest to learn more. After graduating from college, Dean began his career working for Fairchild Republic in Hagerstown, MD as an Associate Industrial Engineer doing time studies in the ﬁberglass composites bonding shop. After spending ﬁve years with Fairchild, Dean was recruited by a small defense contractor in York, PA to be a Program Manager overseeing a facility installation project in Egypt that involved an entire machining line to produce tank training ammunition. This was followed

by a similar project in Turkey. Eventually, the small defense contractor was acquired by General Dynamics Corporation and Dean was promoted to a Vice President in charge of three manufacturing plants with more than 800 employees. Driven by a desire to challenge his plant managers, he sought and eventually earned a Ph.D. in technology management part time over ten years focused on advanced manufacturing systems. After spending nearly 31 years with the same organization, Dean was recruited by a new non-profit startup in Chicago and was hired to design, build, and stand up from scratch the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute. It was a very difficult decision to walk away from a very lucrative VP position with a $32 billion corporation, but Dean saw the opportunity to pursue his lifelong dream of helping small and medium manufacturers (like his father’s shop) get better! All of his professional pursuits have focused on this for the last ten years. Helping Small-Medium Manufacturers Get Better Dean is driven by a passion to help small and medium manufacturers, the lifeblood of American Manufacturing, get better. He firmly believes the best way to do this is through the adoption of digital manufacturing – smart manufacturing technologies. He has served in numerous volunteer Board positions over the last ten plus yeas including the Society of

Manufacturing Engineers, the North American Manufacturing Research Institute, the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition, the National Tooling and Machining Association, etc. After serving for ten plus years on the Board of Directors of the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (“NCDMM”), Dean was asked by the Board to assume leadership of the organization in May of 2019. One year later, realizing there are non-defense market opportunities the organization could address, he stood up both the Manufacturing Technology Deployment Group (“MTDG”) as the parent company of NCDMM as well as a sister company of NCDMM named Advanced Manufacturing International (“AMI”). Both MTDG and AMI have received IRS approval for 501c3 not-forproﬁt entities incorporated in the state of Florida. Towards Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing MTDG is the parent “holding” company of NCDMM and

manufacturers, such as NCDMM, were considered essential businesses. But even more importantly, NCDMM was able to readily adapt to a changing environment and quickly organize manufacturers toward a common goal of supporting necessary PPE and other items while continuing and expanding existing customer efforts. Positioned for the Growth in Future

AMI. NCDMM runs the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute branded “America Makes” in partnership with the US Air Force. This consortium has more than 200 company members as well as numerous university members all focused on maturing various additive manufacturing technologies and sharing the results with all members and the USG. AMI has recently afﬁliated with the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition and plans to launch a new consortium directed speciﬁcally at helping small and medium manufacturers with their journey towards Industry 4.0. Stayed Unaffected Due to Pandemic Dean states that manufacturing has been somewhat segregated due to the pandemic. All U.S. defense

Our companies manage a rapidly expanding portfolio of programs for federal and commercial interests.

In 2020, the Board of Directors of NCDMM approved the formation of MTDG and AMI as well as the affiliation of SMLC. All of these moves were strategic in nature and have positioned the enterprise for growth in 2021 and beyond. “At the time of this writing, the organization is positioned better than ever to deliver more impact to their mission to accelerate advanced manufacturing!” Such growth manifests itself into more significant impact on the execution of the mission of the organization. A Win-Win Approach for Leadership According to Dean, to be an innovative business leader one has to be a prolific reader of business-related journals, magazines, and newspapers. Additionally, it’s important to stay abreast of academic literature which can reflect new emerging technologies that can have a direct impact on one’s business down the road. Furthermore, an innovative business leader needs to surround themselves with staff who have diverse opinions and challenges leadership from time to time. In his opinion, technologies that will afford connectivity are essential technologies a manufacturing startup should employ in its initial stages. Customers are demanding transparency. They want to see where there parts are in the supplier’s production process. Transparency for customers also means transparency for leadership which is a win-win. Advice to Aspirants In his advice to the young entrepreneurs who are looking to enter the Manufacturing space, he says, “Research current and emerging technologies to determine which ones should be explored for adoption and which ones should be put aside to watch. There are so many choices out their and not all of them are worth adopting.”

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he credibility gained over the years of one’s career is especially the hallmark of innovative business leaders. For them, this credibility is the real currency of their businesses.

And I’m happy to say that over the years, our commitment to client satisfaction and ﬁrst-class results has gained us not only a loyal clientele but also industry recognition, in the form of interviews and distinctions.

Jay Conrad Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing, puts it in very appropriate words: “The road to proﬁtability is paved with credibility. Credibility is something you earn by how you market, where you market, how you treat people, how you act, and your overall level of professionalism. Away from the business arena, the term is street-cred, and it’s the road to respect.”

ALMA Real Estate Hellas has been highly active and visible in the Greek real estate market for over 20 years. Throughout the years, our immediate response and quick action, the support and solutions we provide at every single step of the process of any transaction, our stress-free methods for selling/renting/buying our clients’ properties, our up-to-date negotiating methods, and my own Realtor® certiﬁcation have consistently set us apart from the competition.

Charikleia Stouka has gained a lot of such credibility over the span of her 20-year career in real estate. She is a perpetual learner. She is the Founder of ALMA Real Estate Hellas, which is known for immediate and direct real estate services in Greece. In an interview with us, she shares her remarkable journey.

Our clients know that we are always here for them, using our knowledge and experience to support them and protect their interests, to listen carefully and understand their needs and desires beyond just the words they use to describe them, and to act swiftly, professionally and effectively to make their property dreams come true. They know we go the extra mile and do the impossible to fulfill their desires about buying/selling/renting a property. They know we actively promote their properties everywhere possible in the world. They know they are not alone, that we stand by them at every step of the process and undertake the responsibility for the fulfillment of the contract. And they know we do everything to their benefit, to make sure they are happy and satisfied.

Below are the highlights of the interview with Charikleia Stouka. Brief our audience on your professional journey, up to your current leadership position. My journey into real estate started around 2000. I already had a degree in civil engineering from the University of West Attica in Athens, so I was already in the broader real estate environment, and I was also managing a handful of smaller family properties. I found that this line of work resonated with me and I decided to pursue it professionally. I soon had the opportunity to join a small local real estate office, and it became clear to me that I truly loved the work. Within a few months, I started my own business, initially running it out of my parents’ living room, where they kindly let me set up a corner as my office. Over the years, that developed into a successful career, and thanks to my commitment to never stop studying and learning more about my field, I am now one of just 20 Realtors® working in Athens.

We aim at building long-lasting relationships with our clients, and we do that by providing an individually focused customer-oriented approach that covers all real estate transactions. Customer service is of utmost importance to us, and constant communication is vital. Quick adaptation to changes is rewarded. Our portfolio includes Greek Golden Visa properties, dream homes and villas, fantastic plots of land for residential/commercial purposes, semi-ﬁnished properties, and hotels for sale throughout Greece, as well as exceptional residential and commercial properties for rent, investment proposals and enterprises for sale.

I think it’s essential to be actively engaged with my ﬁeld of work, so alongside working with clients, since 2013 I have also written a number of articles on various real estate topics (which have been published in traditional print media, such as Business Partners magazine, as well as online). ALMA Real Estate Hellas also participates, with our own booth, in trade exhibitions, including Athens Real Estate Expo (AREXPO) 2019, the ﬁrst real estate exhibition in Athens (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rjorGwUtYA).

What are some of the challenges you have come across in your career as a leader? As fulﬁlling as leadership may be, it can also be quite tough. The greatest challenge I had to overcome was my own self—my thoughts, my feelings, and my fears. But there were external challenges too, notably Greece’s decade-long ﬁnancial crisis and the pandemic that followed on its heels.

| January 2021 |

Charikleia Stouka Unrivaled Work Ethic, Integrity, and Honesty 15

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I successfully overcame all of it by building my conﬁdence, through both success and challenges, by not taking everything personally, by focusing on the goal, by taking risks and making quick—yet sometimes hard—decisions, by being transparent and always honest, by always going the extra mile, by always starting another round, and by using the LLL and RRR rules: Live – Love – Laugh and Rest – Recover – Reﬂect. It is important not to give up, to always be positive, try one more time, and replace every challenge with triumph.

“Staying aﬂoat is a signiﬁcant challenge. Never waste time, not be trapped by stress and anxiety, selfeducation should continue through life, it's a great motivator.”

If given a chance, what change would you bring about in the ecosystem of your respective industry?

Taking into consideration, the current pandemic, and its impact on global economies, how are you driving your company to sustain operations and ensuring the safety of your associates and employees at the same time?

I would like to see the real estate ecosystem realize that we’re part of the global ecosystem. In a world that’s increasingly concerned about addressing environmental challenges, our industry must realize that there’s plenty we can do to contribute, starting with small changes in our day-to-day operations. Although digital transformation has been discussed for many years, it had to be suddenly and rapidly implemented. And it is an excellent start; it offers numerous benefits to real estate professionals and our clients while also having a positive impact on the environmental footprint of our industry—from minimizing the use of paper to drastically reducing our carbon footprint by allowing us to offer quality virtual tours and limit the number of live property viewings. And of course, we should all think about adopting greener practices outside the office: limiting unnecessary transport, using fuel-efficient vehicles and promoting environmentally friendly technologies throughout the properties we work with.

We are using technology to maximize the work we can do digitally and remotely. The current situation has brought unprecedented upheaval, so now more than ever it is time to go digital. The new trend of the future will be the home ofﬁce. The current situation facilitates remote work. To reduce the number of live interactions during this pandemic, we initially share information on our properties digitally—on our website and through additional photos, videos and virtual tours—and only proceed with a live viewing after the clients have conﬁrmed their interest. In case the property is currently occupied, we ask the occupants to adequately air the property by opening all doors and windows prior to (and following) the showing and to wear facemasks and maintain the minimum safety distance at all times. We likewise ask the viewing party to wear masks, refrain from touching any surface, and maintain the relevant distance of two meters.

There’s a lot of focus in our industry on being customerdriven, and there’s no doubt that’s paramount. But it’s about time that we understand that being environmentally friendly is an integral part of that too. There’s a real necessity to go green. At the end of the day, if we do not save our planet, nobody else will.

If the property is unoccupied, we arrive some time before the showing to open all doors, windows, cupboards and wardrobes, and we use antiseptic to disinfect doorknobs, keys and surfaces such as elevator buttons. Everyone is required to wear a facemask and maintain the safety distance during the showing, and we also air and disinfect the property again after the viewing party leaves.

What have you envisioned for yourself and your company to sustain its market position in the future? We would like to maintain and increase our market share. Furthermore, we must invest in maintaining and developing the credibility we have built through my 20year career and which is really the currency of our business. Our immediate plan is to increase the amount of work we do online. And of course, we will keep on learning, listening to our clients and improving our services.

Hand sanitizer is always available—and used—before and after showings. We also try to minimize the exchange of printed documents and keep most interactions online. Lastly, we keep detailed records of property visits, including dates, locations and the names of people involved.

| January 2021 |

Is the

Cloud Right for You?

- by Sean Gilmour, Chief Technology Ofﬁcer, Approyo

s we move into this new decade, more and more customers are asking how they can move their workloads to the cloud. But is the cloud utopian dream for everyone or for everything?

relationship management (CRM) and Big Data-in-a-box to entire business landscapes – at the push of a credit card. This has led to one of the largest explosions of IT landscapes since Y2K; employees standing up systems with zero governance, oversight, or security.

As an IT professional, I am often asked about “the cloud”, both by customers and the common friends and family collective. The cloud means different things to different people – the non-work questions typically are around security and the latest news story around databreaches and the likes, but the work-related questions, while more articulate and buzzword heavy, have a similar nucleus.

The major players in this boom – Google, Amazon, and Microsoft – are bending over backward to make the entry very easy and affordable. This sandbox world has enabled customers to review what this new cloudbased universe has to offer, but next comes the hard part – moving there.

Increasingly, solutions and services are being added to the cloud catalog, with everything from customer

The common misconception of cloud being easier, where everything works ﬂawlessly and, of course, is cheaper, has become less common. A growing number of IT executives are now struggling with the challenge

| January 2021 |

Connecting Cloud

Sean Gilmour holds the role of Chief Technology

About the Author

Ofﬁcer at Approyo, a technology software company. He is a seasoned and successful technology professional with 25+ years of experience in developing advanced solutions, leading systems, and technology integration, and managing global technical solutions for technology organizations. Utilizing technical expertise to design, improve, debug, and deploy solution architectures and management software. He leverages the best practices to develop customized, cost-effective solutions to business problems. Proven leader adept in SAP Technologies committed to implementing technology with company goals and delivering outstanding service. At Approyo, his goal is to make SAP simple for customers and partners looking to implement and operate SAP cloud systems. Approyo provides worldwide consulting, solutions, managed services, and support for companies of any size and any industry running SAP solution systems. They specialize in implementations, migrations, and upgrades for every platform from R/3 to S/4HANA.

| January 2021 |

of new business models around procurement, billing, and a growing skills gap to support their new cloud dream.

centers or rooms full of aging hardware, this is how IT has worked for a long time. Companies will need to change how they acquire and capitalize IT assets.

As the cloud becomes the new destination of choice, greenﬁeld setups or startups can quickly and easily start afresh and take advantage of the plethora of services and solutions hosted in the cloud. The largest challenge is lifting and shifting existing workloads from legacy data centers to the cloud.

A larger gap has developed around skills. Do you retrain your existing workforce, or do you outsource some if not all of your IT business? This can be one of the toughest questions asked of system integrators, most of whom are normally looking to take over the management, with managed services becoming the new “offshore” cost-saving option.

Companies interested in accessing the cloud model are beginning to prefer a multi-cloud approach over a hybrid approach. This allows them to be diversiﬁed between vendors, or better yet become cloud-agnostic, by having IT as a service (ITaaS) on-premise and one or more cloud providers.

Many companies with legacy landscapes have a historically older IT staff, who have supported this landscape for many years and are unwilling or unmotivated to retrain/retool to the new cloud model. The outsourcing model becomes very attractive at this point, but this new outsourced team has zero business understanding of who or what makes this landscape tick. When we are simply talking about a service-level agreement (SLA) driven delivery model, this can lead to high-level dissatisfaction, especially while they are also changing how the landscape functions.

Migrating legacy applications and data to a cloud model can come with numerous challenges ranging from unsupported code/platforms to regulatory and compliance issues. Almost weekly we hear about companies still utilizing very old operating system versions, applications that have become victims of data breaches, and applications struggling to update. A recent survey put the number of companies still using Windows XP at 32%, and Windows 7 at 79% – neither of which are supported by Microsoft.

Ensuring that proper time and effort are applied to the pre-cloud project typically produces a cleaner migration.

This leads to a number of challenges when making the move to a cloud model:

All three of the major cloud companies are heavily ramping up their onboarding abilities, with some going with the “build it and they will come” mentality, and others leveraging strategic partnerships to enable speciﬁc workloads or verticals.

What is the cost and skills required to simply upgrade the operating system? Ÿ Can my applications run on the newer operating system? Ÿ What business process do we need to change/implement to enable a cloud model? Ÿ Can my data be transmitted/stored in different locations/countries? Ÿ

Is the cloud right for everyone? No, but many legacy functions or services can be replaced with more agile and diverse access models allowing companies to concentrate on their core business model. Moving functions like E-mail, CRM, and device management to a cloud model, enables companies to ensure what makes them money is optimized, while what can be viewed as core services can be utilized in a way that can be more cost-effective.

The pricing and skills questions do not have an easy answer. Most recent IT surveys conclude that the unpredictable and dynamic costing models, combined with legacy business procurement and accounting practices, make for a challenging transition. While many of the cost savings come from no longer having data

| January 2021 |

Laszlo Dellei CEO & Founder Kerubiel

| January 2021 |

LASZLO DELLEI Inclusive, Adaptable, Innovative and Exemplary Leader

t is not easy to operate on a highly competitive market. Technological and legal developments constantly affect working methods. To cope with this challenge, any organization as well as its experts need fresh and up-to-date knowledge and skills. Therefore continuous upgradation of knowledge, skills and abilities is vital for the leaders in any organization. Leaders of Kerubiel continuously train themselves daily as they consider that gaining such knowledge might be a competitive advantage since they will be prepared not only to follow the latest trends, but to act as a trendsetter.

Expertise in IT and Data Protection From the beginning of Mr. Dellei's career, he has focused on IT and information security issues, as well as data protection. Generally, he provided support to his clients on how to protect themselves and their IT infrastructures against possible threats and cyberattacks. However, in so doing, it became apparent that this area has become increasingly connected to other expertise, such as data protection, especially after the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Thus, it might be a competitive advantage if a company can provide counselling on all related ﬁelds. This idea to merge expertise from various areas led to the establishment of Kerubiel in 2017.

Leaders with inclusive, innovative, adaptable, and exemplary leadership style are able to inspire the colleagues and employees for more better contribution. Laszlo Dellei, CEO and Founder of Kerubiel is one such inclusive, adaptable, innovative, and exemplary leader. He has led and delivered many successful projects in Security and ITC in the last 20 years. Mr. Dellei believes that innovation and adaptability are essential to make an impact on the world of business. Kerubiel is a 100% privately owned company specializing in the provision of ICT, Security and Privacy services and tailored IT Developments.

Outstanding Professional Mr. Dellei has a vast 20-year experience in the ﬁeld of software development, intelligence activities, IT, and information security. From the start of his career, his professional interest has been focused on IT and information security. He quickly became involved in different projects concerning these areas, yet he always tries to better himself, engaging in training and

| January 2021 |

“

Mr. Dellei believes that inclusiveness, exemplary leadership, innovation, and adaptability are essential to make an impact on the world of business.

“

additional qualiﬁcations. In this respect, Mr. Dellei is an outstanding professional with a unique experience and expert knowledge.

participating in various R&D projects focusing on emerging technologies, such as AI or VR. Furthermore, Kerubiel has joined the Hungarian AI Coalition and is a regular participant of its programs. One of the main successes of the Coalition was its contribution to the new Hungarian AI strategy.

Notwithstanding these fact, Mr. Dellei realized that – due to technological and legal developments, these ﬁelds will become strongly linked with data protection and data security, and thus it is necessary for experts from these distinct, but interrelated ﬁelds to cooperate and work together. The turning point in his career was the adoption of the GDPR which made it evident that security and privacy go hand in hand.

Inspiring Leadership Kerubiel views itself as a scientiﬁc community, besides being a workplace. Thus, the main strategies and issues that may arise throughout its operations are always open to discussion. Mr. Dellei's colleagues are encouraged to take part in the decision-making processes and to share their views with him and with each other. On the other hand, Kerubiel is as good as the contributing experts. Thus, all employees are encouraged to widen their knowledge via trainings and obtaining different qualiﬁcations.

Information Security Counselling Kerubiel focuses on services concerning IT, information security, data protection, and related areas. It provides state of the art IT audits and information security counselling (e.g. IT risk assessment, IT security counselling), develops complex cybersecurity systems based on ITIL and AI applications, and advices its clients on business continuity and disaster recovery plans. In so doing, Kerubiel utilizes IT standards, such as the ISO 27000 and the NIST 800-53 controls assessment.

As the CEO, Mr. Dellei especially tries to inspire them, therefore, also taking part in many of these events. For instance, he is currently involved with his university studies, soon becoming a professional expert in data protection and data security (ELTE Institute for Postgraduate Legal Studies). Mr. Dellei has been listed among the 30 Best CEO's of the Year 2020 by The Silicon Review. In 2019, one of Kerubiel's Industrial Control System speciﬁc Cyber Threat Intelligence tool systems won the product development grand prize of ITBusinness Awards.

On the other hand, the company provides services in the ﬁeld of data processing and data governance. In this respect, Kerubiel's goal is to offers state of the art solutions concerning GDPR compliance and to ensure that its clients are protected against all threats and unwanted incidents. Kerubiel provides complex counselling on data security measures based on GAP assessments, outsourced activities (DPO or CISO services) and other services, such as trainings and education. Thus, data protection can be a fourth line of defence.

Navigating Smoothly through the Pandemic When the ﬁrst wave of the COVID-19 hit Hungary, in the Spring of 2020, Kerubiel's main goal was to ensure the health and safety of its employees. Thus, the company immediately changed to home-based work. This change was swift and smooth, and meant no disruption in Kerubiel's operations. Since on site

Beside these activities, Kerubiel strives to be a vivid and innovative scientiﬁc community. The company is

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presence is not always necessary, Kerubiel already had the necessary infrastructure and the tools to continue working from the safety of everyone's homes. The next goal was to provide support and advise to the clients. In this respect, Kerubiel managed to assess current systems and solutions, and to give advice to the clients on the necessary modifications to establish and maintain their activities. Kerubiel especially considered the protection against cyberattacks, phishing and other threats, thus, its experts carried out extended research concerning the most useful and secure tools and applications. Overall, Kerubiel managed not only to adapt to the new situation, but to counsel its current clients, and to expand its clientele as well. Establishing Framework of Experts In many ways, better connections and information sharing networks between experts in the field of information security and data protection would be necessary to benefit both the industry and Kerubiel clients. Kerubiel has already realized this and began establishing a framework of cooperating and contributing experts. This way, sharing crucial information that might be useful in its daily work has become easier. Kerubiel also supports different social initiatives. For instance, in 2019, the company was the supporter of the 1st DPO Ball of Hungary, an event to establish a social forum for expert of data protection as well as of IT and information security. Broadening the Operation of the Company IT, information security and data protection are highly competitive markets where missing technological advancements means that the company is lagging other competitors. Lack of innovation might lead to the loss of clients and opportunities. Thus, Mr. Dellei prioritizes keeping an eye on new developments and utilizing such applications so as to broaden the operation of the company and benefit of the clients. As mentioned earlier, beside its traditional services, Kerubiel strongly focuses on R&D and the results of this work will only materialize in the upcoming years. Kerubiel already has certain products on the market, but the bulk of its projects are only in their initial stages. Mr. Dellei hopes that these developments will be as successful as its previous products.

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Ofer A. Lidsky Leading through Example and Innovation

n the world of business and entrepreneurship, genuinely exemplary leaders with innovative skills can create impact in the lives of people through the effective use of technology and all resourcefulness.

Below are the highlights of the interview between CIO Look and Ofer A. Lidsky: Brief our audience on your professional journey, up to your current leadership position.

Such leaders make difference in the lives of people in a very positive way. They are solution-oriented leaders, and they want to be the part of the solution to the problems in the world and they aspire to make the world a better place through their efforts.

My journey beings in my childhood when I got my ﬁrst personal computer at around 1980 (age of 7). This made me learn computer languages and by the age of 12 I started working in a real computer company. From there I grew up to be an entrepreneur and became an expert in a few technological ﬁelds such as Information Security, Virtual Reality, Brain Computer Interface (BCI) and Genetics.

Ofer A. Lidsky is a prominent name among these exemplary and innovative business leaders. He is a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in software development in the spheres of Genetics, Digital Health, EEG Signal Processing, BCI, VR, and Information Security. He has headed start-up companies and development teams towards successful creation of innovative platforms and solutions and is literally bringing ideas to life!

I have established a few companies in my career such as Digital Dimension, which was established in 1998 and developed Virtual Reality Community Platforms. In 2005 I established TerraSafe (www.terrasafe.com) which became one of the leading Information Security Solution provider in the SMB market in Israel. Recently I had my ﬁrst patent published in the ﬁeld of Genetics and Blockchain.

Ofer is the Founder and CEO of Excellent Brain, an innovative start-up developing advanced brain training solutions based on Neurofeedback. Excellent Brain's technology enables anyone to engage in training programs for improving different aspects of life using Neurofeedback and Virtual Reality.

Brief us about your company and its prominent solutions that make you a preferred choice over your competition.

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We will keep being one of the leaders in the Neurofeedback

Ofer A. Lidsky Founder & CEO Excellent Brain

brain training space.

What is your idea of impactful leadership? What style of leadership do you personally prefer and have implemented at your company?

Excellent Brain was established in 2015 with a clear vision to make a difference in people's life by enabling home brain training using the effective Neurofeedback method. When we started, we did our ﬁrst training programs with kids from schools with low-income population. The training programs were so successful that I understood I must spread this and make it accessible to everyone. And that is exactly what I did. I established a start-up which developed the most innovative direct to consumers (D2C) Neurofeedback platform. Today, we are a registered program in the list of programs of the Israeli Ministry of Education and we have been operating in many schools in Israel.

A few years ago, I participated in a series of leadership courses which introduced to me a new model of leadership – the phenomenological and ontological leadership model, which relies on some very powerful concepts on how life and leadership works. Since then I have been studying and researching this model. What makes this model so favourable for me is the fact that it is highly effective in the results you get and relies on extraordinary distinctions which opens new ways to interpret and act in the world. What were the challenges you came across in your career as a leader?

When we released our Excellent Brain ADHD Neurofeedback Home Kit, we started letting people train their brain and attention ability at their homes. Today the impact of ADHD on the education world is immense and we bring new possibilities into that space. Excellent Brain's slogan is that everyone has an Excellent Brain!

Challenges are always there and always will be, that's part of life. I think that some of the most challenging leadership aspects is the human factor. Making people follow you and joining your action plans is one of the most important challenges in leadership. Moreover, leadership is also about setting an example to others

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and acting like you say you would, which also demands high self-awareness and discipline. Honouring your word is the ﬁrst law for being a leader.

treatments. What we see in schools today, all over the world, is a very high percentage of students which are on drug treatments, and I mean very high percentage. I think that if we got to this point, there are major problems to be dealt with in the educational systems.

What would be your advice for the emerging and aspiring business leaders? If I need to summarise it in a couple of sentences: Inspiration, Motivation & Dedication are the keys to success, and I think dedication is the most important and hard to play (hint). Once you give up, the game is over. There is no magic, only hard work that accomplishes results. And we should always remember that any business in the world relies on cash ﬂow, so without good marketing and sales there is no business.

This pandemic has impacted the world in so many ways. It has made us implement new ways of operation in order to maintain the business. New challenges came with the pandemic, from lockdowns to working from home. I think that the more agile and ﬂexible your business is the most likely you will be able to survive. Now we can really see the survival of the ﬁttest come into play in the business world.

What have you envisioned for yourself and your company to sustain its market position in the future?

If given a chance, what change would you bring about in the ecosystem of your respective industry?

Excellent Brain excels in innovation. We will keep being one of the leaders in the Neurofeedback brain training space. Our development plan goes far into the future with very exciting and innovative technologies coming up. STAY TUNED.

The psychiatric drug usage is a pandemic by itself in the world today. The changes I would like to see is in the way people consume drugs such as Ritalin (Methylphenidate), I think the regulation should raise the bar and combine other methods of training and

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Leader’s Tech

For A Better FUTURE T

he future of Innovation and Disruption is promising with more and more transformative technologies coming our way and we have really come a long way down. To be positioned in these advanced tools, adapting to these technologies is a must for any business leader, as customers are demanding a clear approach to innovation.

Addressing Environmental Challenges Although digital transformation is the hour of the need, but we must realize there is much more important thing than it i.e, the increasing environmental challenge. Being a leader, adopting green practices in the organization will minimize the environmental carbon footprint. Simple practices like fuel-efﬁcient transport, and supporting environmentally friendly technologies will have the positive impact. Of-course there is a lot to do, it becomes the responsibility of everyone to address such environmental challenges.

To be an innovative and proliﬁc business leader one has to be a reader of business-related magazines, and newspapers. Additionally, it’s important to stay ahead of academic literature which can reﬂect new emerging technologies that can have a direct impact on one’s business down the road.

There are so many choices to make out there but not all of them are worth adopting. It is the priorities which needs to be understood. Technologies that will afford essential technologies helping a manufacturing startup along with environmentally friendly approach should employ at all stages in the company.

So, being aware of the upcoming and latest trends will be vital for the leader and ultimately for the organization. The leaders in innovation and technology should always be prepared for any challenges and act upon them accordingly.

Walking Together is the Key Besides, these leaders need to be agile and participate in scientiﬁc communities, Research & Development, focusing on emerging technologies – AI or Machine learning. Also, building a culture of such open discussions and encourage employees to share their views on the adaption of innovative processes is a great practice. An innovative business leader surrounds by staff who have diverse opinions and challenges leadership from time to time.

Inspiration, Motivation & Dedication are the factors that led one climb the ladder of success. As they say “If you want to walk fast, walk alone, but if you want to walk far, walk together”! The most important skill an innovative leader is how to attract the brilliant people who can take the business to the next level. Closing Statement

It is the utmost responsibility of any leader to inspire the team, and supporting and advising them whenever required. Good connection with the experts in the ﬁeld of technology and innovation is the framework of building a long-term goal. With these traits the leader will never be out of the competition. Rather it will only help in becoming a successful and ready for the market.

It will be not an easy task to make a way in such a competitive world. The technological barriers will constantly affect the working methods. Innovative leaders need to cope up with this challenge by discussing with technological experts and staying upto-date with the technological trends.

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Protec ng Individual Privacy & Preven ng Financial Crimes

Rob Leslie CEO & Founder of Sedicii

“Leadership is not just about glorious crowning acts. It’s about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others’ success and then standing back and letting them shine” said Chris Hadﬁeld (Astronaut & Former Commander of the International Space Station). Having such contribution spirit in a leader inspires him to do something wonderful.

n the information and technology age the importance of privacy is huge. Protecting online privacy is the most essential in the current times. “Privacy is one of the biggest problems in this new electronic age” says Andrew Grove former CEO, COO and Chairman of Intel. Despite digital advances this core internet issue remains. Using a novel cryptographic protocol known as zero knowledge proof, Sedicii is creating the Kriptan Network to facilitate the veriﬁcation of identity data without the need to expose the underlying data, thereby protecting the privacy of the person. Sedicii has developed a solution that allows ﬁnancial institutions to securely share the knowledge they have about clients or transactions, without disclosing the underlying data or information.

Huge Potential

For Rob Leslie an individual’s privacy really matters- he considers it is a core human right. Rob believes in hard work, he embraces challenges as he believes that challenges are a part on the journey of success. Rob is the CEO & Founder of Sedicii. Rob considers that if Sedicii can make a difference in people’s lives then his journey will have been worth it. Rob is also mentor with Enterprise Ireland (E.I.) providing advice to E.I.’s high potential start-up companies and he is an active investor in various start-up companies in the technology and biotech spaces.

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Every entrepreneur comes across at least these three challenges – raising investment and getting product to market while proving to their clients they need the service. Add to Sedicii’s mix a product that veriﬁes identity without sharing information is a bit like saying the impossible is possible! All the team at Sedicii know that Rob shares the highs and lows, the successes and the challenges in the pursuit of what Marisol Menendez, BBVA, Former Head of Open Innovation described as Sedicii’s legacy when it won the Fintech for the Future award. “Sedicii is the start up with the greatest potential to transform the ﬁnancial sector in the next 10 years!”

Rob is an Electronic Engineer by profession having graduated from DCU (Dublin City University) Ireland in the 1980’s. He subsequently moved to Japan where over the next 20 years he worked cutting his teeth and gaining experience at senior management level in Datacraft Japan, PTS Limited and eSafe Japan. Before his entrepreneurial spirit took serious hold, he was part of the senior management team which set up Dell Japan growing the business in the ﬁrst four years to annual sales of over $300 million and employees of

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“

Sedicii Preserves privacy and adheres to the data minimisa on principle.

“

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professionally through online internet meetings, family gatherings, shopping, etc. Over the past nine months there has been a vast increase in online transactions and corresponding increases in fraud, impersonation, scamming and theft. Accordingly, Sedicii has found companies more receptive to its KYC, KYB and AML services particularly as it is GDPR and other privacy laws compliant. Effective Detection of Criminal Activity In the context of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) transaction monitoring processes, banks can collaborate and jointly compute advanced risk assessment algorithms that consume information available in the different banks about their customers without actually having to share that information by using Sedicii’s patented multi-party computation (MPC) cryptographic protocol.

almost 300. In the early noughties Rob returned to Ireland and subsequently co-founded Kyckr (ASX:KYK) in 2007, a company now listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Whilst still co-managing Kyckr he founded Sedicii in 2013. In 2016, he relinquished his executive position at Kyckr to concentrate his full energies on Sedicii.

Sedicii has developed a solution that allows ﬁnancial institutions to securely share the knowledge they have about clients or transactions, without disclosing the underlying data or information (PII). This enables ﬁnancial institutions to identify potentially suspicious transactions and clients more clearly and more accurately by combining the risk information they have – which will enable more effective detection of criminal activity.

No Exposure of Underlying Data Sedicii is building a global, federated identity network in collaboration with Government agencies, tier-one financial institutions, telcos’s and national utility service providers to facilitate the verification of a citizen’s identity without the need to expose the underlying data to the parties in the verification process thereby protecting the individual’s privacy. This is achieved using Sedicii’s patented ZKP protocol (Zero Knowledge Proof).

Seeking Company of Right People Rob believes that persistence, perseverance, and patience are important qualities for an aspiring business leader to possess. Belief in oneself and the service or product is paramount. He suggests ﬁnding and joining in forums with other like-minded people. He advises to seek out a trusted mentor. He says that we should be true to ourselves and realistic in our approach that we cannot attain great heights alone. He asks to seek the company of right people. He suggests taking the time to enjoy the success when it comes.

Rob believes that in an ideal world he would like to see a digital ecosystem whereby government departments, ﬁnancial institutions and national agencies work together in their respective countries and beyond rather than individually holding knowledge about their citizens and clients. He believes that it is only by using information whilst not sharing it that privacy and realtime authenticated information will make the difference between being in control and the current situation where privacy is at issue every time you use the internet. In the words of Gary Kovacs, CEO of AVG Technologies “Privacy is not an option and it shouldn’t be the price we accept for just getting on the Internet”.

Exponential Growth Sedicii continues to seek out like-minded organizations who see the benefits of real-time identity verification – foremost in terms of individual privacy but as a natural progression in terms of reputational enhancement, organizational cost effectiveness and efficiency. Rob envisions that Sedicii will grow exponentially in terms of employees, partners, investors and that growth will bring benefits and rewards to all who share its vision and use its services.

Improving Personal Security In many ways, Covid 19 has focused minds on personal security and privacy as more and more people are working from home and interacting both socially and

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Yuryi Ferber Founder & CEO BRITech

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Yuryi Ferber Building Better Companies and Better Ecosystems

nnovation is the backbone of any organization and it is important to embrace innovation to strive and compete with others in the business world and also essentially to contribute to make something better. No problem can be solved with the same level of thinking that when we created the problem. Innovation is essential to come up with the solutions to the existing problems. Innovative leaders can reshape the future by using their inventory skills. Yuryi Ferber is one such a visionary and a bold innovator. He is the Founder and CEO of BRITech. He has a 20+ year history building and developing enterprise financial software. He provides the investment management ecosystem with growthdriven digital solutions that help build better companies and better ecosystems. His career is long rooted in entrepreneurship and a passion for technology and the financial world. In 2012 he co-founded BRITech and two years later BRITech released the first product with a vertical B2B SaaS model dedicated solely to the investments and asset and wealth management market. He is a visionary with a gift for finding and attracting the right people. BRITech provides scalable, robust wealth management software, professional services and end-to-end technology for investment firms, asset managers, brokers, fund administrators and wealth managers. Below are the highlights of the interview between Yuryi Ferber and CIO Look in which he shares his

journey and about his contribution through BRITech in building a wealthy world: Brief our audience on your professional journey, up to your current leadership position. My career started as a software engineer in Investment Banking. After 7 years I made the decision to be an entrepreneur. The ﬁrst 2 years were the oneman-show style. Then I realized the day has only 24 hours, the week only 7 days and, if I wanted to scale the business, I could not continue alone. The process of hiring and delegating, until that moment, was not natural and I learned from the mistakes. After 2 years, the delegation process was already natural, and I developed the skills to attract very good people. The bottlenecks being resolved as the business grew. At the end of the 7th year, the company was already the leader and we became an acquisition target for big tech players. In the 15th year, we got an irrefutable proposal that would sustain our growth for the next 15 years. The partnership made perfect sense and we closed the deal keeping minority stake but keeping the business unit leadership. The plan evolved very well for 2 years until an even bigger company acquired the tech company that acquired us. Our plan was aborted once it was not in the interest of the new owner. I ended up leaving and, 4 years later, we launched a Tech Startup. I am one of the Founders and the CEO of BRITech. Brief us about your company and its prominent products that make you a preferred choice over your competition.

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“If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk together!”

With a SaaS product, we provide Technology and Infrastructure for all the Investment Management players. We have over 300 managers worldwide and a unique scalable and comprehensive technology capable of accommodating small, medium, and large enterprises. What is your idea of impactful leadership? What style of leadership do you personally prefer and have implemented at your company? I have a reputation for being tough but fair. I love what I do, I love being an entrepreneur, I love the challenge of making a global business grow, I love overcoming challenges, I love being surrounded by competent people distributed in different regions, with different cultures, who share the same vision and values and believe that we can get there. Gratitude and humility are key values we share.

who will provide coaching and help regular people achieve the most important long-term goal: his/her retirement. What would be your advice for the emerging and aspiring business leaders? If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk together! In my opinion, the most important skill an aspiring leader must develop is how to attract the most brilliant people to take the business to the next level.

Taking into consideration, the current pandemic, and its impact on global economies, how are you driving your company to sustain operations and ensuring safety of your associates and employees at the same time? Our people are our most important Asset. Our people sell, deliver, and support our customers. We can't be the best company without the best people. We were one of the first companies in Brazil to move 100% of the team to remote, WFH model and we did it in 1 day. The office remained closed for over 6 months and we reopened the office, we gave the option for everyone to work from home or at the office or a combination.

What have you envisioned for yourself and your company to sustain its market position in the future? We developed an entrepreneurship-ecosystem model that retain the best people, the talented and hardworking people. I believe this model provides an alignment of interests 360 degrees and it will sustain customer retention, customer acquisition and constant innovation for the years to come.

If given a chance, what change would you bring about in the ecosystem of your respective industry? When we launched the company in 2014, we started offering products for one of the Investment Management several players. Then year after year we kept expanded to new players. After 7 years, we ﬁnally reached the latest player: The Financial Planner (FP). We believe the FP plays a key role in countries where regular people do not have good ﬁnancial education and the public retirement system is not good enough. Our vision is to empower the FP

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