Melissa McCaslin: The 10 Most Trailblazing Business Icons of the Year, 2025 | CIO Views Magazine

Beyond Boundaries of Enterprise

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Throughout history, a handful of influential leaders have transformed the way we think about starting and growing a business. They are not simply entrepreneurs; they are opportunity-makers, reshaping industries through vision that is sometimes ahead of the times. Their impact goes far beyond profitsandlosses;theycaninspirenewculturaltrendsandchangetheway we live, engage, consume, and even create.While it is true that they spark new offerings in new industries, that is not all that distinguishes them. Their ability to see opportunity, act upon it, and be bold enough to go againstconventionisthedifferentiatingcharacteristic.Disruptingtheway things are done is a way of life for the opportunity-makers. However, the impact and legacy of the game-changer go far beyond disruption; instead, they derive their legasy from how they create a coherent base from the madness; turning a degree of chaos into a degree of clarity for those who follow.

At CIO Views, we honor these empowering leaders by dedicating this issuetitled“The10MostTrailblazingBusinessIconsoftheYear,2025” to them. Featuring as the cover story, we have covered the successful & motivating journey of Melissa McCaslin, CEO of The GreenTree SportsPlex. We have also included the inspiring stories of Nataliya Wiedemeyer, Founder of Graviteams Management Consultin; Kelly Ruigrok, Founder and CEO of Global Sustainable Enterprise System; VictoriaJenkins,FounderandCEOofUnhidden;KimButler,Founderand CEO of ProsperityThinkers; Natalie Foster, Co- Founder of Inspire Legal Group; Jessica Blotter, Co-Founder and CEO of Kind Traveler; Lizette Ibarra, CEO and Founder of Latina Chief; Daria Dubinina, CEO and CoFounder of Crassula; and Brent Kruel, CEO of BioFunctional Health Solutions.

CIOViewsisabusinessmagazinethatmainlyfocusesonbusinessleaders, their journey, views on current economic states, and all other relevant subjects that refer to the business world. Our goal is to be a leading source of information dedicated to providing our readers with detailed perspectives and views of successful business leaders who are transforming the business outlook and redefining their goals. With exclusive editions on various industries like software, education, healthcare,technology,realestate,andmanymore,CIOViewsisdrivento promoteexcellenceintheworldofbusiness.

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148% GROWTH COUNTING AND

"PREPARATION IS THE QUIET POWER THAT SPEAKS FOR YOU…WHEN YOU'RE THE MOST PREPARED PERSON IN THE ROOM, YOU NEVER HAVE TO PROVE THAT YOU BELONG THERE.”

Today,

the spotlight is on the esteemed CEO of GreenTree SportsPlex, Melissa McCaslin. With her perspicacity and imperturbable nature, she achieves results that are incontrovertible.

Her journey into the sports and wellness industry began with a simple passion for building and transforming things that hold potential. She enjoyed taking an idea and turning it into something real, something that lasts.

She earned her Bachelor of Science in Sport Management with a minor in BusinessAdministration from Slippery Rock University. It didn't stop there. Melissa continued to grow through the University of Pittsburgh's Fellows Program at the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence. There, she deepened her understanding of how leadership, innovation, and strategy come together to create lasting success. "The secret to lasting success is simple…never, ever stop learning. Every challenge is a chance to get better."

Melissa explains that her career took her through nearly every level of the sports industry. From working on the operations team at the U.S. Open Championship in Oakmont to managing large tournaments on the PGA TOUR, she learned how much planning, teamwork, and precision go into creating great experiences.

One of her proudest milestones, she recalls, is helping build and open the Riverhounds Soccer Stadium in Pittsburgh, with owner, David Wilke.

Melissa describes David as a visionary leader whose dedication to the community, relentless work ethic, and genuine care for his team set him apart. She notes that David consistently puts his employees' needs before his own, fostering an environment of trust, respect, and

purpose. “Working for someone who truly values people as much as results is an honor,” she says.

As project manager, she was responsible for making sure everything was ready in time for the team's first professional game. Later, she becomes the President and CEO, leading the organization through its first season. It was an exciting time that allowed her to bring together vision, structure, and teamwork to make something new come alive. These are the skills that continue to guide her today. Her perspicacious approach to decision-making helps her anticipate challenges long before they surface, turning potential obstacles into opportunities for growth.

Rebuilding GreenTree from the Ground Up

When she initially came on board as CEO, GreenTree SportsPlex was in a slump. The facility's reputation had suffered. The online reviews told the story, and confidence in the community was low. On her first day, she vowed to revive the facility and have it once again shine with pride.

With only a small team and limited funds, she got hands-on. She spent long days fixing, cleaning, and learning whatever was needed to keep things running. Sometimes that meant doing electrical repairs or driving a forklift herself. This tacit, diligent work was guided by an elemental mantra: "Preparation is the difference between showing up and standing out. Do the work before the moment, and you'll never

question your place in it." Bit by bit, the space started to look and feel different. Families began to notice. Soon, people started saying you could "eat off the floors," a small joke that showed just how much things have changed.

Melissa says that the trust she received from ownership played a big part in the turnaround. They gave her the freedom to lead, make decisions, and take action. That confidence allowed her to move quickly, be creative, and build something stronger for the long term. Her imperturbable focus through the ups and downs had helped the team stay grounded and motivated, even when challenges piled up.

Once the foundation felt solid, she focused on steady growth. She brought in long-term tenants, signed local sponsors, and created new programs that make the facility busier yearround. The all-inclusive birthday parties were a big success, followed by summer camps, CrossFit GreenTree, and other family activities that filled the place with energy again.

Over time, GreenTree grew into something much more than a training center. It evolved into a lively, welcoming space filled with camaraderie and community spirit. Just five years later, the facility has achieved nearly 90 percent revenue growth, with the last two years bringing record numbers. Indeed, a felicitous outcome of her clear vision, steady leadership, and commitment to community engagement.

But for Melissa, the biggest win is something primal. It's seeing families proud to call GreenTree their own once again.

Technology That Drives Growth and Clarity

Technology became a major pillar of GreenTree's transformation. It allowed a small team to run the facility smoothly while keeping things easy for families. Melissa introduced an online system that manages everything from party bookings to camp and league registrations. The simple, timesaving setup has made life easier for staff and turned many firsttime visitors into loyal guests. Behind the scenes, the ubiquitous use of integrated communication tools and automated scheduling streamlines operations and gives Melissa full visibility into every revenue stream and field rental. This enables her to make quick, data-driven decisions that ensure the facility keeps evolving.

AProgressive Leader Who Stays Close to theAction

It is almost impossible to define a "typical day" for Melissa because her role touches nearly every aspect of the business. She might be reviewing financials, checking the condition of the 83,000-square-foot facility, meeting with tenants, or helping her team prepare for the next round of birthday parties and camps.

She personally oversees customer communication and monitors every revenue stream.

"PREPARATION IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHOWING UP AND STANDING OUT. DO THE WORK BEFORE THE MOMENT, AND YOU'LL NEVER QUESTION YOUR PLACE IN IT."

Most of her interactions happen through email, which helps her stay close to feedback and resolve issues quickly. That personal connection, she says, keeps GreenTree's reputation strong and community relationships genuine. Her fastidious attention to detail ensures that no concern goes unnoticed and every customer feels valued.

Her top priorities center on growth, innovation, and quality. For her, everything begins with customer experience. If families feel cared for and confident from the moment they book, the team has done its job.

Trail That Leads the Way

To Melissa, "Trailblazing leadership means seeing potential where others see limits, and having the courage to turn that vision into reality."

It is not about following a path but building one that others can walk after. She shares that this spirit of trailblazing shapes everything she does at GreenTree SportsPlex. For her, success is always about people. It is about trust, comfort, and the feeling families get when they walk through the doors. She wants every parent to feel at ease and every child to leave with a smile. Whether it is a camp, league, or birthday party, she makes sure every experience feels easy, organized, and full of joy.

She also believes in giving back to the community that supports her. The SportsPlex often hosts free holiday events where families come together to laugh, play, and connect. That feeling of belonging, she regards, is what truly defines GreenTree.

Through it all, Melissa leads with determination and creativity. She never settles for "good enough." Instead, she keeps asking, "How can we make this better?" That simple question continues to guide every decision she makes as GreenTree grows and becomes an even brighter part of the community she loves.

Striking that Balance

This C-suite executive admits that balancing the demands of running a large sports complex is never simple. Still, over time, she has learned that balance doesn't mean giving everything the same amount of time. It is about finding ways for work and life to move in rhythm, not in competition.

Melissa's work often calls for long hours and constant focus. So, instead of keeping work and home apart, she looks for ways to blend them. Some of her sweetest memories, she says, are from moments when her family became part of the world she built. Her children joined the summer camps she started, celebrated birthdays at the SportsPlex, and grew up surrounded by the same felicific sense of fun and community she wanted every family to enjoy.

Melissa deeply values and respects her staff. She shares that her cleaning lady, Melita Dealmeida, holds a very special place in her heart and means the world to her. Seeing Melita's work, people started saying the floors were so clean you could eat off of them.

She also shares that yoga has become her tranquil space. It helps her slow down, breathe, and reset. Over the years, she has learned to take some time to smell the roses, using those peaceful moments to clear her mind and step back into work with calm and clarity.

Melissa is quick to add that she has not done it alone. She feels deeply grateful for her colleague and right-hand, Georgia Galzerano. She describes Georgia as steady, smart, and loyal.Atrue partner through every stage of growth. Having someone she can fully trust, she says, has made it easier to pause when needed, especially when she wanted to grow her family. Knowing the SportsPlex was in capable hands gave her peace of mind.

"Balance isn't about having less on your plate," Melissa comprehends, "It's about building a life where everything that matters fits on it together." With trust, creativity, and the right people beside her, Melissa has learned that it is possible to give her best at work and still make space for the heart of it all.

"TRAILBLAZING LEADERSHIP MEANS SEEING POTENTIAL WHERE OTHERS SEE LIMITS, AND HAVING THE COURAGE TO TURN THAT VISION INTO REALITY.”

Practices That Grow Through Challenges

Building a business centered on health and recreation comes with constant challenges. Melissa acknowledges that. From managing limited resources to keeping up with growing demand, everything has its own battle scars. But she was not someone who quits halfway. She explains that she approached every challenge with a blend of creativity and technology. Instead of relying on conventional systems, she chose to do things differently. She implemented digital tools to streamline bookings, automate communication, and monitor performance. This overt shift allowed her to manage operations efficiently with a small team— all while providing a top-tier customer experience.

Melissa reflects that leadership was at the core of the turnaround. She discovered that trust grows from simple things like being transparent, staying consistent, and keeping your word. By pairing fresh ideas with reliability, she and her team didn't just win back confidence. They built a steadier, long-lasting base for GreenTree SportsPlex to thrive on.

AnAccomplishment Beyond Profit

Of all her accomplishments at GreenTree SportsPlex, the birthday party program remains the one closest to Melissa's heart. It started as a simple idea to make use of extra space, but soon grew into a cornucopia of laughter, color, and happy memories. Of course, one of the most successful and meaningful parts of the business. Her goal was to take the stress out of party planning and create a fun, easy experience where families could positively show up and celebrate.

She explains that the program covers everything from decorations and food to setup, cleanup, and a dedicated

host. For Melissa, the outcome is the ultimate measure of success. "We built a place where parents can relax, kids can play, and families can just show up and have fun," she remarks. "That's what true community impact looks like." Seeing such joy on children's faces and hearing the gratitude from parents, she adds, is what makes it all worthwhile.

Melissa admits there's no bones about it. What began as a small idea has become the heart of what makes GreenTree SportsPlex so special today, inspiring new ideas like summer camps and community events.

Leading by Example: Culture and Consistency

Culture, as Melissa sees it, begins with how you lead. She maintains a direct approach, working side-by-side with her team every day. It's sort of establishing a clear no-fuss, no muss air that keeps communication transparent, accountability high, and decisions fast. This unmediated way of leading fosters an actual sense of teamwork. She practices an open-door approach, ensuring ideas flow freely and everyone feels heard. Melissa firmly believes, "Excellence is consistency. It is doing the little things right, every time." When people see their effort is noticed and customers feel that care, pride naturally follows, ensuring GreenTree's steady growth year after year. This very perspective is why this veteran is among 'The 10 Most Trailblazing Business Icons of the Year, 2025.' She makes it a point to mentor young team members and encourages them to think like business owners, finding deep reward in seeing them grow, take charge, and even start their own ventures.

Words of Wisdom for Future Leaders

This sagacious business icon encourages aspiring

"THE SECRET TO LASTING SUCCESS IS SIMPLE…NEVER, EVER STOP LEARNING. EVERY CHALLENGE IS A CHANCE TO GET BETTER.”

Photography by Anthony Colonna

leaders to stay connected to their "why." In her view, true success in sports and wellness is not just about selling a service. It is about creating experiences that make a real difference in people's lives. She advises others to lead with purpose and make choices that genuinely serve their customers and community.

She also highlights the power of hard work and creativity. The best ideas, she says, often start small with whatever resources you have and grow through persistence and smart use of technology.

Above all, Melissa reminds future leaders to stay adaptable. Trends may shift. However, authenticity and genuine care never go out of style. Those who build on those values create something that lasts.As she concludes, "Preparation is the quiet power that speaks for you…when you're the most prepared person in the room, you never have to prove that you belong there."

Driven by Growth and Gratitude

What keeps Melissa inspired is the constant push to get better. There is always a new idea to try, a process to improve, or a fresh way to serve families. Standing still, she admits, has never been her thing. Each season brings its own spark of change through technology, marketing, or creative programs that keep the SportsPlex evolving.

Melissa stays curious and open to learning. She believes that mindset keeps both her and GreenTree SportsPlex growing stronger, year after year.

NATALIYA WIEDEMEYER

Rising by Lifting the Role of Women in the Society

Nataliya Wiedemeyer, Founder of Graviteams Management Consulting, is an entrepreneur who gained knowledge and experience from the corporate world and developed a successful organizational consultancy firm.At the beginning of her career, she has offered her expertise at different management consultancies serving clients in Europe, the Middle East, andAsia and also worked as a project manager for a reputed bank in Germany.

Graviteams is a Management Consulting firm for future-ready leadership, innovative business models, and engaged teamwork. With a people-centric integrated transformational approach, the firm helps organizations to connect the people through technology and in the spirit which ultimately results in

driving their business performance and productivity.

Imparting new dimensions of performance and productivity

The services include leadership and team coaching, advisory projects, corporate workshops, facilitation, speaking engagements, and webinars.

Nataliya is a certified brain-based coach and she ensures that her coaching for business leaders and entrepreneurs is aligned with the newest research in neuroscience.

Her management consulting services include the systematic process of organizing innovative practices, advising on innovation, strategy, and cultural transformation. Team development imparts tapping into the implicit knowledge and the potential of the people involved and helps them

to engage efficiently with each other. Facilitation of effective and productive teamwork, which is the most important driver for success is carried out by structuring and guiding dialogues, meetings, events, decisionmaking processes, and other activities using intentional strategies that help groups converse and collaborate more respectfully and productively. Training helps to transfer knowledge within the organization and to enable employees to gain new skills. The company closely involves itself with organizational leadership and helps in influencing the potential of the employees, this integrated approach gives a boost to the creative culture. Large-scale strategic objectives of organizations are broken down into manageable goals that various participant groups can focus on.

Importance of “Team” in the Workplace

During her tenure with the Banking Sector, Nataliya realized that the success of a company lies in its employees. Complexities of any Organization can be only sorted with an efficient team effort. It's not a oneman show. Strategic decisions and their successful execution are possible if dynamic leaders and front-line employees work in collaboration. The synergy between them enhances the success of a plan. Collaboration effort should extend beyond the formal teams within the organization and should include other stakeholders, like suppliers and most importantly, customers. Direct connection with customers is crucial to improve the work efficiency of any organization and to reposition it in today's competitive market.

We rise by lifting others

Nataliya says “As a founder of Graviteams Management Consulting, I feel blessed to help our esteemed clients reach new dimensions of performance and productivity.

Through our structured collaborative approaches, the companies successfully develop and implement innovative strategies to achieve their goals.”As an entrepreneur, she shoulders responsibilities to build valuable relationships with clients. Interacting and targeting prospective clients, mentors and mentees, potential business partners, networking, and delivering the expected goals. She strongly believes that social media recognition and financial success are byproducts and not the ultimate goal of an entrepreneur.According to her ultimate success is achieved if her company can enhance the client's worth in the business. In her own words,” I am not successful, if I have engaged with a team in an organization and I am unable to create a positive impact, can't push them closer to their goals or could not spark a brilliant idea. I get personal satisfaction if my clients' businesses boom and that's the ultimate goal for me.”

But carving the success path is never easy. Nataliya asserts that challenges make you stronger, more resilient,

and wiser. Failure and setbacks can teach you important life lessons. The entrepreneurial journey is not a cakewalk but often requires loads of effort, dedication, and commitment.

Utilizing her immense knowledge, she believes organizational cultures with dedicated management who engage and empower their workforce can become successful. In today's world, there is rapid advancement in innovation and technology. Thus, it's highly important to keep the human aspect abreast with the technological changes.

Success happens when effort meets opportunity

She believes in the mindset of abundance and firmly trusts in the power to interpret circumstances as opportunities instead of seeing things as challenges or defeats. “In the business world, people often have a scarcity mentality. They think business opportunities, market shares, and resources are limited.An abundance mindset refers to the paradigm that there is plenty out there for everybody”.According to her both in business and life, one should focus more on creating opportunities and win-win situations.

Life's Philosophy andAdvice to aspiring women entrepreneurs

In today's modern world, Nataliya feels, that both genders should have opportunities to contribute their best. Success comes to those who thrive and work hard for it. “I feel proud as a woman entrepreneur and leader when I can actually help another woman to see herself as capable, motivated, and worthy of success. I like coaching women entrepreneurs because it gives me the highest return

in terms of gratitude and it gives them a very high return too, sometimes lifechanging… Yes, the best recognition is seeing my women mentees and coachees succeed as entrepreneurs,” says Nataliya with pride.

Three myths women need to break to become successful entrepreneurs

I empower women by coaching them to unlock their power from within. So often it is not about the external circumstances, but about our attitudes and reactions to those, and as women we are often stuck in our heads. Here are some of the more frequent limiting beliefs, that businesswomen tend to hold:

Ÿ Not ready – women may decide to forgo a promotion or not take on additional responsibility out of the fear of not performing well enough. In this regard, men have a different attitude by being open to growing their skills along with their responsibilities.

Ÿ Underplay their role in the success - it may cause women discomfort when drawing attention to their successes and taking credit for their accomplishments. This is the wrong time to be humble, as failure to claim credit for own success is failure to claim credit for the hard work and the created value.

Ÿ Perfectionism.As women, we often juggle a lot – career, children, household. Wanting to be perfect in every dimension creates a lot of mental strain and perfectionism is an unrealistic goal. Letting go of it usually frees so much energy, that we actually can do better – at work and in private.

Advancing the role of women in society and the economy is the key driver of Big Change

In the Middle East promoting and helping women to succeed in leadership, and entrepreneurship are not only important ways to narrow down the gender gap but also opportunities to create powerful effects.

“I see it as very important and beneficial to any organizational culture to have women and men equally represented in leadership teams. Women make half of the population and in many parts of the world, the Middle East is no exception, for higher levels of education and career entry positions, we usually see roughly equal representation of both genders, often even with a slight tilt towards women. But at the higher management levels, many industries and corporate organizations are male-dominated. Along with education, the support system including access to mentorship, sponsorship are the most

important factors for success. This region is booming, and the number of jobs and business opportunities is expected to double by 2030. It would be great if many of these would be created and filled by women so that the region moves closer to gender parity.

Future Goals

Nataliya is a mother of three and likes reading, sports, and traveling. She constantly polishes her talent and enhances her skillset by connecting with interesting people, listening to podcasts, and attending training programs. Under her leadership, the company has ambitious plans to grow exponentially. Personally, Nataliya will be working towards inspiring more women to advance in leadership and to become successful entrepreneurs. She is all set to procure her ambition and passion for helping organizations to achieve their goals.

KELLY RUIGROK

A Global Leader Driving Sustainability in the Supply Chain at a Global Scale

Ecolabeling is an effective industry policy approach for addressing environmental issues without relying on controllable environmental legislation. Eco-labels are a way for businesses to measure performance while simultaneously conveying and promoting a product's environmental credentials.And, critically for governments, these instruments push producers and consumers to adjust their behaviour in the direction of long-term sustainability.

Kelly Ruigrok, a dedicated serial entrepreneur, founded the Global Sustainable Enterprise System, the National Sustainability Institute of the Netherlands, and Data for Good. Her enterprises have the same objective, but each has its own ecosystem of stakeholders. The objective is to make the world a better, more transparent, and freer

place for children and future generations. She shares, "Anyone can do anything, just believe in yourself and ask the right questions in the right places"

The Global Sustainable Enterprise System (GSES System) is the most widely used and trusted sustainability rating platform in the world, based on third-party verified data.

GSES

Traditional sustainability reporting takes time and money. With an avalanche of complicated information and laws, understanding, measuring, and managing your sustainability performance without assistance is difficult.

The Global Sustainable Enterprise System (GSES System®) is a well-

known platform that assists you in assessing, verifying, and certifying your sustainability performance at the process, supply chain, and product levels.Accurate certified data. The GSES system effortlessly and costeffectively links over 500 eco-labels and sustainability certificates and utilizes globally accepted criteria to analyse sustainability performance holistically.

The platform may be used for procurement, asset management, product consumer ratings and corporate governance.Awide range of businesses, including the Province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, Univé,ABNAmro, Jumbo, Heerema Marine Contractors, and many other multinationals and corporate companies, use the GSES System as their safe haven to make data driven decisions.

Making her Contribution for Greater Good

Kelly's career began with the establishment of the National Sustainability Institute in the Netherlands in 2017, which provided a solid methodology framework for the creation of the GSES-System. So far, the recognition she has received has all been extremely fulfilling on both a personal and professional level. She shares, "We have a lot of shared ambitions with our clients and partners. By working together we make sustainability accessible and

transparent." The team has collaborated with governments and big players in the industry like the World Expo 2020 in Dubai to help make the mega event more sustainable.And they are now partnering with the US based Blue PlanetAlliance to reach out to customers and assist in bridging the knowledge gap that exists between consumers and businesses on sustainability performance.

According to Kelly, developing the GSES System was an unusual journey since the team constructed a disruptor

in order to revolutionize the greenwashed market. It is the only SaaS platform that connects businesses of all sizes with certifying organizations, guaranteeing that their sustainability performance is validated and trustworthy.

The cornerstone of GSES is guaranteeing trust, and Kelly and her team are working on providing trust throughout the whole supply chain of products and organizations as well as guaranteeing customer trust and transparency between them and the ecommerce site from where they acquire their items. Today, GSES collaborates with over 110 nations and operates in over 70 industries.

Leading Together

According to Kelly, her inspiration for leading a company came from the collaborations and fruitful connections she made along the way. She says, "It is not about going fast alone, but going as far as we can together." She had a great belief in the environment she gradually created around her, which is now a solid basis for GSES, her team, and its members. The platform was created and is still being updated with the help of expert panels, since the entire team believes in research-based solutions.

Kelly's greatest struggle was dealing with those who underestimated her ability as a founder and CEO. Nonetheless, she embraces every obstacle and instructs her employees to do the same, since this is the only way to establish a strong and lasting business.

Kelly finds that keeping her team and herself motivated is easy as they are all aware of the worth of their hard work. "I am privileged to be

surrounded by fantastic partners and talented colleagues . Through knowledge sharing and trust we have already made the unthinkable possible together, and we have only just started. That makes me proud.," Kelly explains.

Success for "Kelly"!

According to Kelly, success is frequently judged in hard labour, and although this is somewhat accurate. She emphasizes that success is more than just meeting goals; it is also about finding answers to social challenges. This is why she established the GSES-System: to address the issue of untrustworthy and opaque ESG ratings and tooling that are now being used.

AWorld with MoreAwareness of Eco-Labels

As Kelly said previously, the most important plan for GSES in the future is to narrow the knowledge gap in the certification and eco-labels, which are both trendy and untrustworthy, as Kelly indicated previously. Thus, helping to spread awareness about the data behind ecolabels and make 1 overarching rating card per product and brand!

What Client Says-

“The GSES System is very useful for procurement professionals, for example, to be able to make sustainable choices for the right suppliers and products.” Karin van IJsselmuide |

CSR Program Director NEVI

"We have adopted a wide-ranging approach to achieving our site-wide sustainability goals, underscoring our bold ambitions with grand action to

integrate sustainability into all of our experiences and operations. Our collaboration with GSES System is emblematic of these efforts, supported by the sustainability commitments of our stakeholders as we work together to host one of the most sustainable World Expos in history and create a meaningful, measurable impact beyond the site and our 182-day run."- Dina Storey | World Expo 2020 Dubai

"The Netherlands Pavilion's theme of 'Uniting Water, Energy, Food' contributes to more awareness and international cooperation in achieving some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the

pavilion, we will be showcasing how working together we can contribute towards achieving some of the SDGs, thereby reducing the footprint too as low as possible. We are delighted that the Dutch company GSES System has developed such sophisticated measurement techniques regarding sustainable impact that help contribute to these important goals".H.E. Lody Embrechts,Ambassador | Kingdom of the Netherlands

VICTORIA JENKINS

Creating Sustainability and Style for Disabled Communities

You may be wondering what

adaptive clothing is. The fact is that this is a question for many people since it generally stems from a lack of integration with others who are non-disabled. In other words, if you are not a member of the disabled community, you will never comprehend the significance of adapted clothes.

While adaptive clothing is not for everyone, it is critical for people who have difficulty dressing independently or who have access needs.Although corporations still have a long way to go in terms of understanding inclusion on a larger scale, several brands are taking the lead in this area.

Victoria Jenkins is a garment technologist with 14 years' experience in the fashion industry who became disabled in her 20s. She started Unhidden after a hospital meeting

with a cancer patient that changed the path of her life. This is the narrative of Unhidden. She is a multi-awardwinning adaptive designer, disability advocate, author, and speaker. Victoria also has experience in luxury goods, men's and women's tailoring, wovens, jersey, outerwear, fashion illustration, and textiles. She is a solid professional with a BAin Fashion Design from Istituto Marangoni and accessible testimonials from speaking engagements.

Starting Entrepreneurial Journey

Victoria had always been interested in fashion, but the transition from working for other brands to starting her own came from meeting someone in the hospital who inspired her to think about adaptive fashion—and then the transition came when she did more research and just wasn't seeing what she felt was needed. So Victoria

decided to take the plunge herself. She says, "I had lived experience. I had years of garment construction knowledge that I figured could be put to better use!"

Victoria's first paid job after university was as a pattern cutter for an online eCommerce brand—being able to pay rent and survive independently in London felt pretty amazing and was something she did for a number of years before going freelance and continuing that work until the pandemic hit. She says, "It's been incredibly varied, which I think has ultimately proved to be better for me in the long run."

Before Unhidden, Victoria was a garment technologist who had worked with some wonderful companies and labels. However, due to her own health concerns, it became more about survival with no plan for her

own future other than paying rent—not a nice place to be! She had always wanted to be a designer, but the path to that involved internships and working for free for far longer than she was able to afford-she graduated in 2008, and the landscape was different then, not to mention a recession. But Victoria made it work and met some wonderful individuals along the way, proving that the profession isn't always as awful as people believe.

As per her, the best recognition for her was probably doing her TedX talk; being accepted to do one was terrifying but proof that she had the knowledge and the voice to really say something.

Not Just a Brand

Unhidden is currently made-to-order. The core range addresses a variety of access demands, including dexterity, stomas, wheelchair users and cancer patients. Everyone, regardless of size or ability, may wear the range, excluding no one. Victoria is switching to a standard model with modest adjustable choices to reduce the price because her community (1 in 5 people in the UK) is 50% more likely to be poor, and she is well aware that she is still too expensive for the majority of people.

Victoria has numerous amazing collaborations in the works, some of which will be released towards the end of this year. Victoria serves on a variety of boards and committees to increase awareness and transform the narrative on disability inclusion from one of pity to one of creative, happy positive portrayal, and to urge other companies and sectors to make better decisions regarding inclusion in the future.

Victoria's current responsibilities include design, social media, networking, pitching, postman, and customer service. There isn't anything Victoria doesn't accomplish, but she is finally assembling a team to work with her! Victoria usually begins her day by checking her daily journal, her to-do list, and then social media. She then attempts to follow up on leads, develop content, or write copy. She is going to use the word some very good friends and peers use to describe her because it does encapsulate how tirelessly she has tried to work to help as many people as she can—unstoppable.

Redefining the Industry

Unhidden is the first adaptive brand to join the British Fashion Council, was the first to sell in multiple retail outlets in London and Cambridge, has had global press coverage and has tried to ultimately do as much as possible in as many places to make people stop and think about what inclusion means and how to achieve it. Victoria is currently preparing for her first full runway show, which will

be showcasing an array of disabilities (both visible and non-apparent) in September and hopes that it continues to change the narrative going forwards as well as championing other designers, brands, and people who fight for the same thing-equity.

Staying Motivated and Connected

For maintaining space between work and life, Victoria does have boundaries with other people on engaging with her, but she often sits and works or scrolls or contacts people outside of her self-imposed office hours. Her motivation never really wavers-until adaptive and inclusive design is normalized and on the high street and accessible, she has all the motivation she needs. She shares, "With my new team, it's trying to keep open and honest communication and working out how to support each other—as it's so new and exciting, motivation isn't what we lack—it's time to get it all done!"

Valuable Lessons

Victoria shares that having faith in her

own abilities and ideas has taken a while—having mentors from a variety of people helped with that. Choosing to start trading during a pandemic, after Brexit and targeting an audience that has been left out globally whilst trying to maintain sustainable and ethical manufacturing processes-she couldn't have thrown more obstacles in her own way-but there was no time like the present and her hope is that it will get easier. She asserts, "Getting non-disabled people engaged is one of the hardest roadblocks still, but thanks to a growing interest in social impact brands and better DE&I awareness, staying the course and having faith has worked for me."

Views on Success

While discussing her perspective on achievement, Victoria admits that defining success is difficult for her. She recalls that, because of the unpredictability that comes with freelancing and running a small business as a disabled woman, there is no disputing that success for her is predicated on financial remuneration, which she does not believe she has attained.

Victoria does however also define success as knowing you're making a difference and having your work or voice recognized, shared, and impacting other people's perspectives and lives.

She states, "Being happy in your work and being excited to work is also a good barometer of success-I feel very privileged to do something I adore.”

Plans for the future of Unhidden

Victoria's future plans include workshops teaching people how to

adapt their own clothing (80% of the disabled and chronically ill community were not born that waythat's a lot of clothes going to landfill) as well as expanding the range, having their own brick and mortar store that is fully accessible and beautiful and a place for people to hang out in as well as shop. There are some partnerships she'd love to see come to life—the sky is the limit. There is not an area of the retail world that doesn't need an adaptive and inclusive update.

Word to Woman Entrepreneurs

As a disabled woman, Victoria does face challenges ultimately thanks to the people in charge and the stigma around disability- but she has hope that if even one person sees her trying and has the faith to try themselves too then that is the best thing she can achieve. She asserts, "It is harder, there are challenges- big ones- but

that doesn't mean your ideas and voice aren't worth trying to put out there."

Victoria's message for women entrepreneurs is to listen to your instinct and question where the unsolicited advice comes from. She also adds, "Make sure you have some savings, invest in learning parts of what you don't know- for example, I paid to do a PR course and that has hands down been one of the game changers for Unhidden and continues to be helpful. Finally- have mentorsmore than one." She advises everyone to accept people who ask if they can help but also approach people you look up to and ask them as well- it is always worth asking and trying, shoot your shot!

KIM BUTLER

A Great Leader In the Insurance Industry Inspiring People To Live Lives Of Purpose

Success is a small word with big consequences. There is no unique or singular definition for success. Success for Kim Butler, Founder of Prosperity Thinkers, LLC is living a life of service, doing well by doing good, owning your time and talents and putting them to use in the most freeing way possible.

LeadingACompany To Success Isn'tAn Easy Road To Take

“I've always liked to hoe my row, in other words, to be the boss, set the standards, lead the way, yet with humble confidence, not egotism,” says Kim. She thinks of faith as a relationship, not religion, and she relies on God to show her the way. Kim states that she'd rather rely on that and her skills and work ethic, than on a large corporation, though she's worked in that environment too. As for the foundation? It's one of her

favorite words because you can build anything from a solid foundation.

Since she was in 4th grade, she's worked with money when her parents bought her a milk cow and she and her sister, Tammi Brannan sold the milk to neighbors and church friends. Then after college, while working at a bank, she simply realized that she loved helping people with their money so Kim expanded her offerings. “After 30+ years I've figured out what works and what doesn't work and so our newest brand, Prosperity Thinkers, is there to help people with Inspiration, Education, andActivation of the foundational aspect of all personal finance, which is saving, both as a verb and as a noun. The act of putting away money and the act of storing cash and liquidity,” she states.

Challenges Make You Stronger

The non-profit Kim co-founded with her husband Todd Langford, known as The Prosperity Economics Movement, espouses 12 Principles. One of them is Certainty and another one is Uncertainty. Challenges are like uncertainties, sometimes difficult, sometimes awesome, yet critical to a lively life. "If we didn't have them, we would be so bored!” exclaims Kim. She has had numerous legal roadblocks, made all kinds of human and financial mistakes, created messes she had to clean up, etc. Just like anyone, especially an entrepreneur, who is blazing a trail and creating from scratch.

Kim explains the lessons are:

1.Mindset Matters so figure out a way to be positive.

CEO

Founder and

2.Install Faith in your Finances so you can keep a solid foundation under you.

3.Treat your team like gold so 1+1 can equal 11. Meaning you get two people together with opposite skill sets and you get a multiplier effect of not just 1+1=2 or even 3 as many people say, but 11, putting the one with the other one and getting the value of the collaboration all along the way.

Kim's Contribution To Redefine The Industry With Innovative Ideas

Kim works in a 200+-year-old

industry. Mutual Life Insurance companies are some of the oldest financial institutions in North America. They create emergency/opportunity accounts for folks which are the most valuable foundation in personal finance, yet they are stodgy and slow and have been resistant to technology. “I've grown PT using these companies, yet adding in technology and a real understanding of how humans get results by communicating benefits, writing books for readers, crafting youtube videos for watchers, and dropping podcasts for listeners so that all types of learners can benefit from what I know,” she says. Her team has

been instrumental in helping her create and also in freeing her up from administrative work to speak with folks in all 50 states.

ResponsibilitiesAs Founder Of Prosperity Thinkers

Kim, who describes herself as a person who always strives to grow, states that the best recognition she has received is having numerous employees and independent contractors who have worked with them for almost 30 years. Her main responsibility as the founder is to help people get results. She claims that her

life before Prosperity Thinkers was mostly confined, now it's expansive.

Balance In PersonalAnd Professional Life

“Setting strong calendar controls and sticking to my 'office boundaries' (since I've worked from home since the internet began) enables Visioneering in all areas of life. Visioneering then makes it easy to be motivated, since you are moving towards work that you enjoy. And when you love what you do, and strive towards a “self-managing

company” under the Strategic Coach system, everybody wins.” says Kim.

Future Plans For Prosperity Thinkers

Kim states that she has not achieved everything she dreamed of and there is lots more to go. Her strategy for Prosperity Thinkers is 30 years of helping people with their finances and then a re-brand for another 30 years.

“I love my work and want all people to love theirs. Using kolbe.com, CliftonStrengths and other systems is the best ticket to happiness and a great team,” she states.

NATALIE FOSTER

Leading Innovation in the Legal Sector by Founding Advance Virtual Law Firm

Co- Founder of Inspire Legal Group, Natalie Foster is a former business manager at Barclays Bank who transitioned into the legal industry to work in business development. The Group includes Inspire LegalAcademy, which will give lawyers and other legal professionals the skills they need to benefit from the world of blockchain, smart contracts, and legal engineering, as well as Inspire Crypto, a company that will help develop products that enable property transactions to proceed via blockchain, are other ventures she has established. She says, It's our intention to inspire lawyers to see that there are many different things they can do in practise and to find new ways of delivering legal services. We are a group of colleagues where everyone has a stake in the success of the business."

Inspire Legal Group

The innovative virtual law firm from Inspire Legal Group, formerly Foster Clay, aims to give lawyers the tools they need to start their own practises and related businesses, such as technology solutions.

Inspire Legal Group currently employs 23 lawyers as consultants who are building their practises with complete back-office assistance. They aim to double the number of consultants by the end of 2022. They work with paralegals, licenced conveyancers, solicitors, and legal entrepreneurs who require a support network to develop their own tech products, and are enouraging other lawyers, at all levels to “join the movement” [one of the Group's taglines] . 11 people are currently employed by Inspire in Scarborough to help the lawyers.

Early Background

Natalie comes from a business, finance, and lending background. She started a law degree when she had her children, and she is still pursuing her SQE and LLM because being a solicitor would be sacrilege to her. She sees herself as a business leader who develops a team and garners support to bring about change. She works in the legal industry and is aware of the significant obstacles that must be removed before law and procedure can be applied to technology.Although the Law Commission is doing fantastic work in this area, a comprehensive solution is required. Inspire Legal Group and Vleppo (a Danish Blockchain Technology company) have forged a new alliance. She says, "We have the means to do what others are only consulting on at this stage. Being asked by Vleppo to work with them

over other larger firms has been an honour and I cannot wait to let the public know what it is we have planned."

Leading Legal Group

In the first lockdown, Inspire Legal Group was created.After hearing Boris on the TV say that the public were not permitted anywhere, Natalie sat in her bedroom with her laptop and felt a sudden wave of freedom

being taken away from her. She knew that many lawyers lawyers would find it difficult to function alone at home. She had resigned from her previous partnership position in order to start a business that would "survive the times then flourish." The objective was to establish a business that supported Web 3 and was entirely operationally digital. Regulatory compliance, lawyers' education in terms of understanding and buy-in, and the ultimate consumer client's need to be aware of the advantages of

blockchain in the legal sector, such as security and speed, are just a few of the difficulties Natalie mentions.

Consultants who are in their own right entrepreneurial and have project ideas of their own can join the firm to have the support of reserved legal activity insurance when they require it. Under the firm'sABS (alternative business structure), they can offer niche services to their clients, retaining the majority of their fees. She asserts, "We've created personal brand workshops, lead gen support, and back office administration to support them. But what we're doing goes beyond being part of a “firm”, it's being part of a community. I don't want to be in competition with highstreet firms, we are not. I want to offer a different way of functioning in the sector by removing the issues many artists face when transferring property and support the legal sector in the journey to using block chain technology. This is what Inspire Legal Groupis doing. "

Responsibilities at Inspire Legal Group

As CEO, Natalie is responsible for the strategy, progress, and implementation of all projects within the group and ensures the relevant leaders have all the tools they need to undertake the roles the firm expects them to work with.

Moreover, hers job is to build the brand of the group and ensure people know she is here to listen to new ideas and be non-conformist. She states, "Not anarchy, this is a different thing. People think that disruption is an uncomfortable place to be. It isn't if you have the education, support, and direction of leaders. That's what I do."

Sharing the Significance of Challenges

Natalie quotes Hamilton, "Talk less, smile more." She finds that this saying, although simple, encapsulates the changes she has made to develop and bounce back after trusting in the wrong things and learning from failure. She asserts, "We all fail. We are all allowed one mess up. If we learn from it, it has not been a waste of time and energy."

Natalie states that one should partner with people that share his or her values and ethics. She adds, "Distance, background, sector, and all kinds of things can be a little obstacle in this digital age, but a gap in ethics or integrity can mess with the balance of a team. When implementing change, there are constant dynamics and relationship changes. These need to be managed and respected, and if one party isn't working as hard as the rest, it causes upset in the ranks." She has learnt from this and selects her partners based on attitude and conduct over anything these days. She thanks the challenges she has faced for allowing her to realise her value to others at darker times, and suggests that you always have something to offer.

In and Out of Work

Natalie fits her work in “a little and often” around the needs of her two small children. Her hobbies are supporting her daughter in her dancing and she is often sat at the back of a hall or theatre emailing the HQ team.

Natalie shares that Inspire Legal Group has great respect for family. It has to be this way. Her team misss nothing. She says, "If we support

employees' personal journeys as well as their professional ones, the loyalty you receive and buy-in is unparalleled. The perception by some is that this is a weakness, it isn't."

Achieving all the Dreams

Natalie admits that while she feels content with what she has accomplished so far, she is unsure of her plans for the next 40 years. She thinks, "We are all working through life in chapters. We do not need pigeonholing, and so what I do now might be different from what I do in 10 years, but whatever it is, I will always love being in business, providing opportunities for others to develop and building success from the ground up." She further adds, "Hard work doesn't have to be a painful slog. If you have an amazing team and good, smart processes, you can do anything. For me, the process has been everything. I'm lucky to have a strong board who does not allow me to veer off. Energy is not enough, you need strategy and reasoning."

Why are you doing this? is something Natalie asks herself regularly. She finds dreams are subjective. She initially started simply wanting to be able to take a holiday, knowing the team and business were sustainable. She asserts, "Trust gets you there, and now I want to see that the projects we have are successful and we deliver the change the legal sector so desperately needs. Ask me again next year!”

Key to Success

Natalie has not experienced conventional or even convenient success. If anything, it has disrupted the market more than anything else because she entered the market with a critically constructive perspective.

She initially intended to go to law school, become licenced as a solicitor, and eventually join a partnership. This changed when she observed the extraordinary operational challenges that partners and lawyers in general face, which prevent them from working on future strategy but, more importantly, fire fight daily with outdated views of how people should handle requests and restrict their opportunities for access to justice.

"Success to me now is to influence and construct positive change wherever possible using the gifts and control you have at your disposal," says Natalie. For her, this is a strong network of partners who support her vision for a web3 solution for the legal industry. That is client-focused, justice-focused, and complaintdriven, and it gives lawyers and the regulator confidence to proceed without fear.

Future of Inspire Legal Group

Natalie's goals for the future include expansion, senior leadership, and a focus on the areas where clients currently lack access to justice.Also included are litigation, business, and corporate, as well as crypto asset tracking. She says, "Anyone who isn't getting where they need to be in the corporate pyramid and knows they have a value, talk to us. We set lawyers up to practise in their own way with their own clients and educate them in tech so they remain relevant, supportive of their clients' needs, and multi-skilled in an everchanging landscape."

JESSICA BLOTTER

Pioneering a unique solution to restructure the traveling

world

Answering the call of human and animal communities

suffering a lot due to lack of resources, Jessica Blotter, Co-founder and CEO of Kind Traveler, acted on kindness and created a platform that empowers travelers to positively impact the communities they visit and at the same time fulfill a greater need and desire that with both the hotels and travelers resonated.

Kind Traveler's Give + Get hotel booking model is simple. Travelers get exclusive rates and perks from curated Kind Hotels upon a $10 donation to a locally vetted charity that positively impacts the local community or to a charity of choice. The best part is that 100% of donations go to charity.

All Kind Traveler charities are aligned to address the UN Global Goals, working to fight poverty,

advance environmental sustainability, or reduce inequality. While travelers may donate to any charity, the local charity that addresses challenges in the community visited is always highlighted and is the default charity.

To date, Kind Traveler is partnered with 90 charities in 22 countries.

Stepping into the travel industry

Jessica started her career with a master's degree in education as an earth teacher teaching 130 students per day at USCD's Preuss School, a unique charter school serving underserved students. This experience allowed her to explore the side of sustainability. She adds, “It is also what gave me the confidence to spread my wings, take a leap of faith, and explore other careers because I knew I could always return to teaching should I wish.”

Later she joined a publishing startup, a lifestyle consumer magazine focused on fashion and travel. She states, “After spending ten years in publishing, working with other magazine startups in fashion and travel, not only did my passion and interest for travel grow, but I was also longing for a deeper purpose in life.”

Having worked alongside different founders of other startups, the entrepreneurship world was reaching out to Jessica. Moreover, she was even influenced by her father's entrepreneurial spirit at a young age. So, eventually, the calling connected a deeper purpose in her life, and she decided to listen to her intuition and follow her gut.

She expresses, “When my calling for travel, entrepreneurship, and purpose became clear, I started taking steps to immerse myself in as much education

and experience as I could.Anything that spoke to me that sparked my deep interest, I would go further in that direction. I started taking classes at UCLAExtension on business plan writing as well as travel journalism. Soon after, I secured my own travel column with CBS LosAngeles and began visiting hotels and destinations. I also started volunteering with animal rescue organizations locally. It was through volunteering that I found an immense amount of joy and connectivity.”

She believes that success is the sweet spot where passions, skills, and talent align with the purpose. When this alignment is in place, the person will be best positioned to grow

exponentially and be in an organic flow with life. It can take years to find this alignment. However, investing in education, volunteering, travel, and self-development are excellent paths to uncover one's path to success.

Brewing reality in the Kind Traveler concept

During a vacation to Belize, witnessing families living in shacks next to polluted swamps and emaciated dogs roaming the streets, Jessica and her partner Sean Krejci, had an experience that changed them.

While visiting the Mayan ruins, the bus stopped at the last spot to refill the supplies.At the moment, rib-

protruding dogs approached everyone in the bus begging for food with eyes of despair.As animal rescue volunteers inAmerica, Jessica and her partner simply decided to buy food to feed the dogs. Unintentionally, this action inspired the other travelers to do the same thing. Rather than doing nothing and living with the sadness of the situation, people acted, and suddenly the moment went from somber to joyful.

She states, “We made a choice to help, and it turns out, we weren't alone. The other travelers wanted to help; they just needed a catalyst. The feeling from our small act of kindness stayed with us for a long time, and we wondered how we could use our entrepreneurial skills and passion for travel to make it easy for travelers to make a difference while they travel, and in turn, be filled up with a sense of purpose and happiness from their travels resulting in a more meaningful and memorable vacation.”

This sparked the idea of Kind Travelers, and both Jessica and her partner worked hard to blow life into it.

Roadblocks are a part of every journey

Jessica does not believe in the notion of overnight success and knows that the journey to achieve the end goal can be longer than what a person anticipates in the beginning. It is important to stay determined and resilient while facing the challenges on the way.

She stresses the point by adding, “If I didn't 100% whole-heartedly believe in my purpose and vision with Kind Traveler, it would have made it extremely difficult to get up every

morning and keep going. If you truly believe in yourself and your vision and have taken the time and due diligence to carve a meaningful path forward, the journey will be worthwhile, regardless of how long it takes.”

Leading Kind Traveler to attain a Kinder World

Sharing Kind Traveler's vision, she says, “We aim to transform the incredible collective of everyday travelers (the 1.4B travelers who took trips pre-Covid-19) into a financial force that furthers the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development.”

With the tourism industry having $10 Trillion in GDP, it is the world's largest service industry with the employment of 1 out of 10 people worldwide. Thus, it can create meaningful community impact, advance environmental sustainability and address the world's greatest challenges.

Serving as the Board of Directors of the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST), she is privy to ample knowledge about understanding the greatest challenges of the world and travel industry. She never misses sharing these resources with her team, partners, and stakeholders.

As the co-founder and CEO of Kind Traveler, Jessica recently graduated from the Blue Startups/Blue Ventures accelerator program that aims to position scalable tech companies to unleash their true potential. Currently, she is looking for the most aligned impact investors with the company's core values of fostering wellbeing, environmental stewardship, and education for scaling Kind Traveler.

Additionally, she is also striving hard to lead all business development efforts and making consistent efforts in evolving and growing the sales team to promote kinder traveling around the globe.

Taking Kind TravelerAhead

Jessica and the entire team have been concentrating on Kind Traveler 2.0 for the last six months. They are working on updating the app with a more interactive UI/UX for travelers. She is happy to share that the new 2.0 version will have 30 new hotels, charity partners, and many more exciting opportunities to create a positive impact.

She further says, “Kind Traveler 2.0 will launch with many new partners including nine of the Six Senses properties, Wynn Las Vegas & Encore at Wynn Las Vegas, our first partner in Switzerland, Cervo Mountain Resort, properties in North Lake Tahoe and in The Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel, Charleston Place, a Belmond Hotel, The Tides Inn, a Chesapeake Bay Resort, along with many other hotels in destinations

currently not represented on Kind Traveler.Also, this November, we will be going to Switzerland as Kind Traveler was selected as 1 of 15 startups to participate in the World Tourism Forum Lucerne Innovation Camp and World Tourism Forum in Andermatt, Switzerland.”

Inspiring Message forAspiring Women Leaders

Jessica states, “Investing in yourself and believing in yourself will always be the greatest gift and bet you can make in life. Seek out as many educational experiences as possible and never underestimate the power of travel to transform your life and open the door for new opportunities and perspectives.”

Moreover, focus on volunteering with different charitable organizations. It will make your purpose crystal clear so that you can move further in pursuing the greater good of the planet.

LIZETTE IBARRA

On a Mission to Assist Companies in their Pursuit of Building Diverse, Equal, and Inclusive Organizations

The diversity of our life, work, and cultural experiences, as well as our individual differences, drive each of us to view circumstances, opportunities, and challenges through a distinct lens, leading to various ways of thinking and making decisions. Future-proof organizations exhibit a high level of competency in their capacity to capitalize on the advantages that come from this variety of vision, thought, and viewpoint, utilizing this rich array of resources to generate greater innovation and commercial performance.

As the CEO and Founder of Latina Chief, Lizette Ibarra is on a mission to close the gender and ethnic leadership gap and assist her clients in building diverse, bold leadership teams. Latina Chief is a retained executive search firm that values diversity. It holds that having more

Hispanics in leadership positions is not only the moral thing to do, but also the sensible thing to do and a necessity for business success to promote economic growth. Latinos account for 19.2% of the US population and they are awfully represented in corporateAmerica –only 4.7% of them are part of it. Hispanics are an economic power, with 2.8 trillion dollars in GDP and over 2 trillion in purchasing power. The company's business concept is straightforward: its candidate slates include the most qualified Latinos and Latinas in each sector.

The Road Leading to Entrepreneurship

Being a leader or entrepreneur is one of the most challenging and interesting roads one can take. In order to handle the stage where as a mother, she needed a more flexible

work schedule, Lizette realized she had to leave her corporate career. She had always believed that if other people could be successful business owners, she could too. Lizette has never experienced any kind of fear.

As a businesswoman, Lizette constantly considers the worst-case scenario before making a significant choice. She decides to “go on” if the response reassures her that neither she nor anyone else will perish, and that nobody's integrity will be jeopardized. She asserts, "I have always liked to take the road less traveled and go against the current, because I believe it is there where the real opportunities are. Of course, I cannot say that all my decisions have been correct, I have made many mistakes that have helped me grow and do better next time. I would not change a thing of what I've done in my professional life since everything

CEO and Founder

Latina Chief

has given me one of two things: learning or satisfaction."

Lizette's favorite definition of leadership says, "Aleader takes people where they would never go on their own." (Hanz Finzel). Leadership has nothing to do with you and everything to do with one's impact on those who follow him or her and entrust his or her vision to lead the way. She further adds, "As a leader, you must ensure that your team and people are better off after every interaction with you."

An Inspiring Journey towards Success

Since she turned 18, Lizette has been a worker. She began working as an English teacher in a kindergarten while still in college. When Lizette graduated, she began to work in the corporate world for two fantastic firms, Eastman Kodak and Johnson & Johnson, in the fields of human resources and talent acquisition. She was given managerial responsibilities at a very young age, and about 8 years later, she decided to enter the field of executive search and management consulting since she needed a more flexible work schedule after the birth of her first child.

Lizette has worked for boutiques and global search firms, as well as founded and developed two executive search firms that grew rapidly, both of them founded on women and diversity long before the term became fashionable. She has also had the privilege of serving on the boards of several non-profit organizations, which has been a transformative experience in her professional career.

"I've always believed and witnessed firsthand that diversity is an

imperative for company growth and for societal equality."- Lizette

Every position Lizette has held has been demanding and fulfilling, but she is especially proud of having built her first business around exceptional professional women who had left their corporate jobs to become mothers or wives and were turned down by many employers when they wanted to resume their careers because they had been "inactive" for three or four years. Because she experienced that herself, Lizette hired those women, in her organization,

who were dealing with similar difficulties. She created a company that provided access to these amazing ladies with impressive backgrounds. She says, "We taught them the search business, and we built a very successful company together."

Back then, remote or flexible work was not really an option in many corporations, and Lizette envisioned an organization where women could be women, wives, mothers, professionals, and human beings. She is incredibly proud of that, and now, with Latina Chief, she and her team

have assisted many corporations in becoming more diverse and debunked the myth that there is not enough Latino and women leaders available to fill executive positions.

Growing as Woman Business Leader

For the most part, as a woman, Lizette has found more opportunities than obstacles, but it hasn't been easy. Although organizations have made good strides toward gender equality, most leadership tables are not set to accommodate minority women by default. She says, "We have to find ways to get a seat and find our voice at the table. And it is through my work that I want to help correct that imbalance by bringing more Latinas into leadership roles and empowering more women to believe they can and should have a seat at the table."

When Lizette decided to quit her corporate career to find more balance and then found success as an entrepreneur, she promised herself that she would find a way to help more women climb the ladder to success.

Lizette envisions a society in which the capacity for leadership will continue to change in favor of embracing empathy and exemplifying leadership in its broadest sense. ESG regulations will continue to be a key priority for corporations and directors since it is crucial to take into account the regional differences that shape global priorities. Lizette says that the entire business ecosystem will put a lot of pressure on organizations to act ethically and responsibly towards the environment, its social components (employees, suppliers, customers, and the community), and to uphold the highest standards of governance as a result of the acceleration of digitalization.

Take on Challenges

"When you face a challenge, you have two options: undertake it or walk away. If you walk away, you will very likely regret not knowing the outcome," says Lizette. She further adds that if one undertakes it, then he or she will know for sure. Lizette has faced challenges where she has found herself scared and overwhelmed to death, but in those circumstances, she turned on the volume of her intuition and her internal voice. This is a lesson that she has learned over time and through experience. Lizette has always valued the opinion and advice of the people she trusts, but early in her career, she believes it was more about seeking validation. Now, she quiets the external noise and pays more attention to her internal voice.

As per Lizette, she has always treasured a piece of honest advice, but she also learned to dissect who she can trust, and after receiving input, it is then that she tunes in with her intuition.

An Opportunity to Connect with People

Success, for Lizette, only has an internal thermometer. She opines, "Success is not measured by your material possessions or how fancy your career or title may be. Success is being at peace, being whole, happy, and fulfilled with who you are. It is knowing that every day, you have done your very best and tried your very best. Success is also knowing that you can make a difference in the lives of others and that you choose to leave a positive mark." She also believes that the nature of her career has led her to interact with hundreds, thousands of people, including candidates, opinion leaders,

colleagues, business leaders, and those associated with non-profit organizations. She points out that continuing and nurturing these relationships even after many years in the business is a good thermometer of personal and professional satisfaction. She opines, "The true satisfaction of my work has been having the opportunity to touch the lives of many, many people."

Balancing Personal and Professional Life

Not many know this about Lizette, but when she was little, she wanted to be a professional tennis player. She recalls, "I did not have the opportunity to learn the sport or even take lessons because back then tennis was not a very accessible sport in my hometown in Mexico."

So, when she moved to Florida at the age of 40, she decided to grab a racket and take a few lessons.At first, Lizette thought it was ridiculous and that she would not be able to play well, but she still wanted to give it a try; “Ever since, tennis has become a passion of mine.” There is nothing there but the court, the opponent, and Lizette's focus on the game, so it is both highly exciting and calming for her.

Lizette feels that her love of tennis is her Zen zone, where she does not have to concentrate on anything but the game. It gives her balance and keeps her mind, soul, and body in check.

Lizette has been playing the sport for 8 years. She now plays at a competitive level, and she leads adult mixed doubles teams. They have won local, state, and national championships. From a leadership

standpoint, Lizette feels her tennis experience has also been very educational. She shares, "I must strategize for every match, study the opponent team, and select the players and positions. It very much resembles the focus I must have every day to deliver the best services to my clients."

Breaking Traditional Norms

In the future, Lizette sees herself continuing to debunk the myth that not enough Latino/Hispanic talent is available for executive positions and, at the same time, assisting corporations in becoming more successful and innovative by adding Hispanics to their leadership teams.

The Hispanic population is projected to grow 54% by 2027, and Latino GDP is the single fastest-growing GDP worldwide with a striking 2.8 trillion dollars. Corporations lacking Latino leaders are missing opportunities for growth, and according to Lizette, her company, Latina Chief, is there to help them correct that imbalance.

Message toAspiring Businesswomen

"Find your passion, what moves you to the core,” Lizette says in her message to aspiring businesswomen. “You shouldn't have to try that hard: your passion might be right in front of your face. Your passion is unique to you, and that's the beauty of it: find a niche within a niche and build your dreams around it!"

DARIA DUBININA

Advancing the FinTech Industry Ahead with Crassula

For some successful leaders,

their success lies in fulfilling the needs of different stakeholders. It means if customers require a new product or the team needs the company around, or the industry calls for new transforming innovation taking place and the leader can manage all this then, that makes all the difference. One such dedicated leader is CEO and Co-founder of Crassula, Daria Dubinina. For her, one is successful when he can confidently answer the vital question, “Why do we do what we do?”.

Inspired by Ben Horowitz's book, “The Hard ThingAbout Hard Things,” she knows, “there's no such thing as the universal, ultimate best CEO.” No doubt, she feels pride in getting recognized by an external organization or media edition. However, she states, “The real recognition occurs when your opinion

matters, you are inspiring others, you can make a difference, lead people and grow the company.”

Stepping Stones to building Crassula

Daria experienced her first entrepreneurial experience at the age of 20. Then, after completing her Master's degree in FEAmanagement, she began working from the lowest position at an international payment system where she learned about FinTech, and over the years, she has grown professionally; in 2014, she and her fellow employees started building their own ventures.

In 2017, Crassula was the result of the team effort of Daria and her cofoundersAlex Novozhenov and Vlad Nikolayev. The trio shared the same vision and strived hard to demonstrate

their unique skills in building strategy and technology. They had their designerAndrew Ponochovnyi created an attractive look and feel of the product.

She shares, “Together we created a unique skillset in which everyone played their part bringing the concept to life and giving each other confidence in what we were doing, inspiration for creating something new, and supporting each other during the bad times.”

While building a company from scratch, there were new challenges every day which the small team needed to solve and make smart decisions. Many times, the decisions were right; however, sometimes they were wrong that could hamper the company's growth and take them behind for months.

CEO and Co-founder Crassula

Initially, their main roadblock was getting the right investors for funding the company growth. The team spent many months in this process, which resulted in high frustration and no gains. Then, Daria shares, “We started focusing on business,staying bootstrapped, and that was the best decision that we could make because it taught us to survive difficult times, do big and beautiful things with very limited resources, and actually earn money.”

Brief about Crassula's Remarkable Services

Crassula specializes in developing White Label core banking products, PSP services, FX services, wallets, crypto banking, and crypto exchange solutions. It offers an all-in-one software platform that facilitates the launch of products within a few days and with a low budget. Its products are cloud-based and provide backend with its core banking system, admin panel for managing the business, and frontend with client web interfaces, iOS, andAndroid mobile apps. Crassula's systems are provided with dedicated openAPIs which enable a

myriad of FinTech services and assist most innovative business ideas.

Crassula embodies a unique culture of freedom and responsibility that fosters prudence, communicability, proactivity, striving for development, creativity, decisiveness. Daria says, “We embrace these qualities and develop them by providing constant education opportunities, helping each other in day-to-day work, and always trying something new by developing new products, trying to implement new solutions, and always doing something that we have never done before.”

For Crassula, their people have always been the main backbone of the firm. The industrious team always keeps developing and ameliorating their products to empower the customers with world-class solutions. She adds, “We value the elegance of solutions and everything related to their quality. This combination helps us to make new people want to join the company, reach new clients and partners, engage them and make them want to stay with us.”

Daria's efforts in redefining the fintech industry

She shares, “The FinTech industry is very fragmented, but each element is connected to another. On one side we have large and mature financial institutions - they have history, trust, reliability.At the same time, they have legacy, bureaucracy and low speed of innovation. On the other side, we have young companies which are able to disrupt the industry, brilliant ideas, but don't have time and money. On the third side, we have a totally parallel world of crypto with its technology, dynamic, risks and transformation. These are only 3 of so many, but supporting such fusion solutions helps to move the whole industry forward”

As a visionary, she looks ahead to bring a huge metamorphosis in the financial industry where all the banks and financial institutions will amalgamate into platform solutions. She aims to make the ultimate FinTech platform and proffer a comprehensive range of tech-enabled financial services for companies

around the world to take the industry forward.

Balancing Personal and Professional Fronts

Being CEO of Crassula, she ensures that the company keeps growing. For that, she formulates a strategy and stays involved in the daily activities connected to IT development, product development, sales, partner relations. She handles about 2-5 work meetings daily, with different departments and external parties and is usually involved in making smart business decisions or resolving complex issues.

Her secret in maintaining a perfect work-life balance is thoughtful planning. Even though it is hard to take ample rest while working from home, she always adds an outdoor walk or workout on the calendar. Also, she keeps her weekends free for outdoor rejuvenation.

She feels staying positive and supportive in all situations is her key motivator. To explain it further, she says, “When something goes wrong, I prefer not to waste time on finding out whose fault it is, but rather fix the problem and analyze how to avoid repeating the situation. This approach helps to reach the highest result, and the result is the most powerful progress mover.”

Future Roadmap

Crassula aims high and has many prime goals for the future, such as entering new markets, speaking new languages, adopting more technologies, transforming the platform into a no-code product builder so that anyone can design and launch FinTech products without any hassle.All-in-all, the entire team

desires to make complex and deep technologies incredibly easy-toimplement, highly accessible, and attractive for their customers.

Personally, Daria wishes to grow the company by 5x while maintaining excellent performance and effectiveness as a company.

Sharing her advice for budding entrepreneurs, she says, “Never be

afraid to start, experiment, and keep moving, improving and delivering even if things are not so shiny right now.”

BRENT KRUEL

Revolutionizing Occupational Health Through Technology-Enabled Solutions

The modern healthcare sector must widely adopt information technology to survive in the current digital era. To prove their mettle, outshine others, and lay a solid foundation for the adoption of contemporary, effective and customized digital technology in the rapidly expanding healthcare sector, leaders must step outside of their comfort zones and grasp the rapidly changing environment.

Brent, the founder, and CEO of BioFunctional Health Solutions, has a passion for technology. His extensive experience over the past three decades has given him a keen understanding of how to operationalize solutions into the lives of just about anyone.Although he performs these roles, he spends most of his time developing and implementing, tech-enabled, health and wellness solutions. Brent openly admits that both his formal training and work in

healthcare administration have given him a passion and special aptitude for finding the best health and wellness goods and services.

“Legacy is only secured in people that are nurtured by an empathetic leader. All other success is meaningless and temporary.”- Brent Kruel

Atypical day in Brent's office includes discussions with other executives of big businesses about how to attract and keep the best talent by looking out for all workers. He also devotes a lot of time to looking into the health and wellness sector for new goods and services that can considered and including in the service offerings of his own business. He has discovered that although there are a staggering number of software-based options available, getting people to use them effectively necessitates a hands-on approach. This is something his company accomplishes

by utilizing registered nurses as coaches to increase compliance and help close the gaps that may come from a lack of knowledge and understanding.

In a word, Brent defines himself as loving. He says, "I am empathetic, love people, and am passionate about healing and the possibility of making people the best versions of themselves."

Years of Transformation

Though Brent was a standout wrestler and track athlete in high school, he declined college scholarships to join the Air Force. He served in the military as a combat communications specialist and finished his first combat deployment during Operation Uphold Freedom in Haiti. Thanks to his exposure of the most cutting-edge computer and communications technology while serving in the military, he developed

and mastered a foundation for success in leveraging technology to improve health and wellness.

Brent was selected to attend the United StatesAir ForceAcademy (USAFA) in Colorado Springs and quickly distinguished himself as a four-time, WesternAthletic Conference (WAC), student athlete of the year. While at the academy, he suffered a fractured spine during jump qualification training, which was a formative experience for him and led him to develop a passion for health and wellness. His injury threatened not only his performance on the track, but also his career in theAir Force.

Brent graduated from the United States Air ForceAcademy (USAFA), in May 2000. He held the title, Distinguished Graduate, the highest honor bestowed by theAcademy. Soon after graduation, Brent began his career as a healthcare administrator.As a young lieutenant in theAir Force, he was privileged to be given a lot of responsibility. He was immediately given the role of managing a $30 million construction project, along with supply and logistics. This was a huge accomplishment and honor for him as he was the youngest chief information officer in theAir Force.

Brent was commissioned in theAir Force as a medical officer. He further distinguished himself by being honored with anAir Force-level award as #1 of 23,000 officers named the Information Systems Officer of the Year. He also was selected as theAir Force's lowestranking and youngest Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the largest VA/DoD hospital in Las Vegas, NV. During his second combat tour, Operation Iraqi Freedom, he was chosen to oversee the largest hospital in Iraq. He left theAir Force in 2007 and started working as a corporate executive in a range of

healthcare and technology settings to pursue a career in commercial health and wellness.

As a second lieutenant competing against officers with over 20 years of experience, Brent was named theAir Force's top information systems officer of the year for 2001, making him the youngest and most junior officer to ever receive the honor.

Making Every Step towards the Success

There were many small steps leading up to Brent's personal leap into being an entrepreneur. In 2007, when he retired from theAir Force, as a medical service corps officer, he joined the upper management of the nation's largest healthcare payer technology company. He was promoted quickly and as he adjusted to the commercial sector; he became more comfortable with the increasing responsibility of the roles he was entrusted with. He recalls, "Within four years of separating from the Air Force, I had my first 8-figure P&L that I was responsible for." This grew rapidly, and Brent learned how to grow companies by investing in and trusting quality people. He was always drawn to physical and mental health and made this a passion in every role he was in.

Brent's perspective on success is centered on leaving a lasting legacy, which can only be realized by people. He focuses his energy on helping people become the best versions of themselves through physical and mental well-being. His hope is that the BHS will help others do the same.

BioFunctional Health Solutions, Inc.

BHS is comprised of seasoned health professionals who are innovators, inventors and personally devoted to

their own physical health and mental wellbeing. They are passionate about helping EVERYONE feel and look as good as they do.

BHS uses a tried-and-true, proprietary process to integrate the top health and wellness solutions which enables an individualized (customized) approach to meet each employee where they are. Highly skilled and motivated registered nurses are BHS' secret weapon. The company's nurses are specialists in health and wellness and focus on building relationships with every client, leading to successful lifestyle changes that make people healthier and happier.

Below is a summary of the company's offerings:

Brain Function Optimization- In partnership with Millennium Health and Dr. Mark Gordon, a recognized worldleading neuroscientist, the team uses an AI-supported system with lipotropic supplements that cross the blood-brain barrier to improve cognitive brain function. It is also proven effective in resolving long-term COVID symptoms, including brain fog, insomnia, depression, anxiety and many more.

Lifestyle & Wellness Personalized Programs - Optimize lifestyle, learn how to make the best decisions based on individual biology and create easyto-implement, life-changing, habits.

The world's best and most caring nurses are specially trained in BHS' technology-enabled solutions to customize a program for anyone, regardless of current lifestyle and conditions.

Pain & Musculoskeletal Health - BHS is the leader in resolving pain and musculoskeletal conditions with the least invasive, least expensive and most

effective treatments available anywhere. Acombination of patented technology and the most efficacious hands-on treatments enables the best outcomes for employees/patients.

Ÿ Functional Occupational Massage (FOM) - Evidence-based and technology-enabled, hands-on treatment system to resolve pain associated with musculoskeletal issues/injuries. Effective for common conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome, plantar fasciitis, back pain, migraines, and many more. Considered first-aid by OSHA and nonrecordable.

Ÿ Patented 3D Mobility Health Assessment: Patented and clinically validated, digital mobility health assessment to identify and prevent musculoskeletal injuries. "The only lab test for mobility health.”

Ÿ Medical Doctor Pain & MSK Specialist Consultations: BHS' medical director is a medical device inventor and recognized world leader in musculoskeletal health and nd pain resolution. Offering expert 2 opinions and accurate diagnosis services; surgery consultations; and acute and chronic pain evaluations.

Ÿ Ergonomics and Biomechanics Analysis: Observe individuals in their work environments to identify and mitigate risk factors at the lowest cost possible.

Ÿ Customized Mobilization Programs: Stretching can be risky to musculoskeletal health if not designed and performed properly. BHS will develop a program to meet individuals where they are at and enable them to safely perform their jobs. This includes and

Ÿ especially, office/desk workers.

Ÿ Mental Wellbeing and Psychological Strength Building: BHS will guide clients through a transformational process that will change their mindset forever with simple tools and life hacks proven to work for everyone.

Ÿ Mental Wellbeing & Stress Management RN Consultation -A preventative and restorative process for creating a sound foundation for mental health resulting in lower anxiety and tools to manage stress better.

Ÿ Psychological Strength Building Program:An exclusive online program developed by BHS' partner, best-selling author, Dr. Tony Kern. The team states, "Be able to manage your life and difficult situations through preparedness and proven, simple, error reduction mechanisms."

Leading with Elite Solutions

BHS' innovation is a result of likeminded, passionate leaders in health and wellness coming together and partnering on how to do the most for as many people as possible. The company stays ahead of the competition by partnering with world leaders in the health and wellness space to bring the most elite set of solutions at the most competitive pricing available. The team shares, "Our secret ingredient is our team of highly trained registered nurses, world leading medical director, and partnerships with other globally recognized physicians and scientists. Our medical team is able to support anyone in their wellness journey and assure adoption of technology to support ongoing improvements."

At BHS, the team focuses on individual relationships resulting in revolutionary changes in its customers' lives.

Becoming Better to Do Good

Adversity has a lot of positive side effects if one chooses to persevere and grow through it without allowing seeds of resentment or anger to take root. The business world can be challenging to navigate, with many bad players who are willing to compromise their integrity to get their way and/or sell something. Brent reveals that his biggest struggles and obstacles were also crucial in propelling him down an entrepreneurial path where he was driven to build something better, something enduring, and where everyone who interacts with BHS is awestruck by its culture of integrity, respect, and empathy.

Pioneer in Wellness Sector

BHS is a pioneer in their approach to wellness and treats everyone as a unique individual requiring a customized health and wellness plan to meet their goals. In March of this year, BHS is launching its TRANSFORMATIVE WELLBEING INNOVATIONS ™ services specifically directed to individual consumers. The goal of this launch is to reach as many individuals as possible who are not privileged to work for companies that employ their services. “The more people we can reach, the faster we can heal the world. This is a big goal, but someone must have it if we are ever going to make a difference in the declining health and wellbeing of the population”.