Technophile CTOs of the Year 2022.pdf

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VOL-12 | ISSUE-12 | 2022
A Data Superhero Changing the Way the World Manages Data
Technophile
CTO’s
CTO’s
of the Year
of the Year
Technophile
2022
2022
Guy Adams,
Chief Technology Oﬃcer and
co-founder
DataOps.live
Guy Adams

The Attributes
that Signify
Brilliance
Editor’s Desk
Abhishek Joshi
Abhishek Joshi

he modern industry is being unpredictable,
Tparticularly in the last few decades, as consumer
attitudes and technological advancements have
undergone significant changes. As a result, CTOs now need
to be versatile masters of all trades. They must be aware of
the majority of activities at their company. There always
seems to be a core set of characteristics that they all share,
despite the shifting expectations and various roles.
Even though they assume a leadership position, a CTO
must be an exceptional team player. They should be
constantly seeking the input of everybody else involved. It’s
also vital that they act as a mediator between the different
parts of their team in order to solve issues and foster
cooperation. In many ways, the CTO acts as the bonding
force that holds a marketing team together. Their job is to
keep everybody focused and remind them of the bigger
picture. They accomplish this by getting all of the team
members on the same page, united under a single cohesive
vision.
We live in an era defined by rapidly changing technology.
Social media, in particular, is rarely static; it can change
dramatically in a single day. Given that the majority of
marketing now takes place on social media, CTOs must
understand how to evolve with it.
A successful CTO is always looking for innovative
solutions. They recognise the importance of innovation and
are willing to take risks to facilitate it. Furthermore, they
understand when to let go of the past and what they've
grown accustomed to in order for their team to move
forward and explore innovative approaches.
It takes a lot for a marketing campaign to stand out from the
crowd. Being exciting, ground-breaking, and unique is the
best way to cut through the oversaturated digital landscape.
A good CTO is always aware of how the customer is
feeling. They frequently monitor social media to gauge
public sentiment. They also serve as customer advocates
within their teams, considering how each decision may
affect the consumer and arguing in their favour.
Spotlighting such staunch aristocrats from the modern
industry, Insights Success features some of the enthralling
stories of the Technophile CTOs of the Year 2022. Flip
through the pages and indulge in the aspects of coherency
combined with a distinctive blend of modern advancements.
Have a Delightful Read!

Cover Story
08
A Data Superhero Changing the Way the World Manages Data
Guy Adams

Brigitte Falk
A Doyen of Management in the IT
Industry Leading by Example
Benjamin Buchanan
The Best IoT Professional
20 24
16
The impacts of the pandemic
employees' lifestyle and healthcare.
Rajan Beera
An Enquiring Mind for
Success
Dushyant Varshney
Novel Advancements in the
Biopharmaceutical Industry
26 32

sales@insightssuccess.com
December, 2022
Editor-in-Chief
Senior Sales Manager Business Development Manager
Marketing Manager
Technical Head
Technical Specialist Digital Marketing Manager
Research Analyst
Database Management Technology Consultant
Marry D'Souza
Managing Editor Executive Editor Assistant Editor
Visualizer
David King
Art & Design Director Associate Designer
Kshitij S Peter Collins
John Matthew
Sales Executives
David, Martin
Business Development Executives
Steve, Joe
Jacob Smile
Prachi Mokashi Dominique T.
SME-SMO Executive
Sagar Lahigade Frank Adams
Circulation Manager
Robert Brown Stella Andrew David Stokes
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Abhishek Joshi
Revati Badkas
Jenny Fernandes Anish Miller
Sandeep Tikode

Brief
Company Name
Adela Mehic-Dzanic is a female tech leader, speaker, and
mentor.
Featured Person
Mavovo AG
mavoco.com
Adela Mehic-Dzanic
Head of Connectivity
Service
Providers – CSP
Alberto holds more than 15 years working with data and
improving business profitability.
GlucoVibes
glucovibes.com
Alberto Conde Mellado
Founder and
Chairman
Benjamin tends to sell from a technical perspective, being the
industry expert but placing emphasis on relationship building
and follow-up.
SBT Alliance
sbt-alliance.com
Benjamin Buchanan
Chief Executive
Officer
Dushyant is an accomplished biotech executive with over 25
years of experience in leading entire product lifecycles of
diverse modalities including mRNA, gene & cell-based
therapeutics, biologics, vaccines and sterile injectables.
Arcturus Therapeutics
arcturusrx.com
Dushyant Varshney
Chief Technology
Officer
Guy is passionate about DataOps. He has spent 20+ years
running software development organizations, and now his focus
is bringing the principles and business value from DevOps and
CI/CD to data.
DataOps.live
dataops.live
Guy Adams
Chief Technology
Officer
Rajan is an innovative leader with a proven track record in
Research & Development.
Pall Corporation
pall.com
Rajan Beera
Chief Technology
Officer
Shimrit holds an MSc and PhD from the Hebrew University in
Computer Science. The idea behind Secret Double Octopus
was designed during Shimrit's post-doc research at Ben Gurion
University.
Secret Double Octopus
doubleoctopus.com
Shimrit Tzur-David
CSO and Co-founder
Technophile
CTO’s
CTO’s
of the Year
2022
SBT Alliance partners with small, medium, and Fortune 500
customers to design, deploy, and support IoT-enabled solutions,
systems, devices and technologies.
SBT
(Smarter Building Technologies)
Alliance
sbt-alliance.com
Benjamin Buchanan
CEO
FORCAM supports companies with innovative digitalization
solutions to successfully master the digital transformation
towards the Smart Factory and to solve three key challenges of
today and tomorrow.
Forcam
forcam.com
Brigitte Falk
CIO and COO

A Data Superhero Changing the Way the
World Manages Data
C O V E R S T O R Y
I've spent 20+ years
running software
development organisations
and now my focus is
bringing the principles and
business value from
DevOps and CI/CD to
data.
Guy Adams

Guy Adams,
Chief Technology Oﬃcer and
co-founder
DataOps.live

he data world has reached a crunch point.
TContinuing the trend of the last decade, the
requirements from business of their data (and by
extension their data teams) are increasing exponentially. It's
not just the complexity of the requirements but the pace of
change that cause challenges – months and weeks are out
and sometimes even days are too slow. Simultaneously, as
business, consumers and regulators become more aware, a
robust and fully implemented data governance strategy is a
hard requirement to ensure that the data is consistent, does
not get misused, and is trusted.
To compound all of this, data engineers are between 45%
and 75% less efficient than their software colleagues due to
manual processes, lack of orchestration and lack of
automated testing and deployments.
Many of these problems have been seen before in the
software domain starting 20+ years ago and then in the
cloud infrastructure domain 10+ years ago.
On a mission to address these issues Guy Adams, the Chief
Technology Officer and co-founder has developed the
world's leading DataOps platform, DataOps.live.
Introduction
Guy is a self-motivated leader with over two decades of
experience, guiding teams through the Agile/DevOps/CICD
journey.
Contribution to the World of Data
Life was all about DevOps and then CloudOps for Guy,
initially bringing his expertise of Software DevOps into the
cloud infrastructure world. When he came to the data world,
it brought a feeling of déjà vu. The data world was
incredibly advanced in some respects however, automation,
orchestrations, testing, observability, development practices
and deployment techniques were still in the dark ages! An
early decision to work with the world's leading cloud data
platform, Snowflake turned out to be pivotal – its unique
combination of features unlocked key DataOps capabilities
and Guy has become one of a very elite group of Snowflake
Data Superheroes globally.
A career path destined to challenge the status quo
After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering
from Imperial College, London (where he was awarded the
Eric Laithwaite Prize for Innovation) and time spent with
the Royal Air Force, Guy found his way into a junior
network management consultant role at a small company -
Parallel. He worked his way up to CTO, developing the
industry's first web -based management platform and was
part of the team that managed the acquisition of this
company by iDirect, a leading satellite communications
company. He remained at iDirect as VP of Engineering and
over time added a variety of other responsibilities,
including starting the first user experience department
within the satellite industry.
In the early days of his career, Guy struggled with being
younger than most of his peers, but this taught him how to
really fight for continual progress and against established
dogma, even in the face of far more experienced people.
Sometimes this meant driving small but continual
improvements, but other times radical and fundamental
rethinks were required.
In 2018, Guy was ready for a move into a different industry
and had fallen in love with the data world. He joined
Datalytyx as CTO and was part of the team that lead the
acquisition of this company by Mphasis. This set him on a
path, with his co-founders Justin Mullen (CEO), Sam
Hopper and Colin Bradford to challenge a whole industry
of thirty years of legacy thinking.
Today Guy is recognised as a global authority on the
principles, practices, and technologies of DataOps. He was
the original architect of the DataOps.live product and led
the definition of the philosophy itself as
www.truedataops.org. He presents at many conferences
around the world each year and lectures as part of several
DataOps provides end to
end orchestration,
environment
management, CI/CD
and automated testing
wrapped in an elegant
UI.

higher degree programmes. Most recently Guy co-authored
the DataOps for Dummies book.
Governance and Agility
DataOps.live has a simple mission – to automate the build,
test, deployment and observation of data applications and
data products on the Snowflake Data Cloud. The company
does this by taking all the best principles, processes, and
technological solutions of twenty years of DevOps and ten
years of CloudOps and using them as a baseline.
DataOps.live has then identified the challenges unique to
the data world and created new solutions on top of this
foundation.
This has led to numerous advantages for organisations from
SMEs to the largest global enterprises.
Changing the dynamics of data
As businesses demand more agility, companies have
reduced time to value for completely new initiatives from
six months to six weeks. Releases that used to happen once
every three months are now happening many, many times
per day.
This has partially been driven by a huge increase in
developer/engineer efficiency. By designing and building a
fundamentally new data developer experience, Guy and
DataOps.live have, in many cases, doubled productivity.
However, critically important for the Enterprise, this leap in
agility and efficiency has not come at the cost of good
governance. In fact, projects and data products managed
using DataOps.live have far better governance with
independent and concurrent development for any number of
engineers, multi-stage peer reviews, automated testing,
complete audit history for every type of change and of
course the ability to roll back on the rare occasion that a
production deployment doesn't go quite as planned.
Transformation Brought by Technology
Technology is a fundamental enabler for DataOps. Until
two to three years ago, the underlying technology
capabilities simply weren't there to allow DataOps to exist.

Innovations by Snowflake, such as Zero Copy Clone and
Time Travel, have transformed what is possible. The team
at DataOps.live is at the forefront of leveraging these to
create #truedataops.
The data and application space has been divided for the last
20+ years. Databases held data and applications extracted
that data and did interesting things. That model has always
created performance and security problems. Developers
have to bring the data to the code and if the data is sensitive
or large (and large here can be Petabytes or bigger) this is
very challenging. The 'next big thing' is moving the code to
the data.
The ability to create applications using standard
programming languages such as Java and Python and
actually running these inside the Snowflake Cloud platform
itself is game changing. Guy, his team and indeed their
customers, are already starting to do this, but it means that a
DataOps platform needs to support and manage not just the
data but also all the requirements of the DevOps and
CloudOps spaces.
Guy and his rapidly expanding team are currently focused
on making the amazing DataOps.live the de facto standard
in the emerging DataOps industry.
Beyond DataOps
Outside of work, Guy is an avid builder of anything
impractical and over engineered from tree houses and
gazebos to soapbox cars and river rafts. He is also a skiing
instructor (mostly to help keep up with his two young
daughters who both race slalom), an aspiring wine bu ff
(with a love for southern Italian Reds) and enjoys the
challenge of competitive crosswording!
Follow your Dream
Asked about his experience, "Your career will never follow
the path you think – looking back, my career has taken a
left and right turns that I could never have predicted. If you
work hard, you WILL get opportunities – the problem is that
opportunities hardly ever have a big neon sign pointing to
them saying -'I'm a great career opportunity.' More often
than not, they look like risks, sidewise moves and sometimes
even steps backward. Be open to possibilities and trust your
gut and the advice of the people you have built faith in.”
Be open to
possibilities and trust
your gut and the
advice of the people
you have built faith
in.
The problem is that
opportunities hardly ever have a
big neon sign pointing to them
saying -'I'm a great career
opportunity.' More often than
not, they look like risks,
sidewise moves and sometimes
even steps backward.

The impacts of the
in
pandemic
employees' lifestyle
and healthcare.
andemic and biology changed in just one year more
Pthan technology in the last 10 years. All the
technological tools were there but most of all big
companies were not using them properly. And our lifestyle
changed with it.
Today, remote working or teleworking is very normal, as
are conferences, phone calls and other activities that leave
behind the face to face necessity and lots of traveling and
commuting.
This tendency has become the new reality and it could be a
good step in the short term in terms of efficiency and
productivity, but it has a critical impact on the lifestyle
habits and employees' health. And the main reason is that
we dramatically reduce our activity and we become more
sedentary.
This sedentary lifestyle affects health badly, and it opens the
door to future metabolism disorders such as metabolic
syndrome, obesity, insomnia or type 2 diabetes. We saw
from Glucovibes users that the glucose levels of sedentary
people is higher at all the time, both day and night.
This means that the insulin levels are higher, too, and the
lack of activity together with a high diet in carbohydrates
and saturated fats is the perfect storm for metabolic
disorders.
Activity is the main regulator of our glucose levels, and it
can not be replaced just by a specific diet or carbohydrates
limitation. Our body and metabolism is created to have an
active profile, our muscles need to be used to avoid their
atrophy.
Diet of course has a direct effect on glucose levels and
metabolic health, and metabolic GPS like Glucovibes
allows you to understand this effect together with activity
and resting, the three main pillars of metabolic health.
It is important to understand that any employee should
introduce in his/her schedule some activity each 90 or 120
minutes, a little walk of 15 or 20 minutes have a positive
effect on the metabolism, and if you take this short walk
after your meals, our body receive the help of our muscles
to regulate the intake of energy and glucose of each meal.
At the same time, it is very important to balance the
nutrients intake, in order to avoid a plain carbohydrate meal
and most of all, a high added sugar meal, which is quite
common in a lot of employees working remotely to
maintain their attention. In fact, high carbohydrate intake
meals generate reactive hypoglycemia which means a focus
depreciation and new glucose desire or cravings pushing us
to keep eating all the time.
A simple way to regulate the metabolism could be a balance
diet in Proteins, Carbohydrates and healthy Fats together
with foods rich in fiber, together with some activity every
day (a 30 minutes walking after meals is more effective that
go to the gym twice a week), with 3 to 5 intakes per day,
and 7 to 8 hours of good sleep with 10 to 14 of fasting
period from dinner to breakfast. An early dinner helps, and
some strength workout as first "to do" in the morning, even
December 2022 | 16 | www.insightssuccess.com

Ph.D Alberto Conde Mellado
Industrial Engineer Nutrition Sciences
Founder Glucovibes

Impact on glucose levels of eating the same chocolate pu ﬀpastry during a walk or
in the sofa (by Glucovibes)

for 10 to 15 minutes regulates our metabolism from the
beginning of the day. Of course, avoiding processed foods
and added sugar foods is a good choice.
Remote working reduces activity and could have fatal
consequences in any metabolism if we do not take action
and balance our lifestyle. Early death and chronic metabolic
disorders are growing each year and the pandemic will
boost these numbers if we do not understand how to face it
with better lifestyle habits. Fortunately, technology could
help here, too, allowing us a guidance or metabolic GPS as
Glucovibes does to understand the change and the impact of
our lifestyle on our health.

Benjamin Buchanan
The Best IoT Professional
Over the years, many technological innovations
quickly rose to prominence but ended up falling off
just as fast. What happens to those systems
beyond? Odds are those systems no longer work, leaving
those businesses up a creek without a paddle! That’s why
Benjamin Buchanan, Chief Executive Officer sets out to
create something better, something smarter at SBT
(Smarter Building Technologies) Alliance.
An interview conducted between Benjamin Buchanan and
Insights Success identifies his leadership development by
fully embracing innovative thinking and building an all-star
team to help drive the SBT mission forward. Below are the
highlights of the interview:
Kindly take us through your journey to becoming a
proficient tech business leader.
From my humble beginnings in this industry as a project
designer, I saw the importance of working hard to bring the
customer more than what they expected and making their
project truly valuable. There are plenty of examples of
projects built with cheap products, and I knew the customer
had left so much on the table. So I made it my purpose to
educate myself on all the technology available to marry
them with the customer’s needs perfectly. This technology-
first approach guided me from lighting into the world of
wireless IoT systems and now is a cornerstone to SBT’s
mission, bringing true value through technology to our
customers and suppliers alike.
What business roadblocks or challenges have you faced?
And how did you overcome them?
As with any business, leadership position, or professional
role within an organization, roadblocks and challenges are
abound – there’s simply no way around it. You’re going to
hit roadblocks and confront challenges – be it cash flow,
funding, sales, employee relations, productivity, etc. The
question then becomes, will you persevere, or will you let
them defeat you and knock you down? Perseverance and
persistence is the path to success, in my opinion.
It is only through perseverance and persistence that I’ve
overcome business (and personal) roadblocks and
challenges.
How do you diversify your organization’s offerings to
entice the target audience?
SBT is committed to a business model that is product and
technology agnostic. This approach allows our product and
IoT solutions teams to engineer solutions for clients that
answer specific data-related questions about their facilities
while also solving critical business challenges. A one-size-
fits-all approach simply doesn’t work in the sphere of IoT
and technology-led solutions. It sounds nice, but proper IoT
solutions are an amalgamation of many technologies,
devices systems, and solutions that, when pulled together,
create the enticing solution offering that meets our target
audiences’ needs. That’s why we stand out with our clients;
we don’t try to sell them something they don’t need. We
partner with them to solve business and operational
challenges and design a mix of solutions to achieve that
goal.
What culture change do you suggest for companies that
want to embrace the full power of AI?
The full power of AI, machine learning, and the Internet of
Things (IoT), more broadly, honestly depends on each
customer’s needs. In B2B – which is the sphere that SBT
operates – it isn’t necessarily a question of culture change,
rather a better understanding and realization of what’s
possible when using the advanced technologies of IoT to
solve business challenges. It is more about education and
proof points.
What are the vital traits that every business leader
should possess?
Leaders in any business setting should encompass some of
the following traits/approaches, as I’ve identified in my
own leadership development and shared by many of my
leadership mentors within the business community. I chalk
these traits into five vital characteristics of successful
leaders:
Technophile CTOs of the Year 2022

Benjamin Buchanan,
Chief Executive Oﬃcer,
SBT (Smarter Building Technologies)

that allows folks to contribute and help SBT deliver on our
mission and reach our vision to transform how IoT
products, services, and technologies are delivered to the
market and optimized by customers.
Where are you focusing your energy now, and where do
you hope to make an impact next?
Right now, we are in the whirlwind that comes with scaling
a technology-focused company. I am keen to drive SBT
forward to continue making the impact we are for our
customers, industry partners, and the facility management
space as a whole. My immediate energy is focused on
continuing to build an all-star team of SBT team members
who evoke our CIVIC values as a company and as
individuals. These include:
Ÿ Commitment
Ÿ Integrity
Ÿ Value
Ÿ Innovation
Ÿ Community
“
SBT partners with
small, medium,
and Fortune 500s
to create smart
spaces that future-
proof businesses.
1. Effective leaders need the ability to streamline and clarify
the complex.
2. Passionate leaders must fully embrace new thinking –
that’s what primes innovation.
3. Confident leaders must have both self-assurance and
humility – they inspire, not belittle.
4. Compassionate leaders must set high standards but
modesty to admit when wrong.
5. Responsible leaders need to be honest, truthful, and
transparent – that’s what builds trust.
How do you keep yourself up-to-date with the latest
technology?
As a technology-forward company, SBT and our team
technicians and IoT thinkers keep me in the know, along
with our industry partners with whom I continually meet.
As I mentioned earlier, the SBT model focuses on product
and technology agnosticism, so we’re continually meeting
exciting new technology companies and learning how they
approach IoT, AI, and machine learning. To me, there’s no
better way to keep up to date than getting right in there and
being hands-on with innovators as SBT does every day.
What does it take to attract and retain tech talents?
As I mentioned earlier in this conversation, it is my firm
belief that if a leader takes to heart the five vital
characteristics that I reviewed, they will set the stage and
environment that will attract, retain, and encourage tech
(and non-tech) talents. It’s about building an atmosphere

prominent personality in the international IT
AIndustry, Brigitte Falk is setting a striking instance
of impactful leadership. Brigitte brings 25 years of
management experience in the IT industry to the table.
Currently, she is serving as CIO and COO at a IIoT
software company FORCAM, with a strong focus on the
innovation environment, digitalization, and agile working
methods.
Brigitte started her professional career in 1996 at SAP as
Product Manager Oil and Gas. During her tenure over, she
worked in corporate development, innovation management
and event management. In 2004, she took over the Business
Operations department as Marketing Director. Having
worked for several years there was a substantial learning
experience accompanied by management & leadership
techniques, innovation methodologies, product management
know-how, intercultural and interdisciplinary teams.
After graduating with Malik MZSG Executive Diploma,
Brigitte Falk founded the Simplicity Company to support
consulting firms, analysts and investment banks with
strategic consulting worldwide. In 2014, she took over
global responsibility for Marketing & Sales Applications at
Celesio AG (today McKesson Europe). In 2017, she was
appointed Division Lead Organization & Information of
CRONIMET Holding GmbH.
Brigitte's interdisciplinary studies of arts, humanities, and
natural sciences, complemented by an open spirit, are the
foundation of where she is today. She inculcates strategic
thinking through work with venture capitalist in a startup
environment, followed by taking on European ecommerce
IT assignment in a challenging environment. Her
achievements have been reflected over the last three years
as “CIO of the year 2018” (CIO Magazine Germany), “CIO
of the year 2019” (Bonhill – Women in IT Awards Europe),
and “CIO of the Decade 2020 Germany” (Confare & EY).
Customer Centric Approach
FORCAM FORCE™ is the first turnkey and manufacturer-
independent IT platform for the industrial Internet of
Things (IIoT). The company's claim that it delivers results
in productivity remains a solid foundation since its
establishment in 2001. Almost two decades ago, FORCAM
celebrated its debut and first deployment at Mercedes-Benz.
The iconic automobile company has since celebrated many
accolades, including the “Factory of the Year” award in
2007, 2008, and 2012. The most recent award in 2020 is the
Manufacturing Leadership Partner Award by the National
Association of Manufacturers.
Since then, the company has evolved into a comprehensive
IIoT solution partner with a high-performance
manufacturing 4.0 platform and a vital ecosystem. Today,
its turnkey and freely extensible cloud platform is used by
large and medium-sized companies including Lockheed
Martin Audi, BMW, BorgWarner, Daimler, KUKA, Pratt &
Whitney, Schaeffler, Swarovski and many more.

Today, more than 100,000 machines are monitored with
FORCAM technology worldwide.
Having Brigitte at the helm, the company is about to launch
two new IIoT product lines by introducing “Customer
centricity” as guiding principle. They are based on
Ÿ market gap: connecting supposedly “non-connectable”
older brownﬁeld machines to the internet (FORCAM
FORCE EDGE) and leverage their data potential and
Ÿ the need for fast, easy and low-cost connection of
production lines of SMEs or smaller subsidiaries to the
internet (FORCAM FORCE SaaS)
A Culture Change to be Adopted
According to Brigitte, to embrace full power of AI,
companies must show openness towards disruptive business
models and the respective digital transformation across all
parts of the business. They should unlock the hidden
potential of their current staﬀ, encourage them to take on
bigger tasks beyond their usual level of comfort, agile
principles (inspect and adapt), and take related
responsibility.
Brigi e Falk
COO and CIO
FORCAM

Besides, it is also important to attract and retain tech talents.
She mentions that for companies, it takes a bold vision,
creation of jobs for people from tech background based on
their ambitions and strengths, and encompassing
empowerment to attract and retain tech talents.
Thought Leadership in the IIoT Domain
Currently, Brigitte is focusing her energy to market the
FORCAM solution portfolio geared towards real-time data-
driven decision making on the shopfloor, grid connectivity
and machine data lake offerings as foundation. Now, all her
efforts are in the direction to drive vision and thought
leadership in the IIoT domain.
Besides, Brigitte keeps herself updated with the latest
technological trends by reading, meeting, talking with an
outmost heterogeneous, interdisciplinary audience and
network from all over the world. She also keeps openness
for inspirations from unusual sources beyond the
mainstream.
A Take on Sound Leadership
When asked about essential traits every business leader
should possess, Brigitte is of the opinion that every leader
should focus on empowerment. They should always put
strategic thinking and innovation into practice for every
decision they take and communicate a related vision with
everyone. A sound leader is one who leads by example,
builds on trust, integrity & transparency, and actively
listens.

Dushyant
VarshneyNovel Advancements in the
Biopharmaceu cal Industry
Dr. Dushyant Varshney,
Ph.D., Chief Technology Oﬃcer
Arcturus Therapeu cs

he pace of technological development today is fast
Tmoving and can impact all areas within an
organization. Leaders need to be able to
appropriately leverage these advancements within their own
organizations in order to mitigate being outpaced by their
peers as well as to meet or exceed stakeholder's
expectations. Staying ahead of disruptive technology trends,
while maintaining nimbleness to meet needs, has become a
key component for success in such a rapidly evolving
industry.
Dr. Dushyant Varshney, Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
at Arcturus Therapeutics, is one such leader who directs
the entire product life cycle of diverse biotech modalities.
With over 25 years of experience in global bio-pharma
organizations, Dr. Dushyant's broad expertise includes
mRNA therapeutics, gene & cell-based therapy, biologics,
and vaccines.
He has been a significant contributor in over 30 product
launches, over 75 Investigational New Drugs (INDs) and
Biological Licensing Agreements (BLAs), and Prior
Approval Supplement (PAS) submissions, and has helped
generate over $20 Billion in revenues at companies
including Gilead, Pfizer, Novartis, and Sanofi.
Insights Success had the opportunity to interview Dr.
Varshney, in which he shared valuable facts about his
successful innovations in the field of Biotechnology for the
advancement of medicine.
Below are the excerpts from the interview:
Briefly describe your professional journey up until now.
From grapevine to mRNA, my journey has been quite
interesting and global. After learning my biopharma-
technology basics in Nasik (also known as, wine capital
city, popular for the best grapes in India) and
pharmaceutical chemistry in Mumbai (Institute of Chemical
Technology), I became a proud Hawkeye at the University
of Iowa earning a Ph.D. in Chemistry with a focus on
supramolecular self-assembly chemistry and biocatalysis.
Over the last 25 years, I had the fortune to lead global
teams at the Top 20 global Biopharma Companies,
including Gilead-Kite, Pfizer, Novartis, and Sanofi.
Earlier in my career in the US, my focus was on learning
the entire Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC)
discipline. My introduction was at Eli Lilly, Indianapolis
(during the time the Colts won the Super Bowl in 2006) and
later at Sanofi, based out of New Jersey, as Senior Research
Investigator.
Diving into late-stage development and commercialization,
I joined Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics in North
Carolina, contributing to quality, technology transfer, and
sterile operations of novel cell-based Pandemic and
Seasonal Influenza Vaccines. With the opportunity to make
a bigger impact in sterile injectables by leading
manufacturing assessment and strategy joined Pfizer (New
Jersey) and legacy Hospira (Chicago, Illinois area). I
oversaw global site teams, including India Manufacturing
and Science & Technology.
Driven by personal reasons towards fighting cancer, and to
learn and make an impact in the field of immuno-oncology,
gene and cell therapy, I joined Kite Pharma – Gilead in
Santa Monica, California and built the first truly Global
Manufacturing, Science &Technology organization for
Clinical and Commercial Celltherapy and viral vector
products.
At Arcturus, I joined as the Chief Technology Officer
(CTO), to lead and build the CMC, Technical Operations,
Supply, and Quality capabilities for clinical and commercial
development and take it to the next level - mRNA COVID
vaccines and innovative technology platform pipeline for
treating rare diseases such as ornithine transcarbamylase
(OTC) deficiency and cystic fibrosis.
At Arcturus, we have built our
platform technologies for
developing and delivering
innovative next generation of
mRNA for the treatment of rare
diseases and self-amplifying
mRNA for preventing COVID19
and influenza.

What challenges did you face along the way?
The biggest challenge has been to rapidly learn-build-
contribute while embracing highly novel and diverse
modalities of biologics, vaccines, cell, gene-edited (e.g.,
CRISPR), and nucleic acid-based modalities that have been
discovered in the last two decades for treatment, prevention,
and personalized medicines (autologous CAR-Ts).
Certainly, I faced challenges and enormous opportunities to
lead and motivate teams of different culture-communication
styles based out of the US, EU, Asia-Pacific, and recently
out of Vietnam & Japan collaboration, yet with a common
goal to make a difference in patients' and their families'
lives.
What significant impact have you brought to the
Biotechnology industry?
I am fortunate for opportunities to build and lead great
teams globally that delivered great results. I feel proud that
by investing time in people first and a whole-person
paradigm leadership, learned from my biggest teacher
Stephen Covey, enabled me to launch more than 30+
biopharma & biotechnology-based products worldwide.
My efforts have helped reach patients by supplying more
than 10 billion doses of quality therapeutics, vaccines, and
thousands of personalized autologous CAR-T medicines
® ®
like Yescarta and Tecartus for cancer patients. Honored to
be part of the technology transfer, manufacturing, and
®
launch team of novel vaccines like Flucelvax (the first US
cell-based influenza vaccine, Trivalent & Quadrivalent) and
Pre-Pandemic Vaccine stockpiles (bird & swine-flu, H5N1,
H3N2, H7N9).
How does Arcturus Therapeutics promote workforce
flexibility, and what is your role in it?
At Arcturus Therapeutics, although we are based out of
sunny, San Diego. Still, we have a global footprint
encompassing the US, EU, and the Asia Pacific with our
manufacturing, supply chain, and clinical operation
workforce and partners.
We promote a flexible workforce based out of global
locations and work from home based on the business
capability support structure. I lead and collaborate with our
HR team to enable smart and flexible work environments to
support global manufacturing, quality control, and supply.
What is your take on technology's importance, and how
are you leveraging it?
Success in the past decade of cell & gene therapeutic
technology and recent mRNA-based COVID vaccine
technology to fight the coronavirus pandemic rapidly is a
true endorsement of technology's importance to save
millions of lives and economic breakdown globally. I have
been passionate and fortunate to leverage such novel
biotechnology platforms that have the potential to treat or
prevent current and future diseases. In particular, merging
the power of the latest Digitization, Artificial Intelligence,
and Automation has allowed me to imagine, build and
implement platform technologies for manufacturing and
supplying medicines otherwise unavailable.
At Arcturus, we have built our platform technologies for
developing and delivering innovative next generation of
® TM
mRNA and self-amplifying mRNA (LUNAR & STARR )
for preventing COVID, influenza, and treatments for rare
diseases like Ornithine Transcarbamylase (OTC) Deficiency
and Cystic Fibrosis, and with the potential to deliver
therapeutic RNA to diverse cell types including lung and
liver.
What will be the next significant change in the
Biotechnology industry, and how are you preparing for
it?
I think the biggest challenge and opportunity in the future
will be to custom design technologies and platforms to
deliver diverse, innovative engineered modalities precisely
and effectively inside the cell or nucleus to treat the
underlying cause of rare diseases and prevent widespread
diseases. The next significant change in the biotechnology
industry will be to meet such lofty goals, both“in vivo and
in vitro.”
By leveraging our current and future toolbox of the
CRISPR, Base, Prime, etc., edited-based technologies,
molecular engineering, and diverse drug delivery
approaches beyond our current lipid nanoparticulate and
viral vector technologies, a key focus will be to scale up
and validate such genetic medicine platforms in the clinic
and commercially.
What are your goals in the upcoming future?
My upcoming aspirations and goals are to lead and build
highly collaborative innovation-driven business models.
Design and grow the next generation of genetic modality

platform technologies by applying the most advanced drug
delivery, AI, and digital solutions.
Provide rapid and comprehensive approaches to validate
platforms in the clinics for commercialization and supply of
quality-safe-eﬀective medicines globally.
What advice would you like to give the next generation
of aspiring business leaders?
My advice to the next generation of business leaders is to
"Invest in people ﬁrst" to make the best business ideas-
technology-medicine dreams a reality. First, build great
teams with innovation and patients in mind, and then
develop meaningful therapeutic platform technologies and
business models.
Validate enough the proof-of-concept in pre-
clinical/clinical, leverage fast-fail/success investigational
approaches, and assure short & long-term safety and quality
of novel biotech modality-based medicines.

Rajan Beera
Chief Technology
Oﬃcer
Pall Corpora on

Rajan
Rajan BEERA
An Enquiring Mind for Success
ow does it work?’ – a seemingly innocent question
Hof a child becomes the precursor of a lifelong
curiosity. It takes them into deep dives into
esoteric subjects finding answers that leave an unanticipated
impact on the world.
Rajan Beera, the CTO of Pall Corporation, has always
been driven by a powerful curiosity to understand. It led
him to opt for engineering as his major in college. His avid
interest in the materials that various electronics are
constructed from brought about the development of a
patented method to make synthetic diamonds for electronics
applications.
Rajan is an innovative leader with a proven track record in
Research & Development. He has demonstrated successful
ideation of new concepts in product & process technology
development and has successfully scaled up technologies
for high-volume manufacturing. He has achieved
breakthrough improvements using Six Sigma methodology,
structured problem-solving skills, and Danaher Business
System (DBS) tools. With his work, Rajan demonstrates
expertise in technology strategy, portfolio management,
project management, and building global cross-functional
high-performance teams.
Pall Corporation is a global leader in filtration, separation,
and purification. It uses innovative solutions to ensure the
purity of products, efficiency, and safety in processes and
maximizes production outputs. Pall operates across a broad
spectrum of industries, including microelectronics, oil and
gas, chemicals, power, automotive, and general industrial.
Rajan Beera, in an exclusive interview with Insights
Success, describes a career driven by curiosity, passion,
and innovation. Below are the highlights:
Briefly describe your professional journey up until now.
Curiosity to understand ‘how things work’ has always been
my passion. That propelled my professional journey, from
studying Electronics Engineering during undergrad to
continuing to a graduate program at Birla Institute of
Technology, India, where I conducted research in
optoelectronic detectors for far-infrared applications. The
materials used to construct sophisticated electronic devices
always intrigued me, which led me to develop a patented
method of making synthetic diamonds for electronics
applications during my Ph.D. program.
The exposure I had in a state-of-the-art semiconductor
fabrication facility, High-Density Electronics Center
Innovation defines
our future. One
doesn’t have to be a t
echnologist or an R&D scientist
to innovate. In my experience,
the key to success is staying
curious, not hesitating to
challenge the status quo,
and a willingness to
learn at any age or stage
in your career.
‘

(HiDEC), at the University of
Arkansas helped me start my
professional career at National
Semiconductor Corporation, one of
the leading semiconductor chip
makers in the 90s, which I followed
to Texas Instruments through
acquisition. At National, I began as a
process engineer and advanced in my
career to leadership positions in
technology. In 2013, I finally left TI
to begin the next adventure of my
career at Pall Corporation, where I
became the Chief Technology Officer
in 2021.
What challenges did you face along
the way?
It wasn’t easy to conduct research in
advanced semiconductors in those
pre-internet days in India when
communications were all through
“snail mail.” One of the greatest
challenges I faced in my career was
to connect with a research program
that was aligned with my passions in
the United States so that I could
conduct hands-on semiconductor
fabrication research. Not only was it
the farthest distance I had ever
traveled in my life, to an entirely
foreign country, but it was also a
great financial burden as well. I was
incredibly fortunate that my
professor, Dr. William Brown,
offered me a full-ride scholarship to
conduct research on my favorite
topic. That generosity enabled me to complete my Ph.D.
and begin the career I have now, for which I am forever
grateful.
Another challenging decision I had to make was to move
from the company I had built my career for 17 years to
something new at Pall! But when I started working at Pall, I
immediately knew I had made the right choice. I have been
fortunate to work at a company started by Dr. David Pall 75
years ago, now part of the Danaher family, associated with
an amazing team of highly talented scientists conducting
cutting-edge research.
What significant impact have you brought to the
Materials & Technology industry?
My passion to be curious, to learn, and explore had never
left me in all the years of my career. Understanding
customers’ problems or challenges and the openness to
think outside of the box to find a solution by bringing

together competent teams and enabling them to be their best
has always proved a worthy endeavor for me. As a leader, I
take pleasure in empowering teams. Being a coach and
mentor have been my favorite parts of my job at any
company I worked for.
Tell us about Pall Corporation and its foundation pillar.
At Pall, we support diverse industries – for example, in
Microelectronics, our products enable the processing of the
finest features on a silicon wafer to build the most advanced
semiconductor chips (computer chips) by removing
nanometer-size contamination in process chemicals. Our
Food & Beverage business supports the production of dairy
products, ensures the integrity and flavor intensity in a
bottle of wine, and helps our customers improve product
quality, maximize yield, reduce operating costs and
safeguard health.
Pall technology supports the aerospace industry by
protecting every critical piece of fluid equipment on an
aircraft that requires fluid filtration and separation and
proudly stands as the world's largest aerospace and defense
filtration company. We serve the oil & gas, chemical, and
power generation industries through our FTAP business
which enables energy transition from fossil fuels to
renewable energy sources while aiding the success of
carbon capture technologies for a cleaner environment. The
primary focus at Pall Corporation is to use the power of
science to develop solutions that solve customers’ most
challenging problems through innovation.
What is your take on technology’s importance, and how
are you leveraging it?
We have a strong foundation on the core fundamentals of
materials science, and we build on them for efficiency
through the application of advanced technologies like
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The human
brain is unmatched in its innovative potential, but even it
can be greatly enhanced by computational capabilities and
predictive analytics. We do our part to apply smart tools
both in R&D as well as in manufacturing, that brings us
close to enabling Industry 4.0 objectives.
What will be the next significant change in the
technological industry, and how are you preparing for
it?
The future is full of challenges, and what excites me is the
science and technology we develop every day to overcome
them. As a global filtration and separation leader, we stay
connected with technological advancements in product
development through research and also from a
manufacturing perspective. This generation is heavily
reliant on connected solutions enabled by aspects like the
Internet of Things (IoT). Ability to predict the performance
of a product before it is fabricated through computational
simulations using predictive analytics becomes very
critical. At Danaher, we pride ourselves in continuous
improvement through upskilling our internal talent and
building a funnel with collaborations in academia and
industry consortia.
What are your goals in the upcoming future?
We are steadfast with our primary focus of enabling our
customers to develop the next generation technologies that
produce advanced electronics, a cleaner environment, safe
transportation, and healthy options for food & beverage. As
a filtration and separation leader, we strive to push the
boundaries of science to develop novel materials that are
optimal for each of the applications where our products are
used. We also assist our customers in predictive analytics
through digital connectivity.
What advice would you like to give the next generation
of aspiring business leaders?
As we say at Danaher, “Innovation defines our future.” One
doesn’t have to be a technologist or an R&D scientist to
innovate. In my experience, the key to success is staying
curious, not hesitating to challenge the status quo, and
having the willingness to learn at any age or stage in your
career. I am passionate about innovation, and that passion
has gotten me to where I am today. The other piece of
advice I’d give is to always stay customer focused.

Technophile CTOs of the Year 2022.pdf

Technophile CTOs of the Year 2022.pdf

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