Insights success the 30 most inspiring women in business 14th nov 2017

The way of business solutions
Iram ShahIram Shah
Women In Business
Evolution of Female
Entrepreneurship
A Transformational Leader with a Purpose
Women In Business
Evolution of Female
Entrepreneurship
Enhancing Education in IoT
Development will reinforce
Employment Opportunities
for Future Generations
Expert’s Insight
NOVEMBER 2017
www.insightssuccess.com
Employment Opportunities
for Future Generations
Expert’s Insight
Iram Shah
Senior Corporate Executive
& Thought Leader

rom real estate to entrepreneurship, one of the constant
Fdiscussions since women have entered the workplace in large
numbers has been how women can achieve a work/life
balance. The concept of work/life balance, predominantly for
females, is a highly divisive and heavily debated topic since tech
giants are encouraging women to add to the number of women who
opt out of the workforce entirely. Probably this is one of the main
reasons why women occupy only 4% of CEO spots at Fortune 500
companies. Although the concept of work/life balance often gets
framed in the context of women who are trying to balance
motherhood and working outside the home, there are much larger
concerns and conversations to be had.
Abraham Maslow’s explains ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ in his 1943
paper, which suggests that people have needs, which had to be met
in order. Food, water, and shelter are the basic psychological needs
that are must for survival. After that, people need to feel safe, and
then to be loved and belong to a group. They then move on to issues
of cognitive needs, self-esteem, and aesthetic needs, and ﬁnally, at
the top of the ‘need’ pyramid; there is self-actualization, or
achieving your full potential as a human being.
Practically thinking, work provides for all the basic needs: money
earned provides food, and shelter, and a regular income means
safety. Work also allows people to belong to a group, and doing well
at work boosts the self-esteem. The lower levels are all largely met
through aspects of working. At the top of the pyramid, however, are
needs which are hard to meet with work alone, and this is where
lifestyle choices, and having time for leisure, become important.
Maslow’s theory partly explains why a work-life balance is a
relatively modern concept, because you truly do need all the basic
needs to be met before you have time or energy, or need, to worry
about aesthetics or self-actualization.
With so many of us torn between juggling heavy workloads,
managing relationships and family responsibilities, and squeezing in
outside interests, it’s no surprise that more than one in four describe
themselves as “super stressed”. And that’s not balanced—or healthy.
It is quite acceptable that we all need a certain amount of stress to
spur us on and help us perform at our best, but the key to managing
stress lies in that one magic word: balance. Not only is achieving a
healthy work/life balance an attainable goal but people and
businesses alike see the rewards.
It surely is possible to achieve a reasonable work-life balance, but
you have to want to do it, by taking control of your life, and making
time for the things that really matter to you.
Editorial
Balancing
Work & Life
Poonam Yadav

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November 2017
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IRAM SHAH:
A Transformational
Leader with a Purpose10
CONTENTS
30
Entrepreneurial Talk
Necessary Entrepreneurship
Ecosystem
60 Evolution of Female
Entrepreneurship
Women in Business

Development will reinforce Employment
Opportunities for Future Generations
Expert’s Insight
50
Vandana Luthra:
Helping People Realize the
Real Beauty within them
Interview Insights
22
Impact of Public Relations
in Today’s World
Tech Talk
70
26An Innovative Entrepreneur
with a Broader Industry Insight
Alicia Asin:
28
32
Mission-Driven Business
Leader and Change Agent
An Accidental Leader
Keeping Her Family’s Legacy Alive
Betsy Bassan:
Caron Ng:

42The Doyenne of
Breaking Insidious Process
Ishita Sen:
46
48
A Philanthropist
Committed to Work & Community
Graceful Resilience
Meets Inventive Entrepreneurship
Julie Bryant:
Ligia Bonetti Du-Breil:
34Pioneering a Change
in Leadership Development
Christina Dahlblom:
38
40
The Dynamic
Duo in Business
Spearheading a
Raw Food Revolution
Erin and Laurie:
Irene Arango:

64A Strong, Ambitious, and
Compassionate Leader
Melissa Koskovich:
66
68
The Authentically Confident Leader
Creating an Appetite for Innovation
An Entrepreneur Who Incepted
An Entrepreneurial Revolution
Sloane Perras:
Victoria Lennox:
54An Authentic and
Courageous Artificer of Business
Marianne Kirkegaard:
56
58
The Confident Entrepreneur
with a Belief in Innovation
A Confident Woman turning Every
Situation into Learning Opportunity
Marina Tognetti:
Marissa Salzone:

he number one thing that successful women business leaders have in common is that they don’t let the
Tpersistent underrepresentation of women in business deter them from taking a place at the table. Today, women
occupy only 4% of CEO spots at Fortune 500 companies, and fewer than one in five corporate board seats, is
held by a woman. The pipeline is improving however—in recent years, the percentage of MBA students who are
female finally broke a third, and 2 schools – Harvard and Wharton are close to achieving gender parity. But we still
have a long way to go.
Women’s entrepreneurship has hit a media tipping point. Women-owned entities in the formal sector represent
approximately 37 percent of enterprises globally — a market worthy of attention by businesses and policy makers
alike.
While aggregated data is often challenging to find, the recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) found 126
million women starting or running businesses, and 98 million operating established (over three and a half years)
businesses. That’s 224 million women impacting the global economy — and this survey counts only 67 of the 188
countries recognized by the World Bank. These entrepreneurs have cross the spectrum of micro to high growth — from
supporting life to creating wealth.
So herein we take an opportunity to feature such prudent and competent leaders in our special issue to admire “The 30
Most Inspiring Women in Business, 2017”. These women have stepped-up to define independent strength,
determination and power in this competitive era.
Over cover story features a Global Senior Corporate Executive and a Thought Leader in the world of business, Iram
Shah. Iram is a woman who stands as an independent example of a quintessential inspiration with the power to create,
nurture and transform.
“Business leaders can play a key role in transforming their companies to have a purpose that goes beyond top and
bottom line,” says Iram.
So, flip through the amazing folios of our special issue and reap the inspiration and insights that lies in between the
expository stories of these inspirational women in business. Do not miss out on some important executive acumen and
in-house articles straight from the desk.
Happy Reading!
Redening Independent Determination,
Strength & Power for Herself
W MEN

Iram Shah
Senior Corporate Executive
& Thought Leader
CoverStory

Iram Shah:A Transforma onal
Leader with a Purpose
Empowered
people are comfortable
with who they are
and they bring the
best in others
‘‘‘‘
W MEN

Evaluating our extensive experiences throughout
life’s journey, we can evidently perceive that
nothing creates happiness in a person more than a
sense of purpose. Yet, for most of us, it is elusive. A sense
of purpose can be comprehended as a meaningful mental
model that provides a reason for being happy and a guiding
set of personal goals and objectives. A sense of purpose
provides clarity of direction, unifying people to operate
beyond their business objectives. A sense of purpose evokes
passion and commitment; it makes sense of the world and
the person’s role within it.
Over the past decade, there’s been an
explosion of interest in purpose-driven
leadership. There are certain common
traits among the most successful
leaders, which include the need for
work ethic, the necessity of
sacrifice, the urge to serve
others, the passion to succeed,
the willingness to adapt to
change, the desire to break the
mold and profound
attentiveness to human
condition. An exemplary
example of such a values-based
authentic leader is Iram Shah, a
Global Senior Corporate
Executive and a Thought Leader
in the world of business. Iram is a
woman who stands as an independent
example of a quintessential inspiration
with the power to create, nurture and
transform.
Iram as a Leader
Iram believes that the most important job of a leader is to
paint a compelling picture of the future. To understand what
makes the company successful today – what motivates the
employees, and how it will grow and evolve in the future –
purpose is important as well. “Purpose is about the
fundamental nature of the mission of the organization. The
more worthwhile is the mission, the higher is the loyalty of
both, the customers and the employees. Good leaders see
the path ahead and frame it explicitly for those whom they
lead. They have clarity of the strategy and the conviction to
stick with it. Finally, they get right teams to implement the
strategy,” asserts Iram.
Iram is a general manager expert in top-line growth,
customer experience, digital and cultural transformation,
and has worked for big companies like Coca Cola, Pepsi,
BP, Zurich Financial and Schneider Electric in five different
countries.
The Challenges and the Comebacks
Throughout her decorated career with big brands and
companies, Iram has won many business and community
awards from one of the 100 most influential business
woman in U.K. to one of the 11 international Women
business leaders in Chicagoland. She has also
encountered a mix bag of some good leaders
and some not so good leaders. Among
them, the ones who were good, opened
doors and mentored her to success.
Iram adds, “I have tried to focus
and learn from them (good
leaders) and have tried to role
model them. I also learned from
poor leadership as to what not
to do..... one thing that is
common in good leaders is that
they themselves are
empowered, they have integrity
and bring the best in others.
They are committed to the
success of their teams and the
company. They have the insight and
courage to take risk and take the
teams and companies to the next level.”
When it comes to women, we have come a long
way, but we’re not there yet. We have made a lot of
progress in having more girls graduating from college than
boys and having more women in junior and middle
management positions but we are still far behind when it
comes to senior executive and board positions in corporate
America. Research has shown again and again that diversity
starting with gender diversity delivers higher business
results. The CEOs and board members talk loudly about
gender equality but few walk the talk. Their senior teams
still look like the teams from 1970s. Some women
executives have started to help other women and we have
role models like Cheryl Sandburg, who doesn’t shy away
from tackling sensitive subjects such as this. However, we
still have senior women who tend to pull the ladder as they
go up. It is again from the fear of losing the only seat
available at the table.
“Good leaders see the
path ahead and are
able to frame it
explicitly for those
whom they lead”

I cannot say
we conquered
terrorism,
but I feel that
we’ve made a lot
of progress.
We had to
stand-up,
call it, and
condemn it
“
“

‘Our work should equip the next
generation of women to outdo us in
every field. That’s the legacy we’ll
leave behind.’ Iram is the righteous
example of such a persona, who
believes that diversity in general, and
gender diversity in specific becomes
part of the DNA of the business,
because it makes economic, social and
logical sense.
The Incident that let to
Philanthropic Transformation
In addition to her corporate efforts,
Iram also contributes to philanthropic
causes and has served on several non-
profit boards, including Habitat For
Humanity, Central Asia Institute, Seeds
of a Peace, Schneider Electric
Foundation NA and now chairs Sonia
Shah Organization, which was started
by her late daughter Sonia. The
unfortunate loss of her beloved
daughter was a tragedy that shook her
to the core, but at the same time it
metamorphosed her into a person with
deep insight, confidence and freedom
that Iram had never experienced
before. She recalls, “It was a life
changing event for me but after I
picked up the pieces, I realized my life
puzzle looked a lot more meaningful.
My view on life, religion, culture and
business evolved and I felt that I had
gone up the ladder of transformation
from day to day short term crisis
management to long term sustainable
transformation and growth, both in
private and business life.”
Iram found the courage to practice
more openly what she had learnt from
her experiences and make a difference
in people’s lives and in companies that
she was associated with. The tragedy
empowered her to be part of a higher
purpose, believing that every
individual can help to change the world
for the better with their actions and
values, one day at a time. Purpose is
more motivating to employees than
profit, and when employees are
motivated, profit naturally comes in.
Changing the World: ‘One Girl at a
Time’
There is a strong link between
educating women and girls and the
positive outcomes of maternal health,
economic empowerment and social
mobility. Education gives a voice to
girls and women in their communities.
Empowering women through
education is also an important factor in
promoting peace and economic well-
being.
With a similar noble intent, Sonia Shah
Organization was started by Iram’s
daughter, Sonia Shah, when she was
only 17. Envisaging from her
grandma’s stories of their ancestral
village in the Northwest of Pakistan,
Sonia thought of it as some third world
sketch until she took a year gap and
decided to visit the village to
understand the need for school for
girls. She lived in the village with very
poor conditions, interrupted electricity
and water supply during the summer
months with over 90 degree F. Sonia
conceptualized her vision into reality,
established the school’s foundation and
raised funds; but, unfortunately died a
year later in a car accident.
Iram and her friends took the mission
forward, and today, Sonia Shah School
in Pakistan has over 130 poor children
enrolled for a better life, most of them
being girls. Sonia Shah Organization
provides free education, uniforms and
vocational training to older girls and
women so that they can become
economically independent. They now
have uninterrupted electricity 24/7 with
solar panels, whereas the rest of the‘‘
Business leaders
can play a key role
in transforming
their companies
to have a purpose that
goes beyond
top and bo om line.
Sonia Shah School - PakistanSonia Shah School - Pakistan

village gets electricity for only 4 to 6 hours a day. They’ve
also installed a water filtration plant that provides clean
drinking water to the entire village. Girls’ education goes
beyond getting girls into school. It is also about ensuring
that girls learn and feel safe while in school, learn the life
skills necessary to navigate and adapt to the changing
world; make decisions about their own lives; and contribute
to their communities and the world.
“Great spirits have always encountered violent
opposition from mediocre minds.”
The biggest issue Iram faced, in the remote and non-
liberated areas of the world, is the rise of extremism and
terrorism, along with poverty and ignorance that most of the
times translates into marginalizing of girls and women. It is
a strong culture with strong values and beliefs, which again
is very suppressive towards women in general and rather
more targeted to younger girls. However, the hunger for
learning and education among the girls has always been
amazing and motivating to Iram.
In the U.S, the challenge is the high cost of college
including the cost of books that is rising and making it
difficult for students to graduate from college. Once the
global leader in producing a talent pool of college
graduates, the U.S. is now losing ground and lagging
behind many nations. In 1990, the U.S. ranked first in the
world in four-year degrees among 25-34 year-olds; today,
the U.S. ranks 12th. The cost of higher education has
increased more than 500%. Sonia Shah Scholarship
program provides college scholarships to deserving girls in
U.S. Sonia Shah Organization is driving diversity and
equality at a basic level of education and empowerment of
girls in Pakistan and U.S., especially for those girls in
Pakistan who would never have the chance to go to school,
or for those girls in U.S. who would not have a chance to go
to college. Iram proudly mentions that their first sponsored
recipient in Chicago will be graduating with an associate
degree next year. “I don’t have any full time paid
employees, it is friends and volunteers who give their time,
talent and treasure and we all have a lot of fun.... changing
the world one girl at a time!” she adds.
How Important and Effective are Social Efforts!
“The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change
the world are the ones, who do”. Iram advises young
Iram Shah with former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter working
on building a house for
‘Habitat for Humanity’ supported by
Schneider Electric.
“It’s not enough to have the clarity of vision,
mission and values; you’ve to be courageous to speak
about it and to do something about it.”
Sonia ShahSonia Shah
Village Kangra - Pakistan

enthusiasts to first have the conviction that each one of us can make a difference, no matter how minuscule. The road to
changing the world starts with the first step and it is not restricted to only charitable organizations. Business leaders can play
a key role in transforming their companies to have a purpose that goes beyond top and bottom line. In the face of socially
conscious customers and rising consumer activism, markets will be won by those who become purpose-driven social brands.
To do so, the CEO, CMO, CCO and other business leaders must align to bring a cohesive brand story to life that clearly
defines the company’s “social license to operate".
In the future, companies who will integrate higher level purpose and mission in their daily operations will have a competitive
advantage and thrive. “Do good” go hand in hand with “do well.” Millennials and generation Z are the future customers who
are attuned to a company’s social consciousness and one of their criteria for allocating their purchasing power is putting
dollars behind a company that is truly purpose driven.
Several companies in different industries have made inroads on this topic from Salesforce, Accenture, IBM to Marriott and
Unilever. Purpose is built upon trust. Unlike reputation, which is based on an aggregate of past experiences with a company
or brand. Trust is the forward facing metric of stakeholder expectation. It needs to be managed like any other asset and be
seen as a building block of a long term relationship. The employees of companies with a clear purpose feel that they are
making a difference that is bigger than they could have done themselves. The higher purpose motivates all stakeholders
including institutional investors who are getting the message as well!
www.soniashahorganization.com

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CSM Bakery Solutions
csmbakerysolutions.com
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President & CEO
CSM Bakery Solutions is an international leader in the baking
industry, producing one of the industry’s broadest ranges of
products for customers in more than 100 countries.
Exusia
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Senior Director
Exusia provides consulting and software as a service (SaaS)
solutions to leading financial, government, healthcare,
telecommunications and high technology organizations facing
the largest data volumes and the most complex information
management requirements.
Federal Staffing Resources
fsrpeople.com
Tracy Balazs
President & CEO
GE Ventures
geventures.com
GE Ventures combines capital, technical and commercial
expertise, infrastructure, and access to GE’s global network of
business units, partners and customers, world-class training, and
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GreyCastle Security
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GreyCastle Security is the industry’s leading provider of
cybersecurity risk assessment, advisory and mitigation services.
HRBoost
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Nicole Martin
CEO & Founder
HRBoost offers a full range of human resources services on
both a consulting and outsourced basis.
K. Parks Consulting, Inc.
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Dominguez
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people and create inclusive cultures that transform lives.
Leidos
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Melissa Koskovich
Senior Vice President
Libelium Comunicaciones
Distribuidas
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FSR is an award winning human resources and workforce
solutions company that serves clients in both the public and
private sector nationwide.
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safer and more efficient.
Global Diversity Practice
globaldiversitypractice.co.uk
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multi-disciplinary consultancy and learning solutions.
Brief
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(Oluwadara)
Chief Marketing Officer
Farrah Qureshi
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Libelium is a tech company developing projects to monitor and
improve efficiency in agricultural crops, with environmental
control systems to prevent climate change, or even through
e-health control equipment to universalize access to health
services in developing countries.

Lyft
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Senior Director,
Business Initiatives
Based in San Francisco, California, Lyft is a transportation
network company that develops, markets and operates the Lyft
car transportation mobile app.
Mercury Freight (Pty) Ltd
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African logistics service provider with global reach, cost-
efficient, door-to-door air and surface freight options and a
comprehensive range of added-value ancillary services.
Miltton Sparks
miltton.fi
Christina Dahlblom
Founder &
Managing Director
Mindmill Networks
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Mindmill Networks comprises of an international network of
experts helping companies and organizations find their way in
the digital transformation.
mYngle
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Marina Tognetti
Founder & CEO
mYngle offers customized language training programs for
business professionals through video conferencing in 45
different languages anytime, anywhere.
NAMA Foods
namafoods.com
Irene Arango
Co-founder & Director
NAMA is a raw vegan restaurant in London that offers courses,
raw vegan catering, cleanses, raw vegan cakes and all manner of
information on the raw vegan lifestyle.
Natalie’s Orchid
Island Juice Company
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Marygrace Sexton
CEO
Natalie’s Orchid Island is an American fruit juice brand and the
chief marque of the Orchid Island Juice Company.
Nijhawan Group
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Lalita Nijhawan
Director
Nu-Set Lock
nuset.com
Caron Ng
CEO & Founder
Nu-Set Lock is a trusted global lock manufacturing division
formed to develop pioneering safety products.
Miltton Sparks focuses on leadership development, with the aim
of helping organizations create sustainable high-performing
cultures, where both human beings and business can thrive.
Nijhawan Group is one of the leading travel conglomerates and
has vastly diversified entities within the Travel Industry.
Montage Legal Group
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Montage Legal Group give law firms access to an exclusive
network of freelance attorneys who handle temporary or
contract legal work remotely on project basis.
Brief
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Panagora Group is a woman-owned social enterprise providing
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Partner Success
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organizations to see cyber threats clearly and quickly and stop
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ServicePower
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SVP Global Marketing
ServicePower is revolutionizing field service, and specifically
mobile workforce management, by enabling hybrid workforces
and best in breed capabilities available as modules within a
common platform.
SID Group
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Ligia Bonetti
Executive President
& CEO
SID Group is a conglomerate of Dominican companies engaged
in the manufacture, storage, transport and distribution of mass
consumption products.
Startup Canada
startupcan.ca
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Founder & CEO
The Krystal Company
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Vice President Risk,
Chief Legal Officer
& Corporate Secretary
Krystal is an American fast food restaurant chain known for its
small, square hamburger sliders with steamed-in onions.
Rancho BioSciences is a Data Curation Company that cleans,
organizes and harmonizes all kinds of life science data
leveraging vocabularies and ontologies.
Startup Canada is Canada’s rallying entrepreneurship
organization, supporting and giving a voice to every
entrepreneur.
Schneider Electric
schneider-electric.co.in
Schneider Electric develops connected technologies and
solutions to manage energy and process in ways that are safe,
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Bianca Jackson
Chief Operations
Officer
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Senior Corporate
Executive
W MEN

Ms. Vandana Luthra
VLCC Health Care
22 | November 2017 |

Anarrow focus is credited with
many a success, but there’s a
broader vision behind it that
gives our focus the right direction.”
A vast majority of us take life as it
comes. We’re so focused on
approaching events and current
situations that we often don’t think in
the long term. And that’s logical,
because the present changes will be
affecting us now. But broadening our
vision leads to totality of being.
One such leader who’s creating a
broader vision to manifest her goals at
every step is Alicia Asin, CEO and
Co-founder of a Spanish technology
company, Libelium. Alicia holds the
ability to look at the company from the
top and see the whole thing working
together. She perceives how different
initiatives are moving towards the
common strategy. Her esteemed focus
has been the key behind Libelium’s
success.
Technology that leaves a Mark on
the World
Libelium’s technology is present in
more than 120 countries worldwide,
developing projects to monitor and
improving efﬁciency in agricultural
crops, with environmental control
systems to prevent climate change, or
through e-health control equipment to
universalize access to health services
“
ALICIA
ASIN:An Innovative Entrepreneur
with a Broader Industry Insight

in developing countries. Libelium’s
wireless sensor platform has been
deployed in projects of great economic
and social impact to face the great
challenges humanity faces in this
century. In fact, Libelium sensors are
helping prevent pests and improving
productivity in agricultural crops, and
also reducing pollution and traffic in
several smart cities. Alicia, along with
her tech team, has also helped
universalize access to a health system
to populations far from hospitals, and
they have deployed sensors in space on
board a satellite to study solar storms
in collaboration with the NASA. The
company has been involved in projects
to predict volcanic activity as well.
In near future, the Internet of Things
(IoT) will be able to incorporate
transparently and seamlessly a large
number of different and heterogeneous
end systems, while providing open
access to selected subsets of data for
the development of a plethora of digital
services. Libelium designs and
manufactures hardware to deploy
wireless sensor networks to create fast
and reliable solutions for Smart Cities
and Internet of Things market.
Alicia’s Vision for a Connected
World
Alicia perceived the infinite market
potential of IoT and was convinced
that the development will be
exponential. The Internet of things will
affect all markets: cities, logistics,
security, agriculture, health, home
automation, energy –– these processes
can be optimized, if its variables can be
measured, analyzed and used in
decision-making processes. The
opportunities are endless, it takes a
whole legion of companies and
entrepreneurs that are dedicated to
create sensors, install them, and create
applications for a smarter world.
With this sense, Alicia developed a
strategic plan for Libelium’s growth
based on the construction of a solid IoT
ecosystem for mutual collaboration,
especially with start-ups and big
system integrators to develop new
smart solutions. She wishes to continue
betting on generating an ecosystem of
innovative and technological
companies around Libelium. To
support this ambition, her organization
has an international network of more
than 100 companies.
An Intuitive Leader & a Meticulous
Mom
Alicia is a computer engineer,
diligently focused on how IoT can
change our world, starting with Smart
Cities and Precision Agriculture,
among other applications. She co-
founded Libelium at the age of 24, and
owing to her youthful appearance; her
efforts were disdained by fellow
executives. She describes an event at
the bank as, “I remember the guys at
the bank totally ignoring me when I
was with David, my co-founder, even
when he kept telling them I was the
CEO. I also remember that at the very
first trade shows we attended some
guys thought I was the stewardess of
the booth and did not want to talk to
me.” And their smiles at the beginning
of meetings, “oh, is that you the
CEO?”
Alicia has no regrets on those
mentions; instead, she uses them to
emerge courageous with a thicker skin.
She says, “You cannot get distracted
with details when you have higher
goals, just focus on what you want to
get from people you are talking to.”
Alicia hopes that the world sees more
women at executive positions in a
natural way; not because they are
applying for any quota, but because
men and women can compete in equal
conditions. Above all, Alicia envisions
an empowered woman as someone
without guilt for her success.
Considering a broader prospect of life,
pressure on women is higher than men.
Alicia mentions, “I really miss my two
daughters when I am traveling abroad,
but I also think I am showing them the
way. We need to empower our kids
since they are born. I once received a
fun note from the kindergarten-teacher
of my elder daughter ’your girl is so
bossy, she organizes the full
classroom!’ I sent her a note back
’Thanks, I see my efforts to make her a
leader work’.”
Alicia is a frequent speaker at
international conferences on issues
related to Smart Cities, the Democracy
of the IoT based on big data and the
importance of security and privacy in
the new IoT era. She has also been
awarded with various accolades for her
entrepreneurial merits and
technological innovation.
Envisioning Evolution with a More
Focused Strategy
Alicia’s business vision is based on
two keys: horizontal approach and
interoperability. Libelium’s sensor
platform is open source, horizontal and
scalable, allowing other products to be
developed based on their platform
without having to pay for patents or
trademarks.
Under Alicia’s able guidance, Libelium
has begun a transformation, expanding
from their impressive range of sensing
hardware and trying to shift the focus
onto their own IoT gateways,
Meshlium gateways, and supporting
software services. It is a revolutionary
transition. Alicia is focused on
providing the gateway services using
Meshlium hubs, and expanding
Libelium’s software services as well –
all the while fostering a cloud partner
ecosystem that can support the third-
party sensing hardware. It’s a
significant evolution in the expansion
strategy.
Ambition and self-
condence are
needed: you have
to dream big
and picture
yourself achieving
your goals.
— Alicia Asin
CEO and Co-founder
Libelium
27| November 2017 |

Betsy Bassan is the President,
CEO, and Founder of
Panagora Group, a woman-
owned social enterprise providing
innovative solutions in global health
and development. With more than 30
years of experience, Betsy is an
industry leader who has developed
novel approaches to major global
health problems while also advocating
for small businesses.
Driven to make a difference on a
global scale, Betsy discovered early in
her career that she had a mind for
business and innovative problem
solving. “When I discovered the field
of international development, which
includes a wide array of professionals
working to eradicate poverty, improve
rule of law, increase access to health
care – and much more – in developing
countries around the world, I was
hooked,” she says. Betsy went on to
live in Africa for 7 years, where she
was part of multiple projects in the
international development field and
honed her passion for sustainable
change.
“I learned to puzzle out sector
dilemmas, work toward innovative and
complex solutions, develop
comprehensive programs grounded in
field realities that, if implemented,
could really make a difference in
whatever problem I was trying to
address within international
development,” Betsy adds.
Opening Markets, Building
Sustainable Solutions
Ever curious and optimistic, Betsy
gravitated to business possibilities and
opportunities. At Chemonics
International, a long-time leader in the
international development consulting
space, she opened new markets in
countries like Morocco and South
Africa, where she and her team
supported local entrepreneurs and
businesses. She developed programs in
new regions like Europe & Eurasia,
which, after the wall fell, focused on
building market democracies.
She also grew entirely new business
sectors like global health which was
very challenging to penetrate but
where international development
companies could greatly contribute to
saving lives. She developed many
innovative solutions to global health
problems, often via public-private
partnerships which harness community,
business, and government energy in
tackling key health objectives like
improved mother and child health, or
effective treatment of diseases such as
tuberculosis, malaria, and
HIV/AIDS—all of which can take a
huge toll on societal well-being and
productivity.
A leader in her field, Betsy also fanned
out into a host of industry leadership
positions and found her voice in wider
trade and professional associations.
Through the U.S. Global Leadership
Coalition, a membership-based foreign
aid advocacy group, Betsy helped build
support for critical foreign aid
programs. As Program Vice President
and then Chair of the Society for
International Development-Washington
D.C., a leading professional
association, she greatly enhanced its
profile as the “the public square of
development” through cutting-edge
knowledge exchange.
It’s Personal: Self-Advocacy and
Science Saves Lives
At the peak of Betsy’s career, she was
diagnosed with breast cancer and
found herself in a life-and-death battle,
one that her own mother lost. Betsy
fought hard to balance a demanding
job, chair a major professional
association, and care for her family,
alongside punishing cancer treatments
and surgery.
That experience solidified what she
already knew: self-advocacy,
preventative care, and innovation in
science can save lives. “As I look back
at what I’ve accomplished and look
ahead at what is to come, I’m grateful
for the self-advocacy and health care
that ultimately saved my life. This is
what fuels me to work hard to provide
innovative and empowering solutions
to complicated health and poverty
issues that affect women and families
all over the world,” Betsy says.
Launching a Successful Social
Enterprise
In 2011 Betsy started Panagora Group,
Betsy Bassan:
Mission-Driven Business Leader
and Change Agent

a social enterprise dedicated to novel and high-impact
international development consulting with a special focus
on global health. Panagora works to build national capacity
and promote sustainability, utilizing integrated, private
sector solutions. Through the Panagora platform, Betsy has
also amplified the voice of international development
companies working in this space. She led the founding of
the Council for International Development Companies
(CIDC) and, as chair, transformed the Small Business
Association for International Companies (SBAIC).
Today, Panagora Group offers a range of health and
development services and experts, across family planning
and reproductive health, maternal and child health, neonatal
health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria. Panagora
uses private sector solutions to solve complex problems in
cross-cutting areas such as health systems strengthening,
knowledge management and communications,
performance monitoring and evaluation, and capacity-
building. For example, Panagora helped design and build
the capacity of a locally-owned health franchise in
Bangladesh.
Sharing Innovations within Industry
At Panagora, Betsy encourages creative thinking and
innovation proactively in everything the company does.
“We pride ourselves on being a social enterprise where
our key offering is making the world a better place
through more innovative and cost-effective, out-of-the-
box solutions.” Whether in strategic planning, proposal
efforts, ongoing projects, or after-action reviews, Betsy
challenges the team to come up with the most thoughtful,
creative, and high-impact solutions.
Similarly, everyone at Panagora engages in sharing and
promoting their innovations within the industry and
learning from others. For example, two years in a row,
Panagora has been featured in USAID’s Moving the
Needle conference, which highlights and shares key
innovations that increase impact in international
development. In 2016, Panagora was one of five global
awardees at this conference for its work in Uganda on
innovations in evaluation and performance improvement.
Passion and Perseverance
When asked what she attributes her success to, Betsy
answers, “Vision, strong work ethic, leadership, the
ability to motivate others, and effective management. But
most important is perseverance.” She urges women in
business to believe in themselves and not be defined by
others.
Moving Forward
Panagora Group continues to find innovative ways to
share what works in eradicating poverty in developing
countries so that development dollars achieve maximum
results. It also perseveres in advancing novel and
sustainable ways to further international development, in
particular by using evidence-based approaches, building
capacity among developing country
institutions to take over and lead the work, and harnessing
private-sector solutions that don’t depend on government
financing.
As an industry leader, Betsy continues to promote the role
of small businesses in solving global poverty while
serving as an engine of the U.S. economy. At Panagora,
she is always on the lookout for ways to make the
company a great place to work, where people are
challenged and rewarded while achieving Panagora’s
mission of making the world a better place for good.
“Be persistent: find your passion and
follow it. Work in participatory ways
that build ownership for others to
sustain the change”
Betsy Bassan
President, CEO & Founder
Panagora Group
29| November 2017 |

ecessary
Entrepreneurship
cosystem
he craft of entrepreneurship is observing creative avenues for success. People
Tare finding their path towards entrepreneurship in new ways. Entrepreneurs
put their “art” into the startup. There is no right way formulated to succeed as
a startup, and that is why the people who start startups are characterized by flexibility,
adaptability, and the ingenuity to do business out of an idea. Entrepreneurship does
not occur in isolation or silos, but by collaboration and community and may require
more than that.
Entrepreneurs throughout the world seek supportive environments that through
contiguity provide collaboration, culture, and resources that encourage entrepreneurial
pursuit and reward innovative mindsets. The administration of new ventures gets
strongly influenced by something much higher than the business itself: the
surrounding ecosystem. Essential constituents which are fundamental for a startup
success encompass appropriate talent, solid marketing strategy, funding of startup and
the most important is the supportive government ecosystem with better policies, laws,
and regulations. Without them, it's uncannily difficult to start a business. To thrive,
entrepreneurship needs a supportive ecosystem of compromising factors ranging from
infrastructure to financial access to supportive government policies. A government is
the single biggest enabler for the entrepreneurial ecosystem, play a vital role in ease of
doing business and supporting companies to start and expand.

The big question is, what exactly is an
entrepreneurship ‘ecosystem’, a perfect
blend of attitude, resources, and
infrastructure? An article published in
2010 by Professor Daniel Isenberg
from Babson College helped to boost
the awareness of the concept. Isenberg
outlined various constituents for the
totality of an entrepreneurial
ecosystem. According to Professor
Daniel, ecosystem should be built on
regional conditions. Expand existing
industries and build on their
foundations, capabilities, and skills
instead of trying to launch high-tech
industries from scratch.
Beginning a new company is the easy
part, and successfully expanding it is
the challenge. The primary focus
should be on encouraging sustainable,
growth-oriented and innovative firms
not just cultivating more start-ups.
At the center of an entrepreneurial
ecosystem typically there is at least
one, and usually many,’large
established businesses,’ with important
management functions as well as
undertaking R&D and production
activities. These firms will also be rich
in technology. They play important
roles in strengthening the ecosystem.
They are ‘talent magnets,’ hiring large
numbers of skilled employees, and
many of them are recent graduates,
irrespective of their field. They provide
necessary training to their workers and
allow them to advance up the corporate
hierarchy. It is through this procedure
that staffs who were initially hired for
their technological know-how acquire
management skills to become
technology managers. This exemplifies
a propitious resource for small firms.
They are also a source of new
businesses as few of their staff will
leave to start their own company.
Government plays a decisive role in
cultivating enterprise and innovation.
Their role is to direct the public
departments and agencies to focus on
the problem and develop effective
policies. It makes a good economic
reason for governments to implement
policies that encourage business
growth since most of the business
being conducted by new entrepreneurs.
The major five ways in which
government can have the highest
positive effect are by making capital
more accessible, promoting
entrepreneurship, facilitating business
education, protecting intellectual
property, and reducing regulatory
burdens.
Banks never directly engage or interact
with entrepreneurs, and they help
financial markets mature and indirectly
impact the entire value chain of
investing which makes them relevant
for the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Bankers make a lot of money investing
in somewhat later stage technology
companies, which in turn increases the
confidence of early stage investors that
if their investments grow, they would
obtain the capital to fuel their
expansion.
Most of the leaders are unsure about
exactly how to start creating the
programs, policies, and culture to draw
out the entrepreneurial spirit that
almost always is lurking beneath the
surface. Leadership programs like
BEEP are must in every region. The
Babson Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
Project is directed by Professor of
Entrepreneurship Practice Daniel
Isenberg, a renowned authority on
entrepreneurship around the globe, and
a former Harvard and Columbia
Business School professor,
entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. It
stimulates and supports
entrepreneurship, fostering an
entrepreneurship ecosystem in which
development oriented entrepreneurial
businesses can thrive.
Today, it's crucial to understand the
best practices in fostering
entrepreneurial ecosystems, which
helps inform the participatory and
democratizing potential of technology.
In turn, that can lead to widespread
adoption of digital technologies and
services accompanied by a global surge
in economic development.
31
Entrepreneurial Talk
| November 2017 |

Caron Ng
CEO and Founder
Nuset, Inc.®

Acolossal number of business
officials and pioneers work in
the corporate world today, yet
few of those will be remembered after
their last day at work. In reality,
numerous successful individuals finish
their careers and vanish without a trace
being left at their organization. “Begin
with the end in mind” the idiom
perfectly sums it up. That is decisively
what inheritance leadership is about.
An enduring effect can’t be
accomplished at the tail end of a
person’s tenancy at an organization or
the very year a pioneer begins wanting
to retire. A legacy is made throughout
that person’s corporate career.
However, keeping that legacy alive is
as important as leaving a great legacy.
When you talk about keeping one’s
inheritance alive, one must talk about
Caron Ng, CEO of Nuset, Inc.®
—who gave up her dream career
because of family obligations.
Shebelieves an empowered woman is
an amalgamation of someone who has
failed and who is not afraid to fail; she
has always learned from her mistakes
and has tried to learn from it. Caron
thinks that at the end of the day, she is
willing to share her past struggles with
anyone who crosses her
path.According to Caron, her success
is based upon three elements: she
surrounds herself with great people,
her insatiable curiosity, and her
unapologetic hunger for learning more.
Abandoned Dream Career for
Family
Nuset, Inc.® is a 3rd generation
family-owned business and a trusted
global lock manufacturing division
formed to develop pioneering safety
products, established 45+ years ago.
But, Caron was not groomed to lead
this division of her family business.
She recalls it all happened by accident,
or one may say by fate. Caron
abandoned her dream career after
college in order to fulfill her family
obligation and serve in the family
business. It took her ten years to
recognize her position and her value to
the community.
Today, Caron leads the company from
the front as the CEO of Nuset, Inc.®
changing the narrative of lock
solutions. She has—since diving into
this business—led Nuset, Inc.® from a
small manufacturing business to a
company with a global
perspective.Presently, at the brink of
transforming the narrative of lock
solutions, Nuset, Inc.® is adapting
legacy systems of the lock hardware to
be the forefront of the IoT solution.
A Trusted Global Lock
Manufacturing Division
Originally, Nuset, Inc.®; was founded
on building customized locks for
various other companies, but about 25+
years ago it developed the Nuset, Inc.®
brand in order to represent their own
product to the end user market. Today,
Nuset, Inc.® specializes in custom-
made security hardware. Its products
used to be considered traditional
hardware, but the company has newly
introduced a new line of security
products that give customers the
quality that they trust along with the
convenience of today’s technologies.
Building long lasting relationships with
clients who appreciate Nuset, Inc.®’s
attention to detail fused with its vast
knowledge of manufacturing and
product design is what it strives for.
The point of difference in the Nuset,
Inc.® product is customization and
product innovation. Nuset, Inc.® also
manufactures custom products for
other industries, including
construction, medical, real estate,
fitness, and property management to
name a few. Product distributors are
located throughout the US and
overseas and are now found in well-
known retail markets such as: The
Home Depot, Grainger Inc., and
Amazon
Serving the Community
Caron's day starts at 4: 30 am for
exercising and for personal devotion
time. In the evening, she is usually
home between 7-9 pm, when she
devotes her time solely on her two
young children. She serves in many
ways to the community. She is the
Senior Vice-Chair for the Los Angeles
Women Business Enterprises Forum
(WBEC-West), the Advisory Board for
the Enterprising Women Magazine, and
Steering Committee for the Women
President Organization (WPO). On a
personal capacity, she is a leader for
the International Bible Study
Fellowship. She also volunteers her
time to mentor business entrepreneurs
and students on a monthly basis.
Diversity is the Key!
Caron believes there are a lot of start-
ups in the marketplace and a surge to
merge lock hardware with electronic
technology. Caron values diversity in
her team. She usually sits in and listens
attentively at different brain storming
sessions, where everyone (quite
literality) has chance(s) to go crazy on
the white board or post-its. She likes to
listen to her team’s new research, wild
ideas, and customers' feedback. A new
idea carries a revolutionary impact on
the way how they use security; it
usually has her undivided attention and
ultimately unyielding support.
Caron advises the people who bring
social change, “Listen, everyone has a
story. A very simple act of attentive
listening can bring a lot of changes.
Each one of us has the power to
change for a better society; it all
begins by listening and helping to
those who are closest to us.”
Moving Forward
Nuset, Inc.®; is leading the way in
advancing lock hardware to the
forefront of the IoT era. The new series
of security product is called Eyecon™.
“It is always exciting to see new
products impacting our way of life.
Nothing is more encouraging to see we
are contributing to the big picture. My
concern is how we as a society
adapting to the IoT generation,” she
concludes.
33| November 2017 |

For every company striving
ahead to attain success, the role
of a leader is of utmost
importance. Leadership is the
cornerstone for strong management;
guiding employees to maximize
efﬁciency and effectiveness, as well as
enhancing the overall productivity of
the ﬁrm by meeting and exceeding
organizational goals. The popular
saying, or rather belief, that the traits
of a sound leader are inherent within
an individual is a mythical concept as
leaders can also be developed.
Christina Dahlblom, a passionate
entrepreneur and founder of Miltton
Sparks is determined to change
organizations by focusing on
leadership development and providing
leaders tools for effective leadership.
Bringing-Forward a Positive Change
Christina’s company Miltton Sparks
focuses on leadership development,
with an objective of helping
organizations create sustainable, sound
climates and cultures, where
employees can thrive and perform. Add
to that, the company is equally
Christina
Dahlblom:
Pioneering a
Change in Leadership
Development
Christina Dahlblom
Founder & Managing Director, Ph.D.
Miltton Sparks

passionate about enhanced business
performance and work-life well-being.
With its research-based approach,
Miltton Sparks helps its customers
create a positive change, be it in an
organizational or individual level, by
focusing on actual behaviors,
practicing new behaviors, getting
feedback on them and identifying
every minimal step of improvement.
To achieve this, Christina sees the
recruitment process as a key to success
and growth. Her business is all about
having the right people, doing the right
kind of work. Christina’s team of
coaches comes from varying
background expertise, with a parallel
understanding in neuroscience,
coaching and positive psychology.
Pushing the Boundaries of
Leadership Development
When asked about the present industry
scenario, Christina feels that the
leadership development industry has
not renewed itself quite as fast as it
could have. “There are still too many
courses out there that do not actually
take advantage of what we know about
human learning, brain functioning or
how to reach high performance.”
Christina’s calling is to inspire
organizations and leaders to push the
boundaries of their leadership. Miltton
Sparks strives to turn fresh research
findings into actionable learning,
which can be practised with customers
in a manner that evokes positive
emotions and energy, and leads to
actual changes in behavior.
Making Yourself a Priority
She reminds her clients that to be a
great leader, you need to put yourself
high on the priority list. “It’s hard to
energize others if you are not energetic
yourself. Emotions and energy are
extremely contagious,” she continues.
She points out that even 15 minutes of
daily self-care is much more than zero.
Christina aslo tries to set the bar high
with her own example. Aside from
prioritising sound sleep, eating healthy,
and trying to find time for small but
daily sessions of yoga, she spends as
much time as possible with her family.
A Future Filled with Continual
Growth
Christina is confident that the
leadership development market
continues to grow. She envisions a
future with a strong demand for
supporting organizations create
stronger, sustainable and people-
oriented leaders. Many leaders have
never gotten to learn much of human to
human skills at school or university,
and are hungry to learn when they face
the challenges of leading people and
change.
In the coming years, Miltton Sparks
will continue to grow and recruit new
talents especially from the Nordic and
Baltic countries. Miltton Sparks has
already gained important references
from large international projects and is
now well-positioned to surge ahead to
help more organizations in their
leadership development.
Following your passion and getting
support
Christina has pioneered a demanding
career with several board positions,
while having a family with three kids
at home. Never to undermine the
contributions of others in her path
towards success, Christina is thankful
of all the people who have supported
and trusted her during her
entrepreneurial journey.
“We should teach kids habits of a
healthy, happy life. Make sure
everyone understands the value of
taking good care of themselves. We
should also be better at taking care of
each other. Offering a hand when
needed, creating a culture where
people aren’t left alone as much as
today,” she concludes.
According to her, the secret to is to
follow your passion “The more time
we’ll spend doing things we feel
passionate about –the more we go out
and pursue our dreams, without caring
so much about what other people think
we should d, the better we will do.”
She has the same amount of respect for
those who choose to stay at home with
their children, as for those who choose
to pursue demanding careers. She adds
“I hope in the near future, gender will
not be such a relevant topic, because
we will all be considered based on
competence and qualities, not
gender.”
“An empowered woman is someone who is pursuing something she is
passionate about, doing it well, and having enough freedom but also
enough support – enjoying life”
35| November 2017 |

&Erin
Laurie:
The Dynamic Duo
in Business
There is nothing new in saying that working
parents have it tough. Juggling their
personal and professional life is a never-
ending balancing act, and sometimes, sacrifices
must be made in an effort to be it all and to do it all.
Similar is the story of Erin Giglia and Laurie
Rowen, founders of Montage Legal Group. Their
goal was to manage life in a way to stay at home
with their children, and at the same time remain in
the legal profession. This led them in quitting their
jobs and starting a new business model that not
everyone fully understood back in 2009.
The Terrific Twosome
Erin and Laurie met while working at the same law
firm and grew close through their daughters. Life in
a leading law firm is a well-known grind.
Expectations of long hours, travels, and
unpredictable demands are a part of the culture.
Both Erin and Laurie loved their work but realized
that sleeping for only a few hours a night was not a
long-term recommendation for health and
happiness, and thus decided to leave the firm.
Initially, Erin was terrified to quit the firm and to
undertake a notion that was somewhat new in the
legal industry. Laurie was the one who came up
with the idea to create a network built around other
people in their position and with the same level of
legal skill and expertise. Both Erin and Laurie
invested $2,000 each to get the company off the
ground and in 2009, Montage Legal Group was
formed.
Laurie Rowen
Founder
Montage Legal Group
Erin Giglia
Founder
Montage Legal Group
We believe philanthropy is
an essential part of business

resumes monthly, it accepts only a very small percentage of
the best freelancers, keeping the network at around 200
freelancers from the best law schools and most prestigious
law firms in the nation.
The Secret to their Success
Attributing their success to hard work, meticulous (yet
flexible) procedures, and also to luck, Erin adds, “Timing
has been on our side. First, we were lucky that we were
both pregnant with our daughters at the exact same time,
which sparked the idea to leave traditional law firm
practice to carve our own path. We are also lucky to have
stared our business during the 2009 Recession, when law
firm layoffs were peaking.” Big firm layoffs resulted in the
emergence of thousands of small firms, but these Big Law
firms still needed high-level help periodically. At the same
time, many women lawyers who were previously elected to
stay home with children needed extra income and wished to
re-enter the workforce. Erin and Laurie consider themselves
lucky to start their business when technology was
advancing rapidly, making remote working possible and
common. Finally, they were lucky to have started the
business at a time when large law firms were putting
pressure on lawyers to work grueling hours, and women
lawyers – especially mothers – were increasingly leaving
these firms in search of a way to practice law at a different
pace. Montage filled all of these needs, at the right time.
Revolutionary Results
Erin and Laurie’s leap of faith has resulted in making
Montage a top brand that has been recently named as
“Association of Fundraising Professional’s National
Philanthropy Day Outstanding Small Business”. Today,
Montage handles administrative and billing tasks, allowing
its law firm clients and freelance lawyers to focus on legal
projects.
Future Expectation
Erin and Laurie aim to focus on keeping Montage as the
nation strongest freelance attorney network and are
encouraged by the amount of interest from both applicants
seeking to join Montage and law firms seeking help on legal
projects. Their only concern is that the business might grow
too rapidly, and they might feel pulled too strongly away
from their families. “We started this business to stay in the
legal field while still maintaining happiness in our personal
lives, and we would not want to lose sight of this,” asserts
Erin and Laurie.
“After having children, we were torn between staying on the
law firm path and aspiring to join the partnership, or
venturing out on our own, hoping to find ways to spend
more time with our families while simultaneously advancing
in our careers.” They say that the risk alone was
empowering. Montage Legal Group’s success has brought
them both personal and professional satisfaction and they
hope to create opportunities for others to achieve the
elusive career/life balance that many people seek.
Practicing CEO Craftsmanship
Erin and Laurie continuously decided to stay true to
Montage’s original mission; which is to help busy law firms
while providing freelance attorneys with career flexibility.
While it was difficult to balance the freelance lawyers’
various needs, they made the decision to support them to
the best of their abilities.
They also made the decision to stay focused on exactly
what they do best — connecting freelance lawyers with
busy law firms. Other companies would frequently pitch
ideas which would require them to grow larger by
expanding into other areas of law or even outside of the
legal community. Deep down, they knew that their decision
to focus efforts on freelance lawyers — and only on
freelance lawyers — will serve their clients best.
Envisioning Empowerment
“When we close our eyes and imagine an empowered
woman, many types of women come to mind. We imagine a
woman who calls the shots in her own life. We see a
corporate CEO who has made sacrifices to achieve success
in business. We imagine a working mother balancing career
and family. We also imagine an older women entering
retirement who paved the way for women to hold equal
positions in the workplace. Empowered women take many
forms, and can be inspiring in their own individual ways.”
Providing a Sense of Control
Montage gives lawyers career flexibility so they no longer
have to choose between a career and being a stay-at-home
parent. Lawyers who previously left legal practice can re-
launch their legal careers, which bring income into their
families. Lawyers who wish to opt out of traditional firms
can take a step back, without stepping out. Career flexibility
through Montage reduces stress for freelance lawyers,
creates room for more time with aging parents and families,
and provides freelance attorneys with a sense of control
over their lives. While Montage receives hundreds of
39| November 2017 |

Irene Arango
Co-founder & Director
NAMA

Hunger is never fulfilled by the
quantity of what we eat, but
the quality of our food. Raw
foods are considered as the healthiest
option to heal yourself from the inside
out. However, learning how to prepare
food this way—as with any other
cooking (or rather un-cooking)—is of
utmost importance considering the key
it unlocks to this amazing and healthy
world. Meet Irene Arango, Co-
founder and Director, NAMA—who
has dedicated her life helping others
find that perfect balance of good health
and high energy levels; whether they
wholly embrace raw food or simply
add a little to their existing diet.
Bringing the Wonders of Raw Food
to a Wider Audience
Her enthusiasm for raw food started
through her search for better health and
more energy. The raw food lifestyle
worked a treat, and she’s been
captivated by it ever since! Irene aims
to bring raw food, and all of its
advantages, into the mainstream,
demonstrating exactly how exciting
raw dishes can be when both your
creativity and imagination is utilized.
Opening NAMA with fellow raw food
chef, Rich Havardi, has enabled her to
joyfully seek after this aim—bringing
the miracles of raw food to a wider
crowd.
Leading NAMA from the forefront,
Irene still considers her path has just
started. However, she feels proud of
where she has reached so far and
strongly believes she has a lot more to
share. Irene’s career in the raw food
industry started before there was even
a market in the UK for it. “I do feel
that at that time it took a lot of
confidence to feel capable to create the
demand for what we were offering. I
feel that was the biggest challenge
those of us who were at the forefront of
this trend,” Irene affirms.
Enriching, Inspiring and Nurturing
Irene believes raw foods to be a
growing industry where nothing is set
in stone, as there are multiple ways to
evolve the trend. One such aspect
frequently exploited by herself is the
opportunity to recreate food products,
but made raw vegan and healthier so
people than follow NAMA’s food
philosophy and can also enjoy them
and don't feel deprived of anything in
any way.
Founded in 2013, NAMA is a pure raw
vegan restaurant in London, which has
been capitalizing on this growing raw
food trend. NAMA was created to
enrich, inspire and nurture. Situated in
the heart of Notting Hill, NAMA
provides savory and sweet dishes,
catering, juice and food cleansing
programs and more. NAMA also
teaches raw food un-cooking classes,
sells raw vegan products which the
team manufactures, makes bespoke
raw vegan cakes for celebrations and
other occasions, and delivers raw food
packages around London.
Finding Balance and Peace with
Who You Are
Irene considers an empowered woman
as someone who is happy with where
she is in both private and business life;
who has the support she needs to stand
strong and grow her business. She also
believes that empowerment comes
from finding balance and peace with
who you are and where you are at a
particular time as that’s the base for
both personal and professional growth.
Talking about her own personal life,
she asserts “Since having kids I have to
say that I have very little time for
myself, so the best I can do is a warm
bath before bedtime and a little yoga
session in the mornings a few times a
week. As the kids grow older I expect
to have more time to dedicate to
myself. It is simply a period in the life
of a woman where children take
priority and I am ok with that.”
Encompassing Hard Work with
Dedication
There has been a great deal of diligent
work behind the scenes. Irene thinks a
lot of people neglect to understand that
achievement, for the most part,
originates from living and breathing a
topic or a business for a long time. She
goes ahead and adds, “I can see that
women are natural leaders and,
historically, we have been nurturing
society. I genuinely believe that women
have a very important place in the
business sphere- we are natural
creators and nurturers and being an
entrepreneur essentially encompasses
those qualities together with hard work
and dedication.”
The best advice Irene gives to people
who bring social change to the society
is it would be to make sure they believe
so deeply on their purpose that they
are willing to loose themselves to it for
a while. She believes to bring about
change, you have to truly live the
change.
Future Plans
Running in NAMA’s fifth successful
year, Irene hopes to launch a product
range into the UK market in the next
year. She also wishes to write a un-
cooking book and start organizing
international retreats. The fact that the
up taking and understanding of raw
vegan food is growing is something
that really empowers Irene to work on
the mentioned ideas. Her concerns are
related to growing competition,
although most of it; it’s not with
NAMA’s offering, but for those not
knowledgeable, it can be confusing.
To bring
about change,
you have
to truly live
the change
‘‘
‘‘
41| November 2017 |

Ishita Sen:
en are no longer the only
Mrole models in the male-
dominated finance world;
women have worked tirelessly to break
through and become professional
leaders and role models, too. In fact,
millions of successful, talented and
intelligent women in the business
world are leading some of today’s
biggest financial companies. Studies
support women’s natural ability to be
excellent leaders due to traits like high
levels of logic and reasoning. These
studies are the antidote to female
economic disenfranchisement, and are
reaching a critical mass of women at
the top rungs of the global financial
system.
The Doyenne
of Breaking
Insidious
Process
Ishita Sen
Head of Customer & Partner Success
Seceon

One of the most prominent women
directing the nation’s wealth is Ishita
Sen, the Head of Customer and Partner
Success at Seceon. She asserts,
“Whenever I faced the slightest
indication of gender bias, it gave me
extra motivation. I was even more
determined to succeed. I went the extra
mile to prove my abilities, working
nights and weekends.”
Ishita imagines herself as an
empowered woman who traverses the
journey of leadership, at the bleeding
edge of technology and business
innovation. She is creating an
impeccable impact on business, and
living in a world where potential and
track record of contribution are what
matters, and gender does not. This
woman possesses traits of self-respect,
dignity, confidence, and self-
determination. She has the passion and
drive to give back to society so that it
can continue to improve.
Ishita’s Empowerment Anthem
Ishita started off on the path to
empowerment by wanting to become a
vital part of each company she worked
for. She was an energetic contributor
and organizational leadership took
notice. She was put into roles where
she could learn leadership attributes,
not only by observing great leaders in
her organization, but also by allowing
her to take purposeful action to evolve
as a leader within her job. Moreover,
she extended herself to blend
management and technology into one
with her on-the-job education. This
helped her acquire knowledge through
both formal and informal programs.
Ishita is an accomplished leader with
more than twenty years of experience
and an impressive track record of
building high-performance technology
teams to deliver products and services
in Telecom and IT. She has managed
many multi-location teams to bring
telecom solutions across various
platforms including Mobile and IP
Telephony, Intelligent Networks,
Messaging, NGN and Central Office
Switches. She is known for excellence
in managing IT & Network Operations
and large Customer Engagements.
Building Financial Models for the
Company
The need for inspecting and
responding to data breaches in real-
time spurred the development of
Seceon’s innovative Open Threat
Management (OTM) platform. The
company’s mission is to empower
enterprises to detect, respond to and
eliminate all known and new cyber-
threats. Seceon’s OTM platform
provides the industry’s first and only
fully automated threat detection and
remediation software system. Its
subscription based, environment-
agnostic solution detects all forms of
threats as they happen, without need of
human intervention, and automatically
stops them in minutes.
Ishita’s role in Customer Success,
which is an integration of Marketing,
Sales, Professional Services, Training,
and Support, seems like a natural fit for
her. She enjoys interacting with people
and problem solving. Her mission as a
leader for Seceon is the most important
aspect of her professional life, i.e.,
creating excellence in all customer
touch points, whether they are
prospects, customers or partners. Ishita
and her team impress clients with
Seceon’s vision, technology, and
support to customers; so they know
Seceon is the right organization to
work with now and into the future.
Achieving her mission means a variety
of things including improving backend
processes, automation of various
deliverables, listening to Seceon’s
partners and customers, and acting as a
bridge between sales, customers, and
engineering, to evolve the technology
that the company builds.
Ishita’s influence and decisions toward
the process of installation, technical
support, technical documentation,
product packaging, and technical
infrastructure such as CRM systems
have proved to be successful. They all
play a role in maturing Seceon along
with its product offerings to satisfy
their customers.
The Lady Envisions Gender
Equality In Tech
Ishita believes that a woman in
business who wants to succeed as a
professional leader needs to pursue her
goals with passion, and exhibit the
impact she is making to her
organization, her family, and to society.
Determination, sincerity of purpose,
focus, discipline, resilience, and
positivity are among the valuable
qualities that a woman should carry
with her, as Ishita does. Ishita believes
that balance across one’s life as a
professional, a wife and a mother is
needed – as the world of business
embraces talent regardless of gender. It
is needed as much by a man who needs
to uphold his role as a father, just as
much as he needs to be a successful
leader in business. She believes having
more women in business will create
better and more balanced work
cultures, as organizations employ from
a larger pool of talent who can create
value for a business.
Ishita emphasizes that education of
both men and women are needed to
eliminate gender inequality and create
social awareness about the reality of
women in the workforce. She believes
that leadership talent should be spotted
and nurtured regardless of gender, as
talent and the aspiration to grow and
succeed are not biased by gender. An
organization should be patient and
persistent in finding the appropriate
roles that nurture talent. Recognizing
the talent and motivations of men and
women equally will empower women.
Empowering women will also
empower families, and entire nations.
43| November 2017 |

A Philanthropist
Committed to
Work & Community
What goes around comes around” or “as you sow,
so shall you reap” is the basic understanding of
how karma – the law of cause and effect –
works. Everything we say and do, determines what's going
to happen to us in the future. A firm believer in Karma and a
work-passionista is Julie Bryant, CEO of Rancho
BioSciences. She saw her next opportunity to build a world
class, solution oriented lifescience service company to help
leverage the explosion of data by utilizing experts in their
field with a flexible business model on an as needed basis.
Julie believes that she has been extremely fortunate to meet
some amazing mentors along her way to entrepreneurship.
In the arts, it is an accepted fact that a young person learns
the trade best when studying under someone’s guidance. In
business, too, the importance of the mentor relationship for
a person’s development has been anticipated. Attributing
her success to her father and key people she has worked for
in her career, Julie asserts, “My dad taught me that you can
do whatever you want and can be whoever you want to be
and treat everyone equally. I am passionate about science
and helping find cures. This motivates and empowers me
every day”
“
I am passionate
about science
and helping
find cures. This
motivates and
empowers me
every day
‘‘
‘‘
Julie Bryant
CEO
Rancho BioSciences
Julie
Bryant:

Julie’s Entrepreneurial Expedition
Julie has an extensive experience of
over 25 years in Life Sciences starting
with Nature, Journal of Science in
London. In San Diego, she worked for
a molecular modeling company called
Biosym. Julie was one of the pioneers
in molecular modeling growing the
Asian and Latin American marketplace
and finally coming back to the head
office in San Diego.
Julie then moved to high throughput
microarray technology (expression and
genotyping) with Genometrix building
a blood bank of diseases in The
Woodlands, Texas. Analysis of this
kind of data was the next step, and
Julie helped spin out OminiViz, where
they used text mining algorithms to
analyze categorical, numerical and text
data. She then established the Bryant
Consulting Group that worked with
several companies: Kinematik for
ebooks, ChemDiv for building blocks
and chemistry services and GeneGo for
manually curated pathways. Julie, in
the role of the Vice President at
GeneGo, built a group of international
sales people, customer support,
application scientists and IT as
GeneGo’s products MetaCore and
MetaBase became an industry standard
staple. GeneGo was later acquired by
Thomson Reuters in 2010.
Rancho BioSciences, the Data Curation
Company, was founded at the end of
2012 by Julie as a fee for Service
Company to support life science in
industry, hospitals, CRO’s,
foundations, Government, and
academia.
“Rancho Biosciences” ─ the
Scientific Data Curation Company
With the rapid growth in research
activities and the resulting body of
scientific data, it has become as
important a strategic resource as
natural resources and human resources.
Scientific research depends more and
more on finding theories and
knowledge from scientific data, and
thus data-intensive scientific discovery
has become an important paradigm of
scientific research.
Therefore, it is urgent to develop and
adopt methods to support the
collection, collation, preservation and
utilization of scientific data, which are
referred to as scientific data curation.
Rancho BioSciences is a Data Curation
Company that cleans, organizes and
harmonizes all kinds of life science
data leveraging vocabularies and
ontologies. As a result of this, the
company also provides analysis
services with a team of
bioinformaticians and diligent
developers who create workflows,
build new databases and interfaces
whenever needed.
Clients approach Rancho with their
tougher problems as it provides a one-
stop-solution. Each member at Rancho
has at least a PhD and the team is
creative and innovative working
always on time and within budget.
Julie’s Belief in her Creative
Thinkers
Rancho BioSciences prides itself on
having only ‘A’ Team Players. Julie's
assiduous efforts in hiring creative
thinkers, which is assessed by their
underlying passion for what they do,
has paid off in the form of Rancho's
success. Julie says, “This is number
one in our culture code…be passionate
about what you do and we love to
curate and analyze data that could
help make a diagnostic or stratify
patients to ensure success of drugs.”
Every day Julie and her team have the
honor of being able to help people
have their drugs approved or fast
tracked by the FDA. This in turn helps
a diagnostic company have their panel
validated or help foundations like
Michael J Fox Foundation
(http://neuroshare.michaeljfox.org) and
CHDI (https://www.hdinhd.org) get
their experimental data in the public
domain so more people can help find
cures for their disease area.
“This takes a lot of work, we follow
our culture code religiously to make
sure everyone fits our culture, we run
personality tests and we test all people
coming in as well having multiple team
members interviewing them. It also
helps if someone I trust recommends
them. We also have a few of our former
clients working for Rancho now which
is rather nice,” affirms Julie.
Future Aspects
Julie envisions an exponential growth
for Rancho BioSciences. The company
is already running ahead of its annual
revenue target with 3 more months to
go and each year it strives to thrive
with higher growth. This is a result of
the word-of-mouth from their valued
current clients, who have been in
business with Rancho for years. Julie
and the team at Rancho are grateful
towards all the kind words they receive
which motivate them to be the best
they can be.
“I am encouraged by how much messy
data is out there and it keeps coming in
higher volumes so I think we will be
busy for the rest of our lives,”
mentions Julie.
Julie is sure that Rancho will continue
to grow and be involved in projects
that will make a difference for human
betterment. She is quite excited about
the future of health and wellness and
microbiome in the industry.
47| November 2017 |

Ligia Bonetti Du-Breil
Executive President & CEO
SID Group
“The key to
delivering your
very best lies on
how successful
you have been
finding your
personal
equilibrium
and purpose”
Ligia Bonetti Du-Breil:Graceful Resilience Meets Inventive Entrepreneurship

You can either be at the effect
(powerless) of your business
or act as the cause (in power)
of it. Your internal belief system about
business is the most important
predictor of success or failure. Success
is something all career-driven
individuals desire yet it eludes many
people – at least at the levels desired.
Often there’s nothing really different
between one entrepreneur and another
in terms of ability, as each person can
eventually excel in whatever he/she
wants. It all zeros down to having the
frame of mind to set practical habits
and keeping a balance between
traditional and evolutional
methodologies. Many people lack the
courage to use a creative approach in
their workplace. Almost all creative
people feel inadequate in some way,
but it is how they deal with that feeling
of inadequacy that is important. People
with a talent of taking risks possess a
highly optimistic perception of risk,
but are also rational decision makers
who have an extraordinary ability to
mitigate that risk.
The fear of failure inhibits creativity in
the workplace and is often the reason
that growth stagnates. Only a leader
who combines confidence with
intelligence and informed risk
management can successfully conquer
that fear and propel their company to
new heights of success. Ligia Bonetti
Du-Breil, Executive President and
CEO of the SID Group, is one such
person.
SID Group is a conglomerate of
Dominican companies engaged in the
manufacture, storage, transport and
distribution of mass consumption
products. Under Ligia’s stewardship,
SID Group has expanded considerably,
adding numerous high-quality products
and services to its already sizable
portfolio.
Strategize to Thrive
th
SID Group celebrates its 80
anniversary this year as an
international, diverse conglomerate
that began as a humble oil company.
Ligia’s own career mirrors the
company’s evolution - in her 20 years
with SID Group, she has held a number
of leadership roles, including a tenure
as MercaSID’s Vice President of
Business.
Today, Ligia leads SID Group and all
its subsidiaries – MercaSID, Induveca,
Agua Crystal and Induspalma – with
the common overarching principle of
promoting and safeguarding the
interests of its stakeholders. Her prime
strategy is the creation and delivery of
superior products and services.
She has designed a strategic 5-year
plan with a vision to exponentially
expand the Group’s presence on the
world stage. Her approach of
leveraging the synergy between its
subsidiaries has given each a
competitive edge, allowing them to
become market leaders in their own
right. Ligia has focused inward as well,
embarking on a journey of cultural
transformation that involves everyone
at SID Group. Her hands-on, lead-
from-the-front approach has earned her
widespread admiration and respect
while her ambitious, but carefully
considered strategies have inspired
interest and fueled enthusiasm from the
top down.
A Determined Social and Economic
Reformist
Ligia graduated from Wheaton College
with a degree in economics and
worked briefly in New York’s banking
sector before joining the SID Group.
By age 28, she was active in nonprofit
organizations that promoted the
Dominican Republic’s private business
sector. Shortly after, she was elected
president of the National Association
of Young Entrepreneurs (ANJE).
ANJE advocated strongly for social
and economic reforms under Ligia's
skillful guidance. Her ability to
eloquently express complex ideas in
support of ANJE’s positions to the
media earned both her and the
organization universal recognition and
approval. Her leadership was integral
to many of the reforms that were
adopted by the government at that
time.
Ligia became a familiar public figure
through frequent appearances on
panels, arguing convincingly for her
positions on political, social and
economic reforms. Part of this was in
the capacity of the president of the
National Industrial Organization, a
position she held for 4 years. Her
extraordinary contributions to the
business world have earned her an
honorary Doctorate of Law.
With her sincerity and her transparent
approach, coupled with accountability
and a strong work ethic, Ligia has led
every organization she has helmed to
extraordinary success. She is a shining
example of the effective company
leader who manages a multi-million-
dollar business, while also finding time
to give back to the community through
social and economic causes.
Ligia has been named one of the top
100 entrepreneurs in Latin America,
and was also listed by Forbes
Magazine as one of the most powerful
and influential female leaders in the
Dominican Republic.
Shaping the Future through
Innovation and Creativity
For Ligia, constant innovation is the
key to success, both personally and for
any organization. She holds that to be
true regardless of whether we consider
products, services, manufacturing
facilities or distribution systems. This
emphasis on driving change has led to
SID Group’s growth in the past and
will continue to do so in the future.
In order to be able to successfully
transform the new business model,
Ligia brings down the walls in the
working spaces, fostering an open
work environment as well as designed
thinking areas to promote novelty and
out-of-the-box thinking in every
department of the organization.
There is no question that SID Group is
looking beyond the borders of the
Dominican Republic as it seeks to
diversify its interests. Ligia envisions
the company as the number one
provider of superior quality branded
consumer products in the region. She
recognizes that the open economy is a
hotbed of competition, and is
developing the brands under SID
Group’s umbrella to align to that
objective.
49| November 2017 |

Alicia Asín
CEO
Libelium

Alicia Asín is CEO and Co-founder of
Libelium, the wireless sensor hardware
provider, creators of Waspmote, a modular,
open source sensor platform for the Internet
of ings (IoT). Alicia is an intuitive
technologist focused on how IoT can change
our world, starting with Smart Cities and
smart agriculture. She is a frequent speaker
at international conferences on issues
related to Smart Cities, wireless sensor
networks and IoT.
Alicia holds a master’s degree in computer
engineering from the Polytechnic Center,
University of Zaragoza, and is a graduate of
the Cambridge Judge Business School and
ESADE.
Alicia Asín, Libelium’s CEO
Employment Opportunities for
Future Generations
Expert’s Insight
51| November 2017 |

The best well-known research companies are continuously publishing reports with estimates and forecasts on the
burgeoning IoT market, including device growth, amount invested and potential return on investment. But there is
an important reality that only a few warn: the educational gap and practical knowledge absence to cover the
workforce needed to develop IoT solutions.
Moreover, IoT devices will account for 24 billion by 2020, while traditional computing devices (e.g. smartphones, tablets,
smartwatches, etc.) will comprise 10 billion. Different consultancy forecast reports states that nearly $6 trillion will be
spent on IoT solutions over the next five years.
Current students must select their degrees knowing that around 4-5 million of job positions will be required to work as
IoT developer in the next years and technology progresses so fast that demand is growing daily. In fact, 26% of
European companies do not find the right profiles for their vacant positions. The Internet of Things market opens a
new opportunity for electronic and computing engineers and Libelium is focusing on education by training current
students that will be the future leaders in the sector.
Libelium’s commitment with education pursues fostering the IoT skills among students in every University and
Educational Institution all over the world. Enhancing education in IoT development will reinforce employment
opportunities for future generations to reduce the educational gap between skills demanded by IoT companies and
practical knowledge of workforce. This risk could even decrease or even endanger the expected growing of the market.
In this sense, the Internet of Things market opens a new opportunity for electronic and computing engineers and Libelium
is focusing on education by training current students that will be the future leaders in the sector. Due to the increasing
demand of IoT solutions, Libelium has launched the second edition of the free online educational program “IoT Spartans
Challenge”. The aim of this training program is to improve the practical knowledge that IoT companies usually demand
when recruiting future developers studying Computing or Electronic Engineering.
The IoT Spartans Challenge is now opened to find the best IoT developers among 600 worldwide participants from 250
engineering universities and technical schools enrolled in the battle. This e-learning contest offers teaching materials,
webinars, online quiz and tests in nine different modules about IoT, analog and digital I/O, SC card, interruptions,
accelerometer, RTC, power management, networking and sensors to prepare students for the IoT world.
Eight universities are competing at the moment: Aarhus University from Denmark, Charles Sturt University from
Australia, Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave (IPCA) from Portugal, Telecommunications and Remote Sensing Lab
(University of Pavia) from Italy, University of the Philippines Diliman from Philippines, Grupo San Valero from Spain,
and Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá.
This year, in addition to the 10,000 € prizes, the top 3 Spartans will obtain special learning discounts and the
possibility to be presented to other organization talent matching programs thanks to the collaboration of Mioti and the
IoT Talent Consortium.
The more “Spartans” we have for the future, the greater will the IoT market be and the faster it will reach our companies
and lives.
It should be a shared commitment of corporate and social responsibility that should include governments, educational
institutions and private companies to reinforce employment opportunities for future generations.
Alicia Asín, Libelium’s CEO
Alicia Asín is CEO and Co-founder of Libelium, the wireless sensor hardware provider, creators of Waspmote, a modular,
open source sensor platform for the Internet of Things (IoT). Alicia is an intuitive technologist focused on how IoT can
change our world, starting with Smart Cities and smart agriculture. She is a frequent speaker at international conferences
on issues related to Smart Cities, wireless sensor networks and IoT.
Alicia holds a master's degree in computer engineering from the Polytechnic Center, University of Zaragoza, and is a
graduate of the Cambridge Judge Business School and ESADE.

n a marketplace defined by
Icomplexity, disruption and change,
today’s most successful enterprises
are those that bring diverse
perspectives and experiences to each
new challenge. In fact, economic
growth is more robust and sustainable
when women and men alike participate
fully. However, as more women join
the leadership ranks, they should see
themselves simply as business leaders,
not as ‘female’ business leaders. A
staunch believer in this philosophy is
Marianne Kirkegaard. Marianne is a
woman who delineates genuine
magnificence and fierceness of spirit,
whether it is in empowering businesses
or empowering people.
An Artificer of Business Architecture
As President and the Chief Executive
Officer of CSM Bakery Solutions,
Marianne combines business acumen
with go-to-market expertise,
identifying the appropriate strategic
and organizational structure and
building the business around it. “The
most difficult task when it comes to
strategy is to focus, and thereby decide
‘what not to do’. Somehow adding
activities, products and services is for
most of us just easier than letting go,”
she says. “The letting go part requires
good business acumen and, as
importantly, a lot of courage, an
ingredient I don’t think a good leader
can have enough of. And, of course, no
leader will ever become successful
with any of this without the right
engaged and empowered team around
him or her.”
Marianne has extensive international
experience working with consumer
products – food and non-food for more
than 20 years. She has held a variety of
executive positions at Unilever and
Carlsberg Group before she joined
CSM almost 6 years ago. She started
her career in Marketing and Sales, but
has for many years now been busy
with general management roles of
increasing responsibility. She has been
fortunate enough to have been
expatriated with her family to different
parts of the world for the last 11 years.
She is a member of the board of
directors of AAK, a Swedish-Danish
company producing high value-added
vegetable oils and fats, and of Dansk
Supermarked Group, the market leader
in retail in Denmark. She has an
executive MBA from the Scandinavian
International Management Institute and
a master's degree from Aarhus School
of Business.
A Personal Path of Empowerment
Marianne believes that the path of
empowerment walks through the
asphalted pavement of education. She
wishes everyone – no matter where
they are from – would have access to
good education. “Throughout my life
and career, I've been fortunate. I was
raised by wonderful parents who
showed a great deal of faith and trust
in me and made certain I had access to
good educational opportunities,” she
says. She also feels lucky to have
worked with multinational
corporations, where she was positioned
in challenging roles and given
responsibilities that allowed her to
Marianne
Kirkegaard:
An Authentic and Courageous
Artificer of Business
I see an
empowered
person as
one who
dares to
be
authentic
‘‘

leverage and continue learning. She
believes that the best environment to
learn, grow, and take some calculated
risks is provided through the “freedom
within a framework.” Marianne is
grateful for the talented people who
have given her that freedom, and
played a major role in her personal and
professional development.
“Without a doubt, authenticity and
courage have helped me succeed more
than anything else,” she says. “I see
little value in not being as transparent
and candid with people as possible,
and I have found that most often
people appreciate it. Most people can
see through insincerity, and I don't
think anybody is comfortable in such
an environment.”
Empowering Women in Business
Marianne's vision for women is to see
themselves less as “women” and see
themselves more as business leaders.
Women in business must intersect race,
cultures, professions, faiths, sexism,
generations and perspectives, rather
than see themselves as victims. Says
Marianne, “Unfortunately, I still meet
women who feel unfairly treated in
business life vs. their male colleagues.
Sometimes they even feel victimized.
And, while I certainly know and
appreciate that it is harder to succeed
as a female leader in certain cultures, I
am convinced that the victimized
attitude is not the solution to ever
change that. Instead we should step out
of that role, and through examples and
good role-modeling, change this
culture over time.”
Marianne believes empowered women
in business should be no different than
men: “In terms of being empowered,
I'm not sure it’s any different for a man
or a woman. I see an empowered
person as one who dares to be
authentic. It’s also a person who is
comfortable with who they are and has
the self-conﬁdence and empathy to
make the right personal and
professional decisions, and not at least,
who is perfectly willing to deal with the
consequences of those decisions –
whether they're good or bad.”
Leading the Legacy of CSM Bakery
Solutions
CSM Bakery Solutions is a global
leader in bakery ingredients, products
and services for retail, foodservice and
traditional bakeries. The company
connects bakeries and businesspeople
with an international presence that
includes 28 manufacturing facilities,
four innovation centers of excellence
and more than 7,000 employees. It also
maintains strategic partnerships with
partners all over the world to ensure
availability of specialized ingredients,
leverage unique product expertise, and
offer known, trusted brands to help the
customers grow their businesses.
Marianne leads CSM’s overall business
performance and operations while also
guiding the company’s long-term
strategic direction. She’s perceptive
about creating a work environment and
a framework that will help her team be
successful. “Things will never be
perfect, but they can always be better,”
she says. “I'm very fortunate to have
the resources and people to make sure
it is!” Marianne envisions focusing
and developing the business to become
an even better supplier to its customers
in the product areas that it would like
to be famous for. In addition, the
talented team at CSM is working
diligently to bring some exciting
innovations to life.
Marianne Kirkegaard
President & CEO
CSM Bakery Solutions
55| November 2017 |

Insights success the 30 most inspiring women in business 14th nov 2017

Insights success the 30 most inspiring women in business 14th nov 2017

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