The most admired women leaders in business 2019

April 2019
www.insightssuccess.com
Attributes of a Good
Leader
The Art of Leading
The Most
Admired
Leaders in Business 2019
The Glass Ceiling Effect:
Another Perspective on
Women and Leadership
Editor’s Pick
Admired woman
of the Month
Sudha Mahajan
Sr. Director Product Management
(Principal Group PM)
Volume-4 Issue-10

re women capable to take up the executive charge of organizations? Whenever this question is put forward in front of
Awomen, they have always proved that gender shouldn’t be the factor to be considered for being a great leader. The
current business world is defined by complexity, disruption, and change, which desperately need leaders with holistic
approach, diverse skill sets, perspectives, and experiences and thus, gender should not be counted under the criteria.
Gone are the days when women had to face the skepticism of their seniors, colleagues, investors as well as consumers on
their abilities of leading an organization. In today’s cumbersome world of entrepreneurship, women are now seen to break
through the glass ceilings to make their way out to reach the top level of positions in organizations. Leaders like Sheryl
Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, Indra Nooyi, the Chairman and COO of PepsiCo, Ginni Rometty, the Chairman, President,
and CEO of IBM have set a noteworthy instance of women taking businesses to the new heights. They have broken all the
myths about women’s inborn limitations and serve as models for emerging women leaders.
Considering the professional and personal life, women have to wear several hats, and each hat has its own set of
responsibilities and expectations. Through their fierceness and firm determination, they provide an integrated view of work
and family, which results in an engaged and promising personal and professional future. Maintaining balance in both the
spheres, women are also constantly evolving and reaching new milestones across a wide spectrum of human activities that
occur in the contemporary world.
A woman in leadership roles is a drastic transformation and has made a substantial impact across all sectors. Be it business,
technology, administration, education, healthcare or government, women have gradually made their mark in almost every
sector at regional, national, and global levels. By walking an extra mile, they have been at the helm of every field.
Gender shouldn’t be the Criteria
E

Many organizations which have women in their board of directors, or are solely run by women, are changing the landscape of
world by providing reformative solutions that are catering to the needs of businesses as well as individuals.
With the intent of bringing women, who are significantly contributing to the business sphere with their glorious triumphs, into
limelight, Insights Success brings to you, “The Most Admired Women Leaders in Business 2019.” These women are
redefining the parameters of leadership through their immense passion for their work and the drive for excellence.
An avid entrepreneur, Rachel K. Mushahwar, the Vice President, General Manager US Enterprise, Government, and
nwCloud Sales at Intel, features on the cover of this issue. Rachel is someone who is in touch with the rawest of human
emotions, who is sensitive and sensible, who is humble and high spirited, and who is earnest and empowering. She carries a
vibrant and an enthralling aura, and certainly she is someone, what inspiration looks like in a suit.
Her work experience started in her family’s retail store in rural America where she learned from an early age about business,
entrepreneurship, customer service, the value of one’s employees, and the importance of turning data into actionable insights
to drive sales. She conveys how fortunate enough she was to have parents and grandparents whose role in the business wasn’t
defined by gender or by boundaries of what one could see.
Delve in to more such inspiring stories and lessons from many such significant entrepreneurs in this issue and reap the fruits
of motivation. Also, make sure to scroll through the articles written by our in-house editorial team and CXO standpoints of
some of the leading industry experts to have a brief taste of the sector.
Happy reading!
A world where doing business is a risk,
women seeks it as an opportunity
“ “
Hitesh Dhamani

CONTENTS
Rachel K.
Mushahwar
When Inspiration Wears a Suit
Sudha Mahajan
Reaching the New Milestones
of Leadership
Admired woman of the Month20
Cover Story 10

Imparting Wisdom
HOW TO DO YOUR BEST WORK WHEN
YOU'RE NOT ACTUALLY WORKING!
Maintaining a personal and
professional life balance
Stellar’s Vision
Success in the
Venture World
Unbiased Future
Establishing Gender
Equilibrium
Maestro’s Insights
Assertive Leadership:
Tips for Millennial
Women in Business
48
24
32
62
Articles
Imparting Wisdom
Successful Personality Traits
to Learn from Elon Musk
The Art of Leading
Attributes of a Good
Leader
5840

Cassandra Hamel
Conjoining Passion and
Creativity to achieve
Success
Donna Wilczek
An Inspirational Tech
Leader and Inventor
Janaki Joshi
Stepping Up and
Embedding Innovation in
the DNA for Customers
Kathleen Brandt
Driving Curiosity to
Seize Opportunities
Erna Grasz
Leading Global
Social Change
4438
28 30
36

Lea von Bidder
Bringing Innovative
Changes in Health
Sector
Michelle Silberman
Baking the World a
Better Place!
Nishidha Kumaresan
Stepping Up along
with the Team
Sheri Atwood
An Intersection of
Technology, Business
and Courage
Nicole Rodriguez
Leading the
Digital Revolution
66
5446
64
56

sales@insightssuccess.com
April, 2019
Editor-in-Chief
Co-designerSenior Sales Manager Business Development Manager
Marketing Manager
Technical Head
Technical Specialist Digital Marketing Manager
Research Analyst
Database Management Technology Consultant
Pooja M. Bansal
Managing Editor
Anish Miller
Executive Editor
Hitesh Dhamani
Assistant Editors
Jenny Fernandes
Rohit Chaturvedi
Visualizer
David King
Art & Design Director
Amol Kamble
Associate Designer
Kushagra Gupta
Passi D. Peter Collins
John Matthew
Sales Executives
David, Kevin, Mark, Suraj
Business Development Executives
Steve, Joe, Alan, TusharJacob Smile
Aditya Marry D'Souza
SME-SMO Executive
Prashant Chevale Patrick James
Circulation Manager
Robert Brown Stella Andrew David Stokes
Sapna Shinde
Co-designer
Copyright © 2019 Insights Success, All rights reserved. The content and images used in this magazine should not be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Insights Success.
Reprint rights remain solely with Insights Success.
Follow us on : www.facebook.com/insightssuccess/ www.twitter.com/insightssuccess
We are also available on :
Insights Success Media Tech LLC
555 Metro Place North, Suite 100,
Dublin, OH 43017, United States
Phone - (614)-602-1754
Email: info@insightssuccess.com
For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com
Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd.
Off. No. 22 & 510, 5th Flr., Rainbow Plaza, Shivar Chowk,
Pimple Saudagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411017
Phone - India: +91 7410079881/ 82/ 83/ 84/ 85
Email: info@insightssuccess.in
For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.in

“It is outside your
comfort zone
where the greatest
learning happens.
“
When Inspiration Wears a Suit

Cover Story
Rachel K. Mushahwar
Vice President, General Manager US Enterprise,
Government, and nwCloud Sales

“Life is about the people
you meet and the
things you create with
them. So, go out and
start creating.
“
To nourish the tree of opportunities and to
provide an equal share of its fruits, to all those
who’ve ploughed through thick and thin with
unwavering efforts, is what justifies the role of a
leader. The comprehension of this virtue, in its
entirety, requires one to push open the muffling doors
of their comfort zone and thus, setting upon the path
to greatness. With the motto of bringing into
limelight, those, who are entitled to be pronounced as
an epitome of grit, passion, commitment and
individuality, Insights Success brings to you “The
Most Admired Women Leaders in Business.”
In the aforesaid endeavor, we’ve had the privilege of
crossing roads with a certain someone who is in touch
with the rawest of human emotions, who is sensitive
and sensible, who is humble and high spirited, and
who is earnest and empowering. It wouldn't be
detrimental to say that one seldom comes across such
a person who carries an aura so vibrant and
enthralling, and this certain someone, is what
inspiration looks like in a suit.
This is Rachel K. Mushahwar, the Vice President,
General Manager US Enterprise, Government,
and nwCloud Sales at Intel. Her work experience
started in her family’s retail store in rural America
where she learned from an early age about business,
entrepreneurship, customer service, the value of one’s
employees, and the importance of turning data into
actionable insights to drive sales. She conveys how
fortunate enough she was to have parents and
grandparents whose role in the business wasn’t
defined by gender or by boundaries of what one could
see. She recalls what her parents said, “Don’t let the
horizon of what you can see define where you can go.”
“When the time came to head to university, the notion
that women didn’t study computer science and civil
engineering wasn’t a discussion. The discussion was,
find something you love, and the rest will fall in place.

Don’t let others tell you, what success
looks like – it is different for
everyone,” she adds. It took her a
couple of restarts to figure out what she
loved and how to do it right for her, in
contrast to what was right for everyone
else. “Rural America, cattle ranches,
and small towns – that was the start of
my journey – to push the boundaries
and create a boundless life,” she
expresses.
Throughout her 25 year career as an IT
executive and now as the Vice
President and General Manager of US
Industry, Government, and Next Wave
Cloud sales at Intel, a pioneering
technology company, she has been on
the forefront of digital transformation
and technology across all types of
businesses and government agencies.
“I’ve been blessed to work with
executives who’ve encouraged me to
take calculated risks and step outside
my comfort zone, for it is outside your
comfort zone where the greatest
learning happens,” says Rachel. She
believes that growth and comfort do
not coexist. Her best mentors/sponsors
have taught her to embrace the
uncertainty and discomfort of not
knowing what’s next. She
comprehends that many people avoid
these two things, but is of a strong
belief that apparently without them,
one never improves, and never learns
anything worthwhile.
Rachel further adds that she has had
the opportunity to work with a lot of
senior executives, and she always asks
them about what is that one thing they
wish they'd have done? And
interestingly, as she says, it is always
about regret and regretting what they
didn’t do in their personal life. Rachel
coherently summarizes it as, “The
crazy, the crying, the cuddles; the
screaming, the sacred, the scared; the
minutes, the magic, the mess; It’s all
part of it. And it’s all worth it. Don’t
regret your life. Accept that you will
fall apart and do it all wrong. Forgive
yourself. There are moments in your
life when you will reach a fork in the
road – if you are tempted to take the
easy path, ask yourself why. Success
and easy don’t usually go together.
have a very different world view from
the previous generation. And, we must
build collaborative as well as inclusive
work environments where all
employees can thrive and succeed.”
She adds that at the same time, helping
teams find balance in a hyper-
connected world and clearly
articulating the right priorities, so they
know where to apply their focus, is
also vital.
Building more leaders
Commenting upon the essential traits
of an ideal leader, Rachel asserts, “We
all have a vision of what a leader is, or
could be, but the truth is that leadership
is nothing like you would expect. It can
be daunting – even on the days when
everything goes right. I wish I could
say I glide effortlessly along as a
working parent and executive, but
life’s no ballet and I’m not a ballerina!
We should be willing to acknowledge
that leadership’s not always easy or
effortless.”
According to Rachel, a common trait
of good leaders is the willingness take
on big challenges – while empowering,
inspiring, and trusting their teams to
tackle them. Great leaders create other
leaders and encourage them to take the
game winning shot. “You win as a
team and every great leader knows
when to coach from the sidelines vs. on
the field,” states Rachel.
Rachel also opines that great leaders:
Ÿ Must keep speaking up, keep
pushing for progress, keep focused
on closing the diversity and
inclusion gaps that exist even in
2019. Being a leader is like
climbing a big mountain. When
climbing, look for the base camp.
That’s where you rest, meet other
climbers, take in oxygen and
acclimatize. Base camp is what
makes summiting possible. The
tiniest adjustments in the climb
make all the difference and allow
you to get to the top together. We
aren’t alone, we have each other.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Ÿ Must believe and love what they
Figure out what the problem is you are
trying to solve. Many times, the
answers are right in front of us if we
ask the right questions. Take the leap
and have no regrets!”
Rachel describes her approach towards
business and people by quoting Maya
Angelou, saying, “I’ve learned that
people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did, but
people will never forget how you made
them feel.”
With experience comes expertise
Pertaining to Rachel’s experience
which spans over more than two
decades, her views on how technology
and its volatility has affected
businesses over time, evidently
exhibits the erudition she’s acquired.
She asserts, “You can’t ignore or
underestimate the wide-ranging impact
technology and data has had on
business and our lifestyles. It’s not just
the markets depicting the evolution of
technology and data – it’s also
consumers, and significant changes in
technology and consumer behavior
have spurred a new set of businesses
that didn't exist 5-10 years ago.”
Rachel is of the opinion that businesses
must be agile and pivot quickly to take
advantage of opportunities as they
arise. She says that the velocity of
change also means today’s business
and educational institutions must create
and nurture lifelong learners, so as to
keep pace with the changes that
technology is bringing and
accelerating. This kind of environment
requires strong leaders who can
motivate, empower, and help teams
find success, while realizing the need
for flexibility to cope with the dynamic
business environment that has become
today’s reality.
Rachel expresses that she often talks
about how her kids, as digital natives,
have different priorities and a different
view of the world than her generation.
She says, “As leaders, we must draw
the best out of divergent perspectives
from baby boomers to millennials – a
generation that will dominate the
workforce in a few short years and also
Cover Story

“Strive for rhythm
instead of balance
and trust yourself to
move to the ever-
changing beat.
“
Ÿ are doing, if they don’t, no one else
will either. People often think that
leadership is about their title, their
position in the organization, the
corner office, and such. Nothing
could be farther from the truth.
Real leadership is about creating a
vision in your heart and mind and
bringing the energy of
manifestation to that vision so that
others can see and believe in it too.
Real leadership is about aspiring to
inspire others to what they never
thought possible.
Ÿ Must stop searching for balance
and perfection. It makes me crazy
when leaders talk about balance; if
you are in perfect balance, you are
not moving; but, standing still and
trying to balance everything. So,
stop trying to balance. Being a
working parent isn’t a tight rope
walk; it’s a beautiful, yet chaotic,
dance. Strive for rhythm instead of
balance and trust yourself to move
to the ever-changing beat. Of
course, there’s a very fine line
between enjoying the chaos and
barely surviving. Being a working
parent, caregiver of aging parents,
dealing with an illness, or just
about any other personal situation
will bring you face to face with the
best and worst of yourself. It is
terrifying, and it may break you.
But it will also rebuild you and you
will be stronger than you ever
thought possible but only if you
embrace the rhythm.
in a wide range of industries, including
tech, to level the diversity playing
field. “We are reaching a place where
building women leaders and building
businesses are, and should be, one in
the same,” she adds.
There couldn’t be any other way to put
it other than how Rachel has, quoting,
“We have made progress, but it isn't
enough. It is our job, as leaders, to
continue to accelerate women in
leadership positions across all
industries. It is our job, as leaders, to
reach out and support each other. It is
also our job to ensure that equality
starts at home so that our sons and
daughters grow into a workforce that is
different than today.”
“Yes, we have made tremendous
progress and yes, there is so much
more to do. Yes, we are at a unique
point in history where women are so
excited about being able to do
anything. But the biggest opportunity
we must tackle is thinking we have to
do everything all at once,” she
includes.
Rachel expresses her pride in working
for a company like Intel and is also
proud of the initiatives Intel has taken
as a business to foster greater diversity
and engage women to advance careers
in science, technology and engineering.
They’re building the pipeline in real
time, and it’s starting to work. Rachel
exclaims, “We recently achieved full
representation in our U.S. workforce
two years ahead of our initial 2020
Ÿ Must listen and observe. If you can
quiet down your own mind and
focus your eyes, usually the
answers are there to be seen and
heard. Leadership isn't about just
talking and making speeches and
communicating. It's about
watching, learning, sitting with
people, and truly hearing them. You
cannot lead from your office; you
must travel often, even if to the
floor below you. It will require you
to open your mind, your heart, and
your arms to new things, to new
people, to new cultures, and new
ways of thinking. We are united in
our differences. Life is about the
people you meet and the things you
create with them. So, go out and
start creating.
Opportunities do not distinguish
When asked about her opinion on the
current challenges which
businesswomen or female executives
face, and why, Rachel exclaims, “First,
there are no challenges, only
opportunities. Today, we have
unprecedented opportunities to
advance our careers, we have the
support to achieve our goals, and also a
growing group of executives we can
look up to as mentors. In fact,
according to Pew Research Center,
women are the sole or primary
breadwinner in 40% of US
households.”
Rachel expresses that woman
executives have succeeded in moving
the bar forward and helping companies

Cover Story
Photo Credit: NRF Foundation 2019

“You win as a team and every great
leader knows when to coach from the
sidelines vs. on the field.
“goal. Our workforce now reflects the
percent of women and
underrepresented minorities in the U.S.
skilled labor market. That being said,
we’re not content to sit on our laurels.
There’s more to do and at Intel, we're
doing it.”
She also comprehends that it’s not
enough to cheer from the sidelines. “I
am a mentor, active in my community,
and involved in many leadership
groups. I believe it is our social duty to
help those around us, whether that’s
volunteering at our kids’ school,
participating in STEM learning events,
or even something as simple as having
a coffee with someone seeking advice
on a career move,” Rachel emphasizes.
She believes that women need to
support each other and be the change
which is to be seen in the world. “One
step, one conversation, one article, one
person at a time, a great leader knows
that their biggest accomplishment will
be about those you have lifted, those
you have made better, and what you
have given back,” she expresses.
Being the benchmark
Commenting upon her and her
organization’s strife to prolong the
market competency, Rachel asserts,
“One of my favorite sayings is, if you
don’t like change, you’ll like
irrelevance even less. That’s never
been truer than today when every
person, industry and business needs to
build unprecedented flexibility into
their business models and move with
speed and agility.” Rachel underlines
that the ability to collect, harness, and
gain insights from available data is
now foundational to every industry.
She states, for an organization such as
Intel, to remain at the forefront of an
industry that’s continuing to change
rapidly, requires vision, adaptability,
and a culture that fosters innovation.
A business that’s content to continue
operating the way it has successfully
for decades will find itself irrelevant in
a very short period. She recalls how
one of Intel’s founders, Andy Grove,
created a culture at Intel that “only the
paranoid survive.” And she believes
that this is true now more than ever, as
every organization and leader must be
able to identify and exploit crisis points
to create the next new.
Passing on the scepter of inspiration
In her advice to the future generation
of leaders, Rachel narrates, “My dad
always told me, if you want to go fast,
go alone, but if you want to go far, go
together. Too often, women think
they’re showing strength by doing it
alone, but we’re stronger together, and
now more than ever before, business is
a team sport.”
Rachel avidly shares a few more
virtues and lessons which would
palpably help others in their path to
success, and to quote her:
“Start before you are ready. There’s no
magic date on the calendar. Sometimes
later becomes never. Find mentors –
both senior and junior mentors have
different but valuable lessons to teach.
Don't try to be Wonder Woman. She's
fictional and this is real life. It’s messy,
imperfect and we need to figure out
how to make it work without adding
undue pressures. This leads to my next
point.
Women are told so many times during
their lives that they cannot be good at
multiple things at once. We are told
you have kids, and you cannot climb
too high in your career. We are told we
cannot run board meetings and
carpools. We are told we cannot run
companies and care for our families.
We are told we cannot bring home the
bacon and fry it in the pan. We are told
if you are pretty, you won’t be taken
seriously. None of this is true. It’s our
secret, that’s our power, that’s our
magic, our strength. We are the
contradiction – we are the AND.
We earn advanced degrees after the
kids go to bed and pay the bills. We
raise our kids and impact our
companies’ EPS. We are executives for
some of the largest companies on the
planet and still answer the plastic
phone when our 3-year-old hands it to
us. We are ambitious and can make an
amazing room mom. We work outside
the home and love our friends/partners
who made different choices. We are the
“and” and can be both. This is your life
– kids, no kids, spouse, no spouse,
career or career on pause. It’s tragic
and triumphant, messy and magical.
Whatever your choice, make it count.
Be the AND, just not all at once!”
Change is the future
Rachel’s remark about what the future
holds for her, both, in terms of her
career as well as an individual, she
says, “With the velocity to change in
business increasing, I’ll admit it is
sometimes difficult to see clearly what
the future will hold and how soon.
From autonomous vehicles to AI, the
only thing that’s certain is change. We
must be ready and able to adapt to
those changes.
It's a big part of why I love working for
Intel. It's not just a company; it’s not
just a promise of the future; Intel is a
company that is serious about creating
the future. As the world continues to
become smarter, connected,
autonomous, and data driven – Intel is
at the forefront of creating the
extraordinary from 5G, to artificial
intelligence, to autonomous
everything. Intel is the only company
on the planet that has the ability to
connect everything from the edge
autonomous cars, smart machines, etc.
to the data center, to the cloud. Intel
continues to help transform our world,
our communities, our governments,

Cover Story
and our environment for the betterment of
humanity. I couldn’t imagine working anywhere
else!
For my four children, I have no doubt it means
they will be working in jobs that haven’t been
invented yet, and for those of us in the trenches,
we must foster a culture that values lifelong
learning as part of a growth mindset to keep
pace with the changes around us. We must help
our education systems keep pace with the
changing landscape so that as new jobs are
created, we also have the education systems in
place to ﬁll the pipelines.
And, while I think leaders of tomorrow will
face challenges and technologies we can’t
fathom today, Robert Noyce, another Intel co-
founder, eloquently stated, don’t be encumbered
by history. Go oﬀ and do something wonderful.”
“Whatever your
choice, make it count.
Be the AND, just not
all at once!
“

Address :
Country :City : State : Zip :
Global Subscription
Date :Name :
Telephone :
Email :
READ
IT
FIRST
Never Miss an Issue
Yes I would like to subscribe to Insights uccess Magazine., S
SUBSCRIBE
T O D A Y
Che should be drawn in favor of:ck INSIGHTS SUCCESS MEDIA TECH LLC
Insights Success Media Tech LLC
555 Metro Place North, Suite 100,
Dublin, OH 43017, United States
Phone (614)-602-1754,(302)-319-9947:
Email: info@insightssuccess.com
For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com
CORPORATE OFFICE

Sudha Mahajan
Reaching the New Milestones of Leadership
It is certain that ‘Initial struggles
often lead to Success’. The success
story of Sudha Mahajan, the Sr.
Director Product Management
(Principal Group PM), aptly
exemplifies this line. Sudha came to
United States from India in 1999 for
her master’s in computer science with
her two suitcases and lots of dreams.
She did not have a support system in
the U.S, but all she knew was that the
U.S. is a land of opportunities.
With little money in the pocket, her
first struggle was to pay the bills and
maintain high grades to continue
teaching assistantship, which was
granted on a merit only basis. As a
student, money to buy a mattress was a
luxury, so she decided to live without
one for the entire first year and slept on
the carpet instead. She spent many
nights in the lab since she had no
access to a PC at home and every
assignment needed to be completed in
the lab.
She graduated in 2001 with a Master of
Science degree in computer science but
struggled a lot in getting a job where
she lived in Texas. The recent dot com
burst, a weak economy, and hurdles
due to visa requirements, all added to
her fight to get into the job market.
Suddenly all the opportunities in this
dreamland seemed impossible, but the
struggle was far from over. During this
time, she met her husband and after
their marriage they moved to San
Francisco Bay area in California.
Every morning after her husband left
for work, she would pick up the car
and drive to every office with positions
listed online or in newspaper hoping
her resume will make it to right hands
and not sit in a database.
During one such day, she handed her
resume to Lynne Kelly, HR lead at
Macrovision. After few rounds of
interviews in January, she was offered
her first role as a tech support engineer
in Macrovision (which became Rovi
Corp. and is now known as TiVo). For
her, this meant the world as it was her
first real opportunity and her only shot
at proving herself. She started
volunteering for any extra projects
coming to her team. During one of her
projects working in a cross-functional
tiger team, she was offered a role in
Product Management (PM). Her
journey in PM started from there. This
is exactly what she was meant to do.
Her MBA from India complimented
with a MS from the U.S. was a great
combination to understand business
and technology.
From Struggles to Opportunities
Having started as tech support gave
Sudha a new fond respect for the
customer experience. Her outlook
towards building any product changed
and is fundamentally based on three
principles even to this date, which
include three questions;
Is it simple? Can it be explained to a
10-year-old?
20 April 2019|
Admired woman of the Month

Be the change you
wish to see in the
world. When you
see something
needs to be
changed, step up,
take the lead, and
execute.
“
“
21
Sudha Mahajan
Sr. Director Product Management
(Principal Group PM)
April 2019|

What problem does it solve? A problem well understood is
half solved.
Is this the right solution? Do we have data that supports it?
Thereon, the journey of Sudha started reaching new heights.
She has led various managerial roles and has now become
passionate in building new products and solving complex
problems. She served almost 8 years at Yahoo! as a director
of product leading its largest display advertising and data
platforms. She also held an important role of Head of
Product-Customer Experience at Flipkart, where she
managed product management, design and product
operations. Currently, she leads a Product team in Microsoft
Azure heading Customer excellence and cloud security.
It’s not about Limitations of Technology
Sudha has accumulated an enriching experience in tech
sector. According to her, every technology has limitations
but it’s the limitations that spark the next opportunity for
innovation. Over the last decade, many new expansions are
been witnessed people never thought of before. Examples
like Uber, Airbnb, Waymo, VR, Vimeo, Square are just few
that filled an important gap. Uber connected people to
transportation like no one else. Self-driving cars are
becoming a reality. Mixed reality is close to real world
experience that it is opening new markets in areas like
travel, healthcare and retail.
Many of the above are not perfect but improving every day.
The fear of new technology failing due to unpredictable
embracement by masses can impact the next big thing to be
invented.
Sudha believes that it is not limitations of the technology
that impacts the markets, but that fixed mindsets to not try
out new things which impacts growth. An organization
should embrace a growth mind set without the fear of
outcome and continue the path of change.
Women in Leadership Positions
Women are now seen coming into the limelight with their
exceptional talents. Even Sudha believes that the corporate
world is changing and is much more receptive to change
than it was about 15 years ago. In her opinion, companies
are being far more open to hear diverse perspectives and
promote diversity. Microsoft, for example, has women in
19.7% of its leadership positions as reported in its annual
comprehensive workforce demographic report released in
November. Sometimes it becomes difficult for female
executives to find their voices in leadership forums. “To
make a true difference – we need more men who support
women. Men that are willing to create opportunities for
women, willing to give them a voice and have them heard.
This is not “him” vs. “her”- this is “us”. We are in this
together to make a change!” says Sudha. While there is still
a lot of work that need to be done in this area, many
companies have started to recognize the benefits of a
diverse workforce. They are offering platforms like WIT
(Women in technology), support groups, better maternity
and paternity benefits to encourage women and help them
become future leaders.
Many companies have made it a requirement to have
diversity training before conducting hiring interviews, some
companies have requirements like including at least one
woman in interview panels, and now many companies are
considering having at least one women sitting on the board.
These are positive changes that will hopefully encourage
more women to grow their careers in technology.
Being Fearless is the Key
According to Sudha, a business leader should be fearless
and a risk taker. The data says that majority of the
businesses are unsuccessful, not the business leaders. A true
leader is one, who tried and never gave up and the one who
either succeeded or learnt. “Fear no one, seek solutions,
find a mentor and be decisive. It’s ok to fail, its ok to accept
failures, its ok to try again and again. There is no single
person who knows it all – so reach out deep and wide. And
lastly help others who are in need,” advises Sudha.
22 April 2019|

Ineke Kooistra is the CEO of YoungCapital, a leading Dutch recruitment agency, since
2013. She has been working in the recruitment and secondment branches for 25 years.
Additionally, she has also set up and expanded various specializations within the IT
stafﬁng market. Her role as the CEO of the company is to get people moving, motivate
them and coach them.
Together with three male founders, she directs a predominantly female management
team and 1,300 employees, of which 80 percent is also female. This is pure coincidence,
because Ineke doesn’t believe in selecting her employees based on gender.
About the Author
24 April 2019|

Establishing
GenderE uilibr um
At the top
“It’s all about finding someone’s strengths. Women don’t
outperform men and vice versa. But I won’t deny that it
takes a lot of discipline to stay at the top as a woman,”
Ineke expresses. Just like men, women have a lot of
qualities that match perfectly with a leadership role. It’s
important that leadership comes from the heart. And you
need to have the intention to help others grow and make
them better through your role. I call it Servant Leadership.
If you want to make your company a success, you need to
be of service to the company and its people. This has
nothing to do with gender or background.
That’s why a quota for women at the top is completely
nonsense, according to me. All women who really want to
reach the top, will find a way to break through that glass
ceiling. No bias in the world will stop a woman on a
mission to reach that top position. But it’s wrong to think
that anyone with the right capabilities – man or woman –
can work anywhere they want. There should be a match
between your personality, the company’s values and its
culture. And sometimes it’s just a case of pure luck. Being
at the right place at the right time. If this match doesn’t
come naturally, it’s just not meant to be.
But if there is a perfect match between you as a leader and a
company, it’s the first positive step, in my opinion. It’s still
a lot of work. Having all that responsibility takes a lot out
of you. You shouldn’t be afraid to make choices, and that
also means saying no to certain activities in your personal
life.
I am a mother of two and am not home every day. My
husband and I have been able to make it work. I notice that
a lot of women still find it difficult. But you can’t run a
company part time. You need to dare to go full in. Those
doubts often appear during the initial job interview. Women
say “I want to be a director, but I still have children that I
need to bring to school. Is that possible?” As if there are no
male CEOs that bring their kids to school. The big
difference is that men don’t ask these kinds of questions.
They just do it!
Balance
It’s all about balance. Recently, I attended a forum on
female leadership, where I talked about my role as a CEO.
In the audience, were female students who were just about
to graduate. When the moderator asked which of them
wanted the same job as me, only three of the four hundred
students raised their hands. The moderator was shocked,
and asked the audience what was going on. “She works too
much”, was the answer. “And we also want to be able to go
to parties, exercise and have a social life.” That shocked me
a little. It’s not that I don’t do anything else besides work.
My downtime, social life and work activities are just one
big mix. It’s true that I’m constantly thinking about work.
But I also allow myself to go for a run in the morning or see
my hairdresser during the week. To me, it’s just one full
week in which I can do a lot.
Did I have this go-getter mentality as a child, since I
already knew I wanted to one day reach the top? I think so.
But, at the same time, all the things I hoped for as a child
didn’t come true. What I got is a lot better. I definitely don’t
regret the choices that I’ve made. I started a family, got
married, and am the CEO of a young and ambitious
company. I should therefore be the last person to decide
whether or not one should have a leadership position based
on a ’home situation’. How you combine the two is up to
you. And yes, that takes a lot of discipline. But if you have
natural leadership qualities, I believe everything is going to
be alright.
The key to achieving this? As a female – or male – leader,
you need to learn to let go and prioritise. Just do your best
and focus on making things better for other people.
25April 2019|
Unbiased Future

Conjoining Passion and
Creativity to achieve Success
Cassandra
Hamel
It is certainly a passion about any particular thing that makes an
individual keep moving towards his/her goal. And when, creativity is
accompanied with passion, the outcome is absolutely enchanting and
favorable. One such individual is Cassandra Hamel, the Founder of Milton
Country Retreat “The Chocolate Cottages”, who is smartly combining
her passion and creativity to reach a new milestone in her business.
Cassandra is now known as “The Chocolate Lady” but this isn’t how
the story started.
A creative mind, Cassandra, enjoys art and had the desire to
make beautiful edible chocolate creations. When her second
child was only a year old, she decided to embark on crazy
mission to become a Chocolatier. She owns a cottage, which
was then providing chocolate strawberries to its guests at the
time and she wanted to expand its oﬀer to be something more
unique. After her chocolate studies, she spent hundreds of
hours creating edible art pieces for her cottage guests. As she
was still learning at that stage, she decided to make them a
complimentary gift for her cottage guests and this gesture
converted into an opportunity for her to be creative and
master her craft. The joy of giving a special gift that was
deliciously beautiful became the motivation & vision of the
business. Thereon, the company decided to re-brand to
become Milton Country Retreat “The Chocolate
Cottages”. It is now a chocolate retreat providing
extremely unique chocolate experiences, chocolate
sculpting workshops, chocolate antiquity experiences
& chocolate champagne picnics just to name a few.
28
Cassandra Hamel
Founder
Milton Country Retreat
“The Chocolate Cottages”
Photoby:MelissaKatherine
April 2019|

Encouraging to Take Ownership
Before starting up her own business, Cassandra worked for
over 20 years in various management roles, in fields such as
retail, human resources & merchandising management.
Every management position she was offered was due to her
openness to learn and undertake training courses. She
jumped at any chance to learn something new, which then
leads onto the next opportunity. She also opines that one
should apply for everything, even if he or she is not
qualified enough. It is captivating to know what people can
achieve when they stop listening to the negative voice in
their head and just truly go for it.
Also, for Cassandra, nothing compares to owning a
business. When she left the corporate world, she finally felt
free to truly follow her passion, find her niche and embrace
all her strengths and skills to create something truly
beautiful, something she is extremely proud of.
Utilizing Technology to Strengthen Brand
In the opinion of Cassandra, the advancements in
technology and the growth of using social media as the
advertising medium of business are paramount in its
success. Cassandra believes in the power of knowledge. She
also wishes that she had the knowledge she has right now
back then when she started this journey. Being in the
accommodation game she had to learn to use Online Travel
Agents to her advantage and not any disadvantage. The
fresh new accommodation owner sadly falls often into the
trap of using these companies to bring them business in
their peak periods. Instead, they can use them as a
secondary tool to fill slow selling rooms and instead
investing their time and money establishing their own
branding & driving sales to their own webpages. This is the
true key to long term success of any accommodation owner
in today’s flooded world of competitors. With so many
accommodation choices especially since the successful
growth of Air BNB, businesses need to use technology to
their advantage to stand out from the crowd. They should
have a unique selling proposition and ensure that their
social media marketing, their SEO and their services are all
aligned to continue to strengthen their brand.
Addressing the Importance of USP
Cassandra believes that a unique selling proposition, paired
with exceptional service is paramount in sustaining a
leading position. Many businesses have a vision of what
they want to achieve, they throw money into marketing and
then sadly don’t initially get the outcome they desire, they
try again and again each time with a new marketing plan, a
new idea. This leads to their detriment and they lose their
brand identity and market place to their competitors.
Learning from Mistakes
The significant thing Cassandra has learnt recently is that
one should dream, but one should also learn to “Let Go”, as
people can get blinded with being stuck on one particular
idea or a one-track mind to reach their ultimate goal. She
says, “Business is like the weather, ever changing and
unpredictable, so you need to be able to adjust with the
seasons, dance in the rain so as to speak, and to make sure
that you are open to new ideas and opportunities which
may actually be exactly what you need to succeed.”
Cassandra hopes to continue to learn from her mistakes,
enjoy the ride and continue to live a life filled with decadent
passion.
Being Passionate is the Key
According to Cassandra, being passionate is an essential
attribute every leader should possess. If one is not
passionate about what one does, he or she won’t last
through the dark days. Business is hard and exhausting, and
huge investment of time and money is needed especially in
the beginning stages. Cassandra has a young family, so it’s
a daily balancing act of being a mother and a so-called
business entrepreneur. But, it is her passion that helps her
through when she makes mistakes, that inspires her to try
again. It’s the unwavering hunger to achieve the goals she is
incredibly passionate about that have helped her believe in
herself when she has doubts. She asserts, “If you go to sleep
thinking about your business, if you constantly day dream
about your goals, then I believe you are on the right track
to great success.”
She also adds, “Be brave; don’t listen to any negative talk,
especially your own, if you have a deep hunger to achieve
something, don’t let anything get in your way. I won’t lie to
you, it’s not going to be easy, but if you are truly passionate
about something you have to dig deep and give it everything
you have to achieve it.”
“Not all girls are made of sugar and everything nice.
Some are made of adventure, dark chocolate, intelligence,
cuss words, and courage.” – Brooke Hampton
29April 2019|

“
An Inspirational Tech Leader and Inventor
Donna Wilczek
Donna Wilczek
Vice President of Product
Strategy & Innovation
“
People are the
center of business.
The more you
genuinely care about
making the other
person successful,
the more successful
you will be.
30 April 2019|

deep passion for solving problems and
empathy for the people experiencing
them. You need to truly care. If you dig
in on something you deeply care about
and set your sights on understanding
every angle of the problem, it makes it
easier to create an innovative solution.”
Winning Together
Donna finds tremendous joy in helping
others succeed. She is a firm believer
in the exponential impact created when
you lift, encourage, and support one
another. In her words, “This is how 10
people can execute as 100, or 100 as
1,000; it creates an exponential impact
of every individual. As we grow as a
company, the key is infusing this spirit
by modeling this spirit daily and
creating a community filled with
people (both colleagues and customers)
wanting to win together.” Donna also
encourages men to understand and
embrace the value of diversity and to
support women leaders. When men and
women are united in this goal, an
environment is created in which
women can more smoothly and
effectively rise to leadership positions
and be successful in these positions.
Shooting for the Stars
With Coupa since 2011, Donna has
held a variety of key leadership roles
that have helped propel Coupa from
early startup days to a public company
with $260 million annual revenue.
Donna spoke to us about the principle
of striving for excellence. “When I was
a little kid, my mom instilled in me
that nothing is impossible. It’s no
wonder I thrive on working with my
colleagues to reimagine and create our
industry’s future. The lofty shared
vision creates a huge sense of purpose.
Over and over I find that my mom was
so right - get rid of self limiting
thoughts and shoot for the stars.”
interview. “After my morning job
ended, I would then go to work at a
video store. But I had a book ready to
read in any spare moment.”
Even though Donna was a straight A
student, her love of knowledge
propelled her to spend the money she
earned on after school classes.
“To this day, my mom teases me that I
must have been the only 15 year old
around that had a goal of using their
personal earnings to pay for tutoring to
get even more A’s.” But it was also
Donna’s mom that inspired her to
strive for excellence and who
encouraged her that she could do
anything she put her mind to.
Donna’s very large immigrant Polish
family and extended family
demonstrated the true meaning of
community. “My parents and relatives
helped everyone and always looked out
for one another,” said Wilczek. “I was
the middle child with five siblings. My
two older sisters were incredibly
supportive and I did everything I could
to help with my three younger
siblings.” This combination of grit,
hard work, love of learning, empathy,
and a focus on results would prove to
be the very foundation of her success.
In our interview with Donna, we talked
about these critical success factors.
The Spirit of Innovation
Donna fundamentally believes that
“none of us is as smart as all of us.”
She brings a collaborative spirit to
problem solving, engaging customers,
end users, colleagues, and other
experts around the world, diving in and
turning over every rock to understand
both the big picture and the details of
the market and its problems. When
asked about her views on tech
innovation she shares, “It starts with a
As technology continues to
impact all sectors, women
have been instrumental in
empowering the tech space and have
acquired coveted positions in leading
organizations. Increasingly, women
entrepreneurs are contributing to the
technology space with an extra dose of
grit, perseverance, and strength of
purpose.
One such tech leader is Donna
Wilczek, the Vice President of
Product Strategy and Innovation at
Coupa. Donna is an energetic software
executive with more than 15 years of
experience in both fast-paced and large
technology companies. She is a
dynamic leader with a particular
passion for working with colleagues to
make customers wildly successful. She
engages this passion for customer
success through such vehicles as the
Coupa Executive Advisory Board, of
which she is an executive sponsor. She
is also an inventor with three software
patents created with her Coupa
colleagues.
Born and raised in a working class
neighborhood blocks away from
Midway Airport in Chicago, Donna
could never have imagined a career in
the heart of Silicon Valley as a leader
at a NASDAQ-listed company. As a
child, she was surrounded by people
who made their living through manual
labor and sheer hard work. Naturally,
she began on the same path but her
love of learning changed her course.
“Growing up, extreme hard work was
at the center of everything I saw, but
learning was at the center of what I
loved. Starting at the age of 14, I spent
many summer mornings working on a
factory floor packing tea boxes and
trying to be faster and more efficient
with every pallet that went out the
door,” said Wilczek in a recent
31April 2019|

As of 2017, 6% of the venture capitalists were
women and only 2.7% women owned businesses
received venture capital funding. Being a VC in
this startup economy, where 90% of startups fail, is a tough
job. However, it has noting to do with gender.
“Hi. I am Nin Desai. I head a crowdfunded technology
venture capital ﬁrm, NIN Ventures (or NIN.VC). We invest
in Series A & B rounds of disruptive technology
companies.”
While there are number of factors responsible for success in
the venture capital industry including timing and luck, top
of that list is a disruptive technology. A disruptive
technology is an innovation that changes the way an
existing industry functions and also helps create a new
market and value network, displacing an earlier technology
or a way of doing business.
E.g. 3D printing has been used for rapid prototyping and is
being applied in a number of industries today, including
in the
VentureWorld
Ms. Nin Desai
President & CEO
NIN.VC
32 April 2019|
Stellar’s Vision

About the Author
Ms. Nin Desai, the President and CEO of
NIN.VC, is an experienced fund manager
and a technology geek. Her sweet spot is
investing in disruptive technologies. Ms.
Desai has been awarded 2015 CEO Of The
Year – Illinois, for innovation and
contribution to the Venture Capital &
Private Equity industry by Acquisition
International magazine and Private Equity
Fund Manager to Watch for 2017 by
Corporate America. She has been featured
in VentureBeat, Chicago Tribune, Chicago
Sun Times, Forbes, Inc, WGN’s After Hours
with Rick Kogan, NBC Weekend Web with
Charlie Wojciechowski, Bloomberg’s
Taking Stock, Crowdfund Insider, and CIO
Review to name a few.
Ms. Desai’s experience spans all facets of
mergers and acquisitions, and corporate
finance including public offerings and
private placements. She is a Microsoft
Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) and
has a technical diploma in E-commerce by
IBM, holds Series 7 and 63 licenses from
NASD, and is a B.B.A and M.B.A in
Finance/International Business from
Loyola University of Chicago. She recently
attended a leadership program in Private
Equity and Venture Capital at Harvard
Business School.
manufacturing, automotive, consumer, aerospace, defense,
and especially healthcare. As the accuracy and materials
market have improved, the medical space shows great
potential for this technology. There are about 114,000
people currently on the organ recipient list in United States;
and only 34,770 transplants were performed in 2017. Every
10 minutes a new person is added to the waiting list and 20
people die every day because they cannot find a right organ.
What if 3D printing tissues can help save some of those
lives?
Every sector at some point is up for disruption. E.g. Ad
Tech. Over time as consumer behavior patterns changed,
Digital has now replaced Traditional Television. People are
now spending more time on their personal devices like
phone, tablets, & PCs. An average American spends about 3
hours everyday on their personal devices, and this is the
first time, the time spend on personal devices have
surpassed time spent watching Television, which is a big
change and opportunity for the Ad Tech Industry.
th
E.g. 4 Industrial Revolution. We stand on the brink of a
technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the
way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale,
scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike
anything humankind has experienced before. The First
Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to
mechanize production. The Second used electric power to
create mass production. The Third used electronics and
information technology to automate production. Now a
Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the
digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle
of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of
technologies that is blurring the lines between the 3D, 4D,
digital, other smart and biological spheres.
However, great ideas and technology needs to be backed by
a solid revenue model in order to attract customers as well
as attain profitability for the company to be an attractive
investment opportunity for a VC. E.g. our new initiative,
Total Capitalism. A startup needs an ecosystem to thrive
upon, thus it is very important for a company to understand
the market dynamics, its impact on their industry, product,
and also have a good understanding of the competitive
landscape in order to achieve long term success. A
disruptive technology needs to scale and a through analysis
helps gage those risk and rewards.
A CEO is the captain of the ship; and at NIN.VC we start
with an entrepreneur because entrepreneurs build
companies and not the other way around. Some of the
qualities VCs look for in an entrepreneur are ability to
dream big with ideas that scale, certain personality traits
and work ethics like being focused, disciplined, and hard
working. It’s important to have industry expertise and
knowledge or surround yourself with people that
compliment. However, flexibility and choices an
entrepreneur / the team makes determines the future of the
company. An amazing entrepreneur with a disruptive
technology, a solid revenue model, and good understanding
of the competitive landscape goes to vain, if the company
does not communicate effectively or has a good execution
strategy.
Venture Capitalists are known to invest in unicorns that
prove to be home run for their LPs and while there is no
secret recipe for success, hope this helps in understanding
the art and science behind each of that investment.
33April 2019|

meaningful life in its entirety
Ais defined by what we
understand as our true purpose.
Those who apply their skills to helping
others, whether locally or for a global
cause, nurture within themselves
patience, fortitude, and selflessness,
often showing how to go out and
change the world.
Similarly, the intention of this issue,
Most Admired Women Leaders in
Business, is to shed light upon
individuals working to fulfill their
personal purpose. The results of our
search to find such people wouldn’t be
complete without Erna Grasz, the
CEO and Co-founder of Asante
Africa Foundation.
Pioneering unknown territories,
tackling complex challenges, and
making the impossible possible—all of
these challenges are nothing new for
Erna Grasz. Grasz laid the foundation
of Asante Africa Foundation with two
visionary women, one from Kenya and
the other from Tanzania. Grasz refers
to herself as a “Systems Engineer
turned Systems Entrepreneur for a
Global Impact.” Originally trained as
an Electrical-System Engineer, Grasz
spent her early career at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory and
then in Silicon Valley as a Vice
President and General Manager.
During her 25 years in the corporate
world as a senior executive, Grasz
earned a reputation as an effective
strategic leader, known as “the
organizer of chaos,” with substantial
success in diverse industries. In 2012,
she transitioned her leadership skills
from her role as Chief Technology
Officer in the medical device market to
the non-profit world as CEO of Asante
Africa Foundation.
Grasz not only brings her business
savvy to the global non-profit world,
she’s also one of its visionary leaders,
developing many innovative programs
and practices. She maintains a strong
belief in the power of leveraging
locally available talent and
partnerships to ensure the foundation’s
success and long-term sustainability.
Erna has been recognized for her work
worldwide, receiving the national
Jefferson Award for public service and
the Distinguished Engineering Award
for innovation in developing countries.
In 2016, she was a HULT Prize Judge
for Innovation in Urban Slums
(Clinton Global Initiative). Recently,
Grasz received the 2018 Gratitude
Network Award. In 2018, Asante
Africa was honored with the USAID
Young Women Transform Prize,
receiving recognition for the
organization’s Girl-Led Leadership and
Entrepreneurship Program. To date,
Asante Africa Foundation’s programs
have empowered almost a half-million
youth and teachers directly and
through its alumni’s ripple effect.
The Scepter of Leadership and
Compassion
In Grasz’s view, over her progressively
diverse career, the one thing that has
remained constant is change. An
optimist at heart, she sees chaos as a
potential opportunity for creating a
‘new normal’ and for improving
existing systems.
“Technology provides a collaborative
platform and creates reality from what
was only a dream a decade ago,” she
says. As an engineer, she is constantly
looking at technology as part of a
system’s solution, but not the only
solution.
As a team leader, Grasz defines what
can be a program’s “true north.” She
then brings the appropriate talent on
board, and helps the team become
comfortable with the unknowns, while
navigating toward the collective “true
north.” She also fully recognizes the
need to have a Plan B, Plan C, and
Plan D as things unexpectedly weave
and change, upending the original plan.
Grasz has frequently been told that
getting from point A to Point B will be
messy. Her response? “Part of being a
good leader is helping a team minimize
the messiness—but also assuring
everyone that sometimes messy is
okay.” “The journey to true north is
never guaranteed to be in a straight
line,” she says.
When asked what vital attributes a
business leader should have, Grasz
says that number one is the ability to
adapt. Also, a strong leader must
remain humble, she says, because he or
she might not have all the answers at
any given moment-- and that’s okay.
Another quality is authenticity—to be
able to develop the trust of colleagues
and teammates to struggle together for
a shared vision. “If you have no
followers, you’re a lone nut and not a
leader,” Grasz says.
Erna GraszLeading Global Social Change
36 April 2019|

’Paying it Forward’ Grasz passionately believes is
mandatory to successfully grow the next generation of
talented leaders. As the first in her family to go beyond high
school, she’s achieved what she has because other people
recognized her potential and helped open doors for her.
Their encouragement led her to college and later to become
an electrical engineer. Each of these steps helped propel her
toward her global success today.
As for confronting cutthroat market competition, Grasz
believes that regardless of the market, the leaders of the
organization, as well as the implementers, must always stay
alert, listening to the “ground truth,” while staying abreast
of market data and trends. Her guideline: Continuously
learn, grow, innovate, and adapt or you will become
irrelevant.
Overpowering the Stereotypes
Grasz believes that we should recognize that leadership
isn’t a title but a sphere of influence. Everyone has the
potential to lead from wherever he or she stands at any
moment. And each of us has the personal power to be a
positive role model, regardless of job title or formal
position.
Grasz recommends several ways to nurture positive growth:
Women and girls should be encouraged to raise their hands,
even when they don’t have 100% of the information. All of
us need to recognize that we don’t have to be 100% correct
all the time. Women typically have brilliant instincts and
intuition, as well as the intellect to make good decisions.
Women and girls need to use their networks, support each
other, advocate for each other, and not be afraid to use their
voices on their own behalf.
Today’s global and workplace dynamics are very different
from yesterday’s, and no one has the exact recipe. In her
advice to future generations of business leaders, Grasz says,
“Trust your instincts and intuition, as well as your intellect.
I have always thought that young people need to face, not
fake, it while they’re figuring it out and to recognize that to
some degree everyone is figuring it out! So--be bold, stay
humble, and rally experts around you. You don’t have to do
it alone!”
Envisioning Global Development
As a young professional, Erna Grasz always knew her many
diverse skills and talents would come together at some
point for a higher purpose--but she didn’t know what! She
spent her 20s developing skills and adding tools to her
toolkit. In her 30s, she developed her reputation and street
credibility. And she spent her 40s going global in the
corporate marketplace. Now in her 50s, Grasz immerses
herself in creating global change, using all she’s learned in
her previous decades.
Grasz will tell you that developing a social-mission focused
on global issues is the hardest effort--and equally the most
rewarding one—she’s ever undertaken. She says:
“Developing the next generation of leaders is a global-sized
challenge, yes --but it also reaps global-sized rewards”.
No one travels their road alone.
Having fun and travelling your road
with trusted friends and colleagues,
is the real definition of success.
“ “
Erna Grasz
Co-founder & CEO
Asante Africa Foundation
37April 2019|

38
In this highly competitive business world, the success of
any company is reliant on three key factors: ability to
innovate, discipline to implement and an adept
commercialization of the product or service. Businesses that
excel in these key factors can thrive on a global scale.
The biggest challenge for innovation is cherry picking the
right ideas and achieving launch success by aligning cross
functional teams. This requires real time access to
information as the innovation progresses through the stages
of commercialization. However, keeping the cross
functional team aligned on the same page is impossible
without an innovation platform that provides real time
information on the feasibility or issues that occur along the
way to launch.
For the last twenty-ﬁve years, New York based company
Iris Interactive is enabling its customers to transform new
ideas into successful brands through its secure collaboration
platform that fosters excellence in innovation,
commercialization and execution.
Meet Janaki Joshi, the CEO and prime innovator behind
Iris Interactive. Under Janaki’s leadership, Iris and its cloud
based solutions are empowering its customers to bring
innovative products faster to market.
The solutions developed by Janaki and her team provide
complete insights to the entire company. R&D,
manufacturing, product management, marketing, ﬁnance
and sales can manage end-to-end innovation and achieve
Janaki JoshiStepping Up and Embedding Innovation in the DNA for Customers
April 2019|

39
breakthrough success in product commercialization. The
company revolutionizes the innovation process through the
Iris Innovation Hub, the virtual platform, by making both
open as well as and challenge-based innovation part of the
DNA of its customers., Iris has a proven track record in
helping hundreds of large, mid-size and small size
companies. In the last two decades, Iris has helped
companies transform their innovation and product
commercialization with unparalleled success across 25
countries.
Curiosity, Converting an Idea into a Venture
Back in the 1990’s, during the early stages of her career,
Janaki was trained as an accountant and had opportunities
to work in large consumer, pharmaceuticals and
telecommunications companies. During this time, Janaki
witnessed the need for technology in innovation and
product commercialization. She recognized that although
there were automated systems to track every activity related
to accounts, essential processes like innovation and product
commercialization were managed in an ad-hoc manner
leading to wasted investment, resources, reduced chances of
success and loss of competitive advantage.
Janaki’s curiosity and vision to bridge this gap led to the
formation of Iris Interactive. Realizing the need and
potential of the technology Janaki along with her team
created a system that helps the entire company achieve
faster time-to-market, higher sales and stronger brands.
While describing about the innovation powered approach of
Iris Interactive Janaki notes, “Our philosophy is to innovate
and stay ahead of the curve both technically and in the way
we engage with customers.” The company aims to deliver
exceptional value to customers by understanding the factors
driving their business, and envisions making a difference
with the Iris Interactive platform in the way they innovate
and commercially succeed in their markets.
Shifting Gears of Entrepreneurship
Janaki asserts vision, passion, authenticity, perseverance
and respect are five attributes that are a must for a business
leader of the 21st century. According to Janaki norms of
entrepreneurship are changing. She believes we live in the
age of transparency where even an intern in the company
can find out crucial things about their leader and have a
choice to be part of an organization or not. Hence, it is an
absolute must for a leader to lead from the front and win the
heart of every team player.
Stepping up Beyond Stereotypes
A globally successful entrepreneur Janaki claims, “We still
live in patriarchal society which is a byproduct of our
agricultural heritage, and so the challenge stems from how
men and women relate to each other not just at work but
also at home and in other social interactions.”
Women wiling to prove their mettle in business world are
expected to be a great mother, wife and a leader. It creates
external pressure on them and sometimes weakens their will
power. However, Janaki highlights the landscape is now
changing with the millennials not relating to the
stereotypes. Thus, things will be different for women a
decade or two from now. This shift is extremely positive as
it will enable women to own their power. They will step up
to the challenge and will speak up, breaking old stereotypes
to become more open minded and acceptable to the change.
In order to catalyze this, Janaki advises budding women
entrepreneurs to believe in themselves even when everyone
around them is doubtful, be bold and follow their vision.
She encourages them not to be afraid to fail, as failure in
the first attempt is a stepping stone for success in the next
venture. She exclaims, “The future is promising, so go forth
and make a difference!”
Work and Life Balance for All
Janaki is driven by the vision to alter the corporate
environment as it has become more stressful and everyone
is looking for work life balance. She believes technology
can empower teams to work from anywhere, connecting
them with key activities and strategic initiatives in real-
time, which will assuredly help in finding the work life
balance. She is passionate to fuel such environment in Iris.
She has managed to transform the work environment for
managers to telecommuting and coming to work only 1-3
days a week, making meetings shorter and more effective. It
is satisfying for her personally and professionally as this
customer centric and employee centric approaches kept Iris
way ahead of its competition even after 20 years of its
inception.
April 2019|

Successful Personality
Traits to Learn
from Elon Musk
Legends never need an introduction. They tend to be
victorious despite of their uneventful histories. They
stick to captivating traits such as Discipline,
determination and self-belief which help them accomplish
wonders in the long run. One such example of an extra-
ordinary person is Elon Musk, a South African Business
Magnate, Investor and an engineer.
Musk is the founder, CEO, and chief architect of SpaceX;
co-founder, CEO, and product designer of Tesla Inc.; and
co-founder and CEO of Neuralink. As of February 2018, he
is the 53rd-richest person in the world and has a net worth
of $20.8 billion, which is far more than the net GDP of
Greece taken into consideration.
While each entrepreneur possesses a unique set of traits that
makes him/her successful, this Tech founder has a few traits
much different from any other ordinary CEO, which has
allowed him to build some of the world’s most respected
and innovative organizations. Musk once quoted, “When
something is important enough, you do it even if the odds
are not in your favor.”
Let’s have a look on these personality attributes and
characteristics that make him a contender for the most
innovative intellectual entrepreneur of the century alive.
Hard-work and Characteristic Work Ethics
Elon Musk is a hard-working innovator, working for about
100 hours a week, and has been productive since many
years. He may even be considered as the hardest working
employee of the company, setting standards for his
colleagues to follow and implement. Since the field of work
lies inside his radius of interests, he enjoys it to every
moment and bit when it comes to learning and execution.
Strong Risk Tolerance
Founding a start-up involves a great deal of uncertainty and
risk. A study found that after 10 years of being in business,
96 percent of the start-ups fail. Going by the statistics,
Musk must have faced the same odds against him, when he
had decided to leave an otherwise comfortable life to start a
risky and uncertain business venture.
For instance, Musk left his PhD program at Stanford
University to find a company called Zip2 with his brother in
the year 1995. Later, the company was sold to Compaq
computers, profiting Musk a bit over $20 million.
Following this, Musk once again took a great risk by
investing millions of dollars to found a company called
X.com, one of the world’s first online banks.
‘Always Be Learning’ Attitude
An astounding and less-known fact about Elon Musk is
that he is self-taught in programming and in many
advanced level subjects. He read and understood a
variety of books, which helped him gain endless and
persistent knowledge and understand diverse concepts.
The best piece of advice on learning and implementation
is to constantly think about how things could be done in
a better manner and question self to seek the answers.
40 April 2019|

Feedback Loop
It is of prime importance to recognize the present
symbol or otherwise ‘status quo’ in the market as an
organization and re-position accordingly. Musk solicits
constant feedback of the companies and executes ‘self-
analysis.’ He induces efforts and divergent strategies to
improve customer feedbacks and strives towards
perfectionism.
For example, he seeks out his critics and tries to converse
with them. This habit of self-reflection at regular and
considerable periods is pivotal for any entrepreneur or
organization to succeed in the long run.
Tendency for Vertical Integration
Vertical integration is a strategy where an organization or a
firm acquires business operations within the same product
vertical. Both Tesla and SpaceX embrace this concept. For
example, Tesla not only produces electric cars; they also
generate public awareness about their cars via Tesla
showrooms across various countries. And SpaceX does not
only have the primary goal of rocket propulsions; they
develop their own rocket architecture as well.
Faith in Self and the Founding Team
Musk undoubtedly possesses a profound belief in his own
capabilities as well as the potential-seeking factor of its
founding team. He does not hesitate to gamble on large
scale unless he is genuinely aware of the expected end-
results.
It is equally essential to maintain clarity of doubt in any
large scale organization. Under his supervision, Musk
encourages in creating a positive and comprehensive
environment across his firms.
Preferring to Stand Out From the Crowd
Musk elects to bring up innovation at every level of his
understanding. He tends to impart theoretical knowledge at
the base level, applying changes and executing the same on
the practical level. He relies more on transitional aspects
such as research and development, thereby increasing the
probability of ground-breaking inventions.
Tesla Motors, a far headed firm headed by Elon Musk, is
anti-ordinary. Its compelling marketplace has become a
one-stop destination for potential buyers where they can
interact about product specifications. They also have video
testimonials that far outperform in the sales-dominated
industry.
There is no ambiguity that Musk, by far, has been a pillar of
inspiration for budding entrepreneurs and investors because
of his prolific and optimistic approach towards life
All these traits possessed by Musk, in some manner or the
other, coincide with most of your habits. The only thing that
stands as a potential barrier between these two is
identifying your strengths and working on them on a
continual basis. Go on, apply these traits into your daily
life, and you may become the next big CEO the world is in
need of today!
41April 2019|
Imparting Wisdom

Kathleen
BrandtDriving Curiosity to Seize Opportunities
It is curiosity that bridges the
knowledge gap between what one
currently knows and what one
needs to know. It fuels a leader’s
capacity to go the extra mile. Curiosity
not only enables competence, but also
helps navigate challenges. This trait
elevates the leadership game. For a
leader it serves as a means to expand
knowledge, build relationships, seek
alliances, and gain a deeper
understanding of self and a way to
succeed across diﬀerent cultures. A
profound leader, Kathleen Brandt,
aptly exempliﬁes the phenomenon of
curiosity by possessing the ultimate
combination of an insatiable thirst for
Kathleen Brandt
Senior Vice President
of Technology &
Chief Information Ofcer
CSX
44 April 2019|

Successful leaders are
reliable business partners
who deliver results, inspire
excellence and make
a difference within
their organizations.
“
“
knowledge and a desire to make the
world a better place. Driven by
curiosity and a desire to make a
difference, Kathleen began her career
at CSX, a leading North American
transportation company with a 21,000-
mile rail network serving customers in
23 states, in 1985 as a software
developer. She progressed through
positions of increasing responsibility,
across many functions within CSX
Technology, gaining a unique
perspective of railroad operations and
eventually earning a leadership role as
Senior Vice President of Technology
and Chief Information Officer.
Inculcating Technology to Build
Topnotch Solutions
According to Kathleen, technology is
embedded in every aspect of modern
railroading, playing an indispensable
role in the industry’s constant
evolution to become safer, more
efficient and more service oriented. As
a critical part of CSX’s transformative
operating model that is driving
unprecedented service to customers,
technology enables the company’s
progress toward reaching its strategic
objectives. Now more than ever,
technology is supporting CSX’s efforts
to increase service agility, reliability,
and – above all – safety. This creates a
stimulating environment for tech
development that draws people who
are diverse, talented, innovative and
seeking challenges. Kathleen’s
leadership and strategic vision fuel
her team’s delivery of exciting
solutions for CSX, such as leveraging
artificial intelligence for capacity
planning; employing predictive
analytics for engineering asset
reliability and safety; and
implementing progressive
cybersecurity solutions that support
workforce productivity.
Exemplifying Agility
CSX’s goal is to be the best railroad in
North America, and Kathleen takes
personal responsibility for developing
talented innovators and delivering tools
and best practices that advance the
company toward that objective. Agility
is her trademark approach in both
technical value delivery and her
professional leadership style. She
leverages benchmarking, frequently
communicating with leaders from
various sectors, and then using their
insights to identify opportunities to
improve CSX’s systems and processes.
She also partners with key business
leaders, as well as leading suppliers,
researchers and academia, to maintain
a fresh perspective.
Never Stop Learning
Kathleen has always had a thirst for
knowledge that motivates her to seize
opportunities to learn as much as
possible about the business and her
customers, and to create those
opportunities when necessary. For any
leader, continuous learning and a
healthy dose of curiosity are
paramount to success. This life-long
pursuit of learning and growing – not
just in your craft, but across many
functions of business and industry –
keeps leaders in touch and winning,
she believes.
A Skill to Be Developed
Leadership requires effort. It is a skill
developed through discipline,
experience and humility. Kathleen
embodies CSX’s leadership model,
which defines key requirements of
effective leaders. First, they must
produce results, understanding that
they must lead their teams to achieve
aggressive objectives that deliver value
for the company as a whole. Second,
they must embrace change and actively
foster a culture that rejects
complacency and stagnation. Third,
CSX leaders inspire excellence by
setting a high bar and motivating their
teams to create value.
Kathleen takes a service-oriented
approach to business leadership. She
advises emerging leaders to be
consistent, follow through on
commitments and meet deadlines. By
consistently doing what they say
they’re going to do, she believes,
young leaders will prove their value
over time. Moreover, aspiring leaders
should strive to make a difference for
their teams, colleagues and companies.
They should focus on communicating
to employees, clients and customers
what’s in it for them, not what’s in it
for the leader. Finally, emerging
leaders should focus their energy on
the things that truly add value and
produce meaningful progress.
Empowering Women to Take the
Charge
Kathleen is involved with many
organizations that focus on
encouraging and engaging the next
generation of women in STEM. She is
on the Board of Directors of Railinc,
Northeast Florida Regional STEM2
Hub, and Dreams Come True. She also
serves on the executive advisory board
of the Jacksonville University Davis
College of Business, is a sponsor for
SOAR, and is involved with the
National African American Women’s
Leadership Institute and Women in IT.
Kathleen encourages women to take
risks in exploring new roles and stretch
assignments that will help them
advance their own professional
development and careers.
45April 2019|

Women’s body endures many changes on different
levels due to the impact of menstruation. This
menstrual cycle states a lot about a women’s
health condition on physical as well as mental level. Periods
between puberty and menopause outline the good condition
of the body. Similarly, having an irregularity or painful
period shows the sign of a serious health problem. Ignoring
these signs can lead to major health problems, including
pregnancy problems. Bearing in mind these women’s
problems, and to alleviate the pain and suffering Mrs. Lea
von Bidder, the Co-founder and President of Ava
Science, Ltd. is delivering significant solutions through her
company towards women’s health safety.
An Admired Personality
Lea has earned a master’s degree in global entrepreneurship
from EM Lyon in France, Zhejiang University in China and
Purdue Krannert University in the US. She completed her
bachelor’s degree at the University of St. Gallen and at
HEC Montreal in Canada. During her studies, Lea worked
in the Marketing Department of Procter & Gamble in
Frankfurt and for a strategy consulting firm in Paris. Lea
was also a co-founder of L’Inouï, a company that produces
and distributes high-quality chocolate in Bangalore, India.
Ava was founded in 2014 by Pascal Koenig, Philipp
Tholen, Peter Stein, and Lea von Bidder after Lea’s return
to Switzerland. The company specializes in new
developments in the field of medical technology related to
reproductive health. Ava was voted as startup of the year in
Switzerland in both 2017 and 2018 and won the Swiss
Medtech Award in 2018. The Ava bracelet is the firm’s first
product for the consumer market and uses state-of-the-art
sensor technology together with clinically proven methods
to pinpoint a woman’s fertile days in real time. The Ava
bracelet has won several international awards such as "The
Bump Best of Baby Tech CES 2017" award in the fertility
and pregnancy category and the "Editor’s Choice" Award
from Women’s Health magazine. Lea was awarded Forbes
30 under 30 in 2018 and will become the CEO of Ava in
January 2020.
Emphasizing on the Importance of Decision
Decision making is the most essential trait which is critical
skill for effective management and leadership. Indecision is
a downfall for a person who wants to become a leader. Lea
strongly believes that speed in execution is a critical
success factor in fast-changing times and in order to bring
true speed to an organization, decisions are needed to be
taken non-centrally. And only leaders that communicate a
clear vision and mission will be able to trust those decisions
and get success.
A Visionary Approach
Ava has the vision from very beginning of what AvaScience
will be one day. Lea believes that the company, the team
and the organization will develop together and an inspiring
company’s vision and mission is to solve a problem. She
also firmly believes in “hiring smart people, people that are
smarter than you.”
The tracking of a woman’s cycle, fertility, and pregnancy is
just the start of many exciting possibilities. In Ava science,
Ava intends to further develop its technology, so that the
Ava bracelet can also be used in the future to detect
pregnancy complications and be used as a hormone-free
method of contraception. Lea is conducting several ongoing
clinical trials to these ends. With the Ava bracelet, the
company is adding quality in women’s health effortlessly.
The bracelet is designed with comprehensive technology
which has many features such as-
Ÿ It tracks sleep, physiological stress levels, and resting
heart rate—so woman can see whether her lifestyle is
supporting optimal health.
Ÿ The device helps to understand how the cycle impacts
the health with features like symptom tracking, trend
analysis, graphs, and more. Trend analysis shows how
Lea von
Bidder
Bringing Innovative
Changes in
Health Sector
46 April 2019|

the menstrual cycle impacts the way someone feels
throughout the month.
Ÿ Ava bracelet is clinically proven to detect the very
beginning of the fertile window—in real time, as it
happens. That’s totally different than LH tests,
which only detect the last day or two of the fertile
window, and the temperature method, which only
confirms ovulation after the fact.
Ÿ After getting pregnant, one can get a whole new
app experience with detailed explanations about
what to expect in each week of pregnancy.
Ÿ During pregnancy the device will continue track
sleep, physiological stress, and resting pulse rate,
as well as compare weekly weight gain to standard
recommendations.
What would
Emily from Ohio
think about that?
Encouraging Emerging Women Leaders
Being a businessperson, Lea advises emerging women
leaders that, “Find your tribe – It’s easier to not do
this alone. It’s so important to do something you have
a strong connection to and that really gives you
fulfillment, because founding a startup comes at a
price.” She believes that for empowering women for
leadership position it is necessary to reduce gender
bias. There are perceptions which should be changed
such as women who bring their kids to work couldn’t
find a babysitter; whereas men who bring their kids to
work are adorable, and when kids grow up boys are
good at math, girls good at languages. To encourage
women it will be more effective if there are more
female role models and mentors in workplace.
‘‘ ‘‘
Mrs. Lea von Bidder
Co-founder & CSX
Ava Science Ltd.
47April 2019|

Demi Markogiannaki
co-founder
WeTeachMe
48
About the Author
Photographer:NathalieSaruhashi
April 2019|

Has my journey always been easy? Far from it. A lot is
expected from an expat like me. Or from any woman in
business, for that matter. If we want to get promoted at
work, we need to appear assertive, confident, and even
dominant. We become chameleons and adjust our
behaviour, according to what the situation requires, as we
navigate our way from the war room to the board room.
How to Be an Assertive Leader
Below, I share some lessons I’ve learned along the way, to
help other young women navigate the different challenges
and demands that a leadership role requires. To be more
confident and decisive but also constructive and
empowering, incorporate these five habits into your daily
conversations and interactions, and learn how to fine-tune
your ability to adapt.
Listen for cues. To be a good leader, at times, you will
need to be a psychologist, a counsellor, an expert, a sister, a
mentor, a friend. At WeTeachMe, I have worked in sales
and in marketing. Both roles required me to master the art
of active listening and hone my ability to quickly read the
room. To be aware of what a customer or stakeholder is
thinking or feeling is crucial to building trust and rapport,
and helps foster the creation of long-term business
relationships.
Mind what you say, and also how you say it.
Assertiveness doesn’t mean being overbearing or abrasive.
Be direct and communicate respectfully so that the other
person can focus on what you’re saying, instead of how
you’re saying it. Getting the message across is half the
battle.
Women in business have come a long way since
Katharine Graham, the first female to lead a
Fortune 500 company, assumed the role of
Washington Post CEO back in 1972. Here in Australia,
women now comprise 42% of all employees and more than
30% of all business owner-managers. In the large Australian
corporations, the story is quite different; women hold the
reins at only 10% of today’s companies and 14 of our Top
200 firms.
The data suggest that it’s becoming more difficult for
women to make the jump from key executive to chief
executive. Macquarie Group founder Mark Johnson
believes it might take another 20 years for the scales to tip
again in our favour. It’s the story of many of today’s women
CEOs.
Being Chameleon-in-Chief
As a founder of the Australian company WeTeachMe, I
can’t say I agree with Mark. After all, today’s world and
business climate look nothing like they did 20 or 30 years
ago. I hope that my own story will inspire courage and pave
the way for others to create businesses that will create
value, especially for other women.
Before founding WeTeachMe, I had barely just arrived in
Australia from Greece, to complete my masters in global
media communications at The University of Melbourne. I
had no background in business, and some may say I had no
“business” entering into the arena of entrepreneurship. And
yet, through sheer grit and desire to pursue our passion for
education, my team and I grew WeTeachMe into the largest
school in Australia, with thousands of classes available and
even more learners enrolling every day.
49April 2019|
Maestro’s Insights

Express ideas from your own point of view.
Starting your sentences with “I” can spell a
world of difference. Instead of saying “you’re
not listening”, put it in your own words: “I
think what you’re saying is...” Rather than
instructing someone to “work this way” say
“I’d like your help with...” Convey your
feelings and let your empathy come through.
Learn how to say no. In the early years of
WeTeachMe, I wore multiple hats. Most
days, I took on more responsibility than was
physically possible. Because that’s what a
founder does; you go above and beyond the
call of duty. From cold calling one minute to
providing customer support the next, juggling
tasks requires flawless execution. As
WeTeachMe grew, I had to give up some of
my hats. This was not an easy lesson to learn!
Today, with a better understanding of the
value of focus, I pick three important things
to accomplish every day and then, delegate
the rest.
Maintain a professional demeanour. If
you’re entering into a negotiation, present
your case with confidence, without getting
argumentative or emotional. Create a win-
win situation for everyone, and they will see
you, not as an adversary, but as a partner.
Leadership That Inspires
Being in business is not always about cut-
throat competition, winning at everything,
and having it all; it’s also, if not more, about
creating personal connections and nurturing
the relationships that get us to where we are.
In and out of the workplace, we need to be
effective and diplomatic, not just goal-
oriented. Lead through trust and respect, not
through fear. Teach, don’t micromanage. And
never stop learning.
Leadership is about having the ability to
influence those around us, to rally everyone
around a shared vision, to inspire people, and
to get those who follow us excited to come to
work day after day.
Leadership means celebrating our victories.
But it’s also about forgiving ourselves for our
failures, because that is how we become
wiser and better. Failing is the best way to
learn, and a good leader never stops learning.
50
Photographer:NathalieSaruhashi
April 2019|

M
importance to the Snackadabra team
and for the evolution of the Cookie
Cup is technology. For the first batch
of Cookie Cups, Michelle flipped over
a muffin pan to mold the dough. One
side of the cookie burnt to a crisp. With
the help of her father, who is also an
engineer, she customized machinery to
perfect the Cookie Cup.
The second important thing is the
comprehension of efficient leadership.
According to Michelle, a great leader
is relentlessly committed to her vision,
and with confidence she embarks on
her journey in search of incredible
people to join a dream to make it a
reality. “It is important to admit your
mistakes and fill in the gaps with the
talent of the team you hire. It takes a
village – and there is no substitute for
collaboration,” says Michelle.
Michelle understands the strengths of
her team. The talent at the company is
exceptional at what they do and they
do it with passion. Through experience,
she has also learned to hire people who
embody the organization’s core values,
or its 10 Cookie Commandments. “The
company rises and falls on its leader,
so it is important to remain a strong
example for the rest of the team,”
Michelle expresses.
She adds, “In order to effectively
motivate and inspire people, a leader
must first have a deep sense of self-
awareness. That’s not to say that a
leader is 100 percent certain at all
times. The truth is that everybody
makes mistakes and a capable leader
accounts for that. If you are the type of
leader who screams at the troop, do
you honestly think they will raise the
flag and take responsibility when
something goes wrong? Your team is
your family, but you must set it up that
way. Respect does not come easy, so
cherish every opportunity you have, to
truly deserve it from your team.”
When it comes to sustaining her knack
for innovation and Snackadabra’s
distinctiveness in the market, Michelle
is always thinking of creative ways to
enhance the experience of her
customers through her sweet
delicacies. Whether it’s about releasing
new invigorating products, upgrading
event displays, dressing up the team in
memorable costumes, or organizing
programs for local schools – she is
always focused on quality and
experience. Most of all, she is open to
feedback from the team and the people
she looks up to in business. Her
Michelle Silberman
Baking the World a Better Place!
54
How often do we comprehend
that painful void in our lives?
Sometimes it seems, as if it’s
taking a good chunk of emotions out of
us, as if it’s inevitable, incorrigible and
unquenchable. We can safely say that
this void is nothing but hunger for
some good, gut filling, heart melting,
and a ride to heaven kind of delightful
food! And something similarly
delicious is coming fresh out of the
oven. An enchanting legend of how
milk and cookies were magically
combined by Michelle Silberman, the
dessert fairy from Philadelphia.
Through times unknown, till being the
CEO aka, the Chief Cookie Officer of
Snackadabra, Michelle has always
believed that life is a tapestry which
encompasses the difficult as well as the
beautiful times, and embracing the
‘now’ will unveil to us the lessons
hidden in the adversities we face.
Talking about Michelle’s chef
d’oeuvre, the Cookie Cup, it was an
idea between two best friends in
seventh grade. They thought, cookies
and milk are the best snack, so why not
combine them into one delicious,
effortless and mess-free experience?
Years later, Michelle pitched the
concept to her professor in an
entrepreneurship class at Drexel
University. She began prototyping the
Cookie Cup in her dorm’s kitchen, and
after countless hours, heaps of flour
and thousands of chocolate chips later,
the impeccable Cookie Cup was born.
Snackadabra’s commitment to quality
and innovation is fueled by its mission
to inspire a smile for every taste bud,
every person, every time!
Entrepreneurial Epitome
The first thing of paramount
April 2019|

willingness to keep evolving is the
very reason she is able to sustain a
leadership position. Knowing that it
takes time, she ceaselessly strives to
provide the best experience for the
Snackadabra squad and her cookie
customers as well.
The world is run by Women too
Michelle believes that the women on
her team are a crucial part of its
success. In order to encourage women
to take leadership roles, she
continuously takes a stand for women
through her speaking engagements,
hiring practices, and overall daily
demeanor. She has shared her personal
journey with confidence and in her
pursuit has invited numerous women to
the team who are inspired to do the
same.
In early 2019, Michelle plans to launch
a ‘Dessert and Dreams’workshop
where everyone on the team will jot
down their personal goals and come
together to express them through
writing and crafting dream boards.
This is extremely important to
Michelle because she is committed to
supporting her team in their personal
goals.
In her advice to aspiring women
leaders, Michelle says, “be very
mindful of the people you surround
yourself with. Especially as the leader
of your ship, the entrepreneur gets to
pick the team – so develop a fine tuned
process for assessing people to make
sure they are a fit for the company
culture. Also, learn to focus on
contributing in the best way possible.
One of Snackadabra’s core values is,
understanding. This reminds the team
to develop, and always be a student in
life. Michelle treats this business as her
Master’s and PHD degree. Even in the
difficult moments, she looks at them
optimistically as an opportunity to
learn and grow by experiencing
difficulties. She always says, “The
magic only happens outside of your
comfort zone!” Snackadabra is her
vessel for growth and now that the
team has introduced the Smart Cookie
Education Series, Michelle has already
begun to lead workshops within
schools to help support and inspire
students to be courageous and chase
their wildest dreams.
Michelle’s journey, of grit and
compassion, of humility and passion,
and of creativity and inspiration,
compels us to open the doors and step
out of our comfort zone, and also to
understand what she learnt from her
mother, “everything that happens and
everything that doesn’t is all for the
best.”
No matter who is
sitting at the
table, good food
made with
quality
ingredients has a
magical way of
bringing people
together.
“ “
55
Michelle Silberman
Chief Cookie Officer (CEO)
Snackadabra – Food Magic
April 2019|

In an interview with Insights Success, Nicole
Rodrigues, the Founder and CEO of NRPR
Group, shares the insights behind her glorious
voyage as an entrepreneur. The fervent and admired
leader has driven the ascension of this distinctive public
relations and social marketing agency with her
contemporary and innovative entrepreneurial expertise.
Below are the highlights of the interview conducted
between Nicole and Insights Success:
Can you give us a brief overview of your background
and the evolution of your career towards being a
recognized business leader?
I have based my career path on following my dreams
while being a pillar of professionalism and strength. My
ﬁrst professional PR job was at an enterprise software
company until I left to pursue a PR role with the
Oakland Raiders. Through my early career experiences
I’ve learned to blend knowledge of tech and
consumer/entertainment worlds to help tech, digital
entertainment, consumer and consumer tech companies,
be more relatable through clearer and relatable
messaging.
In 2005, when I moved to the PR agency life, working
on tech launches for eHarmony and Become.com before
joining MOBITV as PR Manager and started building
my expert reputation in the industry. Post MOBITV, I
became Senior PR Manager at Voce Communications,
managing accounts including Dolby, Yahoo!, and Sony
PlayStation. I learned the beauty of incorporating social
media and owned-media strategies into all account
eﬀorts. I was then recruited by Demand Media as
director of consumer marketing, managing the
marketing strategies for eHow, and
LIVESTRONG.COM. I served as VP of digital
entertainment at Bender/Helper Impact, where I led
strategy for YouTube, Hulu, Hallmark’s Video Platform,
M-GO, and others.
I leveraged every position I held as an opportunity to
build expertise needed to succeed as CEO of my own
agency. I worked hard, built a reputation for being
accountable, reliable, and creative, knowing my
reputation would follow me.
56 April 2019|

The most admired women leaders in business 2019

The most admired women leaders in business 2019

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to The most admired women leaders in business 2019

Similar to The most admired women leaders in business 2019 (20)

More from Insights success media and technology pvt ltd

More from Insights success media and technology pvt ltd (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

The most admired women leaders in business 2019