The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022.pdf

VOL-05 | ISSUE-04 | 2022 www.insightssuccess.com
ScaleXP
CEO
Suezann
Holmes
Breaking
the Bias
Rise to Glory
Leadership
at Forefront
Strong Work Ethics

An Engaging
Present to a
Dependable
Future
ompanies in the economy have shown immense
Cgrowth and promise this year and show no signs of
slowing down anytime. The factors leading to
growth are excellent market conditions, favorable
consumers, and hardworking and motive-driven employees.
However, the most important factor is the contribution of
leaders behind the scenes to ensure a smooth road for others
to follow. Leaders are the trendsetters of the organization;
the environment they set radiates through layers. One of the
exponentially growing trends is the rise of women leaders,
who are the reason behind the growth of many companies,
and leaders in their fields. This edition of “The 10 Most
Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022” covers ten
such inspiring leaders who are pioneers in their field. I will
take you through some of the main reasons they have
successfully led their respective companies to greatness.
The number one trait of successful women leaders is being
a lifelong learner. Leadership skills do not grow overnight.
Though some ideas are enough to become a leader, a good
leader means being a life-long learner. No matter the
education qualification one carries, women remain forever
students as far as life experiences are concerned. A leader
may have to face many situations or problems, and most of
them are not taught at colleges or business schools. A good
leader develops strength, leadership skills, and leadership
techniques by gaining knowledge from the right courses
and training programs. Reading leadership books for
women and learning from mentors are qualities seen in
great women leaders.
Being a good leader means being fair and reliable in
making judgments that help create a healthy working
environment and work relationships. Being a leader comes
with the responsibility of all employees in an organization,
their ideas, conflicts, and timely resolution. Eliminating a
Editor’s Desk

system with uniform rules for all which are
restrictive help in positively influencing the people in
the organization. Women leaders are friendly with
subordinates which automatically instills discipline
in the team. Resolving and negotiating conflict
requires emotional intelligence, a quality
synonymous with women leaders. They can balance
emotional needs with practical thinking to achieve a
result better for all. Women leaders maintain a
rapport with all team members, which helps them see
the underlining qualities each one possesses and use
them to achieve a great performance.
Most of the women we asked possessed a common
ambition of mentoring young women to become
capable leaders. Women in leadership roles are the
best place to mentor young women just starting their
careers. Guided by their own experiences, both good
and bad, women advise their juniors to tackle the
unique challenges they will face. Creating strong
networks helps established leaders solve women's
grievances who face problems in any field. By doing
all things correctly, women are grooming the next
generation of standout leaders who will take their
place in the coming years. This edition sees the best
women leaders with a hint of qualities that we can
expect from future leaders.
Enjoy reading the amazing profiles written by our in-
house editorial team, which will impart great
knowledge and learning.
Raunak Mhetre
Raunak
raunak.mhetre@insightssuccess.com

C O V E R
S T O R Y
A R T I C L E S
26 38
08
Visionary Leadership
Accomplishing Most Worthy Goals
with Cheerful Leadership
Tech Talk
The Need to Embrace
Tech-Transformation Approach
Suezann
Holmes

48
30
20
34
44
Katy Barﬁeld
Vanessa Mbonu
Deirdre Mc Gettrick
Leticia Latino
Sabrina Khan
Shifting Tides as the Food Waste Warrior
Fighting Forward
Offering Wide Range
of Furnishings
Driving the Ongoing Transformation
in the Telecom Industry
An Epitome of Hardwork, Passion
and Perseverance
16 Angela Earl
Delivering Accessible
Marketing Solutions
40 Paige Arnof-Fenn
Helping Businesses Tell Their
Stories in Compelling Ways
C X O
24
Leader’s Viewpoint
The Need for Compassionate Leadership
During a Global Pandemic

sales@insightssuccess.com
May, 2022
Editor-in-Chief
Senior Sales Manager Business Development Manager
Marketing Manager
Technical Head
Technical Specialist Digital Marketing Manager
Research Analyst
Database Management Technology Consultant
Pooja M Bansal
Managing Editor
Jenny Fernandes
Executive Editor
Raunak Mhetre
Assistant Editors
Visualizer
David King
Art & Design Director Associate Designer
Kshitij S Peter Collins
John Matthew
Sales Executives
David, Martin
Business Development Executives
Steve, Joe, Saurabh
Jacob Smile
Aditya Marry D'Souza
SME-SMO Executive
Atul Dhoran Frank Adams
Circulation Manager
Robert Brown Stella Andrew David Stokes
Sonia Raizada
Copyright © 2022 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 :
Anish Miller
Shyam Sonawane

Brief
Company Name
Featured Person
RFPIO Inc
rfpio.com
Angela Earl
Vice President Global
Marketing
ufurnish
ufurnish.com
Deirdre Mc Gettrick
Founder
Yume Food Australia
yumefood.com.au
Katy Barfield
Founder & CEO
Neptuno USA
neptunousa.com
Leticia Latino
CEO
Buro Happold
burohappold.com
May Winfield
Global Director of
Commercial,
Legal and Digital Risks
Mavens & Moguls
mavensandmoguls.com
Paige Arnof-Fenn
Founder & CEO
Aptorum Group Limited
aptorumgroup.com
Sabrina Khan
Chief Financial Officer
ScaleXP
scalexp.com
Suezann Holmes
Founder & CEO
NAACP
naacp.org
Vanessa Mbonu
Vice President, Digital
Marketing &
Communications
Whering
whering.co.uk
Bianca Rangecroft
Founder & CEO
NAACP is the home of grassroots activism for civil rights and
social justice.
ScaleXP was formed to give ambitious companies the tools to
reach their potential by bringing the power of data to your
screen, highlighting performance against target.
Aptorum believes that by facilitating the development of
medical innovations, particularly in those that able to meet
current unmet medical needs and significantly improve clinical
and surgical experience.
Mavens & Moguls works with venture capitalists,
entrepreneurs and business executives who seek expert
marketing advice and innovative ideas without the overhead of
a full-time marketing staff.
Buri Happold values human wellbeing, curiosity, embrace
mutual responsibility and genuinely care about the impact and
legacy of its work.
Neptuno creates significant value by providing competitive
pricing, excellent quality, innovative solutions, responsive
customer service, honest intentions and unparalleled
commitment to help its customers succeed in their goals.
Yume works with leading food suppliers and farmers to sell
surplus stock, that may otherwise have been wasted, to smart
hospitality and retail businesses – and their happy customers.
ufurnish.com partners with 100+ furniture retailers, bringing
over 1 million of their products together onto 1 website.
Your wardrobe, digitised. Whering re-empowers women with
the tools to take back control of their wardrobes.
RFPIO brings together teams and increases win rates through
in-app collaboration, advanced content governance, and more
integrations than anyone.

C O V E R S T O R Y
Suezann Holmes
FOUNDER & CEO - SCALEXP
Women in Tech Excellence 'Entrepreneur of the Year 2021'
Raised $5B as CFO in corporates & Tech Track 100 companies
ScaleXP was formed to give ambitious
companies the tools to reach their potential by
bringing the power of data to your screen,
highlighting performance against targets.
10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022
COVER STORY
Empowering high-growth
companies with
automated insights

Aprofessional career spread across the globe,
working primarily in corporate finance and M&A,
along with significant business turnaround projects
on behalf of world banks, Suezann Holmes imprinted her
mark in the business world with her expertise.
Today, she leads with a vision of growing with confidence
as the CEO of ScaleXP.
With a growth mindset, Suezann has always grasped new
skills to increase her impact on work in multiple roles.
Amid her professional journey, she took a break to pursue
an MBA in finance at Wharton Business School,
combined with the Spanish stream of their Lauder program.
Her versatile approach to business allowed her to be the
CFO of various corporations working in London before
turning attention to high-growth SME businesses.
Suezann's transition to a smaller but more aggressively
expanding businesses led to the formation of ScaleXP.
"I expected information in a click; my highest growth
customers this year compared to last year and then in a few
more clicks an analysis of common characteristics (sector,
size, location, the title of our contact). Ultimately allowing
identification of similar companies to target as new
customers, so as the CFO I could make a meaningful
impact on growth."

Empowering high growth businesses with automated insights
"This data is shockingly difficult to access and understand,
but with my professional and tech experience, I knew that
the problem could be solved," explains Suezann.
Becoming a game-changer
As the CFO across corporates and highest growth
companies in the UK, Suezann learned first-hand about
the challenges of sustaining a 200%+ CAGR. More
importantly, she learned how noncorporates are typically
limited by the lack of affordable software solutions for
unraveling and learning from their data.
Suezann expresses that diligent and hardworking companies
wrestle with manually constructing complicated, error
prone spreadsheets to grasp the basics.
Each 'information cycle' takes days.
The insights generated by benchmarks and extensive KPI
options should be instantly accessible and always at the
fingertips of CFOs, CEOs, and the wider executive team.
Suezann mentions, "Combining my technical and finance
experience, we have brought the power of software to bear;
specifically, we have harnessed the accessibility and cost
benefits of 'Software as a Service" (SaaS).
As a result, ScaleXP is becoming a gamechanger in the B2B
software space. Making automation and streamlining the
reporting process affordable allows finance professionals
to deliver insights with customer-centric advice.
I would like to think that this groundbreaking approach is
what led to my receiving runner up in the UK Female
Entrepreneur of the Year awards."
Grow with confidence
ScaleXP's mission is to help high growth companies use
the power of their data to make the best decisions for
their business. Large corporations have invested in multi-
million-dollar systems and business units to solely focus on
crunching their data.
ScaleXP makes this capability affordable and operable for
one finance professional - democratising the opportunity to
gain business advantage from data.
The cloud-reporting software integrates financial,
sales and marketing data into one dashboard to
facilitate data-driven decisions and fuel growth. It
aims to help you confidently make well-informed
decisions as a founder, startup, or investor.
By using its interactive dashboards and insights, growth
trajectories and potential impediments can be shared across
your teams, the board or even investors.
COVER STORY
A moment of insight and
inspiration may start the
journey, but building
companies capable of
realising a vision requires
very practical insights.

The software includes over 100 automated KPIs tailored
to your business type and industry – no need for manual
calculations and formulas on your spreadsheets!
Days, even weeks, are saved. ScaleXP's vision is to be a
must-have tool-set within the global high growth business
community, opening up the power of internal data and
putting it at the fingertips of all ambitious business
leaders.
Suezann shares, "We are a business formed and forged
against a backdrop of disruption and confusion. Our culture
is one of persistence and dedication in exposing
information that leads to self-understanding and
awareness; both for ourselves asmembers of the ScaleXP
team, ScaleXP as a company, and for our clients and
users."
Deep Tech
ScaleXP is a deep tech platform, integrating data from
accounting and sales systems to automate dashboards and
reports. The platform provides a comprehensive business
picture by integrating data from accounting systems
(Quickbooks, Xero, Sage) and sales systems (HubSpot,
Salesforce).
Its CEO and CFO dashboards highlights issues. Impressive
and comprehensive presentations no longer take hours to
prepare. The graphs and financials are prepared for you.
You add the commentary, saving literally hours of tedious
admin.
All of which is achieved on its servers, then delivered to the
user via the Cloud, i.e. as a SaaS solution.
Data analytics shift
ScaleXP's fundamental mission is to democratise what has
been the expensive preserve of larger corporations. Systems
Integrators have been installing and operating analytical
systems sitting on complex and convoluted data
warehouses, data marts and data lakes for decades.
Suezann states that early stage, high growth businesses
don't need to wait until they can afford a data analytics
department operated by 50+ people operating these legacy
ScaleXP's automated revenue repo ts

COVER STORY
ScaleXP's Dashboard for CFO's
Assuming you have a great idea and
team that have created a product.
I have to say (with a little tongue in
cheek bias) that when it comes to
raising money, you really need your
business's metrics on hand and
presented coherently, in short,
you need ScaleXP.
Empowering high growth businesses with automated insights

systems; they can bypass all this and start now thanks to the
progress of technology.
She shares, "A major change which is set to deliver huge
benefits in the 'data-driven industry' is AI-powered business
analytics or intelligence. ScaleXP already partners AI
leaders in academia where we collaborate in very practical
research.”
Above and beyond
ScaleXP's immediate focus is to continue to deliver an
awesome product and a growing army of high growth
companies across the World. It will continue to explore,
research, and deploy enhancements and best practices that
further de-risk its clients' ambitions, but it also learns from
its community of users as they uncover new situations.
"In the longer run, I very much would like to see our client
community becoming a point of value in itself; like-minded
professionals open to a mutual understanding of how their
relevant sectors are performing, where the opportunities
and threats lie," clarifies Suezann.
ScaleXP's built-in fundraising pack
Guiding the next generation
Suezann understands that a journey of an entrepreneur is
intensely personal and has its unique factors. She says,
"Armed with a great idea, you should assess what areas you
most need help with; make a thorough, honest appraisal of
what skills you don't have. Then go out and find your
partners who complete the skill set requirement. But be
aware that this is very, very hard; personalities, ability, and
dependability are difficult to measure. In many ways, this
is your greatest challenge.
Many VCs will tell you that they would rather back a great
team with an okay idea than a weak team that has invented
the next wheel."
"As an aside, in February 2022, ScaleXP hosted an event
for entrepreneurs 'Funding in 2022: What the experts are
saying'.
In the event, we had a panel of industry experts based in
London give their input to the key areas like invoice
factoring, venture capital, and how to reach out to
investors," Suezann concludes.
Sta t automating your insights with
ScaleXP by booking a demoà

Angela Earl
Vice President
Global Marketing
RFPIO

Angela Earl
Delivering Accessible
Marketing Solutions
ord of mouth, brand loyalty, advertising, and in
Wa multitude of other ways, effective marketing
heavily influences our purchase decisions.
Remember that jingle that you couldn’t get out of your
head? Or the funny commercial you couldn’t forget. And of
course there’s that one time your best friend kept raving
about that new something and you had to have it.
Memorable moments may seem like magic, but it’s just
good marketing — and unquestionably the most efficient
way for organizations to succeed in getting their products or
services into the hands of their buyers. And while jingles
and billboards work as well today as they did in the Mad
Men era of advertising, digital channels have opened up a
nearly unlimited number of ways marketers can capture
attention and drive sales.
With experience spanning many facets of business, Angela
Earl, Vice President of Global Marketing at RFPIO has
seen her share of challenges and innovative solutions. She
credits her success to the relationships and amazing people
she has met throughout her career and to the lessons she
learned in some of the hardest times.
"From tactical lessons in time management to life-
impacting ones like putting people first, my journey has
challenged me and made me a better person.”
These life lessons have led Angela to where she is today.
We asked her to share what she’s up to today and some
advice from these experiences.
Aligning Values
Angela embraces a mantra of empowering others in all
areas of her life and her work at RFPIO is no exception.
“Find a company with values and you believe in,” she
advises, “and the work won't feel like work most of the
time.
RFPIO’s mission to create software users loved and their
goal to empower organizations to unlock their potential fits
right in line with Angela’s focus. “RFPIO is reinventing
how customer-facing teams create content, respond to
opportunities, and meet prospects' needs to drive true
results,” says Angela. The company is the leading provider
of response management software, and is trusted by
successful and growing organizations of all sizes to
streamline their response processes. One client,
Microsoft reported saving an estimated $2.4 million and
credits RFPIO for the success.
RFPIO is also striving to be one of the best places to work.
Angela is one of 10 leaders at RFPIO who focus on
prioritizing work-life balance, promoting diversity and
inclusiveness, and instilling a true sense of ownership and
belonging for all employees. "We believe that automation
needs a human touch and that teams, including our own,
can unlock their full potential when they are empowered to
invest time in impactful and meaningful ways,” shared
Angela.
Software People Love
Technology helps businesses worldwide do more, work
smarter, and achieve better results. RFPIO believes that
instead of spending time looking for information and
tracking down colleagues, organizations should
democratize their knowledge, resulting in faster response
times and improved customer (and employee) experiences.
The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022
|
May 2022
www.insightssuccess.com 17

Angela has worked in B2B software since 2007 and
believes RFPIO is a shining example of technology done
right. “Our customers love us, and not just because we have
an awesome team, but because the software is easy to use
and makes achieving their goals significantly easier.”
RFPIO has consistently been rated #1 by customers on
G2.com and was recently ranked the fastest growing
company in Oregon on Inc. Magazine’s Inc5000. The
company proudly took home 8 Comparably awards in 2020
including Best Company for Diversity 2020, Best Company
Work-Life Balance, Best Company Perks & Benefits, Best
Company Happiness, Best Professional Development
2020, Best Leadership Teams 2020, Best CEOs for Women
2020 and Best CEOs for Diversity 2020.
Prioritize Experience
Technology stacks are getting more complicated, and data is
becoming more and more siloed; since starting her career in
marketing, Angela has focused on leveraging and aligning
technology to improve outcomes. She believes that
alignment to business processes and goals is critical and is
excited about the roadmap and RFPIO's ability to continue
to meet the needs of customer-facing teams inside growing
organizations.
Angela has seen a notable shift in how businesses are
buying and selling software. “Ten years ago, software was
shifting from large providers who did “everything” to point
solutions focused on solving specific problems.” Angela
notes, “Today we see the pendulum swinging back toward
the middle. Buyers want to simplify their tech stacks and
are looking for functional solutions that can solve more
than one problem, and more importantly integrate easily
with other solutions.”
RFPIO is a relatively young organization despite its size
and growth. Founded in 2015, the company has sustained
incredible growth every year even through the economic
uncertainty that started in 2020. From its humble
beginnings, the focus amidst this growth was always on
building a culture and company that people would want to
be a part of. Looking ahead, Angela and the other leaders
are focused on supporting the growing team while
protecting and prioritizing customer and employee
satisfaction.
Words to Live by
Angela recalls advice she received from a mentor years ago,
"You can't give what you don't have," and encourages
others to prioritize self-care, especially those in leadership
roles. Time, energy, confidence, and peace all fall under this
mantra, according to Angela, ”Take care of yourself, and
you'll be better able to take care of your team.”
| May 2022 www.insightssuccess.com
18

Deirdre Mc Gettrick
Founder and CEO
ufurnish.com

Deirdre Mc Gettrick
Offering Wide Range of Furnishings
hile architecture provides the framework for
Wspace, setting up vibe and mood requires
suitable furnishings and interiors. A well-
designed room speaks volumes about the atmosphere one
wants to convey. To provide customers with the perfect
furnishing products that they seek, Deirdre Mc Gettrick,
founded ufurnish.com, which has a mission to change the
way we all shop for furniture and furnishings.
As the CEO, Deirdre provides a platform that enables
consumers to easily search, discover, compare, and shop
furniture products on one website across the entire retail
market. In our endeavor to find “The 10 Most Inspiring
Women Leaders to Follow in 2022,” we came across
Deirdre. We talked with her to understand how she elevates
different aspects of her business.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Brief our audience about your journey as a business
leader until your current position at the company. What
challenges have you had to overcome to reach where you
are today?
As a child, I loved all things interiors, visiting furniture
shops, and looking at images from the property section of
the newspaper. After a career in banking spanning a decade,
I bought my first home and was super excited about the
prospect of furnishing it with all my saved inspiration
designs. Alas, the excitement turned to frustration as I was
unable to find the perfect products for my vision. This led to
the business idea that has become ufurnish.com. I was
solving a consumer problem, and that consumer was me.
Leaving my career in banking meant walking away from a
well-remunerated role and taking the risk of starting a
company, something I had no experience with. I had to
overcome all my doubts and really believe in the solution I
was bringing for consumers. The key I realized to starting
and growing a business is that you need help. You will
never be the best at every skillset, so get people on board
who can complement your skills. Together we are stronger.
Tell us something more about the company and its
mission and vision.
I am the founder of ufurnish.com, an online search, and
discovery website for home furniture and furnishings. At
ufurnish.com, we bring 150+ furniture retailers onto one
website to make finding the perfect item of furniture easy
for the consumers, akin to how Autotrader aggregates cars,
Skyscanner aggregates airlines, and Rightmove for real
estate search in the UK. At ufurnish.com, your dream home
is our mission.
Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in the
industry through your expertise in the market.
I started the business from the perspective of a consumer
who wanted to recreate a home design based on all the
home inspiration I had collected over the years. By being
the person, you are actually solving the problem for; it
|
May 2022

helps to keep clear in your mind the solution that is required
while putting aside other influencing factors such as
shareholders, retailers and all other stakeholders. The
consumer is always kept at the core of my decision-making
process.
Describe in detail the values and the work culture that
drives your organization.
We have five core values at ufurnish.com, Honesty,
Integrity, Fairness, Simplicity, and Sustainability. We
describe ourselves as akin to a sports team; we are high-
performing with a desire to deliver results. We work hard to
create the change required in the furniture industry. To do
this, however, we need to be open, transparent, and honest
in our opinions and feedback. We encourage people to
speak up, share their views, but once a decision is made
based on the facts available at the time, everyone lines up
behind that decision for the overall good of the team. We
keep simplicity and fairness at our core and operate in the
most sustainable way possible, both for 1) the environment
and 2) maintaining sustainable relationships with all our
stakeholders from team members, retailers, consumers, and
shareholders.
Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in
almost every sector. How are you leveraging
technological advancements to make your solutions
resourceful?
For ufurnish.com, what is critical is developing autonomous
systems that serve many purposes within our business,
whether it be data processing, integrating disparate systems,
or the use of machine learning tools to improve the
ufurnish.com allows you to search
furniture and home furnishing ranges
from 150+ retailers all on one website.

accuracy and quality of data. These are the things we
constantly implement, analyze, and reﬁne today and will
continue to do so into the future.
If given a chance, what change would you like to bring
to the industry?
I am the ultimate champion of the consumer, and if the
industry can change to make improvements for the
consumer, that is always a step in the right direction. I am
passionate about increasing the amount of choice available
to consumers to help them make better-informed buying
decisions. By bringing together all retailers, regardless of
size, the strength of the brand, marketing budgets, or a
number of products, I believe ufurnish.com is creating that
change.
What, according to you, could be the next big change in
the industry? How is your company preparing to be a
part of that change?
The supply chain will be the biggest challenge over the
coming decade, with the impact of limited resources,
expensive shipping rates, and ever-changing trading rules
(such as Brexit in the UK), meaning that the supply chain
will be interrupted. As ufurnish.com is one step detached
from the supply, we seek to help the consumer ﬁnd their
perfect furniture items by showing them what is actually
available in the market.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run,
and what are your future goals for the company?
The vision of ufurnish.com is to be the world’s largest
search and discovery platform for home furniture and
furnishings. That is my core focus for the future, as it takes
years to build a truly successful company. For example,
Airbnb is over 13 years old, having been founded in 2008. I
envisage myself leading the company through the startup
phase into growth and entering maturity as a globally
recognized brand.
What would be your advice to budding women
entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the industry?
Network and learn from others who have achieved similar
things to your goal. You can’t and won’t avoid every
mistake, but something you can learn from others’ journeys
to help you achieve your goal easier.
|
May 2022

The Need for
Compassionate
Leadership
During a Global
Pandemic
- By Eileen Willet
Co-founder
Cucumber Clothing

wo years ago, when Nancy and I decided to dip our
Ttoes into the world of start-ups, we had absolutely
no idea where it would take us. We were both
mums in mid-life. Between us, we had two dogs, six
children, a strong friendship and what we thought was a
damn good idea. At the time Nancy was involved in the
charitable sector (formerly at Saatchi and Saatchi), and I
was running my own successful accessory brand (having
helped start up Nicole Farhi Menswear). Hindsight is a
great thing, at the time, we thought Cucumber Clothing
would fit into our lives. Instead, it soon became a nine-
headed hydra disguised as a start-up, swallowing up as
much time, energy and passion as we could muster. We can
honestly say we’ve enjoyed the challenges, the highs and
lows and the wonderful people we have met every step of
the way.
Then Covid arrived. Which company can say honestly that
they were prepared for a global pandemic? I would venture,
absolutely none. The past two years have brought us more
intense, demanding, and tough hurdles than we could have
imagined. The flip side is that we have been stretched,
stimulated and forced to be both exacting and flexible all at
the same time.
What has this taught us about leadership? Mainly that
leadership, in particular compassionate leadership, becomes
even more essential in times of deep stress, both
professional and personal, as well as in times of conflicting
demand. The ability to invite opinions and truly listen to
them; the ability to retain high standards, and yet remain
flexible; the ability to sometimes accept that something
cannot be achieved. The ability to be compassionate. These
are all lessons we have learned and taken to heart in these
tumultuous past months.
Broadly speaking, compassionate leadership can be broken
down into four pillars with the consistency of application
and open communication throughout being key (all
definitions taken from merriam-webster.com) :
Listening – to hear something with thoughtful intention
Understanding – to have sympathetic awareness or
tolerance
Empathising – to understand and share the feelings of
another
Helping - the act or an instance of doing or supplying
something to make it easier for another to complete a task,
deal with a problem, etc.
Regular and open communication allows these pillars to be
fully used. Each member of a company then feels able to
safely raise issues that may otherwise remain buried, only
to arise at a later in possibly a much more inconvenient
shape, size and time.
It is no surprise that matters can take a negative turn when
employees feel that compassionate leadership is lacking.
When leadership is reactive, not proactive and issues are
dealt with only after something has gone wrong a cycle of
negativity is created, particularly when issues are raised and
even then, there is no change.
Compassionate leadership ensures a greater likelihood of
creating a productive and harmonious workplace whatever
the external pressures – for example, a global pandemic! -
may be.
Properly using and integrating the above four pillars of
compassionate leadership into a company’s functioning
allows for a collective focus and corresponding collective
responsibility on issues arising in the workplace in
achieving and maintaining goals and targets – a huge win
for any company. This in turn, leads to a workplace where
the collective good is prioritised over individual needs and
reduces friction between both individuals and groups
regardless of status, again an enormous positive when,
especially in times of increased pressures.
Whether an SME or micro business, I believe
compassionate leadership is key to keeping a company
functioning well at any time, and absolutely critical in times
of huge stress. Investing in and ensuring that the simple
pillars of listen, understand, empathise and help are in
place, can make the difference between the survival and
failure of businesses in a bruising world of change.
Two years in and no business can have any real clarity
about what 2022 will bring. The best way to prepare is to
commit to ensuring that your own business is emotionally
robust and prepared for the worst while very much hoping
for the best. With compassionate leadership baked in, it will
have every chance.
Leader’s Viewpoint
|
May 2022

| May 2022
26
Accomplishing
Most Worthy
Goals with
Cheerful
Leadership
| May 2022
26

Leadership is
the ability to
inspire
people to pursue the most
important business
objectives. It is the ability to
bring out the best in others to get
the job done most diligently and
creatively. One essential trait that counts to
lead by example is being charismatic.
Charismatic leadership is a potential leadership style to
lead the people in the right direction for the worthiest
causes. It is driven by inspiring traits like excellent
communication skills, exemplary attitude, cheerfulness,
harmony between words and actions, persistence, and an
appealing personality.
Charismatic leadership is characterized by a great balance
of amazing talent as well as brilliant temperament.
Charismatic leaders have happiness in their smiles, gravity
in their voice, grace in their walk, and command over their
words. They have the knack of pushing others to great
heights. They become good mentors and good guides.
In the world of temptations and distractions, everyone
needs a charismatic leader to help them stay away from
unnecessary temptations and distractions. Charismatic
leaders keep people focused on achieving their goals. They
deliver great results by their remarkable ability to hold
people together for accomplishing the most cherished goals
of the organization they are leading.
Leadership is not just about philosophy but about proving it
practically. Common people follow what great leaders do.
The standards set by great leaders become the norm for the
common people. Charismatic leaders lead by being
genuinely exemplary. They live the essence and preach it.
They say what they mean, and they mean what they say.
Their brilliant personality and brilliant traits help them to
bring out the best in others for great causes.
Charismatic leaders are not rigid. They are highly flexible.
They ignore or overlook the minor offenses or mistakes by
their employees or teammates. They inspire their employees
to make mistakes as learning experiences. They don’t force
their opinions on others. They respect the individual’s will
and their creativity. This helps them in nurturing the
creative spirit in the organization. They sharpen their
personal and professional attributes to be the most effective
business leader. Coolness, common sense, communication
practice, charm and cheer, confidence, honesty, and
humility are the most essential traits of charismatic leaders.
Moreover, they are very cheerful in their approach. They
always think of win-win solutions. They respond to
situations with coolness and common sense. They are very
good communicators because of their great communication
practice. Charm and cheer is the most attractive trait of
charismatic leaders. They know that half the job is done if
they succeed in making themselves and their employees
happy and cheerful. They believe that care of another half
job will be taken by hard work and their ability to divorce
themselves from negativity and stay joyful, and maintain
the same joyful atmosphere in their team members.
Confidence, honesty, and humility are in their genes. They
understand that confidence is fundamental to success in any
field. Their honest and humble approach helps them to be
grounded to pursue their goals with grit and determination.
They are high vibrational at all times. They don’t tune into
negative frequencies. They know that they can get the job
done if they stick to the process. They enjoy the process
than just celebrating the result. They fight with competence,
confidence, and cheerfulness and celebrate success without
being complacent or casual. They keep themselves calm in
all situations and aim to deliver more than needed or
expected from them.
Visionary Leadership
|
May 2022

Katy Barfield
Shifting Tides as the Food Waste Warrior
Reducing food waste can significantly lessen stress
on the environment, and several significant
initiatives can assist the food industry by
implementing better procurement. Several organizations
and individuals operate at different levels to find an
alternative way to deal with surplus food. Finding an
innovative solution to deal with the food wastage crisis,
Katy Barfield founded Yume Food Australia, allowing
food manufacturers and primary producers to sell their
quality surplus products to commercial buyers at a discount.
As the CEO, Katy has dedicated her life to this cause,
designing and implementing award-winning solutions to fix
the market imbalances that generate food waste and loss.
Her venture is the first Australian tech platform that allows
the food industry to sell, donate and buy clearance and
excess food.
Insights Success caught up with Katy to understand how
her efforts have disrupted the food industry for good
making her one of the most inspiring women leaders.
Brief our audience about your journey as a business
leader until your current position at Yume. What
challenges did you have to overcome to reach where you
are today?
The biggest challenge you face as a startup founder is
money and time or lack of it. You have a plan, but more
often than not, when dealing with innovation, nothing goes
according to that plan. It's a constant interactive process to
find that elusive product-market fit, and when it's
technology-based, it's an expensive process. I've found it
always takes three times the money and four times the time
you thought it would, and you have to dodge mister left
field on a daily basis!
Tell us something more about Yume and its mission and
vision.
Our mission at Yume is to make commercial food waste a
thing of the past. Currently, the commercial sector in
Australia wastes 3.2 million tons of food every year. This is
happening before food even reaches supermarket shelves,
let alone our homes. Yume's vision is to see all good food
getting to where it belongs by connecting clearance and
excess food to other businesses in the food industry and to
those who need it most via food rescue organizations.
industry through your expertise in the market?
Yume has only been able to make an impact on the food
industry by listening to the industry's needs and
collaborating to create technology that is actually of value.
One of the reasons food waste occurs is because of
inefficient processes along the supply chain. By listening to
Yume users, we've been able to find solutions to these
problems. So far, this has seen Yume technology prevent
3.1 million kilograms of food from going to waste.
Food waste is
an unfortunate
reality of supply
chains. Yume is
here to do
something
about it.
30

Katy Barﬁeld
Founder & CEO
Yume Food Australia
|
May 2022

Describe in detail the values and the work culture that
drives your organization.
The Yume team is a passionate group of food waste fighters
who are driven by the power of technology in creating a
more sustainable future. We value integrity, grit, boldness,
adaptability, curiosity, and lively foodie discussion!
Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in
almost every sector. How are you leveraging
technological advancements to make your solutions
resourceful?
Innovative technology is who we are here at Yume. The
Yume platform is an ever-changing solution to the issues we
uncover in food manufacturing that are causing food to be
wasted. Our most recent advancement within the platform
was building technology that streamlines how food
manufacturers donate excess food to food rescue
organizations.
If given a chance, what change would you like to bring
to the industry?
Ultimately, we believe in the creation of a circular
economy, where nothing produced is wasted. Yume has
already started to facilitate repurposing projects, for
example, the creation of a beer brewed with upcycled cereal
byproducts.
The big change happening right now in the food and
beverage industry is that companies are waking up to their
food waste problems. Writing off stock has been an
ingrained and accepted process for a long time, and leaders
are stopping and asking, "why?". They want to do
something about it. Yume technology is here to support this
shift.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run
Eliminating food waste is one of the most actionable levers
in reducing CO2 emissions. Our planet is at a critical
juncture, and we need to do everything we can to change
how we think about food. Yume's goal is to show all food
manufacturers in Australia how valuable their food is and
why it is so important that it is eaten and not wasted.
The most important thing about doing business for good is
to be surrounded by people who get the vision. They need
to have the passion, integrity, and resilience to disrupt
industries that don't really want to change. You can't do it
alone.
32

Leticia Latino
CEO
Neptuno USA

Driving the Ongoing Transformation in the Telecom Industry
wanted to pursue a career in Investments but it didn’t take
me long to realize that I didn’t enjoy managing other
people’s money; something about it didn’t fit with my
personality. I then decided to leave Venezuela and come to
Florida to pursue a dual degree Master’s program at the
University of Miami, which upon completion, landed me a
job offer from Nortel Networks, which is how I “officially”
got into Telecom. I spent several years at Nortel before the
company started having financial troubles triggering
massive lay-offs and its ultimate demise. It was after going
through that traumatic experience that it became clear to me
that if I was ever going to work as hard as I did at Nortel, it
better be for the family business, and that’s how exactly 20
years ago, I accepted an old but always outstanding job
offer from my father, which by the way is the best mentor
and boss one can hope for, and joined Neptuno.
Tell us something more about the company and its
mission and vision.
The story of Neptuno is one that has all the ingredients to
make a good movie. Italian immigrant arrives penniless in
South America and, through a lot of hard work and
sacrifices, creates a company that is credited with
engineering, manufacturing, and installing towers for many
of the first cellular networks in the Americas. The founder’s
From working for Merrill Lynch and
Nortel to joining the family business,
Neptuno USA, and bringing its name,
legacy, and know-how to the US, Leticia
Latino’s 20+ years of experience in the telecom
industry has been enriching. Under the leadership
of Leticia, Neptuno has patented several
tower designs, applied 3-Dimensional
technology to Site Surveys and Tower
Mapping, created telecom assets virtual
libraries, and helped develop Telecom
Asset Management Software and is taking
an active role in the Smart Cities movement.
Inspired by her vision, we at Insights Success
talked with Leticia to learn more about her
journey and how she is leading by
example.
Brief our audience about your journey as a
business leader until your current position at
the company. What challenges you had to
overcome to reach where you are today?
When I was a little girl, my father used
to take me to his office all the time. I
envisioned what it would be like to one
day run his Telecom Tower Company,
“if I come to work for you is only to
make the company three times bigger,” I
used to joke to tickle his ego. Interestingly
enough, right after I graduated from
Business School, instead of going to
work in the family business, I felt I
needed to forge my own path and
accepted a position at Merrill Lynch. I
We like to tackle
old fashion problems
with innovative tools.

three kids each have their own professional journey but
eventually join their father to protect his legacy and life-
long work. The company has a major setback because it’s
headquartered in Venezuela, a country plagued with
political instability and socio-economic challenges,
prompting it to transform and pivot in a major way to avoid
going under as most Venezuelan companies have, since the
late 1990’s. With a high moral compass that has integrity as
the main North, in 2003 the company’s mission became
making important inroads in the US market and becoming a
key player in helping advance bridging the digital divide,
and supporting telecommunications stakeholders in the plan
of enabling connectivity for all.
industry through your expertise in the market.
Having been raised playing around wireless construction
sites and telecommunications technicians, I have what I call
an “insiders perspective” on the challenges that not only
construction companies face but also our workforce. My
father has always been someone that has treated the field
crews like family. We have tower climbers whose
grandfathers started with my dad back in the 1970’s. I was
raised with humanity to understand that the telecom
workers are the ones making the ‘magic’ happen, but
unfortunately, their contribution is often overlooked. The
Telecom Industry is so large that people making decisions
from the office often forget that the “heart” of this industry
is in the field. In 2019, I was appointed by the FCC
Chairman to the Broadband Development Advisory
Committee and was also asked to chair the Jobs and Skills
Working group. The work we did was incredible, and we
produced a detailed report that was unanimously approved,
with actionable recommendations on what the industry
could do to help solve the workforce shortage. This is one
of the reasons why I am so passionate about developing a
highly-skilled workforce and leveraging apprenticeship
programs such as TIRAP to do so, because I know first-
hand the difference that training and a formal certificate can
have in someone’s life. Of course, being a woman who has
spent over two decades in a very male-dominated industry
also provides me with relevant perspective around what can
be done to ensure that our industry is more diversified and
equitably represented.
Thanks to advancements in 5G technology and the historic
investment in broadband expansion included in the recently
signed bipartisan infrastructure bill, 5G deployments will
contribute $1.7 trillion to the economy, create 4.6 million
jobs, and enhance everything from how we communicate to
the way farmers raise their crops over the next decade, and
this will be a big change and huge growth for our industry.
To help create those jobs, Neptuno became a Telecom
Industry Apprenticeship Program (TIRAP) Employer in
2020, which is a Department of Labor Program whose
national Sponsor is the Wireless Infrastructure Association
and it aims at skilling and training a more diverse and
inclusive telecom workforce while promoting an incredible
‘earn as you learn’ apprenticeship model.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run,
I envision myself continuing to get Neptuno involved in
initiatives that bring impact to bettering the way we conduct
business and create positive change for the industry all
together. Someone once said to me that while my father was
at the center of the wireless revolution, I seemed poised to
be at the center of the SmartCity revolution, and that is an
exciting thought to me. I am also very passionate about
nurturing genuine connections and that’s why three years
ago, I created a podcast called “Back2Basics- Reconnecting
to the essence of YOU”, in which the guests share their
stories about how through failures and successes they have
stayed connected to their essence and to what makes them
tick. Inspiring change is ultimately what makes me tick, so I
do as much as I can to live with the alignment of my inner
and outer goals.
In my opinion, there has never been more exciting to join
the Telecom Industry than right now. Even if many times it
is only with the goal of making a diversity quota, Women
are finally being given opportunities that were unreachable
just a few years back. There is a new platform being
created, and our perspective is finding a voice in it. And as
mentioned before, the infrastructure bill and 5G deployment
are bringing an insurmountable number of new
opportunities, and all help is needed to fulfil very
aggressive deployment goals, so if you want to join in, this
is the time, and everyone is welcomed!
36

The Need to
Embrace
Tech-Transformation
Approach
38

There is a wide world out there full of opportunities
that test us in every part of the journey. But along
with success, what follows opportunities is
challenges. So, what makes this journey tolerable for
companies and especially for business leaders? It is the
transformation brought by technology that has changed the
life of everyone and made things easier for us. The
industries welcome this transformation, and even the
leaders are embracing it. The implementation of innovation
and technology in the workplace has created many
opportunities, due to which companies and leaders were
able to bring much-needed changes in their respective
sectors. This shows that everything is possible - only with
the right intent, knowledge, and the approach of always
learning.
Circle of Transformation
As they say, if you stay in one place for a long time, you
become that place. That is why you need to keep updating,
innovating, and re-innovating yourself continuously. Today,
the drive to turn innovative in their approach has become a
necessity for leaders. This journey goes through a lot of
challenges, failures, and ultimately successes. But it is the
experience that matters the most. Evolving according to the
situations and rising in all the challenges will define you.
And today, there is a dire need for businesses and leaders to
leverage technological advancements to thrive in their
domains.
Recently, the pandemic emphasized the need to embrace
digitalization as many businesses had to go digital. The
bottom line is business leaders will always have to be
prepared for such unprecedented times, and technology is
one of the factors that will keep you ahead of the curve.
Leading Strongly
A leader with diverse talent is the first choice for many
companies, and it is about a matter of time that it becomes a
criterion for today’s business leader.
Today, many leaders are focused on building their
successful business careers in the technological field. The
great news is that we are building a generation of business
leaders who are bringing a change to make this world a
better place to live. Sundar Pichai, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos,
Steve Jobs, etc. are some prominent names who have
brought a drastic transformation in the business world.
Conclusion
There are many possibilities brought by technological
advancements that are yet to be explored. Finally, we can
conclude by saying that by combining technology,
innovation, and business acumen, business leaders will
cross their paths with transformations they want to bring in
this world.
Tech Talk
|
May 2022

Paige Arnof-Fenn
Helping Businesses Tell Their Stories in Compelling Ways
Meet Paige Arnof-Fenn, an avid marketer who
turned her love for building brands into a
profitable business called Mavens & Moguls.
Paige did not plan on starting a company. She always
wanted to go work for a global business and be a Fortune
500 CEO. When she was a student, she looked at leaders
like Meg Whitman & Ursula Burns as her role models. She
started Mavens & Moguls after beginning her career on
Wall Street in the 80s and having a successful career in
Corporate America at companies like Procter & Gamble
and Coca-Cola and then working at 3 different startups as
the head of marketing. All 3 startups had positive exits. She
took the leap right after 9/11 when the company she worked
for cut their marketing. She had nothing to lose.
Running a global marketing business provides her a
platform to do work she truly enjoys with and for people
she respects. "I get to set my priorities, I have time to travel
(pre-Covid) and hang out with my inner circle, and I work
out every day. It has been a journey to get here, but I am
lucky to have found it. I love the autonomy, flexibility, and
the fact that I know every day the impact that I have on my
business," expresses Paige.
When Paige worked at big companies, she always felt the
ball would roll with or without her, that if she got hit by a
bus, someone new would be in her office right away. Now
her DNA is in everything she does. She can trace every
decision and sale to something she did or a decision she
made, which is incredibly gratifying and fulfilling. Like
most entrepreneurs, Paige is working harder and longer
than ever, and she has never been happier. She asserts,
"Working for yourself and building a business you started is
incredibly rewarding and gratifying. It has been a lot of fun.
I joke that I am an accidental entrepreneur. I knew I had
made it as an entrepreneur when Harvard wrote 2 case
studies on my business a few years after I started it. We
were very early to pioneer sharing resources on the
marketing front (before my company, it was really only done
with HR, legal, and accounting/finance).”
Inspired by her passion, we at Insights Success got into
conversation with Paige to learn more about her journey
and how she and Mavens & Moguls are meeting the
branding needs of businesses.
Tell us something more about Mavens & Moguls and its
mission and vision.
My company's mission is to bring world-class marketing
talent and expertise to organizations that want to make a
difference in the world. We believe every organization
deserves the right words and pictures to tell their story in
compelling ways. Our vision is that all companies,
regardless of size or budget, should have access to the best
marketing talent on an outsourced basis.
Mavens & Moguls provides
ideas that work to help our
client partners build
sustainable brands and
profitable businesses.
40

Paige Arnof-Fenn
Founder and CEO
Mavens & Moguls

Marketing niche through your expertise in the market.
We are storytellers and content creators who help our
clients in compelling ways by finding the right words and
pictures to create interest for their products and services.
Creating content is a great way to build your brand,
increase your visibility more broadly, raise your profile, and
ultimately attract more attention/clients/customers. I have
always loved telling and listening to stories since
childhood. In the early days of mankind, stories were a
great way to communicate around the campfire, they are
critical to the Bible, and they are still effective today.
People do not remember facts and figures, but if you tell
them a story that touches them emotionally, you get their
attention, and they want to hear more. People need to be
educated, informed and/or entertained, so I love to figure
out how best to tell a story in a way that makes people pay
attention and breaks through the noise. When you share
what you know -- your passion, your war stories, the good,
bad and ugly -- the content will flow and pour out of you.
The stories will be interesting, and the lessons will be real;
people will remember you and come back for more.
Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run
and what are your future goals for Mavens & Moguls?
Successful businesses post-pandemic must be
adaptable/agile, strong communicators, and have a growth
mindset. They will be inclusive and collaborative because
we never know when the next crisis will hit, so being able
to adapt to change is critical. Staying nimble today is core
to survival and ultimately success. We are measuring
productivity going forward by what we get done; it is based
on accomplishments, not activity.
My goal is to continue to build growth mindset teams
because they never stop learning/experimenting. They are
focused on the future and see opportunities ahead by
creating a culture of learning/growth. It takes effort and a
commitment to excellence for people to continually
learn/grow, especially in a virtual/remote environment. I do
not think there is one habit to keep teams sharp/fresh. I am
using a combination of reading/learning online and
off/attending conferences/talks/networking/ newsletters
from influencers/TED talks/podcasts/finding
mentors/listening to all feedback, good and bad. To stay
relevant/keep growing, I try to encourage the team to
prioritize professional development to keep skills fresh and
stay on top of new trends/technologies.
entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the Marketing
sector?
So much of success in marketing is about effective
communications online and offline. My advice for success
is to be a student for life, walk the streets and notice your
surroundings. Do you know which movies won at the box
office? Books on the NYT best seller list? Top Billboard
and Grammy songs? Oscar winners? Why was Game of
Thrones popular? Even if it is not your taste, you need to
know about these things and have an opinion. A career in
marketing and communications is about relevancy, so every
day, I try to pay attention to pop culture, trends, etc. You
have to keep your antenna up! You have to be driven,
focused, intensely curious, and always be looking for the
next way to make something better, be a good listener to
clients, colleagues, feedback, the market to show respect for
great ideas, and be a great communicator. With these traits
and a strong work ethic, you increase the odds of
succeeding.
42

An Epitome of
Hardwork, Passion
and Perseverance
chieving excellence in any field requires consistent
Aefforts, diligence, and patience. It is a mark of great
leaders that they stick to the process and eventually
embark on the journey of success. They fight through
challenges with hard work and persistence. They attain
expertise in their field by learning and developing
themselves and help the companies to reach new heights.
One such persistent leader is Sabrina Khan.
Let’s shed some light on her journey and how she is
spearheading Aptorum’s financial objectives.
Sabrina started her career as an auditor, where she was
trained and obtained her Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
Title. After that, she worked for a few companies as their
accounting professional focusing on daily financial
operations, IPO, and M&A projects which further helped in
building her technical skills and knowledge. She then
joined Aptorum Group Limited as Chief Financial
Officer (CFO) in 2017 and helped Aptorum Group to
successfully get listed on Nasdaq in December 2018 and as
the first biopharmaceutical company to dual list on
Euronext.
Throughout all these days in her career, Sabrina failed
countless times, but her personality and attitude helped her
a lot in going through all these challenges. She likes to learn
new things and take up challenging tasks as she enjoys the
process and the satisfaction it brings. She believes that
challenges are not beyond our control, and there is always a
solution.
Tackling Unmet Medical Needs with Life-Science
Innovations
Aptorum Group is a UK-based biopharmaceutical company
with a focus on the discovery and development of therapeu-
tic assets for the treatment of a variety of unmet medical
needs, including orphan diseases, infection diseases, and
metabolic diseases. The group focuses on diseases that are
currently largely unmet or do not have effective treatment
available. It believes that patients in these disease areas
often suffer from the lack of choices of (effective) drugs and
are faced with limited therapeutic options available. On this
basis, the company’s product objective is simple – ‘to bring
effective drugs to these patients and tackle these diseases’.
44

Sabrina Khan
Chief Financial Ofﬁcer
Aptorum Group Limited

Aptorum Group has a strong pipeline of candidates under
development with 4 core assets showing significant
progress:
1) The Rapid Pathogen Identification and Detection
Diagnostics (“RPIDD”) technology, a rapid, accurate, cost-
effective, and untargeted method to identify and detect
existing or emerging unknown pathogens through liquid
biopsy. Such unknown pathogens include DNA/RNA-based
viruses such as coronavirus, antibiotic-resistant bacteria,
fungi, etc.
2) SACT-1, a repurposed drug candidate for treating
neuroblastoma discovered through its Smart-ACT® drug
discovery Platform.
3) ALS-4, a small drug molecule candidate for the treatment
of infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus, including
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
4) NLS-2, a dietary supplement for the relief of menopausal
symptoms.
Making Use of Expertise to Contribute and Save Lives
Sabrina expresses that many people find accounting tedious,
and accountants are only to help companies do book-
keeping, prepare financial reports, and tax filings. She
asserts, “Companies need an accountant to meet certain
regulatory requirements, but no one would ever think
accountants can help to build their business or even the
society.”
After Sabrina left Big 4, she worked for a few healthcare
and biopharmaceutical companies and started building her
network in the industry. She realized accountants can also
make good use of their knowledge and network to help
raising capital and connecting companies for joint ventures
and other collaboration. This can help provide scientists
with sufficient resources to continue their clinical trials and
speed up the drug development process. She is happy to be
part of the team and make use of her expertise to contribute
and save lives.
46

Strengthening Team to Meet Evolving Needs
Sabrina states that because of COVID, many people are
now more health-conscious and have put more emphasis on
the study of infectious diseases. One of Aptorum Group’s
key development focuses is on infectious disease with the
support of the team from the University of Hong Kong,
which is very famous in the area globally.
Aptorum Group would like to further strengthen the team as
COVID proves that the current pace of medical develop-
ment is far too slow and cannot meet the current needs.
Contributing to Advancement in Global Medical
Development
Talking about the culture, Sabrina mentions that Aptorum is
determined to continue developing therapeutic treatments
with a novel approach in targeting unmet medical needs and
contributing to global medical development. She believes
that there is a need to think quickly and cope with the ever-
changing environment. She always encourages open
discussion and asks her team members to share their views
and suggestions. When encountering any difficulties,
Sabrina usually guides them to get their answers than
providing them a quick solution. She puts, “Getting their
answer is the best way to inspire them to think and build
their commitment to the team and what they do. I want them
to seriously understand why they are doing it that way and
what they are doing instead of blindly taking instruction
from above.”
Developing Different Innovative Approach
We asked Sabrina about the change she would like to bring
to the pharmaceutical industry, to which she says, “I would
like to use Aptorum as an example and inspire the industry
to work together and develop different innovative and novel
approaches in tackling medical needs and stop using
antibiotics because abuse use of antibiotics would cause
drug resistance and even the manufacturing process would
cause environmental pollution.”
Contributing Expertise in Finance
Sabrina would continue to seek different breakthroughs in
her life through Aptorum. She wishes to contribute her
finance expertise to global medical development.
Sabrina advises budding entrepreneurs in the most concise
words, “Everyone, no matter what you do, your back-
ground, it’s the attitude that counts. You can do if you
believe you can.”
“Aptorum aims to become a world-
class player in the
biopharmaceutical industry with
emphasis in science, collaboration,
and entrepreneurship.”
|
May 2022

V M
anessa bonu
Fighting Forward
There are thousands of untold stories that could have
changed the course of humankind. For decades,
people's voice has been suppressed, creating racial
hatred and discrimination. Even now, millions of people are
fighting the arduous battles against racial prejudice to
receive proper civil rights and social justice. For over a
century, (NAACP) has led the fight, ensuring all persons'
political, educational, social, and economic equality of
rights and eliminating race-based discrimination.
Supporting the fight against racial prejudice is Vanessa
Mbonu, the Vice President, Digital Marketing &
Communications, utilizing her experience as a
communicator to work advancing social justice through
media and technology.
The Storyteller
Vanessa knew that she wanted to tell stories for a living
from a young age; thus, she received a degree in journalism
from St. John's University and a Masters in Global Media
and Communication from the London School of Economics
and Political Science. She then interned at Maxim
Magazine and worked as a production assistant at Voice of
America until landing her first paid job as a content creator
for AARP the Magazine.
Following her drive to tell stories that positively impact
people's lives, Vanessa made a conscious decision, pivoting
into public relations for non-profit organizations and started
her journey at the NAACP as a Communications Associate.
NAACP created a fostering environment where she could
learn and innovate on the job. Her agility aided her in
climbing the ladder in the organization to become the Vice
President of Digital Marketing and Communications.
While constantly being challenged with learning the ins and
outs of public policy to keep up with the ever-changing
digital landscape, innovative strategies, and campaigns at a
legacy organization, Vanessa tries to be a bold, supportive,
and motivational team leader. She asserts, "With any career
transition, there will always be a learning curve, but I've
been fortunate enough to learn from a team of inspiring
women leaders. After all, the NAACP is the nation's first
and largest civil rights organization and it’s led by a C-suite
made up almost entirely of women of color."
Sustaining Democracy Digitally
Vanessa oversees, protects, and manages the NAACP brand
online. Her work directly impacts people's lives, which is
why she doesn't take it lightly. Understanding the power of
words, every email, tweet, and ad that engages the audience
brings them one step closer to sustaining democracy.
Vanessa sees millions of opportunities to impact when
viewing analytics, metrics, and numbers.
Vanessa has reached audiences across the country and
beyond by conducting extensive research, testing, and
strategy. NAACP’s email marketing program is incredibly
successful, surpassing industry engagement standards by
more than half. She says, "We've been able to do this, as a
small team at that, by taking the time to STIR the pot.
Strategize, Test, Implement and Report. Sometimes you stir
the pot too much, and you end up burning your food. That's
okay. Fail, but fail fast. You can't build award-winning
campaigns by playing it safe."
Fostering Encouraging Work Culture
Vanessa mentions that the culture of the NAACP aims to
reflect the world it advocates for, valuing diversity,
inclusion, and equity, and believes these should be
st
fundamental principles of every organization in the 21
We are two million+
activists united in
the ght to end
racial inequality.
“
“
48

Vanessa Mbonu
Vice President,
Digital Marketing &
Communications
(NAACP)

century. The NAACP also prides itself in fostering a culture
where every staff person is encouraged to show up as their
most authentic self. The organization genuinely invests in
the wellbeing of staff, knowing the importance of the work
they do.
The NAACP recently launched a Find Your Fit initiate, with
programs, tools, and resources that help the staff enhance
their physical, financial, professional, and emotional
wellbeing. Vanessa asserts, "We're dedicated to improving
the country for people of color, and we do that by starting
from the inside out."
The Responsible Use of Technology
The technological advancements have made it more
straightforward for the companies that work as B2B and
B2C; however, the NAACP is a non-profit organization that
tries to leverage technology to improve, protect, and change
communities. Vanessa is constantly looking at data
analytics, researching the latest marketing trends, and
diving deeper to figure out how to leverage them. The
primary goal is to mobilize activists, and social media,
digital ads, and geo-targeting have proven themselves
invaluable on that front.
Though technology can be a huge helping hand, it can also
disrupt the flow, so it is a huge responsibility to ensure it is
not inherently discriminatory in nature and use it to advance
society. Vanessa expresses, "We've tackled tech giants like
Facebook for negligence and malpractice in the spread of
misinformation on its platform. We've fought back against
mobile carriers for rules such as "10DLC," which make it
harder for organizations like us to reach our subscribers
through text message."
The Upcoming Transformative Shifts
Vanessa sees a gradual growth in the non-profit industry
and wishes that there would be more innovation. She says,
"We can't fight 21st-century problems with 20th-century
weapons." Millennials and Gen Z are increasingly more in
tune with the world around them, demanding more
transparency, committing to make the world better than
how they see it today. Vanessa sees them as self-starters,
having the entrepreneurial spirit of starting more
organizations and bringing the change.
From ME to YOU
Sharing her thoughts about the future, Vanessa envisions
herself building a life where she is pouring back into the
community more than it has poured into her. She has seen
firsthand, people dedicating their entire lives to the
betterment of their communities, leaving incredible legacies
for the next generation. She heartily expresses, "If I can
achieve just 10 percent of what some of the most notable
people who've come from this organization have done, I will
be feel accomplished."
Tell Your Tales
Vanessa advises budding women entrepreneurs to find a
mentor. She notes, "Whenever people ask me how I've been
able to achieve what I have at such a young-ish age (I'm
27), I always tell them I only did 60 percent of the work.
The other 40 percent came from the Black women who've
helped me along the way. Even if you don't have someone in
your immediate circle that can serve as a mentor, go on
LinkedIn, open up a business journal, find someone who
emulates the career path you desire, and follow their
journey. Read their articles. Listen to their talks."
Last but not least, You need to see people like you
achieving what the world has told you is impossible,
Vanessa concludes.
50

The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022.pdf

The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022.pdf

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

More from insightssuccess2

More from insightssuccess2 (20)

The 10 Most Inspiring Women Leaders to Follow in 2022.pdf