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IERA-Women Leaders

A Smart way to Industry

‘IndustryEra WomenLeaders’ Magazine is crafted to acknowledge, foster and celebrate the contributions of women in leadership. In addition, IndustryEra WomenLeaders aims at featuring content that helps in building a corps of future female leaders in every professional endeavour. By timely, adequate and significant articles and content, IndustryEra WomenLeaders will strive to promote the professional profile and perception of women who strive to be distinguished members of their respective professions. Our magazine will be a one-stop source of all information for female leaders, whether in terms of personal and professional growth, career opportunities, family life, entrepreneurship, health and wellness or unique achievements. IndustryEra WomenLeaders is designed to be a distinctive source of appropriate essential editorial works meant to empower, guide and direct women in their lineage to greatness.

IndustryEra WomenLeaders is an online resource designed to empower, promote and enhance women in business and beyond. Today, we celebrate the remarkable contributions of women each forging a course for others to make their mark. Women are gradually taking on corporate leadership positions across the world, but at the same time home and family duties still rest largely on their shoulders.

The magazine highlights leading visionary women leaders who change industries by leading and implementing state-of-the-art business solutions to accelerate growth, making their companies the world’s most valuable brands. The magazine portrays their journey, struggles and accomplishments that inspire others beyond diversity and inclusion.

Julia Martin might have lost her brightest leaders at ISEB Limited had she not put in place strategies to let them balance work and home. As a result, the pioneering CEO has a team of incredible women whose talent ISEB gets the benefit of just by flexing how they work. “I see my role as being the most prominent champion for my female senior team, helping and supporting them to go further than they think they can and have confidence,” says Julia. “It’s incredible to watch other women grow in confidence and fly. It’s sad that our first thought, often, is that we can’t. And when they realize not only that they can, but that they’ve delivered something incredible, it’s wonderful to see.”

ISEB’s core values include ACCEPT, TRANSFORM, and INSPIRE (they are Julia’s values too). Working in education, Julia and her team keep the learning process alive, ensuring they are growing and developing all the time and investing in that. “Great things happen if you believe in people, support them, and give them the tools to make work a rewarding part of their life and not just an obligation. It’s about living your values and doing the right thing,” adds Julia, who takes her role as a privilege and responsibility. For her, it’s a huge honor to be trusted to not only run a company but develop it for the future. She doesn’t take that lightly, and it shows in their work. If she’s willing to roll up her sleeves and do anything (and she does), then she demonstrates that there are parts of the business they are all responsible for. “I read once that leaders eat last, and if we don’t assume the masculine trope that leadership is about hunting, or fighting to be at the front, then what we’re doing is showing our employees that we care about them; we’re putting them first,” she explains. “You make people feel safe and valued, just as you would members of your own family (and she spends more time with them sometimes than her own family!), and then you’re letting everyone shine.”

As a leader, Julia has learned that “It’s not about you!” One of her core beliefs is about empowering her team. “It’s not my job to be great at everything, although I do try. I love learning. I’m a fully paid-up geek squad member; relaxing for me is learning something new and finding knowledge!” She adds, “being comfortable with uncertain spaces helps. I always tell my team, ‘we’re doing something new. Something is going to go wrong.’ And I’m not saying that as a naysayer. I’m saying that because it always does, and I want them to be unafraid.” Julia’s team knows she will always support them under any circumstance and situation. “In my team, people don’t get blamed if things go wrong – everyone flies in to help and support. That’s important because it means the team gets things done, and even a stressful launch can seem fun because problem-solving is far more fun than worrying!”

Armed with relentless energy, Julia celebrates the benefits of her neurodiversity. She uses creative thinking and problem-solving to see the bigger picture and create smaller steps to realize those ambitions. The dynamic CEO can fit double a normal workload into five days and motivate staff to achieve things they didn’t think were possible. She can see ways to do something quickly by breaking things down, which means her productivity is incredibly high. It also helps to love what you do and set a strategy you believe in wholeheartedly! She can trust staff to deliver and sees leadership as guiding and mentoring rather than micromanaging.

Julia brings foresight and forward-thinking to everything she does. She doesn’t want to run a company the way all others are run but constantly strives to improve. “Ensuring we stay ahead and at the forefront of organizational design, putting supporting staff first and making sure you do the RIGHT thing, not the done thing. You have to have different practices to ensure that women of all ages and all stages of their life can have a thriving career, so we offer working patterns that support mothers,” she adds. WL

Denise Wehbe, Chief Operating Officer, A-Tech Australia, has always been proud of the unique partnership that her husband and she had since the day they opened the company’s doors. The creativity behind the group’s success has always been their ability to fill missing pages with each other.

According to Denise, having a strong support system is the fundamental key to success, especially for those women out there trying to do it all. She advises them to build their base focus on what is important and execute it step by step. “For those who don’t have a support system and have big dreams for themselves, stage your success to fit you now, remember it’s a marathon not a sprint,” she says. “I’m a full-time working mother and there are days where I just cannot seem to get things done and days where I’m most productive, its ok to have those bad days you need to learn to restart and reboot, sometimes, your best support system is you.”

Denise always encourages her team, helping them grow and develop their skills, and giving them the confidence that they can do anything. “I always show my team members my appreciation to them and their efforts, creating a great banter with them is also key in my opinion. I’m always open to new ideas, I keep a positive attitude while making everyone feel important and appreciated. I always give value to the seat/ position of all staff members of the group and that is how we reach success,” adds the steadfast leader.

For Denise, success does not depend on a particular achievement or financial gain, but rather “I’ve always measured my success at the stage I’m in. My first feeling of real success was the day we registered our company and opened the door to our very first warehouse, it was a small warehouse with a small showroom and an office, but it was a feeling of a start to something great,” she elucidates. “My second and probably the biggest success in my life was the day my teenage daughters made me feel that they look up to me not only as their mother but me as a professional, the way they admire me for everything I’ve achieved and the aspiration they now have of being the same one day with their own career paths.”

It is pertinent to mention that Denise is a leader in a very male-dominated industry, and at times, it has its challenges and obstacles; however, what she has learned as a female leader is that if you need something, grab it; you need an answer find it, you need something done stand your ground. She strongly advises other women leaders to be a voice that is recognized, making a mark and making it count. “What I learnt over the years is that you cannot wait for things to get better for you to make a change, or you cannot wait for that “perfect” situation to start what you have dreamed of, believe in what you can do, don’t wait!” she elucidates.

A-Tech Australia, in the last 5 years has upheld a reputation that is second to none, the engineering to the growth of their company has been the expertise of the CEO, their knowledge in the façade industry installing some of the highest towers in Sydney and Queensland, the precision and expertise of the design team, the execution of their fabrication team and ultimately their highly skilled installers, the work of the group speaks for itself. “Currently we are working on the expansion of our group, with the preparation of our Aluminium extrusion plant in Orange, NSW, this stage one of our 4 stage expansion plan. This is something to look out for.” Denise shares, “The company has been awarded so many new contracts, taking on new clients working with some of Australia’s most prestigious T1 & T2 builders, A-Tech Australia will proudly complete and place its name on some iconic buildings, just wait and see. As far as me and what’s in the future for me, I really enjoying watching this empire grow and I feel I learn and grow more and more each year, the sky is the limit .” WL

Sabrina Hart, Founder &, CEO of S3 Marketing Solutions is a strong woman and devoted mother who dedicates time to both mom-mode and work-mode. With her spirit of leadership, passion for the business, and drive in optimizing the company’s projects, she inspires the team that makes up S3 Marketing Solutions. Sabrina is inspiring and empowering women entrepreneurs across industries into becoming great leaders of tomorrow. She advises them to remember, not only is it necessary to be a business owner, but to be a mom, and never to forget that. “My goal is to inspire others, to show that it’s possible to achieve balance in leading a team and being a full-time mom.”

“Digital Marketing professional with an extensive knowledge in Customer Relations, Strategic Sales, Business Development and Marketing Planning.”

Having traveled over to observe, listen, experience, and be transformed, she states an impactful experience is being a mother, which is next to none as the journey teaches a woman the skills to be great. “This role has allowed me to implement these aspects of motherhood into my work. We go about our lives, and as individuals, we need care and attention,” says Sabrina. “Just like people, work needs both these elements to reach its full potential.”

Sabrina does not have a specific role model because the world’s revolutionary changes were made not only by one woman but by many important women. “As women, we continue to aim and push through any barriers, whether on a societal or individual basis,” she says. “Figures like Jane Addams, Michelle Obama, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are only a few of these important women, making changes not only in their work but in the world around them.” with these qualities she has been taking the company to new heights.

S3 Marketing Solutions was created because Sabrina wanted to pursue her dream of creating a company intending to prioritize both care and effort in creating content. “It was ideal for me to focus on social media marketing since I have LinkedIn certifications, training, and education in this area and other platforms. B2B marketing strategies are one of our areas of expertise.” S3 Marketing Solutions can deliver different strategies with the same resources to any type of industry. They have a team of specialists in Google Ads and Web Design + Development to offer optimal solutions for clients.

“In our work, you must communicate that the client can’t just focus on one solution, as it takes an elaborate marketing strategy to give them results. Our client’s happiness and results are what is most important to me.” She states, it’s essential to compile the main points the client wants to focus on in the digital marketing campaigns, then provide an entire package of solutions with the client acknowledgement of advice and suggestions. “Scheduled meetings with the client are vital, as they allow for feedback on campaign performance to reach their marketing goals.”

Sabrina has a client who is a real-estate developer and builder who was intent on appearing on the first page of Google search. “They have partnership in several projects, where the partners allocate the marketing budget, designating the amount dedicated towards results and numbers,” she explains. “By following our advice, the client has expanded and soared above competitors, appearing on the first page. Within less than a year, they sold out on their properties. This development was a win-win for both of us. The client is happy and that gives me other opportunities to do more work. The client’s trust is the key to our shared success.”

The future for S3 is to keep expanding while providing personable high-quality digital marketing services. Starting from specialization in social media, the team of marketing specialists and web designers now offer an array of digital marketing solutions dedicated to match client’s needs. “I hope to emphasize once again: communication and trust. These two relationship-based elements make or break various aspects in both your work and home life. We intend to deliver these components to build a relationship between you and our team,” adds Sabrina. IE

Leah S. Yaw, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health, is a positive and powerful force to be reckoned with.

In her role at the nonprofit behavioral health organization, Leah is responsible for developing, communicating and executing strategic initiatives that are aligned with Devereux’s critical mission and core values. Specifically, this includes: overseeing the strategic planning process, building/sustaining organizational alignment and momentum to achieve set strategic goals; directing the strategic marketing function; and overseeing the Office of External Affairs. In Leah’s External Affairs role, she manages all fundraising, crisis management, public policy and advocacy, internal and external communications, brand management, and strategic marketing.

An unwavering advocate for children, adolescents and adults living with emotional, behavioral and cognitive differences, Leah helps lead the organization to ensure it provides the most compassionate and highest levels of quality care for the 25,000 individuals and families Devereux serves every year.

Empowering her team

At Devereux, Leah empowers her team – led by women – by giving them a seat at the table, enabling them to make decisions, bring forth suggestions, and manage their respective areas of expertise. She is a thoughtful listener, puts the needs of others before herself, and continuously works to boost the confidence of her team members in a safe and inclusive environment. Through her unwavering passion and dedication to advocate for individuals living with emotional, behavioral, and cognitive differences – along with her efforts around Devereux’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion organizational transformation – she serves as an inspiration not only to her colleagues and employees across the organization, but throughout her community.

To aspiring leaders at all levels of any organization, Leah offers the following advice: “Say yes to every genuine opportunity presented, especially those pushing your boundaries and comfort levels. That doesn’t mean never saying no; there’s a big difference between genuine opportunities and the off-loading of busy work. Learn to tell the difference, and accept all good offers to do more, create more and lead change – including those which appear too big or too difficult. Have faith in yourself, work hard and don’t be afraid. People in senior leadership can sometimes appear to have all the answers. They don’t, and good senior leaders are always seeking fresh ideas and solutions. Grab genuine opportunity with both hands and don’t let go.” She adds, “If you’re not being offered new opportunities to shine, find a problem within your organization and design a thoughtful solution. Ultimately, leadership is basically just complex problem solving.”

Armed with these qualities, Leah is taking the company to new heights.

About Devereux

In 1912, a young Philadelphia teacher named Helena Trafford Devereux became discouraged as she saw, firsthand, that the public education system underserved children with special needs. Believing she could do better, she began teaching some of these children in her own home. She strongly believed that children, regardless of the level of their disabilities, could learn and achieve personal growth in an environment tailored to their needs.

“Today, we are a national nonprofit partner for individuals, families, schools and communities, serving many of the most vulnerable members of our society in areas of autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities, specialty mental health, and child welfare,” Leah explained. Devereux employs more than 7,500 employees across 13 states who provide care and support to individuals with autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and mental health needs through a wide continuum of care, including psychiatric hospitals, residential programs, day programs, foster-care homes, out-patient services, community-based programs and special education day schools.

Since its founding more than a century ago, Devereux is now one of the largest and most advanced behavioral healthcare organizations in the country. “We have a unique model that connects the latest scientific and medical advancements to practical, effective interventions in the treatment of behavioral health,” said Leah. “And we are driven by our mission: Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health changes lives – by unlocking and nurturing human potential for people living with emotional, behavioral or cognitive differences.” IEWL

Devereux

Management

Leah S. Yaw
senior VP and CSO at Devereux

Description

Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health is one of the largest and most advanced behavioral healthcare organizations in the country. Informed by the latest advancements in science and medicine, we combine evidence-based interventions with compassionate family engagement to help change lives. We were founded in 1912 by special education pioneer, Helena Devereux. Today, Devereux is a national nonprofit partner for individuals, families, schools and communities, serving many of the most vulnerable members of our society in areas of autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities, specialty mental health, and child welfare.

Today, mid to large level enterprises face various challenges while transitioning to cloud including data security, regulatory requirements and compliance. Even though the Cloud Service Providers (CSP) are offering basic control, organizations still looks for advance form of controls. This is where CloudCodes comes into picture—adding a layer of security through its Cloud Security Platform to overcome these challenges. This layer of security ensures concerns like granular access control, compliance policies or enterprise policies are implemented uniformly on various cloud applications.

The initial focus of CloudCodes was on providing an ecosystem of products for Google Apps customers. “However, we understood that a lot of firms face the issue of being unable to control access to Google Apps outside the office, a basic feature of adopting cloud. This is how we ventured into cloud security solutions. Each of our customer challenges became a feature of our product; and over a period of time, we built a solution completely complementing the Google Apps,” begins Debasish Pramanik, Co-founder of CloudCodes. “Of all the features of our product, ‘Consumer Gmail Block’ caught everybody’s attention, the Google Apps partners and also Google.

To adopt a similar solution provided by Google, one needs a good capex investment, however, we brought a simple and easy to implement solution on the table – and this helped us further strengthen our base in the market.CloudCodes Cloud Security Platform provides a unique combination of Single Sign On, Identity Access Management and Data Security features which is not offered by anyone in the market. Their customers, instead of buying multiple solutions, leverage one single platform which addresses all the concerns that an

“We are targeting mid to large customers across India and EMEA region to increase our average order value. I would like to thank my team who stood by me at bad times. It is because of their strong support and belief, that we could increase our revenue and take the organization to new heights”

enterprise faces while adopting multiple cloud solutions. “Today, one of the biggest concerns is compromising the user’s data due to phishing attack, our solution adds multiple layer of additional enforcements such as IP, Geo, Time, Browser and Device to ensure that unauthorized access is avoided,” adds Pramanik proudly. “We not only provide complete restriction, but also add partial restriction wherein users can have complete access in their office but only view access outside office.” Using preventive mechanism to prevent any incident related to security from occurring, CloudCodes is assisting organizations in the cloud security or CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) space determine security violations with ease.

The company has been guiding numerous Latin American customers facing issues moving their data to cloud due to strong labour laws. Though they understood the advantages of cloud, but the strong labour laws were not allowing them to move to cloud.

The ability of CloudCodes solution to log user out of the cloud applications at a particular time of the day became a boon for them, with CloudCodes solution they were able to move their existing systems to cloud by ensuring they are following compliances.

CloudCodes mission is to provide solutions that are close to a customer’s heart and are known as customer’s partner rather than a vendor to their customer. The company has been growing aggressively and had a 70 percent increase in revenue as compared to previous financial years. “We are targeting mid to large customers across India and EMEA region to increase our average order value. I would like to thank my team who stood by me at bad times. It is because of their strong support and belief, that we could increase our revenue and take the organization to new heights,” concludes Pramanik.

CloudCodes

Management

Debasish Pramanik
CEO

Description

CloudCodes provides cloud solutions allowing the enterprise to the open doors for business value -regardless of the location.

“As CEO, you must understand growth, while being aware of risks and what competitors are doing. One of my beliefs is that you have to run quickly. There is no stopping. I tell my people that we need to keep progressing at a rapid pace, and be so far ahead as a leader that our competition will find it extremely difficult to catch up!” says Stephen Ho, CEO of CITIC Telecom CPC.

Themes of innovation and quality-focus pervade across CITIC Telecom CPC’s products, infrastructure and staff. The company prioritizes the adoption of best-in-class technologies and best-practices, including product development, facilities management, and staff training and development.

” Our latest mission of “Innovation Never Stops” translates the desire to continue to innovate its products and offering so that we can deliver the best offerings to optimally address the challenges faced by our customers. “

“Constant innovation is crucial,” says Ho. “The world and competition, are not standing still. It’s important to execute well on great ideas, and avoid wasting time and resources on bad or obsolete ideas.”

With such an innovative and spearheading spirit, the company has been leading the charge in many areas, even since Day One. It all began in 2001, when CEO Stephen Ho clearly saw the VPN as one of the most relevant tools needed for a growing number of enterprises struggling to link up distributed offices. Traditional connectivity measures were too expensive and too complicated for these smaller and more agile businesses. Instead, he and his team presented the MPLS VPN as an alternate solution which resulted great reception in the market.

The early VPN product has now been refined into the TrueCONNECT™ flagship family of business connectivity solutions. Yet, the fundamentals of its early success have remained the same for CITIC Telecom CPC: Innovation, quality, and execution discipline. Using a similar strategy in other areas, Ho led his company to further success by being quick to recognize the importance of cloud solutions, and developed what is now the SmartCLOUD™ flagship family (including investing in dedicated bricks and mortar facilities to support the product). The same can be said for managed security solutions and data center solutions, in addition to various other products and services, all of which CITIC Telecom CPC clearly and accurately predicted their emerging relevance and demand.

“Our latest mission statement of ‘Innovation Never Stops’ concisely summarizes our commitment and desire to innovate our products and services continuously,” adds Ho.

In addition to innovation, quality is the other crucial pillar that Ho focuses on, and this has resulted in CITIC Telecom CPC being Hong Kong’s first VPN service provider to achieve multiple ISO certifications, particularly all four ICT-related certifications (ISO 9001 Quality Management System, ISO 14001 Environmental Management System, ISO 20000 Information Technology Service Management System, ISO 27001 Information Security Management System and ISO 27017 Code of Practice for Information Security Controls for Cloud Services).

With a well-established company, you might think Ho would take it easy, but he is serious about keeping ahead. Recognizing the great potential in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, particularly the early stage of IT development in some regions, he is leading the company to identify areas of great potential, and work toward helping these locations to leverage modern technologies to build the necessary infrastructure. “These areas have the benefit of leapfrogging legacy technologies, and therefore can technically evolve very quickly,” emphasized Ho. “I see a lot of opportunity.”

The company has proactively taken significant steps toward capturing that opportunity, a highlight being the 2017 acquisition of the telecommunication business of Linx Telecommunications, expanding CITIC Telecom CPC’s global footprint (which already includes Asia-Pacific, North America and Western Europe) to the Central Asia and Eastern Europe markets, and gives further credence to the company’s goal of connecting the world to the “Digital Silk Road.” The acquired network resources and staffing cover a high-growth potential market (encompassing Russia, Kazakhstan and the “Stan” region, the Baltic Sea and Eastern Europe), and include a 470 kilometer submarine fiber network covering the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea which connects Sweden, Finland and Estonia. Also acquired are network operations centers (NOCs) in Moscow and Tallinn, and a Tallinn data center which is Estonia’s largest Internet Exchange (TLL-IX).

Guided by Ho’s vision and adherence to core principles and strategies, CITIC Telecom CPC has been very accurate at envisioning the continuous digital transformation of enterprises, and is very successful at serving their need as the business evolution unfolds. A good example illustrating the company’s ongoing visionary strategy is its recent launch of TrueCONNECT™ Hybrid SD-WAN, an innovative managed Software Defined WAN solution created for the increasing number of modern enterprises leveraging a variety of cloud services from different vendors, a situation traditional WANs are not designed to handle. The new SD-WAN solution enables WANs to be more efficient and easily reconfigurable so it can optimize performance and reliability especially when locations or vendors of cloud services change.

As mentioned, Ho plans to capitalize on the vast potential of the Belt and Road Initiative, including extending CITIC Telecom CPC’s network coverage and enhancing its product portfolio. Additionally, he wants to add NFV capabilities to the company’s flagship products to accelerate services provisioning, alongside higher cost efficiency and savings on capital expenditure (CAPEX). Furthermore, he intends the company to continue on its global expansion and enhance its full spectrum of managed networking services; cloud computing and other managed value-added data services for businesses around the world. “We want our customers to know we are not stagnated,” adds Ho. “We are continuing to move forward in this ever-changing and tremendously exciting era.”

And moving forward seems to truly be CITIC Telecom CPC’s track record, a company that has always been on the leading edge and embracing its motto that “Innovation Never Stops.” With Stephen Ho at the helm, driving his team with his passion for continuous innovation, competently anticipating and addressing emerging market demands with creative solutions, the company appears well positioned for a bright future.