Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can benefit Southeast Asia in many ways, from making much-needed services more accessible, to enhancing the quality of jobs across the region. Attaining these improvements won’t be easy, but positive outcomes will be more likely if the right investments, education programs, and policies are in place.
Over the last twenty years, Christa Short, VP, Wheeler Bio, has acquired a highly specialized technical skillset in the biopharmaceutical industry: cell culture process development. Drug sponsors need access to robust, reproducible, and scalable cell culture processes. Typically, drug sponsors outsource this work to contract manufacturers to achieve this cost-effectively. Throughout her career in the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) industry, she has had a direct role in developing processes for hundreds of biological drugs for customers worldwide. This breadth of experience gives Christa a unique perspective on perceived bottlenecks and challenges. She has also developed an ability to present complex technical information to customers, as well as an understanding of how to build and sustain technical teams.
In the last five years, Christa has spent significant time developing a customer-facing approach that maintains customer confidence through continual reassurance on technical capabilities. This has enabled her to contribute to the technical, business, and culture sides of companies like Wheeler. “Having experienced both good processes and broken and inefficient systems across my career, I believe that I can help mold and develop not only our technical attributes but also the culture at Wheeler Bio to avoid the pain points I have encountered, while also encouraging those that were collaborative and constructive.”
Christa’s mother taught her to be fearless and instilled that she could pursue any career imaginable. It wasn’t until college that she first encountered gender barriers while pursuing a degree in petroleum engineering. “During my first year as an engineering student, I was one of only a handful of females in the department. I experienced unfair treatment in classes by my professors that made me insecure about my future in the engineering industry. This experience triggered me to switch departments to biochemistry, and greatly altered the trajectory of my professional life,” says Christa. “Throughout my career I have faced gender-related roadblocks, as I believe almost every woman does in a professional domain traditionally or disproportionately occupied by men.” That said, moving through these barriers has molded her into who she is today professionally and helped form the goals and aspirations that drive her professionally.
One of the reasons Christa joined Wheeler Bio on its ground floor was that she shared the vision of economic diversification here in Oklahoma. “I grew up in a small rural community in Oklahoma where STEM resources were limited and careers in oil and gas were the “default” scientific occupations,” she explains. “Luckily, my mother inspired me to expand my way of thinking and helped me find resources that encouraged young girls to participate in and get excited about STEM in unique ways.” Wheeler Bio and Christa work with local universities and technical schools to develop a bioengineering curriculum, including designing degree programs, non-degree certificates, and internships that feed into jobs at Wheeler and other regional bioscience companies. They also plan to extend workshops and hands-on experiences for younger female scientists, helping cultivate a new culture of leadership in the bioscience industry. Christa has been taking the company to new heights as a true leader.
Wheeler was born to democratize access to rapid, high-quality biomanufacturing for venture capital-backed biotechnology companies. These small, emergent biotechs are developing a huge portion of novel drugs in the pipeline today—near 90% of all next-gen medicines—and they rely on outsourced service providers for various development needs between early discovery and eventually reaching the market. Most small biotech companies have the need to both develop their drug-using an outsourced discovery platform through a Contract Research Organization (CRO) and outsource their process development and manufacturing to a Contract Development and Manufacturing Company (CDMO). Unfortunately, knowledge transfer between nodes along the drug development process is painful. It’s often impossible to transfer successfully between CROs and CDMOs without losing momentum because these separate service businesses have competing priorities, incentives, and timeline horizons. “We are building Wheeler to fix the momentum drop. Efficient knowledge transfer requires strong collaboration between scientists and harmonized approaches to drug production and testing. Wheeler is a different type of CDMO with a completely new path for drug developers that is faster, easier, and more predictive,” says Christa. “Our “Portable CMC” offering connects discovery with development, our scientists with our client’s development team, and our success to the client’s success, creating a singular focus and lasting collaborative relationship.” IEWL
Wheeler Bio
Christa Short
VP of Process Sciences of Wheeler Bio
We are a new biomanufacturing company built to accelerate the translation of therapeutic innovation into clinical impact, Our comprehensive discovery-to-IND programs are designed to provide emerging biopharma companies a faster and more predictable path to the clinic.
Dr. Stella Onuoha-Obilor is Highmark Health’s Vice President of Clinical Quality and Medical Policy. She is responsible for the Health Plan’s Clinical Quality and Medical Policy. She is in charge of creating and implementing a hybrid clinical quality strategy that includes both structural and virtual integration models. Her goal, in collaboration with the clinical leadership team, is to reduce abuse and overuse while boosting underuse, all while improving the value-based member/patient/provider experience. Dr. Obilor received her medical degree from the University of Calabar College of Medicine in Nigeria, as well as her master’s and doctoral degrees in public health from Walden University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is a certified professional in health care quality (CPHQ), Certified Case Manager (CCM), Lean Six Sigma Healthcare Black Belt, Lean Six Sigma Healthcare Green Belt, Walden University Certificate on Meeting the Leadership Challenge, and a certificate from Harvard School of Public Health on Measurement, Design, and Analysis Methods for Health Outcomes.
Dr. Obilor is particularly interested in finding, standardizing, tracking, and improving quality outcome measurements such as provider satisfaction (quadruple objective) and demonstrating value improvement. She is in charge of leading Health Plan quality operations as well as developing the Health Plan’s quality improvement function and capability in collaboration with the Operational Effectiveness team and the Government Stars leaders to ensure that all quality programs are effectively connected and aligned. She is in charge of developing, maintaining, revising, and enforcing business medical policies for all goods in conformity with regulatory standards.
Highmark Health’s vision is a world where everyone enjoys health, and its objective is to offer a unique health experience that frees individuals to be their best. Client First is one of Highmark Health’s Core Behaviors, which places the customer at the center of everything the company does. Highmark Health is dedicated to serving both individual customers and other businesses. Highmark Health firms provide a wide range of vital health-related services, such as health insurance, health care delivery, population health management, dentistry solutions, reinsurance solutions, and cutting-edge technology.
Dr. Obilor says, “ My passion for improving numbers stems from the fact that every data point in the healthcare industry has a human narrative behind it. Numbers are not just numbers for me. People’s spouses, siblings, friends, and relatives make up this group. “Throughout the pandemic, Highmark Health has worked with many partners on several vaccination events serving minority and vulnerable populations across Pennsylvania. To date, Highmark and AHN have worked together to administer nearly 400,000 vaccine doses.
Highmark Health launched a wholly owned subsidiary under Larry Kleinman’s leadership to assist businesses in achieving large-scale transformation using digital tools, process improvement, and agile approaches to streamline and automate work that is highly manual, repetitive, time-consuming, and introduces unnecessary errors. On-site and virtual ideation solutions to engage employees and gather ideas; readiness and adoption techniques to support change management; and employee outreach to establish a community mindset around transformation are some of the services offered.
Dr. Obilor says, Highmark designed the Living Health Model to capitalize on the abilities, technology, and insights of our payers and care providers, who work in tandem, as part of our unique blended health strategy. Frictionless convenience, simplicity, affordability, and favorable health outcomes are all features of this new experience. Dr. Tony Farah, EVP Chief Medical and Transformation Officer, and his team are reimagining health care with the objective of providing the best possible care for our members at the lowest possible cost while offering the greatest possible patient and clinician experience. Dr. Obilor also adds, “Always listen to the voices of your internal and external customers. Lead with empathy, passion, and mutual respect. Always strive to create remarkable experiences for your team members so that they will in return create remarkable experiences for the customers you serve. Dr. Obilor’s passion and broad approach to her work have made her a pioneering woman leader. IEWL
Highmark Health
Dr.Stella Onuoha-Obilor
Vice President, Clinical Quality of Highmark Health
A national blended health organization, Highmark Health and our leading businesses support millions of customers with products, services and solutions closely aligned to our mission of creating remarkable health experiences, freeing people to be their best. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, we’re regionally focused in Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia and New York, with customers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Megan McInnis, Director of Finance, ThinkOn, is excellent at communicating. She is very team-oriented. She can build strong coalitions and establish mutual trust. Megan gains respect in the organization through her strong commitment to the organization, integrity, and work ethic. She leads by example. Whenever Megan makes decisions’, she ensures she has a clear and full understanding of how the Team got to the recommended option, the risks, and the rewards. She is a visionary and can balance short-term vision and long-term results.
Like many women entrepreneurs, Megan’s road to success wasn’t without its obstacles. As a young single mother working at a call center, she faced many financial, educational, and emotional hurdles on her career path. Her advice to other aspiring women entrepreneurs is, “believe in yourself and surround yourself with people who believe in you. Believing in yourself and the power of positivity, allows women entrepreneurs to become confident and overcome hardships.” Megan would not be an Inspiring woman leader today if it were not for the guidance and encouragement of her mother—who is also her role model—whose ideologies have helped Megan take the company to new heights.
ThinkOn has developed several unique approaches to the data management and information asset protection market centered around the channel, vendor partnerships, and commitment to data management competence. Unlike most service providers, ThinkOn delivers its services exclusively through a network of independent resellers and OEM channel partners. This approach to customer acquisition and service delivery allows ThinkOn to leverage in-place sales teams and focus on delivering the highest quality service possible. ThinkOn’s approach to vendor partnerships has allowed them to engage the same software providers that their reseller partners sell, creating a scenario where each reseller can offer each of their customers a continuum of capabilities – from software licensing to a customer desiring to build and operate their data protection services through to complete outsourcing of data protection “as a service.” Whether it’s data backup, archiving, or high-performance storage services, ThinkOn maintains a deep bench of industry experts who work closely with vendors, channel partners, and customers.
ThinkOn focuses on delivering a combination of cost leadership for mature services such as data backup and new product entrants ThinkOn is focused on optimizing the data management and search processes with the goal being to enable real-time, full-content searching without the need to physically read the source data files thus ensuring these files are constantly air-gapped and stored in an immutable form. “We believe that the most appropriate way to protect data and the information contained within is to minimize the frequency that its needs to be directly interacted with and for this reason we are developing industry leading capabilities to address this opportunity,” adds Megan.
ThinkOn is an early adopter of new technology. They do not adopt technology simply because it is new but instead look for ways to integrate new features into their “as a service” experience that they offer to the subscribers through their channel partners. “We work closely with industry leading vendors to adopt their technology to the service provider market. We have used our own investments in our quote to cash system, data indexing and secure off-line storage to build unique solutions for our subscribers,” explains Megan. “We are especially focused on fully homomorphic encryption at this time as it provides a significant advantage in the area of data protection for both very long-term retention and secure collaboration.”
By the end of 2021, ThinkOn, a subset of its key suppliers and focus channel partners, will deliver a real-time data analysis and indexing service that will allow collaboration between related and unrelated parties without the risk of accidental data leakage able typically associated with complex data-sharing initiatives. ThinkOn is committed to establishing the most cost-effective and streamlined portfolio of data management services. “Our quote to cash system—Compass is a platform designed to support the scaling of the ThinkOn business and allow us to enter new markets and new products.” IEWL
ThinkOn
Megan McInnis
Director of Finance at ThinkOn
ThinkOn delivers critical data management and information asset protection solutions that help companies optimize their IT infrastructure investment. We help organizations leverage cloud technology to maximize compute, network, and storage resources. We work with vendor partners to deliver secure, fast, and scalable solutions.
Bridgitte Mase loves the technology and cybersecurity field. As the Vice President of Boston Government Services (BGS), she has a clear vision that allows her to see the big picture and how BGS distinguishes itself from other technology companies of similar size. Bridgitte is dedicated to leading BGS in providing technology solutions that make the world a better, secure place now and in the future. Her hardworking, enthusiastic, and positive attitude led Bridgitte to become the successful leader she is today. “I am consistently dreaming big and looking ahead for the next distinguishing capability that will drive BGS growth.”
Bridgitte feels female leaders must support other females in technology leadership roles as a woman leader. She states that gender equality remains a major issue in STEM fields. Women are heavily underrepresented in corporate leadership, even though research shows that companies employing female leaders are more profitable than those not. Women make up close to 60% of the overall workforce. Companies must realize that women in leadership send a message of diversity and inclusion that will be noticed by women who are evaluating where they want to work. In technology areas, especially cybersecurity, there are significant challenges to filling the increasing resource demands as one of the fastest-growing industry needs. Companies need to attract and retain women to fill key roles. Harvard Business Review conducted a leadership study that “women scored higher than men in 17 of the 19 capabilities that differentiate excellent leaders from average leaders.” Research: Women Score Higher Than Men in Most Leadership Skills (hbr.org).
“It is no secret that women are still underrepresented and underpaid in comparison to their male counterparts, and women understand that they must work hard, take initiative, drive themselves, and be resilient,” says Bridgitte. “I understand these challenges firsthand and look for ways to encourage the development of women in leadership roles. I participate in organizations that encourage women in stem fields, such as Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) and Women in STEM. I’ve also led multiple STEM initiatives with the Girl Scouts.” BGS has a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and supports women at all levels. BGS has established and cultivated relationships with female-owned businesses to partner with on business opportunities to support female business owners. Fifty percent of the protégé companies that BGS mentors are female-owned.
Bridgitte is passionate and driven, and that energy inspires team members to be fully engaged in supporting the company’s mission and vision. “I believe that BGS is a significant contributor to ensuring that the Nation is secure, and I understand that every team member is important to the success of the mission,” adds Bridgitte. “Great leaders build trust with their team members and empower them to be creative and share their ideas and insights. I value each team member, understand their potential, I work to position each person to perform to their full potential and encourage them to be high performers.” Without a doubt, Bridgitte has taken the company to greater heights with her knowledge and brilliant leadership.
BGS is dedicated to strengthening the nation’s cybersecurity, and they understand that the cybersecurity resilience of government contractors is paramount in this effort. BGS invested early to establish resources for the Department of Defense’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification. “Our own CMMC certification demonstrates our own commitment to cybersecurity excellence and ensures that we can securely address data and infrastructure needs to support government contracts. The RPO certification allows us to help other companies achieve certification readiness.” The C3PAO certification allows BGS to assess the cybersecurity practices of other government contractors and certify companies at the appropriate maturity level. BGS is among only eight companies authorized to conduct C3PAO certification services. Since BGS is a mission service provider of IT, cybersecurity, and engineering services for government agencies, we bring the unique knowledge that it takes to support the mission while remaining compliant. “This is a capability that sets us apart from other C3PAO organizations who are single focused assessors. BGS helps government contractor improve systems and practices to deliver compliant, secure, resilient, effective mission operations.” WL
Advancing the Hybrid Workplace in the Digital Age
Former College Soccer Player Heather Lockhart Gets a Kick Out of Building a Game-Changing, Customer-Centric Brand for Leading Managed IT Services Provider Compucom
When Heather Lockhart played college soccer – and later as a semi-professional female athlete competing abroad – she understood the importance of sizing up opponents, working collaboratively to advance the ball up the field toward the goal, and having the vision to see openings for teammates to seize advantage and score.
Sensitive to fusing strategic thinking with laser-like tactical execution, Lockhart believes her growth as an executive in the B2B technology industry is in large part due to understanding and embracing “the hybrid model.” After all, with an obvious acknowledgement of the hyphen, what’s more hybrid than being a scholar-athlete?
Lockhart, now Chief Marketing Officer at Compucom, explains the environment of a specific sport has its unique rules and requirements, just like today’s current work environment.
“When you’re a scholar-athlete you must excel in BOTH environments. Companies must straddle the line with today’s distributed workforce working in a variety of places and with a variety of technologies,” Lockhart said. “It takes adapting to that unique environment, whether on the field or the board room, to compete at the highest levels.”
Post-Covid, the Hybrid Workplace and Digital Technology Take Hold
The past couple of years shed a new light on the term “hybrid.” No longer just the domain of eco-friendly passenger vehicles, it also now applies to how we get work done.
“Following the world’s massive involuntary experiment in fully remote and hybrid work models, the results are in: people are going back to the office, people are staying remote, and there will be everything in between,” Lockhart said.
A hybrid workplace model mixes in-office and remote work. In doing so, it can offer flexibility, autonomy and better work-life balance – which can lead to more engagement as a result. Employers benefit by building a more productive, healthy, stable workforce.
However, the hybrid workplace is not a simple formula or a panacea for all workplace challenges. Today’s hybrid workplace must be implemented strategically, taking advantage of modern technologies that engender connection, collaboration, productivity and employee engagement.
But how does a company know what technologies are best and how to improve the employee’s digital work experience?
Building a Bold Brand
That’s where Lockhart, possessing some 20 years of marketing management experience at technology-savvy companies such as Disney and Volvo, and Compucom get involved.
Lockhart and Compucom have easily embraced the changing work world, taking a leadership position in all things digital employee experience. One of the biggest transformations the company has gone through has been a complete brand recharge. In early 2022, Lockhart led the charge of transforming the brand, taking a bolder, more innovative and entrepreneurial approach using bold, vibrant colors that invoke confidence.
“We must continue to evolve as the market evolves. Our new brand identity evokes confidence, innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit,” says Lockhart. “We now have a fresh look to go with our forward-thinking mindset, focus on being agile and innovating for our customers.”
Leading with Purpose
Just like Compucom, Lockhart has been a leader in tech. According to Deloitte Global’s estimates, women’s share in the overall global tech workforce has increased 6.9% from 2019 to 2022, while their share in technical roles has grown by 11.7%. Notably, the fastest growth—an estimated gain of nearly 20%—has occurred in the proportion of women in leadership.
Lockhart’s leadership skills, no doubt, were formed by her ‘hybrid’ scholar-athlete experience, her education which includes an undergraduate degree and an MBA in international marketing. But perhaps an equally valuable component to her rise as a female executive in the tech world has been her listening skills.
“When you work alongside very smart professionals and do more listening than talking, success is much easier to achieve,” she says.
Lockhart recommends to young women aspiring to achieve leadership roles in the tech world that they purposefully choose to join customer-centric companies with diverse workforces that fuse strategic thinking with flawless tactical execution, as well as those that appreciate collaborative employees with excellent listening skills.
In addition to mentoring female leaders locally, she serves on the company’s Operations Committee, made up of C-suite executives, is the executive sponsor for the associate-led Women in Technology Affinity Group (WiT), and mentors those not just on the marketing team but also throughout the enterprise. The WiT Affinity Group, the company’s largest and fastest-growing affinity group, was established to help inspire, educate and promote equality in STEM disciplines.
Compucom Kudos
According to the industry analyst firm Information Services Group (ISG), Compucom is a leader in the highly competitive managed service provider (MSP) space for both Large Accounts and Midmarket categories. ISG noted the company’s focus on overall employee experience as a strong reason for recognizing Compucom as a Leader in the 2022 ISG Provider Lens™ Future of Work – Services and Solutions report.
“Compucom has been ahead of the digital workplace curve and leading the future of work for 35 years,” Lockhart says. “We’ve continued to innovate and automate. To think about what a wide spectrum of enterprises needs today and anticipate what they will need tomorrow and the future. Compucom is a leader in advancing the digital workplace while listening well to the needs of each enterprise customer as we work to earn their business every day.” WL
In May of 2017, Shannon Malish opened Windmill Wellness Ranch. She believes that a holistic approach to recovery is necessary for a client’s growth and complete healing. The programs offered at Windmill Wellness Ranch and the patient’s experience are the brainchild of Shannon. Her vast knowledge and experience in leading and directing co-occurring, substance-use-disorder treatment facilities led to research that showed what is needed to sustain long-term recovery.
Windmill Wellness Ranch is recognized by the State of Texas as a COSPD (co-occurring psychiatric disorders) inpatient and outpatient treatment center specializing in trauma therapies, substance use disorders and mental health serving patients from all over the United States. Windmill Wellness Ranch is also the only substance use disorder facility using Brain FrequencyTM technology to heal the brain located on site at our Brain Frequency Center.
Shannon now has methods for treatment to address underlying issues with therapy and brain therapy instead of placing, as she refers to it, “a band-aid over a bullet wound.” The “band-aid treatment” did not work and, thus, it was time for evidence-based and researched treatment. To heal the body, mind, and spirit requires specialty and highly educated staff trained to deal with the core issue, which is never the substance that is being abused. The substance is just a symptom of the problem. Shannon found that a large fraction of those people were still relapsing despite all therapeutic efforts.
Shannon had been Chief Operating Officer and oversaw 12 addiction treatment centers in three different states. There was a clear piece missing in addiction treatment: mental health. Mental Health is the driving issue in addiction; furthermore, there is a huge gap across the nation for long-term inpatient mental health. She recognized that addiction would continue to be an issue if mental health was not treated primarily. Shannon lost her sister to untreated major depressive disorder and polysubstance use. This was another driving force for Shannon to create Windmill Wellness Ranch.
Shannon has helped many other females in the industry get started with either their inpatient centers or as leaders in mental health. “I have also interned many females that are now in key leadership positions in several states.” Additionally, I support my employees’ education and they are now in the helping profession either here or elsewhere.”
Brain Frequency, another company, created by Shannon Malish, has gone out to the U.S. She plans to help other women financially start their businesses. “After what I encountered trying to borrow money, I don’t want any woman to be slowed down in changing the future. I plan on helping women get their start and not to be charged a huge percentage for their efforts. I know how empowering it is to say, I did this!”
Because Shannon had a clinical background that led to creating the right systems, she teaches the “why.” The phrase “that’s the way we’ve always done it” doesn’t work at WWR. She teaches her leaders how to look at systems, processes, metrics to improve treatment every month. She meets with her clinical team weekly to train others on all emerging clinical therapies and her directors bi-weekly. This top-down approach has led WWR to have the best outcomes in the nation.
WWR has filled the gap in the nation when it comes to mental health. They were pioneers before COVID, and since then it is clear that good mental health treatment is needed. The outcomes speak for themselves in the Trac-9 results in all domains.
Trac9 Informatics is a standardized assessment battery for substance use disorders and mental health that provides evidentiary support for clinical monitoring, outcomes, supervision and success forecasting.
The future holds endless opportunities for both Shannon and her institute. Unfortunately, with COVID, more mental health has emerged, and she is looking forward to helping those find “joy again ”. The institute moved into virtual care because it was needed, and Shannon never wanted to limit access to care. “We have added the Guardian initiative. As a wife of a retired police officer and veteran, we will be letting the rest of the U.S. know how we specialize in this for Vets and First Responders. This requires a very different skill set for both the Guardian and their family members,” says the pioneering leader. “We are treating many process addictions, such as love, sex, gambling, spending, etc., with individualized tracks to come. I will continue developing the revolutionary software that accurately predicts the mental health diagnosis with a 4-minute EEG. I have developed software to treat these symptoms instead of using medications as our first response.” WL
In Curinde’s case, as the CEO of the company, Jacqueline Jansen constantly strives to highlight the company’s achievements during these last years, which has been creating a safe business environment for investors to conduct their business. Curaçao is ideally located at the crossroads of trade routes between the Caribbean, South- and North America, and Europe, making the island an attractive business destination. Local and international promotion will be continued, especially considering the international organizations of which Curinde is a member, such as AZFA (Asociación de Zonas Francas de Las Americas) – Free Trade Association of the Americas, and WFZO – World Free Zones Organization.
According to Jacqueline, as a female leader, one has to be very strong and determined in vision and leadership. Slowly but surely, the world is recognizing the intellectual capacity of female leaders and the fact that women must receive equal treatment. She is making a point to give women a platform to showcase their talent. “The best example I can give is the company that I manage.
Curinde has seventeen (17) employees of which two (2) are male employees. In my humble opinion, this says a lot of the organization,” she says. “Furthermore, as a woman I know that there are still many single mothers out there trying daily to make ends meet. I will try my best to empower and support these women in achieving their dreams.”
Jacqueline is constantly inspiring and empowering team members into becoming great leaders of tomorrow. She is doing the same by constantly using and reminding her team members of the following: the public/audience should remember you for your work and accomplishments and not for your looks. “They should realize and recognize that what you are saying is coming from someone knowledgeable who knows what he/she is talking about.”
For Jacqueline, it is not about finding success, and it is more about capturing the attention and receiving recognition for the achievements, which could take more than ten (10) years. “I must say it is important also to realize that the attention should not be something temporarily. The idea is to capture and maintain the attention of others on what is being done and always make sure to be an example for others,” she says. Jacqueline advises the leaders to ensure equal treatment without discriminating against others. “Whenever someone does something great, congratulate and motivate them to continue with their tasks. On the other hand, in case you need to address some points for the better, constructively do that without hurting or humiliating the other party.” Armed with this unique ideology, Jacqueline takes the company to new heights.
Curinde provides seamless professional support and qualitative facilities to parties interested in operating in the Curaçao Airport Free Economic Zone, the Curaçao Harbor Free Economic Zone or the Industrial Park Brievengat at the most competitive terms. They believe that Curaçao is the prime logistical hub for successful business in the Caribbean. The company’s vision states that by 2030, Curinde will be an internationally recognized facilitator in attracting investors, and the fact that Curinde is being noticed says a lot.
For instance, a high-end large-scale clothing company whose clientele is mostly based in France and Italy wanted to establish in the Free Economic Zone and export their products as well as be able to sell in the Curaçao local market. Their goal is to use Curaçao as a hub to send their products to Europe. Given that Curaçao is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the client wanted to find out if there are also certain incentives. They followed the steps to obtain an E-zone license and once the license was granted, they were able to start with their business activity. Curinde’s professionals guide and assist investors during the establishment process. After obtaining the necessary permit, the client is now established as a Free Economic Zone company and can export to North & South America and Europe while selling to the local market of Curaçao.
The above is just one of the many examples of the services and products offered by Curinde. The company wants to obtain more positive results for the days to come. This, even though they had to continue with their business despite the last two challenging years. “I also want to share my knowledge and experience with the youth that has the ambition to become professionals and has the desire to service their country,” adds Jacqueline.
“I would like to thank the entire Curinde’s dynamic team for their support and for believing in the company. Without their support, all this would not have been possible,” says Jacqueline. WL
Jennifer Hammers, EVP of Sales and Marketing, Issuer Direct, has been instrumental in establishing the strategic direction of a growing business that needed long-term help. Her ability to encourage conversation, challenge what was required, and reprioritize thoughts around long-term, AKA more extensive picture results, have been tremendous to Issuer Direct’s success.
Jennifer is one of the most accountable professionals in the organization that listens to others and leads with an inspiring purpose. Her personal integrity to always do the right thing for her team, her peers, and the business is contagious, and Issuer Direct has benefited from this enormously. She encourages the contributions and opinions of others – and provides forums for everyone to feel a part of her initiatives. Still, she has a professional mindset to evolve, adapting where and when necessary.
“As a previous business owner myself, I know how challenging it can be to establish yourself. I try to lead by example and have worked hard to inspire women to take chances, follow their dreams, and at the same time, help them learn from my mistakes,” says Jennifer. “I love that I have the opportunity to work in the Public Relations Industry to shed light on the importance of building a brand and offer the tools to help make it happen.”
Jennifer’s number one goal is to inspire her team to become incredible leaders. This goal is primarily because she never had the advantage of having a mentor, and her success has been from trial by fire, failures, and learning by herself to learn, grow, and mature. The pioneering leader constantly pushes her team to be the best they can be and encourages her team to continue learning industry insights by hosting weekly meetings in which team members discuss challenges and bring forth unique solutions and perspectives to enhance the business further.
“I believe one of the most important factors in empowering the team to become great leaders is to ensure they know first and foremost that there is a path for them. Once they understand there is a path, we lay that plan out and work to execute it together,” explains Jennifer. “There is nothing I enjoy more than seeing my team grow and achieve their unique goals. If there is any advice that I could share, it would be to understand that success is NOT just a numbers game, but it is being a well-rounded, caring, motivated/motivating, hard-working individual that puts their team first and in doing so, creates a dynamic that will lead to success.”
Issuer Direct is a leading communications and compliance company, providing solutions for both Public Relations and Investor Relations Professionals. Its comprehensive solutions are used by thousands of customers, from emerging startups to multi-billion dollar global brands, ensuring their most important moments reach the right audiences via their industry-leading newswire, IR website solutions, events technology, and compliance solutions. “One of the greatest draws to my joining Issuer Direct is their desire to innovate and disrupt an antiquated industry that’s lacked progress over the last few decades,” elucidates Jennifer. “Issuer Direct has truly revolutionized the newswire industry by providing a platform that not only allows us to provide flat-free pricing for press release distribution, replacing the old way of word counts but also provides a one-stop platform that gives clients the ability to manage all of the PR/IR communications through one medium.”
For Jennifer, her goal is always to be the best leader/teammate/and employee she can be. She has had the good fortune of helping lead this company through an exciting acquisition. It taught her a lot; through her capabilities, the company was able to enhance its productivity. “While it wasn’t something I had lead in the past, having gone through it, I would have put that on my list of goals to achieve because the experience is just incredible. Maybe going through a few more acquisitions would be nice,” says Jennifer. “For the future, I will be dedicating my time and energy to building Issuer Direct. I am really excited to continue to grow, lead, innovate, and work with the amazing leaders here on the strategy for the future. The only direction for Issuer Direct is up. Hands down you will see improvements to current products, the introduction of new products, partnerships, and innovations in the years to come.” WL
Elizabeth Kunzelman followed her mentor, father, and founder of Petland, Ed Kunzelman’s footsteps, to promote his vision for a safe, responsible place for children to learn about animals. Petland’s Vice President of Legislative and Public Affairs started her career in journalism and public relations. From the beginning, Elizabeth honed strong work ethic and communications skills and worked her way up in the company. “Connecting pets with loving families never gets old. I’m very proud of the company he built.”
Elizabeth leads public and legislative affairs, national brand positioning, and tactical communications in her new role. During her 15 years at Petland, she served in various company public relations and communications roles. She championed legislation to ensure the highest animal welfare standards and protected Americans’ rights to own pets. Prior to her recent appointment, Elizabeth was Director of Public Affairs for Petland and currently serves on the board of directors for the Pet Advocacy Network board in Washington, D.C., and as a board member on the Ohio 4-H Foundation, Chillicothe-Ross Chamber of Commerce, and Downtown Chillicothe.
According to Elizabeth, many women face challenges at work, but Petland has always supported her growth and respected her abilities. “The most important thing I continue to do is to lead by example, mentor, and never stop trying to make things better in our industry. Petland has a unique and very special family culture. Everyone truly cares about one another,” elucidates Elizabeth. “I’ve learned so many lessons from my father. He started the company in 1967 and the business experienced many highs and lows during its 55 years. My father taught me many things, some have taken me a little longer to understand and implement.” He taught Elizabeth patience and to listen before speaking. “He has taught me empathy. These are all critical tools when serving customers, caring for pets, and defending our business against radical protestors,” she adds. “I try to impress upon our team how important it is to use your voice in the right way. Learning how to talk to colleagues, sharing ideas as well as frustrations is the key to finding success and finding happiness in your job.”
Success is a never-ending journey for the steadfast leader, and there’s no timer. It’s not necessarily about achieving some milestone; and it’s about being proud of the work one has done and knowing that no stone has been left unturned in trying to do the right thing. She strives to improve daily and remain an asset to the team she works with. “I believe you will constantly succeed if you are open-minded, willing to learn, and optimistic about the future,” she adds.
Animals are a love language in every country. Petland franchises are growing in communities across America and across the globe. In her role as VP of Public and Legislative Affairs, Elizabeth monitors, educates, and protects small business owners. She works with franchisees and legislators to explain the Petland business model, their breeder standards and animal care standards, and how they give back to the community. “I was honored with the 2021 Petland Impact Award for my work advocating for our company, our franchisees, and our customers,” says Elizabeth. “There are well-funded extremists out there who do not believe animals and people belong together. We know, however, and see every day how important the human animal bond is with people around the world. We believe, and there is an abundance of evidence, that pets make life better for both animals and their human families. I’m honored to champion that cause.”
The company’s biggest achievement is its ability to evolve to do what’s right for pets and customers. Petland now designs and builds its own store fixtures to house the pets. They work with state breeder organizations, USDA, state Agricultural Departments, veterinarians, and AKC to continue to evolve, improve, and grow.
“We are never complacent when it comes to improving the lives of pets and our customers. My biggest goal is to protect the right of families to purchase their family pet and the right of small businesses to operate,” explains Elizabeth. “People need loving pets now more than ever. They trust Petland for answers and expertise. Our business has grown and I’m confident it will continue to do so.” WL