Monica Miller Collison, Esq. has many leadership qualities that have enabled her to help salvage, resurrect and grow two long-established mutual insurance companies in Oklahoma over her insurance career. Mostly, she is methodical, strategic, and selfless in her approach. She has outstanding EQ and interpersonal skills, which give her a keen ability to recruit the team or teams she needs to implement her vision. These abilities help her be a true “change agent” and turn around failing or failed companies, leading them to growth and profitability in a very short time.

Throughout her career, Monica has continued to look for personal and professional ways to pour into women with goals of leading in their communities and careers. “I have spoken with and given feedback to many young professionals entering into fields that have traditionally been dominated by men,” she says. “I am a relational person at heart. Therefore, my best mentoring and support of others comes from one-on-one time with female professionals, whether it is lunch, coffee or a simple phone call to talk with them about how to navigate tough environments and not lose sight of their goals and vision.”

Monica is a gentle and authentic leader and person.

She hires the right people for the right task and allows them to work within the space she brought them in to complete. She does not micromanage but simply sets the vision, trains on that vision and provides guidance and leadership when necessary to allow her team to gel and work.

“My late father gave me the greatest advice when interviewing for one of my first legal jobs and then working in that role. He told me, “always let them underestimate you because they always will.”

Those words, like so many of his, have almost become my professional mantra,” elucidates Monica. “I believe that while I have seen growth and change in this area over my career, many people especially when I was beginning my career journey, tended to believe or see female leaders as not being as assertive, strategic or able to deliver the same results as their male counterparts. I think this varies from organization to organization, as my current role and board of directors have allowed me to soar and, as a result, our company is moving.” Armed with a brilliant ideology, Monica has been taking the company to new heights.

Union Mutual Insurance Company’s biggest achievement has been its seasoned experience and customer service. “While it sounds simplistic, it is actually a very rare corporate trait! We are a small to mid-sized organization and within the four top leadership positions, have over 125 years of experience in the rural, mutual insurance space,” explains Monica. “This continues to intrigue reinsurers as well as customers. This experience and knowledge allowed us to recently take to market a new insurance product that continues to break internal goals for growth.” Additionally, what sets Union Mutual Insurance Company apart is that from the top down, all of their Senior Leadership team continue to maintain a presence in the rural part of their state through production agriculture engagements and business endeavors. This type of engagement enables the staff to relate to and understand the needs of their consumers.

For the days to come, Union Mutual Insurance Company is working toward expanding into other states beyond their Oklahoma borders. They still have regulatory, legal, and business assessments to cross before transacting business in their first new territory. However, they hope to have met this goal by the first quarter of 2023. “I believe that Union Mutual of Oklahoma will continue to grow and expand our reach within Oklahoma through our Legacy and Town and Country products. I also look forward to creating and producing brokerage products that enable our agents and customers to continue to grow their UMIC books of business and retain clients. I am excited about duplicating this same model and trend into our growth region beyond our borders as well. As for me, I hope to continue to lead UMIC into a new era of growth and profitability.” WL

Melanie Mills, Strategist, Executive Ally, and Trusted Partner came to transformational leadership through professional speaking. She presented a keynote speech to over 500 CEOs on leadership and change. Following her presentation, a leader walked up to her and asked her if she could do what she talked about. Melanie’s response was, “I don’t know, do you want to find out?” This was over 15 years ago and changed the trajectory of her business. Moving from making her living full time on the platform speaking, she jumped into the arena to assist leaders whose organizations were going through exponential growth. When growth happens, leaders are needed at all levels of the organization, especially when you want to preserve a culture, deliver high performance, and exceed client expectations.

Always an advocate of the people, Melanie is a demonstrated leader and trusted partner to CEOs, VP’s and rising stars emerging into leadership roles. She can tell the truths that need to be heard and has a genuine desire for others to grow and embody the best version of themselves. Her commitment is to develop leaders who grow more leaders.

In simplest terms, Melanie will lead you to the source of your power as a leader. In the process, you may have to remove some barriers keeping you from fulfilling your full potential. The paradigm of leadership is changing very fast. It used to be that the leader at the top held the most power and influence. Not only do we not trust this model anymore, but it is also not nearly as effective as committing to bringing out the best in the people you lead.

Leadership is a people business and positive reinforcement makes all the difference. Melanie has an uncanny ability to transform leaders who guide the people and the organizations they lead to do great things. This begins with the CEO and the executive team, the leaders they lead, and the associates rising into leadership.

You can count on Melanie to see the whole picture of where you and your organization are. Individual leadership development is primary. Your team’s development is next, and your organization’s alignment to the destination you want to reach is the ultimate goal.

At the core, Melanie believes leadership can be developed and is needed at all levels of the organization. If a person raises their hand and says they want to have more impact or influence, she knows raising them up is possible. The process begins with a high level of awareness of where they are, a commitment to integrating what they learn, and subsequently you lead others to where they have never been before.

Through 1:1 work, Melanie makes sure the leader she is working with is clear and focused. After that is accomplished, she translates this clarity to the executive team. They then discover a way to make the company’s direction clear to everyone involved, translating vision into action. Melanie can navigate deep waters, fears, barriers, and insecurities in the leaders she works with. Together, this work cracks open what is truly possible.

“As a strategist, I serve and support leaders in making significant and lasting changes. I assist them in moving a situation and their organization from where it is to where they would like to be. My projects often begin during significant divergent energy. Time, money, and resources are being wasted, and the performance of the company is lagging. In my opinion, leadership has never been more important as it is right now.”

The desired outcome of the transformation is to converge the energies and get everyone involved and focused on what matters most for the business,” says Melanie. “This demands a comprehensive approach but begins with finding focus and personal commitment from the organization’s leader. When this is clear, the objective shifts to aligning the leadership team and transforming them into a highly functioning collaborative unit. After leadership is aligned, we involve and engage the front line in making changes. Transformation is not for the weak of heart. False starts are fatal. Not only do we not trust this model any more, it is not nearly as effective as committing to bringing out the best in the people you lead.” IEWL

Melanie Mills, LLC

Management

Melanie Mills
Founder of Melanie Mills, LLC

Description

For over three decades, I have had the privilege to support leaders in transforming their organizations into great companies. Graduating with a degree in education, I taught middle school for seven years before I started my own business. That was 22 years ago. During this time I learned a critical value that is part of how I work with leaders today.

Grace Sorensen started with DaBella as a Telemarketer in 2012 – after a short amount of time, Grace was able to promote into new marketing avenues. As time went on, learning about the industry as well as the company paved the way for her advancement. With the knowledge base of the industry and every position within marketing, she was able to strategize with the CEO and create an expansion plan. The CEO of DaBella – Donnie McMillan Jr, is the driving force behind the company and has consistently provided opportunities for the marketing team to grow. “No “ONE” person can take all the credit for DaBella’s growth – we are a team, and each member plays a vital role in our success.”

For Grace, the pandemic was a turning point, as it taught her and the company many things they did not imagine could happen. “Since then, we have become more innovative and strategic in our partnerships and growth plan. We will continue to expand regardless of the “obstacles” in front of us.”

Alongside overcoming obstacles, Grace has also been inspiring and empowering women entrepreneurs across industries into becoming great leaders of tomorrow. She advises them, “Don’t allow anything to get in your way. Have clear and attainable goals that you are determined to achieve. Be the best leader and team member you can be, and you will be able to do great things.” Armed with such a unique ideology, Grace has constantly found new avenues to increase brand awareness. “We have a few plans we have been working on within our digital team and we are very excited to launch them soon!”

The story of DaBella is anything but typical. It’s common for people to talk about the dream of one day owning their own business, often driven by the desire to make a lot of money. The start of DaBella’s story, however, is different. It entails a motivated, young family who had worked in the home improvement industry but envisioned a different kind of home services company. The goal was not just to build a business but to create an extended family, where employees, suppliers, and most importantly, customers were part of the family.

Not coincidently, the company was founded simultaneously as the family was blessed with twins. The company’s name comes from a combination of their names — David and Isabella. But DaBella is so much more than a company’s name. From the beginning, it has been a second family name for employees, and it’s the nameplate of a company that works in the name of families.

Since 2011, DaBella has become one of the largest home improvement services companies in the United States. “Our core purpose is to care for families and their homes. We strive to provide the best customer experience and the best environment for our growing workforce,” says CEO Donnie McMillan, Jr. “The explosive growth we have achieved in such a short time period is an incredible story in and of itself. It was only possible because we created a culture committed to helping people realize their vision. Not only the career goals of our own people at DaBella, but also for those homeowners who we serve every day.” DaBella has always thought outside the box, which has dramatically helped its continued growth efforts.

“Keeping up with each generation and the trends. It is the most exciting part of what we do. We ensure to communicate often with our team so everyone is driving toward the same goal. We love finding new ways to expand our brand presence,” says Grace. “Our mission is to bring innovation pieces to our industry. In order to continue our growth, we know we have to bring a new level in every aspect of our business. As DaBella continues to expand, we are excited to provide more opportunities. Our core values: Lead, Care & Grow – came from our CEO “Growth through the success of others” – we will grow, and we will take a lot of people with us as we grow! “ WL

At Complete Construction Service, a commercial construction company in the Kansas City market, Sheryl Vickers connects people in the CRE industry (developers, brokers, architects, and company owners) with the Complete Construction Service team who can partner with them on several levels to turn their vision and plans into reality. Sheryl stays connected and communicating with trusted clients and partners so that the company can navigate the construction process together and craft the end experience to realize their goals. Keeping a pulse on what’s going on in the city and who’s doing what, she loves to delve into the needs of clients, whether it’s the type of talent they need to attract as they scale up or past pain points. She solves those problems using her vast network and creative ideas.

As the owner of Select Sites, Sheryl takes care of clients who are in the site selection stage, looking for property to buy or lease. She focuses on retail and restaurant clients and excels in this niche. She knows the importance of understanding and knowing the market thoroughly, as well as each trade area, district, and neighborhood pockets. It is even more essential to grasp the dynamics of each shopping center or building and understand the ownership and their specific needs.

Sheryl and her close friend Audrey Navarro founded WIRED; Women In Real Estate Development, a mentoring and support collective for women in commercial real estate careers who develop, invest in, or broker commercial real estate transactions, or women who are trying to move into a CRE career. This is a deliberate attempt to bring women into this wealthy and exclusive sector. WIRED recruits, empowers, and coaches women to own their own projects, and think about transactions from an investor’s perspective. Sheryl’s personal goal is that half of the CRE industry, including investors and developers, and C-suite real estate professionals are women and minorities by 2030.

“We are inspired by creating gathering places in communities that provide families with cultural value through entertainment, well-being, and economic growth.”

Complete Construction Service will construct any commercial project in the Midwest that is within its scope and scale (up to $6 million) and will partner with a customer to bring the concept to life. Complete Construction Service exists to provide an end experience for the client that not only influences their success, but also impacts every consumer, shopper, client, or visitor to the space once it opens. For almost ten years, Complete Construction Service has lasted over ten years in a dynamic industry and is intentionally growing and evolving monthly. Complete Construction Service now boasts the best crew since inception, and is ready to talk about your Midwestern projects!

“I got licensed as a Commercial Broker in 1996 and began the difficult journey of learning and taking my seat at the table in a legacy industry (mostly run by families who pass down their properties). Without any legacy of my own. I’m proud to be a self-made, and tenacious entrepreneur with a strong ambition to get the job done with integrity and efficiency. But those first 5 years were brutal, and I hope to make it easier for women coming into the business by sharing trade secrets. By 2005 I started my own firm and meet my sales goals, or experiencing some success. By 2012 I finally began buying my own CRE properties and finding my way as an owner, asset manager, developer, and investor. I didn’t realize at the time that I was building this great network and learning all facets of a transaction, until the pandemic when I found myself in a position (as a restaurant and retail tenant rep) of not likely earning any commissions that year (2020). This is when my journey with Complete Construction Service came into play. Now I can bring the next phase of the process into the picture, with commercial construction. Almost every transaction in commercial real estate triggers Landlords’ construction requirements or Tenants’ construction needs to improve their space or ground-up construction. So, now I can handle the process from beginning to end.”

Her intention to make a change in the evolving industry has made her a standout women leader.IEWL

Sabrina Ayala, CEO Delta Financial Associates, moved to the United States from Guatemala when she was three. On the first day of Kindergarten, she didn’t speak English, and the immediate challenge was how to communicate her basic needs to the teacher. Little did Sabrina know that her strength would come from turning perceived shortcomings into opportunities to prove herself for at least the next twenty years. “In high school, inspired by the character Alex P Keaton of Family Ties and after all my stock picks increased in value in an Economics class project, I knew I wanted to change my stars by working in Finance,” says Sabrina. “Fast forward 13 years and a lot of hard work, I graduated Summa Cum Laude, Top Woman Graduate of my University.

Upon college graduation, Sabrina competed for and got a spot in what would become the last analyst class of the one of the most prestigious and oldest Investment Banks in the U.S, Kidder Peabody. Shortly after the bank was sold, she joined a boutique Valuation Consulting firm, Stern Stewart & Co, where she learned to value businesses and develop compensation plans based on value-based growth, ultimately leading to her acceptance at one of the top business schools in the country. Armed with a solid work ethic and just the right amount of curiosity, Sabrina spent a dozen years on Wall Street in investment banking, valuation consulting, and institutional equity trading, which required grueling hours, intelligence, curiosity, and old-fashioned grit.

Hailed as a problem solver focused on strategy, Sabrina tripled the number of students served and entered three states while at Green Dot. The Finance and Accounting team had to grow in size, sophistication, and general mindset to serve on a national scale while achieving best-in-class outcomes. “Nonprofits are often born in the minds of innovative thinkers who want to lead change. My extensive financial background provides a unique set of skills and tools to ensure they navigate the financial aspects with an equally innovative financial approach,” she says. “The goal of Delta Financial is to provide knowledgeable teams that work alongside the visionary leaders. According to Forbes, 50% of nonprofits fail to reach scale or stall within a few years due to lack of strategic planning. Delta Financial will be that support and guidance.”

Sabrina hopes to inspire team members by creating a collaborative team where all voices are encouraged. “Early in my career I worked for a boutique firm that was very lean, so I was in Executive meetings and Board of Directors meeting when I was very young. I had great mentors and had to learn quickly so I like to use similar coaching with my teams even if it means more preparation and greater investment of my time.”

GD has been first to market time and time again – one of the first charters in CA, one of the only CMOs that serves high school students because we felt it was the right thing to do from a mission perspective as this was the last chance for our students. GD was first to market in Washington, early to market in Tennessee, and early to do transformation schools. “My personal work has been first to market or early stage on new market tax credits and bond financings to charter schools, to date, I have structured and executed over $200MM in facility financing deals to build schools in impoverished neighborhoods,” says Sabrina.

“In 2018, I started Delta Financial to serve organizations that would not be able to hire a CFO with my background but need financial strategy and/or facility financing support. I have been able to work with established organizations that want to take on new growth to education disruptors that want to change the way we do high school and college education,” adds Sabrina. “My next goal is to expand my team and services to bring best in class Finance and Accounting services to a wide range of education organizations. The issue of finding best in class Finance and accounting while fitting into the nonprofit budget has been the problem and is one that I intend to solve. As an operator, I have a unique perspective on the collaboration that can exist between the financial teams and mission facing teams of the organization.”

According to Kristi Lane, VP of Talent Management, Healthcare Triangle, the landscape of Talent Management has changed drastically over the last ten years with a new generation of workers from the millennial generation. The pandemic has created even more significant changes in what employees are looking for from their employers. This has forced her to be adaptable in addressing the ever-changing needs of the employees while hiring and retaining talent from a competitive and shrinking pool of talent. “There is also a renewed focus on the company’s DE&I initiatives and well as our employees’ mental health and overall wellness. There is a lot more to consider in meeting the needs of employees as an employer today.”

Kristi, however, has seen significant improvements over the last ten years in the number of women in senior-level and management positions, but the parity still exists. Under 30% of these roles are filled by women in the S&P 500 companies, and the number is similar in technology companies as a whole. “Being a female leader does require a fine balance of being decisive and confident in your decisions in your role in order to be effective but being able to do so in such a way that you aren’t viewed as overly direct or insensitive, especially in an HR role,” says Kristi. “I try to empower women that I work with to manage their work lives understanding the balance of their work responsibilities and home life. I truly believe in today’s more flexible schedule that allows you to be effective in both your home and work lives.” She strongly advises women leaders to take care of themselves first to be the best version of themselves, which allows them to be most effective in all other aspects of their lives.

“Healthcare Triangle was born by combining two companies, powerful in their own right – but stronger together. One firmly rooted in proven healthcare and business methodologies, the other born in the cloud.”

Kristi has taken strong inspiration from her mother, a single mom responsible for two daughters. She always excelled in her professional life and held several management roles in a predominantly male field. “She definitely passed her work ethic along to me as well as her perfectionist tendencies. There was also a woman that I worked with very early on in my career that I still think of from time to time,” adds the pioneering leader. “She was the COO of the consulting company I worked for and she was an inspiration. We attended a company meeting in Las Vegas, she was battling breast cancer at the time and had lost her hair. She stood on stage and gave her presentation and she was so impactful, bright and powerful. I recall being in awe of her. She taught me the power of perseverance and to keep moving when times are tough.” Armed with such strong inspiration, Kristi has taken the company to new heights.

Healthcare Triangle was born by combining two companies, powerful in their own right – but stronger together. One firmly rooted in proven healthcare and business methodologies, the other born in the cloud. The result is a business partner that can provide our healthcare and life sciences customers with a 360° solution to their technology, data, care delivery, and business operation needs.

As healthcare continues to evolve to a value-based care framework, Healthcare Triangle has helped customers focus on reducing costs, improving quality, and delivering the best care possible. They have achieved this by combining their deep expertise with innovative data and cloud solutions that help advance healthcare. “Technology should be the last thing that comes between our customers and their ability to provide the best healthcare solutions possible,” she says. “We have helped healthcare organizations get the most out of their IT investments for decades and we work side by side with them to ensure they have confidence in their technology and can unlock insights from their data so that they can remain focused on what matters most – the healthcare consumer.” Healthcare Triangle’s ability to help healthcare organizations move to public cloud platforms is not just about running a more streamlined business, lowering costs, and computing demand. It is about the ability to unlock data, manage complex business applications, collaborate better across the ecosystem, create more meaningful decisions without compromising industry compliance and governance standards. IEWL

Healthcare Triangle, Inc

Management

Kristi Lane
VP of Talent Management at Healthcare Triangle, Inc

Description

Healthcare Triangle, Inc. (HCTI) reinforces healthcare progress through breakthrough technology and extensive industry know-how. We support healthcare providers and payors, hospitals and Pharma/Life Sciences organizations in their effort to improve health outcomes by enabling the adoption of new technologies, data enlightenment, business agility and accelerate responding to immediate business needs and competitive threats. The highly regulated healthcare and life sciences industries turn to HCTI for our expertise in digital transformation on the cloud, security and compliance, data lifecycle management, healthcare interoperability, clinical and business performance optimization. Our headquarters is located in Pleasanton, California and we have employees throughout the US.

Since 2012, Maree Moscati has been CEO of Copytalk, a transcription service engineered to meet the financial services industry’s rigorous standards of accuracy and privacy. Although Copytalk has been her first experience running a tech company, Maree’s unique combination of financial services experience, marketing and branding knowledge, and interpersonal skills have made her the perfect fit for the role. With her at the helm, Copytalk won the Bank Insurance and Securities Association’s (BISA) Technology Innovation Award for its fourth consecutive year in 2020, which speaks to the company’s – and Maree’s – passion for being an industry leader and constant striving for improvement and success.

As CEO, Maree has broadened Copytalk’s presence as a trusted source of information – for instance, offering enterprises guidance on how they can comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI). In January 2020, Copytalk launched a monthly C-suite webinar series, entitled “Navigating the Financial Advisor Desktop,” to help firms prepare for Reg BI’s June 30 compliance date. Meanwhile, she has also worked to expand Copytalk’s own offerings, including its MobileScribe transcription platform for enterprise and their advisors and its DigiScribe audio-visual transcription services. Through its recent partnership with SyncWords, which provides cloud-based video captioning and subtitling, Copytalk’s captioning in English can be translated to 100 different languages.

Copytalk has extensive security and privacy protocols, which are essential for enterprises in the tightly regulated financial services industry. These protocols remain intact even though the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily has caused some to transcriptionists to work remotely. (Prior to the pandemic, transcriptionists worked in U.S.-based facilities.) Maree knows these regulations firsthand and firms’ resulting need for secure and efficient documentation because, for three decades, she has worked in the industry in roles ranging from divisional sales manager to chief compliance officer to president and CEO. Until December 2020, she held the FINRA Series 24, 7 & 63 licenses. She also is the 2018 recipient of BISA’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.

Yet her illustrious career all started off with an interest in fashion! When Maree graduated from Laboratory Institute in New York City, she initially sought a career in fashion merchandising, an industry that she quickly advanced in. However, once job advertisements for financial firm account executives caught her eye, she knew it was time for a career change. Working in financial services, she could utilize both her analytical and interpersonal skills – a combination that piqued her interest and has shaped her three-decade-long career in the industry. She took a job at a small bond house in New York, where she earned her FINRA licenses and a seasoned pro took her under his wing and really showed her the business.

Later on, when Maree moved into a supervisory role at a different firm, she found her stride in taking a chance on others and bringing out the best in them, just as that seasoned pro mentored her earlier in her career. When given the responsibility to terminate a longtime employee, she instead went back to her boss with a proposition, “I want 30 days to work with her. If it doesn’t work, then you can fire me.” And Maree’s leap of faith paid off: within 30 days, the employee had the biggest sales month that she ever had. From that experience, she says she realized that she has “an uncanny knack of bringing out the best of people and recognizing that they have talents,” even more than they realize it.

Being an advocate for employees has been particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think as leaders, you have to be understanding,” Maree says. “I have a very much open-door policy as a CEO . . . If they’re stressed out and they need what I call a ‘color-me-beautiful’ day or a wellness day, it’s fine. It doesn’t cost us anything to do that. We can manage for a day,” she says.

And after three decades of thriving in financial services, Maree has some advice for other women striving to be leaders in male-dominated fields: “Never let them see you sweat, baby.”

“When you are confident in yourself, you need to exude that confidence: not be cocky, but exude your confidence, and I think if you believe something, you’ve got to stand up for what you believe. You may not always win the war, but you have to at least go to the battle and express your concerns or what you would like to accomplish,” she says. IE

CopyTalk

Management

Maree Moscati
CEO

Description

Copytalk is a leading transcription service engineered to meet the financial-service industry’s uniquely rigorous standards of accuracy, privacy, and efficiency in the recording of dictated client-meeting notes and the preparation & delivery of transcriptions.

IT Advisory on the path to Digital Transformation is not a Cookie Cutter approach. Barbara Wittmann, CEO, IT Zeitgeist, is not simply implementing software or a method following standardized checklists. She draws upon a baseline toolbox that contains Coaching, Process Modelling, Agile & Innovation Techniques, and pairs them up with the client’s leadership skills, team culture, software landscape, and vision to create an individualized solution. “I meet each of my clients where they are, creating an individual roadmap for the engagement. Digital Transformation is mostly about People and Relationships, and that means as Advisor it is critical to bring empathy and deep listening to each engagement.”

Barbara believes women have spent way too much energy trying to encrypt and mimic male behavior for a successful career. “I have fallen into that trap myself, and it took me years to crack that hard protective shell I had built around me,” she states. “I believe teams and companies thrive, when women are allowed to bring their unique traits to the table fully. It is o.k. to be vulnerable, display emotions, and act on intuition. That is what I encourage in young female leaders.” The steadfast leader strongly advises one to know where they stand, understanding their core values. “I also encourage young leaders to be clear on their definition of success. Our world always ties success to money. Success can also be having the abundance of time or doing work that impacts the world for the better.”

For Barbara, the most significant source of inspiration is Nature, and she encourages everyone to use that source to find balance and inspiration. She came upon a quote by Maya Angelou that has been a source of inspiration since for her—“Success is loving yourself, loving what you do and loving how you do it”—this simple quote holds a lifetime of learning, stretching, and thriving.

When Barbara started her company in 2006, it became a little more complicated, as she was considered a role model to her partners and employees. For her, it was important to be the best leader she could be and constantly work on expanding her skillset and uncovering leadership and personality blind spots.

“For inspiration I turned to pancultural wisdom and based my company culture and growth on the age-old dynamics of a tribe and village. Building my company on these principles resulted in a leadership book I published outlining my journey: “Meetings in Moccasins” – Balboa Press.” While writing the book, she had the opportunity to interview inspiring CEOs and Leaders. Antje von Dewitz, CEO of Vaude (Outdoor apparel company), had a lasting impression on her, who took a family-owned business to the next level of culture, innovation, and sustainability. “To me, every leader is a role model who brings soul to their work and industry.”

Zeitgeist is hinting to Barbara’s German heritage. She moved to the US in 2016 for Love, built 2 successful IT companies in Germany (one a Boutique Consultancy and another a Custom Software Development company). With the move to the US, she changed her business model from having employees to working with a hand-selected, tight-knit partner network. Zeitgeist means ‘the spirit of time’. “I picked that word because there is nothing static in IT. IT Zeitgeist makes IT Simple, Sage & Strategic. What does that mean?

• Simple – I teach my clients and their team to translate complex Technology into Business Value to bridge the gap between Business & IT

• Sage – leveraging existing wisdom in the organization, team, and leadership

• Strategic – by applying industry and technology trends to digital transformation roadmaps.”

The biggest achievement for the company has been supporting the growth of a client’s IT team from 15 to 65 people to match the company’s growth and innovation needs. IT Leadership established a strong team foundation, governance standards, a shared mental model, and stakeholder support in that process. IT transformed from a pure operations role to an innovation driver.

Currently, Barbara is working on a Leadership Development Program targeted for IT Leaders. “As IT Leaders we all hold a big responsibility, as we are essentially shaping the world for the next generation. Having the wisdom to make ethically sound decisions and advocate for them will fall upon the IT Leaders. That calls for new set of muscles to be developed to strengthen leadership beyond technology.” IEWL

IT Zeitgeist

Management

Barbara Wittmann
CEO of IT Zeitgeist

Description

The term Digital Transformation is used everywhere. It is a huge change that we cannot escape anymore. With 2020 we just stepped into what experts call the Connected Decade and recent world events with COVID-19 made it even more pressing to innovate business models and thus IT offerings.