Amy Dickerson, VP CFO & Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO), plays a pivotal role in REGENESIS’ continued growth across the US and Europe. While she continues to lead the Accounting, Finance, and the Human Resource Departments, she also played a key role within REGENESIS’ Operations Department during a period of significant growth. Amy’s most significant contribution to the organization has been her ability to provide oversight and guidance with implementing new technology- including a new ERP solution, among others.

Her leadership in these efforts has allowed for increased transparency and more timely decision-making across the company. As an organizational leader, Amy has facilitated the back-office transition of the company to a manufacturing environment and servicing organization with employees across the US and Europe.

Amy inspires other women leaders because she is a hands-on, collaborative leader offering creative solutions to overcome obstacles. She also sees herself as a mentor and has helped others to grow professionally throughout her career. Although she has never had a mentor, Amy has admired Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard, and her ability to lead large organizations while not losing her identity in the process. One of Amy’s favorite quotes is “Do not be afraid to make decisions. Do not be afraid to make mistakes,”- Carly Fiorina Amy believes one of the most important traits as a leader is to be able to make decisions quickly, sometimes with limited information. She also believes it is important to be humble enough to admit when you have made a mistake so that you can course-correct.. “Mistakes are not to be feared, they are great learning opportunities.” Armed with this attitude, Amy is leading the company to new heights.

REGENESIS is the global leader in the research, development, and commercialization of technology-based solutions for environmental challenges. REGENESIS was born from the idea that much of the world’s groundwater and soil contamination problems could be effectively solved simply by working with and enhancing the earth’s natural processes. Researchers knew that certain types of bacteria, naturally present in the subsurface, degrade environmental contamination for many years. Often these contaminants are a food source for these bacteria. This natural contaminant degradation typically occurs quite slowly. However, if the right conditions are created, contaminant degradation can be sped up dramatically, increasing the rate by 10 to 100 times or more. Creating the ideal conditions for contaminant destruction to happen most efficiently is where REGENESIS comes in.

REGENESIS’ objective is to create best-in-class technologies and service-based solutions to address environmental concerns. “Over the years, we’ve learned the best means to accomplish this is to completely immerse ourselves in an environmental challenge, taking a cradle-to-grave approach from its origin to its resolution,” says Amy. “This involves first listening to our clients to understand the most pressing challenges in the environmental industry. From this starting point, we rely on scientific research and develop and test materials and approaches to addressing a particular challenge more effectively than alternatives employed by our competitors (if any).”

In one recent case, chlorinated solvents used at a former dry cleaner site in a small town in western Indiana spilled and migrated to groundwater, creating a dissolved-phase PCE plume 1,500 feet long and encompassing 340,000 square feet. From the site, the PCE plume tracked along the town’s east-west running main thoroughfare, lined with commercial and residential properties to the north and south. REGENESIS and their client teamed on developing a remediation approach using two primary in situ remediation technologies, PlumeStop® and 3-D Microemulsion®. In less than four years since starting the remedial program, this passive remediation approach completely reduced the mass of the primary contaminant of concern (i.e., 99.98 percent mass reduction tetrachloroethene).

Additionally, recent studies have shown that as many as 200 million Americans may be drinking water tainted with highly toxic, cancer-causing organo-fluorine chemicals known as PFAS. Twelve years ago, REGENESIS developed PlumeStop®, a liquid activated carbon technology that removes harmful contaminants from groundwater. REGENESIS’ in situ treatment approach using PlumeStop is revolutionary in that it addresses the problem in place, eliminating the energy to move it. “The benefit to the environmental remediation industry by treating PFAS in this manner is just beginning to be realized, and we anticipate tremendous growth in this area over the coming years at a wide range of sites globally,” says Amy.IE

Regenesis

Management

Amy Dickerson
VP, CFO & CHRO of Regenesis

Description

REGENESIS is the global leader in technology-based solutions for the environment with an emphasis on contaminated site remediation. Started in 1994, the Company has developed a range of widely-used specialty chemicals for the proven and low-cost cleanup of contaminated soil and groundwater. Environmental consulting firms around the world have successfully used Regenesis technologies on thousands of polluted sites ranging from large Department of Defense and Superfund Projects to corner gas stations and dry cleaning operations. Over the years Regenesis has developed an unmatched breadth and depth of experience with enhanced bioremediation, in-situ chemical oxidation, ex-situ soils treatment, bioaugmentation and a range of remediation application methodologies.

Loren Ridinger is a visionary entrepreneur and a product development and marketing expert driven by her passion for helping others reach their full potential. The Co-Founder & Senior Executive Vice President of Market America Worldwide | SHOP.COM and creator of the award-winning Motives® cosmetics line has a unique leadership style whereby she pushes people to discover and refine their talents. Ultimately, she helps people be authentic while achieving their goals. As with all influential leaders and coaches, Loren not only leads the way but also makes everyone around her better with the philosophy of leadership by example. Aside from being a remarkable leader, Loren also has a keen business sense and a profound understanding of numerous industries, including beauty and fashion. She’s a rare mogul who built her brands from the ground up. Through that process, she never lost sight of who she is, where she came from and where she’s going. She’s a brilliant trendsetter who understands the nuanced connections between boardroom decisions and everyday consumers.

Loren is a constant resource to those who want to make more of their lives, own their own business and take control of what happens next by constantly advising on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Clubhouse, etc… wherever and whenever someone reaches out to her. Loren is all about giving back because she understands, firsthand, the struggles of trying to grow your own business from nothing but belief. Loren’s advice comes from her heart and her own life experiences. Her goal is to help anyone who wants to consider becoming a business owner to get focused on the right things, the important things, and not lose track or give time or energy away to anything that is not going to get that person where they want to be when building their own business.

“Toxic personalities, in general, spread negativity, criticize you, waste your time, envy your success and lie,” Loren says. “They will deplete your energy levels and strip you of positivity at every turn. None of these behaviors are desirable qualities for a healthy, fulfilling relationship. I believe women have just as much right as men to build their own business. I helped design the UnFranchise Business to embolden women and all entrepreneurs through product lines such as Isotonix nutraceuticals and Motives cosmetics, helping them grab a piece of these substantial global industries. It’s an incredible business dynamic that we support through hands-on training and with events designed to inspire, educate and motivate. With the UnFranchise Business model, we are creating the economy of the future through the power of people.”

Thoughts on Success

“To me, success isn’t success unless you’re sharing it with someone else. Success is a full circle and mine came when we were able to consistently provide unparalleled products, a proven business model and a value-added, online shopping experience on SHOP.COM that allowed for the average person to earn a supplemental income via the UnFranchise Business model My success is really based on helping and seeing others succeed and achieve their goals,” said Loren.

When it comes to inspiring the next wave of leaders, Loren takes a very hands-on approach with different events and video conferences to educate, motivate and inspire. She’s very generous with her time and will spend hours speaking and meeting with people throughout the day who may have different questions or challenges to overcome. In essence, Loren is a leader of leaders.

“We have a tendency as humans not to grow because we don’t feed our souls,” Loren explains. “We forget that our needs will change as we grow. Then, we do nothing about it, so we stop growing. That’s not what life is about. Life is not about just achieving goals but who you become when you achieve these goals. If you have ever seen a hermit crab, they live in a shell. These are interesting little creatures because they find a shell to crawl into and when they outgrow the shell, they scurry along the ocean floor until they find the next shell that’s big enough to fit them and to suit their needs. We need to take a lesson from the hermit crab and continue to grow and shed our shells and find spaces in our lives for the bigger things.”

Loren’s Leadership Lesson That’s Unique to Being a Female Leader

“Be available. Pull up a chair for other people and listen, really listen,” says Loren. “You can’t give advice if you don’t listen to what it is that someone else would like to achieve. Remember that you can be anything you want to be and can be better than a man doing it. Not to be disrespectful to men in general but women must not see men as an obstacle in business. We have our own set of skills separate from men. Our thought process is different than men. We speak with real intention in pursuit of whatever it is we are after. We can juggle more. Women and men alike look to women for advice. Women have the power within themselves that they just need to let out and start using to get where they want to go. In reality, women have a tremendous capacity to empathize, appreciate and understand one another. The lesson to learn here is that even in highly competitive industries, there’s still room for the team dynamic and the desire to manifest success for everyone. Sometimes seeking out mutual success has more empowering and lasting positive results than a simple me-first approach.” Earnings depicted are atypical and the success of any UnFranchise Owner will depend upon the amount of hard work, talent and dedication which he or she devotes to building his or her Market America business. For typical earnings, seehttp://www.market-america.info/mais. WL

Written by Eileen Smith

Drawing upon her 30+ years of Operations experience, Faith Wood brings a tried-and-true approach to process improvement and standardization that has helped Motivate dramatically increase its productivity and quality of service, directly impacting the client’s bottom line. Faith’s ability to translate a complex operations strategy into a simple execution plan rooted in core Lean/Six Sigma principles has allowed Motivate to implement standard operating procedures across eight markets and has been a game-changer in how work is done in the organization.

“Motivate is a best-in-class service operations and logistics company, delivering bike share services to some of the largest urban environments in the US.”

Faith has instilled a culture of direct, transparent feedback that has allowed the Senior Operations leaders to grow and flourish. We don’t believe there is such a thing as negative feedback, either you are receiving reinforcement or redirection. Sometimes the feedback that is the hardest to hear is the feedback you need most.

Mentoring leaders at all levels of an organization has been a key focus of Faith’s for many years. Understanding the challenges that women face and how to address these challenges is critical for business success. Faith is a believer in harmony between work and home. She also stresses that integrating work and home is an important step for women leaders.

Her mom is her role model. She was a Corporate Executive in the ’60s and ’70s with four children. Her father worked full-time at General Motors’ assembly line, so she had a lot on her plate. Faith says, “She developed a time management schedule for all of us. She used visual aids so each of us could see what we were supposed to be doing, including homework, chores, or outdoor activities. She never missed a school event.” Faith remembers other moms commenting on her suit attire and that she should be home raising her kids. Her mother never let that bother her. Faith and her siblings were raised with love, respect, and integrity from her parents. Armed with these qualities, Faith has been taking the company to new heights.

Motivate LLC is led by operations experts who understand the micro-mobility market and deliver unparalleled customer support. While their clients are the owners of the bike-share networks, the company looks at the person riding the bike as their customers. “Making sure those customers have a bike when they need it is what motivates us every day. We exist to eliminate the day-to-day stress of operating a bikeshare system or other micro-mobility fleet,” says Faith. “We understand that our clients need reliable day-to-day operational support at a predictable, digestible price point. We have found a healthy balance using both data science and process improvement methods to implement the solutions that our clients cannot find elsewhere.” A high-level strategy is great, but what sets them apart from their competitors is their people. From the management team to the seasonal employees, Motivate is truly nothing without their people. “We pride ourselves on being a second chance employer and believe as an organization that everyone deserves a second chance, and you should not write someone off because of a mistake they made in their past.”

Unlike many others in the industry that utilize independent contractors or temporary staffing, the company focuses on ensuring their employees go through thorough training and onboarding programs. This allows them to ensure that everyone is fully equipped to succeed in their role here at Motivate, regardless of prior experience. Whether it is the standardized Bike Fleet training, Driver’s Safety Course, or their management courses, Motivate has made a major investment in their learning department so they can stay the best at what they do.

As Motivate looks to the future, they are looking to take their expertise outside the markets they currently operate. “We are of course excited to grow with our current clients, but also are exploring other opportunities both domestically as well as internationally. Shared micro-mobility is far more mature in the European market and we are seeing expansions in Latin America and Asia,” says Faith. “With both myself and our CEO having extensive international operations experience, we think it is a real opportunity for us.”IEWL

Motivate LLC

Management

Faith Wood
Chief Operating Officer of Motivate LLC

Description

Motivate is a best-in-class service operations and logistics company, delivering bike share services to some of the largest urban environments in the US. We operate in 8 cities across the U.S. including New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington D.C. and will serve over 1.5 million riders this year alone. Led by a group of seasoned urban visionaries and operations leaders our mission is to revolutionize the landscape of our cities. In an effort to completely transform the urban experience, Motivate is leading the way in making cities more accessible, healthier and sustainable. We operate and maintain safe and dependable systems that help make cities great by connecting individuals to the people and places they love.

Nadia Rosseels is a highly skilled executive with over 20 years of IT experience. She has a unique capacity to transform complex business requirements into efficient solutions, making her an expert in business process optimization. She oversaw numerous key projects at DPI, which resulted in increased business efficiencies and significant annual savings for the company. DPI Specialty Foods’ Chief Information Officer, Nadia Rosseels, provides vision and direction to a team of seasoned IT professionals. Nadia believes that a company’s success is largely determined by how successfully all departments, including Information Technology, collaborate as partners to achieve business objectives.

“Get outside the walls of IT and turn Information Technology into a Value Center for your Company”

DPI Specialty Foods has established a network of wholesale distribution centers in key geographical locations across the Western United States, assuring a well-managed supply chain and maximizing speed to market. DPI has built a passion for food, and offers over 40,000 perishable and non-perishable food items from regional, national, and worldwide suppliers. DPI‘s mission is dedicated to driving sustainable long-term growth for its customers through a unique combination of a broad range of specialty foods combined with a highly focused service model that best meets the customer’s needs. DPI is dedicated to “Bringing the Best to Market.”

Nadia Rosseels holds a Master degree in Business Economics and in Information Technology. Nadia started her career as a Financial Analyst in Belgium. Shortly after she joined an IT Consulting firm which kick-started her career in Information Technology. In 1999 Nadia moved together with her husband to California where she continued working as an IT Consultant with the “Big 4” IT Consulting firms for 15 years. In 2012, a few years after becoming a mother, Nadia joined DPI Specialty Foods to supplement DPI’s internal IT team. Nadia’s career took a significant change at this point. She rose to the position of IT Director by forging strong bonds with business counterparts across all functional areas. Nadia was promoted to VP of Information Technology in 2016 and to CIO in 2018.

Nadia Rosseels, as CIO, works closely with Business Leaders to identify and prioritize significant business initiatives that connect with the company’s vision and strategy. She promotes the same mindset within her team, encouraging them to get outside of the walls of IT and partner up with their business counterparts in order to understand the business processes and provide the best technology solutions.

DPI’s IT Department has evolved over the years into so much more than a provider of internal services. Nadia and her team have become essential to DPI’s long-term growth and success. DPI’s Information Technology is more and more recognized as a value center as opposed to a cost center, worthy of continued investment. The correct investment in information technology, whether it’s people, systems, or software, has been shown to improve the company’s financials. DPI’s IT Department, led by Nadia Rosseels, is developing Business Intelligence Analytics (BI), and Business Process Management (BPM) solutions. Increased operational efficiencies, better and faster decision making, and quicker action on time-sensitive activities will all benefit from faster data analytics, intuitive dashboards, and process automation, all with the purpose of better servicing DPI’s customers.

Mrs. Rosseels says, “Make sure to get outside the walls of IT and understand the business processes. Only when fully understanding how the business is operating, IT can provide the best technology solutions leading to the company’s long term success. Turn Information Technology into a Value Center for your company!”

Nadia’s innovative thinking, capacity to comprehend any crucial scenario, and ability to develop solutions, as well as her passion, makes her a Tech trendy Woman Leader. IEWL

DPI Specialty Foods

Management

Nadia Rosseels
CIO at DPI Specialty Foods

Description

Nationwide Specialty Cheese and Grocery Distributor, providing customized marketing and distribution solutions to the retail and food service trade, DPI provides one drop multi temperature distribution services through it’s six distribution centers strategically located across the United States. DPI offers a customized specialty cheese cut and wrap programs tailored to customer requirements

Stacy Calvaruso, CEO, Medical Practice Success, has an unmatched knowledge of the healthcare industry. Coupled with her ability to act and react to circumstances in this industry, it makes it extremely impressive. Stacy has been christened as a visionary with a non-stop, go-getter drive. She is very proactive in developing leaders with a particular focus on the predominantly female staff who largely are not college educated and lack stronger female role models. Stacy strives to look for opportunities to encourage, develop and promote the underlying talents of the women who may start at entry-level but show a desire and aptitude to grow.

“Medical Practice Success provides educational resources and training events on the business side of running a Medical Practice. Resources include a weekly publication, multiple training materials, e-books, the on-line urgent care academy, a mastermind program, and the Success Board.”

According to Stacy, if one wants to be a leader and inspire people, then they must be willing to invest in their craft – whatever that may be. “If you want to be an Accountant, then you must live and eat Accounting principles and the same goes for being a CEO of an organization. You don’t always have to know the exact step by step process of every single workflow, but you should definitely have a good understanding of how each task compliments the other to ensure your operational goals are being met.” She adds, “On top of this, you will need to be able to communicate well. Often this is what make a difference in how a relationship is formed. If someone can connect with you emotionally because you have a good foundation of communication, then it will be a lot easier on both parties when the time comes for those difficult conversations. If your goal is to be a mentor, I find that sometimes it is best to spend the better part of your time mentoring someone by just being present with them when they come to you for advice or guidance.” Stacy is not always about telling people what to do, and sometimes it is more about letting them work through a problem or situation with an attentive ear or a small prompt—the best gift of encouragement. Armed with these principles, the steadfast leader has been taking the company to new heights.

Originally Medical Practice Success was created to meet the demands of Stacy’s partner, Dr. Timothy Reynolds business need. He owns multiple Urgent Care facilities, and there was no medical billing service organization that could provide the specialized services they needed, so he decided to create his own. After being opened a few years, some fellow medical providers asked him to do the billing and collections for their organizations, and thus, a billing and collections company was born. “We have now grown this organization into a full Revenue Cycle Management and Consulting organization that can aid a client from inception to actual patient services being provided all thanks to Stacy.”

Last year, pre-COVID, Dr. Ashwin Shetty, an Emergency Medicine physician in Washington, contacted Stacy and her team because he wanted to open an Urgent Care center in his local community. “We assisted him with developing financial pro-forma’s, financing packages, acquiring the site, developing relationships with vendors/suppliers, setting up his EMR, acquiring Managed Care contracts with payors, and assisting with their go-live,” she explains. “This process took many months of steady work to complete even with all the delays related to shutdowns because of COVID. His organization was one of three that we were working on to open pre-Covid and we were able to keep all three projects moving forward and they all successfully opened their doors and are taking care of their community members medical needs.”

One can say that the current landscape of medical billing and collections post COVID is very frustrating for all – patients, providers, payors, etc. Medical claims are being denied by payors incorrectly, patients are being billed for items they thought would be covered, and providers are being slandered in social media for unfair billing practices often due to payor errors. “Our organization has been focusing on Claim Denial Audits and Payor Claim Payment Audits to assist with identifying root causes of errors and issues,” says Stacy. “We intend to continue to drill down into these types of services to ensure that providers are paid for their services fairly and patients are only responsible to pay their portions as defined based on their insurance coverage.”IE

Maria-Liisa Bruckert is about to sustainably change how people treat their skin. Nowadays, skincare is primarily defined by constantly changing trends, influencers and self-proclaimed experts on social media, and an ever-increasing flood of products. This completely disregards the fact that every skin is unique – and therefore must be treated uniquely. With the app SQIN, Maria Bruckert and her team offer a technology that is lowering the embarrassment of seeing a doctor and is equipping people with knowledge about their individual skin.

From a young age, Maria-Liisa Bruckert’s passion for traveling the world emerged.

Unfortunately, all the traveling also took a toll on her skin. Different climate conditions, air humidity, stronger UV radiation and foreign food: although that is often underestimated, it all has an impact on our skin. Luckily, Maria always had support with her skin issues: her mother is a beautician.

Maria’s way led her from studying in Germany, Brazil and Taiwan to a job at Siemens. There she soon had the opportunity to work on the digitalization strategy and sustainable transformation. When she then became pregnant and went on parental leave, she quickly found herself lacking a challenge. By attending some cosmetic fairs with her mother, she soon figured out how much potential for digitalization there was in the industry. At the same time, she realized: a lot of people don’t even know how to deal with their skin.

Alas, not everyone knows such a skin expert. The more places Maria saw and the more people she met, she realized how severe that problem is. People are unhappy, because they don’t feel good in their skin – literally.

Regarding skin care, most people solely focus on products, while actually many more things should be taken into consideration. Unique skin also requires uniquely personalized treatment. Therefore, Maria and her co-founder Martin Pentenrieder created SQIN – a unique AI based skin coaching app, supporting the users in terms of their skin health and well-being.

But this is not where the story started: From December 2019 on, the two founders tested their first idea within a lab. Initially, SQIN focused primarily on developing innovative e-commerce approaches in the beauty market, e.g. AR/VR try-ons. The first own app included a skin scan that connected the users with the right cosmetic products for them, based on ingredients. This led to very good recurring paying customer rates and more than 120,000 downloads by the end of 2020. Ultimately, SQIN even won the Google Play Best of 2020 Award and Maria was chosen as one of ten participants for the Google for Startups Women Founders program.

One of the key learnings from the Google for Startups program was to always challenge your own product. Through feedback from users, mentors and experts, the founders quickly realized that a holistic approach to skin health has much larger potential. Therefore, the decision was made to publish a whole new application. The entire company and also the team had to be reorganized. This required a strong change management, as well as a lot of energy and dedication from the founders.

With the incorporation of SQIN in February 2021 and the acquisition of new investors, the team successfully mastered the pivot. Finally, the new app was launched in June 2021.

Maria-Liisa Bruckert is more than happy about this progress: “I really believe that our app has a great social impact. SQIN will help many people around the world!”

More than 2 billion people worldwide are struggling with dermatological issues. At the same time, many of them have no access to dermatological care or have to deal with overburdened dermatologists. For this reason, over 70% of skin health issues are not at all or too late detected. Therefore, the app should be available in as many countries around the world as quickly as possible – while still growing sustainably. For this purpose, SQIN is attending various Market Discovery Programs, for example by Google for Startups or the German Accelerator.

By using the app’s AI, the dermatological process can be extremely accelerated. In this way, more and more people can get help in the shortest possible time. This relieves the healthcare system immensely – not only through shorter treatment times, but above all through prophylaxis and early detection.

After the successful closing of two pre-seed rounds, the company is currently in the middle of seed funding. This will have a big impact on their progress in the market.

The founder has set herself clear milestones: “One year from now, we will have opened up more markets – especially in countries where the dermatological care situation is less developed. For example, in India there is only one dermatologist for every 33,000 people – and there are countries with a lot worse ratios!”

Reflecting on this moving journey and the big future plans, the entrepreneur has one particular advice for aspiring future leaders: “Of course, it is important to have a great product, but your network is just as important. Listen to people – to your target group – and cherish experiences people around you share. Reflect them and make the most out of it!” IEWL

Barbara Read, Chief Revenue Officer, Adprime, Inc., lives and breathes collaboration in creating a workplace culture. According to her, the culture is the foundation upon which great companies are built, and the design and creative force start with the team’s input. Barbara raised four children during her expansive career when families and children were not discussed in the workplace by women. “An effective way to inspire women is with flexibility and work-life balance with heart and integrity and to nourish an open mind,” she says. “Develop strong listening skills to enable better time management and encourage both collaboration and independence.”

For Barbara, the women in media, politics, and communication have inspired her immensely, including Madam Speaker Pelosi, Andre Mitchell, Jane Pauley, and Ariana Huffington. “Ariana Huffington has inspired me as both a leader in a company as well as a working mother. She launched Thrive Global, her new enterprise in 2016 which offers science-based solutions to end stress and burnout,” elucidates Barbara. “Women leaders often find they are responsible for simultaneously caring for aging parents, raising children and leading a company which can exacerbate stress.” With these principles, she has been leading the company to great heights.

Adprime was founded in 2006 to deliver digital publishers with an advertising sales platform solution for pharmaceutical and healthcare brands. “All companies in digital media technology wrestle with the speed of growth and innovation and are constantly morphing. With the advancement of automated media buying our team built one of the most powerful solutions for healthcare advertising agencies and their clients,” she says. “The United States is uniquely positioned to enable direct to consumer messaging for pharmaceutical advertising and all of the resources, intelligence, and experience is here in the U.S. As we advance targeting technologies and the ability to help brands reach their patients, consumers and healthcare professionals, we can provide a more meaningful and sustainable relationship.”

Adprime Apex, the company’s proven DSP, reaches consumers and patients in the most cost-efficient way to deliver the highest quality. Adprime built this DSP to provide the highest quality audiences with access to auctions for pharmaceutical brands, hospitals, and medical devices. Efficiency is an important equation for advertising agencies to provide the best service to their clients, and Apex delivers that value. Targeting and reaching healthcare professionals in today’s digital market poses a multitude of challenges for agency partners. Adprime partnered with a brand treating five diseases across rheumatology and dermatology to communicate important efficacy to the healthcare professional. This ad campaign included benchmarks and metrics for reaching physicians who prescribe medication and treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, plaque adult and pediatric psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis, and psoriatic arthritis. “The first-year investment concluded with a 5:1 return on investment and year two and three revenue investment increased by 100 percent, and prescriptions treating patients increased by 48%,” says Barbara.

For 15 years, Adprime has provided managed service healthcare advertising targeting and technology to reach consumers and healthcare professionals. In 2020 Adprime built a dedicated healthcare demand-side platform to enable programmatic buyers to access these audiences with accuracy and efficiency and enabling a higher percentage of available auctions and inventory. This year Apex is officially proven and launched and made available to programmatic buyers for all of healthcare. The audience-shaping technology enables pharmaceutical brands, hospitals, and medical devices to reach their target market with optimum efficiencies and automation. Adprime continues to be devoted to serving all constituencies across managed service advertising campaigns, direct client relationships, programmatic advertising, and healthcare data targeting. Apex is integrated with well over 50 advertising Exchanges and continues to expand across Exchanges and publishing partners.

COVID-19 challenged hospital marketing initiatives, and many programs migrated to programmatic buying strategies, and Apex is available to these buyers with far greater efficiency than any other platform.

“Adprime and our partners are creating an independent, people-based and cookieless infrastructure that unifies the highly fragmented programmatic ecosystem to provide marketers with the scale needed outside of the walled gardens,” adds Barbara. IE

Adprime Inc

Management

Barbara Read
Chief Revenue Officer

Description

We are a digital media brand with roots in in the health and wellness space, serving clients across six pillars: pharma, wellness, health, consumer products, healthcare professionals, and hospitals. Within these pillars, we specialize in optimizing brand messaging, and excel at reaching the precise audience you want to get in front of.

Irene Bianchi, President, and CEO, a lawyer by profession, came to Peel Mutual Insurance Company after having spent almost 30 years working for large, global, UK-based insurers. Peel has been a major profitable player in the Ontario Mutual market since 1876. Recognizing that the pace of change in the Canadian insurance market was accelerating significantly, the Peel Board of Directors appointed Irene to reinvigorate the organization and lead it to continued success.

Irene and her management team have transformed the organization over the last three years by putting the customer at the center of each decision. From changing the core IT system, revamping products, offering omnichannel solutions, and invigorating a strong mutual culture within the organization, every strategic decision was taken with a customer’s viewpoint in mind. Irene’s inclusive style, professional curiosity, commitment to servant leadership, and willingness to challenge the status quo to make things better have enabled Peel Mutual Insurance Company and its team to flourish.

Irene has worked with many women and men as a mentor/coach and confidant throughout her career to help them navigate to success. Leading by example and building enduring relationships, Irene has guided many young insurance professionals to significant, senior roles within the Canadian and UK insurance industry. Her enthusiasm, confidence, tenacity, humor, and calm in the face of adversity have encouraged and inspired people always to strive to be their best.

A major part of Irene’s role is to find new solutions for customers and then test/ implement where appropriate. Since coming to Peel, Irene and her team have introduced multiple sustainable changes to the organization to compete with global insurance leaders in the Ontario marketplace. Adopting the mindset that everything can be improved upon, Irene’s leadership style encourages her team to scour the market for new solutions that enhance the customer experience with Peel.

Peel Mutual Insurance Company was born out of a need for affordable insurance protection. Just north of Toronto, farmers in the Peel region banded together over 145 years ago to create an insurance company that worked for them and their community. They wanted to have a local solution to their problems, managed and staffed by people who understood their needs and were able to help solve a variety of issues. Peel Mutual Insurance Company continues to be located in the community and works within it to meet customers ‘ever-changing needs. Today, Peel Mutual Insurance Company services a variety of customers by providing personal, commercial, and farm insurance through a variety of ways to meet customers’ needs and anticipate their future challenges.

The Peel team is always looking for ways to make the customer journey easier and quicker by using new technology, improved processes, and having the best professional staff. Customers and Peel staff get frustrated at not reaching each other, so they found a new solution that enabled 2-way text communication with customers to guide them through the process. Using the HI Marley communication platform, Peel Mutual Insurance Company was the first insurer in Canada to offer a text-based way to stay in touch with customers to ensure concurrent information flow. “Using technology coupled with our empathetic and knowledgeable employees allows us to bring real service and value to our customers,” says Irene.

Peel Mutual Insurance Company has plans for expansion and growth in the future via new routes to the customer and expanding its geographical reach to different areas of the province. “By working with our agents/ brokers we will be looking grow organically and by acquisition to ensure our relevance in the marketplace,” says Irene. “Insurance evolution requires investment.” To thrive going forward, Peel has to be able to self-fund innovation and progress to match and exceed customer expectations and demands. As such, profitable growth is essential. “At Peel Mutual Insurance Company we are passionate about the customer and our community. We are committed to delivering the best in products, service and solutions in a way that honours our Mutual heritage while responding to customer and market expectations in a way that is best in class,” adds Irene. IE

PMIC

Management

Irene Bianchi
President and CEO of PMIC

Description

Peel Mutual has been providing quality insurance products and serving Ontario residents since 1876. As a mutual insurance company, we are owned and directed by our policyholders. We offer a complete line of home, automobile, farm and commercial insurance products. Please contact one of our agents or brokers today for a quote.

Carmenlita Scott, President & CEO of ATL Airport Chamber drives results through a servant leadership that inspires collegial relationship building, common goal setting, and accountability among multi-geography resources. Having held progressive senior-level positions throughout her career, Carmenlita is a consummate executive who influences teams with a “lead by example” style that facilitates tangible benefits and measurable outcomes. She builds high functioning teams and coaches them to think across disciplines, industries, culture, and scenarios to implement innovative and progressive economic, community, and workforce development initiatives. She moves the Chamber forward by nurturing alliances with a wide range of constituencies; one of which led to a strategic partnership with local chambers of South Fulton and Clayton Counties and specialty chambers such as Ecuadorian-American Chamber, Women’s Chamber, Atlanta Black Chamber, Greater Georgia Black Chamber, and the American World Trade Chamber.

Carmenlita is intentional in spotlighting women entrepreneurs. During the month of March, women executives and entrepreneurs were spotlighted in the company’s newsletter, The Runway which is an essential business communication. “We provide professional development opportunities, commercial and government contract certifications, and create a platform to expose them to new clientele,” she says. “I have partnered with the “100 Women 100 Million Dollar Project” founded by Dr. Diane Adoma to provide certification coaching to women in the ATL Airport Chamber with a goal of winning government contracts.”

The ATL Airport Chamber was formed in February 1947 to promote integrity, good faith, just and fair principles in business along with uniformity in commercial usage. The circa 1947 pain points were the up-building and advancement of the City of Hapeville in population, commerce, and finance. As the chamber evolved, it was renamed in 1992 as the Airport Area Chamber of Commerce and in 2017 as the ATL Airport Chamber, Inc. The chamber now addresses regional pain points for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the Airport Region, and Southern Crescent. These pain points include growth and sustainability, subcontracting opportunities, workforce development, technology enhancements, broadband, thought diversity, and COVID-19 challenges.

Safehouse Outreach is one of the company’s long-standing members. They are a community outreach organization that helps people in homeless situations. In 2020, they helped to feed and give resources to thousands of people in metro Atlanta that were in need. In 2020, there was an increase in people that desperately needed their services. “Our board took notice and when Safehouse needed our help marketing their Day of Hope fundraiser, we were ecstatic to jump into action,” says Carmenlita. “Between board giving and our marketing efforts, Safehouse could raise $80,000. These funds will assist Safehouse in helping even more people in our region.”

The chamber develops and delivers a robust suite of essential business services that fuel profitability and growth in the small business sector, while supporting economic development among our constituents throughout the Atlanta Airport Region and Southern Crescent, fondly known as the Southside. The area is the home of renowned businesses such as Delta Air Lines, Porsche North America Cars, and the Wells Fargo Processing Center.

The future of the chamber is to serve as the primary conduit for global commerce in the tri-cities area at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. They plan to improve their weekly events, major or signature events, and programs. “The ATL Airport Chamber fosters an atmosphere that welcomes diverse voices as highlighted through our board of directors and demographics of our membership,” adds Carmenlita. “We are steadfast in our mission and priority to support the business memberships of the Chamber, the communities we serve, and the people they employ.” Collaboration is also an essential ingredient to success. The ATL Airport Chamber is working in collaboration with the Ecuadorian-American Chamber to provide international business opportunities to our constituents through an Annual International Business Expo. In addition, customer engagement strategies include collaboration with the Atlanta Black Chamber, Georgia Greater Black Chamber, Georgia Hispanic Chamber, and the Women’s Chamber. We also collaborate with our sister chambers of South Fulton and Clayton Counties. Equally important, the ATL Airport Chamber is a proud In-Kind Sponsor of the Virtual International Women’s Summit hosted by the Women’s Chamber. IE

Sylvia Gordon is the creative engine for Gordon Marketing and works in unison with her sister Rebecca Gordon to take the company to new heights. “While we break up job responsibilities and have many overlapping skill sets, everyone agrees that I am the creative engine. I was putting on neighborhood plays (and collecting fees from the parents to my mom’s embarrassment) when I was 8 years old,” says the pioneering leader. “Theater and art are my passion, which is why I was extremely reluctant to follow my family into insurance. One day I realized that we can incorporate fun into insurance distribution.”

“Gordon Marketing and works in unison with her sister Rebecca Gordon to take the company to new heights.”

According to Sylvia, when you own the company, you make the rules! “We built our brand around the anti-corporate model. There is a surfeit of competitors trying to out-professional each other, so we went the opposite direction,” she says. “We have very different atmosphere attracted enough agents to propel us to one of the largest national marketing firms for insurance distribution.”

Being one of the very few women at the top of her field, Sylvia has broken the mold that insurance is limited to the proverbial WASPs. “I’ve been discriminated against, forced into degrading situations with Insurance companies, I have a duty to do everything in my power to make our industry more inclusive,” she says. “I want to bring women of all races together and mentor them towards greater heights. Our company is predominately woman led, and I’m proud of the leadership track we have had for women these past 25 years. The receptionist is now a senior manager, the next receptionist runs a department and so on.”

Sylvia’s father, Dick Gordon, was a captive agent that his company abused. He decided to start a competing company to treat agents the way he should have been treated. It turns out that was the recipe for success! Most people in insurance distribution have never sold a policy across the kitchen table to a client. “I not only have sold insurance, but to this day continue to sell a few polices every month so that I know the products we are training agents to sell. When I train, I train from the agent’s perspective and not an ivory tower CEO out of touch with the agents we support. I talk the talk, and walk the walk,” she says. “There are not many businesses left in the USA where you can find three generations working in the same business. I doubt that there are any FMOs with as many family members actively involved in insurance as we have.” Sylvia and her team don’t aspire to attract all agents because they know not everyone can fit in a family-focused, woman-led, offbeat and fun brand—that’s cool with us. “There are enough agents that enjoy what we have to offer to keep us growing strong.”

The duo, Rebecca and Sylvia, are proud of how agile they have been. “We are not reluctant to change, we are eager to adapt. I’m the largest voice for Medicare (the biggest “Influencer,” if you will) on Tik Tok. It spins off free, organic leads every single day. We have a large presence on many Social Media platforms and that is how most agents know us. The graying sales force doesn’t Tik Tok, but their clients do. That is why we go there first, so we can train agents how to do it themselves,” she explains. “I’ve spent 20 years being one of the only women in the room. Women are better suited to succeed in health insurance and I feel that we will dominate this industry one day.” Change is the only thing that has been constant in Sylvia’s career. “That scares some people, but I’ve always loved it (as I get bored easily). COVID-19 was terrifying as a business owner, but we never closed our office and we proved that we were able to adapt and thrive. 2020 was our biggest year ever!” IE

Gordon Marketing

Management

Sylvia Gordon
President

Description

Founded in 1980 by Dick and Margaret Gordon, Gordon Marketing has made a national name for itself from humble beginnings. Gordon Marketing is an independent, family-owned and operated brokerage company located in the heart of Indiana. We specialize in Senior, Health & Life products for independent agents across the nation.