The 10 Most Influential Businesswomen Making a Difference, 2022

1. April 2022 Most Influential ??BusinessWomen MakingaDifference 2022 ??? www.theincmagazine.com Margaret Graziano KeenAlignment | CEO & FOUNDER

4. Sharing the Baton of Leadership H employees. They are also better at helping employees navigate through work and life balance. Women also spend more time contributing, to diversity, inclusion efforts, and equity. ave you ever watched a film named ‘Mulan’? If not, then let me answer it for you. Mulan is an animated American movie, where a girl fights for her identity. This movie shows how strong, determined, courageous, and smart women are, and there are no such feet that are unachievable for them. According to research, women leaders are better than their male counterparts at providing better emotional support to their However, even a decade ago, women were massively undercounted whenever it came to entrepreneurship or leading an organization from the front. However, now starting from business to education, administration to technology, women gradually made their mark in almost every industry be it at the national or regional level. By walking a few extra miles, they have been at the top of each field. When it comes to the world of business, women have bought massive changes in the corporate ecosystem by converting their creative and innovative ideas into various successful business models. By combining their creative and passionate mind, women are making a big difference by taking their businesses to the next level. People like Gina Rinehart, the chairman of Hancock Prospecting Group, Denise Coates, the founder of Bet365, Cher Wang, the Co-founder of HTC, and many more are on the list. Editors Note While these big, well-known names are continuing to set an example for others, there are also a few Businesswomen who are making quite a bit of difference with their innovative products and solutions. With an intent to acknowledge the contributions of these women leaders, we have carefully curated a list of “10 Most Influential Business Women Making a Difference 2022”. So, what are you waiting for? Jump right into the inspiring stories and lessons from the businesswomen featured in this issue and get motivated. Sonal K Editor

5. Editor In Cheif Sonal K Managing Editor Ehsan Jami Publishing Control Team Alexis, Michael Visualiser Mary Chars Art and Design Head Stephan Wood Art And Design Assistant Anushka Bhosle Art and Pictures Editor Namrata Chaure Business Development Manager Wilson Shan Marketing Manager Chirs Philip Business Development Executive Maria, Wilson, Martina, Alex, Kelvin Technical Head Jacob Smile Assistant Technical Head Alina Sege Digital Marketing Manager Jennifer Parker Assistant Digital Marketing Manager David King Research Analyst Earl Lewis Circulation Manager Scoot Taylor sales@theincmagazine.com The Inc Magazine Rochester, New York- 14602, United State Phone- +1 [217]503-4344 Info@theincmagazine.com Follow us www.facebook.com/theincmagazine/ www.twitter.com/theincmagazine/ www.linkedin.com/company/theincmagazine Copyright© 2022 The Inc Magazine www.theincmagazine.com

6. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 08 Margaret Graziano Helping to Change Workplace Culture ???????? ? 14 ????????????? Wild Code School is reinforcing Women Tech Posi�ons on the Market

7. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?????? 20 14 ?????????????? Helping Companies to Manage their People and Assets ????????????? Revolu�onizing the AI Space in India 32 24 ???????????????? Mission-Driven and elping Customers to Reduce Cost ???????????? Solving Client’s Real-Estate Worries

8. Cover Story MARGARET GRAZIANO KeenAlignment | FOUNDER, CEO ?

9. The 10 Most Influential Business Women Making a Difference, 2022 Helping to Change Workplace Culture Culture Helping to Change Workplace M reset for companies that have been around a long time, or with start-ups that are looking to grow to the next level. Margaret has been in the human relations/talent optimization industry for more than 25 years. She began her career as a recruiter and moved her career forward to executive search, then organizational development, then executive coaching, and all of that along with 20-year volun- teerism in the human potential industry. She integrates human potential, organizational devel- opment, change management, and talent optimiza- tion to inspire and catalyze organizational culture. eet Margaret Graziano,CEO, and founder of KeenAlignment which works to transform organizational culture as a executive team to integrate the espoused culture, what they want, and what they're committed to with how people work, communicate and accomplish goals. “ I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. The company provides a carefully curated and strate- gically sequenced Culture Blueprint, a road map to its clients and they guarantee breakthrough results. Margaret spends over 250 hours on her profession- al development each year. She works diligently to have clean relationships and communicate what needs to be communicated. Margaret is completely committed to delivering outstanding results for the clients her company serves, and actively practices and lives the ‘work’. Ideal / Actual Culture Diagnostic: It gives sound and current data on which to make balanced deci- sions for intentional and healthy organizational change Organizational Culture Alignment: It creates the conditions for proactive, inspiring and collective change to occur from the inside out. Transforming Organizational Cultures At KeenAlignment, Margaret and her team are transforming organizational culture as a reset for companies that have been around a long time, or with start-ups that are looking to grow to the next level. There's typically some inflection point in the organization where they need to break through the ceiling of what's possible, and they realize that the way to do it is through creating a high-perfor- mance, healthy, and intentional organizational culture. That’s what KeenAlignment does. Marga- ret and her organization’s vision is to forever liberate the human spirit at work, and its mission is to shape a high-performance, healthy and inten- tional organizational culture. Margaret and her team do that by working hand-in-hand with the Leadership Development: It creates outstanding leaders, who can move strategy forward with passion and alignment. Talent Optimization: It shapes a healthy, empowered human system where people put their highest and best use of self to work. Liberating the Human Spirit at Work As a Leader in Talent Acquisition for more than 20 years, Margaret witnessed first hand why people leave companies. 70% of the time, they were the wrong 09 April 2022

10. person for the job. The other 30% of the time it’s because there’s no vision or structure for how people are led. So, people are frustrated, feel unappreciated, or feel undervalued. Over and over again, with more than 10,000 people, she got to see how dysfunctional the “human system” in most organizations is. Then, as she got into the human potential movement, volunteering in a myriad of different organizations, and participating in large group empowerment workshops, she saw how misaligned people are with the work they chose to do. Most are working for a paycheck with little to no self awareness about what work life fulfillment means to them. Somewhere along the line they lost themselves and forgot who they really are and what's really important. Then, after realizing that life is fleeting and 70% of their waking hours are spent working, one day they wake up and they realize they are unhappy. It is the first instinct to point to the job because most people think their happiness comes from the outside. Sometimes it really is the job, or the leader, and most of the time it is a case of missing purpose and passion from the inside out. It's never solely about the job or people they're working with. People just recreate the same situation at companies, because inside they're missing some- thing. They're missing a touchpoint with their highest and best self about where they should be spending their time, and what they should be doing. So, they're looking for a job to fulfill a need that the job can never fulfill. If they're unhappy it is easy to point outside yet the answer is always within. to creating a high-performance, healthy and inten- tional organization that can do good in the world with more peace, freedom, and ease. Typically, they have between 50 and 650 employees, or they have a plan to get there in the next few years. They may be a company that is growing exponen- tially and starting to see that their unintentional culture, the culture that was created based on behav- iors of the most influential people, is not working for them. So, they want to realign and set the stage for fast growth, with a high-performance, healthy and intentional culture. Or, they’re an organization that's been around a long time and handed from one generation to the next. The new generation sees that the way things were done and how culture has morphed over time is not effective for where they need to go, and who they need to be now. In another scenario there might be companies that are doing good and new leadership comes in and that new leadership’s values are not being reflected throughout the organization. Instead, what gets espoused is entangled behavior of wills, that is causing stress, breakdowns, confusion, and volatili- ty. The new leader then says this cannot be, this is not a healthy way to run a company. So, they say they need to hit refresh as Satya Nadella did at Microsoft. Those are the 3 situations where a company would work with KeenAlignment. It delivers more than promised and makes sure not to take on any clients who don't want to do the work from the inside out. KeenAlignment only focuses on what it can deliver outstandingly, and if they want the company to do things that it doesn’t have expertise in, it says no to projects that are distractions. Both of those experiences encouraged Margaret to become part of the workplace empowerment movement. She spends the majority of her time teaching, writing, designing programs and working with Executive teams. Her work keeps her busy and utilizes her passions, strengths and interests. She is grateful for her humble roots in recruiting, she often refers to those days as the MBA school of hard knocks. Picture of the Future Margaret is most excited about his new book that's coming out, which is about cultural transformation from the inside out. One of her goals for the company is to create a certification program for practitioners, where they can learn how to do the cultural transformation from KeenAlignment’s blueprint. She is also excited about new people Satisfied Clientele Margaret says, “Our clients are small to mid-sized organizations who want to do good in the world or who are already doing good in the world.” These clients are entirely 10 April 2022

11. joining the organization who are aligned with the mission, vision, and values. Margaret and her team are excited about transforming the world of work and creating a world of work that works for everyone where people don't have to feel like they have to get the hell out of work every day just to be happy, but they can go to work and be happy. Margaret "Magi" Graziano, Peak-Performance Culture and Leadership Coach Recognized as one of Silicon Valley’s Top 100 Women Leaders, Magi’s groundbreaking work is driven by her power to uncover and catalyze human potential. Pioneering the leading edge of Leadership Training, Organizational Culture and Strategic People Operations, she brings: Proven success transforming organizational culture with more than 25,000 lives impacted Over 25 years of experience in unlocking the wealth of talent, human spirit and capacity in organizations Methods that increase employee performance, ignite passion in teams and deliver up to 10x return on program nvestment ??????????????????????????? 11 April 2022

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15. www.tardidtech.com Aastha Verma Tardid Technologies Pvt Ltd | COO Revolutionizing the AI Space in India A ccording to research, 59% of all the fortune 500 companies experience a minimum downtime of 1.6 hours per week, which costs millions of dollars yearly. So, enters, Tardid Technologies Pvt Ltd, which helps enterprises to understand their assets’ health condition by using Machine Learning and Cognitive technology thus reducing unplanned downtime. The organization’s clients include heavy industries, defense, operators, and R&D. Tardid has entered into a technology joint venture with Blockchain for strategic go-to-market and technology development to address autonomous waste management. Under the leadership of Ms. Aastha Verma, COO, Tardid has built Brainbox®, as the first step towards AI-based Enterprise Asset Management for monitor- ing asset performance, prescribing health, and provid- ing remaining life. With modular design, Brainbox modules and solutions can be customized to suit even the smallest of the small requirements. It brings a full-featured prescriptive maintenance program and applies its benefits to structural components, engines, motors, alternators, pumps, compressors, fans, valves, gearboxes, energy synchronization, and optimization or to any other equipment deemed critical to operation- al excellence. Brainbox® Prime & Brainbox® Xander help the organization to achieve this. The Brainbox® Stormbreaker helps provide critical answers to the end-users with its cause and impact analysis. The organization has developed the world’s first AI hardware named SPICA, which is mainly for autonomous inspection and rejection stations for the Zone1 environment. Currently, SPICA is being used to detect, leaks, strains, and fatigue of LPG cylinders. Exceeding Clients’ Expectations The clients of Tardid Technologies Pvt Ltd are from multiple sectors including, Defense, Shipping, Oil & Gas, and manufacturing. The organization has multiple projects from the Indian Navy, Aditya Birla, and Bharat Petroleum among others. According to Aastha, the company has earned faith by exceeding its clients’ expectations and deliver- ing the first of its kind of solutions to them. COO of the company Aastha thinks the primary chal- lenges have always remained on how to keep the team together at times of challenges when it needs to rein- vent and regroup, to keep the team motivated, and to ensure that funds never went low, to have enough orders in the pipeline without compromising on Tardid’s core values. The organization often gets tempted to follow the market and deliver what many other companies were already doing. However, remaining undeterred from the path was one of the biggest challenges for the company. Tardid has another product, Brainbox® Knowhere, a threat intelligence product only for government agencies. 15 April 2022

16. Picture of the Future Tardid had to fight very hard to get the right valuation, which was necessary. The leaders never had another company from which the investors could take refer- ence, and it worked both ways. In its early days, Tardid had the option of being bought over. However, Aastha and the team knew to have freedom of continuous innovation, the control was needed to be with the founders. Eventually, the team worked tirelessly and ensured the company a stable income. And this income helped them focus on research without getting any outside pressure. AI was a buzzword even a few years ago but, it is now seeing a massive adoption in every industry meaning there’s so much to do in this space. This high adoption rate of Artificial Intelligence eventually makes the future of Tardid bright and challenging. Currently, there’s a demand for Brainbox® and it is finding its place in this ever-increasing requirement of the indus- try. Persistence and Perseverance is the Key Aastha believes persistence and perseverance have got her where she is today. Many people have supported her during her journey. Aastha also can’t thank enough her business partner who had more confidence in her than what she had in herself while starting Tardid. Aastha’s parents inspired her to continue her fight and to give her best, no matter what was the situation. Her children and personal struggle always kept her focused and didn’t let her lose sight of the finish line no matter how hard it got. Creating something which would be a unique technology product from an Indian Company was a constant driving force for Aastha. “The challenges have and shall keep coming but as we say when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”- She added. Tips for Budding Female Entrepreneurs When it comes to suggestions for upcoming entrepre- neurs, Aastha suggests not forgetting the reason for starting the entrepreneurial journey. She says, “Always attach it with one of your emotional quotients and you will never stop pursuing your dream till you achieve it. Often when we relate our success to materialistic happiness, it fades as soon as it comes.” Additionally, Aastha advises staying focused on the emotional goal, which will never let anyone deter from her path. As a woman, she has an inherent quality to multitask and also keep everyone’s needs addressed. She thinks, if a female entrepreneur can bring her home managing skills into her business or workplace, then handling things becomes much easier. 16 April 2022

17. “At Tardid, we are ready to take up the challenge and very excited about taking Brainbox® to the world.” - added Aastha. “World will always have an opinion, it's up to us to prove them right or wrong, either way, whatever we do, should be what we feel clear in our conscious, the rest will find its place automatically.” 17 April 2022

20. MARNE MARTIN IFS Service Management Business Unit | President B goods, maintain assets, and manage service-focused operations. Marne Martin, President of IFS Service Management Business Unit, leads the charge enabling digital transformation, the delivery of business value, and great Moments of Service. time spent leading and taking public a defense and telecom consulting firm. Marne's initiatives took the company from dominance in the Middle East out into the US, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. Earlier, in her career, Marne was part of the team acquiring licenses and launching the first GSM cell phone companies in the Americas as well as privatizing a life science company and doing a variety of interesting technology startups. orn in 1983, IFS develops and delivers enterprise software for clients across the globe who manufacture and distribute Before joining IFS, Marne was already quite accomplished in this sector. While serving as the CEO, she led the executive leadership team of a publicly traded FSM software company. Innovation led, Marne was responsible for the transformation of, their go-to-market strategy, shifting focus to SaaS, which reaped rewards year on year. This is part of a successful track record that also includes Marne feels blessed to have a fascinating and interesting life that continues to bring opportunities to do progressive and cutting edge things. In the past, she has written about her childhood and career moving from an background growing up on cattle ranches to launching an international career on her own merits, which makes her very proud to be an example of how women can build a successful 20 April 2022

21. Helping Companies to Manage their People and Assets Tackling Primary Challenges career. She takes pride in being an example and still being accessible to other women and young people who are growing their careers. In addition to being open to engaging with young people generally, she prioritizes meeting new hires and advancing young professional and leadership programs so that individuals see first hand that Marne cares about their success. While Marne can’t manufacture enough time to be everywhere for everyone, she wants to make sure that she is not the type of person or executive that is no longer in touch with those on the ground and the front-line and inspires others to be the same. IFS serves some of the most well-recognized companies on the planet. The clientele covers industries like telco, manufacturing, utilities, and others with asset, customer and people centric businesses. It is exciting to be partnering with businesses that might be digitizing for the first time, others that are leveraging more advanced capabilities to launch new business models, and of course some global companies that have components of both depending on which country or business unit. Marne believes in this competitive market, finding and retaining talent, and keeping sufficient focus on “ You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. “ customer business value realization has to be always top of mind with continued outreach and innovation needed. In general, how IFS in the software industry can be better buyer coach for companies seeking more value from their technology investments, greater change management skills, or advice how to launch new business models from their technology investments stays on Marne's mind every interaction with a prospect or customer. This is needed not only in the buying cycles across repeat and occasional technology buyers, as well as business value realization, which is still not where it could be. A surprisingly high number of technology buyers may know that they need a type of technology, but they are not sure how success is defined in measurable key performance indicators. And of course to deliver on this mission, IFS needs talent that is capable and also coachable with career paths that meld well with the Company's vision and strategy alongside customers to be the kind of technology partner they can rely on. People Behind the Success Hard work, quick thinking, good people skills, and resiliency are all personal traits that Marne has benefitted from and cultivated. There are too many people to name who advised Marne, pushed her to 21 April 2022

22. be better, or even exposed her to the opportunities, which have helped Marne to grow and learn. The learning journey never stops, and Marne continues to be courageous and entrepreneurial even as she has now passed her 25+ year work anniversary. Staying creative and energetic now with decades of experience is certainly an advantage for her. every day, she thinks of how to drive greater and faster scaleability in go to market across the 60 or so countries IFS focus on, improving how she alongside her team serve customers, solve industry and digital transformation problems, all which keeps her motivated and the work exciting. An Avid Reader Creating a Balanced Industry Marne suggests embracing and cultivating the openness to ideas and different views, and encour- aging those who bring solutions to problems is key to businesses not stagnating. She often says, "while we can’t eliminate all bias we can make sure we support ideas and those who find solutions to problems and promote or encourage those people regardless of their backgrounds, ethnicities, gender or beliefs.” She is an avid reader, and there are so many amaz- ing books she has read, classics, business books, and leisure books. Marne often likes to go back, and read classics, and timely books about history, War and Peace is certainly top of mind in these current times, but more related to work, a book that doesn’t show up typically on a list of best business books, but one she thinks everyone should read is Start with Why by Simon Sinek. Marne loves to be inspired and inspire people, and that is why this book resonated with her as while inspirational people always have the power to cultivate change, change becomes more ingrained and easier to drive adoption when people understand the why. And pragmatically, if one can’t articulate the why of an action or initiative, regardless of inspiration, it is a red flag. During her long career, Marne has received many awards and accolades. Now she is very excited as IFS has earned a billion USD in revenue, her role in developing and growing software unicorns, how she can’t wait to see the future, and how both IFS and its customers evolve in this world of outcomes and experiences. Preparing for a Better Future IFS is on a great path of growth focusing on how it meets the evolving needs in the software industry and its focus verticals to deliver value for customers and value for their customers. Personally, Marne is proud of all that she has accomplished. However, 22 April 2022

24. Koheli Puri STUDIO XP Management Consultants Pvt. Ltd Managing Director 24 April 2022

25. Solving Client’s Real-Estate Worries M become an entrepreneur. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in architecture and M.Tech. from IIT Delhi in building engineering and construction management. Soo, she started working with one of the top multinational companies in her industry, where she worked for 7 years. Later she joined an eminent development group and gained over a decade of experience in the construction and real estate industry. However, in 2011 Koheli launched her own company, her dream brand StudioXP. Currently, the organization has completed more than 10 years of working with the best of the clients and growing with them. eet Koheli Puri the Managing Director of StudioXP Management Consultants Pvt Ltd. Koheli always had a dream to Corporate Clients, Developers, IPCs, Private Equities in Delhi NCR, Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad & Bangalore region and Dubai. StudioXP’s esteemed clients are Ultimate Kronos Group, Lumens technology, Ericsson, Brookfield, Black Stone, DLF, Nucleus office space, Jaipur Development Authority, Trinity Life sciences, Religare, Ienergiser, HCL, RMS, AXA XL, Oyo, Three Pillars Global, JFL Group, Pine labs, Centrum, Bank of America. Koheli says, “The reason for having such a strong & repetitive clientele is our Accountability, Delivery commitment, Innovative Design approach, Quality Construction, Transparency and always taking an extra mile to provide clients well-informed quality real estate decisions.” As an organization, StudioXP Management Consultants Pvt Ltd., is a renowned Real Estate Development Management firm, with multi-disciplinary specialist skills and experience in Architecture, Interiors & Construction of Corporate Campuses/offices, Commercial Projects, I.T. Parks, International Schools, Hotels, Healthcare, Industrial & Data Center Projects. StudioXP is an ISO-9001 certified company accredited for Quality Management in providing exquisite Services, the organization is currently providing comprehensive Services to several Fortune 500 companies, National & Multi-national Corporate Clients, Developers, IPCs, Private Equities in Delhi NCR, Jaipur, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore region and in Dubai. StudioXP provides end-to-end hassle-free real estate solutions to its clients. Tackling Primary Challenges Koheli feels navigating amongst challenges and hurdles builds resilience. Learning from these lays a solid foundation for growth & success as one advances during his/her career. Koheli selected a stream that was not too easy and had several established competitors, but her reasons for success were her educational background, ethical policy, experience in working in previous reputed companies at a leadership level, commitments, professionalism, accountability & never say never attitude which not many people had, so she managed to win clients trust to take her company to a different level. “ Solving Real-Estate Needs All Power is with in you, you can do anything and everything Under the leadership of Koheli, StudioXP is providing development management/ Design & Built/ end to end real estate solutions to several Fortune 500 companies, National & Multi-national “ 25 April 2022 - Koheli Puri

26. “ My advice to budding Female entrepreneurs would be – Dream Big to Achieve Big. Please plan properly, think strategically, and implement smarty. Dedication, patience, perseverance & inbuilt managerial capabilities will take you there. Guiding Lights “As said if parents are with you, you can reach new heights. Same with me, my parents always motivated me along the way.”- Says Koheli. She also knew her goals from the very beginning. After starting her professional career she always had mentors who guided her towards the right directions. Koheli says, “My heart goes out in deepest gratitude to all who taught me professional lessons, who taught me to be a better person, who taught me to be a great leader, who taught me to be a good team player, and who taught me to be a dreamer to achieve bigger goals and to my most supportive family whos always motivating me to perform better.” Making the Industry Balanced and Equal Koheli believes, for a balanced and equal industry we need a drastic mindset change, which can be achieved through mutual support and demonstrations. A balanced and equal industry should be a Business Imperative leading to profitability rather than initiatives, so lead this by example. She also thinks that company culture needs to be inclusive including salary, safety level, language used, leaves considerations. Even encouraging Developments at all levels with more Women in leadership roles is a trendsetter in today’s companies. Suggestions for Upcoming Entrepreneurs Koheli has the same business acumen with inbuilt multitasking capabilities. Koheli believes Entrepreneurship is beyond gender. “ Future Roadmap Koheli is most excited to be the most repetitive organization for clients to always feel comfortable in interaction. Currently, StudioXP provides the best in class services for complete Development Management including Architectural design & Construction and adds real value to developers, funds, financial institutions, and Corporate /Commercial Occupiers to help them in taking well-informed quality real estate decisions. -Koheli Puri When it comes to the future, StudioXP is expecting to be the customer’s best and first choice company, in India to cater to large-scale development projects for corporates, IT, ITES, Commercial Projects in the next 5 years. The organization is also planning to create sustainable buildings and technologically advanced campuses, which are not only aesthetically pleasing but also create value for the occupiers and investors. Its vision is not only restricted to IT and Commercial Developments but encompasses institutional, hospitality, industrial, and healthcare projects. 26 April 2022

28. Shannon Hulbert Shannon Hulbert ??????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? 28 April 2022

29. Starting in 1996, as an IT department for a creative agency Opus Interactive is the leading provider of hybrid and multi-cloud solutions. The organization is currently led by its CEO, Shannon Hulbert. She is passionate about building the information super-highway and digital inclusion, women in tech, STEM, and sustainable IT. She has been in the cloud and data center industr- y for the past 11 years. Before that, she was in the energy sector- on the demand side management side working with utility energy-efficiency programs throughout the United States. As a Native American Shannon was raised on a portion of Yurok Indian Reservation called the End of the Road. Super rural- 20 miles from the nearest store. No power, then solar power, and no phones or connectivity. In the village where she grew up, her Gram’s house just got electricity about 5 years ago, and the internet last year. Her journey has been from the end of the road to the information superhighway- complete with a climate positive cloud footprint hosted in Northern Virginia, the most connected place on the planet. “ You never know when someone’s unique skillset or back- ground is the missing piece to the next suc- cessful product or process. Shannon’s background also includes project management and building processes by working for the vinyl shop that delivered all the in-store signage to Hollywood Video when they were opening 1 store every other day. Navigation and incident command skills were learned by, working under pressure as a wildland firefighter. She was an engine crew navigator before GPS was available and often worked in hazardous conditions requir- ing strenuous exertion in smoke, high temperatures and steep terrain And production at scale by working at McDonald's and serving as production line lead at a door manufacturer. It’s why, as an organization, Shannon and her team strive to be as inclusive as possible. Helping Clients’ Cost Reduction Opus Interactive launched its first cloud back in 2005. While cloud adoption has been a long time coming – the pandemic accelerated adoption by about 10 years, because for a moment the only way many people could see a doctor was telehealth, and food and groceries were ordered online and delivered to limit exposure and people worked from home, learned from home and watched a lot of cat videos. 29 April 2022

30. “ Needless to say, everything is cloud-based now. And, what many IT departments are finding is that it’s not a simple transformation – there are many options, many requirements, and many components. And every enter- prise is different – as is every workload used in the enterprise. Fate whispers to the warrior, “You cannot withstand the storm.” The warrior whispers back, “I am the storm.” Opus always works to help customers reduce costs and optimize resources by building tailored hybrid and multi-cloud solutions that meet performance, compli- ance, security, and budget needs. The organization’s mission is to build trusted solutions that pave the way for sustainable IT and the next generation of technology builders. It works with customers to tailor and deliver the best mix of on-prem, colocation, private cloud, public cloud, dedicated IaaS, backup, long-term cloud object storage, network connectivity, and ecosystem Greatly Satisfied Clients How the organization ensures unbreakable faith- listen to the customers and give them what they need. This means being vendor agnostic. It’s not uncommon for the company to refer customers to services outside of its own, and also why it has established partnerships, including its most recent launch of VMC on AWS. The organization’s goal is to get the customer workloads where they need, when they need, how they need. So that’s a reliable team, high-performance services, strategic partnerships, compliance and security, and super-fast networks at every level. A Piece of Advice When it comes to advising young entrepreneurs Shannon says, “as an organization, your team is your greatest strength. They are the face of the company, the ideas that drive innovation, and the perseverance to implement successfully. Inclusivity makes all the difference. The best solutions are built by a representative workforce that understands use cases, opportunities, and obstacles. We’re all part of a global community. The collaborative output that combines differences in backgrounds, perspectives, culture, and experiences make solutions, your organization, and our global community stronger.” Tackling Bad Days Shannon says, “We’ve been around for more than 26 years so have a customer in pretty much every vertical. But 75% fall into technology, telecom, healthcare, and finance. It’s because the workloads for those industries have more compliance or simply can’t go down – that’s where tailored solutions are key to ensuring you get service and performance that are exactly what you need.” Future Roadmap Shannon believes, the only thing she and her team can depend on is constant change – and change is exciting. As an organization, Opus will continue to listen and allow the needs of its customers lead innovation in its service portfolio. It’s how Opus evolved from IT department to ISP to cloud to today. And how they’ll change to meet customer needs of the future. When asked about the primary challenges Shannon says, “Oh wow! In the past two years? Let me think…global pandemic, work from home, supply chain, industry growth, workforce shortages, winter storms, summer fires…and I think everyone in the world knew someone who was directly impacted by loss of family or jobless- ness – I’m thankful every day to be surrounded by amazing customers, partners, and a team of geniuses. We all supported each other and came through it, stronger together.” 30 April 2022

32. www.wildcodeschool.com STÉPANOFF Wild Cold School | Founder 32 April 2022

33. More Women in Tech Positions 3 3%, that is the percentage of women among Wild Code School’s students in 2022, and this number is about to grow even more. Tech jobs have never been that valued among young girls, even though our own vocations emerge at a very young age. No surprise that only 17% of women are working in tech, and that there are still a lot of barri- ers for women to work in the IT world. Paradoxically, tech companies increasingly seek women candidates and are starting to value gender diversity among teams. CEO Anna Stépanoff co-founded Wild Code School in 2013, with the idea of creating a new environment of education – where the students could benefit from a personalized training support, but also from a project-based teaching approach thanks to ‘learn- ing-by-doing’. The school promotes gender diversity among its students, to empower women in tech positions! The goal of Anna Stépanoff is to create an educational environment that empowers people, especially women. The school is progressively moving towards gender parity within IT fields by taking actions to facilitate women's access to its training courses. Today, Wild Code School is a leading European tech school offering lifelong learning programs at 20+ campuses, remotely or at company’s offices, and has trained 5,000 alumni in the most in-demand digital skills: web development, data, product management, cybersecurity and no code. In 2017, the initiative Women are Programming aimed to boost women’s tech education by providing scholarships to acquire the hard and soft skills to make it as a tech professional. This was available on Wild Code School’s European campuses, such as: Behind Wild Code School’s Creation: Who is Anna Stépanoff? It all started in Belarus, where Anna is originally from, and where her dream of being a teacher was born. When she benefited from scholarships to go further in her studies, she left her home country at the age 19 to fulfill her ambition. ● Coding Bootcamp Lisbon ● Coding Bootcamp Berlin Another action is the promotion of women partners’ and Wilders’ careers and role models through events, interviews, articles, videos... Anna Stépanoff is one of them: mother of 3 children, and yet CEO of a leading tech school, Entrepreneur, and Regional advisor of the French Centre-Val de Loire Region, she made a successful career: Bachelor of Arts at Harvard University in Social Sciences, PhD on the History of museums at La Sorbonne, Consultant at McKinsey and now CEO at Wild Code School, she went through a lot of learning and working environments before starting an educa- tion business. “Organize your life balance, work and family - with kids specially, they take time and the company takes time. I have 3 kids and that is my everyday challenge, we need to share responsibilities with our partner and father of our kids and be supported. I personally recommend women to be brave, to think that it is possible - I see a lot of women limiting themselves. Just go for it and try things and if it doesn’t work, it is ok!” Her strong belief in education and technology chang- ing lives made her realize three things: there was - and still is - a huge lack of tech talents in the market, women are underrepresented in this field and the straitjacket of education is not adapted to this fast evolving industry. Then came the idea of creating an alternative teaching approach, coupled to technology and aligned with the current businesses’ needs. Followed the birth of Wild Code School’s first campus in 2013, in La Loupe, France 33 April 2022

34. Technology talents are all around us, that is why the school is encouraging its students to change careers or upskill to fulfill their dreams, and helping companies find their next tech talent. Today, the rate of return to employment for women (86%) is even higher than Wild Code School’s overall rate (82%). Regardless of their initial level or age, female candidates are highly sought after. “I was planning to go into the data analysis field and it turned out that Wild Code School was looking for future students with my profile - and they were ward- ing scholarships for the training. [...] It was a gift of destiny for me. It was exactly what I wanted to do and it came at the right time” - Doriane, a Paris alumni in data analysis “I worked for a few years in a consulting company and wanted to switch to coding. At that time, I discov- ered the initiative Women are Programming on Facebook and decided to apply for the scholarship. I passed the tests and joined Wild Code School for a 5-month web developer training and I am now specializing in front-end development. [...] Wild Code School not only allowed me to discover powerful tech tools and languages, but also gave me all the skills I needed to have a global vision and practical experi- ence in web development and be multi-skilled and totally resourceful in finding a job afterwards.” - Audrey, Brussels alumni in web development Wild Code School’s students and partners prove it everyday: “Go for it! You’re capable, courageous, and just as justified as men. Do it for yourself—but also for future generations. Your choices today will make the difference tomorrow. And if you falter at first, do it again!” - Anne, Talent Acquisition Specialist at Ubisoft Ivory Tower “No more clichés of the pimply-faced geek developer with glasses locked in the dark. Web development is within the reach of anyone who is motivated and invested! As women, we can bring something different to the profession. [...] We sometimes have a sharper eye for the practicality of certain features. We can be an asset to a team and we shouldn't be afraid to take the plunge.” - Sophie, Toulouse alumni in web development “Never hesitate to get started! This is a fast-growing sector and there is a great demand for new recruits. Moreover, you should not be afraid of this environ- ment, which is still predominantly male, otherwise it will remain so and that would be a pity!” - Servanne, a Remote alumni in cybersecurity 34 April 2022

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