The 10 Most Inspiring CEOs to Watch

1. 10 THE MOST INSPIRING CEOs TO WATCH CEO & founder of CodeBoxx Technology NICOLAS GENEST EMPOWERING THROUGH EDUCATION + Industry Insider Why Entrepreneurial Leadership is Distinctive?

4. Editor’s Desk From Directing to Inspiring T he cornerstone of a business’s success is an effective leadership. The ultimate purpose of a leader is to lead others so self-awareness is essential and it is also necessary that followers find their leader inspirational; it motivates them. Anyone can be the inspirational leader, but it’s not something that will come naturally to everyone. Self-awareness and awareness of those around are the key part of an inspirational leadership where one has to focus on finding different ways to inspire and engage those who are following for change. “Leadership is the ability to get extraordinary from ordinary people” said by Brian Tracy. An inspiring leader helps others to understand their own value and leads them to witness success. In the past, leadership was all about pushing the business towards its goals, irrespective of the impact on the workforce where being hard-hearted and indomitable were considered to be traits of good leadership. Today, aspects of leadership have been changing; the real heroes of a business' success are its employees and in order to drive organisation to success, leaders have to engage with employees effectively. To have an inspirational leader is a extremely beneficial from an organisational perspective. However, developing the skills to be an inspirational leader is a never ending process while one experiences different aspects leadership and develops ability to

5. Leadership is more of supporting, guiding and inspiring than only directing empower others. Insights Success, in its upcoming edition “The 10 Most Inspiring CEOs to Watch”, is bringing some of the world class CEO’s, who’s success stories are becoming an inspiration for others. The cover features Nicolas Genest, the CEO and founder of CodeBoxx Technology, who wanted to make people more confident who are doubtful about their skills and potential, and holding themselves back. His new venture will give you the skills and resources necessary to become an efficient and highly appreciated developer on the technology scene. He believes in educating people to new skills and providing them with a chance to use them on a new job, become an entrepreneur or even a freelance worker. Nicolas asserts “you should never lose sight of what you do things for. Hardest things are often the most impactful ones and the most valuable. Getting carried away or tempting to focus on the things that you are good at will happen often, but you should be determined at what you do.” He understands that empowering people is important so he constantly reminds them that the objective is always greater than any individual on the team. One does that by highlighting their individual impact within the collective effort. Everyone is part of a community effort to be a relevant alternative to the changing landscape in education and labour. Rohit Chaturvedi Also, while flipping the pages, don’t forget to go through the articles and CXOs written by our in-house editorial team and industry experts respectively.

6. Cover Story 10 Nicolas Genest Empowering through Education Article Industry Insider Why Entrepreneurial Leadership is Distinctive? 28

7. C o n t e n t s 20 Feras El Hajjar An Ingenious Leader in Digital Transformation and Business Management Yatin Patel Elevating Travel Experience 32 Katherine Colombino An Excellent Dedicated 24 YOAV DROR Providing Ultimate Flexible Crypto Payment Solution 36 Professional

9. Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Executive Editor Kaustav Roy Assistant Editors Jenny Fernandes Rohit Chaturvedi Managing Editor Anish Miller Co-designer Visualizer David King Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Associate Designer Kartik Balapurkar Asha Bange Senior Sales Manager Business Development Manager Co-designer Kshitij S Peter Collins Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Sagar Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Technical Head Jacob Smile Steve, Joe, Alan, Sanket Digital Marketing Manager Marry D'Souza Technical Specialist Aditya Research Analyst Frank Adams SME-SMO Executive Prashant Chevale Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes Circulation Manager Robert Brown sales@insightssuccess.com APRIL , 2020 Follow us on : www.facebook.com/insightssuccess/ We are also available on : www.twitter.com/insightssuccess Copyright © 2019 Insights Success, All rights reserved. The content and images used in this magazine should not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Insights Success. Reprint rights remain solely with Insights Success.

12. Nicolas Genest Empowering through Education “ The true measure of success is Impact. “

13. The Most INSPIRING To Watch

14. I fast pacing world can make even the more confident people doubtful about their skills and potential, holding themselves back, Nicolas Genest, the CEO and founder of CodeBoxx Technology wanted to come up with a different approach to tackle this situation. His new venture will give you the skills and resources necessary to become an efficient and highly appreciated developer on the technology scene. He believes in educating people to new skills and providing them with a chance to use them on a new job, become an entrepreneur or even a freelance worker. n this technology-driven world, new innovations are just around the corner. These new innovations bring changes that require adaptability. Adapting to this “ Always measure success through the impact you are having over the people you try to solve problems for. Prior to founding CodeBoxx Technology, Nicolas has been a highly successful CTO for vente-privee.com, The RealReal, Modcloth. Over the span of 15 years he has been leading teams in multiple and has taken on challenges many passed on and thought impossible. Throughout this impressive journey, he has always been leveraging his organizational acumen, his business bias and his technology leadership. “ Targeting Audience The value proposition that CodeBoxx puts forward is quite unique. It offers people who are naturally attracted to technology, but still do not have any leveraged access to it, to learn what is already accessible to jump-start a new chapter of their career. Nicolas believes that nobody should be refused the right to learn based on education, background, age, gender, etc. Especially immigrants or high school dropouts who are really keen towards learning and becoming a developer to start contributing. CodeBoxx proposes a framework that allows focus and performance along with mass exposure to the technologies that make modern developers quality- driven and productive. CodeBoxx offers a 16-week boot camp, which is the key for an efficient and fast-paced learning process. After two weeks going through an intensive selection program where one’s strengths and weaknesses are tested; the 14- week Odyssey program will lead every graduate to a guaranteed job at the end of the road. Jobs are offered by numerous elite partner businesses or through CodeBoxx’s digital workshop. Graduates don’t pay tuition fees until they are hired. CodeBoxx takes on most

15. Nicolas Genest CEO & Founder

17. “ Hardest things are often the most impactful ones and the most valuable. “ of the risk until completion making it, for most participants, the only option they had to take their first steps into a new career. One Step Forward People who share similar beliefs are likely to come out on top at things they do collectively. When Nicolas started CodeBoxx, he was dedicated to find people who would embrace the cause, the social mission and live with the common values that his organization was founded on. The very few people he launched CodeBoxx with were high-quality people and Nicolas made sure of it. With his core team, he was able to create a strong culture and carry those values forward. One of Nicolas’ strength is his capacity to surround himself with people who are results-driven, dedicated and hard working. He quickly and efficiently identifies the character traits of a person and assigns them to certain tasks or roles making sense to the business at any given moment. He portrays the values of true leaders and, as a result, is the forefront of trust. Establishing the definition of success for him and for every member of the organization helped him in creating the pillars of a strong culture that aims to empower everyone.

18. Aligning Business with Technological Era Nicolas asserts “you should never lose sight of what you do things for. Hardest things are often the most impactful ones and the most valuable. Getting carried away or tempting to focus on the things that you are good at will happen often, but you should be determined at what you do.” He understands that empowering people is important but what is also capital is to constantly remind them that the objective is always greater than any individual on the team. One does that by highlighting their individual impact within the collective effort. Everyone is part of a community effort to be a relevant alternative to the changing landscape in education and labor. The three pillars on which CodeBoxx stands are Excellence in execution, Going the extra mile and Keeping a nimble and flexible mindset. These pillars are hammered everyday into participants’ minds by the members of CodeBoxx team so that it becomes their way of life and gives them an edge in their career by making their work ethics and attitude stand out. Future Insights “Always measure success through the impact you are having over the people you try to solve problems for.” says Nicolas. He states that in the upcoming future, he wants CodeBoxx to leave a footprint in communities over the entire world like it has started to do since its inception. Simultaneously, he also wants to help number of people from all walks of life by giving them an opportunity to launch their career in technology. Moreover, he also mentioned that their primary focus will stay on their primary customers, which are of course the participants who trust the school to launch or boost their technology career, but a special attention will be paid to their business partners to make sure they are fully satisfied with the graduates CodeBoxx offers them. Moving forward he also wants to create a workforce of change that will give back to the developer community.

22. FERAS EL HAJJAR An Ingenious Leader in Digital Transformation and Business Management Feras El Hajjar Founder & Chairman of Infosysta, Founder & CEO of App4Legal 20 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com

23. The Most INSPIRING To Watch D new one, to become more experimental, and more agile in the ability to respond to customers and competitors. igital transformation is vital/crucial for any business. It has become mandatory for business leaders to rethink old operating models with the Moreover, he is a permanent speaker at Agile Summits in the Middle East and a board member of different organizations including Heriot-Watt University in Dubai, Industry Advisory Board and also at Atlassian Partners Board Member in San Francisco. Feras El Hajjar, Founder & Chairman of Infosysta, and Founder & CEO of App4Legal is an exceptional leader who has managed to make his mark in the business world with his outstanding performance in IT as well as management sector. “Nowadays, it is crucial to align the business with technology. Follow the right processes and, using the right tools can be a game-changer when it comes to reaching objectives, on-time,” adds Feras. Appreciating the Talent Usually, the integration of digital technology into all areas of business results in fundamental changes regarding business tactics. If done correctly, this can prove much more beneficial for the company. Infosysta is one of the leading companies to provide digital transformation solutions for your business by challenging the status quo with market-proven strategies. Feras states that with a clear strategy and communication plan, employees of his company are involved at the early stage of strategic decisions and company’s yearly objectives. Employees are becoming partners of decisions instead of Task Achievers. Talents are compensated and accelerating their careers by giving them all the needed sponsorship to excel. Moreover, Legal technology is quite essential, as it particularly provides and aids legal services. Currently, most of the companies struggle to acclimatize their practices and are falling behind hence, the rise of legal tech has considerably influenced the concurrent legal markets. App4Legal isa provider of best-of-breedLegal Practice Management Software that provides solutions to keep your Legal Teams ahead of time with a detailed and organized approach. Overcoming the Volatility in the Markets Feras states that, he and his team firmly focuses on the on- going as well as upcoming technology and the market needs to swiftly overcome any dilemmas. The company helps people to be agile and how to be more flexible in order to adapt to changes. It also build quarterly objectives at the management level and cascade them down to all teams and employees. He also addresses that the objective may or can Into the Shoes of Leader Meet Feras El Hajjar, the Founder & Chairman of Infosysta, a company specialized in the Digital Transformation in EMEA and the Founder & CEO of App4Legal a company specialized in Legal Technology. With more than 18 years of multi-national experience in the Software industry including CRM, ERP & HRMS solutions, Feras proved himself as an expert in Information Systems. Being a Software Engineer with solid Management and leadership skills, graduated from Ecole ParisTech in 2002 & Paris Dauphine (Paris IX) in 2003, has earned years of experience in multi-national companies in Paris, Singapore, Dublin, Beirut, Riyadh, Cairo, & Dubai. This solid experience in the domain of Information Technology, with the most known solutions in the market, is the success key to building a sustainable two mature multi-national companies. Enjoy what you are doing every day. Focus on the positive side. | 21 www.insightssuccess.com APRIL 2020

24. change from a quarter to another and the dynamics of the market are the main drivers of the company’s objectives. Eye-opener for Better Life Appraoch move by small iterations to close milestone by milestone until one reach its goal. Also suggesting that one must accept the fact that every individual need to sacrifice some ‘less important’ activities while focusing on the ‘critical and high’ ones. In 2012, Feras resigned from his job as an IT Director in a multi-national company in Paris to exercise his entrepreneurship skills and build his first company, Infosysta from Beirut to become in less than 6 years the leader in the Middle East in the Agile & Digital Transformation. Later, he launched a unique solution called App4Legal, helping lawyers and legal practitioners to resolve their daily issues with one complete solution to innovate their legal practice. In 2019, App4Legal became a leader in GCC and a major player worldwide recognized by Gartner as a Legal Technology leader. He also emphasizes on some of the attributes that every leader must posses. By quoting, “the Skill to stay macro and to go micro when needed are the ingredient of a successful CEO”, he states that Genuine Leadership is showing the way to others. An excellent communicator who can by a simple email or a meeting pitch gets actions into efficient executions. He also put some light, on why is it necessary to be an organized person driven by objectives. As he states, an objective-driven organized person knows where to stop putting efforts and where to focus. Advice to Rely On Feras believes in the word Focus. He advice that, one must 22 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com

26. An Excellent Dedicated Professional W ith more than 80 successful implementations and a highly qualified team with more than 20 years of experience leading the most challenging projects in the country, Software and Services Consulting SRL is positioned as the number one partner in Paraguay of SAP Business One. Confidence, Clarity and Constant Accompanimentare some of the terms used by its clients to describe what SSC means to them because in each step the company takes together, as a team, it looks for ways to help its clients strengthen their projects and evolve sustainably, what today makes it differentiate the company from the competition. One such highly qualified team member is Katherine Colombino – Chief Executive Officer with a very clear objective to pull all its energies towards a single focus: Customer satisfaction. consultant in Sales, Implementation, Development, Training, and Support of SAP systems, also holds a Degree in Systems Analysis, Post-degrees in University Didactics and English Teaching Staff. With extensive experience in the area of management of Work Teams, Katherine holds various positions of Headquarters for more than two decades. Before the opening of SSC SRL, for 4 years, she was in charge of the Business Unit of SAP Business One in Infocenter S.A., a Paraguayan partner of SAP and an IT company with an exemplary track record in the national market and with more than 20 consultants in different areas. It is also an SAP Certified Consultant “FI” and “MM”. She has developed from Market plans, sales, personal motivation policies among others within the unit and contributed progress towards the project goal. Strong Knowledge of Business Katherine completed her education from Asuncion Polytechnic Faculty and the National University of Asuncion. She joined Consulmatica SRL as Systems Development Manager. After 5 years in that position and having put the system on the market with great success, Katherine held the position of Support Manager for more than 6 years, so her orientation was customer satisfaction. She has incorporated more than 50% of clients as Sales Manager at Infocenter S.A. actively, she had collaborated with marketing campaigns and events for SAP development, conflict resolution, in addition, to support tasks of definition and development of solutions to specific problems of the client, always having as focus, excellence in attention to the customer. Millennial Paradigm Being informed is essential, and knowledge is necessary to understand the great changes that are already there and which SSC faces. Just as it happened with the millennial paradigm, telework, etc. that break into the lives without asking permission. The company has to be in constant change to adapt easily. It works nowadays exclusively with SAP BUSINESS ONE Systems, and everything that involves development, deploying, licenses sales, support. Teaching how to work, how to confront difficulties, skills that one was learning in her career through the years and the example itself are her strategies that she tries to make everyone imitate to the best of their ability. The company also participated continuously in training courses and interpersonal skills. A Glimpse into Katherine’s Journey Currently, Katherine Colombino is the CEO of SSC - Software & Services Consulting SRL. She is a specialized 24 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com

27. The Most INSPIRING To Watch Katherine Colombino Chief Executive Officer | 25 www.insightssuccess.com APRIL 2020

28. The limitations in life are not given by your physical or situation itself, they are given by you, if your mind changes, your world too. Any company must-have technology, without technology, the company is going to die. We are in the era of Technology. You can choose, you are in, or you are out. But that decision will mark the future of your business. Strength and Commitment Katherine Colombino had a car accident, with her father, at the age of 8 years. The diagnosis was a paralysis in her legs due to a spinal injury. Although she has to move with wheelchairs, she had all the same capabilities as any person. That incident made her stronger, and with a great capacity to adapt to difficult situations, she also developed her best in several areas. They have to be strong because leadership must be something that others have to feel about you. Many times all is not given by knowledge, but the strength of your heart and your commitment is transmitted by your voice, your gestures, your life. their growth and expansion processes. The company is highly competent professionals, motivated and aligned with an internal knowledge management policy and the development of human capital. It provides commercially attractive solutions that respond to the real needs of the customers. Collaborate with the country, generating highly qualified professionals. Reach the sources (universities, colleges, companies) and provide their training services. Education does the country well, produces citizens aware of their duties and obligations. And above all, first-rate professionals, without discrimination, “exportable” to any first world country. “Inspire the ordinary to become extraordinary. Be resilient. Set goals and motivate continuously to achieve. Encourage feedback without judgment. Hire people who align with your culture and aligned with the goals of the company. Put the right person in the right role. Get to know your team. Empower employees to unlock their ‘zone of genius. ‘Remember that leading is an inside job”, says Katherine. SSC’s greatest value is customer satisfaction, honesty, the obligation to be the best in the area it chooses, the company’s commitment to the present and the future of keeping up to date with the technological areas and providing first-level knowledge and services. Optimizing Processes in Time Software and Services Consulting wants its clients to recognize them as strategic partners to accompany them in 26 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com

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31. Industry Insider WHY Entrepreneurial Leadership IS DISTINCTIVE? L individual or group and influence them to achieve individual or organizational objectives and goals through executing the activities effectively and efficiently. Leaders carry out this process through their leadership style, knowledge, skills, abilities, eadership is a process through which, one person provides guidelines derive path for an | 29 www.insightssuccess.com APRIL 2020

32. and characteristics that help to achieve predefined individual objectives and goals or common goals. Skills, attitudes, beliefs, values, ethics, character, bits of knowledge are the critical success factors and part of leadership. There are four crucial factors of leadership: leader, followers, communication, and situation. Leaders use the leadership style to achieve overall success to get individual, group, or organizational goals. The concept of follower describes the style of leadership that leaders used for corporate functions: planning, staffing, organizing, executing, and managing. Communication is a factor that helps to create, maintain, and retain the relationship in the organization. Situation defines the approach and expresses the trait leadership of leaders. with the suppliers, distributors, customers, and other vital resources. Entrepreneurship provides information about websites and other critical reliable resources. Entrepreneurs are also well known and highly aware of all the issues and risks in the business, and they also try to reduce them, which becomes possible from the help of the business plan. This helps them to provide high- quality products to their customers who are very important for a successful business. Entrepreneurs also offer a wide variety and quality, which allows them to generate high demand for price and loyalty. They are very responsive, which helps the customer to get a quick and easy response, and they do not have to wait in a queue. This will also help to develop new ideas with the help of a group of people. Strong management skills are also required to make the business successful. Also, there is a requirement of proper and robust marketing skills, which will help the company to benefit the experience and to start the new business. Thus by determining the competitor's value, the industry also can differentiate and provide high value to its customers. Social entrepreneurship is a term in search of a good definition. Leadership and entrepreneurship create critical concepts in research and sources. This may affect business performance, and transformational leadership creates a more significant contribution to production. Today is the world of entrepreneurship, and this helps to meet with the concept of organization-level entrepreneurship. An idealistic leader recognizes challenges and growth possibilities before they happen, placing people to produce remarkable results that make contributions to life. Leaders should also focus their attention on introducing further research questions that are meaningful to the different domains that intersect with social entrepreneurship, including social innovation and the management of non-profit organizations. Leaders used these leadership styles, traits to execute the activities and managerial functions effectively and efficiently to achieve the individuals' and group's goals and objectives and directly and indirectly achieve the organization or one common goal. Leadership is various, but entrepreneurship is a clear case of administration. To conclude, Entrepreneurial leaders can create vision, express vision, passionately possess vision, and persistently drive it to accomplishment. Every entrepreneur has this quality and possesses a strong sense of opportunity. Thus, they also help with a higher possibility of achieving financial rewards so as provides the high capability to meet with the total operation and goals of the business. They also create a more significant opportunity for the contribution of the person, and this helps them to bring with innovation strategies. Many leaders in the world are entrepreneurs who started their business on a small scale and worked smartly and made a fortune through this strategy. There are many factors of entrepreneurship, and this creates the essential ways of uniqueness so as differentiation. The successful entrepreneurship creates new ways of differentiation, innovation, as well as a niche market. In countries like fewer developing countries, change is created in the developed countries. Entrepreneurship must focus on effective communication, and they should directly communicate 30 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com

34. Yatin Patel Elevating Travel Experience O travel needs was dominated by local travel agencies that provided a high-touch service but at low scalability and with minimal transparency. With the broad adoption of online travel booking platforms, consumers are faced with a very different challenge – zero-touch, do-it-yourself, websites that offer high transparency but little or no assistance. Today's mass-market online travel model has made the booking process cumbersome. With a vision to bring a human touch back into the world of online travel, Yatin Patel, Co-Founder of Reservations.com, delivering travel services with personalized experiential travel planning and redefining the booking and travel experience for today’s travellers. According to Yatin, since the online travel industry is highly commoditized, customer loyalty can only be obtained through a unique value proposition. ver the course of the last 15 years, the travel industry has undergone a digital transformation. In the pre-internet era, the market for consumer change and solve ever changing consumer demands in this fast-evolving world we live in is where I spend most of my time now. How do you diversify your travel solutions to appeal your target audience? Reservations.com feels there is a need for new fresh brand to fill the void in the industry. Today, all the players in the online travel space offer the same product with no unique value proposition. Consumers have varying needs at varying times spanning from price-consciousness to highly personalized booking experiences. In the name of optimizing revenues and conversions, online travel brands have forgotten the basic essence of why people travel. At Reservations.com we believe that travel, in general, is an experiential product category and that consumer experience begins at the very outset of the booking process and not just when hotel stay begins. Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Yatin and Insights Success: Today, Reservations.com is built on very simple philosophy – providing a no-nonsense, convenient, hotel booking experience on the web, via mobile devices, and by phone. We believe that a critical step in bringing back the lost personal touch in the travel industry is utilizing a personalized contact center. Other large players in the space such as Booking.com do not have a focus on call centers. Reservations.com has developed army of customer success agents, who are ready to take calls 24/7 for whatever consumers desire – from guidance on locations to discussing hotel amenities and local attractions. Customer success center enjoys a high conversion rate; by inbound calls they receive on a daily basis. The Company has made Give a brief overview of your background and your role in Reservations.com. I have spent all my carrier in online line travel space. Started with founding member of software company which st designed one of the very 1 hotel booking engines in 1997. After few successful exits, co-founded reservations.com in 2014 with some industry veterans. I'm a builder and not an operator, so my focus remains in building out new initiatives, growth strategies and look ahead on what's coming. Preparing my company and leadership to adopt, 32 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com

35. The Most INSPIRING To Watch Holistic approach towards life brings success to business. Yatin patel Co- Founder | 33 www.insightssuccess.com APRIL 2020

36. significant investments to train and empower our customer success agents and charges a small fee to consumers for providing this service. We believe that our high-touch customer success is one form of differentiation. How do you sustain your entrepreneurial spirit in this changing technological era? Computing power in today’s world is changing everything, expediential growth is a keyword here. Machine learning and AI were the Buzz word 5 years ago and today its reality. We try to look at what travellers wants in next 10 years and preparing our company to be ready to take advantage of these extraordinary computing power to apply on various problem statement within our organisation. Some of them are consumer facing some of them are just analytics which gives you real time computing and programmatic algorithm to optimise our process. What was your life changing event / incident that changed your life? I was fortunate enough to have few exits under my belt which gives financial freedom to think freely and experiment with ideas to create value. That is the most life changing thing I have experienced. Freedom is hard to come by and as an entrepreneur, it gives me courage to tackle larger problems. How do you deal with dynamics of market? What strategies do you undertake to make your employees resourceful? Give employee space to grow and clear the path for them to implement vision and mission of the company. Make the company purpose driven and encourage them to follow the guiding principle. Clear visibility of results and measuring small wins keeps the moral of organization alive. Dynamics of the market in my opinion is not very relevant, as far as your solution or services are customer centric and you are always staying ahead of consumer needs. You become a market leader and you define market dynamics. I try to make sure my business is always solving ever changing consumer needs. What are some of the vital attributes, in your opinion, that every CEO should possess? What advice would you like to give to the emerging leaders? Longer the road – Celebrate small successes every day. – I think that is the most vital attribute any CEO should have. It is difficult to remain optimistic and confident on long time frame projects. Building a company takes time, not to lose focus, prospective and invest in people. I do not like to give advice but can share experiences, I would say there is no short cut in life, be passionate and patient and do not be afraid to make mistakes, only way to learn. One cannot get everything right in the journey of life. 34 | APRIL 2020 www.insightssuccess.com

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