Female CEO of the Year Awards 2022 Festival Management CEO of the Year 2022 (Australia): Heather Croall Adelaide Fringe is Australia’s biggest arts festival, seeing the city transform into a magical summer festival playground for a month every year. Since 1960, it has been one of the most loved festivals in the world, and in 2015, Heather Croall took on the role of Director and CEO. Her success has been recognised in CEO Monthly’s Female CEO of the Year Awards 2022. We take a closer look and catch up to find out more. Adelaide Fringe
Welcome to the Female CEO of the Year Awards 2022 At the centre of every successful business is a CEO committed to pushing it forward and making it better, a task that cannot be taken on lightly in today’s competitive economic climate. This is especially true for companies with a woman at the helm. Did you know that only 8.2% of fortune 500 companies have a female CEO? Women are less likely to be promoted to the top position of a company, so when they are they work harder than their male counterparts. The good news is that whilst that 8.2% figure may be low, it has more than doubled since 2012 and studies suggest more women are getting involved in the business world by starting their own enterprises. CEO Monthly thought it was time to celebrate the amazing and inspirational women standing tall and leading their businesses forward. For this reason, we have launched, new for this year, the Female CEO of the Year Awards 2022. With these awards, it is the hope of CEO Monthly that we can shine a light on a sometimes marginalised and overlooked group of women who work tirelessly to drive their business forward. Sofi Bajor, Editor Website: www.ceo-review.com AI Global Media, Ltd. (AI) takes reasonable measures to ensure the quality of the information on this web site. However, AI will not assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, correctness or completeness of any information that is available through this web site. If errors are brought to our attention, we will try to correct them. The information available through the website and our partner publications is for your general information and use and is not intended to address any particular finance or investment requirements. In particular, the information does not constitute any form of advice or recommendation by us or any of our partner publications and is not intended to be relied upon by users in making or refraining from making any investment or financial decisions. Appropriate independent advice should be obtained before making any such decision. Any arrangement made between you and any third party named in the site is at your sole risk and responsibility. Female CEO of the Year Awards 2022
5. Adelaide Fringe: Festival Management CEO of the Year 2022 (Australia): Heather Croall 6. FORTEC Elektronik AG: Electronics CEO of the Year 2022: Sandra Maile 8. Zaplox AB (Sweden) & Zaplox Inc (US): Mobile Guest Innovation CEO of the Year (Sweden): Tess Mattisson 9. Extrinsik: Best Business Coaching & Consulting Platform CEO (London): Shaina Aggarwal 10. Black Tie Digital: Most Innovative Blockchain CEO 2022 (APAC): Caroline Macdonald Contents
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CEO MONTHLY / Female CEO of the Year Awards 2022 5 Sep22107 The Adelaide Fringe is one of the most vibrant festivals in the world, featuring more than 1000 shows every year, across genres including music, cabaret, comedy, interactive, dance, circus and more. Success is entirely due to the immense, and intense, collaboration between festival organisers, artists, venues, presenters, promoters, funders, donors, government, council and others – and it’s Heather Croall who stands at the cross-section of them all. Heather graduated from the University of South Australia in 1991 and began her career making documentaries and running events in festivals. She worked at Adelaide Fringe in 1992 as a manager in the Star Club, started Shoot The Fringe, a Super 8 shootto-show film festival at the Adelaide Fringe and has had a distinguished career as a documentary producer and leader of interactive projects. For a decade, she was a festival director in the UK. All these experiences were crucial to Heather’s appointment as CEO/Director of the Adelaide Fringe in 2015. Heather’s work guides a talented team through some Adelaide Fringe is Australia’s biggest arts festival, seeing the city transform into a magical summer festival playground for a month every year. Since 1960, it has been one of the most loved festivals in the world, and in 2015, Heather Croall took on the role of Director and CEO. Her success has been recognised in CEO Monthly’s Female CEO of the Year Awards 2022. We take a closer look and catch up to find out more. of the most complex events of the year, coordinating every aspect that makes for a triumphant month-long festival. A key part of her work has been uniting everybody under the same principles to guarantee a successful event. “Over the last few years, the Adelaide Fringe team have worked together to define our core values and write our manifesto,” Heather explains. “These are important to our staff and communities – they define how we operate and work every day. We are collaborative and inclusive; we are creative and we dare to be different we are passionate and committed to leading industry change and to working in partnership with our stakeholders.” Over the last six years, Heather has overseen enormous change within the Adelaide Fringe, focusing on the incredible potential of the digital revolution. The team has implemented a new ticketing system and building a bespoke Digital Platform for artist and venue registration. Croall says the team is “committed to continuous improvement and we know that the digital journey never stops. We are always listening to feedback, implementing solutions and improving our offering.” Navigating brave new waters is part and parcel of Heather’s innovative approach. Beyond the ticketing system, she is always trying to create opportunities for those who might find themselves locked out from old power systems. “I want the Fringe to be as inclusive as possible,” Heather says. “Wherever we can, we aim to remove the barriers to participation. The Fringe is an Open Access model, we are Grassroots Up and not Top Down - we are here for the artists and presenters who take a risk and present on the Fringe and we want to help them thrive.” Such an attitude has earned Heather a reputation as a disruptive leader, because of her bold approach to the Adelaide Fringe. “Disruptive leaders can often be labelled as trouble-makers because their leadership usually involves challenging the status quo,” she says. “I think women in leadership need to be prepared for being painted in this light, especially those who are trying to change course, question old power-models, redistribute wealth and power more equally – all these things are at the core of disruptive leadership and driving innovation.” What’s clear is that the results speak for themselves, with ticket sales enjoyed double digit percentage growth year on year taking ticket sales from 440,000 in 2014 to 855,000 tickets sold in 2020 just before the pandemic hit. 2021 saw the Adelaide Fringe as one of the only festivals in the world to present a season, also going ahead in early 2022. Even during these unprecedented times, Heather and her team were able to secure sales of 700,000 per year within stringent COVID-19 restrictions. Heather’s success comes from a deep understanding of what the Adelaide Fringe is for. It’s for everyone to enjoy, and a place where artistry comes first. No matter what how experimental or out-there, she knows that there is a place for it in Adelaide Fringe. She is still an active part of the filmmaking community, with her most recent film winning the audience award at the Adelaide Film Festival- it has enjoyed international film festival success and can be viewed here: https://www. docplay.com/shows/yerold-faither We can’t wait to see what she does next! Company: Adelaide Fringe Name: Heather Croall Email: heather.croall@ adelaidefringe.com.au Festival Management CEO of the Year 2022 (Australia): Heather Croall Photo Credit: Lee Knowles The Headshot Creative
CEO MONTHLY / Female CEO of the Year Awards 2022 6 Electronics CEO of the Year 2022: Sandra Maile As a leading supplier of individual components and systems for display technology, embedded systems, and power supplies, FORTEC Elektronik AG is the only company on the market that combines technological excellence of this sort into a full range of integrated solutions. Critically, its full complement of products takes a client from distribution and development to production and market entry, resulting in solutions perfect for the emerging new technological epoch. he FORTEC Elektronik AG way is one of complete, comprehensive, and innovative solutions for its industry. Its motto of ‘big enough to compete, small enough to care’ fuels its dedication to client care and corporate responsibility; this is the foundation upon which the rest of its values and have been developed, using its expertise and speed to create long term value. It establishes these longterm partnerships in order to secure itself on an equal, respectful, and empathic footing with its clients, all of whom are treated with flexibility, reliability, and transparency as standard. Indeed, with over 230 employees, total sales of over 89 million and growing, and a diverse internal community, its management has propelled it to great heights of success. Moreover, its status as a medium-sized business has allowed it to develop a traditional yet forwardthinking way of working that endears it to all manner of different companies within a variety of industries, across several different verticals and scales, giving shareholders an attractive stake in its success. This is a part of its outstanding commitment to the people around it. Sharing its success with its shareholders, its clients, and its staff, the CEO – Sandra Maile – has worked hard to make the company a foremost voice in the world of individual components and systems. Founded in 1984, she has brought with her all the expertise of her previous roles within the industry. Having previously held down a role as a Managing Director in Power Supply, she took on the CEO position for FORTEC in 2017. Building her expertise in electronic systems and supply since the year of 1993 has allowed her to develop a singularly impeccable business that has ingratiated itself with peers and clients alike. Initially, she found it a challenge to kick off a business that operates in this way – especially in such a male-dominated environment – but she earned respect and excellence by way of the utmost tenacity. Joined by many other professional and exemplary women on her board, Sandra and her team are their own driving force; they operate with bravery, committed to helping clients overcome challenge and invigorated by doing so across a variety of different client needs and requirements. Fundamentally, after achieving her position as CEO, she has worked hard to modernize, develop, and modify the Group in order to make it the most profitable and sustainable version of itself. Indeed, her work has hugely fostered the company’s prevailing development of technical understanding and sales experience, paired with an intensive commercial knowledge that she gleaned whilst at university. FORTEC’s bravery, confidence, and competence is something that has also been made possible through sustainable, to-scale growth. Additionally, FORTEC wishes to be visible. When it comes to creating the latest and greatest innovations in its industry, it seeks to accept these new challenges and ideas in order to incorporate them into its own internal structure, learning and growing from them accordingly. Although such challenges also include the hurdles and difficulties that it has faced as a business over the past few years, many of which have been wrought of exacerbated by the pandemic, it has persevered in seeing each of these through to a satisfying conclusion so that it may continue to serve its clients in the best way it can. Indeed, its clients past and present each come to laud this as exemplary, hence why so many of them remain its client for such long extended periods of time, without ever having to doubt whether such a thing is a good idea. They can see, from the word-of-mouth referrals that its clients give regarding its work to the various thirdparty reviews it has received, that they can trust FORTEC and its people to always operate with the strictest professionalism when it comes to product delivery and customer service. Although it still struggles with some of the bottlenecks that were in force over the pandemic – which has been an additional consideration for Sandra and her board – it has been pulling through by creating a new growth strategy through which it can address the path it wishes to take as it moves into the future. Critically, although the war in Ukraine has further worsened some of the pandemiccreated bottlenecks, and it has been impacted by the recent inflations, it has committed itself to closely observing the ChineseTaiwanese crisis and the Aug22666 T
CEO MONTHLY / Female CEO of the Year Awards 2022 7 wider geopolitical state of the world so that such things can be prepared for. Indeed, so much of mitigating the impacts of such things lies in good preparation and forecasting. In this current business year, therefore, its ‘Grow Together 2025’ strategy has been set up to channel all its efforts into one brand with which it can face the market segment. The company’s remarkable ability to remain focused across all its operations has fuelled its success to date, and rightfully earned prestigious reputation. Its current position in the market promises to continue improving as a result, and with an impressive programme of developments in the pipeline, it is only right to end this article with an excited “watch this space!”. Company: FORTEC Elektronik AG Contact: Sandra Maile Website: fortecag.de
CEO MONTHLY / Female CEO of the Year Awards 2022 8 Mar22259 Mobile Guest Innovation CEO of the Year (Sweden): Tess Mattisson -The hospitality industry is looking for new solutions around the world to elevate the customer experience. The team at Zaplox have the answer, as market innovators renowned for their contact-free mobile guest journey and mobile key services. Leading the firm forward is Tess Mattisson. We take a closer look to uncover the secrets of her success in the Female CEO of the Year Awards 2022 Since 2011, Zaplox has been a staple of the global hospitality market, offering hotels a mobile guest journey and digital selfservice products. This turnkey platform has revolutionised the check-in and check-out processes, offering keys sent directly to a guest’s mobile phone. Putting the digital at the heart of the hospitality industry has created a new experience of luxury and convenience that many have revelled in. Zaplox has gone from strength to strength over the years and has been listed on the NASDAQ First North Growth Market as of 2017. As of 2022, Tess Mattisson has led the company as President and CEO to greater heights and its most successful year to date. Tess comes from a background in the travel and hotel industry, having held senior leadership roles in digitization, sales & marketing, building and developing customer centric, insight driven and business performance focused teams on an international level. When we caught up with Tess, we were keen to know what drives her forward. “My main objective has always been to surround myself with amazing talent and then develop them to outgrow me and my company,” she tells us, “simply because that’s what’s best for the company! I know this might sound strange, but if you think about it, it means I’ve developed amazing employees who have done amazing things for my company, instead of allowing them – and the company – to stagnate.” For Tess, empowering her team has involved taking a slightly different approach to building a team. “Women are typically underrepresented at leadership level especially in IT jobs,” she explains, “and we need to close this, as well as the overall diversity gaps across industries and leadership levels. To help increase female employees in this field of work, I believe that hiring managers need to recruit based on experience and potential combined, and not just experience alone. If you hire based on experience only, you will only get more of the same” Championing everyone in the workplace is one of Tess’ passions. “In general, we are not comfortable to take on a challenge we are not convinced we can win at the first try,” she says. “If I’d only taken on things I 100% knew how to solve, I wouldn’t have learned something new, nor would I have been given the opportunity to take on a new challenge after another. You can often do more than you think – just say yes and give it your all.” The incredible growth of Zaplox has been in no small part to the values Tess has described above. For her, the team is paramount to providing exceptional service. Naturally, the hospitality industry took a bit of a hit over the last few years, but as this sector recovers, the importance of a digital solution becomes increasingly obvious. “Hotels are turning to technology to adapt to the guests’ new digital needs but are facing significant challenges,” Tess explains. “After the downsizing caused by the pandemic, hotels are in recovery mode and struggle to attract talent while faced with limited financial resources. For us, this means exciting times, as we can help them tap into new technology faster and at a significantly lower cost, thus enabling them to increase guest satisfaction and profitability.” For Tess, Zaplox offers a solution to an industry that she has worked in since the age of 17. The chance to give something back is incredibly satisfying. What has made this satisfaction complete, however, is her ability to work with people and encouraging them to grow to new heights of success. “Although this award is for Mobile Guest Innovation, it can’t be achieved without people,” Tess says with a smile, “and in the grand scheme of things, creating relationships with people will always be more valuable than anything else!” Company: Zaplox AB (Sweden) & Zaplox Inc (US) Name: Tess Mattisson Email: [email protected] Web Address: www.zaplox.com Sep 076
CEO MONTHLY / Female CEO of the Year Awards 2022 9 Sep22123 The United Kingdom is a location perfect for launching and growing enterprises, and this is the belief that underpins Extrinsik’s mission to help entrepreneurs find their feet in UK industry be it through the launch or expansion of a business. It deals with a plethora of clients from across the globe, from different backgrounds, cultures, professional perspectives, and aspirations. In essence, Extrinsik provides bespoke solutions, engaging with its clients to uncover a suitable pathway to success. Founded in August 2020, the startup is currently regarded as one of the UK’s fastest growing consulting firms. It has established itself as a force to be reckoned with on an international scale, with a network of clients spanning the globe. Relationships of this magnitude have been formed through the impassioned work of Extrinsik’s CEO, Shaina Aggarwal, who interacts ‘with current clients as well as those who are contemplating becoming customers in the future and are interested in Extrinsik is here to help you reach your goals. Its CEO, Shaina Aggarwal, knows first-hand how challenging it can be to begin a business, and therefore, you can count on Extrinsik to provide an authentic and transparent service. obtaining our services. I am responsible for determining the sales strategy, assisting customers, managing B2B relationships, and ensuring that we achieve our targets.’ Hailing from a family of entrepreneurs, it’s clear to see where Shaina’s tenacity comes from: by age 21, she had moved to a new country; by 23, she had launched her own firm; and at 25, Shaina has been elected Female CEO of the year. Indeed, Shaina is an entrepreneur in heart and mind. Boasting a Master’s Degree in International Business and Strategy from the University of Dundee, Shaina tells us that her education, combined with her childhood experiences, shaped her skills and motivated her to begin honing her abilities at a young age. Yet it hasn’t all been plain sailing. As a woman in the industry, Shaina has faced several challenges, which she describes as, ‘in the business sector, it is uncommon to find other women company owners to connect with for guidance and support. There are certainly some kindmen who are great at mentoring. However, our level of success in this field will be defined by our level of enthusiasm, persistence, and unwavering commitment.’ Shaina vows to support women entering the industry by prioritising pursuing business relationships with other women who are as equally as motivated by a desire to see their firm succeed no matter what. Equal pay and opportunities are provided to the women at Extrinsik as the company firmly believes in female empowerment, echoing the prior statements issued by Shaina. It strives to support women in every way possible. Henceforth, the future of Extrinsik is based around expansion, as it hopes to incorporate more services that will push professionals to discover new possibilities for their businesses. Further, it is in the process of developing a cuttingedge mobile application that will enhance the recruitment process for any organisation. Shaina concludes, ‘In the future, I want to broaden the reach of my company’s brand, Extrinsik, to every corner of the globe; moreover, I want to see my company’s revenue increase so that I may provide positions of employment in this remarkable and rapidly expanding new venture; these are some of my aims.’ Contact: Shaina Aggarwal Company: Extrinsik Web Address: www.extrinsik.co.uk Best Business Coaching & Consulting Platform CEO (London): Shaina Aggarwal
CEO MONTHLY / Female CEO of the Year Awards 2022 10 Most Innovative Blockchain CEO 2022 (APAC): Caroline Macdonald Black Tie Digital helps companies to explore blockchain in a way that reduces risk and maximises the benefits. Having been with the company since its genesis, there is no better expert within the field than Caroline Macdonald, the CEO. lack Tie Digital, a unique BaaS (Blockchain-as-aService) provider, is perhaps best known for helping traditional/legacy platforms, marketplaces, and industries evolve using distributed ledger technologies. As such, the Black Tie Digital ecosystem has been specially designed to provide an environment within which consumers, businesses, commercial entities, and others can explore the digital economy in a secure and intuitive manner. The company is currently focusing on progressively adding platforms, which it hopes will serve to strengthen and enhance the overall ecosystem. Black Tie Digital’s CEO, Caroline Macdonald has cultivated a rich career defined by incredible success. More impressively, she has navigated gauntlet after gauntlet at times of significant upheaval in her life. Here, she offers some insight into her greater achievements. ‘I view my largest achievement to be my adaptation of innovative and cultural change when my father passed suddenly with the reins passing to me overnight. The support at this time from my family, advisory boards and senior team members was invaluable and when I look back now, I often wonder how we managed the transition.’ Of course, not only does this anecdote represent Caroline’s resilience, but it also serves as a testament to her determination to, simply, keep going despite facing the tragedy of loss. Previous to her entry to the blockchain industry, Caroline spent 30 years managing centralised digital currency platforms during this time the sector has evolved greatly. Progression has been substantial, especially since the introduction of the internet, data storage and usage, decentralised financial models, and AI engagement programmes. Moreover, the industry has progressed in other ways – it has become more welcoming of women in all areas, and in order to support this, Black Tie Digital maintains a mentoring programme. Much of this change stems from the increasing accessibility and flexibility in working arrangements. As more young women enter the industry, Caroline strives to support them in the same way that she was supported when she began her career. She actively mentors and guides women through support programmes managed by businesses and education facilities, providing them with advice and tips as they fill a variety of job roles. Through doing this, Caroline is contributing to a wider movement: one that prioritises equal opportunities. Whilst there have been a handful of challenges throughout her career, Caroline states, ‘I don’t view the challenges as women specific, but they are for the most part people specific. Driving change and innovation is not generally a popular occurrence in the commercial space, many individuals struggle to adapt to change. New technologies and world changes are pushing disruption like never before, it has been difficult to lead and nurture remote teams through these environments that are changing nearly daily.’ Despite such challenges, Black Tie Digital is thriving, progressing towards even greater success. The company is primed for Aug22643 B large scale growth in the future, and in preparation, it has released two major blockchain projects this year, including B4Real and B4Finance, which it expects to flourish and expand over the next few years. Whereas, for Caroline, she plans to continue to ‘advise and nurture our teams by moving into board positions and supporting our C-Suite teams to advance general operations. We will work through these transitions over the next five years with a specific focus of adding valuable team members to our global operations over this time.’ Contact: Caroline Macdonald Company: Black Tie Digital Web Address: https://www. blacktie.digital
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