Most Innovative CEO of the Year 2021_Profile Archives

Sailesh Sewpaul: Providing Frictionless Global Payment Experience With Pex

Sailesh Sewpaul, Founder & CEO, leads the 75-member team of professionals of PEX . A Mauritius-based brand established 13 years ago, provides comprehensive global digital payment solutions powered by market-leading SmartVista technology and an array of in-house developed solutions

Acknowledged globally for its award-winning digital payments services, PEX provides financial organizations with a fully scalable payments architecture for everything from issuing to acquiring and including the support of all back office operations ranging from proactive risk management, chargeback processing and settlement and reconciliation activities.

An innovative seed that was sown in 2008 germinated well and became the cornerstone and set new standards for the payments industry. “Think of us as a ‘bank in a box,’ able to take care of as much of your payments infrastructure as you need,” asserts Dr. Sailesh Sewpaul, an adaptable and highly experienced IT professional cum e-Banking and Retail Banking Business Strategist with expertise in electronic banking from both a technical and business perspective. He has been honored with the Africa ICT Leadership Awards 2014 because of his continuous efforts to steer his businesses through turbulent times, applying the best of business models to manage and keep his mission afloat. He also won the London-based Capital Finance International cfi.co 2015 Banking Awards as the Best Card Payment Services Provider Mauritius. Each year, CFI.co seeks out individuals and organizations that contribute significantly to the convergence of economies and truly add value for all stakeholders.

Its mission is to provide a world-class, efficient and cost-effective payment system infrastructure and to create value for its customers

The Beginning…

Prior to starting PEX Ltd, the leading man was working at the State Bank of Mauritius (SBM) where he served in numerous IT and international business roles. He also worked in the Retail Banking and Electronic Channels divisions at the bank. Sailesh is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in both technology and business. He also served as Business Adviser to the Visa International Board for the CEMEA (Central Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region covering 96 countries for seven-year (from September 1988 to January 2002). He has worked as the Group Chief Executive of Payment Express Limited for 13 years doing business in Asia and Africa.

In academics, Sailesh has done a DBA from Walden University, US and an MBA from Edinburgh Business School, Heriott-Watt University, UK, and was named the BCS IT Personality in 2014.

PEX: a new standard in the digital payment landscape

Clearing the clouds in the high-growing market, chaotic world of digital payments, and their unique set of payment challenges and opportunities, PEX has taken concrete strategic steps with a scientific approach to resolve tomorrow’s payment challenges today. The advanced technology at PEX powers end-to-end payments across the world’s fastest-growing markets and inspires confidence in the consumer experience.

After being fully interoperable with leading payment systems like Visa, MasterCard, and UnionPay, PEX’s payments architecture allows businesses to reach out to their end customers with their branded services. It links with a bank’s internal system and caters to their needs for the payment gateway and clearing services.

With its EMV compliant systems, PEX creates a smooth way where banks can offer their clients and partners world-class transaction security and data traceability. Recently, the company has collaborated with the ABC Banking Corporation and UnionPay International to launch a Diamond debit card, allowing high-end customers to enjoy secure and technically sophisticated banking experiences along with access to exclusive privileges.

PEX has achieved the feat of building its own payment gateway, leveraged by banks and payment service providers for e-commerce processing and to acquire merchants’ processing. It also lets banks do transactions from the ATMs, the Point-of-Sale, and e-commerce applications and provide end customers with an omnichannel experience. The firm has developed their own mobile POS solution which is VISA, Mastercard, and UPI-certified and features switching, transaction authorization, and fraud prevention. It supports both contact and contactless payments. . Furthermore, PEX provides mobile-based, card-control facilities, which allow a customer to switch on or switch off their EMV card based on the transaction he or she needs to do. . This facilitates a crucial security feature in case a card gets stolen as the client has full control of how the card is used for transactions. Apart from hand-holding their clients until they understand the whole process and explaining the best practices, the payment experts at PEX offer comprehensive support and training to the client’s technical teams.

The Driving Force

Dr. Sailesh attributes his success to the hard-working dedication of his team. It’s been a collaborative effort and all have worked tirelessly to build and maintain our industry reputation whilst simultaneously focusing on providing excellent customer service. Secondly, we thrive on feedback and a desire to improve. Staying ahead of the game means we must pay attention to the needs of our customers, meeting and discussing solutions and then following this up with strong communication, reliability, dedication and commitment.

PEX’s Mission & Vision

The vision of PEX is to be recognized as the key universal payment service provider in the region and beyond by providing tailor-made solutions to its customers.

PEX’s mission is to provide a world-class, efficient and cost-effective payment system infrastructure and to create value for its customers by:

Aggregating, leveraging, and sourcing a robust and resilient payments processing infrastructure
Analyzing clients’ operations and processes and thereafter recommending/implementing the finest and best-fitting payments model.
Pursuing excellence through innovative and quality-driven services.

Awards & Milestones

The Most Recommended Fintech Solution Providers 2020 by The Business Frame
Most Innovative ePayment Solutions Company 2020 by MEA
PEX Best End to End Payments Solutions Provider 2019 by the CV Magazine
Best Employer Brand Award 2019 by Best Employer Awards
50 Most Admired Companies of the year 2018
20 Most Promising Payment & Card Solution Providers
Best Payment Processor Africa
Africa ICT Leadership Awards
Global Banking and Finance Review Awards 2015
Best Payments Solution Provider Mauritius

Future Roadmap

Since inception, PEX has introduced many innovative and advanced solutions to simplify the payment process for people. Because of their continuous development, Dr. Sewpaul and his venture have won numerous accolades and launched some unique products in the last five years. They still have a long way to go in terms of achieving milestones on the way.

“To keep evolving in tandem with the fast-moving payment business, PEX is committed to innovate and incorporate disruptive technologies like data analytics and AI-powered chatbots”, the visionary further apprised.

Michael Collura: A Visionary with a touch of Compassion

Meet Michael Collura, President and Chief Executive Officer of In Home Personal Services—an innovative and compassionate leader whose unique ideologies and methods have led him and his company in achieving many milestones paved in its pathway. He has proved by his company, that gone are the days when businesses where subjected to core industries or sector. His creative ideas and compassion towards helping people have been the backbone behind the company’s inception. He is an entrepreneur, leader who prefers integrity, a strong marketing personnel and innovation. Michael’s ways totally justifies the popular saying, “do what you love,” as he enjoys and feels privileged helping people in need.

“Making an impact in the lives of others so they too can be happy,” quotes Michael.

In this special issue entitled ‘The 10 Most Creative CEOs to Watch’, Tycoon Success appreciates and admires such creative leaders and takes pride in featuring Michael as a cover story.

A Story behind Michael’s Inception

Michael has always been passionate with his life. He started his first job working in the nursing home when he was just 15 years old. While working at the nursing home, he learned about work ethic, commitment to others, a passion to care for the elderly and he was also lucky enough to meet his future Wife. He feels grateful to his first job as it has developed the passion to care for others in him. He states that he feels quite fortunate to have had such experiences as it has brought him endless joy, prosperity and happiness to his life. “My Wife and I even celebrated our 25^th anniversary together in that same nursing home, it was that dear to us,” through quoting such statement he emphasizes over the importance of this experience in his life.

Solutions to Rely On

“We listen. We learn. We adapt to the needs of the client.” Michael highlights that he and his team involves themselves in the care, intimately so, in order to ensure that a truly compassionate and individualized experience is provided to each and every individual that the company are honored to have been chosen as a care provider for. It seeks out a problem and then overcome it by finding new and unique solutions. “You ever heard the saying “thinking outside of the box?” Well, we broke the box open threw it on the ground and breakdance on that thing every day,” Michael says. “Because innovation about challenging every perception and using imagination to create a new path forward that was never seen before. That is what we do here,” he continues.

In addition to that, he also emphasizes over the company’s possible expansion, new service models and increased innovation in what it takes to deliver senior care in a post pandemic world. He and his team are also aggressively involved in the development of a new technology that provides relief and reduced medication as well as visible reduction in the impacts of Parkinson’s disease.

When asked about his greatest accomplishment Michael responded with, ‘Marriage’. “Because I never deserved her, she is way too good for me. On a business level, it is in the impact we have made in the lives of so many countless seniors to have brought back a sense of safety, independence and quality of life. Seeing their joy rejuvenates us to face the challenges such as Covid. We will not surrender and will never stop fighting to ensure they are cared for. We are entrusted with those most vulnerable and we will fight when they cannot,” says Michael.

A Unique Approach

‘The flashlight and the lantern’. Michael states that whenever he proposes this ideology in their leadership training program, people might think him unorthodox. He explains that the premise is quite simple, and suggests “Go into a dark room (we do this in leadership training, and it is hysterical to experience their reactions). Have a flashlight and lantern ready. With the lights off, turn on the flashlight. A flashlight shines the light only in the direction it faces. It does not “see” the bigger picture. Now with the flashlight off, turn on only the lantern. The lantern will shine evenly across the room illuminating everywhere. You have a clearer picture without “blind spots”.” Through this lesson, Michael states that it is a perception and understanding there is always more hidden in the dark than can be among the light. This sort of ideology, Michael believes, is what we attribute to countless other lessons our leaders are a part of and a philosophy in leadership and business development that has been developed to make In Home Personal Services a creative and innovative brand.

Innovation is the Key

Innovation has always been a key factor for the growth of any business. Michael suggests that we all need to think more globally. He specifies over how his company as a non-medical senior care provider fit in the much larger machine that is healthcare in the world today. He addresses that there is always room for advancement, innovation and progress. “We are working to be a part of that frontier. The team around me is on board and we are well on our way to being one of those companies you hear that actually made an impact, if you have not heard so already that is!” says Michael. His first idea is to further innovate several key advantages In Home Personal Services as a company hold as a brand and all those are preparing for launch in 2021. These advancements in his business, that they provide for a higher quality of care to their seniors, will help company to move further ahead of the industry standards by standing out as a one of a kind provider.

Leadership Principles one must admire

Integrity. Michael believes that through integrity one can easily prevail in his or her journey. He express that we might have seen many leaders fail when it comes to facts and truth, where many such entities in power utilize that trust they were given, for their own gains and forget; they are there to serve others. Thus, he believes integrity should be a must possessed trait by every leader.

Meanwhile, Michael states that he has a different leadership style, which he admits is not understood by everyone. He understands that it’s quite impossible to make everyone happy, while he does care immensely about how he as a leader will perform, he often realize that he will care very little about how he is perceived. He states that he is unable to control the perceptions of others so rather he would focus on the control his own actions. He is aware that those decisions that he takes will have someone out there who will consider it as wrong in some way, but they have never seen the world through Michael’s eyes. He states that his style is to do the right thing, even if it means he will face the harsh criticism or feedback. “Give trust where it is earned and respect to everyone. In the end, integrity must prevail in everything that leaders do and guide every decision they make. I know, someone reading this right now is criticizing it. What they should understand is that while I do not care I will listen. While you may wish for my downfall, I will work every day to disappoint you. Those types of people will never understand the meaning behind that very message,” says Michael.

Being Visionary

He sees his company and the people around him not as peers in a company working to grow and expand but a talented group of dedicated professionals who could do anything else and choose to do this, not because it is easy but because they care. He feels fortunate enough to be part of something that matters. It is one of life’s greatest joys and it is a true privilege for him when In Home Personal Services is trusted to care for another. He enjoys such privilege quite often as it feels amazing to him. Moreover, Michael Collura is focusing on his business growth and feels heartfelt for other businesses as he understands not every business has coped up with COVID storm. And he suggests that every leader must necessarily take certain steps in order to be decisive and move forward in a pandemic world.

Kevin Steer: Helping Companies in their Growth with One Two One Advisor

One Two One Advisor, a visionary technology solution and consulting services company, was built and nurtured by Kevin Steer, has pioneered various revolutionary business solutions in digital technology, internet, and mobile platforms, social media channels as well as regulatory-compliant cloud solutions for multinational and domestic clients.

The renowned professional and thought leader, Kevin Steer took the foundation of the firm in 2010 in association with a team of talented professionals with a track record of success in serving clients across the Financial, Insurance, Takaful & Services sectors in the Asia region for the past 20 years. 121Advisor has grown significantly, over the past 10 years, and grown to 20+ companies with a focus on creating disruptive solutions and building more solutions.

Graduated from Cambridge University (Downing College) in 1978 with an engineering degree, Kevin Steer went over to Brunei to train with Schlumberger for four months. After that, he was assigned to Australia for 18 months, transferred to Indonesia for three years, and then to China for six months.

Observing the advances of mobile computers, Kevin Steer decided to do a Master’s at Imperial College (London, UK)—where he studied Artificial Intelligence—and joined an Artificial Intelligence company in the UK. Thereafter, he moved to Malaysia in 1990 to set up an entrepreneurial company focused on insurance and banking solutions and established 121Advisor in 1990.

Unique Service Portfolio

They are delivering the marketing automation results in personalized content delivery, targeted campaigns, and engagement format.

Some of their services include:

Predictive Analytics with Machine Learning: Using this for predicting new products to buy, churns & lapsation, underwriting, etc.

Multilingual Chatbot for Financial, Insurance & Takaful (FITbot): Multi-lingual Robo Advisor and a chatbot utilize hybrid trees and natural language processing (NLP) to engage with customers to offer a more personalized customer experience and generate more referrals.

Web Portal Solution for Sales & Servicing (WebPoS): Multilingual mobile responsive website and portal solutions enable clients to experience a unified, personalized digital experience where content, sales, marketing, and work management are consolidated instead of siloed.

Referral Management & Marketing Automation (ReMMA): Used for banks to effectively and efficiently auto-assign leads, track, and manage lead referrals and conversions based on user-defined workflows. Marketing automation results in personalized content delivery targeted campaigns and engagement.

Sales Activity Mobile App (SAMA): Allows agents to effectively plan and manage sales activity to ensure all leads and prospects are addressed. Managers can monitor real-time to render assistance where necessary.

Choices Online Sales (COS): Allows customers to purchase sales online. The Choices Online Store (COS) allows insurer and takaful operators to leverage a mix of technological innovations from the Enterprise Digital Framework. The Choices Online Store allows carriers to configure their online products through the Enterprise Product Configurator (EPC) and offer directly to consumers via WebPortal Solution (WebPoS).

Web Portal Solution for Sales & Servicing (WebPoS): Multilingual mobile responsive website and portal solutions enable clients to experience a unified, personalized digital experience where content, sales, marketing, and work management are consolidated instead of siloed.
Referral Management & Marketing Automation (ReMMA): Used for banks to effectively and efficiently auto-assign leads, track, and manage lead referrals and conversions based on user-defined workflows. Marketing automation results in personalized content delivery targeted campaigns and engagement.
Sales Activity Mobile App (SAMA): Allows agents to effectively plan and manage sales activity to ensure all leads and prospect Sales Activity Mobile App (SAMA) cts are addressed. Managers can monitor real-time to render assistance where necessary.
Community & E-worksite Marketing & Distribution (CeMD): Community portal solution allows organizations to engage with community members to nurture trust and create advocates, thereby improving customer retention. Recently launched u12know knowledge portal.
Enterprise Product Configurator (EPC): Reduce the time to market for insurance and takaful products. Built to rapidly set up product rates, illustrations, validation engine, and an automated testing module allows quick product deployment.
Multi-channel Distribution Management Solution (McDMS): For general agencies, IFAs, brokers, Agency Leaders Corporations ALCs to simplify operations by consolidating their diverse requirements. With built-in performance management and compensation computation, our clients have seen improved sales with reduced administration costs.
Community & E-worksite Marketing & Distribution (CeMD): Community portal solution allows organizations to engage with community members to nurture trust and create advocates, thereby improving customer retention. Recently launched u12know knowledge portal.

Enterprise Product Configurator (EPC): Reduce the time to market for insurance and takaful products. Built to rapidly set up product rates, illustrations, validation engine, and an automated testing module allows quick product deployment.
Takaful & Insurance Mobility Made Simple (TIMMS): Takaful and Insurance Mobility Made Simple (TIMMS) is a mobile straight-through solution designed specifically to cater to the need for mobility on Point-of-Sales for Insurance, Takaful and Financial services. It is uniquely designed to support cross-platform such as iOS, Android, and Windows platforms (desktop and tablet).

Multi-channel Distribution Management Solution (McDMS): For general agencies, IFAs, brokers, Agency Leader Corporations (ALCs) to simplify operations by consolidating their diverse requirements. With built-in performance management and compensation computation, our clients have seen improved sales with reduced administration costs.
Customer Self Service Portal (CSSP): The Customer Self Service Portal is an on-demand access point enabling customers to view their insurance/takaful account, anywhere and anytime. This enables the policyholders to view their policies and certificate details via a simple internet connection.

From the Founder’s Desk

Secret Sauce: As a ‘techie’ I am looking at designing disruptive solutions for the team. I design data models and share them with the team, I get feedback from them.
The Biggest Failure: My biggest failure was to design AI Predictive Analytics. Plus we are planning to launch our multilingual chatbot.
New Ideas in the Pipeline: 121Advisor is looking to expand u12know to Singapore & Indonesia as well as expanding to Europe & the USA.
The Leadership Style: My leadership style is to design new disruptive solutions for 121Advisor. Plus, we have grown our solutions much more.
One characteristic of Every Leader: As I leader, I motivate the team to create disruptive solutions.

Kevin Steer’s Vision, Mission & Motto

“Our motto is “We don’t follow trends, we Pioneer them”, our mission is to continue to develop new InsurTech solutions, and our core value is to build new solutions. Our vision is to develop u12know in Singapore, Indonesia, and other countries. We plan to expand to Europe & the USA”, the visionary proudly shared.

Future Roadmap
They are planning to expand to Singapore & Indonesia as well as Europe & the USA. As most millennials in the Asia Pacific do not understand financial planning and often max out their credit cards and get into debt, they need to help educate them on their lifestyle financial goals and recommend products that they can buy online.

With the launch of their platform, they see that this will become a disruptive knowledge portal offering advice on lifestyle financial & (in future) health goals. This will help them understand their needs and create a plan to help them build their lifestyle & business financial plans. For each country, this will be translated into the local language. They have created Health Calculators, and plan to launch a “Total Health Score” where customers can get the Score on whether they are healthy, sick, or unhealthy.

Leah Kay: An Woman Entrepreneur striking a chord to the Millennial

Let us hear an inspiring tale of this young talented girl who transformed herself into a leading businesswoman by setting a real-time example and inspiring other women along the way. Meet Leah Kay- Founder and CEO of Soulvation, who discovered the business world and stumbled into entrepreneurship in college.

While pursuing her master’s and running around the campus in a messy bun like most other girls, Leah wanted to find a way for her hair to look composed yet chic. The generic headbands during that time were unattractive, uncomfortable, and too sporty. Leah wanted a headband that made her look cute and feel comfortable.

However, she was not able to find any headbands that she wanted. So, she decided to take this matter into her hands and find an ideal solution. She borrowed her mom’s sewing machine, went to the local fabric store, and started hand-sewing her headbands. Leah soon started wearing her headbands that grabbed the attention of her friends, who asked her for the same. This hobby led her to start a side hustle during college. After finishing college, she worked full-time into her side-hustle and built her brand.

The Journey to the Forefront

With zero experience in business and entrepreneurship, Leah decided to put in the work and learn everything with her action-driven approach. In January 2019, she quit her education to follow her dreams. She started hand-sewing headbands around the clock, created her website, started posting on social platforms, and shipped orders alone.

Initially, she started with $300 and dreamt of establishing a multi-million dollar brand. As the profits started swinging in, she rolled it over into buying more inventory. With her go-getter mindset, she built a 6-figure brand in the first year of her business. In 2020, it grew to over $1,800,000 in sales, and in 2021, she envisions closing the year with $5-6 million in sales and project $15 million in sales in 2022.

Today, Soulvation has expanded beyond headbands into other hair accessories and new apparel this year. The brand won the Top 50 Colorado Companies to Watch in 2021 award.

Meeting the Customer Standards

Most hair accessory brands provide mass-produced products that compromise quality for quantity by using sportswear-type fabric and a worn-out design. On the contrary, Soulvation provides high-quality hair accessories for everyday wear, not just at the gym.

It uses butter-soft fabric for products made up of bamboo fibers. This fabric has natural benefits like it is stretchy, super soft, hypoallergenic, moisture absorbing, antibacterial, UV protectant, insulating, and doesn’t absorb stink as cotton-based material does.

Instead of marketing towards a specific target audience like the fitness industry, she developed the brand to pivot into more of a hair and lifestyle brand that is stylish and comfortable for everyday wear. The hair ties are also a game-changer. “We improved the basic black elastic to look like more of a bracelet design. They look like bracelets but work just like an elastic hair tie! These are so popular that we have trouble keeping them in stock. We are always developing new, limited edition colors for all of our hair accessories”, states Leah.

Acing the Challenges with Ease

Every day monotonous work gets in the way and becomes a measure of losing interest in our passion. By working at an organization, one can grow in so many ways. Leah loves building a brand because every day is a new challenge to learn from and grow. These challenges are the growth drivers of a successful future. The challenging scenarios make you think outside the box and adapt to change. Few days like these will be hard, however, taking risks and overcoming challenges is the way forward.

Times of Setbacks

Mistakes are bound to happen as an entrepreneur. However, these mistakes are a way to learn new lessons. Leah’s biggest mistake in building a brand from the beginning was trusting others to take tasks off her plate. Being a perfectionist, she wanted to do it all. However, she changed her mindset and delegated the roles to the right person.

Triumphs to Cherish

Leah’s greatest achievement is creating opportunities and providing jobs to women on the team. The Soulvation employees are hard-working and motivated women; who are growing personally and professionally in all kinds. It has been an exciting experience showing them the ropes and behind-the-scenes action when building a brand.

Leah’s secret passion is teaching; she loves teaching others the power and rewards of entrepreneurship. She loves to invest her time and knowledge into those that want to learn and progress in their lives.

Some of our employees are working on getting their brands off the ground and following in my footsteps or even one day outgrow me. I want them to do big things and to follow their dreams. It’s one of the perks of working on our team – I’ll push you outside your comfort zone if you want to grow.

Leadership Principles the lead the Pack

Every leader is known for their unique leadership style and skill. Here’s how Leah walks her talks:

She recognizes the team members’ strengthens and helps them grow to their maximum potential. The team is skilled in setting goals and creating a positive, empowering, impactful, and motivating work environment. She provides them with regular feedback on challenging projects to promote holistic development.
Keep the team lean and let them reap the rewards for going above and beyond. The employees get rewarded for their performance and hard work with gifts and bonuses for accomplishing their goals.
Cut the cancerous employees who are not able to meet the company standards. On the contrary to hard-working employees, the opposite type of employee inevitably presents themselves on the team. One should hire and fire accordingly. Positivity, hard work ethic, and willingness to grow personally and professionally are must-haves for a team.
Make time for team bonding and always have an open door. Celebrate special days and occasions with the team and enjoy the fun times.

The Enlightening Success Mantra

As an entrepreneur, once you reach the top of the mountain- it becomes easy to make money, and most people define that as success. On the contrary, providing an opportunity and experience to those willing to grow is how Leah defines her success.

Her mantra in life is to keep growing and vouching towards personal growth. She will continue to pursue things out of her comfort zone and help people follow their dreams and turn them into realities.

A Sheer-Leader

Leah is a holistic leader; who aims towards the utmost growth of her team. She works with an easy-going approach, where she assigns and teaches employees the task and gives them their space to work on it. She refuses to micromanage and let the employees learn on their own.

She has got their back at all times; however, if an issue arises, Leah is confident that the employees should figure out a solution before coming to her. This way, the employees feel a sense of independence and courage.

The Next Steps

Soulvation is a 100% women-owned and operated brand completely bootstrapped with zero investors and zero debt. It encourages all women to look and feel their best without sacrificing comfort.

Earlier this year, we donated thousands of our headbands to Sanford Health nurses as a thank-you for all their hard work during the pandemic. The organization has also donated headbands to cancer unit patients and staff. Soulvation aims to give back to many industries and continue supporting female founders to build their empires. Changing people’s lives for the better – that is true success to me.

Robert Niichel: An Innovator in the Digital Pharma Industry / A Tycoon revolutionising the Digital Pharma Industry / Working with really Great People

Robert Niichel: An Innovator in the Digital Pharma Industry / A Tycoon revolutionising the Digital Pharma Industry / Working with really Great People

With a passion for creativity and enthusiasm for innovation, Robert Niichel is the Founder and CEO of SmartTab, an advanced drug delivery technology startup. Initially, Robert pursued a bachelor’s degree in finance and economics from Iowa State. After graduation, he worked in investment banking for five years. Then decided to go back to graduate school and study biotechnology. He was fascinated by the industry and started burning the midnight oil to achieve a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Colorado.

Robert found the pharmaceutical industry captivating and saw an opportunity to improve people’s health. After more than a decade of experience in researching, developing, and project management, Robert was thrilled to build a startup—Nano Pharma Labs, Brand name as zümXR. As he continued exploring this field and leading his team of scientists to success, his depth of knowledge and passion for discovery grew further. His passion to look for what’s next for people and the community to lead a healthy life was constantly driving him inside out.

Then, one fine day when he was sitting on his bike high on Vail mountain pass, staring out at the Rocky Mountains, and traversing the path ahead, he was triggered by a life-changing idea for medical technology. What if we could tie medicine and drug delivery to our iPhones, iWatches,,??

Let’s Learn about SmartTab

SmartTab is a leading-edge product differentiated technology driven by patient-centered demand. Presently, Robert has marked his presence in the pharma industry as the “Grandfather of wireless drug delivery”. He launched SmartTab in 2016, designed to meet the patients’ needs. From the beginning, the foundation behind wireless, targeted drug delivery platforms has been focused around patients and user experiences.

SmartTab has two products that are a game-changer for millions of patients: TargetTab™—a battery-free pill that you can tell when and where it will release medication in your body and InjectTab™—a pill that can painlessly give you a shot without a visit to the doctor.

SmartTab is a revolution in drug delivery. The platform will be considered a pioneer in the healthcare management system. The size of the potential market for SmartTab is staggering. Last year 50 billion injections were deployed to humans on a global scale. With the expansion of Biologics for active ingredients, the market for injections will continue to expand. The industry is ready for a revolution in how biologics, large proteins, insulin, etc. are delivered to humans. There is a significant patient demand to move from daily or weekly self-injections to an oral delivery capsule platform.

Achievements to Cherish Forever

Robert is a dynamic and successful industry leader- who discovered his path to success with sheer hard work and excellence. Today, he is a titan of the pharma industry with his brainchild- SmartTab. He defines his best professional achievements as founding his four successful companies from scratch right out of thin air.

Also, Robert is a family man who has been married for more than three decades now and has two great kids.

Overcoming the Hurdles Effectively

Robert approaches challenges with a plan of action. He believes that being systematic is one of the best ways to face difficult situations. Furthermore, set a path and stay focused on the goals. Be stable and have a clear vision of the next steps. When the path is decided, it’s time to get the team on board and confidently tackle the challenges at hand.

Words of wisdom from Robert on leadership principles, “Everything is people-driven. Even more so today a people skills have dissipated. Research your strategy, Set your goals. Execute your strategy. Achieve your goals. Get what you want. Just make sure that everyone else gets what they want first.”

The Genesis of the A-Team – It is All About People

When Robert established his company, he wanted to build his team. Hence, he looked for people working in startups; who have the mindset that he has and who can figure things out. He wanted people who have a hands-on attitude and are willing to take initiative to grow the company on a large scale. He believes that having such a team when your company is founding is critical because they will attract similar people. Hence, he hired people like him; who lived up to the mission and vision of the company.

One of Robert’s professional failures has been hiring the wrong people. He has learned from his mistakes and keeps a check on who he hires; and how they contribute to the success of other people and the company. Robert defines true success as being surrounded by good people; who are passionate and thriving in the workspace environment.

Some of the ideas he wishes to incorporate into the company are more flexibility, more ownership of projects, and more leverage on bonuses. He also envisions conducting challenging activities worth people’s time, dollar amounts for success, large enough dollars that will move the needle.

Robert’s Exceptional Leadership Style

Robert is an extraordinary leader known for his leadership style and pattern. Here is a sneak-peek into it:

Great with people, genuine, visionary, respectful, ability to bring the best out of people.
The “Pull” style of leadership: compliment people, help people, pull people along, lead by example, and they will follow. Everybody wants to follow the Ferrari or fly on the jet.
On the contrary, the “Push” style of leadership: ride people, degrade people, control, shove people around, yell, scream, nobody wants to be pushed around by a Mack Truck.
Compassion is one characteristic that every leader should possess.

A Word on the Current Digital Health Landscape: From Robert’s Desk

If we are looking at the digital healthcare space there are a lot of apps that track data (how you take your medicine or your weight) but right there these apps stop. And I believe a solution needs to do something for the patient – like, deliver the drug, collect data, or send a signal that is valuable.

The big gap is that there are a lot of software people creating a lot of cool apps collecting a lot of data, but at the end of the day what is actually accomplished with this data. In the USA we have many apps to help people be healthier, be more fit and lose weight. Yet, in the last 10 years, people are getting bigger, lazier, and less healthy. So, there is a huge disconnect. What we are trying to do is deliver drugs and make people’s lives better by improving the actual physical implementation system.

The Future Insights

SmartTab aims to expand its horizons on a global scale. The company wants to offer its medicine delivery products in every country, in every house, to every person on the planet. The company is doing a series of funding rounds to raise capital and continue with human clinical studies. The next step will be an FDA submission, approval, and clearance for its medical device.

“With that, we can reach out to a Pharmaceutical company to have one of their drugs integrated with the SmartTab. Having done that the next step is to do another clinical study with this drug inside the SmartTab to show that the solution is working perfectly, after approval, we will be ready to go to the market. The whole process might take three or four years or even quicker. Meanwhile, we might be bought by a larger Pharmaceutical company before some of the above happens, yet we do have a very clear strategy on how to get our solution to the market.”

Robert’s ultimate vision is to stay healthy, wealthy, and wise and be surrounded by good company.

Gene Saunders & Project Lifesaver International: Helping Bring Loved Ones Home with Advanced Locating Techniques

The leading man, Gene Saunders, an alumnus of Southern Police Institute with rich professional experience, formed a non-profit corporation, Project Lifesaver International to develop a program for locating missing persons with dementia, Epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, autism, Down syndrome, and other related illnesses.

Gene Saunders took the foundation of Lifesaver International in October 1998 in association with the Chesapeake, Virginia Sheriff’s Office. And under his well-guided supervision, the organization has successfully provided law enforcement, fire/rescue, other first responders, and caregivers with equipment and training to quickly locate and rescue individuals with cognitive disorders. The story that was scripted 23 years back as a small initiative, has grown to over 1,600 agencies in 50 states and 9 provinces in Canada with over 3,500 successful rescues today.

Recognized internationally as an expert and the father of radio-tracking recovery of persons at risk, Gene Saunders has been spearheading LSI to serve on the broader range in his role as Founder and CEO. He is a passionate social entrepreneur, Gene, is keen on making vital contributions towards the welfare of the society that would create a difference in the lives of the people with his organization.

He served with the Chesapeake, VA Police Dept for 33 years. During that time, he had collateral duty commanding the SWAT and SAR Unit. During that period, they had a number of search missions for Alzheimer’s patients that did not turn out well. In 1992 the leader took over the Sheriff’s Search and rescue Unit as commander and they had the same experiences. He learned of wildlife tracking and decided to try that technology with their searches for Special Needs persons. It worked and has now grown to over 1,658 member agencies participating in the Project Lifesaver program, accounting for over 3,800 rescues.

The Project Lifesaver

This public safety-based community has conducted over 3,174 successful rescues. Most who wander are found within a few miles from home, and search times have been reduced from hours and days to minutes. Recovery times for Project Lifesaver clients average 30 minutes — 95% less time than standard operations. Project Lifesaver is in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and six provinces throughout Canada and in Australia with over 1,526 agencies

Project Lifesaver is also a subject matter expert and adviser on the wandering issue for:

Leaders Engaged in Alzheimer’s disease (LEAD)
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children,
International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP)
Alzheimer’s Foundation of America
National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA)
National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners
International Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners

The Project Lifesaver Program is run at a municipality level by public safety agencies. When an agency decides to implement the program, Project Lifesaver International will equip them with the necessary technologies and provide training to those involved. The training includes the use of the equipment, the implementation of the strategic methods specifically designed for the program, and also community policing courses that provide a basic understanding of cognitive conditions to better comprehend the behaviors of an individual with said condition. Also included during training is the use of the PLS Database, which is a useful resource provided to member agencies at no cost. Completion of training is required for certification. Once an agency has become certified, it may begin acquiring clients for its local program. The method relies on proven radio technology and specially trained search and rescue teams.

Citizens enrolled in Project Lifesaver wear a small transmitter on the wrist or ankle that emits an individualized frequency signal. If an enrolled client goes missing, the caregiver notifies their local Project Lifesaver agency, and a trained emergency team responds to the wanderer’s area. The first responders will then use the client’s individualized frequency to locate the position of the individual. The knowledge given from the community policing courses is best applied in this situation because the first responders will know how to best approach the client once found, and allow them to be brought back to safety.

From the CEO’s Desk

Diversify your organization’s offerings: By offering different designs of locating bracelets appealing to adults and/or kids.

Future Perspectives: To expand our program line and develop varied technologies to cover many lost person scenarios.

The greatest accomplishment: Founding and developing the Project Lifesaver program.

Prepared for the challenges: You respond to a situation after careful thought and developing opinions from trusted staff. Once you address the situation be ready to alter as necessary.

Secret sauce: NEVER QUIT!

Leadership principles: There is always one more thing you can do, you are only as good as your last operation.

Biggest failure & learning from it: Trusting the wrong people and moving too quickly on some projects.

Define Success: When all special needs people can be located through technology quickly and safely.

New Ideas in the Pipeline: Development of Bluetooth technology in this field and offering more unique avenues for people to enrol their loved ones in.

Leadership Skills: Tenacity, Fairness, Vision, Integrity.

The Driving Force: To continually move forward and adapt.

One characteristic that every leader should Have: Tenacity!!!!

Words of Wisdom: Just because everyone else thinks it’s crazy doesn’t mean it is.