CTO Confessions Brought to you by IT Labs

Data and AI are the thing of today that is shaping the world of tomorrow – at a rate that is both exciting and scary. Some people, like Databricks’ CTO, Robin Sutara, have a vast experience in the field, and are using it to create solutions and services that help business leverage and use the data they have, to drive businesses forward. I sat down with Robin to talk about her journey in the world...

All public places get busy at some point in time, but nothing is as busy is airports – the run around the clock and they must do so with incredible precision and efficiency, as incidents and events that stop the flow of people and planes can cause a domino effect that can be hard to mitigate once it gets going. In this episode, I have the CTO of Manchester Airports Group, John Hudson, who sat down...

Wearing a perfume means one thing – you feel good about yourself and you radiate that self-confidence. So in today’s digital era – how can we find those smells that will help us show our swagger and style? Well, a rocket-scientist-turned-tech-leader, Andrei Rebrov, CTO & Co-founder of Scentbird, seems to have found the answer to this question, with the work that he’s been doing for his company doi...

When growing teams and helping people develop is something that comes naturally to you, you know that your leadership skills are on point – so what’s left when you have that mastered? You help businesses grow by helping them utilize the latest, most cutting-edge technology out there. This is exactly how I would describe the work Scott Buchholz, CTO at Deloitte Consulting, has been doing. I sat dow...

We all know the joke – Excel spreadsheets are the thing that holds whole industries together and holding them from collapsing – and the truth is that a lot of data is stored in them. But sifting through all that data can be an arduous task, and the need for a solution that would do it faster and more efficiently is there. Fortunately, there’s a company named Coherent, that does a lot of this work,...

Being a leader is not just about innovating new technologies that make people’s lives easier – following the newest trends and emerging technology is also important. These can help tech leaders get a better feel of what the next big thing in the world of tech will be, and how they can help make their businesses better and more efficient. One such leader that does both is Hanna Helin, Global Head o...

Tech leaders are people that reach for the stars – some literally, some do it by pushing the boundaries of what’s possible to ensure that the lives of humans become easier and simpler. And then, there are those that have done both, but have found the “earthly experience” with technology to be far more important. Noy Grisaru, R&D Group Manager at Optimove, belongs in the latter – and he sat down fo...

Tech leaders are known for tackling hard issues – ones that require a lot of work and know-how in order to solve them, and in turn, help improve the livelihoods of people, and help businesses grow! Well, meet Simon Munch-Andersen, CTO at Ultimate, a tech leader of the type I described above, and one who sat down for a chat with me, as he shared everything from how he started out in tech, through h...

You don’t become a tech leader by just having the skills and then one day you decide you’ll take on a leadership or C-level position and that’s it. Well, it takes a lot more than that. It takes the willingness to tackle issues but also enable people to grow and develop, and become leaders of their own making. Marcus Campbell, CTO at Hermes Logistics Technologies, is one such tech leader, and of co...

Getting early into new, emerging technologies is a double-edged sword – it means that you might strike gold, or you might specialize in technology that might become obsolete. Well, in the world of tech leaders, all knowledge is golden, and it can help leaders become drivers in their own niches, and provide real value to both companies and teams. This is the perfect way to describe the path that Ri...

An architect turned techie, Petr Mitev had his head turned by technology, as this allowed him to create the things he wanted – the way he wanted. Growing in both skills and experience, he decided to make the lives of architects a bit easier – by working on providing solutions that are simpler, better, and less time consuming. So, how does a tech leader like Petr reach the point at which he’s at? H...

How many times have you heard someone in tech say that they hate tech or computers, yet they’re all into it and are using their skills and know-how for the betterment of mankind through their work by helping develop services and technology that are good? Us neither, but here’s Eddie Flaisler, Head of Products Engineering at Lob, whose journey, experience, and motives are not fitting of your standa...

As tech leaders are curious people and interested in everything tech-related, their mind is not fixed on one area – but rather on an idea. The idea is that they can put their skills and experience to use and provide value to communities and people worldwide – a vision that can drive communities forward. And one such tech leader is Ed Alford, the CTO of New Look, who sat down with me for a short bu...

When one operates in an extremely sensitive, heavily enforced, compliant environment, there is lots of work to tick the boxes and jump through required hoops. This is the case in the social services that are there to care for the well-being of people. This often results in many people who should be delivering care being redirected to administrative tasks, such as updating records and ensuring the...

Tax compliance, it turns out, is an edgy space to operate in. For example, at scale, manual handling of receipts and invoices can be a costly endeavor, and many large organizations default to safer shortcuts that prevent tax that could be claimed from being processed. It's a complex problem to solve with many variables that are at play. The scream for automation has been heard by "Blue dot." A Fin...

The stereotypes say that sports and tech don’t go well together, but the reality is, that tech has taken all sports to the next level. From gathering game data to performance analysis all the way to getting insight into what’s happening on a field – the marriage between sports and tech has been rather spectacular. In this episode, I talked with Ben Burdsall, CTO of one of the biggest sports techno...

In today’s vastly connected – almost intertwined – world, we know that transportation and mobility play a crucial role in maintaining the flow of life as we know it. So, is it any wonder that the technology and operations that are at work in the industry are the brainchildren of some of the best tech leaders out there? I got one of these tech leaders to sit down for a friendly-but-insightful talks...

Time – it's the one thing that no one can’t control, no matter their skill or know-how. And for small and medium businesses, getting the needed protection and insurance in time is essential. Meet Shay Mandel, VP of Engineering at Next Insurance, a company that provides insurance to small and medium-sized businesses at the click of a button, instead of waiting for weeks as it usually goes in the ma...

As any tech leader looking to make their own path and do their own thing know that all their experience and knowledge will be fruitless, unless the idea they build on doesn’t improve the livelihood of people. In an age where everything seems to be already discovered, tech leaders like Brent Williams, CEO at Benekiva, come to the fore to show us that we’re wrong, and that there’s still much that we...

With everything getting digitized and slowly moving on to the virtual world, there are some industries and arts that are having a bit of a hard time adapting to the new normal. Sales are one of them. Making sales is hard to pull off in-person, and even harder to pull off online, but people like Chuck Hardy, Head of Engineering at Salesroom, have made it their goal to make it easier for people to r...

How would one define tech leadership? Is it all about innovation? About creating something that will serve humanity as a whole? Or maybe it’s about empowering people and nurturing them to become leaders on their own? It’s all of the above, and much more – but the one thing that drives our guest, Knowledge Officer’s founder, Ahmed El-Sharkasy, is to provide the platform for people who are looking t...

Healthcare is a sensitive topic around the world, as it becomes bigger, and significantly more complex – not just from a technological perspective, but also from a financial and business as well. Enter Firefly Health – a virtual-first healthcare company that’s all about making healthcare more affordable and easier to navigate. Our TC Gill sat down with the company’s CTO, Mimi Liu, to talk about th...

The third installment of our Stories of the Amazonian Tribe is here! For this one, we have Joe Trelin, an Amazon “recidivist”, meaning he had multiple “tours” with the company, working in various departments and in different positions. Charles sat down with Joe to talk about his time with Amazon, as we take a peek and a view on the culture inside Amazon, the processes, and learn more about the bit...

While some tech leaders are focused on the tech, others are focused on spreading the gospel of tech into the halls of politics and decision-making. One such leader is Chris Holmes, a Peer in the House of Lords, who dived deep with TC on topics such as tech and leadership, but with a bit of twist. From his first steps into the tech world, all the way to where he is now, the story of Chris Holmes is...

In this frantic age, in this frantic world, there is no shortage of demand for more, and more, and more – but what happens when an industry vital for the functioning of modern society is under sustained and increasing pressure? Tech jumps in to help it, ease the burden, and modernize it. Meet Tamás Petrovics, Co-founder & CEO at XUND - an Austrian healthtech start-up. Tamás and two of his friends...