IT Visionaries

What is more annoying than watching the big game, texting your friends about it, and then realizing they’re ahead of you by 30 seconds? More than just being annoying, latency actually prevents certain business transactions, like remote-betting or live virtual voting, from occurring. As an avid sports fan and former NHL Board of Governors member Roy Reichbach , CEO of Phenix Real Time Solutions , i...

Hyper-scale security detection and response master Dave “Merk” Merkel , the Co-founder and CEO of Expel , is a self-proclaimed “security-nerd.” Merk explains that staying ahead of the hackers and ransomware requires a multi-pronged strategy, including an informed C-suite, intelligent technologists, and excellent tech. Tune in to learn from Merk how every password and multi-factor authentication (M...

Our special Financial Week coverage continues with Nationwide CTO Jim Fowler . We’re bringing this episode back from 2020 because it’s chocked full of powerful insights and wisdom that are still true today. Jim helps us understand the true meaning of “digital transformation” and just as importantly, understand the necessity of transforming company culture to be more unified and thereby impactful....

Upleveling the customer experience is a primary focus for legacy financial company, Prudential Financial. Stacey Goodman , EVP, and CIO at Prudential Financial describes what digital transformation looks like at a company with 145 years of history. She explains how her strategy for tech innovation is wed to what customers desire and delves into Prudential’s new way of thinking about team building...

​Will practicing for an interview increase the chance of success for software engineer candidates? Mohit “Mo” Bhende , Co-Founder and CEO of Karat , suggests that allowing candidates to redo their interviews and providing feedback leads to higher success rates. Listen in to learn how Mo’s background as an executive at Microsoft led him to create a more effective interviewing process and how Karat...

Can AI truly make the world a better place? Mike Betzer , Hypergiant's CEO, shares how Hypergiant uses AI to shore up vital infrastructure, support the US military, and more. Learn more about how the software company will sometimes create hardware solutions to show the good that AI can do. Tune in to learn: Hypergiant’s process for solving problems with AI (07:27)  About the need to invest in infr...

What key factors make the tech products you use great? SC Moatti , Founder of Products That Count and Managing Partner at Mighty Capital, offers a wealth of knowledge from her experiences in the VC and tech worlds about creating fantastic products. She also shares that understanding function, design, and how to be a great leader are all a part of making an outstanding Chief Product Officer. Tune i...

Do people really need to be very educated about crypto? Dan O’Prey , CPO of Crypto at Bakkt , suggests that crypto education is less important than creating beneficial products that are easy to use. Listen in for more insights concerning the blockchain and crypto arenas.  Tune in to learn: What Bakkt provides (04:39) How Bakkt helps people get involved with crypto (11:46)  The benefits of Bitcoin...

Is it better to build your own foundation or build upon already strong foundations? Heather Shoemaker , the CEO and Co-Founder of Language I/O , shares how her company’s tool selects the best translation engine and then supplements that service with terminology specific to each customer/company. Learn how her passion for languages led to learning to code and eventually co-founding Language I/O. Tu...

How much of business success is about conviction? Raj De Datta, the CEO of and Co-Founder of Bloomreach, believes very strongly that we’re in “a first-party world” and that Bloomreach is set up to thrive in this environment. Tune in as Raj shares Bloomreach’s compelling story: “Bloomreach was a rocket ship and then it was nearly dead, and… it’s a rocket ship again.” Tune in to learn: What’s Raj’s...

Can you imagine a future where contacting customer service does not elicit a groan or sigh of despair? This is the future that CEO Rowan Trollope is creating at Five9 . Their cloud-based platform integrates modern AI and machine learning to efficiently intake customer problems and match them to effective customer solutions. Saving the business world almost a quarter of a trillion dollars annually...

What creates growth in a company — a flashy or a practical approach? Shailesh Kumar , SVP and Head of Technology at ClickUp , contends that a practical mindset helps companies scale. He also chats about how to organize teams, help them run efficiently, and set up a system so that different teams can learn from each other. Also, Shailesh shares a little about his passion for woodworking. Tune in to...

When the world catches up to a business model that’s already been working well, then a company can really take off. Hemant Elhence , the President of Excellarate , describes how a cooperative, distributed software development model rooted in the company’s origins has positioned Excellerate to thrive in the cloud environment. Furthermore, he explains how society has now caught up with the concept o...

As we train computers to complete repetitive tasks for us automatically, we need to be keenly aware of the biases we may be subconsciously programming. So, what questions should we be asking as consumers and employees in a world augmented by computer assistance? The Principle Architect of Ethical AI Practice at Salesforce , Kathy Baxter, and journalist Jacob Ward give guidance on creating a respon...

The ocean is massive and powerful, and harnessing its energy has been difficult. Inna Braverman and her business partner, both with outsider perspectives, have worked to develop an elegant tech solution that can harness the continuous power of the moving seas. Their company, Eco Wave Power Ltd. , is bringing their low-profile "floaters" that gather ocean energy to ports around the world, including...

If you’re in a service industry, should you honor every client’s dream equally? According to Miles Ward , the CTO of SADA , that’s absolutely the correct business mindset. Miles also talks about the benefits companies are finding in the cloud and how it’s valuable to be an engineer who communicates well too. He even shares a little about his passion for playing a musical instrument called the elec...

Is being successful tied to being perpetually inquisitive? Vittorio Cretella , the CIO of Procter & Gamble , discusses how maintaining a posture of curiosity has been a constant throughout his career. Also, he chats about Procter & Gamble’s digital transformation at an international scale and that AI is now being used across the company. Listen in to learn a little about Vittorio’s passion for mot...

How do you protect banks and their customers from bad actors now that banks are no longer just brick and mortar? Due to technological advances, banking services are increasingly digital and on mobile devices. Saul Van Beurden, the Head of Technology at Wells Fargo , chats about strategies to deal with cyber threats including educating customers and methods of devaluing data. He also talks about ho...

We’ve all heard about “cyberattacks” – it seems there is a new article or clickbait headline about them every day. But what can we do to stop them? Better yet – can we predict them before they even happen? David Monnier of Team Cymru is here this week on IT Visionaries to talk about cybersecurity, the importance of a “no-touch audit”, and how – when it comes to global cybersecurity – the best offe...

Can noticing repetitive aspects in systems help you to solve problems? John Gray , the CTO and CPO of InterVision Systems , suggests seeing “problem patterns” in business and technology can help to deliver solutions. He also explains that serving clients often involves synthesizing different tools rather than building totally tailor-made solutions. John also talks about his hobby flying remote con...

Not many people ask about where their energy comes from. We want it to be clean, but what does that really mean? For decades, no one has really had a choice – but Kiran Bhatraju , CEO of Arcadia – the first nationwide digital utility – is changing all of that. Our modern society will continue to drive us to find better options to fuel our tech-savvy and on-the-go lifestyles. Changing the behemoth...

What can help reduce fear about cybersecurity threats? Experts with skills to mitigate these threats can instill courage in us. Derek Hardy , CVP and CISO of AMD , provides his expert take on the current cybersecurity threat environment given his work securing both hardware and software elements. Also, he shares how a movie about hacking inspired his career path. Tune in to learn: Is there an AMD...

What if the parking process was better so there would be less traffic congestion? Gianni Strul Maxemin , the Founder and CEO of Pied Parker asked that question and then came up with a solution. Gianni explains how his company is building out a system that can help individual drivers, parking management customers, and even entire cities manage their parking needs and increase transportation efficie...

In today’s world, knowledge is at our fingertips – you’re always only seconds away from learning how to bake a banana flambé or craft your own standing desk. But even with all this access, it can be hard to find the right learning avenue – and that is especially true for professional skills. That’s where Barnaby Dorfman of Go1 comes in. Go1 is a platform that brings courses for professional develo...

Innovators don’t see limitations – they see challenges. And that’s exactly what happened when Andrew Feldman and his team at Cerebras Systems were told that it was impossible to build a computer chip that could deliver the same performance as hundreds of graphics processing units. They tackled that challenge head-on, and have created the CS-2, the fastest AI computer in existence. This mega-sized...