Business Chief Americas April 2020

Nordex Group: the impact of digital transformation 

NORTH 

AMERICA 

APRIL 2020 

www.businesschief.com 

CYBER 

SUPERHEROES 

Lauren Knausenberger, 

CTO, on cybersecurity 

strategies and a 

superhero culture 

City Focus 

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FOREWORD 

W 

elcome to the April edition of 

Business Chief Americas. 

This month’s cover features Lauren 

Knausenberger, Chief Transformation 

Officer (CTO) at the United States 

Air Force. Knausenberger discusses 

cybersecurity strategies and a 

superhero culture that is transforming 

operations. 

Other leaders that feature in this 

magazine include Joe Phillips, Director 

of Technology at Kansas City Public 

School (KCPS), who details the 

leapfrogging that KCPS is currently 

undertaking in order to create greater 

student equity, as well as John 

McComas, Head of Project Management 

at Nordex North America, who discusses 

the impact of digital transformation 

in the energy sector amidst the launch 

of the company’s new wind turbine 

platform. Joe Phillips, Director of 

Technology at Kansas City Public 

Schools, shares the technology-driven 

work that the organisation is 

undertaking in order to create 

greater student equity. 

Elsewhere, we speak with workplace 

culture experts from Palladium, Genius 

Within and Canvas GFX, to discuss 

the rise of diversity and inclusion in 

the USA. 

In addition, this month’s City Focus 

explores the ever-growing Canadian 

city of Toronto. Our Top 10, meanwhile, 

takes a closer look at the top 10 most 

influential Chief Marketing Officers 

(CMOs) of companies in the USA. 

Do you have a story to share? 

If you would like to be featured in an 

upcoming issue of Business Chief 

Americas, please get in touch at 

georgia.wilson@bizclikmedia.com 

Enjoy the issue! 

Georgia Wilson 

03 

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 

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05 

PUBLISHED BY

CONTENTS 

10 

46

56 

CREATING 

SUSTAINABLE 

DIVERSITY 

City Focus 

TORONTO 

64 

86 

74 

96

114 

Kansas City 

Public Schools 

128 

PCL Construction

146 

OTIP 

176 

CRC ORE 

162 

Nordex North 

America

10 

A SUPER 

CULTURE T 

CYBER 

APRIL 2020

WRITTEN BY 

SEAN GALEA-PACE 

PRODUCED BY 

MIKE SADR 

11 

HERO 

HAT FIGHTS 

THREATS 


US AIR FORCE 

IN OUR SECOND VISIT TO 

WASHINGTON DC, LAUREN 

KNAUSENBERGER, CHIEF 

TRANSFORMATION OFFICER AT 

THE US AIR FORCE, DISCUSSES 

CYBERSECURITY STRATEGIES 

AND A SUPERHERO CULTURE 

IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT 

12 

L 

auren Knausenberger is the U.S. Air Force’s 

Chief Transformation Officer (CTO). Having 

initially joined as Director of Cyberspace 

Innovation in 2017, she assumed her current position 

in June 2019, stepping into a newly-created role that 

reaches across the entire Air Force to drive digital 

transformation. A Wharton graduate who left her work 

in the entrepreneurial and investment industry to take 

on this new challenge in government, she is one of 

very few senior officials under the age of 40, and is 

no stranger to the digital space. 

Upon joining the US Air Force, Knausenberger 

was primed to drive change at the federal government. 

“Everyone fails…until they don’t!” she quips. 

“I think I told you that I joined the Air Force quite by 

accident. I became so intrigued with one of their 

problem sets and the next thing I knew a few persuasive 

generals had me signing up. The thing is 

– I missed the mission and didn’t realize it until these 



13

THEY PROMISED A FUTURE. 

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OF MACHINE INTELLIGENCE 

IT STARTED WITH A QUESTION: HOW COULD WE IMPROVE 

DATA DELIVERY FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSION TEAMS 

OR COMBATANTS IN COMPLEX THEATRES? 

This question is part of a much larger 

question about how to get military, auxiliary 

and humanitarian teams the information 

they need, exactly when they need 

it. A large amount of military failures 

happen not because of readiness or support 

issues but rather because of incorrect 

or incomplete data. 

The solution we developed at Hypergiant 

Industries is part of our Project Orien 

initiative to improve data delivery for 

people who need it to critically safeguard 

human lives. Our delivery is a next 

generation augmented reality helmet that 

can overlay multiple data streams to deliver 

cutting edge solutions exactly when 

and where you need them. The active display 

is a full closed helmet. It passes 

video in front of your eyes which helps 

to reduce previous ocular overload issues 

with combined natural visual processing 

and mission data overlays. 

“In times of stress and when lives are 

on the line, more data is not helpful. 

What is most helpful is decision-quality 

integrated information presented at the 

right place, at the right time. The results 

could mean more lives saved and 

the mission accomplished!” said retired 

four star general and Hypergiant Industries 

advisory board member, Lance Lord. 

“Hypergiant Industries’ system will match 

integrated situational information to 

a decision-maker’s cognitive framework 

needs. This type of leading-edge technology 

is what we need to continue to push 

safety and innovation boundaries.” 

The helmet features 5k resolution with 

200 degree field of vision (FOV), high 

resolution binocular optical input, multiple 

spectrum sensor arrays including 

infrared, AR style informational overlay, 

multiple display modes, hand tracking 

and gesture based input and automated 

data aggregation from mounted sensors 

and networked data sources. Additionally, 

the technology can integrate external 

data sources to bring in information from 

outside the system. This can include: 

GPS data 

Mission briefing 

Technical information from other 

teams/location of team members 

Ability to view and access another 

helms information 

Task updates that come from 

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US AIR FORCE 

16 

“KESSEL RUN 

WAS BORN OUT 

OF THAT PROBLEM 

— WE TURNED A 

WHITEBOARD INTO 

AN ALGORITHM” 


Chief Transformation Officer, 

U.S. Air Force 

generals reminded me. I was so honored 

that they saw something in me and 

thought my ideas could really move the 

needle on some big problems.” 

Few people know that Knausenberger 

began her career at NSA, being 

recruited as a High School student, so 

joining the Air Force was bringing her full 

circle. “It was refreshing to jump into this 

role, blissfully unaware of all of the ways 

that many efforts had failed in the past. I 

wasn’t worried about upsetting anyone, 

and I knew that if I could accomplish 

even a tenth of what I saw could be done, 

it would make a big difference.” 

As an outsider trying to drive 

change, Knausenberger understood 

the challenge of becoming part of an 

organization still entrenched in a traditional 

approach. “What the Air Force 

was really looking for was someone 

who thought differently and was passionate 

about the problem space, and 

who could convince people that we 

could really do it,” she explains. “At the 

end of the day, I simply calculate risk 

differently. Most people say the military 

is risk averse, but from my perspective, 

we were taking crazy risks 

everywhere – by not 


The value of partnerships at 

The US Air Force 

CLICK TO WATCH | 1:35 

17 

innovating fast enough we were passing 

that risk to the warfighter every day. 

I’ve seen that way of thinking about risk 

change dramatically over the past three 

years, but we still have some work to do.” 

From the very beginning, 

Knausenberger felt that her own ‘crazy’ 

ideas were embraced and that people 

were open and direct if they felt that one 

of her suggestions couldn’t work. 

“One of my favorite moments was when 

a general told me that she knew she had 

to think differently when I was in a meeting,” 

she notes. “Just six months later, that 

same general told me I didn’t need to be 

there anymore for her to push forward 

and not accept the old way of thinking.” 

The barriers to speed in the 

Department of Defense are well 

documented and she completed 

her own assessment of these 

in her first 90 days. 


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US AIR FORCE 

20 

“There were certainly many routes to 

go down. I wanted to solve a problem 

where there was clear pain and frustration 

across a diverse group of people,” 

she states. “Equally important, I picked 

one where I felt I was uniquely poised 

to help – in terms of my own strengths 

as well as my position in the CIO 

organization. Starting with cybersecurity 

accreditation just made too much 

sense. There was so much pain in the 

process and I was confident we could do 

better. So many people wanted to help 

make this happen I almost had to turn 

champions away. I was able to form partnerships 

with smart, passionate people 

all focused on a common goal – including 

full support from Air Force Deputy Chief 

Information Officer, Bill Marion - and 

that allowed us to do some great work. 

Our Chief Information Security Officer, 

Wanda Jones-Heath, had her team roll 

up their sleeves to help make sure the 

new constructs would stick, and consultants 

like Lonye Ford at Arlo Solutions 

helped make sure we filled in execution 

details in a way that traditional assessors 

could relate and adopt new practices.” 


Lauren Knausenberger 

EXECUTIVE PROFILE 

Lauren Knausenberger joined the U.S. Air Force to drive 

innovation across the Department of Defense, speed adoption 

of emerging technologies, and create stronger partnerships 

between the DoD, startups, and the venture community. 

In her role as Chief Transformation Officer, she has actively 

fought to bust traditional barriers to capability development, 

including shifting the risk equation for cybersecurity 

accreditation to incentivise the rapid adoption of modern, 

secure systems. In partnership with Kessel Run, Lauren 

generated the Continuous ATO concept, which helped set 

the bar for excellence in DevSecOps and enables Air Force 

software factories to accredit and deploy systems at commercial 

speed. She was also a major contributor to the recent Fast Track 

ATO, which emphasises pen testing and threat/vulnerability 

assessment over compliance. Through her work 

with the DevSecOps community, Lauren saw a 

major gap in the way of training and retaining 

the most technologically savvy Airmen and has 

become a driving force behind the Computer 

Language Initiative and Digital University. 

21 

Lauren also acts as an champion for AFWERX 

and a connector across the Air Force 

community to enable projects, 

remove barriers to entry for best-inclass 

businesses, test innovative 

concepts, and bring new voices 

and capabilities to the table. 


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US AIR FORCE 

24 

The US Air Force has been in the 

software business for some time, but 

until the past few years was almost solely 

leveraging legacy, waterfall software 

development practices. “Even as we 

adopted agile development, we were 

still stymied by a ridiculously arduous 

cybersecurity accreditation process 

that was ultimately not relevant to the 

modern technologies in use. How could 

we ensure the code being delivered 

was safe and secure, but could at the 

same time be delivered at the speed of 

relevance?” She credits the importance 

of partners such as Pivotal and others 

who had already found the solution to 

part of that conundrum. “We were fortunate 

to have such great partners, who 

had already figured out how to develop 

safe and secure code rapidly. We joined 

forces to create a secure Continuous 

Integration/Continuous Deployment 

(CI/CD) pipeline and adopted the best 

practices of the DevOps Research 

Assessment. Our teams worked hard 

to constantly improve and we used 

penetration testing to assess our code 

in production as well. The premise is 


that if you design secure software, use 

a secure process, bake security into 

everything you do, and have a robust 

way to test and validate your code continuously, 

that accreditation should be 

done by the time the code is complete. 

So, the continuous authority to operate 

(cATO) was born. This was revolutionary 

in the department, and really incentivized 

people to adopt modern DevSecOps 

practices. And it all started with a group 

of insurgents at Kessel Run.” 

Kessel Run was the first true implementation 

of agile DevSecOps in the 

Air Force, and represented a departure 

from the standard way of doing development. 

“We joked we had to ‘smuggle’ 

agile development and cybersecurity 

accreditation into the Air Force to make 

it happen,” says Knausenberger. “Kessel 

Run first got started with refueling operations 

in the Middle East. Eric Schmidt 

and the Defense Innovation Board flew 

over to Qatar and Schmidt asked one 

of the commanders what kept him up 

at night. The commander said ‘I’m just 

terrified someone’s going to erase my 

whiteboard’. Why? ‘Because the whiteboard 

is how they planned all of their 

refueling operations. We had pilots flying 

all over the Middle East, refueling in midair 

at 350mph, while someone hangs out 

the back of an airplane…and it could be 

defeated by a whiteboard eraser!’” 

After hearing this, Schmidt was 

certain there could be an algorithm created 

to combat the problem. “And he 

was absolutely right,” Knausenberger 

confirms. “Kessel Run was born out of 

that problem – we turned a whiteboard 

into an algorithm, and amongst many 

other successes we’re now saving 

over $250k a week in fuel. This team 

of incredibly motivated, and relatively 

junior, personnel was creating such 

innovative software, and an Air Force 

cultural revolution to go with it. We have 

developed such an incredible insurgency 

and have gained support by a broad part 

of the organization that I don’t think we 

can call it an insurgency anymore. We’ve 

won. It’s reached irreversible momentum. 

And that’s incredible,” she adds. “Since 

Kessel Run got its start, the Air Force has 

25 


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as a as leader leader in the in the Federal Federal Government as for a Agile for leader Agile in the Federal in assisting in Government assisting the the Kessel for Kessel Agile Run Run and and SpaceCAMP in assisting DevSecOps 

the Kessel Run an 

software software development, DevSecOps implementation 

software development, software software DevSecOps factories factories implementation 

with with achieving Continuous software Authority factories with achiev 

and and execution, and and cybersecurity expertise and execution, and and and to cybersecurity Operate to Operate (C-ATO). expertise Our Our and testing testing revealed to Operate three three (C-ATO). Our te 

thought thought leadership. We We partner partner with with thought federal federal and leadership. and important We partner considerations with federal and when when assessing important security security considerations w 

commercial customers to: deliver to: deliver software, commercial tools, tools, customers for modern for to: modern deliver software software, factories: 

tools, for modern software factorie 

and and services services that that support support mission mission needs; and needs; services develop develop that support mission needs; develop 

Privilege is key is key 

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and and integrate secure, secure, resilient, resilient, and and scalable scalable and integrate solutions 

secure, resilient, and scalable solutions 

Starting Starting design design and and development efforts efforts Starting from from a design secure a secure and developm 

tailored tailored to our to our customers' operational environments; 

tailored to our customers' operational environments; 

base base and and adding adding from from there there is a is much a much more base more and effective effective adding from there 

and and instill instill technical technical best best practices, processes, and instill and and policies. technical policies. best practices, processes, and policies. 

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specific specific cloud cloud providers. Our Our efforts efforts often specific often extend cloud extend providers. organization's Our efforts security security often policy extend policy like like version version organization's control control security policy 

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mindsets that that apply apply across across technology mindsets stacks; stacks; frequent that frequent apply develop across develop technology secure, secure, enterprise stacks; frequent scale scale applications develop for secure, your for your enterprise sc 

evaluation of new of new products products supporting evaluation development 

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and and Continuous Integration/Continuous and Delivery Continuous Delivery Integration/Continuous Delivery 

(CI/ (CI/ CD); CD); and and Communities of Interest, of Interest, (CI/ internally CD); and called called Communities of Interest, internally called 

Practice Practice Packs, Packs, around around different different technical Practice topics topics Packs, and and around different Learn Learn technical More More topics and Learn More 

trends. trends. Whereas Whereas many many in our in our industry industry trends. get get married Whereas married to to many in our industry get married to 

a particular a technology or methodology, or a particular we encourage we technology or methodology, we encourage 

our our employees to explore to explore and and embrace embrace our the employees the rapid rapid pace pace to explore and embrace the rapid pace 

of innovation of and and technological evolution. 

of innovation and technological evolution. 

Among Among our our experiences, Dark Dark Wolf Wolf is proud Among is proud to our have to have experiences, Dark Wolf is proud to have 

supported Secretary of Air of Force/Office Air supported of Information of Secretary of Air Force/Office of Information

US AIR FORCE 

The Strategic Studies Group demonstrates 

the super hero pose 

28 

stood up a number of agile development 

capabilities - Platform One, Kobayashi 

Maru, LevelUp, BESPIN, SoniKube, Tron, 

Ski Camp, and others who are doing 

amazing work and reaching across 

the community to share best practices. 

Finally, we have hired a Chief Software 

Officer, Nicolas Chaillan, who has been a 

great partner to drive forward so many of 

these initiatives.” 

“The revolution didn’t stop at just software 

development though, it was actually 

much broader. Spark Tank is an excellent 

example of that,” Knausenberger 

continues. Established in 2017, Spark 


Tank acts as a catalyst for agile US Air 

Force engagement across the industry 

and encourages innovation and entrepreneurship. 

A partnership between 

AFWERX and Airmen Powered by 

Innovation, Spark Tank allows Airmen to 

submit their ideas in a pitch competition 

format directly to their most senior leaders. 

Airmen share their ideas and the 

roadblocks they face to making them real. 

“It brings together three key elements: 

a powerful network of innovators within 

the Air Force, a group of people who 

are doing everything to empower those 

innovators with tools and connections, 

and the senior-level support needed to 

break down policy barriers,” she comments. 

“Airmen submit hundreds of 

ideas and we whittle them down to just 

six finalists for the live show. Many of 

these Airmen joined at 18 and don’t have 

college degrees, and they are some of 

the smartest, hardest-working problem 

solvers around. They know their mission, 

and have unique insight into how 

it can be done better. This competition 

showcases their awesome ideas and 

also gives our senior leaders a chance 

to really model how we should be supporting 

innovators. Our Secretary, Chief 

of Staff, and Chief Master Sergeant of 

the Air Force are inspiring leaders and 

never disappoint in their support and 

advice for these Airmen. And we have 

leaders like Darlene Costello and Rich 

Lombardi as senior advisors who really 

know how to get things done in the Air 

Force and help ensure projects can grow 

to appropriate scale.” 

Knausenberger recognizes the talent 

at the US Air Force’s disposal and 

believes her organization is doing things 

that you simply won’t see anywhere else. 

“We have incredible people that have 

29 


USAF Technology Transformation 

Google’s Innovation for Your Mission 

Keith Hannah, Federal Account Executive 

512-343-5324 | keithhannah@google.com

31 

“THERE ARE THINGS 

THAT YOU CAN DO 

IN THE AIR FORCE 

THAT YOU CAN’T DO 

ANYWHERE ELSE” 




brought lots of intellectual firepower and 

who all work very hard,” she says. “We 

are doing some of the coolest things in 

the world, with software, airplanes, satellites, 

and technology that would blow 

your mind. There are things that you 

can do in the Air Force that you can’t do 

anywhere else. But one of the biggest 

lessons from Spark Tank was the value 

of collaborators - the new superheroes 

in our Air Force.” 

Knausenberger devised a ‘superhero 

chart’ to lightheartedly convey how 


The Department of Defense trusts the cloud with 

the most tools, technology, and accessibility at 

the tactical edge. 

www.BuildOn.aws

important it is to support warfighters. 

“The Air Force has a hero culture. People 

join to make a real difference and put 

their lives on the line every day to keep 

us safe,” she explains. “Captain Marvel 

is our superhero - she’s off saving lives 

and on the frontline of the mission. There 

are also the sidekicks (think Morgan 

Freeman as Lucius Fox) - the unsung 

heroes that support the superheroes 

to deliver those incredible mission 

effects. Then there are the supervillains 

(Megamind) and henchmen (Wormtail)! 

In the world of innovation, the supervillains 

are those that sometimes get in the 

way of others trying to do good things 

– they are undoubtedly trying to keep 

people safe, but can get overly diligent 

in enforcing rules that no longer make 

sense and are often misunderstood. I 

joke that we have a supervillain-tosuperhero 

conversion program. By 

harnessing all of that policy knowledge 

and enabling innovative warfighters, you 

can be a hero too.” 

We asked if she had a favorite a real 

life super hero. “I have to say one of my 

favorite unsung heroes is Air Force Vice 

Chief Gen. Stephen “Seve” Wilson. He 

works very hard to perpetuate a culture 

of innovation and put in place the constructs 

to support innovative Airmen. 

He inspires me too.” 

Knausenberger values how people 

can ‘earn their capes’ and understands 

the importance of collaboration to help 

make others stand out and succeed. 

“A lot of the time it isn’t because you had 

a great idea, it’s because you found 

someone who had an awesome idea 

and you used all of your knowledge, connections, 

and abilities to help make that 

33 


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“ANY CHANGE 

I MAKE MUST BE 

SOMETHING THAT 

CAN LAST AFTER 

I’M GONE” 




person shine,” she explains. “That’s actually 

even more important.” 

Over the past few years, the US Air 

Force has made a concerted effort to 

widen its partnerships with the defense 

industrial base, having previously worked 

solely with a small stable of very large, 

long-standing partners. “Our Head 

of Acquisition, Dr. Will Roper, regularly 

talks about our desire to expand our 

defense industrial base to organizations 

that have never done business with the 

Department of Defense, and even to 

drive deeper partnerships with the investor 

community,” she says. “In the United 

35 

A superhero culture at the US Air Force 



US AIR FORCE 

36 

“THE AIR FORCE HAS 

A HERO CULTURE. 

PEOPLE JOIN TO MAKE 

A REAL DIFFERENCE” 





37 

US Air Force: Harnessing the true value 

of DevSecOps 



39 

States, we have some of the largest, 

most well-respected tech companies 

in the world, and they didn’t work with 

the military for a long time. Now, all of 

the household names are working with 

us. For the most part, I think that people 

within the tech companies realize that 

we’re on the same team and all want to 

be safe. And, of course, we want to continue 

to partner with our large defense 

contractors and appreciate their efforts 

to transform with us. The other cool 

trend is that more tech savvy outsiders 

are jumping into government to support 

the mission for three to five years. A few 

years ago, there were very few outside 

of DDS, and now we have a growing club 

and even a few alumni who have done 

their stint in government and have now 

returned to the commercial world with a 

new perspective to bring to the mission. 

One notable alum is Chris Lynch, who 

founded DDS, and has now launched 

Rebellion Defense to bring together the 

best of the valley with super smart engineers 

who really know DOD systems 


Top 6 Reasons DevSecOps is 

Now for the Federal Government 

Underpinning all modern technology — software and hardware — is a supply chain. The reality 

however, is that software is much easier to pollute than hardware. For federal agencies to better 

protect themselves and the American citizenry, they need to start shifting security practices left and 

playing better offense at the beginning of their digital supply chain. 

1 

Open Source is 

Powering Federal 

Software Development 

85% of an application is comprised of 

free, readily available open source components. 

2 

Not All Open Source 

Components are 

Created Equal 

Research shows that within the Java ecosystem, 

1 in 10 contains a known security 

vulnerability. 

3 

Agencies Don’t Know 

How Much Open 

Source They’re Using 

There is a disconnect between development 

and security, with little transparency 

into the parts feeding today’s software 

supply chains. 

4 

Lack of Open Source 

Policies Lead to Breaches 

According to the DevSecOps Community 

Survey of 5,500 IT pros, 1 in 4 organizations 

confirmed or suspected an open 

source related breach last year. 

5 

Cost Emphasized 

Over Security Protocol 

An unexpected threat comes from the 

contractors, inadvertently introducing 

vulnerabilities into the supply chain with 

an emphasis on cost over security. 

6 Regulations 

Around Software 

Development is Coming 

Savvy contractors and agencies are 

prioritizing security in their development 

process now. 

JUN 2018 

NTIA launches 

initiative to 

improve software 

component 

transparency 

OCT 2018 

FDA releases 

guidance on cybersecurity 

management 

of medical devices 

MAR 2019 

Internet of Things 

Cybersecurity 

Improvement Act of 

2019 introduced 

AUG 2018 

Deliver 

Uncompromised 

report published by 

Mitre Corporation 

DEC 2018 

U.S. House Energy 

and Commerce 

Committee releases 

its Cybersecurity 

Strategy Report 

JAN 2020 

2020 National 

Defense Authorization 

Act (NDAA) passed 

by U.S. Senate 

Learn more at 

Sonatype.com/government 

The DoD releases 

its Cybersecurity 

Maturity Model 

Certification 

(CMMC)

and are passionate about delivering 

national security capabilities. This type of 

cross-pollination is critical to our future 

success as a military and as a country.” 

In a bid to drive innovation, the US 

Air Force is determined to work more 

closely with startups. “They innovate 

at a faster pace than anyone else,” 

Knausenberger affirms. “We’re working 

with an increasing number of businesses 

with a startup mentality that are focused 

on innovation. It’s hard to survive in the 

US tech market because every entrepreneur 

thinks that they’re going to be a 

unicorn but, in reality, very few succeed. 

The competition is tough.” 

Knausenberger states that a key reason 

why the US Air Force wants to adopt 

this approach is to not only support small 

businesses but also to embrace an alternative 

type of talent. “It’s important we 

bring diversity into the defense industry,” 

she says. “And that’s diversity on every 

level: mindset, abilities and all aspects of 

background. It’s important to recognize 

that we’re not going to be able to achieve 

what we want if we always work with the 

same people. It’s also a really great business 

line for them, and we have really 

cool, complex problems that can’t be 

solved anywhere else. The startup community 

is often telling us ‘we want the 

coolest, most wicked problems that you 

could throw at us’, and we have those in 

spades! It ultimately makes for a great, 

synergistic relationship. “The Air Force 

also finds incredible synergies with our 

allies,” Knausenberger explains. “Our 

Air Force’s Strategic Studies Group is a 

key part of the brain trust for for driving 

innovation across the force, and includes 

our Exchange Officers from Japan, 

Germany, the United Kingdom, and 

France. And through those networks we 41 


US AIR FORCE 

42 

5,328 

Number of manned 

aircraft as of 2018 

1947 

Year founded 

tap into much richer perspectives 

then we may otherwise get by looking 

at purely American views. We also 

have a great time working together 

on big ideas.” 

In a bid to counter cyberattacks and 

increase resilience, the US Air Force has 

sought collaboration with another nontraditional 

source. In partnership with 

the Defense Digital Service, as well as 

cybersecurity firms such as BugCrowd, 


HackerOne, Synack, and Dark Wolf, the 

organization is embracing the hacker 

community. Each of those companies 

has done large scale events, hacking 

the Air Force Cloud in addition to other 

public facing websites for the Air Force. 

“In the past, hackers looked at the 

Department of Defense and considered 

it a great prize to hack. But most people 

didn’t try it lightly because it’s also 

a great way to get arrested,” explains 

Knausenberger.“ We’ve started to 

embrace the hacking community 

because although we have some great 

cybersecurity frameworks in place that 

lots of people benchmark against, we 

wanted new partners who approach 

problems in different ways and who 

could explore new threat vectors in a 

creative way. It’s been invaluable - we’ve 

learned a great deal and it’s been a wonderful 

partnership.” 

Knausenberger sees the true value 

in encouraging hackers to cause as 

much havoc as possible and believes it 

is mutually rewarding. “I feel much more 

comfortable if I’ve had a hacker team 

come in and see what they can break 

without any rules, than if someone’s just 

gone through the security checklist,” 

she explains. “Real world hackers don’t 

follow our checklist. We’d rather have 

friendly hackers who we’re paying to 

break systems, and that allows us to fix 

things as they find it. Our systems are 

stronger for it, and the hackers love the 

chance to legally break into national 

security systems.” 

While having much success today, 

Knausenberger understands how 

critical it is that any cultural change 

implemented is built to last. “I’m very 

aware that any change I make must be 

something that can last after I’m gone,” 

she explains. “I didn’t join the Air Force 

intending to make a career of it – but my 

intent was to make a huge and lasting 

impact. Therefore, it’s very important 

that the things that we do aren’t just personality 

dependent. Not all software has 

to be sustainable. There are some things 

that we use once and we throw away; 

however, it’s vital that the organizational 

structures that support an innovation 

culture have staying power. It’s important 

that we’re able to do the simple 

things well and that we put the right processes 

in place to replicate those early 

successes at scale. We have a dream 

team in place right now – from senior 

43 


US AIR FORCE 

44 

Empowering the Airmen of the US Air Force 



leadership to key positions throughout 

the Force to make this happen.” 

Looking ahead, Knausenberger has a 

clear vision of what the future will hold for 

the US Air Force. “I’m very excited and 

I see us finalizing a lot of the big IT modernization 

and transformation efforts 

that we’re currently going through, as 

well as deploying the next generation 

of mind blowing Air and Space technology,” 

she states. “I expect we’ll more 

aggressively leveraging automation to 

liberate Airmen from repetitive tasks and 

free them to focus on mission innovation. 

And we’ll continue to do the awesome 

things that the Air Force is known for: 

maintaining superiority in the air, space, 

and cyberspace. There’s lots of cool stuff 

happening.” 

What really excites and drives 

Knausenberger, however, is making life 

easier for Airmen. “I joke that we can 

hit the back end of a fly from half way 

around the world, but when it comes 

to deploying new tools – Whew, that’s 

tough! We have a phenomenal workforce 

that can do incredibly difficult 

things with ease. I can’t wait for them 

to not have to work so hard on the silly 

things that we take for granted in the 

commercial world. We are so close to 

making that a reality. What really fuels 

me is seeing the innovative power of 

these Airmen and the way they come 

together to accomplish anything they 

need to do, despite the roadblocks. 

Our future is in great hands, and I see 

an inspiring next generation of leaders 

ready to continue our work as the world’s 

most powerful Air Force, and move 

beyond to new frontiers.” 

45 


LEADERSHIP 

46 

The rise of 

diversity 

and inclusion 

in the USA 

WRITTEN BY GEORGIA WILSON 



47

LEADERSHIP 

Business Chief speaks with workplace 

culture experts to discuss the current 

state of diversity and inclusion in the 

United States 

48 

In recent years, Dr Rosanna Duncan MCIPD, 

Chief Diversity Officer at Palladium, has “seen 

giant strides not only in America, but globally, 

as more women gain a seat at the top table.” Both 

Dr Nancy Doyle, psychologist, founder and CEO of 

Genius Within and Patricia Hume, CEO of Canvas 

GFX, agrees with Dr Duncan that “the diversity 

conversation in corporate America is louder and 

more widespread than it’s ever been before, and 

that is having an impact. Even more emphasis is 

being placed on the need for a diverse workforce 

and the benefits this can bring,” says Humes. ‘’The 

barriers have really been broken down thanks to 

role models, solid data collection and legal statutes. 

However, although there is now a heightened 

awareness when it comes to diversity and inclusion, 

as well as some solid breakthroughs, we’re still not 

there yet,” adds Dr Doyle. Agreeing with Dr Doyle, 

Dr Duncan highlights that it is important to 

remember amidst this positive growth, that 

“diversity and inclusion in business is much more 

than just gender. There cannot be a meaningful 


49 

“The diversity conversation in corporate 

America is louder and more widespread 

than it’s ever been before” 

— 

Dr Rosanna Duncan, 

Chief Diversity Officer, Palladium 


Rosanna Duncan: 

Diversity and Inclusion 

for everyone 


51 

“Diversity and inclusion 

in business is much 

more than just gender, 

there cannot be a 

meaningful impact 

beyond the boardroom 

if we fail to consider 

race and class” 

— 

Dr Rosanna Duncan, 


impact beyond the boardroom if we 

fail to consider race and class. We 

know that diversity adds real value to 

the bottom line by improving decisionmaking 

at all levels. However, in the 

race to achieve gender parity, we risk 

treating women as a homogeneous 

group in which female board members 

come from similar racial and social 

backgrounds, and express similar 

perspectives to their mainly white 

male counterparts.” 

When it comes to increasing diversity 

and inclusion, Hume strongly believes 


LEADERSHIP 

52 

that “education on the value diversity 

and inclusion can provide from an 

early age is essential. Making sure 

equal opportunities are available 

throughout the education process and 

within the workplace is vital. I believe 

that the more time people spend in 

diverse, collaborative communities, 

the less likely they are to focus on 

differences.” Both Dr Doyle and Dr 

Duncan further elaborate that to stand 

a chance of increasing diversity within 

America, organisations also need to 

turn their back on old-fashioned and 

outdated methods of recruitment. 

“One solution would be to introduce 

approaches that purely test capability 

and potential, as opposed to favouring 

candidates with postgraduate 

qualifications, even when a high level 

of technical expertise is not required. 

On the face of it, this may seem an 

equitable differentiator. But this can 

exclude some groups including African 

Americans or other racial minorities, 

as well as those from low income 

backgrounds. It’s not due to their lack 

of ability, but a lack of opportunity and 

considerable financial constraints,” 

comments Dr Duncan, who highlights 


that according to a study by 

Georgetown University’s Center on 

Education and the Workforce, “less 

than a third of nursery school children 

from low-income families - who achieve 

high test scores – end up with a college 

education and a decent-paying entrylevel 

job. By contrast, those from 

families in the highest-income brackets 

with low test scores have a 70% chance 

of reaching the same education and job 

level. It is not surprising then that many 

low-income students, who have had 

access to fewer resources, struggle 

to maintain the advantages they may 

have had as infants. Employers need 

to look at a wider range of educational 

pathways including those who have 

studied part-time, flexibly, and even 

vocational qualifications.” 

Ultimately, “there’s no silver bullet” 

when it comes to increasing diversity 

and inclusion within a business, says 

Dr Duncan. “Real change takes time 

and can only be achieved when 

everyone works together. The difficulty 

can lie in helping organisation to think 

about diversity beyond gender, and to 

see that everyone is responsible – from 

executives to the front line – for creating 

53 


LEADERSHIP 

54 

a diverse and inclusive environment. 

Whilst having conversations on gender 

parity has over time become an easier 

conversation and is now part of the 

zeitgeist, I’m afraid that racial and 

socioeconomic parity in the workplace 

has been neglected.” However, Dr 

Duncan does explain that there are 

steps, that when put together, can 

help move an organisation in the right 

direction. “The first of these is to give 

diversity and inclusion a place at the 

top table. One of the biggest risks is the 

perception that diversity and inclusion 

is a bolt-on to HR, or of too little strategic 

value to merit proper commitment. 

Secondly, senior leaders should be 

held accountable. At Palladium, we 

hold quarterly forums and require 

senior leaders to be transparent, 

reporting on our KPIs to all staff, 

including targets on equal pay and 

blind recruitment. Additionally, the 

conversation needs to be flowing - 

internally and externally – constantly 

sharing ideas, debating issues, and 

encouraging people at all levels to 

develop their own thought leadership on 

the subject. Finally, behaviours which 

are unacceptable should be called out. 

“When we bring our 

differences together 

in an environment 

where people feel 

respected, accepted, 

and included, amazing 

things happen” 

— 

Patricia Hume, 

CEO, Canvas GFX 


55 

Creating a diverse workforce is 

pointless unless you create an inclusive 

environment where everybody can feel 

safe, that they belong, and can reach 

their full potential.” Agreeing with Dr 

Duncan, Hume adds that, “when we 

bring our differences together in an 

environment where people feel 

respected, accepted, and included, 

amazing things happen. It is crucial to 

remember that diversity is fundamentally 

good for business, a diverse team is 

better at serving a diverse audience.” 


TECHNOLOGY 

BIG DATA AND 

ANALYTICS: MINING 

56 

INFORMATION 

FOR VALUE 

Big Data and analytics have become 

omnipresent buzzwords recently, 

but what do they mean for 

how businesses should operate? 

Business Chief explores the subject 

with Abel Smith at Tech Data 

WRITTEN BY WILL GIRLING 



57

TECHNOLOGY 

58 

It’s often said that, in our modern economy, data is 

becoming the new oil. Whether this metaphor is 

totally accurate is almost beside the point; in an 

increasingly digital world, everything is data, a fact 

that becomes ever more pertinent when the tools 

available for collecting and analysing information 

evolve. The scale of data’s explosion was estimated 

by Domo to reach 1.7MB of new information every 

second for every person on Earth by 2020, with an 

approximate total of 40 zettabytes (40 trillion gigabytes) 

globally. Contributing to this enormous volume 

is ‘Big Data’ - large quantities of information pertaining 

to corporate assets, which require highly innovative 

forms of processing to decipher and render useful for 

decision-making within business. 

Abel Smith, Director of IoT Solutions at Tech Data, 

believes that how a company chooses to analyse its 

data can have a significant impact on enabling efficiencies. 

After all, when it comes to Internet of Things 

(IoT) devices, the value a customer derives will not 

necessarily be from the device itself, but rather the 

wealth of insights and options for action that the analysis 

of data can make possible. “Businesses, small 

and large, need to aggregate, unlock and organise 

their data so it is accessible and can be maintained 

whilst being secure and ethical. When that is in place, 

analytics can be used to visualise, gain insights and 

drive even more value with artificial intelligence (AI) 

and machine learning,” he says. 


“In an increasingly digital 

world, everything is data” 

59 


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“By investing in these next-gen forms of 

analytics, vast amounts of data, which would 

otherwise be wasted, can be transformed into 

a highly valuable asset” 

AI-POWERED ANALYTICS 

The premise of AI-powered analysis 

is rooted in the goal of designing 

technology that can perform tasks 

normally reserved for people. 

According to SAS, machine learning 

forms an independent subset of AI 

and focuses on training a machine 

to identify patterns in data and then 

‘draw conclusions’ from it in a similar 

way to the human brain. First, 

machines are given ‘inputs’ and their 

associated ‘outputs’ in order to generate 

a prediction algorithm. Next, 

they are presented with a new input 

and use the set algorithm to predict 

an output - the ultimate goal being 

to refine the algorithm until the error 

margin between the machines’ prediction 

(called the ‘cost function’) and 

the actual output is as close to zero 

as possible. Therefore, machinelearning-based 

analytics represents 

a cycle: data is collected, an algorithm 

is formed and used to make a prediction, 

the result is collected and 

analysed, repeat ad nauseam. 

By investing in these next-gen 

forms of analytics, vast amounts 

of data, which would otherwise be 

wasted, can be transformed into a 

highly valuable asset. “By analysing 

the usage, the channel can begin to 

take a number of actions. For example, 

the data can give resellers and 

systems integrators an understanding 

of what challenges their customers 

are encountering and what 

additional services they might need 

DID YOU KNOW? 

1.7MB of new information 

is created every second for 

every person on Earth in 

2020, with an approximate 

total of 40 zettabytes (40 

trillion gigabytes) globally 

61 


TECHNOLOGY 

“The opportunities afforded 

by Big Data are practical and 

abundant for companies 

dedicated to developing 

innovative ways of analysing 

the available information” 

62 

in order to solve them,” says Smith. 

The seemingly infinite streams of data 

generated on a daily basis take on 

a whole new dimension, as each piece 

can be used to better inform executives 

on how to steer corporate strategy. 

“Information and dialogue can result in 

continual improvements, adding value 

for the end customer and helping to create 

lasting relationships built on meeting 

real-world business objectives. It also 

helps with securing and onboarding 

new clients, as the process of continual 

development highlights and helps you 

open up new markets.” 

“For those companies that can bridge 

the gap between IT and business objectives, 

there are major opportunities for 

success,” Smith adds. But what does 

this mean for Big Data and analytics? 

EXTRACTING THE VALUE OF DATA 

For many companies, this will mean 

finding ways to improve the end-user 

experience, with data analysis providing 

the engine to solve larger volumes of 

problems than ever before. In an article 

by McKinsey & Co, Victor Nilson, SVP 

at AT&T, explained that the company 

uses data analytics to optimise customer 


care. “We’ve used Big Data techniques 

to analyse all the different permutations 

to augment that experience to more 

quickly resolve or enhance a particular 

situation. We take the complexity out 

and turn it into something simple and 

actionable.” Other companies might 

leverage data analytics to improve the 

operation of a product itself, although 

some, like Vince Campisi, Chief Digital 

Officer at United Technologies, consider 

both forms of optimisation to be intrinsically 

linked. Campisi told McKinsey, 

“We’re starting to enable digital industries, 

like a digital wind farm, where you can 

leverage analytics to help the machines 

optimise themselves. It’s an example of 

using analytics to help a customer generate 

more yield and more productivity 

out of their existing capital investment.” 

The opportunities afforded by Big Data 

are practical and abundant for companies 

dedicated to developing innovative 

ways of analysing the available information. 

Smith remarks that, although the 

modern era is one of “digital supremacy” 

and technology is undoubtedly indispensable 

to nearly every industry, there is 

some hesitance - even fatigue - among 

executives for digital transformation 

schemes that under-deliver. However, 

the eminently practical and widespread 

advantages of streamlining via data analytics 

is an opportunity that should be 

fully embraced. “If there is one thing 

that businesses are interested in, it is 

how they can be more efficient, open 

up new growth, or be more compliant,” 

he says. “For those in the channel that 

want to continue to succeed, the focus 

has to switch from technology to business 

outcomes.” 

63 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

64 


TRANSFORMING 

FULFILLMENT 

OPERATIONS WITH 

AUTOMATION 

65 

Business Chief speaks to supply chain 

experts to discuss the use of automation 

for fulfilment operations 



SUPPLY CHAIN 

66 

“A 

global supply chain typically involves 

many partners that reside in different 

time zones, speak different 

languages and possess unique systems, documents 

and data standards. This complexity 

puts tremendous pressure on workers to 

standardise across the transaction by bringing 

together the data, synthesising and processing 

it according to mutually agreed upon terms 

and conditions,” comments Chris Huff, Chief 

Strategy Officer, Kofax as he reflects on the 

current landscape within supply chains. “As 

one can imagine, this is a time-consuming 

manual process filled with the potential for 

error, re-work and compliance gaps. Intelligent 

automation transforms high-cost and peopleintensive 

fulfilment operations into a highly 

efficient and automated state, by bringing 

together automation and artificially intelligent 

technologies. Intelligent automation is able to 

ingest high volumes of data from disparate 

systems and people, transforming unstructured 

data into standard and structured 

formats to automate the workflow.” 

Over the years, Huff has seen fulfilment 

operations evolve significantly, in particular 

“more software on fewer machines with even 

less people involved. Fulfilment centres today 

are technological marvels that primarily operate 

with a high degree of autonomy. 



67

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This means greater savings and shorter time to 

market.

“Intelligent automation 

transforms high-cost 

and people-intensive 

fulfilment operation 

into a highly efficient 

and automated state, 

by bringing together 

automation and 

artificially intelligent 

technologies” 

A mainframe in the 1950s can essentially 

be held in the palm of your 

hand in 2020. The power of mobile, 

internet, automation and artificial 

intelligence (AI) has transformed the 

supply chain industry.” Within the 

industry Huff has seen applications of 

“converging intelligent automation and 

AI to create platforms that can predict 

future inventory levels by assessing a 

myriad of environmental factors and 

— 

initiating actions to preposition supplies 

Chris Huff, 

in the right place at the right time. 

Chief Strategy Officer, Kofax In addition, intelligent automation and 69 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

70 

internet of things (IoT) are converging 

to speed up fulfilment processing 

times by collecting disparate data, making 

assessments and taking actions, 

and intelligent automation and mobile 

devices are converging to enabling realtime 

tracking to improve efficiency while 

increasing customer experience.” 

Huff explains that one of the most 

important benefits of automation is adding 

a tremendous amount of capacity 

without adding headcount. “Organisations 

are able to deploy capacity 

in two primary ways: one is to initiate 

unbudgeted revenue, lifting opportunities 

that would have otherwise required 

headcount. The second is, organisations 

can aggressively advance their 

efficiency, arbitrage and cost take-out 

opportunities to improve margins and 

profitability.” In addition to this Huff also 

sees the potential to “increase compliance 

to 99.9%, improve processing 

times, reduce transaction costs and 

most importantly empower humans 

by providing a ‘digital assistant’ to perform 

the low-value transactional work.” 

Agreeing with Huff, Mohammed Rehman, 

“The power of mobile, internet, 

automation and AI has transformed 

the supply chain industry” 

— 

Chris Huff, 

Chief Strategy Officer, Kofax 


Cognex Logistics Solutions 


71 

Programme Team Leader of Computing 

at Arden University comments that 

“Efficiency is the key benefit. Automating 

routine and menial tasks improves 

a company’s efficient use of time and 

money. It can also help to eliminate 

human error.” 

However, with innovation comes 

challenges, Huff highlights that “the 

challenge with this technology is finding 

the right combinations to solve the 

higher-value supply chain issues that 

will result in true transformational value. 

Complex supply chain business problems 

typically require ingestion of data 

from many different sources, transformation 

of unstructured data, task 

automation and automated workflow. 

Best-in-breed intelligent automation 

platforms bring all of this together 

to automate complex fulfilment operations.” 

In addition to the challenge of 

combining technology for optimum 

transformational value, both Huff and 

Rehman highlight cybersecurity as 

another core threat. “Globalisation 

has blurred geographic boundaries 

while at the same time increasing risk.” 

comments Huff. “Government and private 

sector consortiums will become 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

72 

increasingly important as we seek new 

standards and governance to make 

these consortiums work by building 

trust among strangers.” Agreeing with 

Huff, Rehman adds that “Robots can 

be hacked just like a computer. As with 

any strategy around cybersecurity, it’s 

about embedding processes around 

authenticity of data, procedures around 

verification and handling of data, and 

ensuring that people are educated 

about the risks and follow institutional 

policies and procedures. Periodic review 

and testing is vital to ensure that systems 

are behaving as they should.” 

Looking to the future of automated 

fulfilment operations, Huff sees the 

adoption of the dynamic combination 

of AI, machine learning and natural language 

processing, taking further hold 

within the industry in order to automate 

the analysis of data. “The lifeblood of 

a fulfilment centre is data. While automation 

can help move data through a 

process with minimal human intervention 

- in most instances - automation 

can’t read, interpret and draw insights 

from data. This requires AI through 

the likes of machine learning and natural 

language processing. As a result, 

“As with any strategy 

around cybersecurity, 

it’s about embedding 

processes around 

authenticity of data, 

procedures around 

verification and 

handling of data, and 

ensuring that people 

are educated” 

— 

Mohammed Rehman, 

Programme Team Leader of Computing, 

Arden University 


73 

companies need to do more than just 

automate workflow, they need to use 

AI to read data, interpret it and deliver 

insights to the business. At Kofax our 

intelligent automation platform allows 

our customers to ingest structured and 

unstructured data, and use our embedded 

AI to read data to deliver insights 

to a business. In most cases, we have 

seen the application of intelligent automation 

shift workers from low-value 

‘data collectors’ to higher value ‘data 

users’. In addition, workers are finding 

greater purpose in their work, improving 

a company’s recruitment and talent 

retention.” Huff also reflects on the 

development of predictive modelling 

in the future. “Predictive modelling is 

already being used in pockets, but the 

technology and algorithms are proprietary 

in most instances. This makes 

it difficult for small and medium-sized 

enterprises (SMEs) to take advantage 

of the technology. More open source 

predictive models that allow SMEs to 

utilise them would go far in levelling the 

playing field so we can adopt, scale 

and innovate faster,” concludes Huff. 


CSR 

74 


CREATING 

SUSTAINABLE 

DIVERSITY 

75 

Rosanna Duncan, CDO, Palladium, provides 

insight into how companies can maximise 

diversity and inclusion opportunities in order 

to implement lasting change 

WRITTEN BY 

AMBER DONOVAN-STEVENS 


CSR 

76 

Creating a truly diverse workforce 

is no easy task. It requires 

transparency, clear communication 

and a willingness from all parts of the 

company, even if it requires at times 

difficult conversations. Over the years 

diversity and inclusion has sometimes 

held negative connotations, associated 

with meeting corporate quotas, or at 

worst, being a token gesture. Here to 

reinvigorate the concept of diversity 

and inclusion is Rosanna Duncan, Chief 

Diversity Officer of Palladium, whose 

passion for the matter extends far 

beyond corporate initiatives. 

COULD YOU TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT 

YOURSELF AND YOUR CAREER? 

I’m originally from Cardiff in Wales. 

I’ve spent more than twenty years 

working across both the public and 

private sectors primarily in the UK. 

I’ve written and researched extensively 

on diversity and inclusion topics over 

the years. My doctoral thesis examined 

how best to embed D&I issues across 

the UK construction industry. 



77

“I’ve spent my life trying to make 

the case for a fairer and more equal 

workplace environment” 

— 

Rosanna Duncan, 


79 

I’m now the Chief Diversity Officer for 

the Global Impact firm Palladium. We’re a 

business which has over 3000 

employees in 90 countries around the 

world working hard to help solve some of 

our planet’s most pressing challenges. 

We work closely with governments, 

businesses, and investors. We 

implement innovative education, 

health and economic development 

programmes and provide specialist 

consulting and in-depth financial insights 

which put us at the forefront of the 

growing interest in impact investing. 

I’ve spent my life trying to make 

the case for a fairer and more equal 

workplace environment. It’s something 

I’ve always cared passionately about. It’s 

more than a job. 

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR PERSONAL 

ACHIEVEMENTS OVER THE YEARS? 

I’m proud of what we’ve managed 

to achieve here at Palladium in the 

space of just over three years. In 2017, 

Palladium identified an Equal Pay Gap 

of 21% in some parts of the business. 

But as of the end of 2019 globally 

we succeeded in bringing that figure 

down to less than 2%. 


CSR 

Palladium: Make It Possible 


80 

HOW HAVE YOU SEEN BUSINESSES’ 

EFFORTS TO BE MORE DIVERSE EVOLVE 

OVER THE LAST DECADE? 

It wasn’t long ago that to, many, 

‘diversity’ meant quotas. In fact, we 

still see an overemphasis on gender 

parity and other simplistic metrics 

that, while well-intentioned, don’t 

actually achieve the diversity of 

thought and inclusive workplaces we 

need. This has begun to shift over 

the last decade, to a point where 

more companies are striving to 

embed D&I into all aspects of their 

business. We’re seeing greater 

acknowledgement of the need for an 

intersectional approach (beyond 

gender or any single characteristic); 

for the removal of unconscious bias 

from hiring practices; and the fact 

that creating a diverse and inclusive 

workplace is everyone’s job. 

HOW DO YOU ENSURE THAT THE WHOLE 

OF A STAFFING BODY IS ONBOARD WITH 

INITIATIVES TO BECOME MORE DIVERSE 

AND INCLUSIVE? 

It requires commitment from 

everyone within the business and a 

sense of purpose from the top of the 


organisation. Staff need to be more 

than bought-in — they have to 

recognise that everyone is 

responsible for making our shared 

workplace more diverse and 

inclusive. 

At Palladium, we’ve done this by 

giving D&I a place at the top table 

through the creation of a Chief 

Diversity Officer role, holding senior 

leaders accountable and transparent 

about the progress we’re making, 

and maintaining an ongoing 

conversation with staff at all levels. 

Companies have to keep D&I top of 

mind in all they do, constantly 

sharing ideas, debating issues, and 

continuously improving together. 

This means that when we have 

success to celebrate, such as the 

reduction of our Equal Pay Gap from 

21% in some parts of the business to 

less than 2% globally, everyone can 

share in that success! 

Rosanna Duncan 


81 

Dr Rosanna Duncan is Chief Diversity Officer at Palladium, a global impact 

firm with operations in over 90 countries. Her role involves maximising 

the opportunities from embracing diversity and inclusion (D&I) for 

employees, clients, supply chains, and the company’s bottom line. 

She is also the Chair of Palladium’s cutting-edge Sustainable 

Business Steering Group, combining D&I, the environment, and 

safeguarding within a single framework. Rosanna draws upon a 20+ 

year record of multi-sector achievement that includes embedding 

D&I contractor requirements into Europe’s largest infrastructure 

project, High Speed Rail (HS2). Underpinning her experience 

are a PhD and chartered membership of the CIPD, as well as 

a significant body of research and internationally published 

work on a range of D&I-related topics. Rosanna is also 

a member of UK Research & Innovation’s Equality, Diversity 

and Inclusion external advisory group. 


CSR 

82 

“We still see an 

overemphasis on gender 

parity and other simplistic 

metrics that, while wellintentioned, 

don’t actually 

achieve the diversity 

of thought and inclusive 

workplaces we need” 

— 



HAVE YOU HAD ANY RECURRING 

CHALLENGES WHEN MOVING TO 

IMPLEMENT THESE INITIATIVES? 

Accountability is always a challenge. 

It’s easy for any organisation to 

assume that once a Chief Diversity 

Officer is in place, that person will be 

responsible for ‘solving’ D&I. But my 

role is to equip, enable, and lead the 

organisation on its D&I journey. 

Acknowledging that takes time and 

reinforcement, but pays dividends. 

The other challenge that has to be 

overcome is transparency. It’s not 

always comfortable to get up in front 

of our people and report on progress, 

particularly when more work is needed 

to achieve our goals. But doing so is 

crucial for buy-in and to send a clear 

message about how much this matters 

to the organisation. Once leaders are 

willing to do that, they almost always 

agree that it was worth the effort. 

HOW CAN RECRUITERS ENSURE THAT 

THEY ARE SUPPORTING A DIVERSE 

CULTURE WITHOUT THE RISK OF 

TOKENISING INDIVIDUALS? 

Decisions should always be made 

based on the best person for the job. 

However, we need to question what 

we see as the ideal candidate and 

challenge ourselves on this. We need 

to check that we are not recruiting an 

image of ourselves or using criteria 

that will always bring us the same hires 

from the same pool of candidates. 

I believe strongly in the importance 

of addressing intersectionality. When 

we consider diversity and inclusion 

issues we need to look beyond gender 

and examine other characteristics that 

intersect, including race, socioeconomic 

background, age and 

disability status. Neither men nor 

women are a homogenous group, and 

if we fail to see this, we won’t be able 

to move towards real equality for all. 


WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE TO OTHER 

C-LEVEL EXECUTIVES LOOKING TO 

BECOME MORE DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE 

WITHIN THEIR COMPANIES? 

Give D&I a seat at the top table. Your 

D&I lead needs to have the backing of 

the board and the CEO’s mandate to 

make changes. Set realistic targets 

and KPIs and make senior leaders 

accountable for delivering on these. 

Everyone is responsible for creating a 

diverse and inclusive workplace. One 

of the biggest risks is the perception 

that D&I is compartmentalised, a 

bolt-on to HR, or of too little strategic 

value to merit proper commitment. 

When something becomes 

everybody’s business, change 

happens quicker. It’s important to 

keep the conversation flowing, 

internally and externally. 

WHAT CHANGES ARE YOU EXPECTING 

AND HOPING TO SEE IN THE FUTURE 

WITH REGARDS TO DIVERSITY? 

We’re going to see more analysis 

of how different types of inequality 

intersect, and will be able to shift our 83 


CSR 

84 

recruitment practices, selection criteria, 

cultures, and unconscious biases 

toward the necessary action for 

meaningful change. 

We must look beyond the gender lens. 

There is much discussion at the moment 

around increasing the diversity of boards, 

but most of this dialogue is about 

increasing women’s representation. We 

need to understand that women are not 

a homogenous group and look critically 

at which women are accessing these 

opportunities. In many cases, they will 

have more in common with their male 

counterparts. 

What gets measured gets done, 

and we’re also going to see more 

companies equipping their D&I leaders 

with ever more sophisticated data and 

setting more ambitious KPIs — 

something that’s had a huge impact 

at Palladium. 

HOW DO YOU FEEL THAT PALLADIUM 

IS LEADING THE WAY WITH REGARDS 

TO CREATING REAL AND SUSTAINABLE 

DIVERSITY? 

Palladium keeps diversity at the 

forefront of people’s minds by 

constantly sharing ideas, debating 


“We need to check that we are not recruiting an image 

of ourselves or using criteria that will always bring 

us the same hires from the same pool of candidates” 

— 



issues, and encouraging everyone 

who works here, at all levels, to 

develop their own thought leadership 

in this space. The ‘proof is in the 

pudding’, as they say: our KPIs speak 

for themselves and it’s thanks to the 

willingness of the entire company to 

put in the work. 

WHAT’S ON THE HORIZON FOR 

YOURSELF AND PALLADIUM? 

I’m seeking to spread best practice and 

some of the lessons Palladium has learnt 

for the benefit of a wider international 

business audience. I’ll be running 

workshops this spring to share how 

we addressed some of the problems 

Palladium encountered because I believe 

the lessons learnt are just as relevant 

whether your organisation is in the public 

or private sector, or whether it is large 

or small in size. 

In April I will be one of the principal 

speakers at the Chartered Institute 

for Personnel and Development 

Diversity and Inclusion conference 

taking place in London. 

DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO ADD? 

I believe that there is a direct 

correlation between the seniority 

of my role within Palladium and my 

position on the Executive Board, 

and the rate of progress we have 

managed to achieve on diversity 

and inclusion issues. 

Real change takes time and can 

only be achieved when everyone 

works together. The difficulty lies 

in helping the organisation to think 

about diversity beyond gender, and 

to see that everyone is responsible 

— from executives to the front line 

— for creating a diverse and inclusive 

environment. 

85 


CITY FOCUS | TORONTO 

86 

City Focus 

TORO 

Business Chief takes a look at 

the city of Toronto and three 

of the pillars of its booming 

economy: natural resources, 

finance, and tech 


WRITTEN BY WILL GIRLING 

NTO 

87 



88 

Named after the Iroquoian word 

‘tkaronto’, meaning the ‘place where 

trees stand in water’, the city now 

known as Toronto was established by 

British settlers in 1793. Originally called York 

but later renamed in 1834, the city currently 

has an estimated population of 2.81million 

citizens and has become the largest overall 

contributor to the Canadian economy, 

representing 20% of national GDP and 

providing an important hub in world economics. 

Although Toronto experiences a 

climate considered relatively mild in Canada, 

the coldest temperature measured in the 

area was a blistering -31.3 degrees celsius 

(-24.34 fahrenheit) in 1943. However, the 

relative infrequency of extreme weather 

might have contributed to Toronto placing 

7th on the 2019 Global Liveability Index 

for world cities, and with over 30% of the 

population speaking a language other than 

English or French, the city is clearly not just 

a happy place but a diverse one too. 


2.81mn 

89 

Population of 

Toronto, Canada 

1793 

Year founded 

Nearest Major Airport 

17km 

Pearson International 

Airport 



90 

The economy of Toronto has been 

very robust for a number of years - the 

city has a GDP growth rate of 2.4% 

per annum, exceeding the national 

average rate by 0.6%. The province 

of Ontario’s vast supply of natural 

resources and hydroelectric capabilities 

make Toronto a centre of 

industrial operations, with the Greater 

Toronto Area contributing more than 

50% of national product in Canada’s 

manufacturing sector. In addition to its 

industrial might, Toronto’s economy 

receives significant input from other 

industries, such as finance, media, 

technology and tourism. Ranked as 

having the fastest growing financial 

centre in North America and the 10th 

most competitive in the world overall, 

Toronto also represents the nexus 

of the Canadian tech industry, 

generating upto CA$52bn per year 

in revenue and employing 168,000 

people in the city alone. 

BARRICK GOLD CORPORATION 

The second largest gold mining company 

in the world, Barrick Gold was 

founded in 1983 and was listed on the 

TSX that same year. The company’s 


each extends all over the world, 

with active operations in Argentina, 

Canada, Chile, Peru, Saudi Arabia, 

the USA, Zambia, and many more. 

Producing approximately 4.5million oz 

of gold in 2018, Barrick Gold reported 

revenues of US$7.2bn and estimated 

that it had 62.3millonn oz of untapped 

gold resources. In addition to a 

number of new projects and developments, 

CEO Mark Bristow confirmed 

in 2019 that Barrick’s merger with 

Jersey-based Randgold had been consummated, 

crystallising the company’s 

strong position in the gold industry. 91 

Barrick Gold Corporation: 

Who We Are 




92 

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA 

The largest bank in Canada – employing 

80,000 people and serving 

16million clients globally – has its 

corporate headquarters located 

in Toronto. Placing 50th on Forbes’ 

Global 2000 (listing public companies 

worldwide in terms of sales, profit, 

assets and market value), RBC is 

also Canada’s largest company by 

revenue, reported as CA$46bn for 

2019. Active in its national community, 

the bank is spearheading an ‘RBC 

Training Ground’ initiative, focusing 

on finding and developing Canada’s 

next Olympic talent for Tokyo 2020. 

Now in the fifth year of the scheme, 

RBC has put over 8,000 athletes to 

the test in more than 100 local events, 

all of them free of charge. The bank 

also announced in January 2020 

that it was creating the ‘RBC Future 

Launch Scholarship’: 450 educational 

scholarships of CA$1,500 awarded to 

those who demonstrate drive, commitment 

and a passion for learning. 


ECOBEE 

A relatively young company, ecobee 

was co-founded in 2007 by CEO 

Stuart Lombard. Among the most 

innovative tech companies currently 

operating in Toronto, ecobee 

launched the world’s first smart 

thermostat with the aim of providing 

a superior customer experience and 

saving people money. Now holding 

a commanding 30% of the market, 

the company isn’t showing signs of 

slowing down, releasing a next-gen 

suite of features called Eco+ in 

November 2019. Making use of AI to 

specially tailor and optimise energy 

use, Eco+ managed to save a 75,000 

test group of customers enough 

energy to power 1,000 homes in only 

three months. Lombard’s motivation 

has always been to not only 

save money, but also save 

the planet too, “We want to 

make the world a better place,” 

he said. “That’s a really fun 

thing to do.” 

93 



94 

Upcoming business events in 

Toronto for 2020 include the FITC 

Design and Technology conference 

from 19-21 April. A globally recognised 

event that is taking place in 

several major cities around the world, 

FITC provides an opportunity for 

companies at the cutting-edge of 

design, digital development, media 

and innovation in creative tech to 

come together and showcase their 

accomplishments. Featuring over 70 

presenters and myriad events, activities 

and performances over the course 

FITC TORONTO 2019 



95 

of the three day event, FITC will be an 

essential for creatives, technologists, 

executives and marketers who want 

to get a taste of the industry’s future. 

The excitement and potential of 

Toronto is palpable when one considers 

the prestigious, large-scale 

businesses currently using the city 

as their base. As the key location in a 

booming economy, Toronto acts as a 

diverse and valuable hub to Canadian 

business and world finance. Blessed 

with a highly successful natural 

resources industry but not content to 

rest on its laurels, the Greater Toronto 

Area offers a broad range of industries, 

services, and opportunities – both 

established and state-of-the-art – to 

companies looking to secure a place 

in the Canadian market. The city will, 

no doubt, continue to be an extremely 

important lynchpin of the country’s 

economy for decades to come. 


TOP 10 

96 


Most 

influential 

CMOs in 

the USA 

97 

Business Chief takes a closer look 

at Forbes’ 2019 list of influential 

Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) 

of companies in the USA 



TOP 10 

98 

10 

Michelle Peluso 

IBM (2016–) 

Currently, Michelle Peluso is the Senior Vice President of Digital 

Sales and the first Chief Marketing Officer at IBM. Peluso aspires to 

use her position at IBM to support women in business and technology. 

During her time at the company so far, a notable campaign she 

has led is IBM’s ‘Be Equal’ campaign, which encourages its workforce 

to embody respect, accountability and equality to improve 

the workplace. Prior to working at IBM, Peluso worked for Boston 

Consulting Group, The White House, Site59, Travelocity, Citi, Gilt, 

Nike and Technology Crossover Venture. 


09 

Chris Capossela 

Microsoft (1991–) 

Chris Capossela has been a part of 

Microsoft for nearly 30 years. He 

started his career as a marketing manager 

and speech writer for Bill Gates, 

working his way up to the role he is 

in today – Chief Marketing Officer 

and Executive Vice President of 

Consumer Business. Capossela 

is driven by the importance of 

developing products and telling 

stories that are compelling 

for everyone. A notable campaign 

led by Capossela was 

the Microsoft Super Bowl 

‘We All Win’ advertisement; 

the video shows several 

children with disabilities 

using adaptive controllers 

to play video games. 

99 


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TOP 10 

08 

Phil Schiller 

Apple (1987–) 

Phil Schiller is Apple’s current Senior Vice President of Worldwide 

Marketing. Schiller has over 25 years of experience within marketing 

and management, 20 of which have been spent at Apple. Outside of 

Apple, Schiller has held various marketing positions at Macromedia, 

FirePower Systems, Nolan, Norton & Company, and Massachusetts 

General Hospital. Over the course of 2019, Schiller led several campaigns 

for the company. For example, he coordinated the ‘Privacy. 

That’s iPhones’ campaign, a drive from Apple to 

ensure its customers that, although data 

security concerns are on the rise, customers 

can trust Apple with their data. 

101 


TOP 10 

07 

Linda Boff 

General Electric (2003–) 

102 

Currently, Linda Boff is the Chief Marketing Officer and Vice 

President of Learning and Culture at General Electric. Boff has 20 

years’ experience in marketing and communication, and is driven 

by her passion for digital and the future of media. Prior to her 

roles at General Electric, Boff was the Director of Marketing and 

Communication at Citi. “I’m passionate about all things digital, 

and the future of media, specifically new digital media and concepts 

that fuse content, design and technology. I focus on embedding 

a meaningful marketing strategy, and marrying the art and science 

of marketing while instigating change.” 


06 

Raja Rajamannar 

Mastercard (2013–) 

103 

With over 30 years of experience in marketing and communications, 

Raja Rajamannar has been the Chief Marketing and 

Communications Officer at Mastercard since 2013. Prior to working 

at Mastercard, Rajamannar has worked at Asian Paints, Unilever, 

Citi, Diners Club North America, Humana, WellPoint, Ad Council, 

PPL Corporation and Bon Secours Mercy Health. Rajamannar is 

recognised for his innovative thinking, leadership and ability to 

transform businesses. His goal is to “completely redefine the model 

of marketing”. With this aspiration, Rajamannar has recently led the 

transformation of Mastercard’s identity, delivering a streamlined 

look for the company and simplifying its logo. 


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TOP 10 

erActive 

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TOP 10 

04 

Kristin Lemkau 

JPMorgan Chase (1998–) 

Kristin Lemkau is the Chief Marketing Officer of one of the oldest 

financial institutions in the United States: JPMorgan Chase. 

Lemkau’s main focus as Chief Marketing Officer is to project the 

human side of the financial giant. Noteworthy campaigns led by 

Lemkau include the company’s ‘#ThisMama’ campaign which 

featured Serena Williams and her daughter to celebrate working 

mums. Lemkau has just under 30 years’ experience in marketing 

and communications, working at Freeport-McMoRan Copper 

and Gold Inc, and AlliedSignal before joining JPMorgan Chase. 

106 


03 

Ann Lewnes 

Adobe (2006–) 

107 

Currently the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer 

of Adobe, Ann Lewnes has over 30 years’ experience within marketing. 

Under her leadership, Adobe transitioned to using digital 

marketing solutions, establishing a strategic template, using a combination 

of data-driven marketing and human skills. Prior to being 

Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Adobe, 

Lewnes was the Vice President of Marketing at Intel Corporation. 

Outside of Adobe, Lewnes has been inducted into the American 

Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame and named as one of the 

most influential and innovative Chief Marketing Officers. 


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TOP 10 

Breaking Down Barriers & Building 

Male Allyship with Antonio Lucio 


110 

02 

Antonio Lucio 

Facebook (2018–) 

Antonio Lucio is the current Global Chief Marketing Officer of 

Facebook. Joining the company in 2018, Lucio brought with him over 

30 years of experience in marketing to Facebook, having previously 

worked for PepsiCo, Visa and HP. Not long after joining Facebook, 

Lucio set about repositioning the company with the launch of the 

‘More Together’ campaign which emphasises the social network’s 

ability to bring people with shared interests together. Over the years, 

Lucio has been recognised as a thought leader and global influence 

in marketing transformation, championing diversity and inclusion. 



111

TOP 10 

112 


01 

Marc S Pritchard 

Procter and Gamble (1982–) 

Currently the Chief Brand Officer at Procter and Gamble, Marc S 

Pritchard drives the company’s marketing strategy to make content 

that is relevant and crucial. Pritchard strives to be a force for good 

through ethics, responsibility, community impact, diversity, inclusion, 

gender equality and environmental sustainability. Amidst the #MeToo 

movement, Pritchard worked to develop the Gillette ‘The Best Men Can 

Be’ campaign that urged men to set a healthy example for young boys. 

“We wanted to start an important conversation, and we sure have done 

that,” reflected Pritchard. Pritchard strives to make every day his personal 

mission to be useful. “I am fortunate to be part of a great company 

that is useful to five billion people around the world,” said Pritchard. 

113 

Gillette: we believe – the best men can be 



114 

Kansas City 

Public Schools: 

Creating 

The Classroom 

of Now 

WRITTEN BY 

AMBER DONOVAN-STEVENS 

PRODUCED BY 

MIKE SADR 



115

KANSAS CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS (KCPS) 

Joe Phillips, Director of Technology, 

shares the leapfrogging that KCPS 

is undertaking in order to create 

greater student equity 

116 

D 

igital transformation takes time and a 

considerable amount of resources, but for 

Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS), 

Joe Phillips, Director of Technology, asserts that his 

students cannot afford to wait. Few people understand 

the technological needs of the students more 

than Phillips, who grew up in Missouri, knowing first 

hand the disparity in educational support provided 

to children across the state. 

Before he came to his current role, Phillips spent 

16 years in the army as a Chief Human Resources 

Officer and Chief Information Officer. Following 

an injury in Afghanistan he was medically retired in 

2015. “Leadership breaks down into three components: 

purpose, direction and motivation,” explains 

Phillips, “and my time in the army really prepared 

me for my current position at KCPS in providing 

direction and leadership to our team.” 

Prior to his time at Kansas City Public Schools 

(KCPS), Phillips was the Manager of Technology 

Support Services at Park Hill School District, where 

he received the 2018 Spirit Award. Just recently he 

was nominated for the CoSN CTO of the year award 


117 

1867 

Year founded 

$100mn 

Revenue in 

US dollars 

2,500 

Number of 

employees 



118 

for his work at KCPS. Yet Phillips is far 

more occupied with the achievements 

of the district. “My key responsibility 

in this role is to use technology to 

improve the lives of our students, and I 

am particularly invested as I know how 

our kids feel and what they face every 

day. They can’t wait several years for 

change, they need it now in order to be 

equipped for the future.” 

The key way in which Phillips is 

doing this is via a project he calls 

‘The Classroom of Now.’ “Many other 

districts may have projects called 

‘The Classroom of Tomorrow’ or ‘The 

Classroom of the Future’, but our kids 

don’t have time to wait for this,” he says. 

Phillips shares that there are currently 

42 technology projects underway to 

improve upon the district’s infrastructure, 

cybersecurity and classroom 

experience. “Our largest project is the 

district-wide refresh of technology, 

so that our students can get the bestof-the-best 

and our teachers aren’t 

hindered by technological difficulties.” 

At the core of these edtech initiatives 

is a clear goal: to become the go-to 

strategic partner across the entire 

organisation. “If we can help every 

“Many other districts 

may have projects 

called ‘The Classroom 

of Tomorrow’ or 

‘The Classroom of 

the Future’, but our 

kids don’t have time 

to wait for this” 

— 

Joe Phillips, 

Director of Technology, KCPS 


Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS): 

New laptops 


119 

department improve upon their processes, 

procedures and technologies, 

then we can truly improve the experiences 

of our students.” This assistance 

may range from the effective technology 

training of teachers, through assisting 

in the selection and deployment of 

active shooter simulation technology 

for the security department. “All of this 

comes down to equity: identifying the 

challenges faced by our students in our 

district, and helping them to overcome 

these challenges so that they can have 

the same opportunities as higher-SES 

students when they go to college, or 

enter their career. We can’t simply keep 

pace with other school districts; we 

need to leapfrog our technologies so 

our students can remain competitive. 

Outdated technology won’t equip our 

students for the future.” 

KCPS is currently in the first year of 

a five year edtech plan which aligns 

with the district’s strategic plan and 

goals. “Often, an issue that you see 

with regard to others in my position 

is that they decide on technology 

that they believe should be in place, 


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and everywhere in between. 

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Learn more at lightspeedsystems.com/kcps

they don’t necessarily work from the 

needs of the educators,” he explains, 

“This is where our team differs. We 

see what our educators would like to 

achieve in the next five years and we 

work backwards from there to provide 

the best processes and needs in 

order to become aligned.” 

To really articulate the scope of this 

transformation, Phillips details the 

conditions of the classrooms when he 

first started in his role in 2019. “One of 

my first initiatives was to ensure the 

implementation of iReady, however 

the elementary schools in the district 

had exceptionally poor technology. 

Joe Phillips 


Before entering Educational Technology, Joe served as both an 

enlisted soldier and an Army Officer. During his tenure, Joe 

served in numerous positions including 10 years as a Chief 

Human Resources Officer and later as a Chief Information 

Officer. In both roles, Joe’s specialty was building new, and 

turning around poorly performing, organisations and 

departments for the Army. Joe retired from the Army in 2015 

and joined the Park Hill School District in Kansas City, MO as 

the Manager of Technology Support Services. In 2018, Joe 

accepted the position of Director of Technology for the 

Kansas City Public Schools District and has spent the past 

two years completely transforming the department. Joe 

has numerous technology certifications, a Bachelor’s in 

Criminal Justice from the University of Central Missouri, 

a Master’s Degree in Business and Organisational 

Security Management from Webster 

University, and is currently a doctoral 

candidate in Liberty University’s Ed.D 

in Educational Leadership programme. 

121 



122 


The laptops couldn’t hold a charge 

and the students didn’t have power 

outlets at their desks,” he explains. 

On Phillips’s 90th day as Director 

of Technology he approached his 

superintendent Dr. Mark Bedell and 

requested US$2mn. “Dr. Bedell and 

our board members are very supportive 

of the work we are doing and 

the project was easily approved.” After 

the first winter break, all students 

in grades three to six received new 

laptops, shortly followed with iPads 

for Kindergarten through to grade two. 

“This upgrade has made a huge difference 

on our ability to use technology to 

teach our kids as well as individualising 

our teaching for each student. We 

have also focused on reducing our 

average ticket time for IT problems and 

have been able to get it from 46 days 

down to under 48 hours.” 

In addition to this, the vast number 

of projectors are being replaced with 

OneScreen interactive flat panels, 

which were provided by Clary Co, 

a company Phillips cites as pivotal 

in standardising teaching for staff 

across all schools in the district, 

which, when paired with strong 

123 


OneScreen 

It's why 

students 

stay in class 

even after 

the bell rings. 

 

 

(800) 992-5279 

sales@onesreensolutions.com 

training in technology, has positioned 

staff to be able to become more creative 

and attentive with their classes. 

“Technology anxiety has the power to 

undermine and destroy a whole transformation, 

so working with our Digital 

Learning Team and making sure our 

staff are trained and comfortable with 

these new technologies is paramount 

to our greater strategy,” he says. 

Phillips references Fred Davis’ 1989 

Technology Acceptance Model, which 

was used as the framework for the 

staff training. He adds that for every 

rollout, a school in the district will pilot 

the technology, allowing for feedback 

and amendments prior to the districtwide 

rollout. 

As technology evolves, naturally so 

does cybersecurity. “We have a layered 

approach to cybersecurity,” explains 

Phillips. “We have solid firewalls and 

end point detection and response 

software. We’re also following all NIST 

cybersecurity standards, CIS controls, 

CIPA, HIPPA, and FERPA where we 

modify it by grade range and the topics 

studied by students as needed.” KCPS 

also adheres closely to the Children’s 

Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), 


“CTOs need to move from 

the basement to the 

boardroom: we need to be 

out across the schools and 

departments building 

strategic partnerships and 

really trying to understand 

what our schools and 

departments need from us” 

— 

Joe Phillips, 


which ensures stricter security levels 

for children under the age of 13. “It is 

so crucial that educators understand 

cybersecurity and the threat it poses,” 

he says. To illustrate the gravity of the 

situation, Phillips shares that on the dark 

web, a student’s information is worth 

around $30 a transaction, as opposed 

to that of an adult, whose data is worth 

around 30 cents. “It’s important to 

understand that simple solutions can 

have a massive impact.” He goes on to 

share that KCPS has an email address 

for students and educators to forward 

125 

Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS): 

IT Department 




126 

suspect emails onto, as well as a warning 

banner that heads suspect emails 

external to the district. “From these 

solutions alone we have seen a massive 

decrease in phishing attempts across 

the district,” he remarks. A partner that 

has been integral to cybersecurity 

is Lightspeed Systems, which has 

assisted in a number of ways: piloting 

classroom management, staff monitoring 

and controlling what students see 

as well as the projection of work. Lastly, 

it provides a safety check that centers 

around self-harm, bullying and anything 

else that may place students at risk. 

KCPS has already made great 

strides in the first year of this transformation 

and Phillips takes pride in this. 

“My favorite part of this transformation 

is seeing the impact. I grew up in this 

district and I remember how easy it is 

to succumb to feelings of inferiority 

when relating to suburban districts.” 

“Seeing our students, who have been 

using these depleted laptops, unbox 

a new chromebook halfway through 

the academic year was absolutely 

incredible. They’re durable and cutting 

edge and the students’ reactions 

were amazing; they realise that their 

education is valuable, and that they 

are valuable. Yet in my role, I need to 

ensure that the best-of-the-best technologies 

feel normal for our students 

and that they never feel that their 

education isn’t as valuable as their 

suburban counterparts.” 

Looking ahead, Phillips makes his 

intentions clear: “It’s no secret that I 

want us to be the best K-12 technology 

department in the world. I want 

KCPS to be the first thing that people 

associate with K-12 EdTech, and not 

for personal ego, but because our 


“We can’t simply keep 

pace with other 

school districts; we 

need to leapfrog our 

technologies so our 

students can remain 

competitive” 

— 

Joe Phillips, 


127 

students truly deserve the best.” 

Phillips also wants to harness VR in 

the classrooms, to take students on 

virtual field trips. He is also interested 

to see how the role of 3D printing will 

evolve. “3D printing has been something 

of a novelty, but I believe it has 

the potential to serve a greater purpose 

in helping students learn.” When 

considering his position in the wider 

industry, Phillips comments, “CTOs 

need to move from the basement to 

the boardroom: we need to be out 

across the schools and departments 

building strategic partnerships and 

really trying to understand what our 

schools and departments need from 

us.” Phillips says that KCPS is in an 

excellent position to accelerate to 

transform from what he describes as 

“the underdog of school districts” to 

a Missouri leader, in time a regional 

leader, and eventually a global leader. 


128 


PCL Construction: 

transformation 

through people 

and culture 

129 

WRITTEN BY 

WILL GIRLING 

PRODUCED BY 

JAKE MEGEARY 


PCL CONSTRUCTION 

Mark Bryant, CIO at PCL Construction, 

describes how the company’s vision 

and “innovate or die” philosophy is 

helping to shape the modern industry 

130 

F 

ounded in 1906 in Stoughton, 

Saskatchewan, PCL Construction is 

a construction company operating primarily 

in Canada, the US, Australia and the Caribbean. 

Now headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, the 

100% employee-owned company currently 

employs over 4,000 full-time professional and 

admin staff and more than 10,000 hourly tradespeople. 

Operating primarily on heavy industrial, 

civil and building construction, PCL has attained 

consistent results and broad geographic diversity 

to ensure its continued success. The company 

works on 700-800 projects each year, and is the 

largest contracting company in Canada and the 

seventh largest in North America overall. 

Mark Bryant, Chief Information Officer (CIO) 

at PCL, joined the company seven years ago with 

the aim of helping the business understand how 

IT-based solutions could bring benefits and drive 

efficiencies. “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial 

vibe and a big interest in technology,” he explains. 

“I’m one of those guys that’s always bridged IT 



131


132 

“There’s a lot of opportunity for change. 

If you’re open to change, it’s a pretty cool 

place to be right now” 

— 

Mark Bryant, 

CIO, PCL Construction 

and business, even when I started at 

Toronto Dominion Bank, where I spent 

the first nine years of my career.” Having 

the fortune and talent to work for some 

of the largest, primarily Canadian, 

companies in the market — Davis 

& Henderson, and WSP — Bryant found 

that one thing consistently attracted 

him: great work culture and great colleagues. 

Regarding the honour of being 

named the 2019 ‘Canadian CIO of the 

Year’ by ITAC, Bryant was clear on what 

he regards as the key to his success. 

“It’s a pinnacle award for me from a 

career perspective,” he says. “But if you 

don’t have an amazing team around you, 

you don’t win ‘CIO of the Year’. My team 

at PCL has been instrumental in 

executing the vision that I’ve had.” 

For PCL, that vision meant making 

a fundamental shift away from ‘legacy 

IT’ and towards becoming an 

integrated business technology 

group. “Initially, IT was 

focused on keeping the lights on,” 


PCL’s Digital Transformation 


133 

says Bryant, describing the limitations 

of the previous tech culture’s scope. 

“One of the things that I’m most proud 

of is my team’s transition to realise our 

new strategic vision.” More specifically, 

Bryant has spearheaded a new range 

of products and services for PCL to 

drive productivity, efficiency and safety. 

This approach has proved crucial 

in an industry that is typically slow to 

adopt the latest trends in digitisation. 

Bucking the trend, PCL has been 

focused on developing this aspect of 

its operations for over 30 years. From 

homegrown estimating software to staff 

management applications, the company 

has striven to be an active 

participant in the change, rather than 

merely reacting to it. According to 

Bryant, there is a reason for this. “The 

construction industry historically has 

been underserved by the software 

development community. As one of the 

oldest industries in the world, a lot of 

practices in construction haven’t 

changed.” Due to the nature of the work, 

which requires a vast amount of manual 

processes to function, cvonstruction 

has been among the last industries 

to embrace the digital revolution. 


134 



135


136 

However, with investment capital 

starting to flow into the industry, 

a huge influx of new thinking has 

opened doors for IT and business 

professionals. “There’s a lot of opportunity 

for change. If you’re open to 

change, it’s a pretty cool place to be 

right now.” The digital transformation 

for PCL began with what Bryant calls 

the ‘four pillars’: cloud, integration, 

mobility, and data analytics. Shifting 

the company’s large volumes of data 

from its hundreds of yearly projects 

to the cloud was a significant move 

for efficiency, as was integrating its 

technology more intelligently to allow 

innovations a quick gateway into daily 

operations. “If something new comes 

along that’s better, faster, or makes 

more sense for our business, we can 

rip out the incumbent technology and 

plug another one in. An integration 

framework allows us to be very agile.” 

This shift away from a ‘waterfall 

development cycle’ also means that 

applications and services can be 

brought out in weeks or months, 

rather than years. 

Mark Bryant 


As CIO, Mark is responsible for the strategic and innovative advancement 

of information technology (IT) within the PCL family of companies. 

Mark has over two decades of IT expertise, having served in 

the financial services, software, manufacturing, and AEC 

(architecture, engineering, and construction) industries. 

Prior to joining PCL, he led the technology operations at 

a century-old financial services firm and was CIO at 

a leading planning, engineering and consulting firm. 

Mark received his business administration accreditation 

from Sheridan College in Ontario and additional credentials 

related to ecommerce from the Ivey School of Business. 

He completed his CIO MBA at Boston University. 


137 

Mobility and the ability to collect 

data from the field is also crucial to 

PCL’s operations. With the advent of 

smartphones and tablets, the company 

was able to find a way to gather this 

information more simply. More data 

also meant that an overhaul of the way 

the company performed data analysis 

was crucial. The launch of PCL’s smart 

construction platform Job Site Insights 

— a key Internet of Things (IoT) based 

platform and one of the core focal 

points for the company in 2020 — 

meant that data could be collected 

and utilised in fascinating new ways, 

such as monitoring conditions at the 

work-face of construction. “The IoT 

platform is 100% data driven, enabling 

real time alerts to anomalies and is 

extremely extensible, allowing for the 

addition of new capabilities quickly. 

It allows us to make better decisions 

because now we’re doing something 

with data that wasn’t historically available.” 

says Bryant. 

Another great example of data 

being an enabler is a hazard inspection 

safety application exploiting AI 



“PCL Construction is 

a juggernaut of innovation 

in the industry” 

— 

Mark Bryant, 


138 

Taking Safety into 

the Digital Realm 




139


technology to scan photographs and 

identify hazards. PCL has been able 

to reduce the time and labour spent 

on a crucial task — safety inspections 

— without sacrificing quality. 

His goal is nothing short of the total 

digitisation of the construction industry, 

including how it measures quality, 

safety, financials, work schedules, 

performance and more. Data is the 

essential element of the large-scale 

improvement PCL is striving towards, 

as are close relationships with the 

“Our people and our 

culture really are the 

difference. I am 

passionate and excited 

about what we’re doing. 

I couldn’t find a better 

company to do it at” 

— 

Mark Bryant, 


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Providing Project Insight 


141 

partners and suppliers with which 

the company works. Emphasising the 

collaborative nature of the construction 

industry, Bryant believes that 

PCL’s business relationships in 2020 

are going to be of paramount importance. 

“I’m really focused on continuing 

to build a partner ecosystem of companies 

that want to share our vision and 

success as we digitise construction.” 

“We have a fantastic relationship 

with Microsoft,” he explains 

(Microsoft provides PCL’s cloudbased 

services). “They’re not 

a supplier to us, frankly. They’re 

a partner with a vested interest 

in helping us drive efficiencies.” 

Microsoft will also be instrumental 

in PCL’s integration of blockchain into 

its logistical operations, as well as 

billing and receiving. 

Similarly, Pype has a special 

relationship with PCL; the company 

leverages Pype’s ‘AutoSpec’ product 

to enhance operational efficiencies. 

“They’re a great example of a startup 

in the construction industry that is 

using artificial intelligence (AI) to 

review submittals and show us areas 

that we should focus on.” 



142 

DID YOU KNOW? 

• The IoT platform is 

100% data driven 

• PCL work on 

between 700-800 

projects each year 

• 4,000 full-time 

professional and admin 

staff and more than 10,000 

hourly tradespeople 


“I’ve always had an 

entrepreneurial vibe 

and a big interest 

in technology” 

— 

Mark Bryant, 


Another partner offering exciting 

solutions to PCL is Australian company 

Willow, providing ‘digital twin technology’ 

to create a virtual model of assets, 

processes, systems, and other entities. 

“The concept of a digital twin has been 

in the airline and automotive industries 

for years,” says Bryant. “It has not been 

applied to construction, so Willow will 

be a significant partner for us in their 

smart building strategy.” 

Even though he has established an 

exciting technological vision, Bryant 

hasn’t forgotten that changes in the 

construction industry are not easy to 

introduce. With new technologies 

being introduced at breakneck speed, 

it’s possible that staff will reach a saturation 

point in their ability to adapt. 

However, it is by fusing the knowledge 

143 



144 

“Digitisation is 

not an option. 

Digitisation is 

an absolute 

necessity” 

— 

Mark Bryant, 


and experience of its field staff and technology 

staff, who have been working 

on-site for 40+ years, with the latest IT 

tech that PCL hopes to gain a major 

advantage in the market. Adopting a 

‘crawl, walk, run’ philosophy of introduction, 

Bryant is confident that PCL will 

add new digital aspects at an appropriate 

pace. “It blows my mind how complicated 

our business is and how our people do 

such an excellent job,” he states. 


1906 

Year founded 

$6.95bn 

Revenue in 

US dollars 

4,000+ 

Number of 

employees 

145 

This represents the crux of PCL’s 

digital transformation for Bryant: “Our 

people and our culture really are the 

difference. I am passionate and excited 

about what we’re doing. I couldn’t find 

a better company to do it at.” Thinking 

about the journey that PCL is embarking 

upon, Bryant considers the upcoming 

change to be inevitable. “Digitisation 

is not an option. Digitisation is an absolute 

necessity. You’re going to see a big 

difference between those companies 

that realise this and those that don’t. 

PCL Construction is a juggernaut of 

innovation in the industry and, to me, 

that’s super exciting.” 


146 


Doing 

everything 

with 

its members 

in mind 

147 

WRITTEN BY 

WILL GIRLING 

PRODUCED BY 

JAKE MEGEARY 


ONTARIO TEACHERS INSURANCE PLAN 

Stacey Rous, Executive VP 

and Chief Financial Officer, 

explains how OTIP’s unwavering 

dedication to its members 

is being augmented with 

technological developments 

148 

F 

ounded in 1977 and currently managed 

and owned by four teaching affiliates 

(AEFO, ETFO, OECTA and OSSTF) in 

Ontario, Canada, the Ontario Teachers Insurance 

Plan (OTIP) was established on the basis that 

nobody understands education better than 

educators. A not-for-profit organisation, OTIP is 

committed to providing the very best insurance 

benefits to its members, using its collective industry 

insights to go above and beyond the needs of 

the teaching and education professionals it serves. 

Starting out handling long-term disability insurance, 

OTIP has subsequently grown to over 700 

dedicated staff and covers a wide range of auto, 

home and health insurance. 

Joining the company in 2016, Stacey Rous, 

EVP and CFO, came from an accountancy 

background originally, but gradually gained 

experience in insurance from some of the top 

companies in the sector, including Allianz. “I have 

a property, accident and sickness and group benefits 

background too,” she explains. “My career 


www.businesschief.co 

149


150 

“Insurance is our 

business, but it’s 

the people we work 

with every day that 

are important” 

— 

Stacey Rous, 

Exec VP and Chief Financial Officer, OTIP 

has really been about change: I adapt 

to change and I try to implement 

change very quickly in businesses.” 

Rous considers her executive leadership 

skills and ability to identify 

problems and subsequently bolster a 

company’s operations and finances 

to be the reason OTIP sought her out. 

What sealed the deal for her was an 

outstanding corporate culture that 

clearly centralises the wants and 

needs of its members. “It’s all about 

the people,” Rous says. “Insurance 

is our business, but it’s the people 

we work with every day that are so 

important to our success.” 

When she started with the company 

almost four years ago, Rous says that 

it was an intense transition period as 

OTIP was expanding. “I quickly saw 

that our project management office 

and parts of our operations were not 

adequately staffed and really needed 

ramping up.” Meeting the workload 

demand required strong management 

skills and a clear vision of the 

company’s overall goals. “You can 

use technology down the road after 

you ramp up your growth. You can’t 

do it in the beginning; you really need 


The OTIP Story 


151 

people to get something as large as 

what we were doing off the ground,” 

Rous explains. 

Utilising technology whilst always 

keeping business people-centric 

is a philosophy which informs both 

Rous’s approach to being a CFO and 

OTIP’s method of operating. “Great 

success is built on people, not on 

technology,” she says, “but technology 

is the enabler that helps keep 

your workforce engaged.” For this 

reason, the company seeks out 

individuals with creative flair, drive 

and passion to help deliver quality 

and member-focused services to 

Ontario’s education community. “At 

OTIP, our job is to look after our members, 

so we’re very service-oriented 

and we want people that have empathy 

and care for them.” Therefore, 

OTIP is careful to ensure that any 

technology introduced to the company 

has the end-user in mind and 

will benefit their members directly. 

“It is so important to make sure that 

our workforce is equipped with the 

necessary tools to be able to do their 

job well. I always say, ‘we are not for 

profit, but we’re not for loss either.” 


HELPING 

CANADIANS 

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Serving approximately 20% of the 

teaching and education staff in the 

province prior to 2016, she states 

that OTIP now supports almost 100% 

- more than half a million members 

and their dependents. “OTIP’s growth 

came from our expertise in the industry 

and the backing of the four Ontario 

teaching unions saying, ‘OTIP needs 

to do this work’.” Taking a strong and 

positive stance, OTIP operates with the 

conviction that once someone experiences 

its service they won’t want to 

go anywhere else. The organisation 

achieves this by maintaining care and 

empathy for its members at all times, 

and this approach appears to be 

swiftly winning over educators across 

Ontario. With a vision of always fulfilling 

the insurance needs of the province’s 

educators, the company funnels any 

profits directly back into its members’ 

benefits programmes. The ‘not for 

profit but not for loss’ attitude also 

means that the latest innovations in 

technology are trialled and considered 

for use. “We need those technologies 

because as times change and 

153 

OTIP Sponsorship of Schools 

Projects and Initiatives 




154 

new teachers join the profession, they 

expect choice in the platforms we offer 

them,” explains Rous. 

One particular innovation which had 

a large impact is what OTIP calls ‘middleware’. 

In the wake of its increasing 

membership, Rous says, data was 

being collected in very large quantities 

from over 70 school boards and 

across four separate teaching unions. 

It was soon discovered that some of 

the information had been transmitted 

incorrectly, causing hardship to 

members who were unable to access 

the benefits they needed. “We took a 

step back and said, ‘our members are 

in a crisis’,” she says, “We needed to 

own this, and come up with a creative 

solution to solve this problem.” What 

resulted was the development of a 

unique computer programme which 

allowed OTIP to maximise its capacity 

for data processing, allowing the 

company itself to produce a member’s 

eligibility for benefits. “OTIP is ‘in the 

middle’ between the school board 

and the member and that is how the 

term ‘middleware’ got coined,” explains 


Stacey Rous 


Stacey Rous is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial 

Officer at OTIP, Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan. 

Responsible for Finance and IT strategy, including financial operations 

of the company and accountable for the Project Management Office, 

Stacey is an accomplished financial executive known for achieving 

financial and service benchmarks by creating a compelling vision, 

clearly communicating strategies and providing strong leadership. 

She has more than 25 years of progressive leadership experience in 

operational finance. Stacey has provided executive financial leadership 

to the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network, Allianz 

Global Assistance and Cowan Insurance Group of Companies. 

Stacey is an MBA graduate from Athabasca University and holder of 

CPA designations in Canada and the US. Throughout her career, she 

has continued to seek educational opportunities and certifications 

that enhance her finance and operational capabilities, 

including: Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, 

CMA) designation, Certified Public Accountant (US 

designation) and Chartered Global Management 

Accountant (CGMA) designation. 

155 

Outside of her role with OTIP, Stacey is actively 

involved in building strong partnerships with 

communities to make a positive impact on social 

issues such as social isolations, poverty, 

inequality and mental health. She currently 

serves on the Board of the YMCA for Kitchener 

Waterloo, the Canadian Mental Health 

Association for Waterloo Wellington and 

International Women’s Forum Waterloo. 


Success begins and 

ends with people. 

We help organizations optimize the health and 

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and entrepreneurial solutions. 

Our technology, people and processes help organizations simplify 

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Morneau Shepell takes a holistic approach to benefits administration, 

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We provide the tools and expertise to help organizations solve complex 

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adminsolutions@morneaushepell.com 

www.morneaushepell.com

“You can use technology 

down the road after you 

ramp up your growth. 

You can’t do it in the 

beginning; you really 

need people to get 

something as large as 

what we were doing 

off the ground” 

— 

Stacey Rous, 


Rous. “Now, instead of relying on 

others to ensure our members’ information 

is accurate, OTIP has taken 

control of the situation and brought 

an operational stability that would not 

have been possible without the middleware 

solution.” 

As with any organisation, in order 

to deliver a superior service, a company 

cannot function alone. OTIP 

recognises this and has built important 

partnerships with local and 

international businesses to assist in 

its mission. Working with numerous 

insurance, tech and admin companies, 

one partner singled out for special 

praise by Rous is the HR services 

company Morneau Shepell, which 

helped OTIP implement a new health 

and dental administration platform just 

prior to its explosive growth. “Shepell 

has been working with us since 2014. 

It has walked side-by-side with us, living 

through and helping OTIP with the 

difficult times and always coming up 

with creative ideas. Shepell really cares 

about our members and we couldn’t be 

where we are today without it.” Other 

companies lauded by Rous include 

Waterloo-based Economical Insurance 

(“they’re a huge partner for us”), 

Aviva Canada and Robotic Process 

Automation Implementation Inc (RPAi 

Inc), the latter enabling OTIP’s first utilisation 

of robotics. 

“People sometimes get scared when 

they hear about robotics and automation 

because they think it will take 

away their jobs. However, robots are 

simply an extension of your workforce, 

designed to take away the repetitive 

administrative tasks and allow employees 

to focus on value-added work 

for our members,” Rous emphasises. 

Demonstrating that OTIP is willing to 

157 


Making a positive impact 

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& AI Partner 

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staff training, Robot training, AI upskilling 

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Some of our Partners include Blue Prism, 

UiPath, Microsoft Cognitive Services, 

Trust Portal. 

Learn More

COMPANY FACTS 

Serving approximately 

20% of the education staff 

in the province prior to 

2016, Rous states that OTIP 

now supports almost 

100% - more than 500,000 

members and their 

dependents. 

159 

try out anything if it appears beneficial 

for its membership, Rous clarifies: 

“what the company is doing today in 

robotics is small, but we’re branching 

out into other areas of the business to 

help with process automation.” 

Adding another crucial component to 

OTIP’s everyday computing infrastructure 

is Applied Systems’ (AS) ‘Epic ’ 

Broker Management System. A longterm 

provider of software solutions 

to the insurance sector, AS’s product 

allows OTIP to gain a holistic view of 

its business, integrating P&C, benefits 

and sales into one application. One of 

“At OTIP, our job is to 

look after our members, 

so we’re very serviceoriented 

and we want 

people that have 

empathy and can care 

for them” 

— 

Stacey Rous, 




160 

the most widely used agency management 

systems around the world, Epic 

provides OTIP with an essential method 

of managing relationships with its members, 

as well as accounting functions 

and core administrative capabilities 

relating to insurance. 

The last few years have been a challenging 

and transformative time for 

OTIP. Not only has the company striven 

to link technology to each member’s 

experience in a meaningful way, but 

recent events - such as the ongoing 

Ontario teacher strikes - have conspired 

to make life for the province’s 

educators even more challenging. 

“What we’re trying to do is 

take away the repetitive 

administrative tasks and 

allow them to focus on 

value-added work for our 

members” 

— 

Stacey Rous, 



1977 

Year founded 

$1.6bn 

Revenue in 

Canadian dollars 

700 

Number of 

employees 

161 

Despite this, the company is confident 

that no other business understands 

education from an insurance perspective 

as it does, and it is by bringing 

technology and people together that 

OTIP hopes to further distinguish 

itself. “We’re really about ease of doing 

business and ensuring that we can 

leverage the technology to get things 

right,” Rous states. “Everything we do 

is for our members.” 


162 

NORDEX GROUP: 

DIGITAL 

TRANSFORMATION 

IN ENERGY 

WRITTEN BY 

SEAN GALEA-PACE 

PRODUCED BY 

TOM VENTURO 



163

NORDEX GROUP 

John McComas, Head of Project 

Management at Nordex North 

America, discusses the impact 

of digital transformation in the 

energy space amidst the launch 

of a new wind turbine platform 

164 

A 

s one of the world’s largest wind turbine 

manufacturers, Nordex Group provides 

high-yield, cost-efficient wind turbines 

under the Acciona Windpower and Nordex brands. 

Nordex has production facilities in Germany, 

Spain, Brazil, the US, Argentina, Mexico and India 

and produces nacelles, hubs, rotor blades and 

concrete towers across its offices in 25 countries. 

Following its acquisition of Acciona Windpower 

in 2016, Nordex became a major player in the 

energy space. 

John McComas is Head of Project Management 

at Nordex North America. Having originally joined 

Acciona Windpower North America in August 2007 

as a Supply Chain Analyst, McComas worked in several 

different positions before moving into his current 

role in May 2017. Having achieved considerable success 

over the past few years, McComas points to his 

company’s product line as a driving factor. “Our product 

line between the Nordex and Acciona turbines is 

flexible, cost effective, and client driven,” explains 

McComas. We’re not afraid of entering into markets 

where other organisations feel uncomfortable.” 



165

NORDEX GROUP 

“WE CAN’T HAVE JUST ONE WAY OF DOING 

THINGS ACROSS A DIVERSE RANGE OF 

MARKETS. IT’S IMPORTANT THAT WE ADAPT 

TO WHAT THE REQUIREMENTS ARE” 

166 

— 

John McComas, 

Head of Project Management, 

Nordex North America 

A key area of priority to McComas 

is the company’s client approach. 

“We have an approach with our clients 

which is quite the opposite of 

‘take it or leave it’,” he says. “It’s 

about trying to foster a relationship 

and learn what the constraints, challenges 

and economic model inputs 

are in order for the projects to be 

successful.” Having worked in several 

different markets, McComas 

acknowledges that every individual 

sector has its own unique challenges. 

“What makes us successful is our 

approach,” he explains. 

“We can’t have just one way of doing 

things across a diverse range of markets. 

It’s important that we adapt to 

what the requirements are.” 

Another important area of focus 

to McComas is the introduction of 

new technology. He understands the 

growing impact digitalisation is 


Delta4000 Series Start: 

N149/5X & N163/5X (ENG) 


167 

having on the energy industry and 

beyond. “Digital transformation 

is one of the biggest opportunities 

facing most markets at the moment,” 

says McComas. “We used to spend 

lots of time and effort collecting, 

analyzing and correcting information 

and data that came to us from paperbased 

sources. We’re flooded by 

the onset of tools, techniques, processes 

and data, so it’s important 

that we use it in the right way. With 

increased efficiency comes the 

opportunity to be safer, more quality 

centered, and strategic. 

Since its purchase of Acciona 

Windpower in 2016, there has been 

a noticeable shift in operations. 

“Acciona Windpower product technology 

was typically deployed in large 

wind farms cost of energy focused 

markets, in comparison to the Nordex 

technology which was deployed at 

smaller wind farms in Europe that 

had specific requirements,” says 

McComas. “Those requirements 

were prevalent primarily in Germany, 

Scandinavia and the UK and that 

technology was very successful 

in those markets. However, since the 


NORDEX GROUP 

168 

“DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS ONE OF THE 

BIGGEST OPPORTUNITIES FACING MOST 

MARKETS AT THE MOMENT” 

— 

John McComas, 



merge a few years ago, we have put 

in considerable effort to combine that 

technology into one platform.” 

That platform is the Delta4000. The 

Nordex Group was the first company 

to launch a turbine platform with 

a flexible rating as part of its core 

design philosophy and operation 

strategy. The Delta4000 turbine 

adapts to the grid operators’ individual 

needs, local wind conditions as 

well as noise constraints. Through 

the platform, the Nordex Group relies 


on tried-and-tested series production 

technology. The primary aim is to 

reduce the cost of energy by designing 

turbines which provide much 

higher yields from any given site. Its 

Delta 4000 portfolio demonstrates 

the N155/4.5, N133/4.8, N149/5.X 

and N163/5.X wind turbines. 

McComas believes that the new 

platform delivers a clear message 

to the marketplace. “What we set out 

to do was take the best parts from 

both the Nordex and Acciona platforms 

and merge them together 

to create a platform that best serves 

the needs of our clients,” explains 

McComas. “This product line is a signal 

to the marketplace that the merger 

between both organisations has been 

finalised and our recent commercial 

success with it proved that we are 

here to stay.” 

McComas believes in the value of 

partnerships. Nordex has established 

key, strategic relationships with Appia 

Wind Services, DSV Air & Sea and 

ATS, in addition to collaborations with 

global energy leaders such as Engie, 169 

John McComas 


John McComas is a results-orientated, strategic 

and bi-lingual manager with experience in a range 

of wind farm supply and construction. McComas 

has a verifiable track record in four different 

countries for the successful completion of 

utility scale projects ranging from 45 to 

304.5MWs. He manages site teams, 

maintaining the site P&L and creating 

positive working relationships with 

colleagues, contractors, suppliers and 

clients. He has been in his current 

position since May 2017. 


Appia Wind Services is a company dedicated to blade maintenance and 

repairs in the composite wind energy field. We provide rapid deployment 

of experienced technicians to complete tasks at hand. 

Learn More 

Powering your logistics 

to the next level 

When your needs are out of the ordinary, 

trust the DSV experts. 

www.dsv.com/project-transport

1985 

Year founded 

6,800 

Number of 

employees 

171 

Announcing N163/5X 



NORDEX GROUP 

WIND PROJECT SERVICES 

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• Hands-on, multi-modal services 

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Enel, Duke, Acciona Energy, and 

others “We want to work hand in hand 

with our clients in order to generate 

collaborative solutions,” he says. 

“It’s important that we meet our 

commitments and ensure that we’re 

transparent and are working together 

in a collaborative manner to resolve 

issues. We understand that if we 

make a mistake then being open and 

honest is essential. We don’t try and 

hide; we strive to learn from our mistakes. 

Being open and honest with 

173 

NXG Service Technicians EN V1 



NORDEX GROUP 

174 

“Being open and honest 

with every partnership 

is essential and if we 

want to foster long-term 

growth, we understand 

we have to work 

collaboratively 

and transparently” 

— 

John McComas, 



MONTH 2020

every partnership is essential and if 

we want to foster long-term growth, 

we understand we have to work collaboratively 

and transparently.” 

With the future in mind, McComas 

has a vision of where he expects 

Nordex to be over the next few years. 

“We’ve almost doubled the growth 

of the overall organisation in just 

a few years and we aim to continue 

in that vein,” he says. “Moving forward, 

our plan is to focus on the execution 

of our commitments and make sure 

we deliver on the projects that we’re 

undertaking.” McComas also harbours 

ambitions of transforming The Nordex 

Group to being considered a leader 

in wind turbine supply construction 

and commissioning. “It’s a pivotal year 

for us,” summarises McComas. 

“We’ve already established ourselves 

as a top tier supplier globally for wind 

turbines and we want to continue 

to scale.” 

175 


176 


177 

CRC ORE: PROMOTING 

COLLABORATION 

ACROSS THE MINING 

INDUSTRY 

WRITTEN BY 

DAN BRIGHTMORE 

PRODUCED BY 

RICHARD DEANE 


CRC ORE 

How the Cooperative Research 

Centre for Optimising Resource 

Extraction (CRC ORE) is improving 

the productivity, energy and water 

signatures of mining operations 

178 

T 

he Cooperative Research Centre for 

Optimising Resource Extraction 

(CRC ORE) is part of the Australian 

Government’s Cooperative Research Centre 

(CRC) Program. It is co-funded by seven mining 

majors - Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti, BHP, 

Glencore, Newcrest, Teck and Sumitomo. It also 

includes the support of ten research institutions 

and seven major METS - Metso, Orica, Hatch, 

Imdex, Sodern, JKTech and METS Ignited. 

Originally established in 2010, CRC ORE is a not 

for profit co-creation partnership, which received 

its second phase of funding in 2015 (A$34 million 

from the Australian Government and the remainder 

from its partners, mostly the miners). It is focused 

on “improving the productivity, energy and water 

signatures of mining operations”. 

Chief Executive Officer Dr Ben Adair notes: 

“To meet our Commonwealth funding requirements, 

we had to raise some A$114 million over our sixyear 

term. With 18 months left and we will have 

raised in excess of A$160 million — a consequence 

of the traction and support we’ve gained, from 

our mining company sponsors in particular.” 



179

CRC ORE 

180 

“We must find better ways of extracting value 

that requires less water and energy. We need 

to generate lower volumes of much coarser 

waste by-products, which we can dry stack 

and recover all the water from. Ultimately, these 

will be cheaper processes, which will actually 

produce more metal” 

— 

Dr. Ben Adair, 

CEO, CRC ORE 

“We are seen as independent, trusted 

advisors by the Mining companies, to 

the point that we are now often used 

to manage their site-based gangue 

rejection strategies on their behalf.” 

OPTIMISING RESOURCE EXTRACTION 

Dr Adair explains that CRC ORE’s 

commitment to optimising resource 

extraction (ORE) is underpinned by 

two suites of technologies: Grade 

Engineering® and the Integrated 

Extraction Simulator (IES). The former 

focuses on extracting metal more efficiently 

by separating ore from waste 

before it enters comminution. The latter 

is a cloud-based simulation and optimisation 

platform across the mine to mill 

value chain. Grade Engineering therefore 

involves the implementation of 

practical gangue rejection technologies 

at production scale on sites. 


CRC ORE - Impact to Date - 2019 


181 

IES provides the opportunity to optimise 

downstream processing performance 

from this newly engineered feedstock. 

Dr Adair urges that, to reduce the 

mining industry’s energy and water footprints, 

it’s important to take a “helicopter 

view” of where the sector is today. 

“We get delusional about the current 

status quo,” he says. “The fact is that 

for base and precious metal operations, 

we still mine huge volumes of 

rock and send it into a process plant 

where 99% or more of this mate 

rial has no value whatsoever. Further, 

the comminution process used on 

this material is in itself less than 10% 

energy efficient in breaking rocks 

and collectively consumes 3% of the 

worlds’ electricity — enough to keep 

the lights on in Germany each year!” 

Dr Adair adds: “We also over-grind 

the material to extract the target minerals, 

way beyond what is necessary 

to efficiently separate and recover the 

metal. Consequently, we generate 

enormous volumes of ultra-fine waste. 

Current process plants are also water 

intensive and these waste streams are 

too fine to self-drain. As a result, we 

store waste in wet tailings dams and 


accept the challenge of continuously improving to achieve 

greater effectiveness and efficiency in our work

CRC ORE 

184 

struggle to recycle the water efficiently. 

This brings another set of 

challenges — poor levels of water 

recycling and wet tailings dams 

that are a safety hazard across 

the Industry”. 

Dr Adair’s conclusion, and where he 

believes CRC ORE can have an impact 

with its research and solutions, is that 

effective pre-concentration in the mine 

is required to dramatically reduce the 

volume of treated material that has 

no value. “We then need to apply the 

principles of gangue rejection into the 

design and operation of new energy 

and water efficient process equipment 

and circuits. This will require the realisation 

of co-creation partnerships 

between selected miners and suppliers 

to implement these solutions 

quickly. Nothing less than a complete 

step change in energy reduction and 

close to full recycling of water will suffice”. 

Ironically, he also states that this 

will actually increase metal production 

at sites, with cheaper capital and operating 

expenditures proclaiming that 

“sustainability really isn’t a cost!” 


SUCCESS WITH SUMITOMO 

Sumitomo is a major producer globally 

of Zinc, Lead and Silver from their 

Minera San Cristóbal (MSC) operation 

in Bolivia. “It’s a fascinating place,” 

explains Dr Adair. “It operates with 

a head grade of around 1.7% Zn where 

traditionally Zinc/Lead/Silver operations 

would be looking at an equivalent 

of >7% Zn or more. In spite of this, 

the operation is one of the world’s 

most profitable thanks to remarkable 

approaches in optimising process performance, 

combined with world class 

water and energy conservation.” 

Located in the south-western 

Bolivian province of Nor Lípez, and 

operating since 2007, the mine produces 

around 1,500 metric tons of 

Zinc-Silver and Lead-Silver concentrates 

each day. To achieve this result, 

MSC needs to move a daily average 

of 150,000 tons of rock, 52,000 tons 

of which goes to the process plant 

Ben Adair 


185 

Dr Ben Adair has three decades’ experience in the mining industry. 

Splitting his time between roles in applied R&D, and working for majors 

such as Rio Tinto, he joined CRC ORE in 2015. Prior to this he worked 

at the University of Queensland, both as Director of the JKMRC 

and then running an industry funded Ore Sorting Centre. His 

primary interests are in step change technology to improve the 

energy, production and water signatures of operating sites in the 

minerals sector. “I’ve been able to bring a skillset to CRC ORE 

which has been honed on the practical challenges facing the 

industry,” says Dr Adair. “The experiences I’ve had at processing 

plants, auditing mining sites and at innovation labs in R&D, have 

given me the ability to see whether a particular approach can 

be practically implemented or not. There are many wonderful 

ideas out there, but can they stand up to the industrial process? 

That’s why the work we do at CRC ORE is so important.” 


CRC ORE 

COMPANY FACTS 

186 

• Comminution processes 

consume 3% of the 

world’s energy 

• 99% of the material 

processed in base and 

precious metal operations 

has no value 

• Existing technologies 

properly applied can reduce 

plant power consumption 

by 25% 

• Runtime can be 

increased to 97% 

• You can recycle 90% of the 

water used in processing 

using today’s technology 


for treatment. “To become more productive 

and lower costs, this operation 

deploys highly sophisticated mill sensors 

and integrated control systems 

which defy conventional thinking in the 

comminution process. Acoustic sensors 

linked to infra-red imaging are 

used to control both the SAG and Ball 

Mill circuits.” reveals Dr Adair. 

“As a consequence, over the past 

five years the site has reduced absolute 

power consumption within their 

SAG (Semi-Autogenous Grinding) 

mill circuit by 26%, while increasing 

throughput of material through the 

comminution circuit by over 35%! In 

the process, they’ve also decreased 

consumables (liners and grinding 

media consumption) by 40%. Best 

in class effective run time in mineral 

processing circuits globally is 

around 95%. At MSC it is 97%. 

In short, they have achieved substantial 

reductions in energy with 

increased metal production using 

conventional off the shelf technology. 

Why can this not be repeated 

elsewhere in the Industry?” 

Furthermore, the site is located in 

an arid region of Bolivia, where access 

187 


CRC ORE 

188 


EXTRA FACTS 

The Innovation Hub 

The Kalgoorlie-Boulder Mining 

Innovation Hub is a CRC ORE 

initiative, jointly developed with 

our research participants Curtin 

University and MRIWA. It is 

operating as a node of CRC ORE. 

It focuses on nurturing innovations 

which will add significant value to 

the burgeoning minerals industry 

in West Australia. 

The Hub’s purpose is to: 

• Promote collaboration between all 

industry groups (Research, METS, 

Miners, Community, Government) 

in the region, to solve common 

problems within the mining 

sector that ultimately improve the 

economic viability of the industry 

• Demonstrate new technology and 

innovations in a non-commercial 

independent environment 

• Provide customised professional 

development to all levels 

in industry 

• Provide a pipeline of technologies 

and methodologies to deliver 

direct value to operations, 

suppliers and the community 

• Facilitate other technology 

developments other than those 

initiated by CRC ORE 

• Assist with promoting and 

streamlining access to alternative 

government funding sources 

(e.g. MRIWA, METS Ignited, City 

of Kalgoorlie Boulder etc.) 

“The hub is an extremely useful 

way for us to interface with smaller, 

or more nimble miners, and expose 

CRC ORE to a varied range of 

commodities,” says President 

Dr Ben Adair 

189 


CRC ORE 

“One of the exciting things about Grade Engineering is 

that when people hear about it, they think that it’s what 

we can do with the mine that we have. But we’re also 

thinking outside the box by applying the techniques 

to very low-grade material to offset mine closure costs 

in advance with ‘Waste Engineering’. It gives you much 

more opportunity to think about other applications 

to Grade Engineering besides what it was originally 

intended for” 

190 

— 

Dave King, 

Operations Director, Sumitomo 

to water is at a premium. Dr Adair 

highlights that Sumitomo has coupled 

its energy efforts with a 

substantial reduction in water consumption 

from external sources 

— from 30% five years ago, down 

to just 19% today. “They’re now 

pushing towards a 90% plus level 

in water recycling” he says, “all 

of it done by integrating existing 

technology, albeit in a novel and 

sophisticated way. Surely there 

is a message here for what can 

be achieved for the sector — the 

outcome of which is a more sustainable 

operation that actually makes 

more money!” 

GRADE ENGINEERING 

The Australian-born ingenuity of CRC 

ORE has been put to the test by 

Sumitomo during a successful fullscale 

production trial of Grade 

Engineering techniques at MSC. 

“Sumitomo asked us a fundamental 

question,” notes Adair. “Is there any 

way to reduce the amount of barren 

material that you send into a process 

plant in the first place?” 

CRC ORE’s Grade Engineering 

solutions deploys a range of waste 

rejection technologies that integrate 

with a suite of separation technologies 

relevant to ore specific characteristics. 

This leads to a deeper understanding 

of the orebody, supporting the ability 

to exploit inherent ore deposit heterogeneity 

and variability. Describing 


CRC ORE - Minera San Cristóbal - case study 


191 

the application of this approach at 

MSC as a ‘co-creation partnership’, 

Dr Adair underlines the need to work 

intimately with mining companies 

and their suppliers to form a genuine 

alliance: “Ultimately, you need supply 

companies of scale and mining companies 

with vision. In this case CRC 

ORE worked with the MSC site and 

another of our participants, Metso, 

to engage in a full-scale production 

trial of Grade Engineering.” 

The outcome of this trial was the ability 

to reject 75% of barren components 


CRC ORE 

192 

in material that was originally designated 

as mineralised waste (not even 

ore feed). A 450 tons per hour Metso 

Loko-Track mobile screening plant was 

deployed on site to assist in the production 

scale testing. The trial focused 

on upgrading this and other waste targets 

from the pit to determine if a 

metal-rich stream could be generated 

that could be economically combined 

with Run of Mine (ROM) feed to the 

concentrator. 

“So far, results show that by applying 

Grade Engineering to areas previously 

designated as ‘mineralised waste’, 

25% of the material has a feed grade 

to the mill some 2.5 times higher than 

ROM ore,” says Dr Adair. “There is 

now the potential to convert this waste 

material into high grade ore-feed, with 

associated opportunity to increase 

metal production and reduce process 

power and water intensities. We’re 

now in the process of operationalising 

the process for the site going forward.” 

MSC Operations Director Dave King 

believes the opportunity for the mine is 

huge. “One of the exciting things about 

Grade Engineering is that when people 

hear about it, they think that it’s ‘what 


EXTRA FACTS 

193 

Grade Engineering Explained 

Grade Engineering is being 

developed and implemented 

by a consortium of over 20 

mining companies, equipment 

suppliers and research 

organisations. Emerging results 

from collaborative site activities 

demonstrate potential for 

generating significant value 

which can reverse the trend 

of decreasing production 

due to declining feed grades. 

Opportunity for Grade 

Engineering is based on five 

rock based ‘levers’ linked 

to combinations of screening, 

sensor-based sorting and heavy 

media separation. These involve: 

• Preferential grade deportment 

by size 

• Differential blasting for grade 

by size 

• Sensor based bulk sorting 

• Sensor based stream sorting 

• Coarse gravity 


CRC ORE 

194 

we can do with the mine that we have’. 

But we’re also thinking outside the box 

by applying the techniques to very 

low-grade material to offset mine closure 

costs in advance with ‘Waste 

Engineering’. It gives you much more 

opportunity to think about other applications 

to Grade Engineering besides 

what it was originally intended for.” 

Dr Adair points out that Sumitomo’s 

culture and approach to innovation 

2010 

Year founded 

$147mn+ 

Cash contributions 

in Aus dollars 


195 

has been the key to success. “The 

site adopts a modular and flexible 

approach to rapidly test and deploy 

new innovations. It’s very much a plug 

and play philosophy, more analogous 

with what Japanese industry in other 

sectors does like Toyota, for example. 

Every piece of equipment that they 

(MSC) have in their operation is bristling 

with sensors. They measure 

what they do and because of the 

modular scenario, they can quickly 

test new opportunities without 

impacting production. A technology 

can be quickly implemented or 

rejected if it’s not working. It’s a ‘lean 

pivoting’ approach.” 

RISING TO THE COLLABORATION 

CHALLENGE 

Dr Adair points out that historically 

there’s been something of a standoff 


CRC ORE 

196 

between mining companies and their 

suppliers. “The landscape is changing,” 

he says. “It’s a lot more collaborative 

and we’re seeing more joint strategic 

thinking that will benefit the industry as 

a whole. It needs to be a win-win situation 

with the mining company/supplier 

relationship. Suppliers need to be able 

to sell their services and products out 

of co-creation partnerships. Equally, 

however, the mining companies are 

entitled to some form of competitive 

advantage as co-creators. Traditionally, 

it takes around 15 years in the sector 

to implement an innovation from ideation 

to industrial deployment. 

Co-creation can cut this to less than 

five years.” 

FUTURE PROJECTS 

CRC ORE deploys a variety of levers 

for different approaches to gangue 

rejection. “We’re doing a lot of work 

with fusing sensor technology,” confirms 

Dr Adair. “This goes way beyond 

the promotion of point solutions 

by individual companies, so common 

in the industry today. Our experience 

has shown we need more integrated 

solutions. There is no silver bullet with 

“Our experience has shown 

we need more integrated 

solutions. There is no silver 

bullet with any one 

approach; it’s important 

to integrate with the best 

of the best” 

— 

Dr. Ben Adair, 

CEO, CRC ORE 


197 

any one approach in gangue rejection; 

it’s important to integrate the best 

of the best.” 

CRC ORE is working towards this 

goal on a multinational basis in a series 

of initiatives with mining majors in 

Australia, Chile, Brazil, South Africa 

and other parts of South America. 

“We’re working across different commodities 

and a multitude of diverse 

ores and waste types. It is interesting 

that many of the principles of 

pre-concentration and taking advantage 

of heterogeneity are common 

to all. Our goal at CRC ORE is therefore 

to make a significant contribution 

towards a genuinely more sustainable 

industry going forward. 


mmc.com 

YOU’RE 

CHANGING. 

WE ARE TOO. 

Marsh & McLennan Welcomes 

Jardine Lloyd Thompson 

The world has never spun so fast. Change – exponential change – surrounds us. 

In these dynamic times, every great business needs to get three issues right – 

Risk, Strategy and People. And that’s what we do. For almost 150 years, 

Marsh & McLennan has been at your side helping solve your most complex challenges. 

75,000 

STRONG 

130 

COUNTRIES 

This marks the start of a new era as we welcome more than 10,000 colleagues from 

Jardine Lloyd Thompson. This unmatched collection of talent will be there for you in the 

moments that matter.

Business Chief Americas April 2020

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