Ideagen Global - Catalyze Magazine, February 2023

B Y I D E A G E N 

CATALYZE. 

February 2023 

Washington 

Roundtable 

Edition 

PLUS 

Ideagen's Future 

Global Leaders 

Academy 

Mark Fitzgerald 

Global Head, International 

Development Assistant 

Services, KPMG


CATALYZE. 


Washington 

Roundtable 

Edition 

PLUS 



Academy 

Rawle Andrews Jr. 

Executive Director 

American Psychiatric 

Association Foundation


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Washington 

Roundtable 

Edition 

PLUS 



Academy 

Manoli Lagos 

Founder 

The Living Fuel Consulting


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Washington 

Roundtable 

Edition 

PLUS 



Academy 

Alan Miller 

Founder 

The News Literacy Project


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Washington 

Roundtable 

Edition 

PLUS 



Academy 

Ilana Ron Levey 

Managing Director, Public Sector 

Gallup


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Washington 

Roundtable 

Edition 

PLUS 



Academy 

Bill Ashworth 

Head of Government Affairs 

NIO


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Washington 

Roundtable 

Edition 

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Academy 

Dr. Nicole Hayre 

Founder 

Cutocin, Cosmetic Dermatology Center


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Washington 

Roundtable 

Edition 

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Academy 

Winston Chang 

CTO, Public Sector 

Snowflake


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Roundtable 

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Academy 

Theodoros Bizakis 

Minister Counselor-Deputy 

Greek Embassy to the US


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Paula Tavares 

Senior Legal & Gender Specialist 

World Bank


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Ashley Mills 

CEO 

The Vision Council


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Dave Grimaldi 

Executive VP, Government Relations 

The Blockchain Association


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Rosie Chawla 

Director of Global Education 

Projects & Partnershipss 

UNESCO Center For Peace


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Esteban Olivares 

Head of Academics & New University Partnerships 

Summer Discovery

M A R K F I T Z G E R A L D , G L O B A L H E A D , 

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D E V E L O P M E N T 

A S S I S T A N C E S E R V I C E S , K P M G 

George Sifakis: Mark, I'd like to talk a little more 

specifically. You talked about so many incredible issues 

- take us on a deeper dive into some of the work you're 

doing, I know there's a lot, but if you could pick one. 

Mark Fitzgerald: I'll pick three. 

George: Even better. 

 

Mark: Three levels, but the same issue. Let's focus on Ukraine. I'm incredibly proud 

of the different elements we've touched around that tragedy in Ukraine, one being 

with our own people. I talked about our stakeholders and heavily focused on clients, 

but our stakeholders are also our own people. We have a firm in Ukraine, and many 

in the firm have not seen their families for over a year now once we've gone past the 

anniversary. As wives and children have left and are living in Germany, the UK, or 

elsewhere in Europe, many of the fighting-age males remaining in our firm in 

Ukraine are continuing to work. Not only are they just working, but thinking about 

reconstruction. They're embedding themselves with ministries within the 

government to help them and to guide them around what a potential rebuild can look 

like. You know, in our industry, we always talk about opportunities, except with 

Ukraine, we talk about needs. We don't want this to be self-serving. It's not. It's 

about rebuilding a country that needs help from the international community, but 

also about supporting the Ukrainians themselves. And our whole focus is on 

maintaining that engagement with our colleagues in Ukraine. 

CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 1

CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 2 

M A R K F I T Z G E R A L D C O N T I N U E D . . . 

The second level would be, and George, you know me personally, I sit on the chair of a 

large NGO based here in D.C. called PACT. They had teams already operating in Ukraine 

when the US government reached out to them and said, can you help us with the health 

systems in Ukraine right now? Not when the war is going to end, but right now, to give 

them that support. So we have teams within PACT who work with three hours of power a 

day from wherever they feel safe in a way that can be fulfilling and ultimately supportive 

over time. 

George: Wow. 

Mark: And then, more broadly, we have clients where we can support the clients to do 

what they do best in that war environment. I came back from a country in the Middle East, 

and they have a faith-based organization with significant communities of 300,00 people 

that they provide humanitarian and social support to in Ukraine. Half of them were 

evacuated in the first 2 or 3 months of the war, the rest ensued, and they need that 

support... So maintaining that awareness of the physical threat that this particular client of 

ours has on a daily basis and still does what its general purpose and mission is, it's 

incredibly compelling to be involved with that.

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RAWLE ANDREWS JR. 

ANNOUNCES THE FIRST- 

STEP PLAN 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE 

AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC 

ASSOCIATION FOUNDATION 

George Sifakis: Your announcement to double, triple, quadruple down and say "we're 

making a financial commitment to mainstreaming mental health and awareness of it." To 

say that the foundation, the APA, is behind this in this most critical time, post-COVID. 

You know, the entire planet has been through the same thing for the first time in human 

history, and I believe mental health is probably one of if not the number one issue, a 

tangent to the number one issue. 

Rawle Andrews Jr.: So George, let me say one other thing about the first step campaign. 

This is not a hit-and-run. This is a five to seven-year commitment. So, year after year, we 

cannot do it alone. You and I have talked before, and hopefully, we'll talk today about the 

power of collaboration, but we're going to stick to this. So the first phase of First Step is 

just to focus on the treatability of baseline mental illnesses. Depression, anxiety, PTSD; 

these are treatable conditions, but people suffer in silence, self-diagnose, then sometimes 

self-medicate. We can stop that. 


FIRST-STEP PLAN 

CONTINUED... 

Rawle: After we get through this one and move to phase two, we move from awareness to 

behavior. Now what we're going to say is when you go to any health provider, you don't 

necessarily have to go to a psychiatrist. Now, this is weird for a medical society. We're 

not saying come to the APA, we're saying when you go to your gynecologist, when you 

go to your pediatrician, when you go to your primary care and they talk about how your 

knee might need replacement, how you feel about that, stay in that conversation with that 

medical professional. That's about behavior. When we get to the third phase, what we 

hope all will say is, "there is no health without mental health." George, when we came up, 

all you ever saw were GM and Ford cars in the commercials. Now everything is what's 

your A1C score. Nobody talks about diabetes and stigma. Nobody talks about HIV and 

stigma. They're just talking about; how do you live your life with a chronic illness. That 

might be our situation with mental health. 


THE LIVING FUEL'S 

5 PILLARS 

MANOLI LAGOS 

FOUNDER, THE LIVING FUEL 

George Sifakis: What is your journey, and 

how did you end up here? 

 

Manoli Lagos: It's funny. I never saw 

myself as an entrepreneur, even though it 

ran in my family's blood. My dad was an 

entrepreneur, but I worked for a big 

company, PricewaterhouseCoopers, doing 

consulting for six years, traveling a lot, 

working a pretty high-stress job. Then in 

my fifth/sixth year, I started to get a lot of 

symptoms of burnout. At the time, I had no 

idea what burnout was, but I was waking 

up after 8 or 9 hours of sleep, feeling 

exhausted. I had a hypo thyroid issue, and 

being in my mid-twenties, I knew 

something was up to have a thyroid 

imbalance. I had autoimmunity; I was 

getting sick all the time, and I couldn't 

figure it out. 

 

So I started to take my health a little more 

seriously through my own learnings and 

seeing some holistic practitioners in New 

York. I did a lot of nutrition and lifestyle 

work and was able to get myself fully 

healthy without medications in about 6 to 9 

months. That became a huge awakening 

for me. After that, I saw food as more 

medicine, not as just purely fuel for your 

body. Calories in, calories out, as we've 

been taught. 

I saw it as so much more; it got me 

intrigued. It led to me going back to 

school and pursuing nutrition while I 

was a full-time consultant. Then I 

started coaching people. I found it 

really natural, and I loved coaching 

friends and family. Whether they 

wanted to lose weight, wanted more 

energy, were having sleep issues, or 

had stress that wasn't something they 

could handle. I was helping people 

naturally, and a few clients turned 

into five, ten, 15, 20. Then at one 

point, I realized I was so busy with 

my side hustle and was so much 

more passionate about it. I found 

myself in my free time reading 

nutrition articles, sending my family 

stuff, researching new supplements, 

and I said, 'why don't I just do this 

full time?' 


THE LIVING FUEL'S 5 

PILLARS CONTINUED... 

Manoli: Then when I felt comfortable, I made that leap and started the coaching 

business, which was mostly working with people one-on-one. My ultimate dream 

was to help companies like PwC because those are the employees I feel need it 

most. They're working in high-stress jobs, eating out all the time, and not sleeping 

in their bed because they're traveling, so their routine is very off. I figured I could 

help those people the most, and now 4 or 5 years later, we are working with some 

of these big companies. Deloitte is one of our clients, so it's pretty cool to see 

things come full circle. 

George: What an incredible journey. And as I understand it, the living fuel is built 

on five pillars. I'd love to hear what those five pillars are. 

Manoli: Yeah, so nutrition, as I mentioned before, is such a big one. The fuel, the 

food that we put into our body. That one's not a surprise. Our environment is 

number two; the physical environment that shapes our daily habits. Things that are 

commonly swept under the rug in our environment are things like household 

toxins. Many of us aren't aware of all the potentially harmful things in the average 

household, so I help educate people about that. Movement is the third pillar, and it's 

not just exercising, it's movement as a whole that's really important for longevity 

and staying healthy. Next, mental health; through COVID we've seen that mental 

health is of the utmost importance right now. From stress and anxiety to the way 

people manage their mental health state and their emotions is super important. And 

the last one is sleep. This one is kind of swept under the rug as well, especially in 

corporate culture, where we're taught that the longer that we're working and the less 

that we sleep, the better. That's glorified in the corporate work culture, and it was 

one of the things that I think contributed to the illnesses I was suffering in my mid- 

20s. So sleep is absolutely pivotal, and it's the final of those five big pillars. 


Director of Product Marketing at Microsoft, 

Grace Clack, outlines the progress made from 

Microsoft's sustainability journey and the 

lessons learned to improve in 2023. 

 

By utilizing data to understand the impacts of 

their initiatives and developing partnerships 

with like-minded organizations, Microsoft's 

sustainability commitments are generating 

impact within communities and creating 

competitive advantages. 

Grace Clack 

Director of Product Marketing 

Microsoft 

To read Grace's full blog post, click the link below! 


NIO'S THREE TIERED 

ELECTRIC BATTERY 

SOLUTIONS 

BILL ASHWORTH 

HEAD OF GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS 

NIO 

George Sifakis: What are the biggest challenges that you're seeing facing the electric vehicle industry today, and 

how is NIO addressing those challenges? 

Bill Ashworth: Great question, so one of the things that NIO focused on when they were first starting their go-tomarket 

strategy overseas, in China, and Europe was, what are those barriers to early adoption? What do people care 

about, or what's giving them pause when purchasing an electric vehicle? And what we found from all the data we 

saw is that it's mostly centered around the reliability and cost of the battery. The battery cost is the highest of the 

electric vehicle, so we said to ourselves, how can we reduce the cost and the perception of reliability, to make this 

more seamless and comfortable purchase for consumers? How can we lower our cost to reduce the overall cost of the 

product? 

NIO has really come up with a very innovative solution, and it's the battery swapping technology or battery as a 

service. We offer three types of battery solutions. The first is home charging, which I'm sure most people are familiar 

with. We have different home charging services and different power levels of home charging. Some of our home 

chargers can recharge your car in about three hours, while others take about 12 hours, depending upon the type of 

home battery charging station you purchased. The other is the battery swapping stations, where you drive into a 

battery swapping station, maybe half the size of this room, so it's fairly small. You're in, and in under three minutes, 

you can have your old battery swapped out for a new one, and you'll be right back on the road. It's very analogous to 

just pulling into a gas station, going in and getting a cup of coffee, coming back out, and having your gas tanks filled. 

The third power solution is NIO mobile charge, where you can actually schedule a NIO power supply truck to come 

to you and charge your battery. It's a subscription model, and right now the price point is about $140 a month, but it's 

cut the cost of the battery component of the overall cost by about 50% just in the past ten years. That's what we see 

as the biggest obstacle to EV adoption right now, and these are our solutions to that problem. 


I D E A G E N ® 

G l o b a l I n n o v a t i o n S u m m i t 

Streaming March 31st on 

Ideagen 

Ideagenglobal.com | Presented Globally by 


CUTOCIN AND A DIFFERNT 

TYPE OF PATIENT CARE 

DR. NICOLE HAYRE 

FOUDER 

CUTOCIN & THE COSMETIC DERMATOLOGY CENTER 

George Sifakis: How do you 

approach patient care differently 

than others in your field? 

Dr. Nicole Hayre: Well, I would say 

multiple ways. For instance, I 

think I've been looking at the 

whole body system more than 

other physicians. I was aware of 

the importance of vitamins and 

probiotics for many years before 

they became trendy. I also look at 

things from a very science-driven 

angle because of my background, 

so I'll really hyper analyze things. 

How is this really going to work? 

Is it safe? Would I do this to 

myself? So that's a little bit of a 

different approach, and I think a 

lot of the people who come to me 

really appreciate that because 

they feel that they're in good 

hands. Maybe It's a little safer 

because I am so critical of new 

things coming to market. 

George: Well, that's what you 

see in the medical profession, 

and in any profession, as you 

know, there's just so much 

information out there. Where 

do you begin? And you're 

obviously a trusted source and 

provider of information 

because you're vetting it, you're 

reviewing it, and you're not only 

doing that, you're developing 

products like Cutocin that are 

helping to change the world by 

making people feel better. 


DR. NICOLE HAYRE 

CONTINUED 

Dr. Hayre: Yes, patients really respond to Cutocin, and I have to say, I've never seen 

such a strong response to a skincare line before. I've been selling them in my 

office for 20 years, and after the pandemic, when I had just started selling Cutocin, 

there were a couple of times we had supply issues and would run out. Some of the 

women who ran out of their product would come in, and I'd say, I'm sorry, it's 

going to be a couple of weeks, we're still waiting on a shipment, and they'd panic. 

I mean, sheer out panic. I've never seen anything like it before 

George: Because they felt so good with it. 

Dr. Hayre: They felt so good with it and had such a good response. Then when the 

product would come in, they would buy three at a time to ensure they wouldn't 

run out again. It was fantastic. So I knew it was something that was really 

affecting them. 


G L O B A L 

Data Partnerships 

& Responsible 

Stewardship 

Winston Chang 

CTO, Public Sector 

Snowflake 

George Sifakis: What do you see as the impact and outcome of partnerships 

specifically? Then taking it a step further, we talked about the cross-sector 

piece: why is that cross-sector piece, within the context of developing 

partnerships, so vitally important? 

Winston Chang: Well, I think you see a lot of impacts; take Ukraine for an 

example. The ability of so many different nations to support Ukraine at a data 

level, to be able to look at the intelligence and bring it together, coalesce it, and 

share it among allies in order to support a set of people's freedoms. But I would 

also warn, or maybe give a heads up, especially to the global public sector, to 

think about how this technology actually changes the way you have to operate. 

The reason I flagged this is that we all talk about how data is the new oil, and 

we treat data as an asset like it should be treated. However, governments have a 

stewardship responsibility around that asset. You think of the value of a data 

asset, like what commerce will do or what USAID does in the United States. 

That data is extremely valuable, especially when combined in collaboration with 

the private sector or other sorts of nonprofits. However, that stewardship, 

because of the ease of sharing data, has now changed. 


D A T A P A R T N E R S H I P S & R E S P O N S I B L E 

S T E W A R D S H I P C O N T I N U E D 

Winston: And I'll give you some examples here. Let's say we talk about Alaska. In the 

United States, Alaska has access to a resource called oil which we all know is incredibly 

valuable, and it is responsible and pays back the dividends that come from that oil to its 

citizens. Another example would be our pensions benefit group, PBGC'S, which invests 

and supports all the pension benefits as a backup insurance group. However, it has to reinvest 

its assets. Similarly, data is an asset, and many organizations around the world now 

need to look at their nation's data. When you look at the European landscape and how data 

is starting to map out, you're going to have very country-specific data centers where data 

is not allowed to leave the country. However, that data is extremely valuable. So what is 

the responsibility as the data steward now for that country? Those are the things we need 

to think about, what that actually means, how to potentially make money off that, and 

where does that money go? 


IDEAGEN® 

Washington Roundtable 

Streaming Now on Ideagen 

Ideagenglobal.com | Presented Globally by 


MINDFRAMES 

OF OBSERVING THE 

NEWS 

By: Alan Miller: Founder, News Literacy Project 

George Sifakis: What types of mindsets and what are those markers that we're looking for 

when analyzing the validity of news and content sources and other types of information? 

What are we looking for? What can you point to that says, aha, that's legitimate, trusted 

information? 

Alan Miller: Yes, and it's very important to underscore, we don't tell people what to trust; 

we're giving them the tools to make that determination themselves. And so, I would say 

the first thing is to pause when you encounter any piece of content and ask yourself, what 

are you looking at? Is this purported to be news? Is this opinion? Is this advertising? Is it 

raw information? Is it something that seems to be intended to inform you in an accurate 

and dispassionate and transparent way? Or is it something that seeks to sell, to persuade, or 

very importantly, to inflame? 

. 

If it's something that's really appealing to your emotions, that's a red flag. When 

something gets us angry, agitated, or fearful, the thinking part of our brain often shuts 

down, and we react more viscerally. Look at the source, is this trusted? Can you tell who 

created this piece of content? What are the sources cited? Is there evidence to support the 

facts in the piece? Do you have multiple points of view? Are you given information to 

allow you to make up your mind about something, or does it seem to be pushing you in a 

particular direction? Then you might look at the comments and see whether it's been factchecked 

by independent sources, including rumor guard. If you sink in one place, it may 

well not be true, especially if it seems to be too good or outrageous to be true, it's another 

reason to pause. 


MINDFRAMES OF OBSERVING THE NEWS 

CONTINUED... 

Alan: The other thing to recognize, and you mentioned the pandemic which is a good example, 

is that truth often takes time. You need to follow a story over time, especially when there's a fastbreaking 

story that gets a lot of attention and appeals to our emotions. As journalists or scientists 

are trying to determine the facts, the bad actors come in and try to set the narrative. So that's a 

particular reason to pause and wait until you're confident, not only with whether you trust this, 

but very importantly, whether you share. The viral rumors and the toxic misinformation can't get 

the kind of scale that it reaches without so many of us often inadvertently spreading this to 

others. 

2023 Purpose Prize Winners 


LIFE IN 

AFGHANISTAN 

F e a t u r i n g I l a n a R o n L e v e y , M a n a g i n g D i r e c t o r , 

P u b l i c S e c t o r a t G a l l u p 

George Sifakis: And what about 

Afghanistan? I know you mentioned 

Afghanistan. What is life like right 

now for the Afghan people? 

Ilana Ron Levey: Yes, we're very 

proud of our polling history in 

Afghanistan. Gallup has been the only 

organization able to collect nationally 

representative data under the Taliban 

in both rounds, so we have a pretty 

unique lens. We are seeing dismal, 

dismal views from the Afghan people, 

and it's not surprising. 62% of Afghans 

are dissatisfied with their freedoms, 

both men and women. There's been a 

curtailing of all kinds of freedoms. 

Freedom of expression, freedom of 

mobility, and autonomy in your lives. 

90% of Afghans say that it's difficult 

or very difficult to get by on their 

household income. In the last 12 

months, 86% of Afghans say they've 

had difficulty affording food for their 

households. Except for once in the 

Central African Republic, that's the 

highest level of food insecurity in the 

last 16 years in all countries we've 

surveyed through the world poll. . 

So what we're really seeing is a 

breakdown in the ability to provide for 

families, a breakdown in economic 

opportunity, and a breakdown in job 

prospects. Everyone knows that, but 

these numbers are just so staggering. 

Close to 1 in 9 Afghans are having 

difficulty providing food, and over 

90% have concerns about getting by 

on their household income. 

George: And so I imagine that when 

global leaders look at what's 

happening in Afghanistan, certainly 

intelligence agencies, there's a direct 

correlation when you're looking at this 

data that can help decipher that. But 

I'm sure you also, with this 

information, help inform and affect 

their decision-making as well. 

Ilana: Absolutely, because I think 

many people wonder, did the Afghan 

people embrace the Taliban, and are 

they supportive of the direction of the 

country? Do they feel like more 

opportunities are being unlocked for 

their population? And I think we're 

seeing a very different picture. 


Editor's Note 

Dear Friends and Colleagues, We are underway in this new 

year with a fresh start in 2023, and there are numerous positive 

trends and advancements to be optimistic about. From 

breakthroughs in technology to inspiring advancements in 

sustainability, it's an exciting time to be alive. We are seeing 

communities come together in new ways with a renewed focus 

on changing the world. The world continues to evolve, with ai 

and virtual experiences becoming increasingly accessible and 

diverse, including the latest from ChatGPT and OpenAI. 

As we move forward into the year, it's important to celebrate 

these advancements and continue to strive toward a brighter 

future. At Catalyze Magazine by Ideagen Global, we are 

thrilled to be a part of this positive movement and can't wait to 

share all the exciting developments with our readers in 2023! 

GEORGE SIFAKIS 

GEORGE SIFAKIS 

Editor-in-Chief & CEO 

-Ideagen 

CATALYZE MAGAZINE | 19 

ALEXA SIFAKIS 

Senior Editor 

DANIEL KERNS 

Publication Co-Editor 

Pictured Top to Bottom 

George Sifakis, Ideagen 

Rawle Andrews, Jr. APAF 

Nasdaq Board Times Square

Ideagen Global - Catalyze Magazine, February 2023

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