1. What have you found most challenging as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise?

Managing people and their expectations. My job is to enable people to be at their best all of the time, this means coaching them as best as possible and providing them with the best teammates, and tools so they are able to perform.

Creating high performance teams is very demanding; understanding what drives every individual so you can build up their confidence has proven key to delivering results.

2. How did you become a CEO or executive of a large enterprise? Can you please briefly tell the story?

It has been a lifelong work in progress. Every previous position has led me to where I am right now. But it's not just hard work.

20 years ago I started my own company and we failed miserably because I believed I could do it by myself. Over the last 20 years I've learned that I need a brilliant team to deliver brilliant results. It took me a long time to choose the right mentors and learning from them combined with choosing a killer team, lots of sweat and late nights is the recipe to how I've become a Chief Growth Officer.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

Every morning I create a list of priorities based on the importance of the task. I try to allocate time slots for the tasks at hand. I also meet in a brief executive meeting with my team to go over their priorities and see if I can assist on anything. As the day comes to an end I should have finished or started or delegated the important tasks. Since the beginning of the pandemic I also allocate time in my schedule for my family and at least 30 minutes of sports.

4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?

Leadership is HARD. 2020 brought plenty of opportunities to lead the team into new adventures, but at the end it all comes to you and your will to lead your team into the unknown with a firm belief that the direction you're embarking upon is the correct one. Leadership is hard and you are going to make decisions that other people can’t. Understand your values and prioritize them.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

I liked a lot of the hard things about hard things. Although it is not a go-to resource it gave me ideas that have stuck with me over the years.

6. How do you build leadership capacity in a large enterprise?

Understand where you can create the most value and commit time to that task. Recognize talent and make it thrive all around you. Always always push your team members to come up with solutions and not problems.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise so far?

In general I will remember fondly all of the times I got to share with my team's time that helped us build stronger non work related relationships. I cherish those relationships and a lot of my ex team members have grown to be my friends today.