Kris Poria Not having the best situation but seeing the best in your situation is the key to success. This phrase aptly captures Kris Poria’s rise to the top. Kris Poria hails from a family of farmers in a rather remote village in India. While most teenagers are hesitant to attend a school in which they are not familiar with the first language, Kris knew that he needed to learn the language. Instead of complaining about his situation or giving up as many do, Kris took it upon himself to ensure that he mastered the English language. After much hard work, with sheer resilience and determination, he succeeded. This was one of the earliest signs that Kris was a man of strong character, although he is fluent in the English language today, “giving up” and “defeat” are two words that do not exist in his dictionary. Fast forward to a few years later, by the age of 21, when most of us are focused on our careers, Kris was juggling two businesses, his studies, and had recently been married as well. It was during this phase of his life that he learned how to manage his time and money efficiently. Kris had a keen interest in software due to the infinite number of opportunities that it has, Kris decided to become a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer and for the first time, he left his country and family to travel abroad to work in Europe and America. This gave Kris a chance to get an idea of the possibilities available outside India. After garnering much-needed experience, Kris decided that Australia was the perfect spot for him to not only raise his family but also to start his ventures. Kris moved to Sydney; a city filled with opportunities ripe for the taking. Kris decided to start his media publication, ‘Invest in Australia’ which took off almost immediately as he had readers from all over Australia. The media publication was going well, while any other individual in a similar scenario would attempt to solely focus on the magazine, Kris had other ideas. If you happen to be passionate about your job, you do not work a single day in your life. Kris had not yet been done in the IT sector, he found his calling and decided to step back into his dreamland. While he was pursuing his MBA from Macquarie Graduate School of Management, he worked with some of the largest IT production companies and system integrators, familiarizing himself with how they work and analyzing if there were any untapped needs that he could fulfill. In the midst of this, Kris realized that there was a void which he could fill. Big companies were looking to work with startup with innovative solutions, however, there was no intermediary to connect them both. This was his Eureka moment! Kris along with his Co-founder and confidante Jeff Penrose decided to start EarlyBirds, a platform that connects tech innovators, disruptors, budding startups, and independent experts to share their expertise and knowledge as per their needs to ensure the growth of their business. We interacted with Kris Poria to find out his success mantra and to what lies ahead for him, and EarlyBirds. What are the aims and ideals that guide you as an individual and a professional? Kris is of the strong belief that with the increased technological prowess, our society is on a path to completely switching over to machines in most areas, this is a revolution that you can either be a part of or end up just witnessing from the sidelines. His goal has always been to add more value to society through his business, even with EarlyBirds, Kris emphasizes that his priority is how he can add value to your existing capabilities and essentially help you improve your efficiency and capacity. Enlighten us about your greatest strength. How are you different from others in your field? We are not surprised that Kris mentions his passion for the industry as one of his strengths. With true passion, no matter how many hardships arise, you will always rise to the occasion, Kris in addition to being passionate about the work that EarlyBirds does also cites his capabilities and his customer-oriented approach as his strengths. That explains why EarlyBirds in a short period has earned a considerable amount of goodwill and is functioning in four continents, multiple industries, and has become the go-to technical and business solution provider for many startups. Kris is not satisfied either, he is still looking for ways to innovate and ensure that EarlyBirds is constantly progressing. His primary focus has always been on customers and the benefits that they can derive by working with the organization. Please tell us about your organization. What are your primary roles and responsibilities? Can you please walk us through the major accomplishments throughout your journey? EarlyBirds purpose is to Engage Society in Actionable Innovation. It is an open innovation ecosystem that helps Innovators such as startups, scaleups, and mature companies connect. EarlyBirds aims to exponentially accelerate the capacity, speed, and culture of these organizations by providing business and technical solutions to their challenges. Kris currently leads the commercial, product, and innovation strategy for EarlyBirds. Since its launch in September of 2019, over 600 organizations have realized what EarlyBirds brings to the table and have registered themselves along with over 100 Subject Matter Expert consultants from Australia alone. EarlyBirds monitors over 4 million innovators globally to find relevant partners for early adopter organizations. Their work has gained the attention of prominent media outlets globally. How did you respond to the challenges induced by the COVID-19 pandemic? What measures did you incorporate to surpass the challenges?  The pandemic was a challenge for us all, we were curious about how this unforeseen event impacted EarlyBirds. Kris is of the belief that the pandemic hit their core strategy as they wished to primarily focus on the private sector in Australia and New Zealand but due to travel

 Susanne Diemer Brief us about your outset story of your career. To me it is a duty and privilege to serve, guide and protect others. It is a way of life more than a career.  It really is a call and it is for life. What are the aims and ideals that guide you as an individual and a professional? I am guided by the power and ability to serve by protecting people, assets, information and locations. It is all about confidentiality, discretion, trust and duty. It is never about me. I am a tool, a guide and a messenger of the inconvenient truth. I work mostly under the radar to protect others. Enlighten us about your greatest strength. How are you different from others in your field? I follow five key factors  I listen. I observe I communicate. Courage – also have the courage to speak up and be the voice of the inconvenient truth. Respect for other people´s views and experiences. Respect for everything and everyone, no matter nationality, race, religion or political opinion. Please tell us about your organisation. What are your primary roles and responsibilities? Can you please walk us through the major accomplishments throughout your journey? I am honoured and privileged to assist people, companies, governments and organisations around the world. Confidentiality is everything in my world and my duty is under the radar. ‘Truth is stranger than fiction’ (Mark Twain) is true. My greatest accomplishments are the lives I have touched and the recent publication of decades of exeprience, expertise and anecdotes. I have written an urban crisis survival guide to democratize my crisis expertise in order to guide, prepare and protect more people. To make more people aware of the potentiel crises ahead. The book is called “Your Urban Survival Crisis Planner”. How did you respond to the challenges induced by the COVID-19 pandemic? What measures did you incorporate to surpass the challenges? Before the virus turned into a global pandemic I tried to warn about it. In my world we always work with containing and manage risks. It always pays of. From my sources and information gathered, I could see a pandemic unfold and was accused of many things. Unfortunately, my predictions were right.  I had hope we could prevent the pandemic – and we could have. As it unfolded, I was prepared personally and professionally and had planned for it. Therefore   my company, my clients, my family, and myself were not vulnerable. We were prepared, protected and made the most of it. Among other things, most of it is confidential, I was finally able to finish my book and I was able to prepare my clients as well. Who in your life inspires you the most? Due to the nature of my work, I am constantly in contact with numerous people from around the world of many different sectors, beliefs and personalities. That is the greatest gift and the most unlikely people inspire me every day. Paying respect, honouring and listening to every human really brings the greatest inspiration. What advice would you give to the next generation of aspiring and budding Business people? Be courageous, be respectful and do not let your ego or financial or strategic goals interfere with your mission. Trust your gut feeling, do not be afraid to say no and do it! Take action- and enjoy it.

 Keisha A Rivers Brief us about your outset story of your career. My career as it is now started in a non-traditional way.  I began as a Marketing major at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, but after taking an elective course in “Teaching Children’s Literature” and seeing the “ah-ha” moment of understanding in the eyes of the kids I was teaching, I was hooked!  It wasn’t enough for me to create marketing campaigns and share messages and stories for brands.  Instead, I wanted to make a difference and create a long-term impact on those I worked with.  I changed my major to education, went on to become an educator and then shifted again when I transitioned into consulting and working with organizations. With my combined backgrounds in education and business, I created an approach to engagement, learning and leadership that has enabled me to equip organizations in their quest to create safe spaces for their people to feel seen, heard, and valued in the midst of uncertainty.  What are the aims and ideals that guide you as an individual and a professional? What truly guides and motivates me is a sense that everyone deserves to work in an environment that enables them to show up fully, wholly, and authentically.  I want to create a world where people are celebrated for who they are and valued for the gifts, talents, and abilities they bring to the table—not punished, dismissed, or diminished because they don’t “fit in” or are like everyone else. I believe in inclusive, innovative leadership and strive to demonstrate integrity, empathy, and a sense of wonder at what’s possible with all of my clients.  I believe we show up as who we really are in all aspects of our lives—both personally and professionally—so I strive to be 100% authentically ME in every situation.  After all, you can’t ask others to do what you aren’t willing to do for yourself, right? Enlighten us about your greatest strength. How are you different from others in your field? My greatest strength is my ability to see the big picture vision of what success truly looks like in action for client organizations, and then craft a roadmap that guides them along their journey through the process.  I’m unique in my approach to consulting because of my people-centered and learning-centered views.  Everything a client organization does needs to be rooted in how they can best equip and support their people through the process of change.  This goes well beyond a simple checklist of tasks and things to do.  It starts with the heart of an organization and extends outward to impact each individual, team, leader and client.  My focus on the people side of change sets me apart from others because I’m able to create long-term, systemic change that is sustainable. Please tell us about your organisation. What are your primary roles and responsibilities? Can you please walk us through the major accomplishments throughout your journey? As President, CEO and Chief Outcome Facilitator of The KARS Group LTD, I serve as the organizational leader, strategist, and visionary.  In this role, I work with client leaders to craft a vision of success, determine a strategy, and oversee the action plan to guide them along the journey.  Within my organization, I work closely with my team to encourage, motivate, educate, and guide them towards success.  It is our overall responsibility to create opportunities for our clients to become equipped to provide safe environments where their people are seen, heard, and valued.  Some of my major accomplishments in this journey include: being recognized as one of the 50 Most Influential Women of Mecklenburg County for my work with client organizations and community initiatives; the responses I receive from people who tell me that I’ve been an inspiration to them; and the young women I have mentored who I can see blossom and become leaders of impact in their own right. How did you respond to the challenges induced by the COVID-19 pandemic? What measures did you incorporate to surpass the challenges? My company has been virtual since we launched in 2005, so there weren’t very many adjustments that my team had to make logistically in working and collaborating together in a remote environment.  What did shift however, was our focus and the type of work that we were called to do with our client organizations.  COVID-19 brought a tsunami of requests for our services, and we had to shift and scale at a rapid pace to keep up with demand. The best outcome from this challenge was the creation of our new KARS Learning Pathway and the launch of our online KARS Learning Center.  This enabled us to serve more client organizations and led to a shift in the way we delivered learning sessions.  With so many client organizations being decentralized because of remote work, we were able to met the needs of their people where they were, instead of having to bring everyone together.  It’s a difficult thing to create a learning community when people aren’t physically in the room, but we were able to create an engaging, safe and collaborative environment that led to break-throughs and mindset shifts, which people were able to apply to their daily work. Who in your life inspires you the most? I am inspired by people who show up fully, wholly, authentically, and unapologetically as themselves each and every day.  Those who share their experiences, lift others up during their journey, and use their voice in constructive ways to educate and advocate for others.  There are a number of close friends and colleagues who inspire me daily with their quiet tenacity, bravery, and commitment to do their work and show up to share their gifts, talents, and abilities with the world. What advice would you give to the next generation of aspiring and budding Business people? The advice I would give to the next generation of aspiring and budding business people is simple –

 Jeff Harry Brief us about the outset story of your career.  Here’s brief to my life story: Saw the movie Big as a kid where Tom Hanks gets paid to play with toys for a living  Inspired & started writing toy companies in 5th grade and did not stop Eventually got into the toy industry 12 years later only to be disappointed as there was no play, no fun, no high fives, no time to play with toys, and no kids  Left my dream industry feeling lost and moved from NY to Oakland Found a LEGO-Inspired STEM Education job on Craigslist with seven employees paying $150.00/week  Helped grow the business through a play-oriented perspective where we just experimented, made it up as we went along, embraced failure, and followed our curiosity Grew the organization to a staff of 400 over 16 years, introducing engineering to over 1 Million kids, became the largest LEGO-inspired STEM Organization in the US. Ran team building events for some of the top tech companies in the world (I.e., Facebook, Google, Adobe, Paypal, etc.) for a decade and found that even though they spoke about innovation, disruption, agile, they were not creating psychologically safe spaces for their staff to take risks and play Created Rediscover Your Play to tackle those hard conversations and heal workplaces through building psychological safety using positive psychology and play What are the aims and ideals that guide you as an individual and a professional? I believe that the concept of play can heal divisions in the world, and that starts with the workplace.  To address the Great Resignation and the Anti-Work movement, we need to incorporate compassion, empathy and shared humanity into our work environments.   My ideals include: Following your curiosity. Rediscovering your zone of genius. Embracing your weirdness. Taking bold risks that make you nerd-cited. This play-oriented mindset is where our most significant innovations have come from and are the foundation of the most successful organizations in the world.  Google’s 20% rule provided a playground for staff to pursue projects that make them come alive as long as it benefited Google lead to the creation of Adsense, Gmail, and Google News.  That is what is possible when you provide your staff the environment to play, take risks, and innovate. Enlighten us about your greatest strength.  How are you different from others in your field?  My greatest strength is assisting leaders in building psychologically safe work environments where teams feel comfortable having difficult conversations, embracing their zone of genius/flow work, and taking bold steps to help their organization evolve, where other groups cower and continue to follow the status quo.  Please tell us about your organisation.  What are your primary roles and responsibilities?  At Rediscover Your Play, Jeff Harry combines positive psychology and play to heal workplaces, help teams build psychological safety, and assist individuals in addressing their most significant challenges through embracing a play-oriented approach to work.  Some of the topics I cover in workshops and talks include how to navigate the Great Resignation & uncertainty through play, how to deal with toxicity in the workplace, how to address the BS of office politics, how to play with your inner critic, and how to help your staff rediscover their flow.   My primary roles are consulting leaders on how to heal their workplaces and speaking to organizations about what is possible when tackling their most pressing issues around psychological safety from a play and positive psychology perspective. Can you please walk us through the major accomplishments throughout your journey? I was selected by BambooHR & Engagedly as one of the Top 100 HR Influencers of 2020.  My work has recently been featured in the NY Times, Mashable, Upworthy, Shondaland, & Wired.  My work has also been highlighted in newscasts both in America and internationally.  Some clients that I have worked with include the US Department of Homeland Security & CalState University have been selected to speak at conferences such as INBOUND, SXSW, and Australia’s Pausefest.    How did you respond to the challenges induced by the COVID-19 pandemic?  What measures did you incorporate to surpass the obstacles? The pandemic presented as many possibilities as it did challenges, as I had the chance to work with organizations that I would have never had the opportunity to work with otherwise.  I was able to transfer a majority of talks to a virtual format while remaining engaging, and I utilized platforms that I did not have time to pursue in the past.  For example, I have been interviewed on over 200+ podcasts since the beginning of the pandemic, and I have produced over 500+ videos on TikTok, LinkedIn, and YouTube displaying my work. Who in your life inspires you the most?  My dad, Dr. Erling Harry & my mom Zenaida Pampoline Harry inspires me the most.  My dad, Dr. Harry, was the first doctor from the tiny island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines to make it in America.  The amount of hard work, sacrifice, and bold risk-taking he had to do to accomplish what he did from where he came from was astounding.  My mom’s story is similar in that she was one of the first women from the rural town of San Narcisco in the Philippines to make it as a nurse in America.  Her sacrifices helped pave the way for her siblings and extended family to dream big and accomplish what seemed, at one point, impossible.  They are two exemplary examples of what is possible when you are willing to wholeheartedly embrace who you are and follow your convictions even when the odds are massively against you.  You are paving a new path that no one has done before you. What advice would you give to the next generation of aspiring and budding Business people?  My advice to any aspiring new business person is to remind them that no one knows what they are doing.  We are all making it up as we go along, and anyone telling you otherwise is not telling you the whole