GET TO KNOW
In this position as a manager, the key is
to help the sales teams across MEA to be
successful. My role is also to advise the
product teams to develop the product with
new features demanded by our customers. connecting trading partners. Currently,
less than 10% of the invoices globally
are managed electronically and there is a
growing demand from tax authorities to
control indirect tax to reduce tax gaps.
To summarise, my management philosophy
is to humbly add my experience and
knowledge of the market to help both our
customers and employees to be successful in
what they do. I believe that many governments need
to build infrastructure to facilitate
pure electronic exchange of trading
documentations and develop basic
regulation for access points to operate in
What do you think
is the current hot
technology
talking point?
I think the hot topic
not anyone wants to
talk about is the role of
humans in the future
world of AI, Robotics
and massive data
analytics. I think there
are a good number of ethical discussions
around the use of technologies and these
have already begun.
How do you deal with stress and
unwind outside the office?
I am a family man. Enjoying time with my
wife or catching up with my daughters back
in Europe helps me to unwind. Apart from
that playing music and swimming are two of
my passions.
If you could go back and change one
career decision what would it be?
I would not change any. I have learnt a
lot from all my career experiences, good
or bad. That is the beauty of this journey:
you take decisions and need to manage
the consequences of these decisions. The
only thing I would change are those days
when I was not focused on managing the
consequences but kept revisiting the decision.
What do you currently identify as
the major areas of investment in
your industry?
My current company Pagero operates in
the electronic trading document space.
We believe in a world of interconnected
networks, similar to the mobile phone
network, where there are no obstacles
84
INTELLIGENTCIO
both B2G and B2B space. Those
investments will also bring significant
benefits to companies who will improve the
quality of information they input in the ERP
systems, improving their analytics, providing
real time insights and optimising costs of
trading transactions.
What are the region-specific
challenges when implementing
new technologies?
There are still some challenges with the
access to reliable communications in many
countries in MEA especially Africa. The
diversity in terms of rules and regulations
can also be a barrier but I can see significant
steps in the right direction recently.
At Pagero, we facilitate
trading by assisting
companies to stay
compliant in the
countries they operate.
“
MY CURRENT
POSITION AS
MD FOR PAGERO
IS ONCE AGAIN
A MARKET
EXPANSION
CHALLENGE FOR
A PRODUCT THAT
IS AHEAD OF THE
TIMES IN MANY
MARKETS.
but I see my role moving from an instigator
(educating the market about the benefits of
the technology we provide) to a facilitator
(assisting companies to solve some of their
business problems while helping them to
have a global reach) as we grow the business
across the region.
What advice would you offer
somebody aspiring to obtain C-level
position in your industry?
I would rather mention the advice I was
given by one of my previous CEOs. He told
me to focus on making everyone around me
(customers, partners, employees) successful
and by doing that I would build a successful
career for myself. n
What changes to
your job role have
you seen in the last
year and how do
you see these
developing in the
next 12 months?
I am just 60 days in the
role so its still early days
www.intelligentcio.com