Every project, no matter how sophisticated, begins with a vision. Turning that complexity into execution requires more than technical expertise. It requires the ability to see the bigger picture, bring clarity to uncertainty, and inspire people to move together toward a common goal. No professional understands these dynamics better than Naresh Bothra. In the capital equipment and packaging machinery industry, he manages more than 20 capital expenditure projects each year as Project Director at MULTIVAC Middle East FZE. These multimillion-dollar projects often span multiple countries, involve diverse stakeholders, and face changing client requirements that can affect project timelines. For Naresh, a title does not define leadership. His career has taken him from technical roles to large-scale project management and regional leadership. This journey has taught him to connect engineering with business objectives and people with performance. His leadership style is built on trust, accountability, and the ability to turn complex challenges into coordinated action. Engineering Excellence Naresh’s path to leadership began far from the boardroom. He earned a degree in Electronics Engineering from Mumbai University and later completed an MBA in Information Technology. This combination gave him a strong technical foundation and a strategic perspective that continues to shape his professional approach. His early professional experience focused on technical support, systems programming, and automation solutions for enterprise clients. These roles taught him to look at challenges as connected systems rather than isolated problems. A major turning point came when Naresh joined IBM as a Transition Project Manager. He managed large-scale transitions involving multi-million-dollar budgets. He led more than 10 direct reports while coordinating a technical workforce of more than 500 people. The role gave him valuable experience in project governance, stakeholder management, and change management. This experience shaped a principle that continues to guide his work today. Successful projects are rarely the result of last-minute brilliance, they are the outcome of disciplined execution. Careful planning, clear processes, and strong coordination can make the difference between a project that moves forward and one that loses momentum. For the past 14 years, Naresh has served as Project Incharge at MULTIVAC Middle East FZE. He oversees projects across their full lifecycle, from planning and design to installation, commissioning, and performance optimization. His role brings together engineering expertise, multi-country logistics, and cross-cultural client relationships. He works closely with customers, internal teams, suppliers, and MULTIVAC’s headquarters in Germany to ensure projects are delivered effectively. His engineering background continues to play an important role in his decision-making. For Naresh, many project decisions come down to two practical questions: What is technically possible, and what will work effectively on-site? Empowered Leadership Early in his career, Naresh preferred a hands-on approach. He wanted to understand every problem and find the solution himself. Over time, experience changed his perspective. He learned that leadership is not about having every answer. It is about creating an environment where people feel empowered to take ownership and make sound decisions. As his projects became larger and more complex, Naresh moved toward strategic delegation, empowerment, and broader oversight. Managing high-value packaging machinery installations across several Middle Eastern countries taught him an important lesson. A Project Director cannot be involved in every technical discussion. The real measure of leadership is building a team capable of making the right decisions even when the leader is not in the room. Four principles now guide Naresh’s leadership philosophy. Clarity of Scope: Every team member and client must understand the requirements before execution begins. Clear expectations help prevent confusion and keep projects aligned. Proactive Risk Management: Naresh believes in identifying potential risks before they become problems. This includes anticipating supply chain delays, technical challenges, and on-site bottlenecks. Contingency plans are developed early to keep projects on track. Accountability Through Transparency: Open communication is essential. Naresh encourages clear and timely communication across internal teams and external partners. Transparency builds trust and strengthens accountability. Respect for Cultural Differences: Leading multicultural teams across the Middle East and Africa requires more than technical expertise. Empathy, active listening, and clear expectations are equally important. Understanding cultural differences helps build stronger relationships and more effective teams. Strategy in Action Naresh believes strategy and execution must work together. A strong project strategy has little value if daily execution is not managed effectively. To maintain this connection, he converts broad project objectives into clear and measurable milestones. These include design approvals, factory acceptance tests, shipment tracking, site readiness, and final commissioning. For larger projects, Naresh conducts weekly reviews to track progress, identify challenges, and focus management attention on the areas that need it most. However, he does not believe leadership should rely only on reports and dashboards. During critical stages such as installation and commissioning, he stays closely involved with both the project and the customer. He believes it is important to understand the actual situation on-site rather than depend only on what a schedule shows. This approach was tested during a major poultry production project in Saudi Arabia. The multi-million-euro project involved packaging lines for a new production plant. It required coordination between several internal teams and multiple external suppliers to deliver a complete end-to-end solution. The installation and commissioning phase was initially planned for six weeks. However, changing customer requirements and priorities extended the project to nearly ten months. Instead of allowing the extended timeline to create disconnected challenges, Naresh and his team maintained continuous tracking of open issues. They established clear communication channels between the customer, suppliers, and technical teams. They also kept senior management informed throughout the project. The project ultimately reached a successful conclusion. All equipment was installed, commissioned, and operating effectively at the customer’s site. The result went beyond the successful installation of the equipment. The customer also gained greater confidence in MULTIVAC’s responsiveness and post-sales support. For Naresh, the experience reinforced an important leadership principle. Planning sets the direction, but execution is where project leadership is truly tested. Leading Through Clear Communication In multi-country capital equipment projects, Naresh sees communication as one of the most important tools for managing

Some careers follow a clearly defined path, while others are shaped by diverse experiences and opportunities. Alex Ryals’ career has followed a less conventional path, with each role adding a new perspective and deepening his understanding of the technology industry. Becoming a Chief Information Security Officer was not part of his original career plan. Instead, he built his career one opportunity at a time, allowing each experience to shape his professional journey and expand his expertise. Currently serving as Chief Information Security Officer and Senior Vice President at MicroAge, a ScanSource company, Alex brings more than 19 years of cybersecurity experience to his role. His career across four distinct perspectives has given him a broad understanding of the technology industry and its evolving challenges. While Alex considers his career path unconventional, he sees this diverse experience as a defining strength. It enables him to connect technology with business objectives, partner requirements, and customer needs, allowing him to make practical and informed decisions. A 360-Degree Perspective Alex began his career as a customer, managing technology for FedEx before moving into solution consulting with an HP reseller, Pepperweed Consulting. This experience as a reseller partner allowed Alex to work directly with customers in solving their technology challenges and later led to his interest in revisiting this experience with his current employer, MicroAge. Between these roles, Alex spent several years at distributors including Avnet, Tech Data, and TD SYNNEX. In these positions, he sold technology to reseller partners. Most recently, he worked at Ping Identity, an independent software vendor, where he led a global channel organization which enabled other resellers to sell Identity and Access Management solutions to their customers. Few executives have experience across all four positions in the technology channel ecosystem: customer, value-added reseller, distributor and vendor. Alex has spent nearly 15 years focused on cybersecurity. During that time, he worked closely with dozens of CISOs and gained a clear understanding of the challenges they face. Listening to their concerns and priorities eventually gave him the confidence to take on the role himself. This experience also shaped his view of what distinguishes an effective CISO from an average one. He observed that security leaders often tend to focus on one of two areas. Some prioritize technology, while others focus primarily on compliance. Alex set out to develop expertise in both. His early experience as a CTO, software developer, and pre-sales solutions architect gave him a strong technical foundation. He later invested significant time in understanding compliance and regulatory requirements. This combination of technical expertise and compliance knowledge now shapes his approach to cybersecurity leadership at MicroAge. Influence Through Leadership Alex describes his leadership style as one based more on influence than authority. He is comfortable giving direct instructions when a decision has already been made. For example, when the company decides to deploy a new security tool, someone has to take responsibility for implementation. However, Alex prefers to involve his team in the process. He encourages team members to participate in selecting the right technology. He may ask some employees to work with the vendor on pricing and others to develop the deployment plan. By the time he gives the final approval, the team already understands the decision and supports the project. This creates stronger ownership and commitment to successful execution. Another important part of his leadership philosophy is the principle of failing fast. Cybersecurity changes quickly, and tools or processes that appear effective on paper may not work well in practice. Alex encourages his teams to recognize problems early and take corrective action. He believes holding on to a poor decision because of stubbornness, internal politics, or sunk costs can create greater problems. Admitting a mistake early allows the team to learn, adjust, and move forward with a better solution. Empowering Through Trust Alex wants his team to see him as anything but a micromanager. Part of this approach comes from necessity. He does not have the time to oversee every decision. More importantly, he believes in hiring capable people and giving them the freedom to do their jobs. His team members are experienced leaders in their respective areas. He meets with them regularly, usually on a weekly basis, to review progress and discuss key issues. He asks direct questions to understand whether they are simply following instructions or taking ownership and developing their own ideas. Alex is willing to challenge a direction when he believes a different approach would be better. At the same time, he gives his team the space to make decisions and take responsibility for the results. He also accepts that people may sometimes make mistakes. In his view, failure becomes a problem only when it is not recognized and addressed quickly. This balance of trust, accountability, and timely intervention allows his team to operate with greater confidence while keeping projects and priorities on track. Innovation as a Habit Alex believes innovation should become a regular part of the company culture rather than an occasional initiative. He sees this as a fundamental cultural shift. He organizes his time around two key areas: strategy and execution. At the beginning of each fiscal year, and to a lesser extent each quarter, he moves into strategy mode. During this period, he works closely with his teams to review their technology, processes, and priorities. They assess what is working, identify areas for improvement, and make changes where needed. This strategic approach led to the creation of the Business Optimization team at MicroAge last year. The team is led by a director who looks across the business for opportunities to improve efficiency and introduce new solutions. This includes using AI to automate manual processes. The director provides monthly updates to the leadership team and quarterly updates to the entire company. The team has already developed several AI-based tools that simplify work across the organization. Alex believes these efforts have also helped create a stronger culture of innovation. As each quarter progresses, he shifts his focus from strategy to execution. He