Award-winning CXO Janine has held executive leadership positions for commercial product and service businesses across a variety of industries.
Numerous well-known international brands, such as Samsung, Sony, Barnes & Noble, Everlast, Chanel, Mark, Nestle, and Starbucks, have benefited from her efforts in terms of growth and profitability. Her skill in creating targeted business strategies and utilising well studied risk to achieve the best results is highly known.
She currently serves as the founder and CEO of STASH Global Inc., which provides the quickest and most efficient means of halting ransomware and data compromise.
The highlights of the interview are below:
Tell us about yourself and your story before founding Stash Global Inc.
Until about 10 years ago, my career path was focused on operations, brand building, and business building in a variety of market segments, including technology, health and beauty, sports, beverages, electronics, books, and fashion.
I’ve had the good fortune to be able to spread my wings in entrepreneurial ways in all the big brand companies I’ve worked for, accomplishing significant successes for these businesses, and knew from very early on that there were multiple kinds of opportunities I was interested in starting up and building myself.
Why did you choose the data security industry to work in?
As a CXO, a big part of my responsibilities is solving problems. It’s something that I love to do and am also good at. Since IT reported to me in most of my roles, I got a top-notch education about how it worked, what could affect technology in both positive and negative ways, and what keeps a business whole from a digital data standpoint.
The idea for this business grew from the realization that 99.9% of other security options were going down the ‘protect the perimeter path’, and that this strategy would never be enough to solve the data security problem.
Tell us more about the company.
The goal has always been to offer a genuine solution of unmatched effectiveness, ease of use, and cost-efficiency to most organizations in the world, with the mission of becoming their #1 choice to eradicate data compromise.
Defensive security was not built to protect data. It was built to defend data through the use of data walls, fences, and moats around it. It has been discovered since then that there is no perimeter around data; no walls or fences that can keep malicious actors out.
The STASH® Integrated Secure Data Governance Solution with No Ransom Ransomware (The Solution) is a unique data protection and resilience offering for commercial and government use, designed for deployment in environments where granular data control and eradication of data compromise are highly sought-after outcomes. An all-in-one, quantum-resistant, agnostic, automatic, and autonomous solution in a sea of tools, it provides proactive datacentric data protection directly to data bytes at creation, in-use, during transit, when sharing inside and outside of an organization, and at rest in any cloud configuration or off-cloud storage environments.
It is the data itself, the lowest and most critical denominator that must be protected directly—it is actually the only perimeter. The solution is an organic fit to all legacy and later technology tools, built to flexibly augment or replace low-value tactics.
It delivers a previously unavailable and unobtainable level of secure and resilient data governance, reducing immediate and future financial and also human losses from data compromise to the lowest possibility ever.
What are your responsibilities as the founder and CEO of the company?
The most important responsibility I have is to ensure that the vision, strategy, tactics, and culture of the company are known and supported by the executive team and fostered universally throughout the organization. It is crucial to have everyone working towards the same outcome every day.
After that, I wear a lot of hats. Keeping the wheels of the business turning means I am involved in every aspect \, from operations and marketing to finance, human resources,and technology. Ultimately, my goal as CEO is to grow the business and achieve profitability.
What have you failed at and how do you overcome challenges?
For many years, I ignored my ‘gut’, surmising erroneously that it was emotional and not to be trusted. Over time, I learned that my gut is one of the most trusted forms of data I should be using when decisions are at hand, and for the last several decades, I have paid close attention to it. It does not fail me as one of many decision-making factors.
Overcoming challenges is about tackling them in the same way one would tackle anything. I give them no more weight than any other task, and use due diligence, experience, and, of course, data to determine the path forward.
Last, it’s very important not to beat yourself up. Learn. Don’t repeat the same mistake. Move on.
What are the key attributes of becoming a successful tech leader?
It’s important to be involved in all aspects of business. By staying involved, you will gain a better understanding of the company as a whole and be better equipped to make informed decisions.
I’ve talked about Vision. Let me briefly touch on some others:
The ability to execute -Without the ability to act on great vision, you’re not going to
get very far. A good leader knows how to break a vision down into achievable, bite-sized pieces or milestones, who to delegate those pieces to, and how to put the puzzle together for an advantageous outcome.
Grit – This trait is a must have. You need to understand before you decide to start a company or to aspire to leadership, whether the fire in your soul will outlast everything that is thrown at it. It’s the motivation and determination to make something happen against all odds—because you will be against all odds for much longer than you think. Grit is what keeps a leader
going and what inspires others to follow.
Adaptability – You must be willing and able to learn and to consider the expertise and opinions of others, and to change course at a moment’s notice. There are going to be surprises, and you must be open to making changes quickly in order to bolster the business when things happen that weren’t expected.
The popularity contest – Sometimes you’ll have to make decisions that aren’t popular. You have to be willing to say the things that nobody wants to hear and do the things that nobody wants done. But remember: be an example. Treat everyone with respect, no matter what information you’re delivering.
What changes do you wish to bring in society?
I mentioned earlier that I started this company to ‘do well by doing good’. This has always been my life’s goal, whether inside or outside of a business. With STASH, I am able to dream every day of making the negative effects of data compromise a thing of the past for everyone.
Also, STASH has a mandate to seek out and hire the best from a diverse pool of potential hires. There are so many people with tremendous talent that struggle with finding gainful employment: the gender diverse, veterans, and the physically challenged, to name a few.
In your opinion, what are the primary technologies that have the potential to revolutionise the future of security and information sector?
We are all paying attention to quantum, of course. The speed at which it can crunch data is astounding, though very few people know how to write it yet. Speed, accuracy, ease, and security are top of mind in all business sectors. As in most things, quantum will be a two-sided coin.
What advice would you give to the next generation of women tech leaders?
Be very strategic with your career. Find good mentors. Speak up. Change companies if you are not moving at the pace of your ambition and expertise. Be learning all the time. Adapt.
Be professional in promoting yourself. Network. Never forget that we (everyone on earth) are all in this together, and that being your best self is the key to success.
What are your future plans to sustain the company’s and your success?
To follow my own advice and utilize the successes and failures I’ve had over my career as a competitive advantage for my company.
Website: www.stash.global
