1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

I don't think of myself as a leader or a follower. I try to engage in every interaction with an open mind, listen, make sure the other side is heard and then contribute from my knowledge as much as I can. I'm not trying to make people follow my guidance or advice. I try to make sure they understand the pros and cons.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I'm happy to taking ownership, responsibility and getting things done. As such, more and more roles and responsibilities were given to me. I joined a small start up as a junior developer many years ago, the team was small and was composed of 5 senior developers who were very smart but didn't like taking responsibility. In a few weeks I became team leader, which seemed to please everyone. 20 years later I was leading 4,000 engineers as a COO and it seemed to flow naturally.

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

I wake up early, drink some coffee (no sugar), take the kids to school and go do my daily sport activity, some days it is swimming, some running, some gym. I do that for an hour. then I head off to work and work without break until early afternoon. I catch up on my emails late at evenings. I try to avoid meetings as much as possible as I believe they are a waste of time. I read a lot and communicate with others via documents

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

Recently, I had the opportunity to work as head of software transformation in a large corporate. Due to COVID, I worked there remotely and as a contractor. I found out that when you take the politics out of the daily job it becomes very refreshing to get things done. When you can say/do what you think it right regardless of whether you will or will not be promoted, you suddenly realize many of your past years were spent with a slightly off focus

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?

Atlas Shrugged. I won't begin to describe it but if anyone gets a chance to read her books, you will become a better person...

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Listen to your team. When you speak, you've lost. You know what you want to say so saying it is a waste of time. If you listen, you learn new stuff. Listen to your team and get things done (even a few) every day

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

It makes you a better leader if you get fired from time to time :-) I was fired at least 3 times and you learn more from failures than you learn from successes