Industry Innovator of the Year Phil Calvin on Leading Delinea’s Mission to Secure Hybrid and Cloud Environments

As 2024 Industry Innovator of the Year, named by the Tech Ascension Awards, Phil Calvin, Chief Product Officer, Delinea, has led the company's charge in rethinking security for modern hybrid and cloud environments. In this interview, Phil shares insights into his journey in tech leadership, Delinea’s mission, and his approach to fostering innovation and adaptability in a rapidly evolving industry.

What inspired you to pursue leadership in the tech industry, and how has that journey evolved over time?

I've always been fascinated by how technology can solve real-world problems and drive innovation. Early in my career, I realized that tech leadership wasn't just about building products but about enabling teams to think critically, challenge the status quo, and collaborate on solutions that make a lasting impact. Over time, my leadership journey has evolved as I’ve learned to balance technical expertise with strategic vision, helping organizations not only adapt but thrive in a constantly changing landscape.

What is Delinea's mission? How do you help drive that mission in your role?

Delinea’s mission is to provide seamless security by securing every identity across hybrid and cloud environments. We focus on delivering solutions that reduce risk without adding complexity, empowering organizations to protect their most critical assets. In my role, I drive this mission by ensuring our product portfolio remains innovative and customer-centric. I work closely with teams to align our development efforts with the evolving needs of our customers, making sure we stay ahead of emerging threats while maintaining ease of use and scalability.

How do you foster innovation within your teams while maintaining a balance between creativity and operational efficiency?

Fostering innovation requires creating an environment where people feel empowered to take risks and explore new ideas. I encourage my teams to think outside the box, while also providing the structure needed to turn those ideas into practical solutions. We focus on iterative development, where teams can experiment with new concepts but always have clear goals and metrics to ensure we’re delivering value. This approach allows us to innovate without sacrificing operational efficiency.

In a fast-paced industry like tech, how do you ensure your organization remains agile and adaptable to change?

Agility comes from staying close to our customers and keeping a pulse on market trends. We have a feedback loop where customer input is quickly integrated into our product development process, allowing us to pivot as needed. I also emphasize a culture of continuous learning and adaptability within our teams. By embracing change as an opportunity for growth, we ensure that our organization can swiftly respond to new challenges and technologies.

What advice would you give to aspiring tech leaders looking to make a significant impact in their fields?

My advice would be to stay curious and be willing to take calculated risks. The tech industry is always evolving, and those who are willing to challenge conventional thinking often make the biggest impact. At the same time, remember that leadership is about enabling others. Focus on building strong teams, foster a culture of collaboration, and always keep the bigger picture in mind—how your work is solving real problems and contributing to a better future.

Tech Ascension Awards Announces the 2024 FinTech Winners, Recognizing Innovation and Leadership in Financial Technology

The Tech Ascension Awards are proud to announce the winners of the 2024 FinTech Awards, recognizing outstanding achievements in the financial technology sector. These organizations have demonstrated exceptional vision and accomplishments in their respective fields, leading the way with groundbreaking solutions that set new standards in the industry.

"Fintech is at a pivotal moment, with AI and digital transformation redefining how we interact with financial services," said David Campbell, CEO of Tech Ascension Awards. "This year’s award winners exemplify the power of innovation to address complex challenges in fraud prevention, compliance, banking integration, and more. By pushing the boundaries of technology, these companies are setting new standards and driving the entire industry forward, making financial transactions more secure, efficient, and accessible for everyone."

2024 Tech Ascension FinTech Award Winners:

• Best Innovative FinTech Solution – BlackLine, BlackLine Studio Platform BlackLine’s platform centralizes financial operations, transforming record-to-report and invoice-to-cash processes. It combines seamless ERP integration with powerful automation and AI, offering finance professionals real-time financial visibility and strategic insight, enabling them to shift from manual bookkeeping to value-added analysis.

• Best AI / ML Powered Solution – Oscilar Inc., AI Risk Decisioning

  Oscilar’s AI Risk Decisioning platform is a groundbreaking, real-time solution for managing fraud, credit, and compliance risks. Leveraging machine learning and generative AI, Oscilar enhances decision-making agility and accuracy with features like advanced analytics, natural language AI Co-Pilot, and ultra-fast response times. This solution offers a 360-degree view of risk, empowering businesses across industries to protect against online fraud and compliance challenges.

• Best Banking Integration Solution – Xoriant, Xonnect Xonnect’s composable, white-labeled banking solution simplifies corporate-to-bank (C2B) connectivity. By integrating directly with ERP systems and bank accounts, Xonnect provides real-time access to account balances, automated reconciliations, and other digital banking innovations. This solution enhances productivity and reduces operational costs for banks while providing corporates with seamless, secure banking experiences.

• Best Point of Sale Payments Solution – Verifone, UX700 The Verifone UX700 is a robust, self-service POS device optimized for high-transaction environments. Designed for unattended and attended scenarios, the UX700 offers secure, reliable payments indoors and outdoors. Its Android OS compatibility allows for advanced integrations, multimedia interactions, and loyalty programs, enhancing customer experience and merchant flexibility.

• Best Compliance Solution – FloQast, FloQast Compliance Management FloQast Compliance Management addresses the challenges of outdated, manual compliance processes. With features like synchronized program files, embedded testing, and proactive risk management, this platform provides a centralized solution for compliance teams to efficiently manage, test, and optimize controls, ensuring a streamlined approach to organizational compliance.

• Best Fraud Prevention Solution – Veriff, Veriff Biometric Authentication Solution Veriff’s Biometric Authentication solution offers seamless, AI-powered verification, helping prevent account takeovers through biometric analysis. With its advanced matching algorithms, Veriff ensures high security for digital services, providing users with convenient, reliable access via facial recognition.

• Best Crypto Solution – Zenza Capital, RYO Coin The RYO Project is a comprehensive cryptocurrency solution, integrating LIFE Wallet, Global Mall, and a Crypto ATM Network to create an easy-to-navigate digital payment ecosystem. Built to high regulatory standards, RYO aims to make cryptocurrency transactions accessible and secure, bridging digital and physical finance for everyday users.

These winners illustrate the dynamic potential of fintech solutions to transform financial services through innovation, efficiency, and security. As the industry continues integrating cutting-edge solutions, these companies set the standard for the next generation of financial technology.

CEO of the Year Bill Wise on Leading Mediaocean, Driving Innovation, and Shaping the Future of Ad Tech

In this exclusive interview, we sat down with Bill Wise, CEO of Mediaocean, who was recently named 2024 CEO of the Year by The Tech Ascension Awards. With a career spanning pioneering work in online and programmatic advertising, Wise shares insights on his journey through tech leadership, Mediaocean’s mission, and his approach to fostering innovation and agility within an ever-evolving industry.

What inspired you to pursue leadership in the tech industry, and how has that journey evolved over time?

I always say that people are a company’s most important asset. And I’ve always been inspired by the people around me. When I worked at DoubleClick we were truly inventing online advertising and I was privileged to work with some of the brightest minds in the space trying to decode the format and future out what would get consumers to double-click on an ad. When I was at Right Media we were inventing programmatic advertising exchanges and again I worked with some of the smartest folks tackling some of the thorniest challenges with how ad campaigns are bought, sold, and delivering on the web. Today at Mediaocean, we’re redefining what independent ad tech can do for the world’s largest brands and their agencies across all channels from TV to TikTok. It’s incredibly exciting to put together all the pieces and create advertising infrastructure that’s become the industry’s mission-critical system of record.

What is Mediaocean's mission? How do you help drive that mission in your role?

Our mission is to power the future of the advertising ecosystem through technology solutions that empower brands and agencies to deliver impactful omnichannel marketing experiences. Parsing out some key words from that, I try to keep us focused on future-proofing our company and our customers by anticipating market trends. And I’m super passionate about delivering impact, however that’s defined in a micro or macro context. Omnichannel is a crusade I’ve been on since I first got into the ad tech space, always looking for ways to bring people, processes, and platforms together for marketers to meet consumers in the moment whatever screen or device they’re on.

How do you foster innovation within your teams while maintaining a balance between creativity and operational efficiency?

Innovation is codified into our core values at Mediaocean. We’re relentless in deploying technology to solve customer and market challenges. And we empower our teams to operate as leaders at every level to run the business so there is accountability and trust. As a hybrid workforce, we have teams in person and virtually collaborating across the globe with an emphasis on frequency and transparency. We use workflow tools like Jira and Asana to keep us centralized in our project management and communication tools like Zoom and Slack to stay connected on a human level. More and more, we’re leveraging generative AI to be even more productive and free up our people to bring their best brainpower and creativity to driving innovation.

In a fast-paced industry like tech, how do you ensure your organization remains agile and adaptable to change?

Another attribute that’s baked into our organization through one of our core values is fostering a learning culture. We’re intellectually curious and embrace a growth mindset. When I co-founded Mediaocean in 2011, we brought together teams (and customers) from MediaBank and Donovan Data Systems that had been working on different systems to solve similar customer needs. We asked everyone to get comfortable being uncomfortable as we transformed ourselves and the industry and we’ve never looked back. Since then we’ve done more than 10 more acquisitions to add capabilities and build our geographic footprint and, with each new injection of talent and customer commitments, we count on our team’s ability to be agile and catalysts for change.

What advice would you give to aspiring tech leaders looking to make a significant impact in their fields?

Surround yourself with A-players at each position. At Mediaocean, I could not do any of the jobs that my executive team does. The only one I’m qualified for is CEO. It’s about setting the North Star and clearing hurdles so people can do their best work. And trying to have a little fun along the way!