GW School of Business Podcasts The George Washington University School of Business (GWSB)

As the vice president of Research & Development IT for Astra Zeneca, Anna Berg Åsberg says she has the best job ever as she leads a global team of hundreds of people across three continents who work to optimize scientists' daily lives through technology. They use technology to speed up the discovery and delivery of medicines to patients, and you can hear the excitement in Anna's voice as she talks about the importance of having a job that can really make a difference in the world. She shares how her engineering career began in telecommunications, then manufacturing, before landing in healthcare, and how managing her international career living and working in Spain, Germany, France, the U.S. (two times), and her native Sweden has oftentimes been complicated, at times lonely, and yet an extraordinary experience for her and her family.

About Our Guest
Anna Berg Åsberg is the vice president of Research & Development IT for Astra Zeneca, responsible for strategy, build, and run for IT in both Oncology and BioPharmaceuticals R&D. Her global team delivers transactional core IT systems as well as transformational data and insight technologies, including engineering, platform and tools for artificial intelligence and digital health capabilities. Anna holds a Master of Science degree from KTH, Royal Institute of Stockholm. Prior to joining AstraZeneca in 2004, Anna studied and worked in numerous European countries, including Germany, Spain, Switzerland and France. She developed a passion for applying IT to diverse organizations and challenges, and launched an IT consultancy company in Hamburg, Germany. Her AstraZeneca career began in Södertälje working with Finance and Enabling Units, followed by a move to the US to provide IT for the U.S. Commercial unit. Anna moved back to Södertälje in 2014 as VP for Operations IT, where she established and started the journey to make AstraZeneca factories ‘smart’ with digital technologies. She assumed her current role in 2019.

About the Global Careers Podcast Series
This podcast presents inspiring stories from seasoned professionals who have embraced a global role and reaped the benefits. We offer practical advice and insider tips across a broad swath of industries and fields around the world about what it is like to work globally. If you love adventure and thrive on taking risks and operating outside your comfort zone, join us as we explore the ins and outs of pursuing an international career!

About GW-CIBER
The George Washington University Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER) promotes the nation’s capacity for international understanding and economic enterprise related to the theme of Institutions, Resilient Globalization and Sustainable Competitiveness.

Technology tends to be the enabler of change at most organizations, and Gina Ruebensaal helps people and organizations manage that change. From working on the ground for the Federal government in Afghanistan to helping lead one of the largest tech acquisitions in history, she helps clients understand how to use tech and data to make decisions faster and better. She advises students and job seekers to embrace the fast-paced change technology brings to all of our lives and to learn how to use it, not just understand it. Gina shares stories of growing up as a child of diplomats (she has lived in Tel Aviv, Bangkok, Geneva and Washington, D.C.) and provides thoughtful advice on the types of skills critical to working on a global scale. Tune in to hear more advice and tips on how to adapt to the fast-paced world of change we all live in.

About Our Guest
Gina Ruebensaal has more than 20 years of experience advising leaders in the technology and national security arenas. She has focused her career on affecting meaningful transformation in large and complicated organizations, based on a deep understanding of how people and organizations manage change. Most recently, Gina drove VMware's chief operating officer's executive change strategy for VMware's ambitious SaaS transformation. This included advising operations leadership on prioritization, potential friction points, and on leading 4k+ employees through one of the largest tech acquisitions in history. Before pivoting to the technology industry, Gina spent 15+ years consulting for U.S. national security agencies. Her areas of expertise include transformation, strategy development and implementation, futures analysis and leadership. She leveraged those capabilities to advance a variety of initiatives in the Federal government, including countering IED networks, critical infrastructure development, analytic modernization, public-private partnerships, and a major agency transformation. She lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area, where she enjoys spending as much time with her family as possible, travel and yoga.

About the Global Careers Podcast Series
This podcast presents inspiring stories from seasoned professionals who have embraced a global role and reaped the benefits. We offer practical advice and insider tips across a broad swath of industries and fields around the world about what it is like to work globally. If you love adventure and thrive on taking risks and operating outside your comfort zone, join us as we explore the ins and outs of pursuing an international career!

About GW-CIBER
The George Washington University Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER) promotes the nation’s capacity for international understanding and economic enterprise related to the theme of Institutions, Resilient Globalization and Sustainable Competitiveness.

Despite a broad cross-domain background, Tim Gilday has always had a particular passion for technology and science, which has helped lead him to his current role as a futurist thought leader working with government, industry and academic leaders. He shares how he gets to spend every day doing what he loves: learning, being curious, and figuring out how tech and societal trends can bring positive impact to his clients (U.S. Federal agencies). He encourages listeners to embrace the accelerated pace of change in tech; to not be afraid of it, but to learn and leverage it to help you do your job better, faster and more easily. He sees an intersection between democratizing tech and a global mindset —and as a GW MBA alumnus, he has some specific advice for grad students.

About Our Guest
Tim Gilday is a futurist thought leader focused on the ethical and optimal application of emerging technology for the U.S. government and society. He collaborates with government, academic and industry leaders to identify global risks and opportunities, as well as those posed by the increasing pace of technological innovation, and develops policy and practices to guide agency digital transformation and readiness to embrace disruption. Tim has an undergraduate degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Maryland - College Park and an International Business MBA from the George Washington University. Cosmology, physics and emerging technology have been lifelong passions.

About the Global Careers Podcast Series
This podcast presents inspiring stories from seasoned professionals who have embraced a global role and reaped the benefits. We offer practical advice and insider tips across a broad swath of industries and fields around the world about what it is like to work globally. If you love adventure and thrive on taking risks and operating outside your comfort zone, join us as we explore the ins and outs of pursuing an international career!

About GW-CIBER
The George Washington University Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER) promotes the nation’s capacity for international understanding and economic enterprise related to the theme of Institutions, Resilient Globalization and Sustainable Competitiveness.

There is so much to learn from Grace Schroeder, a visionary leader who helps businesses get to the heart of the problems quickly by identifying, integrating and harmonizing existing apps and tools into a business's platform through Slingr, the company she founded in 2011. She shares how she began her career in finance (after earning a degree in psychology), but evolved to tech when she realized it was what she was most attracted to in her job at the time. She explains how she listened to what made her happy, which eventually led her to found her own company. Slingr is based in Miami, but the vast majority of its workforce is in Mendoza, Argentina. Tune in as Grace explains that it's never been a better time to look for jobs for people who are truly curious and willing to train themselves to notice what excites them — not just to take a job from one of many resume postings.

About Our Guest
Grace Schroeder is the founder and CEO of Slingr, a low-code platform company. She is a notable tech leader recognized for driving the company towards innovation in the low-code/no-code sectors. With a rich software development and business background, she has positioned Slingr as a key player in low-code solutions, bringing both the platform and professional services that make custom application development accessible to businesses of all sizes. Her approach combines technical vision with strategic business insights, emphasizing efficiency, innovation, and empowerment in the digital landscape.

About the Global Careers Podcast Series
This podcast presents inspiring stories from seasoned professionals who have embraced a global role and reaped the benefits. We offer practical advice and insider tips across a broad swath of industries and fields around the world about what it is like to work globally. If you love adventure and thrive on taking risks and operating outside your comfort zone, join us as we explore the ins and outs of pursuing an international career!

About GW-CIBER
The George Washington University Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER) promotes the nation’s capacity for international understanding and economic enterprise related to the theme of Institutions, Resilient Globalization and Sustainable Competitiveness.

Being a subject matter expert on U.S.-China and U.S.-Taiwan relations has been the main constant of Greer Meisels’ career as she worked for the U.S. Treasury, a financial services trade association, and now Intel, one of the world’s largest companies. She admits she’s no technologist but is required to think through and apply her global knowledge to advise on policy, geography and geopolitics as business and technology intersect — and she advises listeners that there will most likely be a tech component to almost any field they choose. She shares stories of her global experiences and offers candid perspective on a few of her greatest career challenges thus far, including moving to China for a year and leaving her partner, friends and family back in the U.S.

About Our Guest
Greer Meisels is the inaugural director of external affairs at Intel Corporation, where she is responsible for building relationships and strategic partnerships that strengthen Intel's position as an industry leader. She came to Intel from the Institute of International Finance (IIF), the global association of the financial services industry, where she served as chief of staff to the president and CEO for more than four years. Prior to joining the IIF, she held several positions in the International Affairs division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, including as senior advisor to the under secretary of international affairs. Her work at Treasury also focused on the U.S.-China economic relationship as well as on investment security issues on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) specializing in emerging technologies and biotechnology. Earlier in her career, Greer worked at several think tanks and was also a visiting lecturer at the China Foreign Affairs University, in Beijing. While hailing from Dallas, Texas, she has lived in New York City, Beijing, Boston, Taipei, Washington, D.C., and now Baltimore. She is also fortunate that her work has taken her around the globe, mostly to Latin America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. She graduated from Harvard University with her A.M. from the Regional Studies East Asia Program in 2012 and received her B.A. from Hunter College, City University of New York in Political Science with a dual concentration in East Asian studies and Art History in 2007. In her spare time, Greer sits on the Board of Watershed Collaborative, a non-profit organization that offers PreK-12 teachers affordable and engaging web-based courses, coaching, and instructional resources. She is also an enthusiastic novice fly fisherman and a wannabe cheesemonger.

About the Global Careers Podcast Series
This podcast presents inspiring stories from seasoned professionals who have embraced a global role and reaped the benefits. We offer practical advice and insider tips across a broad swath of industries and fields around the world about what it is like to work globally. If you love adventure and thrive on taking risks and operating outside your comfort zone, join us as we explore the ins and outs of pursuing an international career!

About GW-CIBER
The George Washington University Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER) promotes the nation’s capacity for international understanding and economic enterprise related to the theme of Institutions, Resilient Globalization and Sustainable Competitiveness.

Fintech is a global industry that has enabled entrepreneurs to raise money through crowdsourcing all over the word. Yet it’s not as easy as it sounds without the help of an expert like Maureen Murat, who explains the complications that can arise with the combination of AI and machine learning, legal and cross-border regulation of blockchain and cryptocurrency, and cross-cultural communication and negotiations. Tune in as she shares stories of her adventures working in the Middle East and how she always does her research to prepare for cross-cultural engagement. She shares many of the lessons she’s learned, including the importance of clarifying situations in the moment to get through challenging situations, prioritizing what matters in both personal and professional life, and recognizing that it’s OK to change your mind!

About Our Guest
Maureen L. Murat is an attorney and principal of Crowdie Advisors, LLC*, a business consulting firm dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and small businesses with strategy, planning and problem-solving services when considering equity crowdfunding to raise capital. Maureen has worked internationally advising fintech companies, consulting and presenting on various topics such as crowdfunding, blockchain, and business strategy. Maureen has also taught Intro to Blockchain and the Law, Tokenomics and Cryptocurrency Regulations, and Smart Cities, Smart Government at the University of New Hampshire, Franklin Pierce School of Law. She is a member of the Crowdfunding Professional Association, a non-profit organization that focuses on growing the crowdfunding community globally and follows the blockchain/cryptocurrency industry. Maureen received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Nova Southeastern University, her graduate degree in Homeland Security with a focus on disaster management from American Military University, and her Law degree from the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. She has worked through the Middle East and speaks Haitian Creole and French.

*Maureen is a Senior Attorney in the Policy Unit of the Legal Division at FDIC, where she works primarily on consumer protection-related issues, but the content of this interview represents Maureen’s point of view as Principal of Crowdie Advisors.

About the Global Careers Podcast Series
This podcast presents inspiring stories from seasoned professionals who have embraced a global role and reaped the benefits. We offer practical advice and insider tips across a broad swath of industries and fields around the world about what it is like to work globally. If you love adventure and thrive on taking risks and operating outside your comfort zone, join us as we explore the ins and outs of pursuing an international career!

About GW-CIBER
The George Washington University Center for International Business Education and Research (GW-CIBER) promotes the nation’s capacity for international understanding and economic enterprise related to the theme of Institutions, Resilient Globalization and Sustainable Competitiveness.