As human beings, achieving success at regular intervals or after we handled a project well that acts as an additional motivational factor help us realize that the target is only as big as the smallest part. Putting into practice this process to achieve success is Priyanka Chatterjee, Co-Founder of Sinevis. Priyanka's extensive experience in managing information technology and cyber security risks with good knowledge of data governance regulations has helped her build Sinevis.

Take us through Sinevis Technologies LLC. Tell us about the expertise that the company holds.

Founded in 2010, we are a leading Cyber Security Services organization head-quartered in Dubai, and have registered offices in the UK, USA, India, Singapore and Australia. Sinevis holds proven expertise in Consulting, Building Solution Strategy, Design & Implementation, and Managed Services.

We specialize in SIEM (Security Information and Event Management), EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response), NDR (Network Detection and Response), DAM (Database Activity Monitoring), PAM (Privileged Access Management), Vulnerability Management, GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance), Cloud Security, Threat Intelligence, DDOS protection, Next Generation Firewalls, Web Application Firewalls (WAF), BOT protection, SOAR, DNS Security.

Our success is based on a strong foundation of our four core values ensuring our team provide the highest Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) and Total Customer Experience (TCE).

Take us through your educational journey. What are some of the important facts about your expertise as a business leader?

I hold a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communications Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, West Bengal, India. I started her career as a network engineer and started my cybersecurity journey at IBM, then progressing my career with a focus risk management.

As the Director of Cyber Security Services and Operations at Sinevis, I work with business leaders across multiple cultures, industries and geographies including countries in Asia, Africa, America and Europe. With support from my wonderful team, Sinevis helps them manage their cybersecurity risks, from a technology, people and processes perspective. Overall, I would call myself a techo-business individual. One of my key strengths is effective stakeholder management, leveraging relevant skills from within a complex matrix organization, and managing teams across distributed locations.

It is equally important for me to be an effective communicator, build excellent relationships, while maintaining a positive attitude. Professionally, I focus on two things, i.e., growth of Sinevis and my contribution to the wider community of cybersecurity.

What are some business lessons that you learned through your prior industry experience that are still a part of your approach to leadership?

I was still at mid-level in my career journey at that time and I realized the fact that the way we think and the way the leaders think are different. This realisation was the start of my journey, I think, towards learning how to think like a leader. I think that was like a fundamental change in myself as an individual in the kind of exposure that I got and the amount of new knowledge that I gained there. I also learned the power of networking, the power of having good mentors, and all of that stuff within HSBC. 

I've learned what kind of service expectations the businesses have and having worked in global organizations meant that I understand the expectations from an Asia Pacific plan will be very different from how a purely American organization or work, or maybe a middle Eastern organization, because culture, culture plays a big role in terms of, especially in the service industry. So that was, I think the crust of my learning across all the different large organizations that have been before scientists. I would say to feel the difference of when you listen to a customer issue and work towards and bring all the different people in the different teams and towards fixing an issue for the customer. Working in IBM, I learned something very specific that there is a good potential of the kind of learning across the different verticals and making use of that in your role now.

As an entrepreneur in the Middle East what have been some of the most significant business challenges that you have faced so far? How did you overcome them?

I have been in the region for over 11 years now and I've seen a massive change in the region in terms of just the attitude and overall acceptance of women as a business leader now, especially in a supposedly highly technical area such as cyber security. So, these areas are primarily male-dominated. I see a lot of positive changes happening. More women across the globe are coming up to bring in change. But, in this region, I think my biggest challenge has been that when people see that a woman is approaching you, people tend to be a little hesitant. Because, they think that they might have to reconsider the way they speak or maybe she will not understand, or maybe she's just a nice face for the company.

How do you contribute towards the wider community?

I am one of the co-founders of the voluntary group called `Women in Cyber Security Middle East'. WiCSME currently has 1300+ members and the aim of our group is to bring the women in the field of Cybersecurity in the Middle East to the forefront of international stage by creating a platform for empowering these women and connect them with international thought leaders and peers, thus helping them achieve their professional goals.

What would your words of advice be for other young women aspiring to become entrepreneurs and business leaders?

Starting a business is easy, but to make it sustainable is the real challenge. You have to have your grit to keep yourself emotionally and mentally still driven when you don't see immediate commercial success. But also keep yourself level headed not to loose sight of your vision. Sometimes things don't work out how we want it to; so be flexible to make changes to your plans with changing market needs and demands. You also need to surround yourself with people who will help you grow your network and also provide you the much-needed mentorship and hard-to-face honest feedback to ensure you are able to learn from them and navigate the jungle gym without falling flat on the face ­ or get up even if you fall.

Priyanka Chatterjee, Co-Founder, Sinevis

With an incredible experience of more than 16 years in cybersecurity technology, risk management, governance, compliance across multiple cultures, geographies, and industries, Priyanka Chatterjee, Co-founder and Director of Cybersecurity Services of Sinevis, is a big advocate of making cybersecurity and overall risk management part of the business strategy. Being an effective communicator with excellent relationship-building and interpersonal skills, she possesses a flexible attitude. She is also one of the co-founders for Women in Cyber Security Middle East (WiCSME). She holds several industry-standard certifications such as CISSP, CRISC, and PRMIA (ORM) and mentors a few young professional men & women in India and the Middle East.