Before It Happened

Autonomous trucking will soon transform not just our freeways but the entire global supply chain. Still, serious concerns remain about safety, workforce changes, and policy. In this episode of Before IT Happened, our host Donna Loughlin talks with Paula Bejarano, Director of Business Development for Navistar. Paula started as a reliability engineer at the European Space Agency, inspecting mechanical systems in space shuttles. She also worked on oil drilling rigs at Shell, and interned at Tesla while authoring Autonomousity: Autonomous Vehicles and Emerging Business Models. Today, she’s merging her engineering and business sense in her leadership role at Navistar, a global company that is working to make trucks, buses, and engines more connected, electric and even autonomous. In this episode, she talks to Donna about her leap from space to the world of business and e-vehicles and explains how big cities could work in the future. 

Before any world-changing innovation, there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life. 

JUMP STRAIGHT INTO:

(06:32) - A limitless education - "Not having those differentiations, I think it completely erased from my mind that barrier that, ‘My God, I'm going to be the only girl there.’"

(11:33) - From working in Space to building a more sustainable planet - "In terms of sustainability—the long-term impact for the world, for the planet—I had a bit of an epiphany."

(14:12) - A third career path at TESLA - "I think overall it opened doors for me and opened my mind to new opportunities."

(15:30) - The challenges facing autonomous technology - "I think the ultimate goal of autonomous transportation is to democratize transportation for everyone, to make it accessible in remote areas."

(23:52) - The future of autonomous transportation - "On one hand you have to get it out there to validate it and get people comfortable with the technology. On the other hand, people are going to misuse it, and that happens with everything."

(27:19) - How Paula views her work - "Nobody's done this before, and we don't know what's going to happen five years from now."

(35:51) - How to breakdown stereotypical gender roles in the workforce - "Exposing people to knowledge and giving them that connection to mentors who have accomplished things, I think is super important."

EPISODE RESOURCES: 

Connect with Paula Bejarano on Twitter.

Read Paula’s book: Autonomousity: Autonomous Vehicles and Emerging Business Models

Learn more about what Navistar is doing to bring the transportation industry into the future

Read:

Among the qualities that make a good entrepreneur, we rarely hear about humbleness, empathy or curiosity. Anne Cocquyt sees that as a problem. Cocquyt is the founder and CEO of the GUILD, a community centered around connecting female entrepreneurs, investors and thought leaders. She is also the author of Dare to Launch, which breaks down how to launch a startup successfully, touching on everything from building confidence to working with the right investors. In this episode, Anne joins our host Donna Loughlin to discuss how she’s working to share and scale her experience and passion in order to help more female entrepreneurs find their place in Silicon Valley and beyond!

Before any world-changing innovation, there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life. 

JUMP STRAIGHT INTO:

(02:28) - Growing up in a strict household - “It felt a little bit restricting, so for me, it was really important at some point to escape and get out of Germany and as far away as possible to discover other values and also other ways of life, if you will.”  

(10:05) - Coming to Silicon Valley -  “It's a very welcoming community and there's so many opportunities to connect. You can just show up and it's all open. And then slowly, because everybody is kind of this newcomer, you get invited and you work your way into this network.”

(16:12) - Anne’s Before IT Happened moment - “We should try to do more educational content and somehow bottle the secret sauce of Silicon Valley and the amazing people here and bring that to other people all around the world.”

(18:36) - Anne’s North Star - “My north star is really driven by curiosity and by trying different things and by getting involved in different topics and by trying to really understand other people and their issues, and then being a part of the solution for whatever they wanna solve.”

(21:48) - How to break the glass ceiling on entrepreneurship - “We have to flex these muscles. We have to teach women how to build wealth and not just have the cash under the mattress. And we have to also change how we define leadership.”

(31:55) - From Silicon Valley to a blueberry farm - “I saw this blueberry farm and I had these visions of what it could be and potentially could also be used to build community and bring people here and have animals and have space.”

(36:15) - A successful future in entrepreneurship relies on collaboration - “You gotta connect and learn from each other. And sometimes there's a lot of entitlement in that generation, where people feel they're entitled to certain things. And I think we should just learn from each other.”

EPISODE RESOURCES: 

Connect with Anne Cocquyt on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Get Anne’s book Dare to Launch

Learn more about the GUILD and their 8-week GUILD ACADEMY

Listen to Before IT Happened’s: Unleashing a

With a simple tweak to an airplane’s wing design, the aviation industry's global carbon emissions can be minimized dramatically while also improving safety and operating costs. Jacob Klinginsmith is the president of Tamarack Aerospace Group and his company is working to do just that with their patented active winglet technology. Jacob joins this episode to share a little bit about the lifelong passion that he has found in flying and explain how Tamarack works to increase aircraft efficiency (as well as a plane’s lifetime). Tune in to discover how this airplane enthusiast is changing the conversation around safety and sustainability in the aviation industry!

Before any world-changing innovation, there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life. 

JUMP STRAIGHT INTO:

(02:19) - Born to be an aviator - “We did a big trip when I was about 15 or 16. We flew from Washington state to Missouri, so we got to see Mount Rushmore. We got to go to Leadville, Colorado, which is kind of a bucket list item for any pilot.”

(08:24) - Increasing aircraft efficiency - “The defense community has reached out to us and said ‘Hey, we see what you're doing in the business jet community. Can you help us save fuel? Can you help us climb faster and provide safety for the missions?’”

(15:52) - How Tamarack reduces fuel burn and increases a plane’s lifetime - “The winglets that are on commercial jets right now offer about 4-5% efficiency improvements. So if we can double that or triple that, that's really significant.”

(21:00) - Wing surface upgrade, electric planes’ performance enhancement and other potential applications - “If you think about the wing wanting to bend up when you hit a bump, these surfaces are aerodynamically pushing the wing back down so that it's not getting overstressed.”

(24:25) - Cost reductions and investment perks - “For an airline maybe that specializes in only having 737s, if they want to increase the number of airports they can serve by getting a little bit of more range out of those platforms, then that's a really different return on investment calculation.”

(27:31) - On safety, regulation and sustainability - “As the industry develops technology that's ready for certification, the authorities need to figure out how it's going to be done. I think that's one of the biggest challenges that we have as far as new technology development.”

EPISODE RESOURCES:

Connect with Jacob on Linkedin and Twitter

Learn more about Tamarack Aerospace Group and follow them on Instagram and Youtube

Thank you for listening! Follow Before IT Happened on Instagram and Twitter, and don’t forget to subscribe, rate and share the show wherever you listen to podcasts! 

Before IT Happened is produced by Donna Loughlin and

Advancements in technology that accelerate change also bring risk. In this episode, I have an enlightening conversation with Carlos Moreira, founder of WISeKey and co-author of the book The TransHuman Code.

Carlos has worked to ensure that in our relationship with technology, humans come out ahead. We talk about how we can create a human-centric society where humans are in control, and where humans are protecting themselves. He shares his transformation path working with the UN since the 80s, connecting developing countries and coming up with new digital identity protocols. We also talk about Web3 and the metaverse where ownership of data and protection of our digital assets is more important than ever before.

Before any world-changing innovation, there was a moment, an event, a realization that sparked the idea before it happened. This is a podcast about that moment — about that idea. Before IT Happened takes you on a journey with the innovators who imagined — and are still imagining — our future. Join host Donna Loughlin as her guests tell their stories of how they brought their visions to life. 

JUMP STRAIGHT INTO:

(02:49) - Carlos Moreira on working for the UN - “I like to connect people. I like to connect computers. I like to connect processes and, at that time, I started to realize that if I find a way technically to connect developing countries to that huge amount of data, that would facilitate the transformation.”

(09:24) - The urge for decentralization and human involvement in tech development - “We excluded six billion people—six billion minds that could have contributed to that discussion if they had the possibility and the tools to do so.”

(14:05) - Carlos’ first steps as an entrepreneur, Web3 and a new approach to identity protection - “The web 2.0 was designed around converting humans into consumers. We are not only consuming. We are humans. We have human interaction. Let's not only judge by your capacity of consumption.”

(18:19) - The seven pillars of the TransHuman code and how they fit into the Metaverse - “If I invent a new medicine and the FAA does not grant approval because they have to certify that that medicine is not dangerous for consumers, I will not be able to sell my medicine. That's not happening with technology.”

(28:08) - The power of blockchain according to Carlos - “You cannot have a metaverse if you don't have a very strong blockchain strategy in your company. Companies that have announced a Metaverse connected to a centralized system, they’re just confusing the public. Because the metaverse will just accelerate the issues of centralizing data.”

(32:32) - Why trust will be the main topic of the World Economic Forum at Davos - “If you make a lot of money, move away from converting humans into consumers. Maybe you're going to have your shares down for a while, but once humans learn that your company is protecting them, then they're going to invest in you.”

(37:01) - How younger generations will approach the future’s challenges - “The young generation doesn't need to own things anymore. They don't mind showing things on the metaverse, and because they can prove that ownership in the same way you would prove ownership of a physical object, they are more sustainability oriented.”

EPISODE RESOURCES: 

Connect with Carlos on LinkedIn and Twitter

Watch Carlos’ Crea Digital Day Talk in Geneva, Switzerland

Learn more about the Transhuman Code and