ROBIN BIENFAIT: A PASSIONATE LEADER CATALYSING TECHNOLOGISTS ACROSS THE GLOBE
Written By: Indranil Roy
“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you”.
What Oprah Winfrey states is valuably represented in the endeavours and skills an entrepreneur brings to the table. Entrepreneurship was once perceived as a questionable career choice, but now it is a moving trend amongst men and women alike. Women entrepreneurship has been making a significant impact since the last decade. From products to services that can create a more comfortable lifestyle – change is now authored by renowned businesswomen.
People like Gina Heart, Denise Coates, Wang Laichun, Sara Blakely, etc., are setting the trends in their respective segments. We have often heard, “It’s a men’s world”, but the brave women of this generation have overpowered their male counterparts. Many are revamping the industry on several facets. IT is one such ever-evolving facet – influenced by timely innovations and governed by both men and women.
Among the many female IT business leaders, Robin Bienfait is a revered persona with immovable expertise in enterprise technology, mobility and security. Since founding her Global Innovation Centre, Atlanta Tech Park and her growth-stimulating venture Emnovate established within The Park, Robin is driving the transformation of numerous global tech players. Her business is driven, by her commitment to help technology-based businesses ‘land and expand’ in Georgia.
DRIVEN TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Robin’s passion for entrepreneurship is derived from several factors of her upbringing. Since her childhood, she was driven to create differences out of opportunities which eventually attracted her to engineering and technology. With the support of her family, including seven siblings, this girl translated her dream into action. In her words, becoming an engineer enabled her to enjoy fast-paced learning in technology.
Her parents were educators, which further motivated her for self-development and foster the growth of others. This childhood learning played an integral role in her career. Robin began her professional career in 1985 at AT&T and spent 2 decades as its SVP & Chief Compliance Officer EHS. Afterwards, she scaled new heights in her career by serving global tech cloud-borders such as Blackberry and Samsung.
Yet even all this success wasn’t shaping her motivation to bring transformation in the technology space. As such, after 30+ years in global firms, Robin brought her dream to reality and focused on helping other technologists. In 2017, she founded Atlanta Technology Park, which is an ecosystem of entrepreneurial acceleration. Robin is a C Level executive and board member and a lucrative advisor to almost 100 Global Companies. Through Atlanta Tech Park, she is shaping her ambition to support others in their development. The foundation is a technology catalyst, capable of nurturing a company regardless of its growth stage.
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The foundation provides cutting-edge infrastructures, timely coaching sessions and necessary connections to help companies achieve their goals. Robin’s long-standing expertise and oriented focus have scaled many businesses to established ones. “My ability to continue helping industry disruptors is what excites me the most and positions me where I am today”, Robin asserts proudly. Robin is well-edified with ways technology revolutionize business communications, improve supply chain efficiencies and create competitive advantages. Under Robin’s aegis, Atlantic Tech Park has become a global acceleration ecosystem that transforms business while enhancing people’s interaction through her diverse corporate connections.
A LEADER OF FERVID QUALITIES
Whether it is leading her organisation, mentoring or amassing new trends, Robin has conquered all the facets. She is an excellent communicator and translates her mission and vision in whatever he does. Her enthusiastic nature gains quick buy-in, which helps her in team building to achieve her goals and objectives. Her cordial nature also helps hew work closely with other technologists. She contributes to events and networking with the tech park, to build sustainable relationships and incorporate world-class technologies.
Robin derives her learning ability from her long-standing professional experience. She enjoys meeting and learning from interesting people. Recognizing that there are many ways to contribute has kept her alert to the opportunities that presented themselves.
A DIVERSE AND PASSIONATE WORKFORCE
While Atlanta Tech Park is home to diverse entrepreneurs, there is an ambience of integrity amongst all. From Robin to her teammates and other companies in the facility, everyone possesses out-of-the-box thinking to pursue and achieve their ultimate goals. The cohesiveness amongst all significantly alleviates the challenges of team-building whether it is her staff or members of The Park. The culture is nourished with recreational activities like Wine Wednesdays, cookouts, ping pong tournaments and more. Robin focuses on building individuals as well as achieving their goals with an eye for fun. In this way she nurtures her motto for the team – Together Everyone Achieves More.
HANDLING CHALLENGES WITH SHEER WILL AND BRAVERY
Robin has surmounted several ordeals. During her time in AT&T, she aided the recovery efforts of 9/11 and several others, which built her expertise in handling challenges. “My approach is to evaluate the situation at hand and develop the best possible outcome based on my experience”, asserts Robin.
Amid the Covid-19, Robin and her teammates capitalized their state of the art technology by offering everyone a safe, socially-distanced facility to host virtual conferences, zoom meetings and virtual social events. They further conceptualised a virtual membership option, for those staying in far locations or unable to come to The Park. The membership provides a way to stay connected and reap the benefits of being part of their ecosystem.
A HEART FOR SOCIETAL DEVELOPMENT
Robin’s experience in handling uncertain challenges and aiding in recovery helps her address societal needs. Through her tech foundation, she provides free support and space to help the Veterans Memorial, bringing a technical high school team in to build out the video capabilities for the memorial. She further sponsored Prototype Prime’s launch event at the facitlity’s aviation building, and enabled the engagement of 250 people. Not just this, Robin unfurls several assignments for interns at the Park and invests her time towards training ingenuine minds. She and her teammates also host events for SWGC as well as their Score activities.
BESTOWED WITH MILESTONES AND ACCOLADES
In her professional career, Robin is honoured with several accolades. At AT&T, she earned the ‘AT&T Software Excellence award’, for Project Ruby. Her end-to-end support as host of Tiffany Circle was recognized, by The American Red Cross. Her name was listed in the ‘Top 18 Women to Watch in 2018’ by Inc. Magazine. She also holds a respectful presence as one of the top 100 CIO’s in STEM. Robin’s career further conferred the multi-million-dollar Samsung Business Services and successfully controlled a $9 Billion P&L as BlackBerry’s Chief Information Officer.
In her illustrious career, Robin mostly executed leadership positions like CEO, CIO and COO across global business units and mentored 30,000 employees. She has in-depth knowledge of leadership and expertise in P&L, strategic planning, vendor management, data analysis, business development and matrixed team leadership.
THE PATH FOR THE YEARS AHEAD
After so many years of relentless efforts in developing the tech-space, Robin plans to proliferate her global influence and build on her15 patents to develop new technology. In the next 5 years, she aims to build success stories of Atlanta Tech Park alumni, who accomplished their goals and objectives with the help of Robin and her team of Emnovaters.
ROBIN’S MOTIVATIONAL THOUGHTS
“It’s important to enjoy what you do as well as the people you work with”.
