Vania Neves is a board member and senior technology and innovation executive with global experience across various sectors. She holds an MBA, certifications from Singularity University, MIT, and NASA, and is co-author of *WCD Unframed*. Her leadership insights are featured in *Undeterred* and her article on global mindset and leadership behavior.

In a recent conversation with The Global Woman Leader Magazine, Vania shared her views about the challenge of balancing agility and innovation with the mining industry's need for stability. She explores strategies for integrating new technologies, managing ethical implications, and ensuring minimal disruption to operations.

Having worked across industrial gases, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and now mining, what cross-industry insights do you bring to the table that can revolutionize how technology is applied in mining?

We learn a lot by having the opportunity of working in different industries. I am still learning. From pharmaceuticals I had the opportunity to be close to the growth of AI use in R&D. It is a reality that AI is reducing time-to-market to launch new drugs, anticipate benefits for people who need medicine care. The mining industry has also used artificial intelligence with strong benefits. In the same way, I seek to contribute to having transformational results by building clear ambitions of where the use of artificial intelligence has transformational value for mining. In addition, for the best use of AI in the operations, it is critical that a connectivity foundation is stablished. First things first!

Mining operations often require long-term planning and stability. How can industry leaders balance the need for agility and innovation with the industry's demand for stability and reliability?

I believe that as leaders should to use the "zoom in" and "zoom out" approach to strategy, as mentioned by John Hagel. The “zoom in” means to keep our eyes in what our business needs for short-medium terms what includes productivity as well as managing risks for keeping stable and reliable environments. On the other hand, the "zoom out", that drives us to look ahead with innovation to enable our companies to achieve growth and sustainability ambition, can be an enabler for now and future.

You've led teams across various continents. Can you share a transformative leadership moment where you successfully implemented a global technology initiative that significantly impacted business outcomes?

In early stages of digital transformation in pharmaceuticals, I was in charge providing solutions for sales force in Brazil. We challenged the status quo of a global web-based CRM solution which had not been originally built for mobile use. Aiming to provide digital capabilities to salesforce we created a connectivity strategy to ensure coverage around the country and deployed the CRM solution to sales force in iPads. This was a bottom-up initiative that was scaled up to more than 20 thousand sales reps in the company with global impact.

Mining companies frequently face challenges with technology integration, especially post-merger. How do you believe that industry leaders need to approach integrating new technologies and systems to ensure seamless operations and minimal disruption?

In general, in an M&A initiative, Technology stream is challenging as per complexity and high costs in comparison with business streams. There is not a single formula however; I usually start looking at the minimum required services for integration and cybersecurity critical needs for a first phase. For minimum disruption, my approach is always to question the best approach: to integrate or replace with the best of each company.

Could you share a specific example of how implementing a new technology solution or strategy directly contributed to improving operational efficiency or cost-effectiveness in one of the industries you've worked in?

Recognizing the growing demand for technology to increase productivity and digital transformation of our business in Vale, we have expanded the reach of our delivery model through a Technology Democratization strategy. Recently we deployed a Technology Democratization program accessible to about 50,000 employees, in addition to third parties, who are enabled to adopt low code tools to build their own applications to solve business problems, as well as building advanced data analysis; automation of repetitive tasks using RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and finally creation of web applications. Benefits on productivity are undoubtable, and as long as data is easily accessed, we believe that we are contributing for a data driven culture, where decisions that were previously made tacitly are now made based on data, subsidized by artificial intelligence solutions developed by our company citizens.

With advancements in AI and automation impacting the workforce, how do you approach the ethical implications of deploying new technologies in the mining industry, ensuring both technological progress and human welfare?

In the mining industry there is huge positive impact by using automation and AI for safety aiming to reduce human presence in operations. However, prior to deploying new technologies, including AI, especially Generative AI, it is important to evaluate the potential risks and guarantee that data privacy and security are considered. Engaging stakeholders and regulators in the sector, including communities is the best way of building a holistic view before applying the new technologies.