Didem Cataloglu, CEO of DIREXYON, on How Advanced Financial Modeling Plays a Role in Sustainability

ESG Decoded is the podcast powered by Global Affairs Associates, a ClimeCo company, to share relevant updates related to business innovation and sustainability in a manner that is clear and actionable.

In this episode, Kaitlyn Allen talks with Didem Cataloglu, CEO of DIREXYON, a high-tech company specializing in advanced financial modelling tools. Didem brings strong technology and customer centricity to the DIREXYON team as the company looks to rapidly expand. She joined DIREXYON in 2020 as Chief Revenue Officer prior to her appointment of CEO in December 2020. As CEO, Cataloglu oversees a sales and marketing team, delivers exceptional customer experiences, and manages the company's global expansion. Before DIREXYON Technologies, Didem was vice president of global services for Nakisa, a provider of enterprise solutions for organizational design and lease management. Didem holds a BSc in Computer Science from University of Ottawa and an MBA in Management and Information Technology from Bayes Business School.

Listen as Kaitlyn and Didem discuss how more advanced financial modeling solutions are empowering leaders in asset intensive organizations (i.e., utilities, transportation, and infrastructure) to make better decisions, with sustainability efforts top of mind. These evolving financial models better equip leaders to establish appropriate long-range goals.

They also ‘shout out’ the “three D’s” - decarbonization, digitalization and decentralization - and remind us of the integral roles these concepts will play in financial decisions moving forward. Considerations on how to decarbonize over the next few decades will be focused on integrated processes and automation of decentralized operations, as well as increasingly sophisticated analytics to predict disruptions before they occur. All of this information, and a couple of acronyms to review:  NPV (net present value) and DER (distributed energy resources).

On a fun note, Kaitlyn and Didem discuss their shared love for the Turkish culture. Kaitlyn studied in Turkey and reveals some of her language skills. They also talk about some of their favorite Turkish cuisine. If you are hungry while listening to this episode, they may actually give you inspiration for your next meal.  Iskender kebap, anyone?

Resource boosts for this episode include:

·  Direxyon Technologies

·  Institute of Asset Management IAM - Home (theiam.org)

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