SINGAPORE: 11 December 2020 – Transforming the business of fun since 2001, Embed, the worldwide leader of the cashless business management systems and solutions for the amusement, entertainment and leisure industries receives awards and recognition for its leadership, innovation, and resiliency during the pandemic, a season that will be best remembered for its endless uncertainty in a year that almost got cancelled.

The 2020 ASEAN CIO50 Awards, in association with Adobe, on 3 December 2020, celebrated the top CIOs, CTO and CDOs in a virtual award’s ceremony. The ASEAN CIO50 Awards was judged on the three core pillars required to thrive during a very challenging year navigating the pandemic. The pillars include Business Innovation, Leadership and Resiliency; recognition criteria of the CIOs that ensured continuity of operations/systems during COVID-19. This year honoured transformational and disruptive CIOs who exhibited these 3 core pillars in how they navigated the pandemic.

Selected from countless nominees across a wide-sector
of industries, it was a tremendous honour that Andy Welsh, CTO, Solutions Group for Embed & Booking Boss, Helix Leisure, was recognized and ranked (for the 2^nd year in a row) in the top -15 CTO professionals, coming in at 11th, beating out tech giants like Ingram Micro, DHL, Deutsche Bank, Johnson & Johnson, Coca Cola and Sephora.

“This recognition is a validation of the team’s hard work to develop solutions that directly enable the survival of our customers, partners and industry. Given the pandemic climate, consumers are pervasively aware and chronically worried about keeping their families COVID-free and safe. No one is going to a business they deem unsafe, they need to be reassured with the measures the operator takes to mitigate risk, keeping their employees, consumers and community safe. A simple Google Search yields the ongoing research and data supporting the dramatic spike in mobile payments, which is why I’m so proud Embed is the first to go-to-market with The Mobile Wallet; the award-winning breakthrough innovation (The Mobile Wallet won the Operator’s Choice Award at Amusement Expo, March 2020) make Embed the only FEC  business solutions provider to partner with Google and Apple to gain compliance approval for Embed’s Mobile Wallet solution, making Embed the only non-banking finance-payment or loyalty-card business and brand card that sits in the mobile wallet! We're very excited to be the first and only FEC cashless business solution to offer this product.

And, incredibly proud to give this award-winning innovation away for FREE to everyone via Embed’s COVID-19 Relief Act simply because low-touch contactless game play is exactly what the industry needs most now.” said Andy. During the Pandemic, operators used Embed’s Mobile Wallet technology to track what games consumers played and when they played them for tracking and tracing purposes (in case of a breakout they were able to contact customers and alert them).

“I am proud to lead the Technology team, with a shared conviction that is tied to the universal belief in the transformative power of our solutions and the impact on the guest experience. We are committed to leading the evolution of our industry, as it results in everyone winning, the Operators and their Guests. When the Operator thrives, we thrive.” said Andy.

Women In Tech Review names Renee Welsh, CEO, Solutions Group for Embed & Booking Boss, Helix Leisure, Top-50 Women in Tech in 2021. And CIO Review includes Embed in its Top-10 Most Promising Gaming Tech Solutions Provider of 2020. And, Silicon Review includes Embed in its 50 Leading Companies of the Year 2021. Renee’s industry-transforming achievements is evident in her fearless leadership during the pandemic. When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, Renee and the Embed Executive team were determined to bring the light by bringing the entire industry together and demonstrated their commitment to the industry’s recovery by leading Embed through a dramatic pivot (working in 6-week cycles of innovation) to deliver a series of initiatives that helped pull the industry through the pandemic crisis. “At Embed, we are proud to be part of this industry and to work alongside all of our friends and partners. Throughout this pandemic, we’ve developed and enacted various relief acts, including our COVID-19 Relief Act, the strongest demonstration of our commitment to our industry’s recovery.” said Renee.

Proving that actions are stronger than empty words, Embed’s actions during the pandemic speak for themselves:

• In March, Embed huddled with the industry to spotlight industry insiders, who shared their strength and leadership via #EmbedLIVE(over 97-videos!) and published free insight white papers, almost 100 blogs to support the industry through the uncertain time.

• In April, Embed implemented Embed’s COVID-19 Relief Act: giving the latest award-winning innovation, The Mobile Wallet to everyone for free for 1-year, and doing so simply because it’s what the industry most needs now, low-touch and contactless payments.

• In May, Embed launched COVID-19 Resource Centre which includes an array of free tools for the industry: professional creative toolkits to facilitate a successful reopening and launching The Mobile Wallet, expediting their businesses recovery.  

• And in July, Embed demonstrated its commitment to the industry by joining the fight to eradicate COVID-19 with a new approach to hygiene protection: Embed Hygiene Defence products - Powerful 100% Natural, Non-Toxic, Hygiene Protection That’s Safe for Families. Family Entertainment is a family-centric industry, and the cleaning products need to be family-friendly.
  
  

Industry Era names Embed’s CMO, Sara Paz, in their 10 Best CMOs of 2020. Since joining Embed in January 2019, Sara architected the Embed’s Marketing function and Marketing Strategy, with the intent of Transforming the Business of Fun and the Marketing thereof. 48-hours after Embed won the Best Booth Design award at AMOA Amusement Expo in New Orleans, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic and the world locked-down.

“I’m proud to be part of an Executive team that focused on doing everything within our means to support our industry’s recovery via countless relief acts, including free products, re-opening toolkits, white papers, #EmbedLIVE video series with industry leaders (we shot over 97-segments!), Women@Embed video series, Live Webinars, etc. This not only required pivoting our strategy and plans, but working around-the-clock in 6-week cycles of innovation (moving faster and working harder than ever before). It was unequivocally an exhausting time, but the conflation of initiatives was a noble occupation of our time, which served to propel us forward, knowing difficult times have the power to bring out the best in people. We were inspired by it. We wanted to be part of it. While it was far from business-as-usual, we worked hard to get through it, together. And together, we did.” said Sara.

Also noteworthy, on International Women’s Day, Embed celebrated that their Chief Executive team is made up of 50% women, led by Renee Welsh, a female CEO, is an example of the gender parity that other companies, small and large, especially in high-tech, aspire to achieve. “We believe in the value of diversity in our talent pool. We have a shared commitment to gender parity at all levels of the organization because we believe in the boundless strength (intellectual, cultural and commercial strength) that results from harnessing and realizing the talent capital of gender equality. We take great pride in not only being gender equal but putting an end to gender inequality in our tech sector. This naturally led to the launch of Women@Embed video series, celebrating female trailblazers from a cross-section of industries, sharing their personal stories and professional journey was incredibly rewarding.” said Sara.

Awards & Recognition in 2020: