Shaun Bierweiler

Vice President and General Manager, Cloudera

“In order to lead, you have to be an active part of a team,” said Bierweiler, whose company provides data-visibility software to a wide range of defense and civilian agencies. Mentoring and empowering his staff “are non-negotiables when defining ‘effective leadership,’” he said, and they need to happen in conjunction with an open-door policy that “establishes a safe zone where experiences and concepts can be reviewed, discussed, and refined.” The government itself can develop more top leaders not just by finding ways to recruit top talent, but also providing “an environment and culture that allows for and rewards calculated risks and ‘stretch assignments,’” Bierweiler said.