In this concise interview, Professor Pete Alexander talks with Nancy Nemes, a former Microsoft and Google executive, founder of the AI‑focused exchange platform HumanEYES, and author of The Proust Questionnaire: Artificial Intelligence in a Stunningly Diverse Way. Nemes describes herself as a “digital Darwinist” and world citizen, outlining her multinational background and extensive experience across IoT, mobile, cybersecurity, and hardware/software platforms. She shares her excitement about AI’s potential to turn science‑fiction ideas into reality while acknowledging the technology’s still‑early stage. Nemes emphasizes the need for companies to constantly adapt to evolving user needs, especially during crises like the pandemic, advocating a human‑centric, fact‑based approach. She advises leaders to cultivate “coolness” – executive presence, gravitas, and self‑PR – and to master crisis management and difficult conversations. Reflecting on her first job, she recounts teaching Japanese and other languages to fund her studies, which taught her rapid learning and clarified her desire to pursue business rather than translation. Nemes recommends impact‑investor Charlie Kleisner for future podcast episodes and provides her contact information (nemesventures.com and social media). The episode showcases Nemes’s blend of technical expertise, global perspective, and leadership philosophy.
Chapters
This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Well, hello, Professor Pete Alexander. I am Nancy Nemesh. I am a digital Darwinist and a world citizen. Newly, they call me Miss AI, AI from artificial intelligence. I am the founder of HumanEYES. This is a top European exchange platform for artificial intelligence and humanities, and an initiative to drive education, inclusion, and diversity in artificial intelligence. And prior to HumanEyes, I have worked for about 20 years at Microsoft and Google in various leadership positions, covering a very broad range of consumer industrial businesses, technologies such as Internet of Things, mobile, digital, cybersecurity, hardware, software platforms, all that stuff. And so I, you know, when I say world citizen, it's because I have studied and worked and lived in the United States, in Germany, in Romania, in Italy, and in France. Uh, and also I'm an advisor and a board member, and I advise startups, mature businesses, as well as governments on business and technology topics. And last but not least, my book called The Proust Questionnaire: Artificial Intelligence in a Stunningly Diverse Way was just published in February 2020 and is now top-ranking in positive reader reviews on Amazon. It features some top experts and their views on artificial intelligence.
Wow. Well, Nancy, it's so great to have you on the show, and congratulations on the success of your book. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?
Well, the best thing about working in my industry is really the fact that, you know, we can make science fiction real, right? So we humans think that machines will eat us up in future, right? This is a space I'm working for many, many years now. Seriously, we made huge huge progress in high tech this century and the brilliant creativity of what we see happening in science fiction and how those authors helped us create incredible devices and services, or think about it, not create, but think about it. But on the other side, it's also funny because artificial intelligence, robots, deep learning have a very, very long way to go. So what's great about it, you have a huge opportunity to create new devices, new services to enhance people's lives. We are only scratching at the surface, even though we made great progress. So it's really fun to see how just technology can help make human life more exciting, more productive, and more fun.
Mm, I love it. And the way you describe it, I can hear your passion in your voice. It's wonderful. Question number 3. I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
All right. Well, Pete, in your book, I believe there is a chapter that's called How to Adapt to the Ever-Changing Needs of the End User, of you and I. And we know the world is in constant flow, pantarei. We know the user is a perpetuum mobile. We move all around the world these days. We change our opinions. We are in search of meaningfulness and mindfulness. So I think the most relevant chapter in your book is the one that teaches us how to take that user through any situation, be it difficult, such as we see right now with the pandemic, or not, where in a not difficult situation then creativity is even more important, and then respond to that in an intelligent, fact-based, and human-centric way. So I want to see that chapter that really includes some creative ways on how we can still ensure that we can pay our employees' salaries during such difficult times. And what we see with the pandemic these days is it is really about human beings. It is really at the end of the day, the user, the person at the end of the food chain. And we need to keep that under control in creative ways and really ensure that life goes on regardless of, of course, the challenges that we have. So mastering that, that chapter would be very interesting for me to see. And I think many, many politicians and business people should read that chapter.
And I would agree with you. That's a great, great suggestion. Thank you. Question number 4. Other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
Well, look, so my personal insight, I've been working in, you know, high-tech America for over 20 years as a European woman, if you will. And so what I've learned really all this time is that you have to build up what I would call your coolness. Coolness factor. Coming from Europe into the United States, your coolness factor, for me, that really means your executive presence, your gravitas, your self-PR persona. It is really important that as a business leader, you know, you bring these things together and are an inspirational leader. And so how do you, how do you do that while bringing the company forward? So I think that's a very important aspect is you are, as a business leader, you are responsible for the company's welfare. You need to know how to manage external pressure, such again, you know, I'm talking about this pandemic because it's what drives us every day right now, but how do you know how to manage external pressure? And, you know, if you think about the pandemic, if you think about the climate change, you know, you can see leaders today that put the— do not put the right focus first. And so I think your job or our job is to care first for the company and the people, and not necessarily for what the streets wants to hear from us, and basically make sure that we understand how to manage under pressure. So for me, these days it's all about crisis management, managing under pressure, difficult conversations. So that is what we should pay a lot of attention these times, and it will help because such times will repeat. History repeats, and I think it will help in future as well.
Yeah, I would, I would totally agree with you. Of course, if you're able to handle what's going on now, it sets the foundation that you can pretty much as an organization and as a leader handle difficult times that inevitably will come in the future after we're past this current pandemic. Is that what I'm understanding you recommend?
Yeah, exactly. I remember many, many years ago when we did not have to manage such difficult situations. One of the key books that I was reading at the time was Difficult Conversations and Managing Difficult Situations. But by any means, the conversations and the situations were not as difficult as they are today. And so what we have to understand today is that you have to manage left and right. You have to really consider all points of view. You have to take that tough decision. And I believe learning in a real difficult situation will also teach us a lot for the time after and will help us understand, you know, good from bad and also understand where we should put our, you know, where we should put our focus. So that's why I think really it's important to get to that type of executive presence where you broaden your horizon and you are able to go through difficult times in a gracious way, right?
Very well said. Thank you so much for that insight. Question number 5, what other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Right. I thought about it, Pete, because I have so many people, amazing people in my network. I would, I would really nominate all of them. There is one guy that, um, really sticks out, and his name is Charlie Kleisner. Charlie is an impact investor. He does what he calls conscious leadership, and I think you love talking to Charlie. He's an Austrian guy from the beautiful Alps region called Innsbruck, but lives in Silicon Valley for many, many decades. He used to work with Steve Jobs on, uh, at NeXT, I believe, and then he made had very, uh, you know, amazing career in Silicon Valley creating just amazing innovation, uh, primarily in engineering. But what I love about Charlie and why I think you should talk to him is because I think, um, you know, he, he believes in the fact that the real meaning of wealth is to make a positive contribution to humanity and the planet. And he sees this impact investing not just as an intellectual exercise but really it's an expression of who he is, of his whole humanity. So you'll love his level of energy.
Uh, sounds like it. Thank you so much for that referral. I'll reach out to him. And question number 6: please tell me about your first job.
All right, well, so my first job was focused on making money in order to be able to finance my studies in Germany as an immigrant back in the '90s. So quite a long time ago, and at the time, you know, just coming to Germany as a very, very young woman, and I figured the easiest way was to combine a big hobby I've had at that time for an amazing country, which was Japan. People who may remember in the '90s, Japan was what China is today. And so I decided to learn Japanese and then to teach it at the university for adult education, where there was a huge demand for Japanese study, but nobody available to teach it. So I thought, wait, why don't I learn this? And then I teach this guy, I can make more money, right? So I did the same with the Italian and Spanish language. And that basically forced me to learn these languages kind of fast and furiously because I had to be productive quickly and make money with them. And so it turned out to be quite lucrative, you know, as I was then asked to translate in court and at the police department and to work as an interpreter for the European Union in Brussels at the time, where we which was just getting set up with translators and interpreters, and many other places. So, and what that basically, first of all, it paid me probably 10 times more than a regular student job. But the most important thing is that experience actually showed me what I did not want to become in life. And that was indeed a translator or interpreter or a teacher, even though becoming a teacher was one of my early childhood dreams. But I understood back then that I wanted to create more. I didn't want to just translate what other people say. I really wanted to become a more inspirational, a more business-prone person. So I realized business and high-tech is really what I wanted to do. And so that was a huge experience in really, you know, how quickly can you do some things when you really want, and then what you can, how you can discern what you don't want to do in life. And I think that was the right decision for me.
And it's a great story. And I too remember Japan being the big sought-after language back in the '90s as well. And so it's interesting how far we've come. And kudos to you for learning other languages as well, because you saw an opportunity at the time to help fund your studies. So it's a great story.
That's a great way to flex your brain muscles, you know, learning— also learning German. You know, it's the same, but Japanese is even harder. So I can only encourage people to just learn a language that is completely unlike your own language, and you will see how amazing that is for your brain.
Mm, great advice. So Nancy, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
Thank you, Pete. People can find me on social media, on nemesventures.com. If you Google my name, Nancy Nemes, you will be able to find me there.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
