How does a successful CEO create value for both customers and investors? Raul Martynek, CEO of DataBank, shares his twenty-year journey and his modus operandi with Phil and Nabeel in this #NomadFuturist podcast.
Martynek discusses his accidental entry into the world of Critical Infrastructure. After majoring in political science, he spent his first years out of college trying to find his way. His natural curiosity led him to learn programming languages and begin coding for various clients. This in turn led him to involvement with the telecommunications industry.
“When the telecom opportunity presented itself, it didn’t feel like I was going into something that I wouldn’t be able to understand... Instead it aligned with my strengths.”
Martynek went on to hold C-level positions in Telecom and in Critical Infrastructure. Throughout, he was driven by a desire to have a well-rounded understanding of all aspects of business and went out of his way to find situations where he could learn. “I started off as COO, CEO but coming out of that operational sales side. The finance side was the side that I had the least exposure to…that’s when I found a senior advisor role with a five-billion-dollar hedge fund and was able to sit on the principal side of the table and understand how they looked at deals.”
Martynek talks about the importance of fostering and maintaining a healthy company culture so that all employees can feel like they are on the same team.
“Are they satisfied, are they engaged? Are they passionate about what they are doing? Because people drive your business. They drive the relationship with your customers. Your customers are interacting with people, not with APIs.”
Martynek sees no end to growth in the Critical Infrastructure space:
“We are underpinning the adoption of technology…humanity has decided that we are going to embrace technology and we are going to use it for everything that you could ever imagine. And our industry is building the foundations to enable that technology.”
Raul Martynek joined DataBank in 2017 as the Chief Executive Officer. In this role, he provides overall strategic direction of the company and its operations. Martynek is a 20+ year veteran in the Telecom and Internet Infrastructure sector. He most recently served as a Senior Advisor for Digital Bridge Holdings LLC. Prior to this, Martynek held senior leadership positions in multiple companies including Net Access, LLC, a New Jersey-based data center and managed services operator, Voxel dot Net, Inc. a global managed hosting and cloud company, Smart Telecom, an Ireland-based fiber carrier and InfoHighway Communications Corp, a telecom and Internet provider. He also served as a Senior Advisor at Plainfield Asset Management, a hedge fund. Martynek earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Binghamton University and received a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
