Susan Eustis, the founder of Wintergreen Research, has been shaking up the tech industry since 1985. With a string of impressive accolades under her belt, Eustis is a force to be reckoned with in the business world. When asked which award meant the most to her, Eustis responded, "The ones recognizing me as a leader among women executives. I've had to work twice as hard as my male counterparts to prove myself, but it's worth it to pave the way for other women in the industry." Eustis has not only been recognized as a leader in her field, but she's also been quoted in major media outlets such as Bloomberg, solidifying her status as an expert in the industry. Eustis is particularly proud of her work in the youth sports arena, where she's been a leading analyst. "When I started in 2012, the industry was valued at under a billion dollars. Now, it's worth 36 billion. It's been amazing to see the growth and evolution of youth sports," said Eustis. When it comes to elections and mobile technology, Eustis has been studying the subject for her entire life. "My father was the head of a voting machine manufacturing group, so I grew up surrounded by the industry. I even invented the first electronic voting machine when I was 30," said Eustis. Today, Wintergreen Research has a solid and sound digital voting system that works on smartphones and has even been implemented in Africa. Eustis recently decided to get involved with DeVote, an exciting new project which has produced a first of its kind blockchain-based voting systems which aims to satisfy all the red tape required for US elections. "I have great respect for Eugene, the founder of DeVote. When my sister and I merged our companies, we brought together a system that has not yet been implemented but has the potential to change the way elections are run," said Eustis. When asked about the potential of blockchain technology in the election process, Eustis was optimistic. "Blockchain brings a level of security and trust that cannot be achieved through other means. The decentralized nature of blockchain allows for multiple nodes to be assigned to different groups and different elections to be run by different groups. This increased number of node runners means that there is more provability of results. If the nodes do not agree, the results cannot be changed without detection," said Eustis. Eustis acknowledges the challenges that come with the use of cryptocurrencies, and is wary for the future of chains with no specific use case due to the emergence of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). She does, however, remain excited about the potential of the industry as it becomes increasingly digital. "These are exciting times for the industry, and I can't wait to see what the future holds," said Eustis
