Jessica Poliner | Digital Thread Podcast | Momenta

Industrial Powerhouse: How relayr.io is Driving the Future of Industrial

In this week's episode, Ken Forster interviews Jessica Poliner, President and CEO of relayr, the Industrial IoT powerhouse.

Relayr is a global IoT company with offices in Germany, USA, Poland, and Italy that focus on industrial applications of IoT. Relayr’s solutions turn real data from machines into insights, optimizing operational efficiency, and improving total cost of ownership. In 2018, relayr was acquired by the Munich Re Group for $300 million.

Jessica is a transformational leader with a history of leading geographically dispersed and culturally diverse industrial and tech businesses ranging from approximately $200M to $1.5B in annual revenue. She currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of relayr, the Industrial IoT powerhouse – a technology company that harnesses the power of data to generate meaningful business outcomes. 

Before joining relayr, Jessica served as the President of Molding Solutions, a prominent business in the plastic injection molding industry, leading approximately 2,200 global employees and also responsible for twelve global manufacturing locations. Before this role, she held global general management roles with Thermo King, a business of Ingersoll Rand and then Trane Technologies, and regional leadership roles at Caterpillar, Inc., across general management, marketing, sales, operations, distribution, and aftermarket and connected solutions.

Jessica began her career as a lawyer, where she focused primarily on corporate law and mergers & acquisitions. She holds a Juris Doctorate (J.D.) from Marquette University Law School and a bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt University, and she completed her Certificate of Management Excellence with Harvard Business School. She is an endurance athlete in the workplace and out, an avid speaker and published author on gender parity and unconscious bias, in addition to "As a Service" business models, technology, and the role of Industry 4/5.0.

Discussion Points:

• What would you consider your digital thread (the one or more thematic threads that define your digital industry journey)?
• What inspired your career trajectory from corporate counsel to CEO and from the industrial to the tech sector, particularly your move from Corporate Counsel to commercial sales leader at Caterpillar in 2011?
• Can you tell me about your roles at Cat and Thermo King and your experience as President of Molding Solutions? What accomplishments are you most proud of in those roles?
• All of this, of course, led you to relayr in 2022. How did your prior leadership prepare you for relayr, and what attracted you to the company?
• You refer to relayr as ‘the Industrial IoT Powerhouse – a technology company that harnesses the power of data to generate meaningful business outcomes.’ The value proposition sounds great, but what does it mean in practice?
• What have been some of your notable use cases and wins?
• How do you know when an organization is ready to adopt your solution, and what best practices have you seen is realizing that potential value?
• We’ve heard about ‘As a Service’ for several years. From your perspective where are most industrial OEMs on that maturity curve?
• You have been on a journey at relayr to productize the business. What does this mean for the organization’s focus?
• When you're not running relayr (or physically running as an endurance athlete), you are an avid speaker on gender parity and unconscious bias. Can you tell us about your work here?
• In closing, where do you find your personal inspiration? (i.e., book recommendations, articles, podcasts, people, etc.)