Author: CIO Times

Organizations in the healthcare sector are embracing digital technologies to provide practical solutions. These organizations have become an integral part of modern care, reshaping how support is delivered and experienced. Technology has taken the front seat as it improves outcomes and patient engagement. Industry leaders who adapt to this shift are skilled at crafting care pathways. These are intuitive, adaptive, and human-centric. Among these leaders is a name that cannot be overlooked, despite his young age, today he is 17 years old: Ismael Maceira Lecanda, CEO and co-founder of SAMIRA DTx, which he created at the age of 16 to transform the lives of chronic patients. He combines scientific rigor with thoughtful innovation. It helps redefine how individuals with Chronic challenges navigate a better quality of life.

Ismael Maceira Lecanda is a flagbearer of the concept of democratizing personalized healthcare. Since he has suffered it in his own flesh since he was 12 years old, living with a chronic disease, long covid. Where he discovered the power of technology in health by recovering his memory thanks to video games and all this clinically validated by his neurologist. And he asked himself, if technology is working for me, why can’t it work for thousands of people around the world? So his company SAMIRA DTx was born, which he leads and co-founded with his partner Dr. Carlos Escobar.  It carries both technology and ethics in its voice. About it, he considers technology as one part, while the challenge is in structural barriers within healthcare systems. He highlights some points in detail about this:

Ü Accessibility to everyone in terms of healthcare innovation and digital therapeutics for human reasons. The reason here reflects patients, pathologies, and human beings who are bound to get quality care irrespective of their social, economic, or geographical context. Preference for people who are blessed with greater resources, stronger insurance coverage, or access to advanced urban healthcare environments is not the scene here for the SAMIRA DTx team.

He adds, “A key barrier is therefore inequality in access. We must ensure that solutions are designed to reach vulnerable populations, rural communities, and historically underserved groups, not only technologically advanced ecosystems.”

1. Fragmentation in healthcare systems and clinical data.

The lack of interoperability between hospitals, healthcare professionals, insurers, and digital platforms significantly restricts the ability to deliver truly patient-centered care. Without structural integration, personalization risks remaining a set of isolated initiatives rather than a scalable model of care.

2. Health and digital literacy.

Equity is not only about making solutions available but also about ensuring that patients understand them, trust them, and can use them effectively. Education, usability, and cognitive accessibility are as important as the technology itself.

3. Current reimbursement and incentive models need evolution.

Many healthcare systems still reward reactive clinical activity rather than prevention, therapeutic adherence, and measurable health outcomes. True democratization requires a transition toward value-based healthcare models aligned with real patient outcomes.

4. Lastly, a deeply ethical dimension:

data governance, privacy, and the mitigation of algorithmic bias. Personalized care will only be genuinely equitable if it is built on transparency, inclusion, and trust, ensuring that AI does not replicate or amplify existing inequalities.

In all, Ismael Maceira Lecanda envisions that empowering personalized healthcare means ensuring that innovation is not only advanced but also accessible. It also needs to be ethical and scalable, irrespective of their backgrounds.

Ismael Maceira Lecanda Redefining Digital Care

Ismael Maceira Lecanda sees digital therapeutics sitting right at the intersection of medicine, tech, and human behaviour, a space that, for all its promise, is still widely misunderstood. For him, clarity is the priority. He notices people often mistake this field for general wellness apps, but the reality is far more rigorous: we’re talking about clinically validated software built to drive measurable health results, guided by doctors and powered by the patient’s own active role.

This distinction is everything for him. This isn’t just healthcare-flavored technology; it’s a form of treatment that must be held to the same high standards as any pharmaceutical, proving it is safe, effective, and capable of making a genuine clinical impact.

He often compares these tools to traditional medication. While a pill relies on a chemical compound, here the active ingredient is found in algorithms and behavioral design. Both require validation and a clear purpose, yet digital therapeutics offer a unique advantage: they can be deeply personalized and keep the patient continuously engaged.

He believes the industry’s biggest blind spot is seeing this shift as a purely technical one. In his view, the real strength of the medium lies in how it actually reshapes care, making it more preventive, tailored, and centered around the person behind the patient.

For this to become the new standard, he argues we need clearer regulations, rock-solid evidence, and a way to weave these tools into the fabric of everyday medicine. Building trust across the board with clinicians, insurers, and patients alike will only happen through proven outcomes and real-world success.

He sees this as a gradual but meaningful evolution, one that, with the right momentum, will eventually cement digital therapeutics as a fundamental pillar of modern healthcare.

Collaborative Advantage

Reflecting on how open innovation ensures that partnership sharpens rather than blurs a company’s strategic edge, he explains that SAMIRA DTx was built with collaboration in its DNA, a deliberate departure from the isolated silos that have long defined traditional healthcare.

He doesn’t view working together as a secondary feature, but as the primary engine for building better tools. By inviting universities, tech hubs, scientific bodies, and patient groups into the fold, the goal is to produce outcomes that are more meaningful and truly ready to scale. For him, this isn’t just a corporate strategy; it is a fundamental mindset that dictates how every solution is actually shaped.

The secret to making this ecosystem work, he notes, is bringing stakeholders to the table from day one. When patients and doctors are part of the early journey, collaboration creates clarity instead of noise. Patients contribute the invaluable nuance of lived experience, while clinicians ensure every move is medically sound and fits into existing care pathways. The broader network then provides the scientific weight necessary to drive long-term adoption.

He adds, “The academic and technological ecosystem strengthens scientific depth and innovation capacity. Institutions and scientific societies facilitate alignment with healthcare standards and future adoption pathways.”

Throughout this process, Ismael insists that a rock-solid vision serves as the anchor. Partnerships might refine how a project is executed, but the core direction remains steady. In his eyes, designing with people rather than just for them is what ultimately creates solutions that feel grounded, impactful, and deeply aligned with the real-world needs of healthcare.

This approach comes to life through SAMIRA DTx’s growing ecosystem of partners. The company is supported by public institutions such as BEAZ (Bizkaia Provincial Council), SPRI (Basque Government), and actively collaborates with BIOEF (Osakidetza – Basque Health Service), while also working closely with academic institutions like the University of Deusto and DigiPen Institute of Technology Europe. On the technology side, collaborations with centers such as Vicomtech and Tecnalia add further depth.

At the same time, SAMIRA DTx stays closely connected to real-world care through partnerships with healthcare providers like Vithas Hospitals and Quirónsalud, as well as scientific societies including SEMERGEN, SEC, and SEN. Its work is also shaped by ongoing engagement with patient associations such as POP (National Patient Organisation Platform, Asthma and Allergy Spain, and the Spanish Parkinson’s Federation, alongside industry clusters like Basque Health Cluster, GAIA, CDTx, Madrid e-Health, and the Saudi Business Council, ensuring that everything it builds stays grounded, relevant, and closely aligned with both clinical practice and patient needs.

Focused on Precision

Accommodating customization with a desire to be clinically validated and generate ideal outcomes is a challenge, Ismael Maceira Lecanda highlights. It is simultaneously an opportunity too in the digital therapeutics sector.

At SAMIRA DTx, they have as a founding partner Dr. Carlos Escobar, Cardiologist and coordinator of the DTx scientific committee in Spain, who brings a wide scientific value to the company and leads the medical part, with a high rigor in scientific standards

Nurturing a robust scientific framework is key in this sector. Also, maintaining distinction in the validated therapeutic core and the adaptive personalization layers is crucial. The core must be based on clinical and behavioral mechanisms whose efficacy has been demonstrated through scientific evidence, just as with any medical or pharmaceutical intervention. This component must be reproducible, measurable, and generalizable across different patient cohorts.

Customization acts as a dynamic layer that adapts the therapeutic experience to the patient’s individual context: their clinical profile, behavioral patterns, level of adherence, response to treatment, cognitive variables, and environmental circumstances. In this way, the treatment method is personalized for each individual and is efficient enough to cure patients.

He compares this to conventional medicine. The active ingredient of a drug remains the same, but the dosage, treatment regimen, therapeutic combination, and follow-up may vary depending on the patient. The same applies to DTx: the clinical foundation remains validated, while the intelligence of the system allows the intervention to be adjusted in real time.

From a methodological standpoint, Ismael views this as a careful balance, one that calls for strong experimental design, meaningful longitudinal analysis, and ongoing validation in real-world settings. For him, true generalizability isn’t about treating everyone the same; it’s about deeply understanding what works, for whom, and when personalization genuinely makes a difference.

He doesn’t see any tension between these ideas. Instead, he views it as a natural step forward and an evolution toward truly scalable precision medicine, where solid evidence forms the foundation and thoughtful, intelligent personalization shapes how care is delivered in practice.

Creating Actual Impact

Ismael Maceira Lecanda’s academic prowess comprises AI, neuroscience, and business creation his great youth. This exposure has been immensely productive as it has molded his psyche to approach problems by aligning human and technological aspects.

He proudly mentions being self-taught. At 17 and living with long COVID from the age of 12, he has come to realize that traditional education doesn’t always meet the realities of his everyday life. Much of what he has learned has been shaped outside the classroom, driven by his personal experience as a chronic patient, driven by the responsibilities of being a founder building an innovative company, leading people, navigating complexity, and making decisions in moments where uncertainty is constant.

Being open to learning multiple aspects related to one’s work is his mantra. Being confined to one aspect of learning will take you nowhere, as the world is going global, changing fast, and revolves around uncertainty, at times.

Being a member of Generation Z, he has a fresh outlook. Existing in a technologically-dominant environment, their generation was constantly exposed to globalization, rapid change, and constant uncertainty. It built the skill for adaptation, continuous learning, and cross-disciplinary thinking in the generation.

He asserts, “I firmly believe that the major challenges in healthcare cannot be solved from a single discipline. Technology alone does not solve human problems; it must understand behavior, cognition, emotion, and the context in which people live with their condition.”

AI has imbued a skill to bring structure to complex issues, be surrounded by data, identify gaps, and build predictive models capable of generating more precise and personalized interventions. Amidst the chaos, he believes in leveraging technology as a use case to make it accessible to patients.

He states, “Interdisciplinary vision allows me to approach every challenge from three complementary dimensions and with a different perspective: the scientific, the human, and the strategic.”

He sees neuroscience as a lens that helps him better understand how people think, decide, and adapt to change. In digital therapeutics, this matters deeply because outcomes depend not just on the treatment, but on how patients stay engaged and motivated. It has also helped him make sense of his own thoughts and navigate them with more clarity. Building companies has taught him how to turn ideas into something real. For him, innovation is not just about strong technology, but about creating solutions that can truly work, scale, and sustain within healthcare.

This perspective shapes how he approaches problems, bringing together scientific insight, human understanding, and strategic thinking. In practice, it means designing with intention: considering the patient’s experience, the clinician’s role, and the system it lives in. He believes meaningful innovation happens when disciplines come together, and above all, without the patient’s voice, even the best ideas risk falling short of real impact.

Holistic Approach

Being a tech founder, Ismael Maceira Lecanda is also trained in oratory communication, despite his age. He considers it key to taking his company as far as possible. This makes him distinct from other founders, and he gives credit to his decision to opt for the same. Especially in the complex sector like digital health and artificial intelligence.

He says, “Very often, the difference between a great idea and a project capable of generating real impact does not lie solely in the technology itself, but in the ability to communicate with clarity, conviction, and purpose.” 

He wishes to share his story as it is an inspirational one. SAMIRA DTx is a result of his own journey as a patient. It helps him communicate while being genuine, rigorous, and effective. His team aspires to be known as a technological and human-centric solutions provider, too. It wants to be looked at as a personal, clinical, and human experience into a real solution for thousands of patients.

As the project has matured, Ismael has come to see communication as more than just a useful skill; it has become the very heart of his leadership. In an industry like digital therapeutics, where so many concepts are still new, helping people truly understand the what and the why is just as critical as the act of building the tech itself.

This leadership philosophy also extends to his broader vision through the ZEO (Zero Ego Operator) manifesto, where Ismael advocates for a new generation of leaders driven by impact rather than ego. Based on values such as collaboration, humility, and long-term thinking, ZEO reflects his belief that companies should be built through a shared vision and purpose, not hierarchy or control.

ZEO is not a title. It is a way of thinking. We believe in leaders who build, not control; in people who do not seek power, but impact; in a more human, open and real way of leading. Because the future will not belong to those who rule, but to those who inspire, connect and create something that really matters.

Ismael Maceira Lecanda says that ZEO is for those who don’t fit into the establishment, for those who turn mistakes into learning and differences into advantages. It’s not about being the boss, but about building something that changes things. In essence, being ZEO is leading without ego, building with vision and having the courage to improve the system from within.

He has realized that innovation isn’t strictly about the hardware or the code. It is about whether people can actually connect with it, trust it, and see how it fits into their daily lives. For him, communication is the vital link that translates complex, technical ideas into something human and relatable.

Whether he is in communication with investors, doctors, or patients, he tailors his approach to meet them where they are, without losing sight of the core message. If an idea can’t be explained in a way that feels clear and grounded in reality, it stands very little chance of being embraced by the world.

Earning Integrity

Reflecting excellence and authenticity from the very beginning builds unmatched trust in the healthcare industry. Being a patient gives him a crystal clear perspective. He is all in when it comes to providing value, as he has a lived experience.

A chronic patient, living with long COVID, helps him to understand unmet needs, the barriers within the system, and what it truly means to create a solution that delivers value to patients. This lived experience brings a very strong legitimacy, because it is not a narrative built from the outside, but from real experience.

Genuine people upon whom we can rely, build trust, Ismael believes. Only pretending to know everything doesn’t create a trustworthy ecosystem.

From the start, he has felt that leadership isn’t about knowing everything; it’s about bringing the right people together and building something you can truly stand behind. He’s been intentional about surrounding himself with a team that blends clinical insight with technical and scientific expertise.

Having a strong clinical backbone, along with a diverse and capable team, has been central to that journey. The support of mentors and institutions has also helped shape both his growth and the company’s direction.

For him, working at the edge of innovation comes with a sense of humility. Trust isn’t something you claim; it’s something you earn over time, through evidence, consistency, and the people you build alongside.

Uncompromised Principles

He believes accelerations in healthcare must be crafted on a framework that sustains clinical integrity and the patient’s voice. His framework is based on a principle: scale the model without compromising rigor, always with the patient at the center.

There’s a modular architecture surrounding three clearly differentiated layers. They are elaborated below:

1. Global clinical core:

This reflects a scientifically validated therapeutic foundation. This layer remains constant irrespective of the country, healthcare system, or cultural context. One meets the clinical evidence, protocols, therapeutic algorithms, and safety criteria here itself.

2. Regulatory and interoperability adaptation:

Each healthcare system has its own regulatory requirements, reimbursement models, interoperability standards, and care pathways. Hence, the SAMIRA DTx Team initiates solutions that are flexible to European and international frameworks.

3. Cultural adaptation and patient experience:

The way a patient interacts with a digital therapeutic, their level of adherence, behavior, and perception of value are deeply influenced by cultural, social, and contextual factors. For that reason, the user experience, language, communication, and engagement mechanisms must be adaptable.

He believes growth depends on local partnerships among clinicians, patients, and regulators. To him, ignoring local context is a major mistake. It’s about balance: keeping the science rigorous while staying flexible enough to ensure the patient’s needs always come first.

Care Reimagined Humanely

Ismael Maceira Lecanda sees value-based medicine as more than just a new model; it is a more honest way to think about care. For years, healthcare has prioritized activity, appointments, procedures, and volume, so it is only natural that shifting the focus toward actual outcomes and patient impact feels like a major adjustment.

It really comes down to one thing for him: putting the person at the center, genuinely. This is a personal conviction, shaped by his own journey as a patient from a young age and later through long COVID, where he saw firsthand how easily the system can overlook the lived reality behind a diagnosis.

He believes the patient’s voice should never be an afterthought. Those living through an illness understand its daily hurdles in a way no medical framework can fully capture, and that insight should be what guides how care is designed and measured.

At the same time, he knows that change in healthcare breeds uncertainty. New approaches have to prove their worth not just in theory, but in real life. That is why he relies on evidence, open dialogue, and consistent results to earn the trust of the industry.

This shift is mandatory for him. This move works better, lasts longer, and finally reflects what truly matters to the patient.

Personal Experience Shapes Insight

He has a high regard for neuroscience. It has molded the way he grasps and crafts design therapeutic interventions. He reminds us of a mistake to assume in healthcare. He considers the assumption that adherence depends only on the patient’s willpower. But in reality, it relies on the working of human cognition: attention, memory, motivation, reward perception, cognitive load, emotion, and habit formation.

He highlights that it is crucial to have an understanding of how people go through information and make decisions, which allows people to design interventions. These are not always clinically upto the mark, but are cognitively sustainable and behaviorally realistic.

Sharing an example, he mentions a patient has different ways of reacting in moments of calm and when there are issues like fatigue, anxiety, or chronic pain. Hence, he crafts a highly patient-centric intervention that is tailored according to the patient’s cognitive and emotional state, reducing friction, simplifying decision-making, and facilitating small steps that support continuity.

Neuroscience helps to gain insights into reinforcement mechanisms and the way habits are built.

Ismael Maceira Lecanda states, “Adherence is not imposed; it is constructed through repeated patterns, meaningful rewards, and an experience that generates a sense of progress and control.” 

In the context of digital therapeutics, this is relevant because behavioral design is part of the treatment itself. It is about how the therapeutic content is presented, when it is activated, how it is personalized, and what kind of response it generates in a patient.

From his own experience being a patient, Ismael is aware that an intervention does not adapt to the person’s mental and physical reality. It is unlikely to be sustainable over time.

He asserts, “That is why I believe the combination of neuroscience, behavior, and patient experience is key to building DTx that patients not only use, but truly adhere to and maintain over time.”

Lowering Pace to Build Evidence

In the deep-tech healthcare sector, he considers a natural part of the process: the combination of scientific patience and entrepreneurial urgency. In the startup fraternity, speed is essential as the market evolves swiftly. Patients need to be attended to, and the execution capability also makes a difference. However, he makes an important point here that in the healthcare sector, underestimating scientific rigor is a big no-no. As a small decision can affect people, conditions, and bring unwanted clinical outcomes.

His way of sustaining this balance is clear: we can move fast in execution, but never fast in evidence. His team speeds up the processes that involve technological iteration, product design, user experience validation, and the development of real use cases. It is done while maintaining extremely rigorous standards in clinical validation, data analysis, and safety.

His team works with a lens of continuous validation. Every technological hypothesis must be transformed into a measurable clinical hypothesis. The team designs features not only based on intuition. It looks for evaluation, measurement, and refined practical working. He prefers being around a high-level clinical, scientific, and technological team.

Ismael Maceira Lecanda adds, “In healthcare, patience means the ability to build robust evidence, accept longer validation cycles, and understand that the trust of the ecosystem is earned through results.” 

This commitment to rigorous, evidence-led innovation is also reflected in SAMIRA DTx’s leadership of the ISQARE-LC project, a pioneering research initiative exploring the use of quantum computing to understand Long COVID better. he project is being developed within the framework of the initiativeBIQAIN (Bizkaia Quantum Advanced Industries) and BASQ initiatives, promoted by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and Lantik, which will explore the use of quantum computing to advance the understanding of Long COVID. By applying advanced data analysis and modeling, the project aims to identify hidden clinical patterns and patient subgroups, addressing one of the most complex challenges of the condition. For Ismael, this research carries a deeply personal purpose, aligning scientific exploration with real patient needs.

Personalized Care Shift

Ismael Maceira Lecanda envisions digital therapeutics stepping into a more mature, meaningful phase. It is shaped by changes in technology, regulation, and the way patients relate to their own care. On the technology side, he feels the biggest shift will be toward systems that don’t just deliver fixed interventions, but actually learn and adapt gradually. These tools will start to respond to every patient’s journey in a more natural way, adjusting as needs change.

Ismael Maceira Lecanda is also aware that for this progress to catch firmness, the regulatory part needs to maintain momentum. Clearer pathways and stronger validation will help these solutions move from the margins into everyday healthcare, where they can be trusted and widely adopted.

Simultaneously, Ismael Maceira Lecanda https://www.linkedin.com/in/ismael-maceira-lecanda/sees patients changing, too. They become more conscious, engrossed, and actively take part in their own health. That brings a growing expectation for care that feels continuous, tailored, and supportive.

Witnessing all of this coming together is what he yearns for. He mentions that the future isn’t just about enhanced technology, but about creating solutions that feel human, grounded in real needs, and capable of making a genuine difference in people’s lives


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Leadership often shapes the future. Primarily, it shapes the future of the establishment itself, the people and stakeholders involved, and a nation in particular. Ideal leadership qualities include decisiveness, accountability, mentorship, and the ability to turn a vision into reality. It is crucial to understand intricacies while being in a highly dynamic and competitive market. A skilled and able real estate leader with us today is Max Barclay, Co-CEO at Newsec. With extensive experience in several real estate sectors since 1994, the team has been triumphant in building businesses beyond the geographical boundaries of Sweden.  His business presence spreads across countries like Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Currently, he oversees the organization’s advisory business and is a member of the board for Newsec in the mentioned countries. He is active in the Urban Land Institute at both the local and international levels. He also serves as a board member at Fastigo, the employer organization for real estate professionals in Sweden.

Max Barclay Championing the Trust Factor

For more than 3 decades now, the Newsec family has been as big as 2400 across seven Nordic and Baltic countries. With such levels of global operations, they have been focused on a streamlined approach to creating value for the customer. In the organization’s early days, the team’s focus was solely on the asset. That is the ideal way to focus, and undoubtedly, those factors are relevant to date. Gradually, in the midst of the experienced business chaos, one realizes that teams create more value than the said assets.

The organization sees value divided into three core principles: strong teams, close client relationships, and a long-term perspective. Platforms and ecosystems will remain important to function as a work sector, no two ways about it. But the right people and the attitude behind it will make the mark. It works towards fostering a culture that attracts, retains, and develops the best talent in the business.

He asserts, “Real estate is, and will remain, a relationship-driven industry. If you take care of your clients and build trust over time, the value naturally follows.”

Steady Partnership

Max Barclay is a Group CEO, but the actual role is much deeper in terms of just management. In today’s competitive market, he sees the Newsec as a solid, reliable guide during tough times. He believes in being there with the client when actual help is needed. In such shaky moments, clients need a person who values nothing but truth, poise, and stability. He leverages the organization’s history to comfort the client about his needs and find him a property that fits in his budget.

By showing up like this, consistently, he is optimistic about the organization redefining the field. He also trusts in the organization’s “conductor” philosophy of uniting talent to build something superior. When moves are led by honesty and a real care for clients, high quality usually follows on its own.

Utilizing Provincial Resources

Newsec has been active in seven Nordic and Baltic countries. It’s operations in each territory have a distinct highlight. About facing challenges when leading a cross-border organization, Max pinpoints a fact about keeping a novel mindset.

He shares, “Early on, I realized that you cannot simply ‘export’ a way of working and expect it to land perfectly. You need to trust local teams, give them space, and genuinely listen.”

Talented local teams who have deeper connections within the market always exceed expectations in terms of performance. They keep a centrally controlled approach that reaps expected outputs. When he witnessed this tangibly, he was humbled to the core and kept it as a reminder. He lives by the rule: synchronize where it makes sense, but always allow brilliant local solutions to emerge, then copy and scale.

Unveiling Human-centered Governance

When it is about exercising authority in a multinational business ecosystem, for Max Barclay it is less formal and more trust-reliant.

Further to this, he adds, “You cannot govern a multinational purely through policies. Shared values, strong culture, and personal relationships are essential.”

As trust becomes existent in the environment, governance starts showing results, discussions become flexible, and decisions reflect efficiency. Transparency in frameworks remains crucial. Newsec’s understanding says that it is the human side of governance that ultimately builds culture and impact.

Balanced Evolution

The organization reflects on whether today’s advisors are truly ready to handle the growing tension between capital, urban development, and sustainability, or if the system itself needs a rethink. It believes the answer isn’t in starting over, but in moving forward with real intent and care. What were once separate domains, finance, the environment, and city life, are now deeply connected, challenging the limits of siloed ways of working.

Even so, it thinks some old-school values are worth keeping. At the finish line, the goal is simply helping folks make smarter, more thoughtful moves. That means blending a world of knowledge with the simple stuff, really knowing your people, building a bond over the years, and keeping your eyes on the horizon. It believes the best wins happen when you balance doing good with doing well, because let’s face it, only the ideas that actually work for everyone are going to stick around.

Model Reliant Actions

The Newsec team has been in dual roles. Beyond real estate, it also offers investors, property owners and tenants a full range of services within the five business areas Property Asset Management, Advisory, Investment Management, Digital Accelerator and Energy Transition. So it comprises of operational and advisory excellence.

Upon asking how it maintains this delicate balance in such roles, Max Barclay shared, the team prioritizes calmness. Volatility of markets does not require them to act each time. With a focus on the bigger picture, strong teams and clear direction enables the team to deal with short-term uncertainties. Consistency outshines.

He says, “The combination of recurring revenue and deal-oriented business provides stability, and paired with a focus on people, it creates a model that has proven successful over time.”

Misjudging Change

Speaking about his work at the Urban Land Institute, in the context of the global urban trends, Max Barclay thinks that the Nordic region is not interpreting the speed of change the way it should. The region is an intellectual one, undoubtedly, but the behavioral changes are misjudged sometimes.

He adds, “People expect flexibility, mixed-use environments, and stronger community connections.”

Beyond being ideally positioned, he highlights that the region needs to stay curious, open, and flexible to innovate to stay relevant.

Leading with Purpose

The Newsec team thinks about what really sets apart a company that just follows the crowd from one that actually leads the way. For it, the truth comes out when things get shaky. Groups that are just reacting tend to jump around, sticking too close to whatever is happening right this second.

On the other hand, the team envisions real leaders staying true to what they believe in, keeping their focus on people, bonds, and skills, even if the reward takes a while to show up. It sees property as a long game, where buildings are meant to stand for many years, even lifetimes. For the people they help, this means getting advice built on facts and deep thought, having the guts to stay steady when it matters, and a promise to build plans that leave a real, positive mark on the world.

Laying the Path using Data

In this data-focused realm, the Newsec team likes to be realistic. Data paves the way to get insights into better performance and decisions. But Max Barclay recalls clients demanding clarity, not data.

Newsec’s database being diverse in the Nordics region, it provides surplus value. It combines responsibility too. The team combines this with Agentic AI, which opens doors for tangible opportunities.

He says, “The key is translating data into actionable insight, improving client decisions and outcomes.”

Experience Molds

Max Barclay’s journey from being on the ground to being on the CEO throne wasn’t as easy. Upon asking a specific valuable lesson he may have learnt to date, he advises staying in close proximity to the client. Doing so voluntarily gives insights into nurturing relationships and establishing trust.

He shares, “In real estate, trust takes time but allows far greater value creation.”

These lessons have shaped his every decision that he takes today.

A Bold Balance

The organization thinks about what bosses across the Nordics and Baltics might be least ready for in the coming decade, and for the team, it really comes down to being fast and nimble.

The Newsec team doesn’t view leading through the lens of a title or a map, but as a way of thinking built for a much shakier world. In that light, it feels both Nordic and European heads need to step up and truly own the path ahead. It means leaning into what they already do best, while being brave enough to act with heart and fire when the stakes are high. For it, real leadership is about finding that sweet spot between staying calm and having the guts to move.

After some serious business talk, we shifted the conversation to some light questions. Max Barclay was kind enough to answer them. The conversation went like:

a.         What book are you reading currently?

Jens Stoltenberg, On My Watch—an inspiring reflection on leadership as NATO Secretary General. I also read Runnin’ Down a Dream by Bill Gurley, which provides great insights into personal development.

b.         One word that best describes his personality:

Social and competitive. Always striving, aiming for improvement, and believing everything can be done better.

c.         What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned?

Relationships come first. Life and business are about people. Nurturing trust and taking care of yourself and those you love makes you stronger and more effective.

d.         What’s the best professional advice you’ve received?

Focus. Always try, but understand you cannot win every battle. Work with the best people in the industry. They make your job easier.

e.         What is your favorite quote?

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstein.|

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Dubai is a city that rose from being recognized as a desert quiet to an architectural spectacle. This significant transformation has attracted real estate buyers from around the globe. Real estate organizations operate like attentive interpreters, tuning into the subtle rhythms of ambition, culture, and personal desire. Masakin Owners Association Management is a pioneer, RERA-licensed firm that makes living easy. Their expertise brings together proven intelligent technology and unparalleled customer service.

The Home Standard

A structure remains only concrete and corridors until people begin to live within it. It becomes a home instantly when the living starts. The minor details start to matter, how a space feels upon entering, whether everyday essentials function as expected, and whether the neighborhood is supportive enough. These are some expectations residents carry. For Masakin Owners Association Management, caring for a community is rooted in recognizing these unsaid needs. Their approach ensures residents are never left to follow up. In fact, these concerns are addressed before they escalate, and living spaces feel attentive rather than only maintained.

They view it through a simple lens. They ask questions like:

• Would a resident feel a sense of pride here?
• Would they feel acknowledged?
• Would they feel secure?

If the answer is yes, the standard is being met. If not, there is more to be done. These guiding questions are consistent. 

Sense of Belonging

Dubai, being a fast-paced city, still gives the comfort of a home in an instant. A quiet exchange with a neighbor in the lift. Children lingering in shared spaces. A subtle sense that the place carries life within it. In a city like this, where pace defines everyday living and time is always in short supply. Home is what is expected to offer a moment of stillness. It allows a person to feel at ease in life. That sense of belonging is not created by striking design or polished entrances. It is shaped through steady, attentive upkeep. The reliability of maintenance, the condition of shared areas, and the ease with which residents inhabit and enjoy them.

On an individual level, these details seem minor, yet together they shape something far greater. It gradually transforms a collection of residents into a connected community. That is the outcome the organization strives for each day.

Guided Adaptability

The robust regulations like RERA and ISO bring a need to balance structure and flexibility. These regulatory frameworks set the foundation. It guides operations, safeguards residents, and ensures consistency in standards. The organization’s role is essential here. Within that structure, however, no two communities are the same. Each has its own people, its own rhythm, its own set of priorities.

What residents value in one building may not hold the same weight in another. For this reason, while standards remain non-negotiable, the approach is never rigid. Careful attention is paid to understanding each community, with processes shaped revolving around what residents truly need. This is not about working around the rules. It is about applying them with intent and doing the job the way it is meant to be.

Where Connections Grow?

Masakin Owners Association Management views the Happiness initiative with a clear understanding that belonging cannot be engineered. The moment it begins to feel forceful, its authenticity starts disappearing. What can be shaped instead are the conditions that allow connection to emerge on its own. Their approach moves away from simply curating events, focusing instead on creating effortless opportunities for interaction.

The approach is focused on moments where introductions happen naturally, where a passing acquaintance slowly becomes a familiar and known presence. Individually, these instances may seem fleeting, yet over time they take on greater meaning. A resident who once felt like a newcomer begins to recognize a sense of comfort and connection within the space. That quiet transformation is what the organization continues to foster.

Open Clarity

Transparency is often talked about, but Masakin Owners Association Management understands that it can sometimes lose its meaning when it is not truly practiced. For them, it comes down to something simple. Residents should never be left wondering where their money goes. They should never feel left out of decisions that affect them. They should never have to keep following up just to get clarity.

So, they choose to stay ahead. They share updates early, explain things in a way that feels clear and easy to understand, and avoid hiding behind technical language. And when a tough question comes up, they answer it honestly, even if the answer is not always what someone hoped to hear.

That kind of consistency builds real trust. Over time, as residents experience it again and again, it stops feeling like an effort. It simply becomes part of living there.

Careful Tradeoffs

Balancing costs, maintenance, and expectations is something the organization approaches with care, knowing the responsibility it carries. It is not taken lightly. Every decision has two sides, the financial and the human. Both of these aspects matter equally. Cutting back on maintenance may save money in the short term, but it often leads to bigger issues later, ones that affect people in their homes and daily lives.

That is not a compromise they are willing to make. At the same time, they recognize the trust residents place in them with their money. That trust calls for real value in return. The bigger picture remains clear for the organization. They are caring for people’s homes, and every decision must honour that.

Earned Trust

Financial accountability can be sensitive, and Masakin Owners Association Management understands that trust in this area takes time to build. There are no shortcuts. Residents do not expect everything to be perfect, but they do expect honesty. The feeling that everything is transparent and before the customer’s eyes builds the trust factor.

The organization’s approach is simple. The charges are explained clearly, decisions are shared before questions arise, and independent checks are always welcomed. It comes from a place of having nothing to conceal. Over time, with that consistency, something begins to shift. Financial conversations feel less tense. Residents stop questioning each detail.

Flexible Consistency

Staying consistent while working across different communities is something Masakin Owners Association Management approaches with a clear sense of what remains intact. Their standards remain steady. The quality of service, the speed of response, and the honesty in communication stay the same, no matter which community they are managing.

What shifts is how those standards are delivered. Every community has its own pace, its own priorities, its own way of living. What matters in one may not hold the same importance in another. They pay attention, they listen, while they adjust too.

Seamless Living

For the organization, technology is there for one simple reason: to make everyday living easier for residents. It is not about looking modern or keeping up appearances, but about quietly removing friction from daily interactions. When a request is raised, residents know right away that it has been received. They can follow its progress without needing to call, and they are kept informed once it is resolved.

Behind the scenes, it brings clarity and control. Nothing gets missed, every request is tracked, and every response is visible. This allows the team to spend less time on processes and more time actually solving problems. 

Invisible Care

The best kind of proactive maintenance is the kind residents barely notice. This is how it should be. When in harmony, everything runs smoothly. Nothing breaks without warning. Nothing interrupts the flow of everyday life. Behind that is consistent attention on the ground. Regular walkthroughs are not treated as routine checks, but as moments to truly notice what is changing, what is beginning to wear, and what may need care at present to prevent a larger issue later.

Imbibed Accountability

The organization’s thought consistently revolves around a core thought when they try to make the team envision the picture beyond operations. It is that: there is a real person on the other side of every task.

The team is encouraged to look at a customer, not as a ticket, but as a person. Someone who comes home tired and wants to find peace. Getting a response after being ignored for a long time, the team highlights this relief. When this is understood well, the team takes on everything as a responsibility for crafting someone’s home. Leading by example is another trait of the senior management there. Caring for the work one does is what the middle level and juniors witness, which gets imbibed in the whole team gradually. It is the organization’s style of nurturing its culture.

The team at Masakin Owners Association Management very well understands that they’re looking after people.

Unseen Realities

A large part of what Masakin Owners Association Management handles happens quietly, out of sight. This is not about recognition, but about acknowledging what the work really asks for. Some moments require careful balancing of differences between owners, conversations with service providers that residents never see, and decisions that have to be made at odd hours because they cannot be delayed.

There is also a more human side to it. Homes are personal, and when something goes wrong, it is rarely just about the issue itself. It touches how safe and at ease someone feels in a place meant to bring comfort. That calls for patience and empathy, every single time. It is the part that never shows up in reports, yet it quietly shapes how the organization approaches everything it does.

Future Living

Community living in Dubai is changing, and the organization sees that change up close. The city has always moved forward quickly, and today that shows in how people want to live. There was a time when the basics were enough, but that is no longer the case. Residents now want to feel genuinely cared for.

They look for responsiveness, honesty, and a home environment that reflects the life they have worked to build. That shift is only growing stronger. This is the same place the organization aspires to be. Already aligned with what residents expect, and raising the bar along the way.

The aim is simple. The communities they manage should be places where people feel pride and comfort. That sense of pride continues to shape their work in a city that never stands still.

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For years, the hospitality world has obsessed over perfecting luxury down to the last decimal point. But today’s true visionaries aren’t just polishing experiences; they are fundamentally redefining what makes them stick. The shift is quiet but powerful: a move away from delivering excellence and toward creating meaning. Eadas Hoxhallari, Hospitality Advisor at BALFIN Group, lives at the heart of this new wave, a professional whose work is shaped less by a standard resume and more by a distinct, global perspective.

Over the last six years, his journey across Albania, Spain, and the UAE has been less of a career ladder and more of a deliberate immersion into the soul of hotel operations. From the high-stakes adrenaline of pre-openings to managing established luxury icons, his path has been an intentional choice to see it all. He has navigated front-of-house, housekeeping, and sales strategy not just to learn the roles, but to see how they breathe together. To him, hospitality isn’t built in silos; it lives in the spaces between them.

This philosophy guided him through some of the world’s most prestigious halls. At The Ritz-Carlton in Dubai, he mastered the art of non-negotiable precision. At Barcelona’s legendary El Palace, he learned the weight of European tradition through a full-rotation management program. Then, at Mercer Hoteles, he discovered how quality resonates in the quiet corners of an intimate boutique. Each stop added a new layer of understanding, but it was at the Green Coast Hotel – MGallery Collection where those layers finally clicked into place.

Stepping in as part of the pre-opening team, Eadas Hoxhallari found himself in an environment where vision was the only thing on the menu. He wasn’t there to maintain a standard; he was there to create one. From building the operational DNA to forging partnerships with over 50 agencies in his first quarter, his work was foundational. The results were immediate: just 2 months after opening in June 2025, the hotel was ranked among the best-performing hotels in the entire Accor portfolio. In the same report (covering ~133 luxury hotels like Sofitel & MGallery), it ranked first in Europe within the MGallery brand based on guest demand and popularity. This wasn’t a scripted stunt, but a philosophy: the belief that what people remember isn’t the scale of luxury, but the feeling it creates.

That insight is more vital now than ever. For decades, luxury has been the industry’s North Star, yet flawless service and beautiful design have become the baseline. When luxury is expected, it loses its impact. You can visit ten different five-star hotels today and struggle to remember which one felt different. He sees this as a turning point. Guests are no longer looking to be impressed in predictable ways; they are looking to feel seen.

This is where true personalization enters the conversation, and it goes deeper than knowing a guest’s name or their favourite drink. Those are thoughtful touches, but they aren’t transformative. Real connection happens in the unscripted moments the ability to simply notice. He recalls a family arriving at Green Coast Hotel, visibly worn out from travel. They were just another check-in on paper. But the team noticed the parents’ exhaustion and the children’s quiet curiosity. By the time the family reached their room, two small things were waiting on their beds. A hand-drawn map of the hotel, marking the pool, beach and the breakfast room. And next to it, a small box of crayons. No card. No explanation. Just a quiet way of keeping the children happily occupied, and giving the parents a moment to breathe. 

That, in essence, is the future: not bigger or louder, but more aware. The challenge lies in scaling that feeling, maintaining consistency without becoming robotic. He believes the answer is creating space within the structure. You need systems for reliability, but you need a culture that trusts intuition over a script. Technology can provide data, but it cannot feel the energy of a room or sense a guest’s mood. At its core, hospitality remains deeply human.

Now serving as a Hospitality Advisor for BALFIN Group, Eadas Hoxhallari operates at the intersection of strategy and soul. With a Master’s from EU Business School Geneva, his academic foundation is sharp, but his real authority comes from the floor. He knows that the industry’s biggest question is no longer how to make hotels more luxurious; we’ve already reached that peak. The real challenge is simpler: how do you make someone feel something? Long after the decor fades, that feeling is what remains. The leaders who understand that are the ones who will define what hospitality becomes next.

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