From Leading for the People, Accelerating with the Digital – Opening Keynote at the SCIC-13 2025 edition · · Smart-EDU Hub @ SNSPA
“The palace of parliament ... to me at least the most representative building for public administration and governance and government worldwide — there is no other administrative building bigger than this one.”
On , Sal Companieh, Chief Digital & Information Officer at CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD, spoke about public administration during Leading for the People, Accelerating with the Digital – Opening Keynote at the SCIC-13 2025 edition on Smart-EDU Hub @ SNSPA.
Sal Companieh, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Cushman & Wakefield, delivered the opening keynote at the 13th Smart Cities International Conference & CEE eGov Days in Bucharest in December 2025. She stated that the conference had shifted its focus from technology alone to people, smart citizens, smart leadership, and smart management, which she described as the right path for success. Companieh noted that artificial intelligence has become an "invisible operating system of our society" and said it needs to be implemented in the future of cities. She also remarked that the conference was being held in the Palace of the Parliament, which she called the most representative building for public administration and governance worldwide. In earlier appearances, Companieh discussed her work at Cushman & Wakefield, including efforts to reduce "time to insight" by aggregating proprietary data, external data, and unstructured research reports, with the goal of enabling voice-activated conversations for brokers and clients. She described the creation of business information officer roles to align technology teams with service lines and the addition of a chief data officer to develop data products. Companieh emphasized the importance of diversity of thought, saying it leads to improved outcomes, and encouraged leaders to reflect on whether they are "the someone" who can take action rather than expecting others to do so.