Meet CTO of the Year: Tomas Smalakys from Nord Security

Tomas Smalakys was chosen as the Lithuanian CTO of the Year / Photo credit Julius Kalinskas

  For the third year in a row, the Lithuanian CTO of the Year election jury announced the best Lithuanian CTO. This year the winner is Tomas Smalakys, Chief Technology Officer of Nord Security, a Vilnius-based cyber security solution company.   “Tomas Smalakys’ achievements in both Lithuanian and global contexts convinced the jury that his professional and leadership skills are worthy of the title of Lithuania’s best technology officer. The winner’s achievements have once again shown that we have areas where Lithuania has significantly outgrown both national and even regional standards. It is especially pleasing that technological progress and professionalism of technology managers is one of those areas,” says Mindaugas Rauba, Director of Technology at Bitė Lietuva and Chairman of the Lithuanian CTO of the Year jury.   “This award proves that we are on the right track with both the company and the team. I believe that having a strong team is very important, so I would like to congratulate and thank my own team, with whom we have been working for many years and whom I trust wholeheartedly. I won’t lie, becoming Lithuanian CTO of the Year raises the bar for me to continue learning and innovating, but at the same time it raises the bar for future generations or even next year’s participants”, says the winner of the Lithuanian CTO of the Year T. Smalakys.

  Chief Technology Officer of Nord Security won the election for NordPass, one of the first password managers developed together with his team. The NordPass team, led by T. Smalakys, has also joined the FIDO Alliance, where they are working together with other industry giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Apple to change the future of authentication.   Together with the winner, the top five Lithuanian technology managers were Žydrūnas Tamašauskas, Head of Technology at Oxylabs, a company providing public data collection solutions for business, Eimantas Norkūnas, Head of the Management Department at the Chancellery of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, Mantas Čižauskas, Head of Technology at the Teltonika Networks technology company, and Vaidas Paulauskis, Head of IT at the SBA Group.   “During the elections, we had the opportunity to meet many talented and genuine professionals and their large-scale projects. We are very pleased to have received a wide range of applications – from world-class IT projects to tangible technology and objects. This only proves that Lithuanian companies can compete with global ones,” adds M. Rauba. This year’s election jury consisted of Mindaugas Rauba, Director of Technology at Bitė Lietuva, Dalius Misiūnas, Rector of the ISM University of Management and Economics, Žydrūnė Vitaitė, Head of Sales at Eldes and co-founder of Women Go Tech, Liucija Zubrutė, Deputy Editor-in-Chief at vz.lt news portal, Eglė Radvilė, head of the Lithuanian IT Managers Club, Jonė Vaitulevičiūtė, managing partner of Firstpick, a fund that invests in technology start-ups, and Ernestas Kalabuckas, CTO of NanoAvionics, Lithuania’s first aerospace technology company, and the winner of the 2022 Lithuanian CTO of the Year.