Thought Leaders
INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports
RICHARD BUTLER
FOUNDER, RAGE WORKS
There is truly no one size fits all approach when it comes to podcasting and running a business, especially in New York City. However, this flexibility has allowed me to remain passionate about podcasting and do what I can to help the space grow and thrive, either by adding my...
INNOVATE® Utah
Carine Strom Clark
Saas CEO - Public Board Member, Silicon Slopes & Strategic Alliances
Thirty years ago when I started my career at Novell, I never imagined that someday Utah would benefit from a vibrant and amazing technology community, dubbed Silicon Slopes. Back then, technology was a small ecosystem in which super-nerdy coders and geeks – like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael...
INNOVATE® Orlando
Rob Panepinto, Founder and CEO, Rally and EIA Social Enterprise Fund; President
Florentine Strategies
Rob Panepinto is an innovator who has always challenged the status quo of “good enough.” He is President of Florentine Strategies, CEO of Entrepreneurs in Action, and he recently joined UCF’s Partnership and Innovation team, serving as a Senior Strategic Advisor and Director of the Downtown Innovation District. Rob is...
INNOVATE® St. Louis
Judy Sindecuse
CEO and Managing Partner - Capital Innovators
The future of the St. Louis entrepreneurial ecosystem will be deeper levels of corporate and startup engagement through structured programs. Corporates struggle to innovate and they must look to startups to assist them with this process. Startups have the ability to be nimble and adapt to new technological trends that...
INNOVATION Quebec
RÉMI QUIRION
SCIENTIFIQUE EN CHEF DU QUÉBEC
RÉMI QUIRION, SCIENTIFIQUE EN CHEF DU QUÉBEC, LUC SIROIS, INNOVATEUR EN CHEF DU QUÉBEC, SYLVIE PINSONNAULT, PREMIÈRE VICE-PRÉSIDENTE, STRATÉGIES, INNOVATION ET DÉVELOPPEMENT DURABLE. At the opening of the Sommet des accélérateurs, organized by the Mouvement des accélérateurs d’innovation du Québec, Rémi Quirion, Quebec’s Chief Scientist, Luc Sirois, Quebec’s Chief Innovator,...
INNOVATE® New Jersey Vol.2
C. PARKHILL MAYS III
CEO, STOPIT SOLUTIONS
I was born and raised in Central Florida and grew up with loving and caring parents to whom I attribute much of my success in life. After a good education at a small liberal arts university in western Virginia, I spent my first few years of adulthood working as an...
INNOVATE® Georgia
RAMTIN MOTAHAR
JOULEA - FOUNDER
The built environment is responsible for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions, yet it often goes unnoticed in discussions about energy consumption. While people tend to focus on transportation or industrial sectors (with 20% and 25% global carbon emissions, respectively), buildings quietly consume vast amounts of energy, day and night,...
INNOVATE™ Ottawa
Jim Stackhouse
Founder & CEO - Neolore Networks Inc.
AN EXERCISE IN INNOVATION AND DEMONSTRATING VALUE. The digital landscape of IT Support is forever changing. Just five years ago, the ways IT Managed Service Providers (MSPs) supported their clients is totally different than today. As more companies turn to MSPs for outsourced IT Support and Cloud services, the value...
INNOVATION Quebec
PIERRE FITZGIBBON
MINISTER OF ECONOMY, INNOVATION AND ENERGY, MINISTER RESPONSIBLE FOR REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT,AND MINISTER RESPONSIBLE FOR THE METROPOLIS AND THE MONTRÉAL REGION
By launching the 2022-2027 Québec Research and Innovation Investment Strategy (QRIIS2) and creating the role of chief innovator, our government has committed to putting innovation front and centre in Québec’s economic development in the coming years. More than ever, we want to support all those who have the desire to...
INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2
WOUTER BLEUKX
HYDROGEN ACTIVITIES, INEOS
Young people are concerned about the impact of climate change. I think it is our job to address their concerns about the future. This is the reason why I took the job in INEOS’ hydrogen activities. It’s important that we can tell our children that the industrial sector is leading...
INNOVATE™ South Africa
CHRIS BOTHA
GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR, PARK ADVERTISING
Is it possible to put a price on innovation? Not really. I mean, how do you put a price on something that is in essence non-tangible? And how do we know what the real value of innovation is? It is sadly something that is all too often underappreciated because innovation...
INNOVATE® Austin Volume 2
Gillan Taddune
Banyan Water, President & CEO
Gillan Taddune is the Chief Executive Officer of Banyan Water. She believes that technology solutions are the most effective way to address critical natural resource issues and has dedicated her career to realizing that vision. Gillan came to Banyan with the belief that water scarcity is a growing global concern...
INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2
Kris Bogaerts
Co-Founder & Engineer, Cellows
As long as I can remember, I have always wondered how things work and how I could improve them. At ten years old, I came up with an electrical motor with magnets, only to discover a few years later that the damn thing already existed! This made me realize that...
INNOVATE™ Oeiras
DR. FRANCISCO PINTO BALSEMÃO
FOUNDER OF IMPRESA
If we go back in History the invention of the wheel was a tremendous innovation. If we think about the future the spaceship that will transport human beings to a planet outside of the solar system will be a new unbelievable innovation. There are of course innovations of a smaller...
INNOVATION Quebec
CHRISTIAN AGBOBLI
VICE-RECTEUR À LA RECHERCHE, À LA CRÉATION ET À LA DIFFUSION
Cette reconnaissance du caractère distinctif du Québec dans différents domaines est le fruit d’un intense labeur qui réunit notamment la recherche universitaire et l’innovation. Fers de lance de l’innovation, les universités ont apporté « une action d’innover » à travers leurs structures de recherche d’envergure. L’innovation est un processus, une...
INNOVATE™ South Africa
MPUME NGOBESE
CO-MANAGING DIRECTOR, JOE PUBLIC JOHANNESBURG
With digital media usage higher than ever, more than 38 million people in South Africa are active on the internet, and 27-million consume social media content by liking, sharing, posting and commenting on everything from politics and the pandemic, to funnies and pictures of ‘fur babies’. Consumers have so many...
VOICES of the Future
ERIK ANDERSON
BLUEPRINT FOR A COMPASSIONATE FUTURE
Innovation, purpose, and sustainability intertwine to sketch the silhouette of tomorrow. Erik Anderson – a distinguished entrepreneur and executive renowned for his leadership across various sectors – stands at the vanguard, a guiding light illuminating the path to a future replete with promise and potential. His story of purpose-driven leadership...
INNOVATE® Tampa Bay Vol.3
MARLENE SPALTEN
PRESIDENT & CEO OF THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF TAMPA BAY
The COVID-19 pandemic affirmed what I’ve long believed: Crisis brings out the best in those who truly care about their community – and philanthropy is the place to turn both for immediate help and long-term resiliency. Philanthropy creates hope for those in need, and it creates a stronger connection between...
INNOVATE® San Antonio
CHARLES WOODIN
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, GEEKDOM
I forgot about my dream of being part of a city and space my children would one day want to call home. When I learned about Graham Weston’s vision for founding Geekdom, those dreams came flooding back to me. Graham’s overall vision for revitalizing downtown San Antonio was to build...
INNOVATE® Blockchain
SHAMSH HADI
CEO, ZORROSIGN, INC
Data democratization is an approach to information technology (IT) whereby everyone has access to data, and data systems have few—or no—gatekeepers to that data. Such aspiration goes beyond breaking data free from IT departments, organizational silos, and institutional borders, to even across governments and states. The origins of Bitcoin, for...
INNOVATE™ Flanders
CARINE CHISU
According to the World Economic Forum 70% of people will have to reskill and upskill to maintain or develop their employability in future years. In my opinion ‘employability’ is the translation of the concept of innovation on an individual level, that will lead to innovation with a capital I, on...
INNOVATE™ Stockholm
JENS DOLK
CEO, AN INNOVATOR OF THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY, K-MÄRKT AB
I’ve never been afraid of weird ideas. In fact, that’s kind of the point with K-märkt. When we started, we didn’t just want to run a great restaurant – we wanted to challenge the entire way restaurants operate. Why? Because if we’re going to make food more sustainable, we can’t...
INNOVATE® Georgia
DR. HANK CAPPS
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF INFORMATION AND DIGITAL OFFICER AT WELLSTAR HEALTH SYSTEM, PRESIDENT AT CATALYST BY WELLSTAR
Healthcare is personal. We are all one diagnosis away from being a patient. To a doctor, the relationship with a patient is one of the most sacred connections. To the patient, it is almost always a moment of anxiety and fear. As a family doctor, I’ve seen this moment of...
INNOVATE® Nashville
AAMIR PAUL
PRESIDENT OF NORTH AMERICA OPERATIONS, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC
The next industrial revolution is here, but it’s not about steam, mechanization, or electronics. It’s about software, data, and interconnected, electrified systems. It’s going to force us to rethink everything we know about manufacturing and about humans’ role in it. Schneider Electric has operated in the United States for 135...
RICHARD BUTLER
FOUNDER, RAGE WORKS
There is truly no one size fits all approach when it comes to podcasting and running a business, especially in New York City. However, this flexibility has allowed me to remain passionate about podcasting and do what I can to help the space grow and thrive, either by adding my...
Carine Strom Clark
Saas CEO - Public Board Member, Silicon Slopes & Strategic Alliances
Thirty years ago when I started my career at Novell, I never imagined that someday Utah would benefit from a vibrant and amazing technology community, dubbed Silicon Slopes. Back then, technology was a small ecosystem in which super-nerdy coders and geeks – like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Michael...
Rob Panepinto, Founder and CEO, Rally and EIA Social Enterprise Fund; President
Florentine Strategies
Rob Panepinto is an innovator who has always challenged the status quo of “good enough.” He is President of Florentine Strategies, CEO of Entrepreneurs in Action, and he recently joined UCF’s Partnership and Innovation team, serving as a Senior Strategic Advisor and Director of the Downtown Innovation District. Rob is...
Judy Sindecuse
CEO and Managing Partner - Capital Innovators
The future of the St. Louis entrepreneurial ecosystem will be deeper levels of corporate and startup engagement through structured programs. Corporates struggle to innovate and they must look to startups to assist them with this process. Startups have the ability to be nimble and adapt to new technological trends that...
RÉMI QUIRION
SCIENTIFIQUE EN CHEF DU QUÉBEC
RÉMI QUIRION, SCIENTIFIQUE EN CHEF DU QUÉBEC, LUC SIROIS, INNOVATEUR EN CHEF DU QUÉBEC, SYLVIE PINSONNAULT, PREMIÈRE VICE-PRÉSIDENTE, STRATÉGIES, INNOVATION ET DÉVELOPPEMENT DURABLE. At the opening of the Sommet des accélérateurs, organized by the Mouvement des accélérateurs d’innovation du Québec, Rémi Quirion, Quebec’s Chief Scientist, Luc Sirois, Quebec’s Chief Innovator,...
C. PARKHILL MAYS III
CEO, STOPIT SOLUTIONS
I was born and raised in Central Florida and grew up with loving and caring parents to whom I attribute much of my success in life. After a good education at a small liberal arts university in western Virginia, I spent my first few years of adulthood working as an...
RAMTIN MOTAHAR
JOULEA - FOUNDER
The built environment is responsible for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions, yet it often goes unnoticed in discussions about energy consumption. While people tend to focus on transportation or industrial sectors (with 20% and 25% global carbon emissions, respectively), buildings quietly consume vast amounts of energy, day and night,...
Jim Stackhouse
Founder & CEO - Neolore Networks Inc.
AN EXERCISE IN INNOVATION AND DEMONSTRATING VALUE. The digital landscape of IT Support is forever changing. Just five years ago, the ways IT Managed Service Providers (MSPs) supported their clients is totally different than today. As more companies turn to MSPs for outsourced IT Support and Cloud services, the value...
PIERRE FITZGIBBON
MINISTER OF ECONOMY, INNOVATION AND ENERGY, MINISTER RESPONSIBLE FOR REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT,AND MINISTER RESPONSIBLE FOR THE METROPOLIS AND THE MONTRÉAL REGION
By launching the 2022-2027 Québec Research and Innovation Investment Strategy (QRIIS2) and creating the role of chief innovator, our government has committed to putting innovation front and centre in Québec’s economic development in the coming years. More than ever, we want to support all those who have the desire to...
WOUTER BLEUKX
HYDROGEN ACTIVITIES, INEOS
Young people are concerned about the impact of climate change. I think it is our job to address their concerns about the future. This is the reason why I took the job in INEOS’ hydrogen activities. It’s important that we can tell our children that the industrial sector is leading...
CHRIS BOTHA
GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR, PARK ADVERTISING
Is it possible to put a price on innovation? Not really. I mean, how do you put a price on something that is in essence non-tangible? And how do we know what the real value of innovation is? It is sadly something that is all too often underappreciated because innovation...
Gillan Taddune
Banyan Water, President & CEO
Gillan Taddune is the Chief Executive Officer of Banyan Water. She believes that technology solutions are the most effective way to address critical natural resource issues and has dedicated her career to realizing that vision. Gillan came to Banyan with the belief that water scarcity is a growing global concern...
Kris Bogaerts
Co-Founder & Engineer, Cellows
As long as I can remember, I have always wondered how things work and how I could improve them. At ten years old, I came up with an electrical motor with magnets, only to discover a few years later that the damn thing already existed! This made me realize that...
DR. FRANCISCO PINTO BALSEMÃO
FOUNDER OF IMPRESA
If we go back in History the invention of the wheel was a tremendous innovation. If we think about the future the spaceship that will transport human beings to a planet outside of the solar system will be a new unbelievable innovation. There are of course innovations of a smaller...
CHRISTIAN AGBOBLI
VICE-RECTEUR À LA RECHERCHE, À LA CRÉATION ET À LA DIFFUSION
Cette reconnaissance du caractère distinctif du Québec dans différents domaines est le fruit d’un intense labeur qui réunit notamment la recherche universitaire et l’innovation. Fers de lance de l’innovation, les universités ont apporté « une action d’innover » à travers leurs structures de recherche d’envergure. L’innovation est un processus, une...
MPUME NGOBESE
CO-MANAGING DIRECTOR, JOE PUBLIC JOHANNESBURG
With digital media usage higher than ever, more than 38 million people in South Africa are active on the internet, and 27-million consume social media content by liking, sharing, posting and commenting on everything from politics and the pandemic, to funnies and pictures of ‘fur babies’. Consumers have so many...
ERIK ANDERSON
BLUEPRINT FOR A COMPASSIONATE FUTURE
Innovation, purpose, and sustainability intertwine to sketch the silhouette of tomorrow. Erik Anderson – a distinguished entrepreneur and executive renowned for his leadership across various sectors – stands at the vanguard, a guiding light illuminating the path to a future replete with promise and potential. His story of purpose-driven leadership...
MARLENE SPALTEN
PRESIDENT & CEO OF THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF TAMPA BAY
The COVID-19 pandemic affirmed what I’ve long believed: Crisis brings out the best in those who truly care about their community – and philanthropy is the place to turn both for immediate help and long-term resiliency. Philanthropy creates hope for those in need, and it creates a stronger connection between...
CHARLES WOODIN
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, GEEKDOM
I forgot about my dream of being part of a city and space my children would one day want to call home. When I learned about Graham Weston’s vision for founding Geekdom, those dreams came flooding back to me. Graham’s overall vision for revitalizing downtown San Antonio was to build...
SHAMSH HADI
CEO, ZORROSIGN, INC
Data democratization is an approach to information technology (IT) whereby everyone has access to data, and data systems have few—or no—gatekeepers to that data. Such aspiration goes beyond breaking data free from IT departments, organizational silos, and institutional borders, to even across governments and states. The origins of Bitcoin, for...
CARINE CHISU
According to the World Economic Forum 70% of people will have to reskill and upskill to maintain or develop their employability in future years. In my opinion ‘employability’ is the translation of the concept of innovation on an individual level, that will lead to innovation with a capital I, on...
JENS DOLK
CEO, AN INNOVATOR OF THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY, K-MÄRKT AB
I’ve never been afraid of weird ideas. In fact, that’s kind of the point with K-märkt. When we started, we didn’t just want to run a great restaurant – we wanted to challenge the entire way restaurants operate. Why? Because if we’re going to make food more sustainable, we can’t...
DR. HANK CAPPS
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF INFORMATION AND DIGITAL OFFICER AT WELLSTAR HEALTH SYSTEM, PRESIDENT AT CATALYST BY WELLSTAR
Healthcare is personal. We are all one diagnosis away from being a patient. To a doctor, the relationship with a patient is one of the most sacred connections. To the patient, it is almost always a moment of anxiety and fear. As a family doctor, I’ve seen this moment of...
AAMIR PAUL
PRESIDENT OF NORTH AMERICA OPERATIONS, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC
The next industrial revolution is here, but it’s not about steam, mechanization, or electronics. It’s about software, data, and interconnected, electrified systems. It’s going to force us to rethink everything we know about manufacturing and about humans’ role in it. Schneider Electric has operated in the United States for 135...