Thought Leaders
AI Québec
ANNE-MARIE HUBERT
EAST MARKET LEADER, EY CANADA
Québec is renowned for its vibrant artificial intelligence (AI) innovation ecosystem for three primary reasons: a phenomenal talent pool, collaborative partnerships and a strong commitment to building ethics into design. In fact, the region is home to the Montreal Declaration for a Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence, which is globally...
INNOVATE® Minnesota
Peter Frosch
CEO - Greater MSP
Entrepreneurship and innovation aren’t new to Minnesota. They’re the source of our current economic success and the key to even greater future prosperity, equity and growth. We have the potential to be the problem-solving capital of the new economy and the GREATER MSP Partnership is working to make that vision...
INNOVATE™ Bristol & Bath
Sandeep Roy
Advisor & Mentor - Innovate2Grow
The current pace of new technology-led change has left classic economy companies vulnerable, but disruption is also a huge borderless opportunity in a world where ultrafast digital connectivity and the information superhighway has democratized innovation. We have a choice. We can view Airbnb as strangling the hotel industry or see...
INNOVATE® Georgia
BRIAN ALBERTSON, PRESIDENT AND PHILLIP LEE, VICE-PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS
ISACA ATLANTA CHAPTER
Developing innovation is a dynamic and ongoing process essential for advancing human knowledge, solving critical problems, and driving progress across domains. It requires creativity, strategic thinking, and effective execution to transform new ideas into tangible benefits. Innovation creates opportunities, fuels growth, and drives development across diverse fields, passing the torch...
INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports
JESSICA MEDEIROS & SUZANNE DUNCAN
FEMME GAMING
As women representing a mosaic of cultural diversity in the esports and the traditional sport industry, both Jessica Medeiros & Suzanne Duncan are no strangers to the heavy lifts asked of female leadership at executive tables in the gaming space. As the founders of Femme Gaming, we are both passionate...
INNOVATE™ Alberta
LING Y. HUANG
PRESIDENT & CEO, TECHNOLOGY NORTH CORPORATION
Innovation is taking two things that already exist and putting them together in a new way.” — Tom Freston The term ‘innovation’ often evokes visions of rockets bound for Mars, self-driving cars, or the alluring promise of fusion energy. Yet to me, innovation is as crucial in our daily lives...
INNOVATE® Kansas City
JESSICA POWELL
OWNER OF SOCIAL BALANCES
I’ve always believed that the most successful people—whether founders, investors, or community leaders—aren’t the ones who know the most or have the most. They’re the ones who give first. They show up, offer help, make introductions, and invest in others long before expecting anything in return. And over time, the...
INNOVATE™ Stockholm
JENNY RINGSÖ
FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR, I AM YOUR SISTER (IAYS)
THE LIFESTYLE OF NOT GIVING UP Entrepreneurship isn’t a job, it’s a lifestyle. A way of living built on persistence, humility, and the willingness to reinvent yourself again and again. When you decide to follow an idea, you don’t just commit to a vision. You commit to setbacks, uncertainty, and...
INNOVATE™ South Africa
KEET VAN ZYL
CO-FOUNDER, KNIFE CAPITAL
Adversity is a pressure cooker that fosters innovation. This is a philosophy that was entrenched in my formative years. Having had some heavy, life questioning challenges thrown my way very early, I had to adapt and adjust, and this learning has set me in good stead. It’s also given me...
INNOVATION Quebec
RICHARD CHÉNIER
CENTECH CEO
The next decade will offer several strategic opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation, particularly technological. Several scientific advances, once considered fundamental, are now transiting at lightning speed to real applications. These new applications must act as a catalyst for concrete solutions to meet our climate challenges and improve the quality of...
INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1
GARY CONKRIGHT
CO-FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO
A visionary serial entrepreneur, physIQ co-founder, Chairman and CEO Gary Conkright has a passion for taking game-changing technology from the laboratory to the commercial marketplace to solve important problems. A University of Chicago MBA and Purdue Aeronautical Engineer, Gary previously served as the founding CEO and Chairman of SmartSignal (acquired...
INNOVATE® Tampa Bay Vol.3
Greg Ross Munro
Founder And Chief Executive Officer - Sourcetoad
Greg Ross-Munro, Founder And Chief Executive Officer – Sourcetoad That’s when one of the marketing managers from a completely different office walked over to chat with the IT director. She had an idea for integrating marketing data from the CMS into the shipboard signage system that was running on...
INNOVATE® Austin Volume 2
Joshua Baer
Founder - Capital Factory
Joshua Baer is the founder of Capital Factory, a coworking community and mentorship-based accelerator designed to help startups find their first investors, customers, and employees. Joshua founded his first startup in 1996 in his college dormitory at Carnegie Mellon University and now teaches a class at the University of Texas...
INNOVATE™ South Africa
IAN MERRINGTON
CEO, THE CAPE INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE (CITI) AND THE BANDWIDTH BARN
Covid 19 has had a particularly harsh impact on the region’s most vulnerable citizens. Access to vaccines and the ability to deliver these to individuals faces infrastructural and logistical constraints in less developed countries. As the global economy adopted the digital value chain at an exponential pace during lockdown, many...
INNOVATION Quebec
ISABELLE CAYER
DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH IN DIGITAL INTELLIGENCE
By 2030 , Quebec will witness the emergence of a tidal wave of new skills and therefore new companies in digital intelligence. Technical, professional and scientific profiles will be revisited, merged, transmuted into workforce profiles combining creative genius and advanced techniques that more effectively integrate the benefits of research. The...
INNOVATE® Georgia
JEFF UPHUES
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AT DC BLOX INC.
My journey in the technology and data center industry has been shaped by a relentless commitment to tenacity, teamwork, and trust. At DC BLOX, these principles are the driving force behind our approach to the industry. Tenacity has been the cornerstone of our success at DC BLOX. We started as...
INNOVATE® Orlando
Clayton Louis Ferrara
Biologist and Executive Director of IDEAS For Us
The 21st Century is destined to be a watershed moment in human history. Our lack of timely action to thwart Global Warming will push us to the paramount of our human ingenuity. Will we rise to the challenge and preserve our institutions, global markets, and industries as we know them?...
INNOVATE® Phoenix
Adham Ghazali
CEO and Co-Founder - Imagry
Introduction With offices in both the U.S. and Israel, Imagry is an autonomous vehicle platform developer that is dedicated to pioneering the future of this technology. By pushing the limits of artificial intelligence and computer vision, Imagry’s mapless autonomous driving platform eliminates the need for the time-consuming HD mapping process....
INNOVATE® Orlando
David Brim
Marketing Strategist, Entrepreneur, Investor & Founder - Orlando Entrepreneurs
David Brim is a marketing strategist, entrepreneur and investor living in Orlando, Florida. He is a founding partner of Orlando Opportunity Fund (OrlandoOpportunityFund.com), and the founder of Orlando Entrepreneurs (OrlandoEntrepreneurs.org), a network, podcast, and resource center created to connect, cultivate & celebrate Central Florida entrepreneurs. His primary professional focus areas...
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® Nashville
KEVIN JONES
CEO, CELERO
Historically, electronic payments solutions have been delivered by most banks as a secondary offering – often living in the bowels of the bank’s basements or tucked away into treasury as a secondary offering. Frankly, the early evolution of the payments landscape caused such posturing. Electronic payments and deposits were miniscule...
INNOVATE™ Ottawa
Gérard Métrailler
Executive Vice President Of Global Products - Corel Corporation
WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF USER-FOCUSED SOFTWARE Gérard Métrailler has made Ottawa his home since moving from Europe in 2006. Today he is Corel Corporation’s Executive Vice President of Global Products, where he is responsible for developing and maintaining worldwide product strategy, management, and marketing across major software brands such...
INNOVATE® Detroit
TINA KOZAK
CEO - FRANCO
It’s an amazing time to be a Detroiter. Yes, the city has its fair share of challenges, but its reputation is on the rise. As noted in a recent PR News article about Detroit’s renaissance, “Behind every rehabbed reputation lies really hard work, dedicated individuals and, of course, some strategic...
INNOVATE® Austin Volume 2
Darin Brannan
CEO & Co-Founder
When Darin Brannan co-founded hyper-growth startup ClearDATA in 2011, his mission was clear. He wanted to form a company that would make healthcare better, every single day. His vision to drive the mission was to modernize and protect Healthcare IT by building a state-of-the-art healthcare software platform and services to...
ANNE-MARIE HUBERT
EAST MARKET LEADER, EY CANADA
Québec is renowned for its vibrant artificial intelligence (AI) innovation ecosystem for three primary reasons: a phenomenal talent pool, collaborative partnerships and a strong commitment to building ethics into design. In fact, the region is home to the Montreal Declaration for a Responsible Development of Artificial Intelligence, which is globally...
Peter Frosch
CEO - Greater MSP
Entrepreneurship and innovation aren’t new to Minnesota. They’re the source of our current economic success and the key to even greater future prosperity, equity and growth. We have the potential to be the problem-solving capital of the new economy and the GREATER MSP Partnership is working to make that vision...
Sandeep Roy
Advisor & Mentor - Innovate2Grow
The current pace of new technology-led change has left classic economy companies vulnerable, but disruption is also a huge borderless opportunity in a world where ultrafast digital connectivity and the information superhighway has democratized innovation. We have a choice. We can view Airbnb as strangling the hotel industry or see...
BRIAN ALBERTSON, PRESIDENT AND PHILLIP LEE, VICE-PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS
ISACA ATLANTA CHAPTER
Developing innovation is a dynamic and ongoing process essential for advancing human knowledge, solving critical problems, and driving progress across domains. It requires creativity, strategic thinking, and effective execution to transform new ideas into tangible benefits. Innovation creates opportunities, fuels growth, and drives development across diverse fields, passing the torch...
JESSICA MEDEIROS & SUZANNE DUNCAN
FEMME GAMING
As women representing a mosaic of cultural diversity in the esports and the traditional sport industry, both Jessica Medeiros & Suzanne Duncan are no strangers to the heavy lifts asked of female leadership at executive tables in the gaming space. As the founders of Femme Gaming, we are both passionate...
LING Y. HUANG
PRESIDENT & CEO, TECHNOLOGY NORTH CORPORATION
Innovation is taking two things that already exist and putting them together in a new way.” — Tom Freston The term ‘innovation’ often evokes visions of rockets bound for Mars, self-driving cars, or the alluring promise of fusion energy. Yet to me, innovation is as crucial in our daily lives...
JESSICA POWELL
OWNER OF SOCIAL BALANCES
I’ve always believed that the most successful people—whether founders, investors, or community leaders—aren’t the ones who know the most or have the most. They’re the ones who give first. They show up, offer help, make introductions, and invest in others long before expecting anything in return. And over time, the...
JENNY RINGSÖ
FOUNDER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR, I AM YOUR SISTER (IAYS)
THE LIFESTYLE OF NOT GIVING UP Entrepreneurship isn’t a job, it’s a lifestyle. A way of living built on persistence, humility, and the willingness to reinvent yourself again and again. When you decide to follow an idea, you don’t just commit to a vision. You commit to setbacks, uncertainty, and...
KEET VAN ZYL
CO-FOUNDER, KNIFE CAPITAL
Adversity is a pressure cooker that fosters innovation. This is a philosophy that was entrenched in my formative years. Having had some heavy, life questioning challenges thrown my way very early, I had to adapt and adjust, and this learning has set me in good stead. It’s also given me...
RICHARD CHÉNIER
CENTECH CEO
The next decade will offer several strategic opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation, particularly technological. Several scientific advances, once considered fundamental, are now transiting at lightning speed to real applications. These new applications must act as a catalyst for concrete solutions to meet our climate challenges and improve the quality of...
GARY CONKRIGHT
CO-FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO
A visionary serial entrepreneur, physIQ co-founder, Chairman and CEO Gary Conkright has a passion for taking game-changing technology from the laboratory to the commercial marketplace to solve important problems. A University of Chicago MBA and Purdue Aeronautical Engineer, Gary previously served as the founding CEO and Chairman of SmartSignal (acquired...
Greg Ross Munro
Founder And Chief Executive Officer - Sourcetoad
Greg Ross-Munro, Founder And Chief Executive Officer – Sourcetoad That’s when one of the marketing managers from a completely different office walked over to chat with the IT director. She had an idea for integrating marketing data from the CMS into the shipboard signage system that was running on...
Joshua Baer
Founder - Capital Factory
Joshua Baer is the founder of Capital Factory, a coworking community and mentorship-based accelerator designed to help startups find their first investors, customers, and employees. Joshua founded his first startup in 1996 in his college dormitory at Carnegie Mellon University and now teaches a class at the University of Texas...
IAN MERRINGTON
CEO, THE CAPE INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE (CITI) AND THE BANDWIDTH BARN
Covid 19 has had a particularly harsh impact on the region’s most vulnerable citizens. Access to vaccines and the ability to deliver these to individuals faces infrastructural and logistical constraints in less developed countries. As the global economy adopted the digital value chain at an exponential pace during lockdown, many...
ISABELLE CAYER
DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENT AND RESEARCH IN DIGITAL INTELLIGENCE
By 2030 , Quebec will witness the emergence of a tidal wave of new skills and therefore new companies in digital intelligence. Technical, professional and scientific profiles will be revisited, merged, transmuted into workforce profiles combining creative genius and advanced techniques that more effectively integrate the benefits of research. The...
JEFF UPHUES
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AT DC BLOX INC.
My journey in the technology and data center industry has been shaped by a relentless commitment to tenacity, teamwork, and trust. At DC BLOX, these principles are the driving force behind our approach to the industry. Tenacity has been the cornerstone of our success at DC BLOX. We started as...
Clayton Louis Ferrara
Biologist and Executive Director of IDEAS For Us
The 21st Century is destined to be a watershed moment in human history. Our lack of timely action to thwart Global Warming will push us to the paramount of our human ingenuity. Will we rise to the challenge and preserve our institutions, global markets, and industries as we know them?...
Adham Ghazali
CEO and Co-Founder - Imagry
Introduction With offices in both the U.S. and Israel, Imagry is an autonomous vehicle platform developer that is dedicated to pioneering the future of this technology. By pushing the limits of artificial intelligence and computer vision, Imagry’s mapless autonomous driving platform eliminates the need for the time-consuming HD mapping process....
David Brim
Marketing Strategist, Entrepreneur, Investor & Founder - Orlando Entrepreneurs
David Brim is a marketing strategist, entrepreneur and investor living in Orlando, Florida. He is a founding partner of Orlando Opportunity Fund (OrlandoOpportunityFund.com), and the founder of Orlando Entrepreneurs (OrlandoEntrepreneurs.org), a network, podcast, and resource center created to connect, cultivate & celebrate Central Florida entrepreneurs. His primary professional focus areas...
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...
KEVIN JONES
CEO, CELERO
Historically, electronic payments solutions have been delivered by most banks as a secondary offering – often living in the bowels of the bank’s basements or tucked away into treasury as a secondary offering. Frankly, the early evolution of the payments landscape caused such posturing. Electronic payments and deposits were miniscule...
Gérard Métrailler
Executive Vice President Of Global Products - Corel Corporation
WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF USER-FOCUSED SOFTWARE Gérard Métrailler has made Ottawa his home since moving from Europe in 2006. Today he is Corel Corporation’s Executive Vice President of Global Products, where he is responsible for developing and maintaining worldwide product strategy, management, and marketing across major software brands such...
TINA KOZAK
CEO - FRANCO
It’s an amazing time to be a Detroiter. Yes, the city has its fair share of challenges, but its reputation is on the rise. As noted in a recent PR News article about Detroit’s renaissance, “Behind every rehabbed reputation lies really hard work, dedicated individuals and, of course, some strategic...
Darin Brannan
CEO & Co-Founder
When Darin Brannan co-founded hyper-growth startup ClearDATA in 2011, his mission was clear. He wanted to form a company that would make healthcare better, every single day. His vision to drive the mission was to modernize and protect Healthcare IT by building a state-of-the-art healthcare software platform and services to...