Thought Leaders

AI Québec

YOSHUA BENGIO

YOSHUA BENGIO

FULL PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH AT UNIVERSITÉ

My first passion will always remain understanding intelligence. This includes the artificial intelligences we are currently developing, but the natural ones as well. In recent years, my thinking about artificial and human intelligence has hinged on AI for social good. How can we ensure that what we do will benefit...

INNOVATE™ Toronto

JOHN MACRITCHIE

JOHN MACRITCHIE

ASSISTANT VICE-PRESIDENT, ZONE LEARNING AND STRATEGIC INITIATIVES TORONTO METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

It might be odd to hear this from someone who leads incubation at a university, but not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur and not every startup will succeed. Our success has come as a result of embracing this experience, and how it develops students and innovators. Leveraging startup and...

INNOVATE® Milwaukee

MATTHEW PEARLSON

INTRNLS - CEO & FOUNDER

My journey has always been driven by one relentless pursuit: redefining the boundaries of sustainable energy systems. As the CEO of Intrnls Inc., I am on a mission to rewrite the playbook for carbon capture efficiency, pioneering a future where sustainability and efficiency are not just goals but standards. Starting...

INNOVATE® New Jersey Vol.2

MICHAEL ROSE

FOUNDER OF VIGNETIC, PERMEVO AND TKTKONNECT

The global talent market is a pressing concern that affects organizations and economies worldwide. According to a survey conducted by ManpowerGroup, 69% of employers reported difficulty in finding skilled workers in 2022. This shortage has been attributed to various factors, including demographic shifts, skills gaps, and the rapid pace of...

INNOVATE® Philadelphia

Howard Lubert

Area President, Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic

Area President, Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic How many times do you need to repeat an exercise before you truly become an expert?  According to Malcolm Gladwell in “Outliers: The Story of Success” it takes 10,000 hours and he points to many successful examples of how “The 10,000 Hour Rule” has paid...

INNOVATE® San Diego Vol.1

Ardy Arianpour

It is no coincidence that Seqster was born in San Diego, a city with an underdog culture where small startups transform into large enterprises that address giant markets. Perfect weather drives innovation—always sunny, 72 degrees, and 70 miles of beaches. Perhaps the combination of unique culture and weather has drawn...

INNOVATION Quebec

LAYLA NASR

CEO, MAKILA AI

En Amérique du Nord comme en Europe, la collaboration entre le milieu de la recherche scientifique et le milieu de la pratique professionnelle contribue au développement d’un savoir essentiel et bénéfique pour l’ensemble de la société. En matière de technologies et notamment en ce qui concerne l’intelligence artificielle, la diversité...

AI Québec

PROF. ANDREA LODI

PROF. ANDREA LODI

EST PROFESSEUR TITULAIRE EN OPTIMISATION MATHÉMATIQUE À POLYTECHNIQUE MONTRÉAL

À mon arrivée à Montréal en 2015, j’ai trouvé au Québec un environnement des plus stimulants, où la collaboration entre les grands établissements universitaires est non seulement encouragée, mais aussi reconnue comme un moyen de parvenir à une carrière fructueuse. Cela a sans aucun doute été un facteur déterminant dans...

INNOVATE™ Stockholm

ANDREAS GRAPE

CO-FOUNDER & CEO, NORDIC ANGELS

In a world obsessed with optimization, algorithms, and appearances, I realized that authenticity was my sharpest edge. It didn’t get me the fastest wins, but the ones it brought were real. They stuck. They mattered. When I started showing up as my true self – flawed, honest, passionate – I...

INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2

Filip Smet

Filip Smet

CEO, Road21

Five years ago I founded Lemon, an all-round software development company. In the midst of the pandemic I founded Road21, an ecosystem of 30 technology companies, with my co-founder Fabian Van Kerckhove. Lemon is now part of the ecosystem and I’ve learned to go from quantitative growth to qualitative growth....

INNOVATE™ South Africa

JOHN SANEI

JOHN SANEI INC. Building Your Personal Brand: Your Bridge To The Future

FOUNDER, JOHN SANEI INC.

I’m a futures strategist who combines human behaviour and future studies to create keynotes, masterclasses and books that help people, businesses and brands build the courage and clarity they need to forge the future they want. Driven by the real world, by humanity and ‘the now’, as a Futures Strategist...

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

DR. GREG JONES

DR. GREG JONES

PRESIDENT, BELMONT UNIVERSITY

Social innovation—the opportunity to leverage creativity and innovation to solve complex problems and help people and communities thrive—is often associated with entrepreneurs or singular individuals. Though this is true and is certainly one aspect of the formula that leads to meaningful impact, it isn’t the full story. The reality is...

INNOVATE™ Bengaluru

Sunil Padmanabh

Sunil Padmanabh; Sunil Padmanabh-Imitation Is Not Innovation - Innovations Of The World

Enterprise applications consulting, digital transformation, cloud adoption strategies and innovation

How can startups scale up? What are the key drivers of innovation? On the flip side, what are the pitfalls? For answers to these questions, we spoke to an expert in the vibrant ecosystem. Sunil Padmanabh works with startups in Bengaluru and Indian cities at various stages of growth, from founders...

INNOVATE® Washington DMV Edition

TIGE SAVAGE

MANAGING PARTNER OF REVOLUTION VENTURES AND CO-FOUNDER OF REVOLUTION

I’ve been fortunate to partner with brilliant startup leaders during my career, and it’s often the companies that require the most grit that are the most rewarding experiences. The pursuit of great challenges is also something I look for in my personal life. I recently sailed – backwards – around...

INNOVATE™ Bengaluru

Dana Kursh

Israel Partners in Innovative Progress - Innovation Hub India

Partners In Innovative Progress

Israel prides itself in being an Innovative Nation, and has long term diplomatic presence in New Delhi and Mumbai. It chose Bengaluru, with its futuristic ethos, as its third destination to reinforce its economic connection with India. “The bigger economic diplomacy is in creating the right ecosystem involving the best...

INNOVATE® Puerto Rico

CARLOS MELÉNDEZ

CARLOS MELÉNDEZ COO AND CO-FOUNDER WOVENWARE

COO AND CO-FOUNDER WOVENWARE

AI has the power to change people’s lives, so it must be trained to be unbiased and ethical. At Wovenware and across the island we have always embraced diversity. We belong to a country that is a patchwork of different cultures, yet we also hold fast to our Latin American...

INNOVATE™ Stockholm

KATARINA GOSPIC

CO-FOUNDER, EDSVÄRD

FROM STRAWBERRIES TO THE STATES One of my first memories from when I was about 4-years old is about strawberries. I used to close my eyes and imagined one, then another. This little thought experiment was something I became obsessed with. I wanted to be like Lucky Luke, faster than...

INNOVATE™ Stockholm

PHILIP VON SEGEBADEN

HEAD OF PARTNERSHIPS, NOVATRON FUSION GROUP.

Fusion energy—the process that powers the sun—has long been considered the holy grail of clean energy. Unlike traditional nuclear fission, fusion offers the promise of limitless, emission-free power without the hazardous waste. For decades, scientists have worked to make fusion commercially viable, and today, the world is closer than ever...

INNOVATIONS in Pharmaceutical Development®

Karen Roy

Karen Roy

Chief Strategic Officer - Phlexglobal

On joining Phlexglobal in 2007, and becoming immersed in the trial master file (TMF) space, I didn’t imagine that something that seemed to get so little focus (a TMF was really just a paper archive) could turn into such an innovative space. When I started, an eTMF was broadly an...

INNOVATE® Tampa Bay Vol.3

Terri Willingham

Terri Willingham

Executive Director of the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation

I think the word “innovation” is overused. Not that I don’t appreciate or value interesting ideas, but I think many things touted as innovative today are simply refurbished old ideas or mid-to-late 20th century concepts clothed in the early21st century parlance of so-called influencers. I think we need to be...

INNOVATE® Tampa Bay Vol.3

DENNIS SCHMITT

DENNIS SCHMITT

NUROTECH CORP - FOUNDER & CEO

It is hard for me to accept being a visionary leader, as it is difficult for me to reconcile where I am now, with where I was 15 years ago. I didn’t envision a future where I’m the CEO/Founder of a multi-million dollar Biotech company on the precipice to lead...

INNOVATE® Seattle

EMER DOOLEY

PHD, MBA, CREATIVE DESTRUCTION LAB (CDL), UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON.

Yet only a small fraction of these ideas, inventions, and potentially game-changing solutions ever make it off campus. Institutions likethe University of Washington have a responsibility to help more of them make it out into the world. Human health, the environment, theeconomy, and society depend on it. In this spirit,...

INNOVATE® Washington DMV Edition

VICTOR HOSKINS

PRESIDENT & CEO, FAIRFAX COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

Embracing the fast-paced technological transformation before us, we know that innovation is not just about having the brightest ideas or the most advanced technology. It is about cultivating an ecosystem where transformative ideas can flourish and where technology meets skilled hands and minds prepared to wield it. Fairfax County is...

YOSHUA BENGIO

YOSHUA BENGIO

FULL PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND OPERATIONS RESEARCH AT UNIVERSITÉ

My first passion will always remain understanding intelligence. This includes the artificial intelligences we are currently developing, but the natural ones as well. In recent years, my thinking about artificial and human intelligence has hinged on AI for social good. How can we ensure that what we do will benefit...

JOHN MACRITCHIE

JOHN MACRITCHIE

ASSISTANT VICE-PRESIDENT, ZONE LEARNING AND STRATEGIC INITIATIVES TORONTO METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

It might be odd to hear this from someone who leads incubation at a university, but not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur and not every startup will succeed. Our success has come as a result of embracing this experience, and how it develops students and innovators. Leveraging startup and...

MATTHEW PEARLSON

INTRNLS - CEO & FOUNDER

My journey has always been driven by one relentless pursuit: redefining the boundaries of sustainable energy systems. As the CEO of Intrnls Inc., I am on a mission to rewrite the playbook for carbon capture efficiency, pioneering a future where sustainability and efficiency are not just goals but standards. Starting...

MICHAEL ROSE

FOUNDER OF VIGNETIC, PERMEVO AND TKTKONNECT

The global talent market is a pressing concern that affects organizations and economies worldwide. According to a survey conducted by ManpowerGroup, 69% of employers reported difficulty in finding skilled workers in 2022. This shortage has been attributed to various factors, including demographic shifts, skills gaps, and the rapid pace of...

Howard Lubert

Area President, Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic

Area President, Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic How many times do you need to repeat an exercise before you truly become an expert?  According to Malcolm Gladwell in “Outliers: The Story of Success” it takes 10,000 hours and he points to many successful examples of how “The 10,000 Hour Rule” has paid...

Ardy Arianpour

It is no coincidence that Seqster was born in San Diego, a city with an underdog culture where small startups transform into large enterprises that address giant markets. Perfect weather drives innovation—always sunny, 72 degrees, and 70 miles of beaches. Perhaps the combination of unique culture and weather has drawn...

LAYLA NASR

CEO, MAKILA AI

En Amérique du Nord comme en Europe, la collaboration entre le milieu de la recherche scientifique et le milieu de la pratique professionnelle contribue au développement d’un savoir essentiel et bénéfique pour l’ensemble de la société. En matière de technologies et notamment en ce qui concerne l’intelligence artificielle, la diversité...

PROF. ANDREA LODI

PROF. ANDREA LODI

EST PROFESSEUR TITULAIRE EN OPTIMISATION MATHÉMATIQUE À POLYTECHNIQUE MONTRÉAL

À mon arrivée à Montréal en 2015, j’ai trouvé au Québec un environnement des plus stimulants, où la collaboration entre les grands établissements universitaires est non seulement encouragée, mais aussi reconnue comme un moyen de parvenir à une carrière fructueuse. Cela a sans aucun doute été un facteur déterminant dans...

ANDREAS GRAPE

CO-FOUNDER & CEO, NORDIC ANGELS

In a world obsessed with optimization, algorithms, and appearances, I realized that authenticity was my sharpest edge. It didn’t get me the fastest wins, but the ones it brought were real. They stuck. They mattered. When I started showing up as my true self – flawed, honest, passionate – I...

Filip Smet

Filip Smet

CEO, Road21

Five years ago I founded Lemon, an all-round software development company. In the midst of the pandemic I founded Road21, an ecosystem of 30 technology companies, with my co-founder Fabian Van Kerckhove. Lemon is now part of the ecosystem and I’ve learned to go from quantitative growth to qualitative growth....

JOHN SANEI

JOHN SANEI INC. Building Your Personal Brand: Your Bridge To The Future

FOUNDER, JOHN SANEI INC.

I’m a futures strategist who combines human behaviour and future studies to create keynotes, masterclasses and books that help people, businesses and brands build the courage and clarity they need to forge the future they want. Driven by the real world, by humanity and ‘the now’, as a Futures Strategist...

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...

DR. GREG JONES

DR. GREG JONES

PRESIDENT, BELMONT UNIVERSITY

Social innovation—the opportunity to leverage creativity and innovation to solve complex problems and help people and communities thrive—is often associated with entrepreneurs or singular individuals. Though this is true and is certainly one aspect of the formula that leads to meaningful impact, it isn’t the full story. The reality is...

Sunil Padmanabh

Sunil Padmanabh; Sunil Padmanabh-Imitation Is Not Innovation - Innovations Of The World

Enterprise applications consulting, digital transformation, cloud adoption strategies and innovation

How can startups scale up? What are the key drivers of innovation? On the flip side, what are the pitfalls? For answers to these questions, we spoke to an expert in the vibrant ecosystem. Sunil Padmanabh works with startups in Bengaluru and Indian cities at various stages of growth, from founders...

TIGE SAVAGE

MANAGING PARTNER OF REVOLUTION VENTURES AND CO-FOUNDER OF REVOLUTION

I’ve been fortunate to partner with brilliant startup leaders during my career, and it’s often the companies that require the most grit that are the most rewarding experiences. The pursuit of great challenges is also something I look for in my personal life. I recently sailed – backwards – around...

Dana Kursh

Israel Partners in Innovative Progress - Innovation Hub India

Partners In Innovative Progress

Israel prides itself in being an Innovative Nation, and has long term diplomatic presence in New Delhi and Mumbai. It chose Bengaluru, with its futuristic ethos, as its third destination to reinforce its economic connection with India. “The bigger economic diplomacy is in creating the right ecosystem involving the best...

CARLOS MELÉNDEZ

CARLOS MELÉNDEZ COO AND CO-FOUNDER WOVENWARE

COO AND CO-FOUNDER WOVENWARE

AI has the power to change people’s lives, so it must be trained to be unbiased and ethical. At Wovenware and across the island we have always embraced diversity. We belong to a country that is a patchwork of different cultures, yet we also hold fast to our Latin American...

KATARINA GOSPIC

CO-FOUNDER, EDSVÄRD

FROM STRAWBERRIES TO THE STATES One of my first memories from when I was about 4-years old is about strawberries. I used to close my eyes and imagined one, then another. This little thought experiment was something I became obsessed with. I wanted to be like Lucky Luke, faster than...

PHILIP VON SEGEBADEN

HEAD OF PARTNERSHIPS, NOVATRON FUSION GROUP.

Fusion energy—the process that powers the sun—has long been considered the holy grail of clean energy. Unlike traditional nuclear fission, fusion offers the promise of limitless, emission-free power without the hazardous waste. For decades, scientists have worked to make fusion commercially viable, and today, the world is closer than ever...

Karen Roy

Karen Roy

Chief Strategic Officer - Phlexglobal

On joining Phlexglobal in 2007, and becoming immersed in the trial master file (TMF) space, I didn’t imagine that something that seemed to get so little focus (a TMF was really just a paper archive) could turn into such an innovative space. When I started, an eTMF was broadly an...

Terri Willingham

Terri Willingham

Executive Director of the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation

I think the word “innovation” is overused. Not that I don’t appreciate or value interesting ideas, but I think many things touted as innovative today are simply refurbished old ideas or mid-to-late 20th century concepts clothed in the early21st century parlance of so-called influencers. I think we need to be...

DENNIS SCHMITT

DENNIS SCHMITT

NUROTECH CORP - FOUNDER & CEO

It is hard for me to accept being a visionary leader, as it is difficult for me to reconcile where I am now, with where I was 15 years ago. I didn’t envision a future where I’m the CEO/Founder of a multi-million dollar Biotech company on the precipice to lead...

EMER DOOLEY

PHD, MBA, CREATIVE DESTRUCTION LAB (CDL), UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON.

Yet only a small fraction of these ideas, inventions, and potentially game-changing solutions ever make it off campus. Institutions likethe University of Washington have a responsibility to help more of them make it out into the world. Human health, the environment, theeconomy, and society depend on it. In this spirit,...

VICTOR HOSKINS

PRESIDENT & CEO, FAIRFAX COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

Embracing the fast-paced technological transformation before us, we know that innovation is not just about having the brightest ideas or the most advanced technology. It is about cultivating an ecosystem where transformative ideas can flourish and where technology meets skilled hands and minds prepared to wield it. Fairfax County is...

INNOVATE® Ecosystems