Thought Leaders

INNOVATE® South Carolina

DR. NIKKI HONEYCUTT

DIRECTOR, DANIEL MORGAN TECHNOLOGY CENTER

Career Centers: The New Workforce Suppliers I want you to imagine standing at the edge of a river. On one side are thousands of students—bright-eyed, full of energy, buzzing with ideas and untapped skills. On the other side are industries—manufacturing, healthcare, transportation—calling out for skilled workers, desperate for fresh talent...

INNOVATE™ Botswana Vol.1

MRS. TSHOGANETSO CARL-PONOESELE

ACTING CEO, BOTSWANA TOURISM

What does innovation mean to you? Tourism is an extremely vast field for innovation as a complex cross-cutting socio-economic system. Creating a tourist product, tourist services, booking of air – and train tickets – all these processes have reached a new level with the introduction of the latest developments in...

INNOVATION Quebec

CHRISTIAN AGBOBLI

Vice-Recteur à la Recherche, à la création et à la diffusion

This recognition of Quebec’s distinctive character in various fields is the outcome of a committed effort involving university research and innovation. Universities have spearheaded innovation through their large-scale research structures. Innovation is a process, an approach and a result that provides a new and different character to our ways of...

INNOVATE® Maryland

JIM KYUNG SOO LIEW, PH.D.

SOKAT

Innovation moves in waves, and America stands at the crest of the most consequential one yet – artificial intelligence. The nations and leaders who learn to harness AI’s full potential will define the next century of progress. Fortunately, the United States is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation. Our strength...

Andrew Rae

Andrew Rae

Woodgreen Ventures - Encouraging Trend Line is in Great Opposition to a Historical Strug

Encouraging Trend Line is in Great Opposition to a Historical Struggle this City and Country has Faced at Multiple Levels Andrew is a former biotechnology equities analyst and a serial entrepreneur. Mr. Rae has partnered with many leading biopharmaceutical companies globally, including Ionis, Alexion and AstraZeneca, and has invested in...

INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada

OWEN SAGNESS

CEO, DIGITAL NOVA SCOTIA (DNS)

Introduction The digital sector is experiencing an unprecedented demand for skilled professionals, creating a significant talent gap. Traditional education pathways alone are no longer sufficient to meet this demand. In early2024, Digital Nova Scotia surveyed our members and produced the2024 Digital Nova Scotia Workforce Survey. This survey highlights a promising...

INNOVATE™ Stockholm

MATHAPELO MZIZI - DEMAND DIRECTOR (ERICSSON)

BOARD MEMBER (NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR) AND INCLUSIVE INNOVATION ADVOCATE

There’s an African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Another says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” And both, I believe, capture the very heartbeat of innovation. When I look at Sweden’s innovation scene, I...

INNOVATE® Northern Virginia

BRUCE CASWELL, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MAXIMUS

BRUCE CASWELL, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MAXIMUS That belief has been a common thread throughout my career. I feel it more now than ever because the gap between what’s possible and what is often delivered is still too wide. Today’s expectations are shaped by the commercial world – instant,...

INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

BIJU KULATHAKAL AND JASON BARSEMA

BIJU KULATHAKAL AND JASON BARSEMA

CO-FOUNDERS, HALO INVESTING

Chicago’s rich history of financial innovation is world-famous for a reason. In 1848, the Chicago Board of Trade launched to promote commerce—most notably around agricultural commodities. Today people recognize Chicago for its role in revolutionizing global finance. It’s here where financial futures, options, and derivatives trading began. This vibrant and...

INNOVATION Quebec

PIERRE FITZGIBBON

LE MINISTRE DE L’ÉCONOMIE, DE L’INNOVATION DE L’ÉNERGIE, MINISTRE RESPONSABLE DU DÉVELOPPEMENT ÉCONOMIQUE RÉGIONAL ET MINISTRE RESPONSABLE DE LA MÉTROPOLE ET DE LA RÉGION DE MONTRÉAL

En lançant la Stratégie québécoise de recherche et d’investissement en innovation 2022-2027 (SQRI2 ) et en créant la fonction d’innovateur en chef, notre gouvernement s’est engagé à faire de l’innovation le cœur du développement économique du Québec au cours des prochaines années. Plus que jamais, nous voulons soutenir tous ceux...

INNOVATE™ Flanders

ANNELEEN VANDER ELSTRAETEN

MANAGING PARTNER, FOUR & FIVE

WHY INNOVATORS NEED A NEW BREED OF LAW FIRM When I first started my legal career, founding my own law firm wasn’t even a consideration. I was content working at a top-tier firm, focusing on drafting contracts and managing legal transactions. But everything changed during a business trip to Silicon...

INNOVATE® Jacksonville

Theodore R. Willich

Theodore R. Willich

CEO - NLP Logix

NLP Logix teaches computers to do what humans can do or want to do. They automate. This means that at NLP Logix, they teach machines to do almost any repetitive business process that humans do, to help humans to do things faster and better. The company harnesses the power of...

VOICES of the Future

KUSHAL SHAH

ETHICS, INNOVATION, AND IMPACT

When talking with Kushal Shah, the Managing Director of e& capital, I am struck by the depth and range of his experiences. Kushal, a man whose life journey began in the serenity of Nairobi, Kenya, opened our conversation with a profound reflection on his roots. “I was born and brought...

INNOVATE® St. Louis

John G. Gatewood

CFP®, CLU®, President & Founder - Gatewood Wealth Management

When his military pension wasn’t enough to support our family, my father went into life insurance. He realized no one was coordinating all of the separate aspects of families’ financial planning. The Glass Steagall Act was still in effect, and it kept all financial companies separate; insurance was separate from...

INNOVATE® Miami

Nitin Motwani

TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT Downtown Miami is experiencing one of the most dynamic urban reinventions in the world. Less than 10 years ago, Downtown was a 9-to-5 business district, but today businesses are launching and thriving, city streets are populated around-the-clock, parks and cultural venues now occupy land that sat vacant...

INNOVATE® Seattle

MARIA COLACURCIO,

CEO, SYNDIO

Winning in the Transparency Era Workplace equity has taken on new urgency in today’s era of public salary ranges, pay gap reporting laws, voluntary disclosures by leading global companies, and investor scorecards. Every measure of how you value your people is now on display. This includes pay, performance, promotions, and...

INNOVATE® Milwaukee

Gordon Nameni, PhD

Managing Partner at August Brown

Innovation alone does not guarantee market success. Many promising technologies fail to gain traction because companies struggle to translate technical breakthroughs into commercially viable products. This is where Tech Translation—a structured framework for bridging the gap between technology development and market adoption—becomes essential. The Tech Translation Framework Tech Translation integrates...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

DR. JONATHAN HALL PHD

FOUNDER, DIRECTOR & CHIEF SCIENTIST, LIFE WHISPERER

STORY & CHALLENGESIn 2016, I was nearing the end of a frontier research project to combine interdisciplinary knowledge to ask if a biological cell could sustain light circulating inside: called ‘whispering gallery modes’. Could we go further, and turn a cell into a laser, with the hope of it being...

INNOVATE® South Florida

DR. KEVIN COX

PROFESSOR - FAU TECH RUNWAY®

Reflection on the Evolution of South Florida’s Innovation Ecosystem For more than a decade, it’s been my honor and privilege to be deeply immersed within the South Florida entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. As the Director of Florida Atlantic University’s Adams Center for Entrepreneurship, a member of Tech Runway’s Board, a...

INNOVATION Manitoba

ANDREA LADOUCEUR, PRESIDENT & CEO, BIOSCIENCE ASSOCIATION MANITOBA

Manitoba Has a Bigger Story to Tell We can fall into the cycle of overestimating what we can accomplish in a year while underestimating what we can achieve in five to ten years. Sometimes, the greatest opportunities are “hiding” in plain sight. To make those larger, long-term goals a reality,...

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™ Stockholm

DR. CHRISTIAN GUTTMANN

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NORDIC AI INSTITUTE & SENIOR RESEARCHER, KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET

I wrote my first lines of AI code at 13 on a home computer—little did I know I was joining the earliest wave of AI natives. By 17 I’d launched a startup building intelligent inventory systems so small retailers always knew what was on their shelves before their accountants did—a...

INNOVATE™ Ottawa

Lise Bourgeois

Dès mon arrivée à La Cité en 2010, j’ai constaté l’engagement et la passion de la communauté collégiale, la vitalité et la joie de vivre francophones, la culture de l’excellence dans un environnement des plus stimulants et fertiles, le désir profond de voir nos étudiants réussir, et des projets plus...

Virginia Grant

Virginia Grant

Executive Director - Gainesville Black Professionals

INNOVATE is a verb and it means to make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products. It is often thought of as it relates to technology, inventions, manufacturing, and business development. It is less often thought of as it relates to culture, social development, diversity,...

DR. NIKKI HONEYCUTT

DIRECTOR, DANIEL MORGAN TECHNOLOGY CENTER

Career Centers: The New Workforce Suppliers I want you to imagine standing at the edge of a river. On one side are thousands of students—bright-eyed, full of energy, buzzing with ideas and untapped skills. On the other side are industries—manufacturing, healthcare, transportation—calling out for skilled workers, desperate for fresh talent...

MRS. TSHOGANETSO CARL-PONOESELE

ACTING CEO, BOTSWANA TOURISM

What does innovation mean to you? Tourism is an extremely vast field for innovation as a complex cross-cutting socio-economic system. Creating a tourist product, tourist services, booking of air – and train tickets – all these processes have reached a new level with the introduction of the latest developments in...

CHRISTIAN AGBOBLI

Vice-Recteur à la Recherche, à la création et à la diffusion

This recognition of Quebec’s distinctive character in various fields is the outcome of a committed effort involving university research and innovation. Universities have spearheaded innovation through their large-scale research structures. Innovation is a process, an approach and a result that provides a new and different character to our ways of...

JIM KYUNG SOO LIEW, PH.D.

SOKAT

Innovation moves in waves, and America stands at the crest of the most consequential one yet – artificial intelligence. The nations and leaders who learn to harness AI’s full potential will define the next century of progress. Fortunately, the United States is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation. Our strength...

Andrew Rae

Andrew Rae

Woodgreen Ventures - Encouraging Trend Line is in Great Opposition to a Historical Strug

Encouraging Trend Line is in Great Opposition to a Historical Struggle this City and Country has Faced at Multiple Levels Andrew is a former biotechnology equities analyst and a serial entrepreneur. Mr. Rae has partnered with many leading biopharmaceutical companies globally, including Ionis, Alexion and AstraZeneca, and has invested in...

OWEN SAGNESS

CEO, DIGITAL NOVA SCOTIA (DNS)

Introduction The digital sector is experiencing an unprecedented demand for skilled professionals, creating a significant talent gap. Traditional education pathways alone are no longer sufficient to meet this demand. In early2024, Digital Nova Scotia surveyed our members and produced the2024 Digital Nova Scotia Workforce Survey. This survey highlights a promising...

MATHAPELO MZIZI - DEMAND DIRECTOR (ERICSSON)

BOARD MEMBER (NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR) AND INCLUSIVE INNOVATION ADVOCATE

There’s an African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Another says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” And both, I believe, capture the very heartbeat of innovation. When I look at Sweden’s innovation scene, I...

BRUCE CASWELL, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MAXIMUS

BRUCE CASWELL, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, MAXIMUS That belief has been a common thread throughout my career. I feel it more now than ever because the gap between what’s possible and what is often delivered is still too wide. Today’s expectations are shaped by the commercial world – instant,...

BIJU KULATHAKAL AND JASON BARSEMA

BIJU KULATHAKAL AND JASON BARSEMA

CO-FOUNDERS, HALO INVESTING

Chicago’s rich history of financial innovation is world-famous for a reason. In 1848, the Chicago Board of Trade launched to promote commerce—most notably around agricultural commodities. Today people recognize Chicago for its role in revolutionizing global finance. It’s here where financial futures, options, and derivatives trading began. This vibrant and...

PIERRE FITZGIBBON

LE MINISTRE DE L’ÉCONOMIE, DE L’INNOVATION DE L’ÉNERGIE, MINISTRE RESPONSABLE DU DÉVELOPPEMENT ÉCONOMIQUE RÉGIONAL ET MINISTRE RESPONSABLE DE LA MÉTROPOLE ET DE LA RÉGION DE MONTRÉAL

En lançant la Stratégie québécoise de recherche et d’investissement en innovation 2022-2027 (SQRI2 ) et en créant la fonction d’innovateur en chef, notre gouvernement s’est engagé à faire de l’innovation le cœur du développement économique du Québec au cours des prochaines années. Plus que jamais, nous voulons soutenir tous ceux...

ANNELEEN VANDER ELSTRAETEN

MANAGING PARTNER, FOUR & FIVE

WHY INNOVATORS NEED A NEW BREED OF LAW FIRM When I first started my legal career, founding my own law firm wasn’t even a consideration. I was content working at a top-tier firm, focusing on drafting contracts and managing legal transactions. But everything changed during a business trip to Silicon...

Theodore R. Willich

Theodore R. Willich

CEO - NLP Logix

NLP Logix teaches computers to do what humans can do or want to do. They automate. This means that at NLP Logix, they teach machines to do almost any repetitive business process that humans do, to help humans to do things faster and better. The company harnesses the power of...

KUSHAL SHAH

ETHICS, INNOVATION, AND IMPACT

When talking with Kushal Shah, the Managing Director of e& capital, I am struck by the depth and range of his experiences. Kushal, a man whose life journey began in the serenity of Nairobi, Kenya, opened our conversation with a profound reflection on his roots. “I was born and brought...

John G. Gatewood

CFP®, CLU®, President & Founder - Gatewood Wealth Management

When his military pension wasn’t enough to support our family, my father went into life insurance. He realized no one was coordinating all of the separate aspects of families’ financial planning. The Glass Steagall Act was still in effect, and it kept all financial companies separate; insurance was separate from...

Nitin Motwani

TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT Downtown Miami is experiencing one of the most dynamic urban reinventions in the world. Less than 10 years ago, Downtown was a 9-to-5 business district, but today businesses are launching and thriving, city streets are populated around-the-clock, parks and cultural venues now occupy land that sat vacant...

MARIA COLACURCIO,

CEO, SYNDIO

Winning in the Transparency Era Workplace equity has taken on new urgency in today’s era of public salary ranges, pay gap reporting laws, voluntary disclosures by leading global companies, and investor scorecards. Every measure of how you value your people is now on display. This includes pay, performance, promotions, and...

Gordon Nameni, PhD

Managing Partner at August Brown

Innovation alone does not guarantee market success. Many promising technologies fail to gain traction because companies struggle to translate technical breakthroughs into commercially viable products. This is where Tech Translation—a structured framework for bridging the gap between technology development and market adoption—becomes essential. The Tech Translation Framework Tech Translation integrates...

DR. JONATHAN HALL PHD

FOUNDER, DIRECTOR & CHIEF SCIENTIST, LIFE WHISPERER

STORY & CHALLENGESIn 2016, I was nearing the end of a frontier research project to combine interdisciplinary knowledge to ask if a biological cell could sustain light circulating inside: called ‘whispering gallery modes’. Could we go further, and turn a cell into a laser, with the hope of it being...

DR. KEVIN COX

PROFESSOR - FAU TECH RUNWAY®

Reflection on the Evolution of South Florida’s Innovation Ecosystem For more than a decade, it’s been my honor and privilege to be deeply immersed within the South Florida entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem. As the Director of Florida Atlantic University’s Adams Center for Entrepreneurship, a member of Tech Runway’s Board, a...

ANDREA LADOUCEUR, PRESIDENT & CEO, BIOSCIENCE ASSOCIATION MANITOBA

Manitoba Has a Bigger Story to Tell We can fall into the cycle of overestimating what we can accomplish in a year while underestimating what we can achieve in five to ten years. Sometimes, the greatest opportunities are “hiding” in plain sight. To make those larger, long-term goals a reality,...

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,...

DR. CHRISTIAN GUTTMANN

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NORDIC AI INSTITUTE & SENIOR RESEARCHER, KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET

I wrote my first lines of AI code at 13 on a home computer—little did I know I was joining the earliest wave of AI natives. By 17 I’d launched a startup building intelligent inventory systems so small retailers always knew what was on their shelves before their accountants did—a...

Lise Bourgeois

Dès mon arrivée à La Cité en 2010, j’ai constaté l’engagement et la passion de la communauté collégiale, la vitalité et la joie de vivre francophones, la culture de l’excellence dans un environnement des plus stimulants et fertiles, le désir profond de voir nos étudiants réussir, et des projets plus...

Virginia Grant

Virginia Grant

Executive Director - Gainesville Black Professionals

INNOVATE is a verb and it means to make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products. It is often thought of as it relates to technology, inventions, manufacturing, and business development. It is less often thought of as it relates to culture, social development, diversity,...

INNOVATE® Ecosystems