Thought Leaders

INNOVATE® Kansas City

PHIL ABRAHAM

THE VISION OF BRILLIANCY QUANTUM BRANDS

VISIONARY “BRILLIANCY COMPLEXITY SCIENCE METHODOLOGIES” INTEGRATE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI), BLOCKCHAIN, AND QUANTUM TECH TO DELIVER SOLUTIONS THAT ESCAPE TODAY’S LIMITS WITH TOMORROW’S CAPABILITIES In the fast-paced world of frontier technologies, Phil Abraham stands out as a transformative leader, expertly connecting legacy systems with cutting-edge innovations. As the visionary founder of...

INNOVATE™ Stockholm

ALI SARRAFI

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, 4THBRAIN

We are on the threshold of a creative renaissance powered by GenerativeAI—technology that frees us from specialized skills and speeds up the path from idea to execution. In mere hours, what once took months can be accomplished, fueling rapid experimentation and bold innovation. By automating tasks like image generation, software...

INNOVATE® Puerto Rico

CARLOS COBIAN

CARLOS COBIAN

FOUNDER AND CEO, GRAVITAL AGENCY

“OUR PASSION IS TO HELP COMPANIES GROW. OUR HIGHEST INTENT IS TO FOSTER A STRONG SERVICE PHILOSOPHY THAT ENSURES OUR CLIENTS ACHIEVE THE SUCCESS THEY SEEK AND DESERVE. WE WANT THEM TO DO WELL BECAUSE WE WANT OUR ECONOMY AND SOCIETY TO DO WELL. IT’S A WIN-WIN.”– CARLOS COBIAN, FOUNDER AND...

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™ Bristol & Bath

Sacha Mirzoeff

Head Of Channel 4 Bristol

he human instinct to tell stories can be traced back millennia. From paintings on cave walls, to families huddled around campfires, to bingeable boxsets, storytelling is a thread woven deep into the fabric of human experience and often helps set our moral boundaries. The possibility of changing the way that...

INNOVATE® Blockchain

NAMIR ANANI

NAMIR ANANI

PRESIDENT & CEO, INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL

We live in an era of rapid disruption where global forces are now demanding our full attention. Emerging economies, geopolitical inflections, health risks, cyber threats, and changing employment prospects are now top of mind. Against this backdrop are digital technologies that are accelerating innovations and transforming industries faster than economies...

INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

JASON VANDEBOOM

JASON VANDEBOOM

FOUNDER AND CEO, ACTIVECAMPAIGN

Building and investing in a differentiated customer experience used to be thought of as a nice to have but not a critical item. When it made it into the business plan or the balance sheet it did so as a necessary cost of sale – a cost you’d look to...

INNOVATE® Detroit

Fr. Tim McCabe, SJ

President & CEO, Pope Francis Center

When I arrived at the Pope Francis Center in downtown Detroit in 2015, our focus was on providing food and a space for respite for our friends experiencing homelessness. I quickly realized that while providing immediate relief is critical to staying alive, we were not doing enough to make a...

INNOVATE™ Estonia

MIKE SOUTHON

CHIEF EDITOR, STARTUPMAFIA

Many people are fascinated by Unicorns, mythical horse-like animals with a spiralling horn on its forehead, who symbolise purity, rarity and magic. In Estonia you can meet real unicorns, companies who have achieved billion-dollar valuations. There are more of these per head of population than anywhere else on earth. Here...

INNOVATE® Minnesota

Keith Tanski

Keith Tanski

CTO - Optum

Innovation to me is working to never settle… and to continually be obsessive over creating a continued better experience and product. This means that status quos need to continually obsess over all spectrums and that we need to realize that the greatness that got us to this point will not...

INNOVATE™ Vancouver Vol.2

Kookai Chaimahawong

Associate

Kookai Chaimahawong Associate “IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO BUILD GREAT COMPANIES, ESPECIALLY IN HARD TECH. VANCOUVER IS THE VILLAGE WITH A WORLD-CLASS PARTNER ECOSYSTEM THAT ARE HUNGRY TO SEE FOUNDERS AND STARTUP COMPANIES SUCCEED”. – KOOKAI CHAIMAHAWONG, ASSOCIATE I moved to Vancouver in 2017 to pursue my Master of Business...

INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2

DEEPAK MEHTA

ECOSYSTEM DEVELOPER, MCA – MARITIME CAMPUS ANTWERP

Deepak Mehta is the Ecosystem Developer for MCA, believing that we are solving the easily solvable problems and are left with the wicked problems that have no single solution and require cooperation to solve. Building an ecosystem helps strengthen the maritime sector by increasing its innovation readiness, but also attracts...

INNOVATE® Tampa Bay Vol.3

Vik Bhide

Vik Bhide

Director of Mobility-City of Tampa

Mobility or the ability to move around freely is at the heart of personal liberty. As Director of the City of Tampa’s Mobility department I have the privilege of overseeing many aspects of this essential function of civilization. In the context of mobility the challenges of our times manifest themselves...

INNOVATE® Jacksonville

Peoplr - Amy McGeorge

Amy McGeorge is the founder and managing partner of Peoplr, a global firm of human resources experts who deliver excellent consulting services that drive business results. McGeorge has more than a decade of experience in executive search and 25+ years’ experience leading HR consulting engagements for large companies like Best...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

TONY LAWRENCE

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER (CRO), MIGHTY KINGDOM

Adelaide has a decades-long history with games. Ratbag Games opened a studio in the 1990s and had success with its Powerslide games before it was acquired by Midway Games in the mid-2000s, and then closed quite suddenly. Krome, an Australian based game developer picked up where Midway left off, lasting...

AI Québec

ALEXANDRE LE BOUTHILLIER

ALEXANDRE LE BOUTHILLIER

CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF CORPORATE OFFICER, IMAGIA

We sometimes forget the purpose of our work. In healthcare, the goal to make a positive impact on patients is present every day. This was the goal of the introduction of the first AI system in breast cancer screening… in 1998. Over the past 20 years, and especially with the...

INNOVATE™ Vancouver Vol.2

Riaz Meghji

Riaz Meghji - Author

Author, Keynote Speaker, Television Broadcaster

OUR FUTURE IS HUMAN In 2020, everything changed, except for who we are. When social distancing became our next normal, so did our deep desire to stay connected in isolation. No, I’m not just talking about Zoom happy hours. Virtual workouts, weddings, and graduations are just a few examples of...

INNOVATE™ Stockholm

ÅSA ZETTERBERG

CEO, TECHSVERIGE

Sweden has long been a pioneer in technology and innovation. From Ericsson to Spotify, Klarna and Recorded Future, Swedish companies have helped put us on the global tech map. Today, tech is more than a growth sector—it’s a foundation for our economy and society. The numbers speak for themselves. Sweden’s...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

PETER ROWLAND

CEO, MICRO-X

In fact, a culture of innovation must be endemic across a company. It must form part of its DNA, driving the behaviour and thinking of every employee. This is important across all members of the innovation ecosystem, with opportunities to learn through the sharing of ideas in innovation precincts like...

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...

INNOVATE® South Carolina

Andrew Hsu

President of the College of Charleston

Both society and technology are changing ever more rapidly. Higher education is historically designed to be steady and slow in changing. The conflict caused between slow-moving institutions and a rapidly changing world has become ever more obvious – to the point, for many, that it has reached a definitive inflection...

INNOVATE™ Bristol & Bath

Sado Jirde

Sado Jirde

Director at BSWN

The West of England’s economy is worth £33 billion a year. Bristol alone, as the economic and innovative hub of the region, is worth £13.6 billion, and it is forecast to remain one of the UK’s fastest-growing economies for years to come. However, research undertaken by the Centre on the...

INNOVATE® South Carolina

STEFAN SEEGER

VICE PRESIDENT AND PLANT MANAGER, ZF GRAY COURT

Since the inception of the Gray Court facility in Laurens County in 2012, ZF and the State of South Carolina have been a winning combination that has benefitted South Carolina citizens, state and local governments, the ZF Group, and all of our employees at our Gray Court, Charleston and Duncan....

Global Innovation Spotlight

MICHAEL CLINTON

CEO ROAR

Many of us spend our lives identifying ourselves in what I call the 3 P’s… Partner, Parent, and Profession. There’s no question that these three identifiers take up a lot of our lives. There’s only one challenge with letting these roles dominate life however, especially as we live longer, healthier...

PHIL ABRAHAM

THE VISION OF BRILLIANCY QUANTUM BRANDS

VISIONARY “BRILLIANCY COMPLEXITY SCIENCE METHODOLOGIES” INTEGRATE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI), BLOCKCHAIN, AND QUANTUM TECH TO DELIVER SOLUTIONS THAT ESCAPE TODAY’S LIMITS WITH TOMORROW’S CAPABILITIES In the fast-paced world of frontier technologies, Phil Abraham stands out as a transformative leader, expertly connecting legacy systems with cutting-edge innovations. As the visionary founder of...

ALI SARRAFI

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, 4THBRAIN

We are on the threshold of a creative renaissance powered by GenerativeAI—technology that frees us from specialized skills and speeds up the path from idea to execution. In mere hours, what once took months can be accomplished, fueling rapid experimentation and bold innovation. By automating tasks like image generation, software...

CARLOS COBIAN

CARLOS COBIAN

FOUNDER AND CEO, GRAVITAL AGENCY

“OUR PASSION IS TO HELP COMPANIES GROW. OUR HIGHEST INTENT IS TO FOSTER A STRONG SERVICE PHILOSOPHY THAT ENSURES OUR CLIENTS ACHIEVE THE SUCCESS THEY SEEK AND DESERVE. WE WANT THEM TO DO WELL BECAUSE WE WANT OUR ECONOMY AND SOCIETY TO DO WELL. IT’S A WIN-WIN.”– CARLOS COBIAN, FOUNDER AND...

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,...

Sacha Mirzoeff

Head Of Channel 4 Bristol

he human instinct to tell stories can be traced back millennia. From paintings on cave walls, to families huddled around campfires, to bingeable boxsets, storytelling is a thread woven deep into the fabric of human experience and often helps set our moral boundaries. The possibility of changing the way that...

NAMIR ANANI

NAMIR ANANI

PRESIDENT & CEO, INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY COUNCIL

We live in an era of rapid disruption where global forces are now demanding our full attention. Emerging economies, geopolitical inflections, health risks, cyber threats, and changing employment prospects are now top of mind. Against this backdrop are digital technologies that are accelerating innovations and transforming industries faster than economies...

JASON VANDEBOOM

JASON VANDEBOOM

FOUNDER AND CEO, ACTIVECAMPAIGN

Building and investing in a differentiated customer experience used to be thought of as a nice to have but not a critical item. When it made it into the business plan or the balance sheet it did so as a necessary cost of sale – a cost you’d look to...

Fr. Tim McCabe, SJ

President & CEO, Pope Francis Center

When I arrived at the Pope Francis Center in downtown Detroit in 2015, our focus was on providing food and a space for respite for our friends experiencing homelessness. I quickly realized that while providing immediate relief is critical to staying alive, we were not doing enough to make a...

MIKE SOUTHON

CHIEF EDITOR, STARTUPMAFIA

Many people are fascinated by Unicorns, mythical horse-like animals with a spiralling horn on its forehead, who symbolise purity, rarity and magic. In Estonia you can meet real unicorns, companies who have achieved billion-dollar valuations. There are more of these per head of population than anywhere else on earth. Here...

Keith Tanski

Keith Tanski

CTO - Optum

Innovation to me is working to never settle… and to continually be obsessive over creating a continued better experience and product. This means that status quos need to continually obsess over all spectrums and that we need to realize that the greatness that got us to this point will not...

Kookai Chaimahawong

Associate

Kookai Chaimahawong Associate “IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO BUILD GREAT COMPANIES, ESPECIALLY IN HARD TECH. VANCOUVER IS THE VILLAGE WITH A WORLD-CLASS PARTNER ECOSYSTEM THAT ARE HUNGRY TO SEE FOUNDERS AND STARTUP COMPANIES SUCCEED”. – KOOKAI CHAIMAHAWONG, ASSOCIATE I moved to Vancouver in 2017 to pursue my Master of Business...

DEEPAK MEHTA

ECOSYSTEM DEVELOPER, MCA – MARITIME CAMPUS ANTWERP

Deepak Mehta is the Ecosystem Developer for MCA, believing that we are solving the easily solvable problems and are left with the wicked problems that have no single solution and require cooperation to solve. Building an ecosystem helps strengthen the maritime sector by increasing its innovation readiness, but also attracts...

Vik Bhide

Vik Bhide

Director of Mobility-City of Tampa

Mobility or the ability to move around freely is at the heart of personal liberty. As Director of the City of Tampa’s Mobility department I have the privilege of overseeing many aspects of this essential function of civilization. In the context of mobility the challenges of our times manifest themselves...

Peoplr - Amy McGeorge

Amy McGeorge is the founder and managing partner of Peoplr, a global firm of human resources experts who deliver excellent consulting services that drive business results. McGeorge has more than a decade of experience in executive search and 25+ years’ experience leading HR consulting engagements for large companies like Best...

TONY LAWRENCE

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER (CRO), MIGHTY KINGDOM

Adelaide has a decades-long history with games. Ratbag Games opened a studio in the 1990s and had success with its Powerslide games before it was acquired by Midway Games in the mid-2000s, and then closed quite suddenly. Krome, an Australian based game developer picked up where Midway left off, lasting...

ALEXANDRE LE BOUTHILLIER

ALEXANDRE LE BOUTHILLIER

CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF CORPORATE OFFICER, IMAGIA

We sometimes forget the purpose of our work. In healthcare, the goal to make a positive impact on patients is present every day. This was the goal of the introduction of the first AI system in breast cancer screening… in 1998. Over the past 20 years, and especially with the...

Riaz Meghji

Riaz Meghji - Author

Author, Keynote Speaker, Television Broadcaster

OUR FUTURE IS HUMAN In 2020, everything changed, except for who we are. When social distancing became our next normal, so did our deep desire to stay connected in isolation. No, I’m not just talking about Zoom happy hours. Virtual workouts, weddings, and graduations are just a few examples of...

ÅSA ZETTERBERG

CEO, TECHSVERIGE

Sweden has long been a pioneer in technology and innovation. From Ericsson to Spotify, Klarna and Recorded Future, Swedish companies have helped put us on the global tech map. Today, tech is more than a growth sector—it’s a foundation for our economy and society. The numbers speak for themselves. Sweden’s...

PETER ROWLAND

CEO, MICRO-X

In fact, a culture of innovation must be endemic across a company. It must form part of its DNA, driving the behaviour and thinking of every employee. This is important across all members of the innovation ecosystem, with opportunities to learn through the sharing of ideas in innovation precincts like...

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...

Andrew Hsu

President of the College of Charleston

Both society and technology are changing ever more rapidly. Higher education is historically designed to be steady and slow in changing. The conflict caused between slow-moving institutions and a rapidly changing world has become ever more obvious – to the point, for many, that it has reached a definitive inflection...

Sado Jirde

Sado Jirde

Director at BSWN

The West of England’s economy is worth £33 billion a year. Bristol alone, as the economic and innovative hub of the region, is worth £13.6 billion, and it is forecast to remain one of the UK’s fastest-growing economies for years to come. However, research undertaken by the Centre on the...

STEFAN SEEGER

VICE PRESIDENT AND PLANT MANAGER, ZF GRAY COURT

Since the inception of the Gray Court facility in Laurens County in 2012, ZF and the State of South Carolina have been a winning combination that has benefitted South Carolina citizens, state and local governments, the ZF Group, and all of our employees at our Gray Court, Charleston and Duncan....

MICHAEL CLINTON

CEO ROAR

Many of us spend our lives identifying ourselves in what I call the 3 P’s… Partner, Parent, and Profession. There’s no question that these three identifiers take up a lot of our lives. There’s only one challenge with letting these roles dominate life however, especially as we live longer, healthier...

INNOVATE® Ecosystems