Thought Leaders

INNOVATE™ Vancouver Vol.2

NICOLE PARMAR

CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, GUNKII

Innovation is often viewed as the development of groundbreaking ideas, but it is also about making incremental changes that can significantly impact an industry, business, or community. I firmly believe that entrepreneurship and innovation go hand-in-hand. These provide the means to grow businesses, create products that solve problems, and improve...

INNOVATE™ Alberta

JAMES KEIRSTEAD

CO-CHAIR, EDMONTON REGIONAL INNOVATION NETWORK (ERIN)

INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND CREATIVITYExperience has taught me that innovation is not just about creating something new, it also includes making improvements to existing products or systems. It is about taking a creative approach to problem solving and producing solutions that are unique, interesting, and useful. Innovation and entrepreneurship go hand-in-hand...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

ELOISE HALL

MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CO-FOUNDER, TABOO PERIOD PRODUCTS

We all enter this world the same, screaming, and naked, as human as each other and as deserving of the same freedoms and rights as the next tiny infant. Unfortunately, people’s access to human rights isn’t as simple as that. It’s dependent on the family you were born into, the...

INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

STEVEN COLLENS

STEVEN COLLENS

CEO, MATTER

I’ve been the chief executive officer at MATTER — the global healthcare innovation hub headquartered in Chicago — since it was founded in 2015. Over the last five years, one of the most interesting dynamics we’ve observed — coming both from entrepreneurs developing novel technologies, as well as from large...

INNOVATE™ Estonia

JANA KRIMPE

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND CO-FOUNDER, B.EST SOLUTIONS

Digital transformation is often viewed in terms of platforms, applications, or the latest disruptive technology. But these are only surface layers. The true foundation of a digital society is trust and trust begins with secure digital identity. Without it, governments cannot serve effectively, businesses cannot scale confidently, and citizens are...

INNOVATE™ South Africa

KGOMOTSO LEKOLA

KGOMOTSO LEKOLA

FOUNDER & GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR, BT INDUSTRIAL GROUP

We have to rethink our national strategy for growth, meaningful economic participation of blacks and job creation; it’s not just about funding and quality of education. I argue that South Africa is a sleeping giant ready to take on the world; we may just be waiting for the right moment...

INNOVATE® South Carolina

JONATHAN DAWLEY

PRESIDENT & CEO OF KION NORTH AMERICA

Innovation Muscle: Barrierless Thinking and Unconstrained Vision Several years ago, I traveled across the world working with divisions of my then-employer to evaluate market strategies and redefine our approach to unlock new levels of performance and customer value. In each region, we explored what could be achieved if we set...

INNOVATE® Nashville

David Vulcano

Angel Investor

People are often surprised when they find out “Music City” is not just mega-music companies. In fact, the business ecosystem is very diversified in national and global business, and the greater Nashville area has many home-grown companies as well. The city is fertile soil for startup companies; many of our...

AI Québec

MADELEINE JEAN

ACTING CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PROMPT

In the field of artificial intelligence, the world of academic research has excelled in Quebec. It has produced renowned researchers and thinkers in operational research and, more recently, in deep learning. Our researchers are amongst the most cited in these fields. Graduate students from all over the world aspire to...

VOICES of the Future

AYŞE ÖZTUNA BOZOKLAR

RESILIENT SPIRITS: A TALE OF TRUST, TALENT, AND TRANSFORMATION

Amidst the vibrant thrum of Turkey’s cultural and economic heartbeat, Ayşe Öztuna Bozoklar’s name is synonymous with transformative leadership and a visionary in the realm of executive search and talent management. As the founding partner of Odgers Berndtson Turkey, Ayşe has been an instrumental figure in shaping not just careers...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

LOUISE NOBES

CEO, 42 ADELAIDE

n I discovered 42 in France it was my ‘eureka” moment! A school that had mastered the way to disrupt learning, so it could serve a more authentic purpose. A belief that ‘everyone can be great’ and ‘someone’s social status should not hinder them from learning’. With this belief at...

INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

DORRI MCWHORTER

DORRI MCWHORTER-PRESIDENT & CEO OF YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO

PRESIDENT & CEO OF YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO

  People will be studying the global pandemic’s effects on the workplace for decades to come. The trends it accelerated. The inequality it exposed. The countless challenges and opportunities it created. However, there is one thing that is already perfectly clear, and business leaders in every industry across the country...

INNOVATE® Washington DMV Edition

MARCY EWALD

Most entrepreneurs we work with, including ourselves, have been building businesses for over a decade. Most are not working on the first business they started either. Even if the concept you’re currently working on doesn’t shake out, the lessons, the networks, and how you respond to success and failure will...

INNOVATE® Phoenix

Thiru Thangarthinam

Thiru Thangarthinam: CEO and Founder - MST Solutions

CEO and Founder - MST Solutions

Introduction MST Solutions launched in October 2012. Our headquarters are in Chandler, Ariz., and we have two additional offices in India (Chennai and Trichy). We have 275 employees (75 in Chandler, and 200 in India).  We’re the largest Salesforce partner in Arizona. From 2017 to 2018, we achieved 286% growth...

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...

INNOVATION Quebec

VINCENT ROUSSON

RECTEUR, UQAT

Cependant, pour une université en région comme l’AbitibiTémiscamingue, l’innovation peut jouer un rôle encore plus important dans son développement et dans celui de ses territoires d’attaches. Tout d’abord, l’innovation peut aider à attirer et à retenir les étudiants et les professeurs. En développant des programmes innovants et en offrant des...

INNOVATE® Detroit

PHILIP KAFKA

PRESIDENT AT PRINCE CONCEPTS

My company, Prince Concepts, is a real estate development studio, laboratory and office based in Core City, Detroit. We acquire, develop, own and manage land and building projects. The studio works to express personal experience, philosophy and belief through built work. The laboratory tinkers – seeking truth and developing precision....

INNOVATIONS in Pharmaceutical Development®

DR. AJIT SHETTY

DR. AJIT SHETTY

FORMER CHAIRMAN, JANSSEN BEERSE

DR. AJIT SHETTY FORMER CHAIRMAN, JANSSEN BEERSE My name is Dr. Ajit Shetty and I served as Chairman of Janssen Beerse from 2002 to 2012. I was very fortunate to have been part of Janssen under the leadership of Dr. Paul Janssen. We were the most productive pharmaceutical research lab...

INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

ANDY CRESTODINA

ANDY CRESTODINA

ORBIT MEDIA STUDIOS - CO-FOUNDER & CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER

I’m going to start my answer with a few questions: Why would anyone pay attention to your brand?How do you demonstrate your expertise?How will you ever get your service pages to rank if you don’t have content worth linking to?Why would anyone give you an email address?How do you share...

INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

LINDA MACLACHLAN

LINDA MACLACHLAN

FOUNDER, CHAIRPERSON AND PAMELA DIAZ, CEO, PRESIDENT - ENTARA

“Resilience” is a common word heard among the cyber security and IT crowd. Solution providers boast of tools that your business can employ to stay ahead of the pack – because, after all, it’s not the entire herd that’s taken down by a lone predator, but the slowest member. At...

INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports

DEREK WATFORD

DEREK WATFORD

HIGH POINT GAMER

  Pioneering Esports has been a journey filled with many lessons on the upside and downside of innovation. I have learned that innovation can be a lonely place for a visionary. I established my presence in the Esports industry early on by co-founding High Point Gamer (HPG) to produce competitive...

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...

Dr Harry Destecroix

Dr Harry Destecroix - CEO

CEO, Unit DX

When Novo Nordisk acquired our company, Ziylo, in a deal potentially worth $800 million, it exceeded our wildest expectations. Four years earlier, in 2014, I was finishing my Ph.D. in Professor Davis’ lab at the University of Bristol. We’d designed a set of molecular ‘sugar switches’ that sense how much...

INNOVATE® Blockchain

ANDREW BATEY

FOUNDER AND CO-CEO, BEATDAPP

Vancouver has the potential – and opportunity – to become a significant player in the global tech ecosystem. For emerging tech hubs like Vancouver, companies must prioritize collaboration and cross-functional effort to compete with established cities like Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York, and Miami. Beatdapp highlights this opportunity and...

NICOLE PARMAR

CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, GUNKII

Innovation is often viewed as the development of groundbreaking ideas, but it is also about making incremental changes that can significantly impact an industry, business, or community. I firmly believe that entrepreneurship and innovation go hand-in-hand. These provide the means to grow businesses, create products that solve problems, and improve...

JAMES KEIRSTEAD

CO-CHAIR, EDMONTON REGIONAL INNOVATION NETWORK (ERIN)

INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND CREATIVITYExperience has taught me that innovation is not just about creating something new, it also includes making improvements to existing products or systems. It is about taking a creative approach to problem solving and producing solutions that are unique, interesting, and useful. Innovation and entrepreneurship go hand-in-hand...

ELOISE HALL

MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CO-FOUNDER, TABOO PERIOD PRODUCTS

We all enter this world the same, screaming, and naked, as human as each other and as deserving of the same freedoms and rights as the next tiny infant. Unfortunately, people’s access to human rights isn’t as simple as that. It’s dependent on the family you were born into, the...

STEVEN COLLENS

STEVEN COLLENS

CEO, MATTER

I’ve been the chief executive officer at MATTER — the global healthcare innovation hub headquartered in Chicago — since it was founded in 2015. Over the last five years, one of the most interesting dynamics we’ve observed — coming both from entrepreneurs developing novel technologies, as well as from large...

JANA KRIMPE

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND CO-FOUNDER, B.EST SOLUTIONS

Digital transformation is often viewed in terms of platforms, applications, or the latest disruptive technology. But these are only surface layers. The true foundation of a digital society is trust and trust begins with secure digital identity. Without it, governments cannot serve effectively, businesses cannot scale confidently, and citizens are...

KGOMOTSO LEKOLA

KGOMOTSO LEKOLA

FOUNDER & GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR, BT INDUSTRIAL GROUP

We have to rethink our national strategy for growth, meaningful economic participation of blacks and job creation; it’s not just about funding and quality of education. I argue that South Africa is a sleeping giant ready to take on the world; we may just be waiting for the right moment...

JONATHAN DAWLEY

PRESIDENT & CEO OF KION NORTH AMERICA

Innovation Muscle: Barrierless Thinking and Unconstrained Vision Several years ago, I traveled across the world working with divisions of my then-employer to evaluate market strategies and redefine our approach to unlock new levels of performance and customer value. In each region, we explored what could be achieved if we set...

David Vulcano

Angel Investor

People are often surprised when they find out “Music City” is not just mega-music companies. In fact, the business ecosystem is very diversified in national and global business, and the greater Nashville area has many home-grown companies as well. The city is fertile soil for startup companies; many of our...

MADELEINE JEAN

ACTING CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PROMPT

In the field of artificial intelligence, the world of academic research has excelled in Quebec. It has produced renowned researchers and thinkers in operational research and, more recently, in deep learning. Our researchers are amongst the most cited in these fields. Graduate students from all over the world aspire to...

AYŞE ÖZTUNA BOZOKLAR

RESILIENT SPIRITS: A TALE OF TRUST, TALENT, AND TRANSFORMATION

Amidst the vibrant thrum of Turkey’s cultural and economic heartbeat, Ayşe Öztuna Bozoklar’s name is synonymous with transformative leadership and a visionary in the realm of executive search and talent management. As the founding partner of Odgers Berndtson Turkey, Ayşe has been an instrumental figure in shaping not just careers...

LOUISE NOBES

CEO, 42 ADELAIDE

n I discovered 42 in France it was my ‘eureka” moment! A school that had mastered the way to disrupt learning, so it could serve a more authentic purpose. A belief that ‘everyone can be great’ and ‘someone’s social status should not hinder them from learning’. With this belief at...

DORRI MCWHORTER

DORRI MCWHORTER-PRESIDENT & CEO OF YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO

PRESIDENT & CEO OF YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO

  People will be studying the global pandemic’s effects on the workplace for decades to come. The trends it accelerated. The inequality it exposed. The countless challenges and opportunities it created. However, there is one thing that is already perfectly clear, and business leaders in every industry across the country...

MARCY EWALD

Most entrepreneurs we work with, including ourselves, have been building businesses for over a decade. Most are not working on the first business they started either. Even if the concept you’re currently working on doesn’t shake out, the lessons, the networks, and how you respond to success and failure will...

Thiru Thangarthinam

Thiru Thangarthinam: CEO and Founder - MST Solutions

CEO and Founder - MST Solutions

Introduction MST Solutions launched in October 2012. Our headquarters are in Chandler, Ariz., and we have two additional offices in India (Chennai and Trichy). We have 275 employees (75 in Chandler, and 200 in India).  We’re the largest Salesforce partner in Arizona. From 2017 to 2018, we achieved 286% growth...

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...

VINCENT ROUSSON

RECTEUR, UQAT

Cependant, pour une université en région comme l’AbitibiTémiscamingue, l’innovation peut jouer un rôle encore plus important dans son développement et dans celui de ses territoires d’attaches. Tout d’abord, l’innovation peut aider à attirer et à retenir les étudiants et les professeurs. En développant des programmes innovants et en offrant des...

PHILIP KAFKA

PRESIDENT AT PRINCE CONCEPTS

My company, Prince Concepts, is a real estate development studio, laboratory and office based in Core City, Detroit. We acquire, develop, own and manage land and building projects. The studio works to express personal experience, philosophy and belief through built work. The laboratory tinkers – seeking truth and developing precision....

DR. AJIT SHETTY

DR. AJIT SHETTY

FORMER CHAIRMAN, JANSSEN BEERSE

DR. AJIT SHETTY FORMER CHAIRMAN, JANSSEN BEERSE My name is Dr. Ajit Shetty and I served as Chairman of Janssen Beerse from 2002 to 2012. I was very fortunate to have been part of Janssen under the leadership of Dr. Paul Janssen. We were the most productive pharmaceutical research lab...

ANDY CRESTODINA

ANDY CRESTODINA

ORBIT MEDIA STUDIOS - CO-FOUNDER & CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER

I’m going to start my answer with a few questions: Why would anyone pay attention to your brand?How do you demonstrate your expertise?How will you ever get your service pages to rank if you don’t have content worth linking to?Why would anyone give you an email address?How do you share...

LINDA MACLACHLAN

LINDA MACLACHLAN

FOUNDER, CHAIRPERSON AND PAMELA DIAZ, CEO, PRESIDENT - ENTARA

“Resilience” is a common word heard among the cyber security and IT crowd. Solution providers boast of tools that your business can employ to stay ahead of the pack – because, after all, it’s not the entire herd that’s taken down by a lone predator, but the slowest member. At...

DEREK WATFORD

DEREK WATFORD

HIGH POINT GAMER

  Pioneering Esports has been a journey filled with many lessons on the upside and downside of innovation. I have learned that innovation can be a lonely place for a visionary. I established my presence in the Esports industry early on by co-founding High Point Gamer (HPG) to produce competitive...

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...

Dr Harry Destecroix

Dr Harry Destecroix - CEO

CEO, Unit DX

When Novo Nordisk acquired our company, Ziylo, in a deal potentially worth $800 million, it exceeded our wildest expectations. Four years earlier, in 2014, I was finishing my Ph.D. in Professor Davis’ lab at the University of Bristol. We’d designed a set of molecular ‘sugar switches’ that sense how much...

ANDREW BATEY

FOUNDER AND CO-CEO, BEATDAPP

Vancouver has the potential – and opportunity – to become a significant player in the global tech ecosystem. For emerging tech hubs like Vancouver, companies must prioritize collaboration and cross-functional effort to compete with established cities like Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York, and Miami. Beatdapp highlights this opportunity and...

INNOVATE® Ecosystems