Thought Leaders

INNOVATE® Nashville

MARTY PASLICK

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, HCA HEALTHCARE

Marty Paslick is HCA Healthcare’s chief information officer. He has been with the organization for more than three decades and leads its Information Technology Group (ITG), a team of more than 6,000 colleagues that provide IT strategy and support for HCA Healthcare and its 182 hospitals and more than 2,300...

INNOVATE® Utah

Shauna Smith

Shauna Smith

President - Four Foods Group/Savory

  Shauna Smith, President – Four Foods Group/Savory I still remember opening day in our very first restaurant like it was yesterday. Except it wasn’t yesterday… it was 11 years ago. We had just moved into a newly developed area in Utah that was starved for eating establishments. We asked...

INNOVATE® Tampa Bay Vol.3

ERIC R. POLINS

ERIC R. POLINS

MANAGING PARTNER

Businesses have focused on traditional methods of communications and marketing to spread their message to their customers. But those models have shifted and the pace at which communications is now delivered has accelerated to break-neck speeds. It’s easy for a company’s message to get lost amid all the chatter that...

INNOVATE™ Kitchener Waterloo

RUTH CASSELMAN

CEO, ACCELERATOR CENTRE

Before I became the CEO of the Accelerator Centre, before I joined the board of the Golden Triangle Angel Network (GTAN), I was a founder. I co-founded Alert Labs with a simple but ambitious goal: to help buildings save water, operate more efficiently, and reduce risk through smart technology. Like...

INNOVATE™ South Africa

STEVE PINTO

STEVE PINTO

CEO, NEW REALITY & CTRL ROBOTICS

Jobs are changing and evolving faster than anyone expected and humanity needs to embrace technology to accelerate for the better. People need more tools to upskill themselves out of poverty and away from the jobs robots will take. My vision is to create the tools to upskill humanity faster and...

INNOVATION Quebec

VINCENT ROUSSON

RECTOR, UQAT

However, for a university located in a region like Abitibi Témiscamingue, innovation can play an even more critical role in its development. First and foremost, innovation can help attract and retain students and professors. By developing innovative programs and offering exciting research opportunities in partnership with the community, UQAT attracts...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

DAVID RYAN

CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SA WATER

At its heart, innovation is a simple concept: to bring to life new ideas that deliver value and benefits. We all live in the realm of ideas, and from small ideas can come big changes. In my experience, people working on the frontline play a leading role in generating ideas...

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® Washington DMV Edition

SEEMA ALEXANDER

PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER, VIRGENT AI

We are amid society’s most unprecedented era of technological innovation – the next industrial revolution driven by the mainstream adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). For CEOs, founders, and organization leaders, this period surpasses the advent and rise of the internet. New business categories will emerge, while many companies that resist...

INNOVATE™ Estonia

KALEV KALLEMETS

CEO, FERMI ENERGIA

THE COURAGE TO BUILD THE FUTURE When we started Fermi Energia in 2019, there were a handful of nuclear experts in Estonia, but not nearly enough for a nuclear power plant. There was no law to regulate nuclear energy. No political support. No clear understanding of which technology to choose,...

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....

INNOVATE™ Stockholm

SAVERA FARIDOON

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PLUTOVETS.

“Welcome to our women’s protection home.” Not a sentence a child should ever hear, but one I heard more than once growing up. As the eldest of three siblings in a destructive home, I was forced to grow up fast, becoming both caretaker and mediator between my siblings and our...

INNOVATE™ Oeiras

Miguel Almeida

Miguel Almeida

General Manager, Cisco Portugal

I always like to say that I guide my life, both personally and professionally, by some principles that I learned in the years I practiced Rugby: respect, teamwork, resilience, discipline and the ability to enjoy, at the end of each day, the fruits of what I did with it. It...

INNOVATION Quebec

PRÉFACE DE MURIELLE LABERGE

RECTRICE DE L’UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC EN OUTAOUAIS

L’innovation est intrinsèquement liée à la recherche constante d’amélioration. Elle requiert un esprit créatif et agile pour se concrétiser. C’est cet état d’esprit qui pousse les individus en quête de l’amélioration du bien-être et de la création d’un monde meilleur à se consacrer aux innovations sociales fondées sur des valeurs...

INNOVATE™ Stockholm

MELODI ASKELÖF

CEO & CO-FOUNDER, SATOCCI

Next stop: Mars. That’s the mindset that drives me. I’m scaling Retail Tech from MENA to the world with Satocci and our Scan & Pay revolution. I’ve spent fifteen years moving between banking, finance, sales and telecom, and here’s what I’ve learned: money always moves faster than the systems built...

INNOVATE® Tampa Bay Vol.3

LAKSHMI SHENOY

LAKSHMI SHENOY

CEO-EMBARC COLLECTIVE

REFLECTING ON THE CURVEBALLS OF 2020 For Embarc Collective, 2020 was defined as an exercise of turning obstacles into opportunity. In January we launched the final component of our value proposition, our 32,000-square-foot physical space. In doing this, we could finally bring our vision of making Embarc Collective the central...

INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada

MICHAEL SANDERSON

DIRECTOR - ARTHUR L. IRVING ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTRE, SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY

When talking about innovation and entrepreneurship, we conjure images of revolutionary products and world-changing ideas. What is often missed in the discussion is the impact that these concepts have on the student. To help illustrate and understand this, I think it is important that I share a little bit of...

INNOVATE® Blockchain

NUKE GOLDSTEIN

NUKE GOLDSTEIN

CTO, CELSIUS NETWORK

We have seen it before – the PC, internet, Web 2.0, smartphones – each wave bringing dramatic changes to society and our daily lives. And here it is again – blockchains, cryptocurrencies, smart-contracts, dApps, DeFi, NFTs – all leads to decentralization and Web3. The excitement has been building among entrepreneurs,...

INNOVATE® St. Louis

Brandon Dempsey

Brandon Dempsey

Husband, Father, Adventurer, Entrepreneur, Author, Professor, & Global non-profit leader - Gobrandgo!

Brandon spends his time traveling the world from the back of a BMW motorcycle and adventuring with his family. When he’s not adventuring, you will find him running a marketing agency that serves mid market manufacturing companies, working with high school kids exploring entrepreneurship, teaching marketing strategy courses at Washington...

INNOVATE® Nashville

A.J. BAHOU

PARTNER & CHAIR AI PRACTICE, BRADLEY

Many of the early conversations around artificial intelligence have focused on whether this nascent technology is friend or foe. But as a lawyer whose passion is AI and technology, I find that dialogue to be quite complex. As with all technologies, AI poses risks as well as rewards. Some of...

INNOVATE™ Alberta

DR. ELIZABETH CANNON

DR. ELIZABETH CANNON

OC, AOE, FRSC, FCAE, PRESIDENT EMERITA, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

The energy of our community and the focus not on who you are, but what you can do – and how you can contribute – provided a platform where I knew that hard work would be rewarded. I was not disappointed. I was fortunate to be exposed to the Global...

INNOVATE® San Diego Vol.1

Neal Bloom

Neal Bloom

Founder - Fresh Brewed Tech

Neal Bloom Founder – Fresh Brewed Tech In San Diego many different industry clusters are contributing to and benefiting from force multiplying through collaboration. That is one of San Diego’s great strengths – collaboration. In a community that is commonly described as having a ‘give before you get’ mentality, we...

INNOVATE™ Estonia

KÄDI RISTKOK

CEO, ESTONIAN CLEANTECH ASSOCIATION

The past decade has seen a lot of shifts in the world and this is also inherent in the cleantech sector. Cleantech is no longer defined solely by its sustainability goals; it is positioning itself as a foundational driver of resilience, autonomy, and transformation across industries. Clean technologies emerging in...

INNOVATE™ Stockholm

STEFAN MORITZ

HEAD OF INNOVATION AT MAX MATTHIESSEN, KEYNOTE SPEAKER & PROFESSOR

Having worked around the globe, I choose Stockholm every time. Close to nature, stunning water all around, super digital, wellbeing and family focused. Also, I believe Stockholm is best placed to lead a united Europe in human-centric innovation. In a world grappling with profound shifts — from volatile stocks, climate,...

MARTY PASLICK

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, HCA HEALTHCARE

Marty Paslick is HCA Healthcare’s chief information officer. He has been with the organization for more than three decades and leads its Information Technology Group (ITG), a team of more than 6,000 colleagues that provide IT strategy and support for HCA Healthcare and its 182 hospitals and more than 2,300...

Shauna Smith

Shauna Smith

President - Four Foods Group/Savory

  Shauna Smith, President – Four Foods Group/Savory I still remember opening day in our very first restaurant like it was yesterday. Except it wasn’t yesterday… it was 11 years ago. We had just moved into a newly developed area in Utah that was starved for eating establishments. We asked...

ERIC R. POLINS

ERIC R. POLINS

MANAGING PARTNER

Businesses have focused on traditional methods of communications and marketing to spread their message to their customers. But those models have shifted and the pace at which communications is now delivered has accelerated to break-neck speeds. It’s easy for a company’s message to get lost amid all the chatter that...

RUTH CASSELMAN

CEO, ACCELERATOR CENTRE

Before I became the CEO of the Accelerator Centre, before I joined the board of the Golden Triangle Angel Network (GTAN), I was a founder. I co-founded Alert Labs with a simple but ambitious goal: to help buildings save water, operate more efficiently, and reduce risk through smart technology. Like...

STEVE PINTO

STEVE PINTO

CEO, NEW REALITY & CTRL ROBOTICS

Jobs are changing and evolving faster than anyone expected and humanity needs to embrace technology to accelerate for the better. People need more tools to upskill themselves out of poverty and away from the jobs robots will take. My vision is to create the tools to upskill humanity faster and...

VINCENT ROUSSON

RECTOR, UQAT

However, for a university located in a region like Abitibi Témiscamingue, innovation can play an even more critical role in its development. First and foremost, innovation can help attract and retain students and professors. By developing innovative programs and offering exciting research opportunities in partnership with the community, UQAT attracts...

DAVID RYAN

CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SA WATER

At its heart, innovation is a simple concept: to bring to life new ideas that deliver value and benefits. We all live in the realm of ideas, and from small ideas can come big changes. In my experience, people working on the frontline play a leading role in generating ideas...

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...

SEEMA ALEXANDER

PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER, VIRGENT AI

We are amid society’s most unprecedented era of technological innovation – the next industrial revolution driven by the mainstream adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). For CEOs, founders, and organization leaders, this period surpasses the advent and rise of the internet. New business categories will emerge, while many companies that resist...

KALEV KALLEMETS

CEO, FERMI ENERGIA

THE COURAGE TO BUILD THE FUTURE When we started Fermi Energia in 2019, there were a handful of nuclear experts in Estonia, but not nearly enough for a nuclear power plant. There was no law to regulate nuclear energy. No political support. No clear understanding of which technology to choose,...

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....

SAVERA FARIDOON

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PLUTOVETS.

“Welcome to our women’s protection home.” Not a sentence a child should ever hear, but one I heard more than once growing up. As the eldest of three siblings in a destructive home, I was forced to grow up fast, becoming both caretaker and mediator between my siblings and our...

Miguel Almeida

Miguel Almeida

General Manager, Cisco Portugal

I always like to say that I guide my life, both personally and professionally, by some principles that I learned in the years I practiced Rugby: respect, teamwork, resilience, discipline and the ability to enjoy, at the end of each day, the fruits of what I did with it. It...

PRÉFACE DE MURIELLE LABERGE

RECTRICE DE L’UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC EN OUTAOUAIS

L’innovation est intrinsèquement liée à la recherche constante d’amélioration. Elle requiert un esprit créatif et agile pour se concrétiser. C’est cet état d’esprit qui pousse les individus en quête de l’amélioration du bien-être et de la création d’un monde meilleur à se consacrer aux innovations sociales fondées sur des valeurs...

MELODI ASKELÖF

CEO & CO-FOUNDER, SATOCCI

Next stop: Mars. That’s the mindset that drives me. I’m scaling Retail Tech from MENA to the world with Satocci and our Scan & Pay revolution. I’ve spent fifteen years moving between banking, finance, sales and telecom, and here’s what I’ve learned: money always moves faster than the systems built...

LAKSHMI SHENOY

LAKSHMI SHENOY

CEO-EMBARC COLLECTIVE

REFLECTING ON THE CURVEBALLS OF 2020 For Embarc Collective, 2020 was defined as an exercise of turning obstacles into opportunity. In January we launched the final component of our value proposition, our 32,000-square-foot physical space. In doing this, we could finally bring our vision of making Embarc Collective the central...

MICHAEL SANDERSON

DIRECTOR - ARTHUR L. IRVING ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTRE, SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY

When talking about innovation and entrepreneurship, we conjure images of revolutionary products and world-changing ideas. What is often missed in the discussion is the impact that these concepts have on the student. To help illustrate and understand this, I think it is important that I share a little bit of...

NUKE GOLDSTEIN

NUKE GOLDSTEIN

CTO, CELSIUS NETWORK

We have seen it before – the PC, internet, Web 2.0, smartphones – each wave bringing dramatic changes to society and our daily lives. And here it is again – blockchains, cryptocurrencies, smart-contracts, dApps, DeFi, NFTs – all leads to decentralization and Web3. The excitement has been building among entrepreneurs,...

Brandon Dempsey

Brandon Dempsey

Husband, Father, Adventurer, Entrepreneur, Author, Professor, & Global non-profit leader - Gobrandgo!

Brandon spends his time traveling the world from the back of a BMW motorcycle and adventuring with his family. When he’s not adventuring, you will find him running a marketing agency that serves mid market manufacturing companies, working with high school kids exploring entrepreneurship, teaching marketing strategy courses at Washington...

A.J. BAHOU

PARTNER & CHAIR AI PRACTICE, BRADLEY

Many of the early conversations around artificial intelligence have focused on whether this nascent technology is friend or foe. But as a lawyer whose passion is AI and technology, I find that dialogue to be quite complex. As with all technologies, AI poses risks as well as rewards. Some of...

DR. ELIZABETH CANNON

DR. ELIZABETH CANNON

OC, AOE, FRSC, FCAE, PRESIDENT EMERITA, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

The energy of our community and the focus not on who you are, but what you can do – and how you can contribute – provided a platform where I knew that hard work would be rewarded. I was not disappointed. I was fortunate to be exposed to the Global...

Neal Bloom

Neal Bloom

Founder - Fresh Brewed Tech

Neal Bloom Founder – Fresh Brewed Tech In San Diego many different industry clusters are contributing to and benefiting from force multiplying through collaboration. That is one of San Diego’s great strengths – collaboration. In a community that is commonly described as having a ‘give before you get’ mentality, we...

KÄDI RISTKOK

CEO, ESTONIAN CLEANTECH ASSOCIATION

The past decade has seen a lot of shifts in the world and this is also inherent in the cleantech sector. Cleantech is no longer defined solely by its sustainability goals; it is positioning itself as a foundational driver of resilience, autonomy, and transformation across industries. Clean technologies emerging in...

STEFAN MORITZ

HEAD OF INNOVATION AT MAX MATTHIESSEN, KEYNOTE SPEAKER & PROFESSOR

Having worked around the globe, I choose Stockholm every time. Close to nature, stunning water all around, super digital, wellbeing and family focused. Also, I believe Stockholm is best placed to lead a united Europe in human-centric innovation. In a world grappling with profound shifts — from volatile stocks, climate,...

INNOVATE® Ecosystems