Thought Leaders
INNOVATE™ Oeiras
PEDRO JANELA
CEO, Founder and Co-owner of WYgroup
Creating a services group from the ground up, focused on relentless innovation on Customer Experience, on understanding people, the consumer, the clients. This is the lifelong journey of WYgroup. And it continues to be. Since the first offer, web and digital communication back in 2001, going to the first expert...
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™ 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...
INNOVATE® Blockchain
LORNE SUGARMAN
CEO, METAVERSE GROUP
Responses were mixed. While many applauded, others ridiculed our purchase. One well-known financier tweeted that our purchase made the tulip bubble of the 17th century look like investing in Berkshire Hathaway. The Metaverse isn’t a new concept. The term was first coined in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 book, Snow Crash. A...
INNOVATE® New Jersey Vol.2
DARREL FRATER
INVESTMENT ASSOCIATE, VISIBLE HANDS
The record startup fundraising and investment climate of 2021 has slowed considerably as public market valuations for late-stage tech companies have declined drastically, and concerns around rising interest rates have added to VCs’ hesitation for making new investments. Black entrepreneurs, in particular, have been hit hard by this pullback from...
INNOVATE™ Adelaide
HEATHER CROALL
DIRECTOR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ADELAIDE FRINGE
Innovation is a core value at Adelaide Fringe. It’s something I’ve focused on since I took on the role as Director and Chief Executive in 2015, implementing an agile and inclusive model to help artists, producers and presenters thrive in South Australia’s arts industry. Adelaide is the ultimate city for...
VOICES of the Future
DR. MARSHALL GOLDSMITH
NAVIGATING THE WHEEL OF CHANGE
Professor Marshall Goldsmith stands as a paragon of leadership and executive coaching, his name synonymous with transformative change in business and personal development. As a two-time winner of the Thinkers 50 award for the #1 Leadership Thinker in the World and the world’s #1 Executive Coach, his influence stretches across...
INNOVATE™ South Africa
CHRIS BOTHA
GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR, PARK ADVERTISING
Is it possible to put a price on innovation? Not really. I mean, how do you put a price on something that is in essence non-tangible? And how do we know what the real value of innovation is? It is sadly something that is all too often underappreciated because innovation...
INNOVATE™ Ottawa
Decades of ups and downs, helping others start companies, starting my own companies (and sometimes failing) has taught me the power of pattern recognition. It is key to both innovation and entrepreneurship because it is also at the core of being an early adopter and a connector. That was how...
INNOVATE™ South Africa
PADDY UPTON
LEADERSHIP COACH
Paddy brings over 25-years of experience working with high-performing teams in business and sport, across multiple industries and on five continents. Imagine you’re a team leader and you overhear one of your team speaking to their friends at a party. They’re saying something like, ‘‘I love the place I work....
INNOVATE® San Diego Vol.1
I’ve been fortunate enough to live a life distinguished by constant progression, from understanding to impacting, particularly in my career. Trained as a physicist, I was fueled by a deep drive to understand some of the most complex “whys” of our world. Quickly I learned that understanding is more satisfying...
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...
VOICES of the Future
CHANDRAN NAIR
THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Chandran Nair has devoted his life to challenging conventional wisdom and advocating for a future that balances economic progress with social and environmental responsibility. As the Founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT), a pan-Asian think tank, he is a guiding light of intellectual honesty and a...
Global Innovation Spotlight
DR. JOE PEREZ
SENIOR SYSTEMS ANALYST, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, INTERNATIONAL KEYNOTE SPEAKER
BALANCING ART AND SCIENCE: THE POWER OF DATA STORYTELLING IN BUSINESS INTELLIGENCEAs a seasoned thought leader in the realm of data analytics and business intelligence, I am passionate about communicating the innovative role of data storytelling in effectively communicating data-driven insights. While different perspectives exist on its nature, some viewing...
INNOVATE™ Estonia
ERKI ANI
CHAIRMAN OF THE SUPERVISORY BOARD, ESTONIAN CLEANTECH ASSOCIATION AND CO-FOUNDER & CEO, JÄLLE TECHNOLOGIES
The technologies that fall under its umbrella shift over time—new breakthroughs emerge, trends take the podium, and success stories in sector X blind us to what’s happening in sectors Y and Z. It gets even trickier when you realize cleantech isn’t just a sector—it’s a mindset. It’s a commitment to...
INNOVATE® Philadelphia
Fran Griesing
Managing Member - Griesing Law
As data has shown, disadvantaged groups are notably underrepresented and underpaid across all industries. The educational and professional opportunities for women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and persons with disabilities, are still not where they need to be in order to even the playing field. Further, those...
INNOVATE® Minnesota
Amy Fisher
Vice president - Padilla
BUILDING THOUGHT LEADERS, ONE BRAND AT A TIME Innovation has been described as a business strategy, a brand value, even an organizational characteristic. It implies continuous ideation, creativity, and execution based on an ability to understand and meet the needs of customers, employees, investors, and other key stakeholders. Innovation is...
INNOVATE® Utah
Ken Davis
Co-Founder & CEO - TaskEasy
Ken Davis is the co-founder and CEO of TaskEasy – an online platform that allows homeowners, renters, and businesses to order and manage yard maintenance online. Since TaskEasy’s launch in 2013, the company has grown to service hundreds of thousands of properties across all 50 states. TaskEasy’s business model caters...
INNOVATE® Gainesville
Christine E. Schmidt
J. Crayton Pruitt Family Chair & Department Chair Of Biomedical Engineering - University Of Florida
One of the most important jobs of any leader is to create a vision for what they want to accomplish and to implement a realistic plan to realize that vision. It was fundamentally important to me in executing my vision to identify what voices were not being heard and to...
VOICES of the Future
KAY VAN-PETERSEN
THE BUILDER
In my pursuit to unravel the mysteries of what the future holds, I had the privilege of interviewing Kay Van-Petersen, an avant-garde thinker and a trailblazer in the realm of finance and technology. His insights, not just on where we are heading but on how we can shape our trajectory,...
INNOVATE™ Botswana Vol.1
DR. RACIOUS MOATSHE
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, LEA
Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) was created by Botswana Government with the specific mandate of entrepreneurship and enterprise development. LEA mandate extends to growing of exports and also assisting with establishing linkages between SMEs and big businesses that are crucial not only in growing SME market share but also in the...
INNOVATE™ Alberta
MARK KORTHUIS
PRESIDENT AND CEO, GLENROSE HOSPITAL FOUNDATION
The Glenrose Hospital Foundation plays a pivotal role in supporting Canada’s largest comprehensive tertiary rehabilitation hospital, supporting patients of all ages who require complex rehabilitative care. The need for innovation in rehabilitation healthcare has never been greater, given the significant percentage of Canadians with disabilities, the surge in demand for...
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™ Vancouver Vol.2
DR. SARAH LUBIK
CHARLES CHANG INSTITUTE FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP @ SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Innovation policy around the world puts massive emphasis on the importance of increasing entrepreneurship for economic, and more recently, social impact. In many cases, there is a fairly narrow focus on digital tech-based startups, “tech”- style entrepreneurs, and programming to increase the number of people who act like them. This...
PEDRO JANELA
CEO, Founder and Co-owner of WYgroup
Creating a services group from the ground up, focused on relentless innovation on Customer Experience, on understanding people, the consumer, the clients. This is the lifelong journey of WYgroup. And it continues to be. Since the first offer, web and digital communication back in 2001, going to the first expert...
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...
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...
LORNE SUGARMAN
CEO, METAVERSE GROUP
Responses were mixed. While many applauded, others ridiculed our purchase. One well-known financier tweeted that our purchase made the tulip bubble of the 17th century look like investing in Berkshire Hathaway. The Metaverse isn’t a new concept. The term was first coined in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 book, Snow Crash. A...
DARREL FRATER
INVESTMENT ASSOCIATE, VISIBLE HANDS
The record startup fundraising and investment climate of 2021 has slowed considerably as public market valuations for late-stage tech companies have declined drastically, and concerns around rising interest rates have added to VCs’ hesitation for making new investments. Black entrepreneurs, in particular, have been hit hard by this pullback from...
HEATHER CROALL
DIRECTOR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ADELAIDE FRINGE
Innovation is a core value at Adelaide Fringe. It’s something I’ve focused on since I took on the role as Director and Chief Executive in 2015, implementing an agile and inclusive model to help artists, producers and presenters thrive in South Australia’s arts industry. Adelaide is the ultimate city for...
DR. MARSHALL GOLDSMITH
NAVIGATING THE WHEEL OF CHANGE
Professor Marshall Goldsmith stands as a paragon of leadership and executive coaching, his name synonymous with transformative change in business and personal development. As a two-time winner of the Thinkers 50 award for the #1 Leadership Thinker in the World and the world’s #1 Executive Coach, his influence stretches across...
CHRIS BOTHA
GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR, PARK ADVERTISING
Is it possible to put a price on innovation? Not really. I mean, how do you put a price on something that is in essence non-tangible? And how do we know what the real value of innovation is? It is sadly something that is all too often underappreciated because innovation...
PADDY UPTON
LEADERSHIP COACH
Paddy brings over 25-years of experience working with high-performing teams in business and sport, across multiple industries and on five continents. Imagine you’re a team leader and you overhear one of your team speaking to their friends at a party. They’re saying something like, ‘‘I love the place I work....
I’ve been fortunate enough to live a life distinguished by constant progression, from understanding to impacting, particularly in my career. Trained as a physicist, I was fueled by a deep drive to understand some of the most complex “whys” of our world. Quickly I learned that understanding is more satisfying...
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...
CHANDRAN NAIR
THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Chandran Nair has devoted his life to challenging conventional wisdom and advocating for a future that balances economic progress with social and environmental responsibility. As the Founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow (GIFT), a pan-Asian think tank, he is a guiding light of intellectual honesty and a...
DR. JOE PEREZ
SENIOR SYSTEMS ANALYST, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, INTERNATIONAL KEYNOTE SPEAKER
BALANCING ART AND SCIENCE: THE POWER OF DATA STORYTELLING IN BUSINESS INTELLIGENCEAs a seasoned thought leader in the realm of data analytics and business intelligence, I am passionate about communicating the innovative role of data storytelling in effectively communicating data-driven insights. While different perspectives exist on its nature, some viewing...
ERKI ANI
CHAIRMAN OF THE SUPERVISORY BOARD, ESTONIAN CLEANTECH ASSOCIATION AND CO-FOUNDER & CEO, JÄLLE TECHNOLOGIES
The technologies that fall under its umbrella shift over time—new breakthroughs emerge, trends take the podium, and success stories in sector X blind us to what’s happening in sectors Y and Z. It gets even trickier when you realize cleantech isn’t just a sector—it’s a mindset. It’s a commitment to...
Fran Griesing
Managing Member - Griesing Law
As data has shown, disadvantaged groups are notably underrepresented and underpaid across all industries. The educational and professional opportunities for women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, and persons with disabilities, are still not where they need to be in order to even the playing field. Further, those...
Amy Fisher
Vice president - Padilla
BUILDING THOUGHT LEADERS, ONE BRAND AT A TIME Innovation has been described as a business strategy, a brand value, even an organizational characteristic. It implies continuous ideation, creativity, and execution based on an ability to understand and meet the needs of customers, employees, investors, and other key stakeholders. Innovation is...
Ken Davis
Co-Founder & CEO - TaskEasy
Ken Davis is the co-founder and CEO of TaskEasy – an online platform that allows homeowners, renters, and businesses to order and manage yard maintenance online. Since TaskEasy’s launch in 2013, the company has grown to service hundreds of thousands of properties across all 50 states. TaskEasy’s business model caters...
Christine E. Schmidt
J. Crayton Pruitt Family Chair & Department Chair Of Biomedical Engineering - University Of Florida
One of the most important jobs of any leader is to create a vision for what they want to accomplish and to implement a realistic plan to realize that vision. It was fundamentally important to me in executing my vision to identify what voices were not being heard and to...
KAY VAN-PETERSEN
THE BUILDER
In my pursuit to unravel the mysteries of what the future holds, I had the privilege of interviewing Kay Van-Petersen, an avant-garde thinker and a trailblazer in the realm of finance and technology. His insights, not just on where we are heading but on how we can shape our trajectory,...
DR. RACIOUS MOATSHE
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, LEA
Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) was created by Botswana Government with the specific mandate of entrepreneurship and enterprise development. LEA mandate extends to growing of exports and also assisting with establishing linkages between SMEs and big businesses that are crucial not only in growing SME market share but also in the...
MARK KORTHUIS
PRESIDENT AND CEO, GLENROSE HOSPITAL FOUNDATION
The Glenrose Hospital Foundation plays a pivotal role in supporting Canada’s largest comprehensive tertiary rehabilitation hospital, supporting patients of all ages who require complex rehabilitative care. The need for innovation in rehabilitation healthcare has never been greater, given the significant percentage of Canadians with disabilities, the surge in demand for...
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. SARAH LUBIK
CHARLES CHANG INSTITUTE FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP @ SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Innovation policy around the world puts massive emphasis on the importance of increasing entrepreneurship for economic, and more recently, social impact. In many cases, there is a fairly narrow focus on digital tech-based startups, “tech”- style entrepreneurs, and programming to increase the number of people who act like them. This...