Thought Leaders
INNOVATE™ Vancouver Vol.2
MATTHEW UNGER
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Have you ever experienced the sinking feeling of discovering that your identity or credit card information has been stolen? I have. As a technologist, this experience led me on a personal journey to create new standards of trust, security, accountability, and privacy for every individual, every business, every transaction. While...
INNOVATE® New Jersey Vol.2
Dr. Susan Cole
President - Montclair State University
New Jersey has long been a destination for talented and ambitious people from all over the world. Its highly diverse population is a rich opportunity for employers, and Montclair State University plays a robust role in providing that population with an excellent higher education in a wide range of fields,...
INNOVATE™ Adelaide
HON NAT COOK MP
MINISTER FOR HUMAN SERVICES
“We have little evidence that we are achieving success in one of the core challenges in Australia and internationally – breaking intergenerational cycles of disadvantage in all its forms.” (BetterStart, 2023) The quote above is from a submission by Dr Rhiannon Pilkington and Professor John Lynch to our Royal Commission...
INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2
SILVIA LENAERTS
PROFESSOR AND VICE-RECTOR VALORISATION & DEVELOPMENT, UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
Silvia Lenaerts has always been a pioneer. She was the first chemist to achieve a PhD at IMEC. She founded a company on gas sensors, as well as the Bioscience Engineering department and her research group. Currently, she is full professor and vice-rector Valorisation & Development at the Universiteit Antwerpen....
INNOVATE™ South Africa
JOSEPHINE BUYS
FOUNDING CEO, INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING BUREAU (IAB SA) AND DIGITAL MEDIA LITERACY ADVOCATE
As a media and marketing pioneer, throughout my career I have been at the forefront of lightning speed change in the advertising and media landscape, from representing several top newspaper and magazine publishers, as they migrated online, to founding CEO of the first and only Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB SA)...
INNOVATE® Minnesota
Angelina Lawton
Founder - Sportsdigita
Experience Selling Is Here To StayWith the creativity of design professionals combined with the power of web-based analytics, we’ve been able to give leaders in organizations across the spectrum unparalleled opportunities to make presentations come alive. How? By transforming information and design into experiences that viewers can hear, see, and...
Phoebe Cade Miles
Co-Founder - The Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention
Phoebe Cade Miles Co-Founder – The Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention In 2004, I helped my father, Dr. James Robert Cade, the lead inventor of Gatorade, to establish the Cade Museum. Sixteen years later, it is inspiring the next generation of inventors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. The Gatorade story had...
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...
INNOVATION Quebec
JESSE VINCENT HERSCOVICI
PDG, AXELYS
No matter how big or small, they face strong competition in an unstable environment. In this context, the development of an IP strategy is essential to establish a path to the market. Although IP is a current topic in the business world, it is still too often misunderstood. According to...
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...
INNOVATE® Georgia
CHRIS DOWNIE
FLEXENTIAL, CEO
Building a Sustainable Future: The Legacy We Leave In my role as CEO of Flexential, I have the privilege and the duty to steer our company towards not just innovation but sustainable innovation. Our industry is at the crossroads of technological advancement and environmental stewardship. We have the unique opportunity...
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® New Jersey Vol.2
Dr. Wayne Tamarelli, President - AWT Private Investments
President - AWT Private Investments
As a CEO, entrepreneur, private company owner, and public company officer, Dr. Wayne Tamarelli’s 40+ years of experience have encompassed general management, entrepreneurship, new ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and many more. He also has investments in several wine industry businesses. His primary business activity is as a professional venture capital...
INNOVATE® Philadelphia
Lance Bachmann
Thought Leader Of 1SEO
For a city with a wealth of history behind it, it continues to propel itself forward and arrive at the forefront of innovation. The transformation of both Philadelphia and digital marketing within the 21st century alone is exhilarating, and it shows no signs of slowing down. The ecosystem made up...
INNOVATE™ Alberta
REENA SAHNEY
OWNER & FOUNDER, JIVA CONSULTING
Alberta has a rich history of entrepreneurialism originating in the oil and gas industry. From the first discovery of oil around 1900 to the rapid growth starting in the middle of the 20th century, fossil fuels have been the economic engine of the province. With one of the largest reserves...
INNOVATE® Minnesota
Dan Atkins
President - MinneAnalytics - Chief Community Entanglement Particle, Optum
Dan Atkins President, MinneAnalytics – Chief Community Entanglement Particle, Optum I can’t explain the principle of quantum entanglement as well as a physicist could, but I believe in its application to the concept of community engagement nevertheless. There’s a way that two particles, separated by immense distance, can become entangled...
INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2
LUC LUWEL
CEO, VOKA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ANTWERP-WAASLAND
To me, social impact is the reason for our organisation’s existence. A chamber of commerce is not there to serve the private interests of a few individual companies, but to help an entire region grow. I have always been a firm believer that you can only achieve prosperity through entrepreneurship,...
INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1
GARY CONKRIGHT
CO-FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO
A visionary serial entrepreneur, physIQ co-founder, Chairman and CEO Gary Conkright has a passion for taking game-changing technology from the laboratory to the commercial marketplace to solve important problems. A University of Chicago MBA and Purdue Aeronautical Engineer, Gary previously served as the founding CEO and Chairman of SmartSignal (acquired...
INNOVATE® New Jersey Vol.2
ABBY AYOUB
CEO, OPTICAL ACADEMY
Every business that I’ve poured my heart into was founded on the idea of adding value and convenience to everyday life. I saw a problem, found one million ways to fix it, and stayed laser focused on the solution even when it didn’t make sense to other people. To do...
INNOVATE® Austin Volume 2
Jay Hallberg
CEO and Founder
There’s no greater transformative force in the world’s businesses than technology’s ability to connect people, increase competitiveness, and ultimately help organizations grow. But as the business technology market nears $4 trillion in annual spend, two significant challenges have emerged for both the businesses who buy technology and the vendors who...
INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports
TOMMY KNAPP
PRESIDENT ESPORTS DIVISION, OPTIMA SPORTS GROUP
After making the plunge into the ecosystem myself, in 2017, I found myself telling people this everywhere I went. Whether it was at an industry breakout conference at DreamHack, as a panelist on a YouTuber Zoom discussion, on a college campus speaking to Sports Management students or just in daily...
VOICES of the Future
DR. MICHAEL SINEL-FOUNDER/PHYSICIAN THERAPEUTICS
A VANGUARD OF THE FUTURE IN MEDICINE AND LONGEVITY
Dr. Mike Sinel is a luminary in medicine and health innovation, and his vision of the future embraces the spirit of togetherness and scientific exploration. Our conversation looks at the realities of medicine and longevity. A seasoned physician, a dedicated professor, a keen biohacker, and a dynamic entrepreneur — these...
INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2
WOUTER BLEUKX
HYDROGEN ACTIVITIES, INEOS
Young people are concerned about the impact of climate change. I think it is our job to address their concerns about the future. This is the reason why I took the job in INEOS’ hydrogen activities. It’s important that we can tell our children that the industrial sector is leading...
INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2
FABIENNE VERBEEK
CEO, GLOBAL NEW AUTOMATION (GNA)
If you had said this to me 10 years ago, I might have laughed it off. But today, I am upgrading my company, watching it grow, and taking on new challenges. There is a passion in me that may not have been there before, which is why I’m giving back...
MATTHEW UNGER
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Have you ever experienced the sinking feeling of discovering that your identity or credit card information has been stolen? I have. As a technologist, this experience led me on a personal journey to create new standards of trust, security, accountability, and privacy for every individual, every business, every transaction. While...
Dr. Susan Cole
President - Montclair State University
New Jersey has long been a destination for talented and ambitious people from all over the world. Its highly diverse population is a rich opportunity for employers, and Montclair State University plays a robust role in providing that population with an excellent higher education in a wide range of fields,...
HON NAT COOK MP
MINISTER FOR HUMAN SERVICES
“We have little evidence that we are achieving success in one of the core challenges in Australia and internationally – breaking intergenerational cycles of disadvantage in all its forms.” (BetterStart, 2023) The quote above is from a submission by Dr Rhiannon Pilkington and Professor John Lynch to our Royal Commission...
SILVIA LENAERTS
PROFESSOR AND VICE-RECTOR VALORISATION & DEVELOPMENT, UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
Silvia Lenaerts has always been a pioneer. She was the first chemist to achieve a PhD at IMEC. She founded a company on gas sensors, as well as the Bioscience Engineering department and her research group. Currently, she is full professor and vice-rector Valorisation & Development at the Universiteit Antwerpen....
JOSEPHINE BUYS
FOUNDING CEO, INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING BUREAU (IAB SA) AND DIGITAL MEDIA LITERACY ADVOCATE
As a media and marketing pioneer, throughout my career I have been at the forefront of lightning speed change in the advertising and media landscape, from representing several top newspaper and magazine publishers, as they migrated online, to founding CEO of the first and only Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB SA)...
Angelina Lawton
Founder - Sportsdigita
Experience Selling Is Here To StayWith the creativity of design professionals combined with the power of web-based analytics, we’ve been able to give leaders in organizations across the spectrum unparalleled opportunities to make presentations come alive. How? By transforming information and design into experiences that viewers can hear, see, and...
Phoebe Cade Miles
Co-Founder - The Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention
Phoebe Cade Miles Co-Founder – The Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention In 2004, I helped my father, Dr. James Robert Cade, the lead inventor of Gatorade, to establish the Cade Museum. Sixteen years later, it is inspiring the next generation of inventors, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. The Gatorade story had...
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...
JESSE VINCENT HERSCOVICI
PDG, AXELYS
No matter how big or small, they face strong competition in an unstable environment. In this context, the development of an IP strategy is essential to establish a path to the market. Although IP is a current topic in the business world, it is still too often misunderstood. According to...
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...
CHRIS DOWNIE
FLEXENTIAL, CEO
Building a Sustainable Future: The Legacy We Leave In my role as CEO of Flexential, I have the privilege and the duty to steer our company towards not just innovation but sustainable innovation. Our industry is at the crossroads of technological advancement and environmental stewardship. We have the unique opportunity...
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...
Dr. Wayne Tamarelli, President - AWT Private Investments
President - AWT Private Investments
As a CEO, entrepreneur, private company owner, and public company officer, Dr. Wayne Tamarelli’s 40+ years of experience have encompassed general management, entrepreneurship, new ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and many more. He also has investments in several wine industry businesses. His primary business activity is as a professional venture capital...
Lance Bachmann
Thought Leader Of 1SEO
For a city with a wealth of history behind it, it continues to propel itself forward and arrive at the forefront of innovation. The transformation of both Philadelphia and digital marketing within the 21st century alone is exhilarating, and it shows no signs of slowing down. The ecosystem made up...
REENA SAHNEY
OWNER & FOUNDER, JIVA CONSULTING
Alberta has a rich history of entrepreneurialism originating in the oil and gas industry. From the first discovery of oil around 1900 to the rapid growth starting in the middle of the 20th century, fossil fuels have been the economic engine of the province. With one of the largest reserves...
Dan Atkins
President - MinneAnalytics - Chief Community Entanglement Particle, Optum
Dan Atkins President, MinneAnalytics – Chief Community Entanglement Particle, Optum I can’t explain the principle of quantum entanglement as well as a physicist could, but I believe in its application to the concept of community engagement nevertheless. There’s a way that two particles, separated by immense distance, can become entangled...
LUC LUWEL
CEO, VOKA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ANTWERP-WAASLAND
To me, social impact is the reason for our organisation’s existence. A chamber of commerce is not there to serve the private interests of a few individual companies, but to help an entire region grow. I have always been a firm believer that you can only achieve prosperity through entrepreneurship,...
GARY CONKRIGHT
CO-FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO
A visionary serial entrepreneur, physIQ co-founder, Chairman and CEO Gary Conkright has a passion for taking game-changing technology from the laboratory to the commercial marketplace to solve important problems. A University of Chicago MBA and Purdue Aeronautical Engineer, Gary previously served as the founding CEO and Chairman of SmartSignal (acquired...
ABBY AYOUB
CEO, OPTICAL ACADEMY
Every business that I’ve poured my heart into was founded on the idea of adding value and convenience to everyday life. I saw a problem, found one million ways to fix it, and stayed laser focused on the solution even when it didn’t make sense to other people. To do...
Jay Hallberg
CEO and Founder
There’s no greater transformative force in the world’s businesses than technology’s ability to connect people, increase competitiveness, and ultimately help organizations grow. But as the business technology market nears $4 trillion in annual spend, two significant challenges have emerged for both the businesses who buy technology and the vendors who...
TOMMY KNAPP
PRESIDENT ESPORTS DIVISION, OPTIMA SPORTS GROUP
After making the plunge into the ecosystem myself, in 2017, I found myself telling people this everywhere I went. Whether it was at an industry breakout conference at DreamHack, as a panelist on a YouTuber Zoom discussion, on a college campus speaking to Sports Management students or just in daily...
DR. MICHAEL SINEL-FOUNDER/PHYSICIAN THERAPEUTICS
A VANGUARD OF THE FUTURE IN MEDICINE AND LONGEVITY
Dr. Mike Sinel is a luminary in medicine and health innovation, and his vision of the future embraces the spirit of togetherness and scientific exploration. Our conversation looks at the realities of medicine and longevity. A seasoned physician, a dedicated professor, a keen biohacker, and a dynamic entrepreneur — these...
WOUTER BLEUKX
HYDROGEN ACTIVITIES, INEOS
Young people are concerned about the impact of climate change. I think it is our job to address their concerns about the future. This is the reason why I took the job in INEOS’ hydrogen activities. It’s important that we can tell our children that the industrial sector is leading...