Thought Leaders
INNOVATE® Minnesota
Mouli Venkatesan
Senior Vice President & CIO - Optumhealth & Enterprise Clinical Technology
Innovation means constantly learning from experiences of the past and using those as guideposts and insights to invent a better future—in this case, to make the health care system serve everyone better. Innovation can mean many things. I look at Innovation using a lens of small “i” and BIG “I”...
INNOVATE™ Stockholm
EVA-CARIN BANKA JOHNSON
EXPLORATION LEADER FOR IKEA INSIGHT AS EXTERNAL CONSULTANT
By studying the environment and seeing the full context—what people do, how they do it, and why – it creates a solid foundation for new ideas. But facts and research alone are not enough. True innovation also requires empathy for the user—the drive that keeps you going until you find...
AI Québec
MME DESMARAIS
COPRSSIDENTE DU CONSEIL D’ADMINISTRATION
Dans les années à venir, l’industrie de l’intelligence artificielle connaîtra une croissance exponentielle au Canada, comparable à celle du multimédia dans les années 2010. Grâce à son immense bassin de talents et à des leviers qui soutiennent le développement de son écosystème, comme Scale AI, le Canada se distingue comme...
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® 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™ Oeiras
MÓNICA BETTENCOURT-DIAS
CEO, INSTITUTO GULBENKIAN DE CIÊNCIA
“I truly believe science is the most important tool to build a fair and sustainable world. To move in that direction, science needs to be democratized, and become accessible everywhere, to people of all origins and educational backgrounds.” In 2020, like no year before, science stood out in many different...
INNOVATION Quebec
SOPHIE D’AMOURS
RECTRICE, UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL
The word innovation is used in many ways. However, it is clearly defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as « the use of new ideas and methods ». Beyond the idea, a new solution must be used, commercialized, purchased or deployed to be innovative. In a world where knowledge evolves at...
INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1
NANCY GIANNI
GIGI'S PLAYHOUSE - FOUNDER AND CHIEF BELIEF OFFICER
It could happen with a simple fall off a bike, the birth of a new baby or grandbaby, or a debilitating illness. Differences do not discriminate. They do not care who you are. They do not care that you’re “low risk” or “not those kinds of people.” When you experience...
VOICES of the Future
BEATA MOŃKA
THE POWER OF PASSION
Beata Mońka is a visionary entrepreneur whose experiences and opinions, explores the nuances life’s work has been a beacon of creativity, connectivity, and transformative leadership. Our conversation, set against the backdrop of a series celebrating the most influential minds of our time, unfolds as a symphony of ideas and insights...
INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada
ANDY FISHER
DIRECTOR, BOUNCE HEALTH INNOVATION
Are you a driven entrepreneur who’s passionate about improving the world around you? Then take a look at these two charts: One shows the growing prevalence of chronic disease at every age. The other shows how much we’re spending per person just to keep up. We are getting sicker earlier,...
INNOVATE® Tampa Bay Vol.3
COL (RET) STU BRADIN
GLOBAL SOF FOUNDATION
As I approached my retirement from U.S. Special Operations Command in 2014, I decided to keep serving my nation and the wider Special Operations community through the formation of a new professional SOF association – the Global SOF Foundation (GSF). Since 9/11 U.S. special operations forces (SOF) had over doubled...
INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2
Alex Van Breedam
CEO, TRI-VIZOR
Logistics is facing important sustainability and capacity problems. The changing buying behaviour of the consumer, predominantly accelerated by the steep growth of e-commerce, is leading to increasingly smaller, but more frequent and ever faster deliveries. This fragmentation of deliveries is heavily boosting the need for transport capacity, while the shorter...
INNOVATE® Miami
Johanna Mikkola
Founder & CEO - Wyncode
Johanna Mikkola, Founder & CEO, Wyncode No product, service, or experience can be built, marketed, or executed without the use of technology. Today, every industry is a technology industry. Even Domino’s Pizza calls itself “a tech company that sells pizza.” Our opportunities for employment reflect this fact. At the...
VOICES of the Future
ALEXANDER ALEGRIA-SEIF
THE INTENTIONAL INVESTOR
Alexander Alegria-Seif stands at the crossroads of passion, purpose, and impact, embodying what it means to dream and act with intention. “I’m an impact investor and passionate about creating impact in the world,” he states, heralding a dialogue transcending the mundane. As friends and Harvard Business School alums, our connection...
INNOVATE® Austin Volume 2
Ashland Viscosi
Founder - Creatives Meet Business (CMB)
Austin has long been known as a hub of and for creativity. Monikers like the “Live Music Capital of the World” and “Keep Austin Weird” are known by those far outside of Austin’s City Limits. While it might have been music that initially landed Austin on the map, it’s our...
INNOVATE™ Stockholm
ROLAND WILLIAMS
INNOVATION PIONEERS
When people talk about innovation, it’s often described as a breakthrough moment — the spark that changes everything. In practice, it usually looks very different. Progress tends to come from the smaller steps: listening carefully, sharing experiences openly, and being willing to test something, learn from it, and try again....
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™ Stockholm
LISA ERICSSON
FOUNDER & HEAD, KTH INNOVATION
Universities are creative melting pots, where people from all over the world gather to advance knowledge and tackle big problems. As head of KTH Innovation, the entrepreneurship hub at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, I get to witness this firsthand, every day. Since the start in 2007, my team and...
INNOVATE® Washington DMV Edition
MIGUEL COPPEDGE
AGE 17, AUTHOR, ENTREPRENEUR, PHILANTHROPIST, INSPIRATIONAL/MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER
I pride myself on being unique and different. Most teens my age are worried about having the latest name brand clothing, shoes, or gadgets. But not me! I want to help and inspire people and change the world for the better. As a former foster child and current adoptee, I...
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™ Stockholm
SIMON MORITZ
INTRAPRENEUR AND AUTHOR STOCKHOLM SWEDEN
I have spent nearly two decades navigating the digital transformation, watching astonishing breakthroughs in AI, 5G, and autonomous systems roll off the assembly line. Yet, for all this potential, I often feel we are still stuck. Our innovation is stuck in the digital mud. Think back to Henry Ford. The...
INNOVATE® Puerto Rico
ALBERTO LUGO
PRESIDENT, INVID LLC
When I first learned to code, I never imagined its profound impact on my life. I was 15 years old when I first learned to discovered software development, and I remember the awe of seeing the computer do what I instructed it to do. I still maintain that same...
INNOVATION Quebec
KATHY MALAS
Adjointe au Président-directeur général, Pôle d’Innovation
Adjointe au Président-directeur général, Pôle d’Innovation, d’intelligence artificielle et de Projets, direction générale, Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM). Membre du conseil d’admisnistration, Conseil de l’innovation du Québec. Membre du conseil d’administration, Quartier de l’innovation en santé. Chercheuse professionnelle de la santé, Axe Carrefour de l’innovation, CRCHUM. Professeure associée,...
INNOVATE™ South Africa
MIKE ABEL
FOUNDING PARTNER: CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, M&C SAATCHI GROUP SOUTH AFRICA
Innovation for innovation sake has absolutely no purpose. It requires direction. It needs to convey a message, inspire curiosity, drive real change, shape the future, and influence action. It must have meaning. Combine this with entrepreneurship, and suddenly the world moves forward. Innovation thrives when curious and imaginative people ask...
Mouli Venkatesan
Senior Vice President & CIO - Optumhealth & Enterprise Clinical Technology
Innovation means constantly learning from experiences of the past and using those as guideposts and insights to invent a better future—in this case, to make the health care system serve everyone better. Innovation can mean many things. I look at Innovation using a lens of small “i” and BIG “I”...
EVA-CARIN BANKA JOHNSON
EXPLORATION LEADER FOR IKEA INSIGHT AS EXTERNAL CONSULTANT
By studying the environment and seeing the full context—what people do, how they do it, and why – it creates a solid foundation for new ideas. But facts and research alone are not enough. True innovation also requires empathy for the user—the drive that keeps you going until you find...
MME DESMARAIS
COPRSSIDENTE DU CONSEIL D’ADMINISTRATION
Dans les années à venir, l’industrie de l’intelligence artificielle connaîtra une croissance exponentielle au Canada, comparable à celle du multimédia dans les années 2010. Grâce à son immense bassin de talents et à des leviers qui soutiennent le développement de son écosystème, comme Scale AI, le Canada se distingue comme...
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,...
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...
MÓNICA BETTENCOURT-DIAS
CEO, INSTITUTO GULBENKIAN DE CIÊNCIA
“I truly believe science is the most important tool to build a fair and sustainable world. To move in that direction, science needs to be democratized, and become accessible everywhere, to people of all origins and educational backgrounds.” In 2020, like no year before, science stood out in many different...
SOPHIE D’AMOURS
RECTRICE, UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL
The word innovation is used in many ways. However, it is clearly defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as « the use of new ideas and methods ». Beyond the idea, a new solution must be used, commercialized, purchased or deployed to be innovative. In a world where knowledge evolves at...
NANCY GIANNI
GIGI'S PLAYHOUSE - FOUNDER AND CHIEF BELIEF OFFICER
It could happen with a simple fall off a bike, the birth of a new baby or grandbaby, or a debilitating illness. Differences do not discriminate. They do not care who you are. They do not care that you’re “low risk” or “not those kinds of people.” When you experience...
BEATA MOŃKA
THE POWER OF PASSION
Beata Mońka is a visionary entrepreneur whose experiences and opinions, explores the nuances life’s work has been a beacon of creativity, connectivity, and transformative leadership. Our conversation, set against the backdrop of a series celebrating the most influential minds of our time, unfolds as a symphony of ideas and insights...
ANDY FISHER
DIRECTOR, BOUNCE HEALTH INNOVATION
Are you a driven entrepreneur who’s passionate about improving the world around you? Then take a look at these two charts: One shows the growing prevalence of chronic disease at every age. The other shows how much we’re spending per person just to keep up. We are getting sicker earlier,...
COL (RET) STU BRADIN
GLOBAL SOF FOUNDATION
As I approached my retirement from U.S. Special Operations Command in 2014, I decided to keep serving my nation and the wider Special Operations community through the formation of a new professional SOF association – the Global SOF Foundation (GSF). Since 9/11 U.S. special operations forces (SOF) had over doubled...
Alex Van Breedam
CEO, TRI-VIZOR
Logistics is facing important sustainability and capacity problems. The changing buying behaviour of the consumer, predominantly accelerated by the steep growth of e-commerce, is leading to increasingly smaller, but more frequent and ever faster deliveries. This fragmentation of deliveries is heavily boosting the need for transport capacity, while the shorter...
Johanna Mikkola
Founder & CEO - Wyncode
Johanna Mikkola, Founder & CEO, Wyncode No product, service, or experience can be built, marketed, or executed without the use of technology. Today, every industry is a technology industry. Even Domino’s Pizza calls itself “a tech company that sells pizza.” Our opportunities for employment reflect this fact. At the...
ALEXANDER ALEGRIA-SEIF
THE INTENTIONAL INVESTOR
Alexander Alegria-Seif stands at the crossroads of passion, purpose, and impact, embodying what it means to dream and act with intention. “I’m an impact investor and passionate about creating impact in the world,” he states, heralding a dialogue transcending the mundane. As friends and Harvard Business School alums, our connection...
Ashland Viscosi
Founder - Creatives Meet Business (CMB)
Austin has long been known as a hub of and for creativity. Monikers like the “Live Music Capital of the World” and “Keep Austin Weird” are known by those far outside of Austin’s City Limits. While it might have been music that initially landed Austin on the map, it’s our...
ROLAND WILLIAMS
INNOVATION PIONEERS
When people talk about innovation, it’s often described as a breakthrough moment — the spark that changes everything. In practice, it usually looks very different. Progress tends to come from the smaller steps: listening carefully, sharing experiences openly, and being willing to test something, learn from it, and try again....
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...
LISA ERICSSON
FOUNDER & HEAD, KTH INNOVATION
Universities are creative melting pots, where people from all over the world gather to advance knowledge and tackle big problems. As head of KTH Innovation, the entrepreneurship hub at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, I get to witness this firsthand, every day. Since the start in 2007, my team and...
MIGUEL COPPEDGE
AGE 17, AUTHOR, ENTREPRENEUR, PHILANTHROPIST, INSPIRATIONAL/MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER
I pride myself on being unique and different. Most teens my age are worried about having the latest name brand clothing, shoes, or gadgets. But not me! I want to help and inspire people and change the world for the better. As a former foster child and current adoptee, I...
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...
SIMON MORITZ
INTRAPRENEUR AND AUTHOR STOCKHOLM SWEDEN
I have spent nearly two decades navigating the digital transformation, watching astonishing breakthroughs in AI, 5G, and autonomous systems roll off the assembly line. Yet, for all this potential, I often feel we are still stuck. Our innovation is stuck in the digital mud. Think back to Henry Ford. The...
KATHY MALAS
Adjointe au Président-directeur général, Pôle d’Innovation
Adjointe au Président-directeur général, Pôle d’Innovation, d’intelligence artificielle et de Projets, direction générale, Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM). Membre du conseil d’admisnistration, Conseil de l’innovation du Québec. Membre du conseil d’administration, Quartier de l’innovation en santé. Chercheuse professionnelle de la santé, Axe Carrefour de l’innovation, CRCHUM. Professeure associée,...
MIKE ABEL
FOUNDING PARTNER: CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, M&C SAATCHI GROUP SOUTH AFRICA
Innovation for innovation sake has absolutely no purpose. It requires direction. It needs to convey a message, inspire curiosity, drive real change, shape the future, and influence action. It must have meaning. Combine this with entrepreneurship, and suddenly the world moves forward. Innovation thrives when curious and imaginative people ask...