Thought Leaders

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...

Past conquests bear witness to the value and significance of scientific knowledge and leave no doubt than an innovative spirit is still the best answer to major challenges faced by humankind. In fact, innovation-friendly policies foster models of development based on people and are a recipe for prosperity. This is...

I started as a scientist, moving through the ranks: BSc, Ph.D., postdoc, and writing peer-reviewed papers. Commerce called, and I began writing patent, grant, and funding propositions for a biotech firm before moving into personal financial planning in 1997. Science and finance are the same thing to me—both aiming to...

In the business world, few principles are more critical than the ones I hold dear: take care of your employees and customers. This ethos, rooted deeply in the Golden Rule, has shaped every aspect of my journey and remains the cornerstone of DJJ Technologies. By treating others how we want...

Innovation has been a foundational principle I’ve seen throughout my life. As the first-generation daughter of immigrant parents from Cuba, I learned early on from my parents and grandparents how creative, innovative thinking can help me navigate everyday obstacles and unpredictable circumstances. This drive to continuously innovate and think bigger...

It is no coincidence that Seqster was born in San Diego, a city with an underdog culture where small startups transform into large enterprises that address giant markets. Perfect weather drives innovation—always sunny, 72 degrees, and 70 miles of beaches. Perhaps the combination of unique culture and weather has drawn...

PUTTING SOUTH AUSTRALIA IN THE SPOTLIGHTI’ve never watched the world go by without wanting to stick my hand up and disrupt proceedings. At school I was the one with the locker full of PlayStation memory cards, running my own business and disrupting. School students are supposed to sit and learn,...

When Darin Brannan co-founded hyper-growth startup ClearDATA in 2011, his mission was clear. He wanted to form a company that would make healthcare better, every single day. His vision to drive the mission was to modernize and protect Healthcare IT by building a state-of-the-art healthcare software platform and services to...

Many years ago, when I was facilitating internal innovation workshops at Motorola, word got out, and executives would ask me to run “The Innovation Workshop” for their teams. I told them that I don’t have an innovation workshop, and that they should tell me what they aiming to achieve, and...

Quebec has the reputation of being a major player in the world of artificial intelligence (AI). We may believe it, but exactly what will it be like? From a strictly objective point of view, the fact that Prof. Yoshua Bengio is one of the Top 3 most cited researchers worldwide...

Healthcare is a top priority of an aging society, this industry is key in the development of innovative treatments to address society’s needs and to foster better health, for longer and healthier lives. COVID-19 only made this clearer. With a global scale and deep understanding of healthcare needs, the pharma...

INFLECTION POINTS AND NEW POSSIBILITIES As a career banker with over 30 years’ experience, I’ve seen a fair amount of change along the way. In retrospect, major inflection points, no matter how disruptive to traditional banking methods have been positive in terms of making the banking experience better for everyone....

Henry Hintermeister Publishing Partner – INNOVATE® Minnesota A century ago, my father and his Minnesota peers were making the switch from using horses to farm their land to new-fangled contraptions called tractors. Many of these Minnesota natives rarely left the state to travel, their lifestyle centered on dutiful labor that...

Social innovation—the opportunity to leverage creativity and innovation to solve complex problems and help people and communities thrive—is often associated with entrepreneurs or singular individuals. Though this is true and is certainly one aspect of the formula that leads to meaningful impact, it isn’t the full story. The reality is...

This “Life of Events” that I chose and am very proud of is in no way a normal life. A professional in this area is not just a service provider. I sincerely believe that most of us view each event as nothing less than a mission that transcends schedules, other...

The future of the St. Louis entrepreneurial ecosystem will be deeper levels of corporate and startup engagement through structured programs. Corporates struggle to innovate and they must look to startups to assist them with this process. Startups have the ability to be nimble and adapt to new technological trends that...

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,...

Since our formation, I have been constantly motivated by the impact that medical research can have on our community. It’s a challenging field, and it requires a lot of hard work, dedication, and perseverance – sometimes years in the making – but the positive results we see makes it all...

Sweden has a global reputation for entrepreneurship. We’re a small country, but we’ve produced our fair share of global companies and ideas. People ask ”why?”, seemingly expecting a secret (?) formula. I don’t think there is one. What there is – however – is a lot of trial and error,...

Innovating by OptimizingIn 1980 I founded Princeton Consultants based on the thesis that optimization could improve business decision making. Princeton University, from which I’d just graduated, and Bell Labs were pioneers in the academic study of optimization algorithms. “Optimization” gets used in many contexts. I define it as, “a decision-...

We live in an era of rapid disruption where global forces are now demanding our full attention. Emerging economies, geopolitical inflections, health risks, cyber threats, and changing employment prospects are now top of mind. Against this backdrop are digital technologies that are accelerating innovations and transforming industries faster than economies...

When Talkdesk came into existence there was no contact centre entirely hosted in the cloud. We were game changers and that is what we aim to continue to be and do. We do not rest on our laurels and continue to lead, build the future of contact centres and set...

Many people are fascinated by Unicorns, mythical horse-like animals with a spiralling horn on its forehead, who symbolise purity, rarity and magic. In Estonia you can meet real unicorns, companies who have achieved billion-dollar valuations. There are more of these per head of population than anywhere else on earth. Here...

In an age where it’s never been easier to build something flashy, the real challenge is building something useful. Purpose is the anchor in that process. It keeps you honest, focused, and resilient. And surprisingly often, it becomes your unfair advantage. I’ve seen this firsthand at Curevo Health, the company...