Thought Leaders

INNOVATE® South Carolina

Andrew Strickland

Co-Founder & CEO, Code/+/Trust

At Code and Trust, we partner with founders, corporations, and government teams to challenge assumptions, move fast, and build software that drives real impact. My career has centered around one core belief: great ideas don’t fail because they aren’t good, they fail because they aren’t executed well. To me, innovation...

INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2

GEERT VERACHTERT

GEERT VERACHTERT

DIRECTOR STRATEGY AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, GROEP VAN ROEY

“Our Iceberg is Melting”, the book by John Kotter on change management was given to me as a present from my mentor at Philips. I’ve always associated myself with the mindset of Fred the penguin: someone who creates a feeling of urgency by helping others realise why change is necessary...

INNOVATE® Miami

Jaret L. Davis

What has made Miami such a great environment for growing a startup culture is its strong entrepreneurial ethos and the lack of restrictions. It’s the kind of place where if you have an idea, no one is going to tell you it can’t be done. Over the last 20 years,...

INNOVATE® Blockchain

Namir Anani

Namir Anani

President and CEO - P.Eng Information and Communications Technology Council

Namir Anani President and CEO – P.Eng Information and Communications Technology Council In the next decade, our world is expected to witness greater socioeco-nomic shifts than those experienced in the last 50 years. Climate change, increased urbanization, evolving trade dynamics, and demographic shifts are among the many factors shaping this...

INNOVATE™ Vancouver Vol.2

ALE BROWN

ALE BROWN -MBA

MBA, CIPP, CIPT, CIPM, PMP PRESIDENT AND PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT

ALE BROWN MBA, CIPP, CIPT, CIPM, PMP PRESIDENT AND PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT Innovation to me means a lot of different things. It means courage, it means ability to adapt, it means embracing the unknown. It means a brighter and more promising future if you can see where theopportunities lie and just...

INNOVATE® New Jersey Vol.2

Robert J. Bardusch

Robert J. Bardusch

Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer - Valley National Bank

Valley Bank is built on a foundation of more than 90 years of history, strengthened by a legacy of local relationship building, exceptional risk management and meticulous credit underwriting. This has afforded us with a reputation of trust and reliability in the communities we serve. But for an organization with...

INNOVATE® Utah

Clint Betts

Clint Betts

Executive Director - Silicon Slopes

Growing up, I spent countless hours throwing a baseball as hard as I could  against the side of our family’s cinder block garage. If a better way of spending time existed, the world did a great job of keeping it secret. I thought “cinder block ball” was the official pastime...

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™ Adelaide

MR. OSCAR FIORINOTTO

FOUNDER & CEO, SUPASHOCK ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES

FOSTERING A CULTURE OF LEADERS AND INNOVATIONI was fortunate to have an ambitious father who embedded leadership heavily into my life. I feel it is important for any leader to have a mentor, and this is the reason we focus so heavily on mentorship at Supashock. A mentor is someone...

INNOVATIONS in Pharmaceutical Development®

Ping Yeh

StemoniX - Transforming How New Medicines Are Discovered

CO-Founder and CEO - Stemonix

Coming back from the brink of death sounds so dramatic, but that’s truly how I feel. In 2012, I was literally dying. I had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and, a few months into my treatment, I learned that my cancer was resistant to the drugs. My only treatment option...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

THE HON. DR. SUSAN CLOSE

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE AND SPACE INDUSTRIES

South Australia is an innovative, collaborative and forward-thinking state with defence and space manufacturing at the heart of our emerging high-tech economy. Home to a critical mass of defence industry, cutting-edge research and education institutions as well as world-class infrastructure, precincts and advanced manufacturing capability, South Australia is firmly established...

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,...

INNOVATION Quebec

PIERRE FITZGIBBON

LE MINISTRE DE L’ÉCONOMIE, DE L’INNOVATION DE L’ÉNERGIE, MINISTRE RESPONSABLE DU DÉVELOPPEMENT ÉCONOMIQUE RÉGIONAL ET MINISTRE RESPONSABLE DE LA MÉTROPOLE ET DE LA RÉGION DE MONTRÉAL

En lançant la Stratégie québécoise de recherche et d’investissement en innovation 2022-2027 (SQRI2 ) et en créant la fonction d’innovateur en chef, notre gouvernement s’est engagé à faire de l’innovation le cœur du développement économique du Québec au cours des prochaines années. Plus que jamais, nous voulons soutenir tous ceux...

INNOVATE™ Montréal

Carl Baillargeon

Carl Baillargeon

Communications and Marketing Director - Technoparc Montréal

  English: It’s a park. It’s techno. The Technoparc is relaxed and peaceful. The site is also green. Very green. With a huge proportion of green space and protected zones, located between areas of concrete omnipresence, the feel of nature is flagrant and fragrant. A perfect setting for companies and...

INNOVATE™ Estonia

PROF. MART USTAV

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ICOSAGEN GROUP

I studied molecular science because I wanted to understand how things work. I built a strong knowledge of molecular processes, but the turning point came when my mother was diagnosed with melanoma. I could explain the disease in detail, but I couldn’t change its course. That loss shifted my focus...

INNOVATE® Nashville

MARIA F. MCLENDON

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER AT FIRST SOUTH FINANCIAL

Every day, I’m reminded that the world of financial services is both exciting and challenging. We live in a time when consumers are flooded with options, yet too often, they’re still unsure where to turn for real guidance and personal connection. In my experience, the three biggest challenges facing our...

INNOVATE® Tampa Bay Vol.3

DENNIS SCHMITT

DENNIS SCHMITT

NUROTECH CORP - FOUNDER & CEO

It is hard for me to accept being a visionary leader, as it is difficult for me to reconcile where I am now, with where I was 15 years ago. I didn’t envision a future where I’m the CEO/Founder of a multi-million dollar Biotech company on the precipice to lead...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

COLIN HALL

INDUSTRY PROFESSOR,FUTURE INDUSTRIES INSTITUTE

In 2017 the Holden plant shut its doors, an economic powerhouse and driver of manufacturing within the state for over 50 years. It had followed the fate of the Mitsubishi plant by shutting its doors. It was a grim period, and a lot of things had to change across the...

INNOVATE® San Antonio

CHARLES WOODIN

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, GEEKDOM

I forgot about my dream of being part of a city and space my children would one day want to call home. When I learned about Graham Weston’s vision for founding Geekdom, those dreams came flooding back to me. Graham’s overall vision for revitalizing downtown San Antonio was to build...

INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports

PHIL RANTA

PHIL RANTA

CEO, WORMHOLE LABS

ESPORTS ISN’T A SPORT, IT’S THE IDEA OF SPORTSSince the birth of video games, we’ve played to win. It began with high scores and simple 1v1 games, progressed through games with an objective of story completion and now, finally, an online free-for-all where a kid in Japan and an adult...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

DAVID WILSON

CEO & FOUNDER,GREEN FROG SYSTEMS

Solar Lighting: A Path to Sustainability and Improved Road SafetySolar lighting technology has made significant strides, revolutionising smart city development, enhancing road safety in areas without access or limited power and enabling governments to offset its emissions in conjunction with Net-Zero polices. Driving Uptake of Sustainable TechnologiesA larger initiative is...

INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports

KATHRYN DE SHIELDS-MOON

KATHRYN DE SHIELDS-MOON

CO-FOUNDER, DIVERTEGA

My ideal future for this industry is one rich in diversity and equality, from developing games and the content within them to more comprehensive professional representation in gaming and esports for minorities and gender minorities. It will take all of us working together to make this reality, and there is...

INNOVATE™ Estonia

PRIIT ALAMÄE

NORTAL, CEO

CHALLENGING THE “BUT” IN DIGITALIZATION Nortal’s story began at the same time the second government of prime minister Mart Laar decided to go all in on digital transformation in 1999, followed by the accession to the European Union in 2004. There was an unwritten societal and political understanding that a...

INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2

WALTER EEVERS

WALTER EEVERS

VITO - DIRECTOR RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

WALTER EEVERS DIRECTOR RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT, VITO And when we speak of sustainability, VITO is the key player in this arena. With about 1,000 employees, VITO is an independent Flemish research organization with top researchers working on cleantech and sustainable development. Antwerp is a place where innovation is also massively...

Andrew Strickland

Co-Founder & CEO, Code/+/Trust

At Code and Trust, we partner with founders, corporations, and government teams to challenge assumptions, move fast, and build software that drives real impact. My career has centered around one core belief: great ideas don’t fail because they aren’t good, they fail because they aren’t executed well. To me, innovation...

GEERT VERACHTERT

GEERT VERACHTERT

DIRECTOR STRATEGY AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, GROEP VAN ROEY

“Our Iceberg is Melting”, the book by John Kotter on change management was given to me as a present from my mentor at Philips. I’ve always associated myself with the mindset of Fred the penguin: someone who creates a feeling of urgency by helping others realise why change is necessary...

Jaret L. Davis

What has made Miami such a great environment for growing a startup culture is its strong entrepreneurial ethos and the lack of restrictions. It’s the kind of place where if you have an idea, no one is going to tell you it can’t be done. Over the last 20 years,...

Namir Anani

Namir Anani

President and CEO - P.Eng Information and Communications Technology Council

Namir Anani President and CEO – P.Eng Information and Communications Technology Council In the next decade, our world is expected to witness greater socioeco-nomic shifts than those experienced in the last 50 years. Climate change, increased urbanization, evolving trade dynamics, and demographic shifts are among the many factors shaping this...

ALE BROWN

ALE BROWN -MBA

MBA, CIPP, CIPT, CIPM, PMP PRESIDENT AND PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT

ALE BROWN MBA, CIPP, CIPT, CIPM, PMP PRESIDENT AND PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT Innovation to me means a lot of different things. It means courage, it means ability to adapt, it means embracing the unknown. It means a brighter and more promising future if you can see where theopportunities lie and just...

Robert J. Bardusch

Robert J. Bardusch

Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer - Valley National Bank

Valley Bank is built on a foundation of more than 90 years of history, strengthened by a legacy of local relationship building, exceptional risk management and meticulous credit underwriting. This has afforded us with a reputation of trust and reliability in the communities we serve. But for an organization with...

Clint Betts

Clint Betts

Executive Director - Silicon Slopes

Growing up, I spent countless hours throwing a baseball as hard as I could  against the side of our family’s cinder block garage. If a better way of spending time existed, the world did a great job of keeping it secret. I thought “cinder block ball” was the official pastime...

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...

MR. OSCAR FIORINOTTO

FOUNDER & CEO, SUPASHOCK ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES

FOSTERING A CULTURE OF LEADERS AND INNOVATIONI was fortunate to have an ambitious father who embedded leadership heavily into my life. I feel it is important for any leader to have a mentor, and this is the reason we focus so heavily on mentorship at Supashock. A mentor is someone...

Ping Yeh

StemoniX - Transforming How New Medicines Are Discovered

CO-Founder and CEO - Stemonix

Coming back from the brink of death sounds so dramatic, but that’s truly how I feel. In 2012, I was literally dying. I had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and, a few months into my treatment, I learned that my cancer was resistant to the drugs. My only treatment option...

THE HON. DR. SUSAN CLOSE

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE AND SPACE INDUSTRIES

South Australia is an innovative, collaborative and forward-thinking state with defence and space manufacturing at the heart of our emerging high-tech economy. Home to a critical mass of defence industry, cutting-edge research and education institutions as well as world-class infrastructure, precincts and advanced manufacturing capability, South Australia is firmly established...

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,...

PIERRE FITZGIBBON

LE MINISTRE DE L’ÉCONOMIE, DE L’INNOVATION DE L’ÉNERGIE, MINISTRE RESPONSABLE DU DÉVELOPPEMENT ÉCONOMIQUE RÉGIONAL ET MINISTRE RESPONSABLE DE LA MÉTROPOLE ET DE LA RÉGION DE MONTRÉAL

En lançant la Stratégie québécoise de recherche et d’investissement en innovation 2022-2027 (SQRI2 ) et en créant la fonction d’innovateur en chef, notre gouvernement s’est engagé à faire de l’innovation le cœur du développement économique du Québec au cours des prochaines années. Plus que jamais, nous voulons soutenir tous ceux...

Carl Baillargeon

Carl Baillargeon

Communications and Marketing Director - Technoparc Montréal

  English: It’s a park. It’s techno. The Technoparc is relaxed and peaceful. The site is also green. Very green. With a huge proportion of green space and protected zones, located between areas of concrete omnipresence, the feel of nature is flagrant and fragrant. A perfect setting for companies and...

PROF. MART USTAV

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ICOSAGEN GROUP

I studied molecular science because I wanted to understand how things work. I built a strong knowledge of molecular processes, but the turning point came when my mother was diagnosed with melanoma. I could explain the disease in detail, but I couldn’t change its course. That loss shifted my focus...

MARIA F. MCLENDON

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER AT FIRST SOUTH FINANCIAL

Every day, I’m reminded that the world of financial services is both exciting and challenging. We live in a time when consumers are flooded with options, yet too often, they’re still unsure where to turn for real guidance and personal connection. In my experience, the three biggest challenges facing our...

DENNIS SCHMITT

DENNIS SCHMITT

NUROTECH CORP - FOUNDER & CEO

It is hard for me to accept being a visionary leader, as it is difficult for me to reconcile where I am now, with where I was 15 years ago. I didn’t envision a future where I’m the CEO/Founder of a multi-million dollar Biotech company on the precipice to lead...

COLIN HALL

INDUSTRY PROFESSOR,FUTURE INDUSTRIES INSTITUTE

In 2017 the Holden plant shut its doors, an economic powerhouse and driver of manufacturing within the state for over 50 years. It had followed the fate of the Mitsubishi plant by shutting its doors. It was a grim period, and a lot of things had to change across the...

CHARLES WOODIN

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, GEEKDOM

I forgot about my dream of being part of a city and space my children would one day want to call home. When I learned about Graham Weston’s vision for founding Geekdom, those dreams came flooding back to me. Graham’s overall vision for revitalizing downtown San Antonio was to build...

PHIL RANTA

PHIL RANTA

CEO, WORMHOLE LABS

ESPORTS ISN’T A SPORT, IT’S THE IDEA OF SPORTSSince the birth of video games, we’ve played to win. It began with high scores and simple 1v1 games, progressed through games with an objective of story completion and now, finally, an online free-for-all where a kid in Japan and an adult...

DAVID WILSON

CEO & FOUNDER,GREEN FROG SYSTEMS

Solar Lighting: A Path to Sustainability and Improved Road SafetySolar lighting technology has made significant strides, revolutionising smart city development, enhancing road safety in areas without access or limited power and enabling governments to offset its emissions in conjunction with Net-Zero polices. Driving Uptake of Sustainable TechnologiesA larger initiative is...

KATHRYN DE SHIELDS-MOON

KATHRYN DE SHIELDS-MOON

CO-FOUNDER, DIVERTEGA

My ideal future for this industry is one rich in diversity and equality, from developing games and the content within them to more comprehensive professional representation in gaming and esports for minorities and gender minorities. It will take all of us working together to make this reality, and there is...

PRIIT ALAMÄE

NORTAL, CEO

CHALLENGING THE “BUT” IN DIGITALIZATION Nortal’s story began at the same time the second government of prime minister Mart Laar decided to go all in on digital transformation in 1999, followed by the accession to the European Union in 2004. There was an unwritten societal and political understanding that a...

WALTER EEVERS

WALTER EEVERS

VITO - DIRECTOR RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

WALTER EEVERS DIRECTOR RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT, VITO And when we speak of sustainability, VITO is the key player in this arena. With about 1,000 employees, VITO is an independent Flemish research organization with top researchers working on cleantech and sustainable development. Antwerp is a place where innovation is also massively...

INNOVATE® Ecosystems