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
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® Blockchain
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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...
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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...