Thought Leaders
INNOVATE™ Stockholm
PETER KRUSE
ENTREPRENEUR & INVESTOR
Most people know the statistics: most new businesses can’t pay a market salary and stay profitable within five years. Funding dries up. The idea wasn’t strong enough. There was no real product–market fit. On paper, the odds look discouraging. So why would anyone step into that arena? For me, the...
INNOVATE™ Stockholm
SAVERA FARIDOON
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PLUTOVETS.
“Welcome to our women’s protection home.” Not a sentence a child should ever hear, but one I heard more than once growing up. As the eldest of three siblings in a destructive home, I was forced to grow up fast, becoming both caretaker and mediator between my siblings and our...
INNOVATION Quebec
PREFACE BY MURIELLE LABERGE
RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF QUÉBEC EN OUTAOUAIS
Innovation is intrinsically linked to the constant quest for improvement. It requires a creative and agile mindset to come to fruition. It is this mindset that drives individuals seeking to improve well-being and create a better world to dedicate themselves to social innovations based on human values such as solidarity,...
INNOVATE™ Alberta
MICHAEL MCKERRACHER,
REGIONAL MANAGING PARTNER, KPMG IN CANADA’S CALGARY OFFICE
Having served as KPMG in Canada’s National Energy leader for 12 years and working in the Calgary marketplace for the past 30 years. I see Alberta uniquely positioned to foster and lead innovation at the intersection of sustainability, energy, and technology. Businesses are presented with opportunities for growth as the...
INNOVATE™ Stockholm
FERNANDA TORRE
NEXT AGENTS - CEO & FOUNDING PARTNER
In my journey as a sustainability expert and innovation leader, I’ve come to see a powerful synergy between these two fields. Working across both sustainability and innovation allows us to turn today’s challenges into opportunities, creating solutions that benefit people, communities, and ecosystems alike. Above all, innovation and sustainability must...
INNOVATE® Puerto Rico
NERMA ALBERTORIO BARNÉS
CO-FOUNDER CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURS
Puerto Rico, the unincorporated US territory, has been the focus of the public eye due to a very controversial bankruptcy, escalating debt, a category 5 hurricane, and one of the lowest economies in the United States. However, Puerto Rico has a lot to offer, and much work needs to be...
INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports
GIANNI MAIORANO
CONSULTANT-ONLINE BRAND PROTECTION & DOMAIN NAME SECURITY
Gaming to this point has been a profoundly positive experience that has helped shape my life and who I am today. Providing me community, challenges, identity, entertainment and more, I can safely say I would not be the person I am today without gaming and its continued evolution. Currently, I...
INNOVATE™ Adelaide
MAYOR MOIRA WERE AM
MAYOR, CITY OF ONKAPARINGA
In fact, one former recipient of our Young Citizen of the Year Award – in which we recognise young people who have made exceptional contributions by leading through generosity and enterprise – has just been elected to Council. We recognise and acclaim community-led events – festivals; sporting, arts and cultural...
INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada
DR. RAMESH VENKAT
DIRECTOR, DAVID SOBEY RETAILING CENTRE
INNOVATION IN THE RETAIL SECTOR The retail sector has undergone a significant transformation in the past decade, especially in the post-pandemic era. The major drivers of change have been new technologies, such as AI, changing consumer behaviour, and external shocks such as supply chain disruptions and inflation. The retail sector...
INNOVATE™ South Africa
IAN MERRINGTON
CEO, THE CAPE INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE (CITI) AND THE BANDWIDTH BARN
Covid 19 has had a particularly harsh impact on the region’s most vulnerable citizens. Access to vaccines and the ability to deliver these to individuals faces infrastructural and logistical constraints in less developed countries. As the global economy adopted the digital value chain at an exponential pace during lockdown, many...
AI Québec
GILLES SAVARD
CEO, IVADO
Data are everywhere: they are drivers of innovation and at the heart of the transformation taking hold all around us. Integral to many enabling technologies now maturing, from cloud computing to the Internet of things, 5G, 3D, augmented reality, robotics and more, these data and their valorization by analysis are...
INNOVATE® New Jersey Vol.2
FRANCIS J. GIANTOMASI
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, CSG LAW
Francis J. Giantomasi (Frank), a member of the Executive Committee of CSG Law, plays a critical role in the firm’s Real Estate, Development & Land Use Group. Over the course of his career, Frank has guided clients through a wide variety of planning, zoning and development projects throughout the Garden...
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...
VOICES of the Future
DR. ROD BERGER
NARRATIVES AT THE NEXUS
Dr. Rod Berger is the consummate storyteller. As a narrative mad scientist myself, I am but an amateur in the presence of Dr. Berger’s awe-inspiring talent. His views illuminate the corridors of tomorrow through the prism of today’s stories with foresight and wisdom. “My passion for storytelling began many years...
INNOVATE™ South Africa
MPUME NGOBESE
CO-MANAGING DIRECTOR, JOE PUBLIC JOHANNESBURG
With digital media usage higher than ever, more than 38 million people in South Africa are active on the internet, and 27-million consume social media content by liking, sharing, posting and commenting on everything from politics and the pandemic, to funnies and pictures of ‘fur babies’. Consumers have so many...
INNOVATE® Jacksonville
Sara Frasca
Vice President, Innovation Enablement - Platypus Labs
The concept of innovation can be completely overwhelming. Images of Edison inventing the light bulb or Henry Ford revolutionizing manufacturing push the idea of innovation outside the reach of us mere mortals. If we define innovation as a gigantic, change-the-world, cure-cancer type breakthrough, the concept is relegated to a select...
INNOVATE® Philadelphia
PAUL LIEBERMAN, PH.D.
FOUNDING DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR ADVANCED THERAPEUTICS, THE WISTAR INSTITUTE
“The goal of Wistar’s Center for Advanced Therapeutics is to identify and support academic champions—scientists conducting foundational research—and surround them with the expertise needed to advance their discoveries toward clinical impact,” said Paul Lieberman, Ph.D., founding director of the Center for Advanced Therapeutics (CAT) at The Wistar Institute. “Ultimately, the...
INNOVATE™ Estonia
ALEXANDER STOROZHUK
FOUNDER - PRNEWS.IO AND MEDIALISTER
Starting out in Ukraine in 2004, I saw an opportunity: smaller businesses needed a way to share their stories, yet few platforms catered to them. As a university student, I built a basic news distribution system, and over the years, that idea grew into PRNEWS.IO — a platform that today...
INNOVATE® Minnesota
Amy Fisher
Vice president - Padilla
BUILDING THOUGHT LEADERS, ONE BRAND AT A TIME Innovation has been described as a business strategy, a brand value, even an organizational characteristic. It implies continuous ideation, creativity, and execution based on an ability to understand and meet the needs of customers, employees, investors, and other key stakeholders. Innovation is...
INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1
DORRI MCWHORTER
PRESIDENT & CEO OF YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO
People will be studying the global pandemic’s effects on the workplace for decades to come. The trends it accelerated. The inequality it exposed. The countless challenges and opportunities it created. However, there is one thing that is already perfectly clear, and business leaders in every industry across the country...
INNOVATE™ Stockholm
JOHAN WEIGELT
CEO, KI INNOVATIONS
At KI Innovations, we bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and tangible impact, ensuring that groundbreaking discoveries from Karolinska Institutet (KI) reach patients, healthcare systems, and society at large. With a deep-rooted foundation in one of the world’s leading medical universities, we are committed to fostering a thriving ecosystem where...
VOICES of the Future
BRETT KING
THE FUTURE OF BANKING
Brett King stands as a beacon of innovation and foresight. His journey, a blend of passion for technology and a keen eye for the ever evolving financial landscape, positions him uniquely as a leading voice in the realm of digital banking and fintech. Delving into his insights, Brett’s narrative reveals...
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...
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,...
PETER KRUSE
ENTREPRENEUR & INVESTOR
Most people know the statistics: most new businesses can’t pay a market salary and stay profitable within five years. Funding dries up. The idea wasn’t strong enough. There was no real product–market fit. On paper, the odds look discouraging. So why would anyone step into that arena? For me, the...
SAVERA FARIDOON
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PLUTOVETS.
“Welcome to our women’s protection home.” Not a sentence a child should ever hear, but one I heard more than once growing up. As the eldest of three siblings in a destructive home, I was forced to grow up fast, becoming both caretaker and mediator between my siblings and our...
PREFACE BY MURIELLE LABERGE
RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF QUÉBEC EN OUTAOUAIS
Innovation is intrinsically linked to the constant quest for improvement. It requires a creative and agile mindset to come to fruition. It is this mindset that drives individuals seeking to improve well-being and create a better world to dedicate themselves to social innovations based on human values such as solidarity,...
MICHAEL MCKERRACHER,
REGIONAL MANAGING PARTNER, KPMG IN CANADA’S CALGARY OFFICE
Having served as KPMG in Canada’s National Energy leader for 12 years and working in the Calgary marketplace for the past 30 years. I see Alberta uniquely positioned to foster and lead innovation at the intersection of sustainability, energy, and technology. Businesses are presented with opportunities for growth as the...
FERNANDA TORRE
NEXT AGENTS - CEO & FOUNDING PARTNER
In my journey as a sustainability expert and innovation leader, I’ve come to see a powerful synergy between these two fields. Working across both sustainability and innovation allows us to turn today’s challenges into opportunities, creating solutions that benefit people, communities, and ecosystems alike. Above all, innovation and sustainability must...
NERMA ALBERTORIO BARNÉS
CO-FOUNDER CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURS
Puerto Rico, the unincorporated US territory, has been the focus of the public eye due to a very controversial bankruptcy, escalating debt, a category 5 hurricane, and one of the lowest economies in the United States. However, Puerto Rico has a lot to offer, and much work needs to be...
GIANNI MAIORANO
CONSULTANT-ONLINE BRAND PROTECTION & DOMAIN NAME SECURITY
Gaming to this point has been a profoundly positive experience that has helped shape my life and who I am today. Providing me community, challenges, identity, entertainment and more, I can safely say I would not be the person I am today without gaming and its continued evolution. Currently, I...
MAYOR MOIRA WERE AM
MAYOR, CITY OF ONKAPARINGA
In fact, one former recipient of our Young Citizen of the Year Award – in which we recognise young people who have made exceptional contributions by leading through generosity and enterprise – has just been elected to Council. We recognise and acclaim community-led events – festivals; sporting, arts and cultural...
DR. RAMESH VENKAT
DIRECTOR, DAVID SOBEY RETAILING CENTRE
INNOVATION IN THE RETAIL SECTOR The retail sector has undergone a significant transformation in the past decade, especially in the post-pandemic era. The major drivers of change have been new technologies, such as AI, changing consumer behaviour, and external shocks such as supply chain disruptions and inflation. The retail sector...
IAN MERRINGTON
CEO, THE CAPE INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE (CITI) AND THE BANDWIDTH BARN
Covid 19 has had a particularly harsh impact on the region’s most vulnerable citizens. Access to vaccines and the ability to deliver these to individuals faces infrastructural and logistical constraints in less developed countries. As the global economy adopted the digital value chain at an exponential pace during lockdown, many...
GILLES SAVARD
CEO, IVADO
Data are everywhere: they are drivers of innovation and at the heart of the transformation taking hold all around us. Integral to many enabling technologies now maturing, from cloud computing to the Internet of things, 5G, 3D, augmented reality, robotics and more, these data and their valorization by analysis are...
FRANCIS J. GIANTOMASI
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, CSG LAW
Francis J. Giantomasi (Frank), a member of the Executive Committee of CSG Law, plays a critical role in the firm’s Real Estate, Development & Land Use Group. Over the course of his career, Frank has guided clients through a wide variety of planning, zoning and development projects throughout the Garden...
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...
DR. ROD BERGER
NARRATIVES AT THE NEXUS
Dr. Rod Berger is the consummate storyteller. As a narrative mad scientist myself, I am but an amateur in the presence of Dr. Berger’s awe-inspiring talent. His views illuminate the corridors of tomorrow through the prism of today’s stories with foresight and wisdom. “My passion for storytelling began many years...
MPUME NGOBESE
CO-MANAGING DIRECTOR, JOE PUBLIC JOHANNESBURG
With digital media usage higher than ever, more than 38 million people in South Africa are active on the internet, and 27-million consume social media content by liking, sharing, posting and commenting on everything from politics and the pandemic, to funnies and pictures of ‘fur babies’. Consumers have so many...
Sara Frasca
Vice President, Innovation Enablement - Platypus Labs
The concept of innovation can be completely overwhelming. Images of Edison inventing the light bulb or Henry Ford revolutionizing manufacturing push the idea of innovation outside the reach of us mere mortals. If we define innovation as a gigantic, change-the-world, cure-cancer type breakthrough, the concept is relegated to a select...
PAUL LIEBERMAN, PH.D.
FOUNDING DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR ADVANCED THERAPEUTICS, THE WISTAR INSTITUTE
“The goal of Wistar’s Center for Advanced Therapeutics is to identify and support academic champions—scientists conducting foundational research—and surround them with the expertise needed to advance their discoveries toward clinical impact,” said Paul Lieberman, Ph.D., founding director of the Center for Advanced Therapeutics (CAT) at The Wistar Institute. “Ultimately, the...
ALEXANDER STOROZHUK
FOUNDER - PRNEWS.IO AND MEDIALISTER
Starting out in Ukraine in 2004, I saw an opportunity: smaller businesses needed a way to share their stories, yet few platforms catered to them. As a university student, I built a basic news distribution system, and over the years, that idea grew into PRNEWS.IO — a platform that today...
Amy Fisher
Vice president - Padilla
BUILDING THOUGHT LEADERS, ONE BRAND AT A TIME Innovation has been described as a business strategy, a brand value, even an organizational characteristic. It implies continuous ideation, creativity, and execution based on an ability to understand and meet the needs of customers, employees, investors, and other key stakeholders. Innovation is...
DORRI MCWHORTER
PRESIDENT & CEO OF YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO
People will be studying the global pandemic’s effects on the workplace for decades to come. The trends it accelerated. The inequality it exposed. The countless challenges and opportunities it created. However, there is one thing that is already perfectly clear, and business leaders in every industry across the country...
JOHAN WEIGELT
CEO, KI INNOVATIONS
At KI Innovations, we bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and tangible impact, ensuring that groundbreaking discoveries from Karolinska Institutet (KI) reach patients, healthcare systems, and society at large. With a deep-rooted foundation in one of the world’s leading medical universities, we are committed to fostering a thriving ecosystem where...
BRETT KING
THE FUTURE OF BANKING
Brett King stands as a beacon of innovation and foresight. His journey, a blend of passion for technology and a keen eye for the ever evolving financial landscape, positions him uniquely as a leading voice in the realm of digital banking and fintech. Delving into his insights, Brett’s narrative reveals...
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...
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,...