Thought Leaders

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

TOM HAJDU

CEO, DISRUPTER

A little over five years ago, I had the privilege of serving as the Chief Innovator of South Australia, a position through which I could catalyze change. During that time, I spearheaded a pivotal initiative, transforming Adelaide into Australia’s first gigabit city and the first city outside the United States...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

The Hon Peter Malinauskas

Premier of South Australia

They’re all inventions which changed the face of the world. They’re all examples of original and innovative thinking. And they all began as sparks of brilliance in the minds of South Australians. From Sir Howard Florey’s insights into the properties of penicillin and Lancelot de Mole’s development of caterpillar tracks,...

INNOVATE™ Bengaluru

Revathy Ashok

Strategy Garage-Investments Shouldn’t be Dumb & Boring

Angel Investor, Adviser & Co-founder of Strategy Garage

With an increasing number of startups looking to scale up, we spoke to angel investor and advisor Revathy Ashok about what investors look for. Ashok is one of the early members of the Indian Angel Network and co-founder of Strategy Garage, a boutique advisory for startups & SMEs, and says...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

KALE NEEDHAM

CEO, SPIRAL DATA

From a research scientist to an analyst, my career journey instilled in me a deep-rooted passion for solving complex problems through data driven insights. It became clear to me that academia wasn’t the path for me to make a tangible difference – I wanted to add significant ‘business changing’ value....

INNOVATE® Nashville

LAURIE OSWALD

CEO, INTERAWORKS AND CO-FOUNDER, BEST YEAR YET FOUNDATION

LEADING THE NEXT WAVE IN BUSINESSWe are in a huge change moment equal to the Renaissance and the Industrial revolution. The way we have always done business cannot continue to work in this new environment. The focus must move away from expecting employees to serve the company with no reciprocity...

INNOVATE™ Alberta

ARLEIGH VASCONCELLOS

MANAGING DIRECTOR, THE AGENCY

“When I started The Agency in 2009 as a boutique firm servicing the tech sector in Calgary, I heard the same thing over and over: What tech sector?” Arleigh Vasconcellos, CEO/Founder, The Agency Communications Inc. And they had a point – the tech sector here was small. But the city...

INNOVATE® Georgia

DAVID HESS

MCG DEAN, AUGUSTA UNIVERSITY

The statistics are startling. Georgia routinely ranks in the top 10 states in the country in terms of population size and growth, yet we continue to rank near the bottom in the number of physicians per capita, at a dismal 41st. Recent data show that roughly 185 Georgians die from...

INNOVATE® South Carolina

BOB QUINN

PRESIDENT & CEO AT SOUTH CAROLINA RESEARCH AUTHORITY (SCRA)

South Carolina is small, but mighty. It is a relatively small state, but it has a mighty innovation ecosystem. I encourage any entrepreneur, researcher, or investor to choose South Carolina as a place to develop and grow innovation. I’m incredibly proud of what’s being created and nurtured in this state,...

INNOVATE™ Oeiras

Rui Pedro Almeida

Rui Pedro Almeida

Chair Of The British-Portuguese Chamber Of Commerce

We have worked with both the Portuguese and British Government, local municipalities and several institutions to find solutions and seek out opportunities to local, regional and global challenges and to support the private sector. Our primary mission is to promote bilateral trade and business opportunities between Portugal and the UK...

INNOVATE™ South Africa

WRENELLE STANDER

WRENELLE STANDER

CEO, WESGRO

As Wesgro CEO (Wesgro is the official Trade and Investment Promotion Agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape), I am committed to doing my part in making the Western Cape one of the world’s leading regional economies. We recognise that to succeed in a changing world, we will be...

INNOVATE® Georgia

AMY BARBIERI

FOUNDING PARTNER, PRESIDENT, AND CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER, VITAL4

To all my fellow dreamers and doers, let me take you on a journey—a journey filled with challenges, triumphs, and the relentless pursuit of innovation. My name is Amy, and I am not just a female entrepreneur and tech founder, but a student of life and an example of resilience...

INNOVATE™ Ottawa

Jim Stackhouse

Jim Stackhouse

Founder & CEO - Neolore Networks Inc.

AN EXERCISE IN INNOVATION AND DEMONSTRATING VALUE. The digital landscape of IT Support is forever changing. Just five years ago, the ways IT Managed Service Providers (MSPs) supported their clients is totally different than today. As more companies turn to MSPs for outsourced IT Support and Cloud services, the value...

INNOVATE™ Stockholm

KATARINA GOSPIC

CO-FOUNDER, EDSVÄRD

FROM STRAWBERRIES TO THE STATES One of my first memories from when I was about 4-years old is about strawberries. I used to close my eyes and imagined one, then another. This little thought experiment was something I became obsessed with. I wanted to be like Lucky Luke, faster than...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

ANDREW DOWNS

FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SAGE AUTOMATION

While Australia finds itself in a critical skills shortage, young people who embrace a career in the trades, are finding endless opportunities. When we ask our children what they want to be when they grow up, we hope they will dream big, and pursue a career of enjoyment and meaning....

INNOVATE® Tampa Bay Vol.3

Alex Sink

Alex Sink - Tampa Bay WaVe

Tampa Bay WaVe

What we see in our startup community is so inspiring. There are so many entrepreneurs building companies with exciting technology and creative thinking. Problems are being solved and doors being opened. Tampa Bay is a community of great opportunities and wonderful people. It is the community that I have called...

INNOVATE™ Vancouver Vol.2

NICHOLAS NING

FOUNDER & CEO, FARPOINT

Entrepreneurship and innovation are two sides of the same coin. They are the lifeblood of the modern business ecosystem. Entrepreneurs are the risk-takers who dare to disrupt, and innovation is their weapon of choice. Together, they form a potent mix that drives economies forward, reshapes industries, and even improves lives....

INNOVATE™ Oeiras

DUARTE AIRES

DUARTE AIRES

CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, VECTOR MAIS

When we chose Oeiras to settle in 16 years ago, we aimed to keep up with the innovation and development that this municipality witnessed since the turn of the millennium with the creation of office parks until then never seen in Portugal. Besides offering the perfect conditions for Portuguese and...

INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2

Alex Van Breedam

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® Utah

Ivy V. Estabrooke

Ivy V. Estabrooke

Phd, Vice President For Government And Community Programs - PolarityTE

The United States has long depended on innovation, technology, and small businesses to maintain economic prosperity and a national security advantage. While much of this economic growth has come out of hubs on the East and West Coasts, Utah has managed to create a non-traditional innovation ecosystem that has resulted...

INNOVATE™ Bristol & Bath

POKU OSEI

FOUNDER AND CEO, BABBASA

Bristol has a reputation for the high-tech industry, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. However, the city is marked as the 7th worst of 348 districts in England & Wales for black and ethnic minority communities to live and thrive. The issue has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. So what...

INNOVATE™ Stockholm

MATHIAS LOBENDAHL

FOUNDER, LIFESEEDS

AGING IS THE NEXT FRONTIER OF INNOVATION Not because it’s a poetic idea, but because aging is biology, and biology is technology. We’ve spent decades reinventing the digital world while accepting the human body as something fixed and unchangeable. That assumption is about to collapse. I’ve spent years testing treatments...

INNOVATE® Nashville

SOULA PARASSIDIS

CEO, LIVING OPERA

IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE“It’s cancer.” That’s not a sentence you want to hear your doctor say when you’re only 23 years old. Seven days earlier having graduated with my degree in opera, and now I was sitting in a hospital. They say thyroid cancer is the “best” kind...

INNOVATE® Washington DMV Edition

JEFF REID

FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF GEORGETOWN ENTREPRENEURSHIP

As the founding director of Georgetown Entrepreneurship, Jeff Reid is passionate about educating, mentoring, and infl uencing the next generation of entrepreneurs to use their new business ventures to serve the common good. “Common good entrepreneurship involves creating and operating businesses that not only aim for fi nancial success but...

INNOVATE® Nashville

MIKE ASSELTA

CEO AT COMPASSUS

Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside clinicians who enter the homes of patients and bring not just medical care, but connection, dignity and hope. In home-based care, caregiving is multifaceted—it involves administering medical tasks, offering emotional support and building meaningful relationships with patients and their families....

TOM HAJDU

CEO, DISRUPTER

A little over five years ago, I had the privilege of serving as the Chief Innovator of South Australia, a position through which I could catalyze change. During that time, I spearheaded a pivotal initiative, transforming Adelaide into Australia’s first gigabit city and the first city outside the United States...

The Hon Peter Malinauskas

Premier of South Australia

They’re all inventions which changed the face of the world. They’re all examples of original and innovative thinking. And they all began as sparks of brilliance in the minds of South Australians. From Sir Howard Florey’s insights into the properties of penicillin and Lancelot de Mole’s development of caterpillar tracks,...

Revathy Ashok

Strategy Garage-Investments Shouldn’t be Dumb & Boring

Angel Investor, Adviser & Co-founder of Strategy Garage

With an increasing number of startups looking to scale up, we spoke to angel investor and advisor Revathy Ashok about what investors look for. Ashok is one of the early members of the Indian Angel Network and co-founder of Strategy Garage, a boutique advisory for startups & SMEs, and says...

KALE NEEDHAM

CEO, SPIRAL DATA

From a research scientist to an analyst, my career journey instilled in me a deep-rooted passion for solving complex problems through data driven insights. It became clear to me that academia wasn’t the path for me to make a tangible difference – I wanted to add significant ‘business changing’ value....

LAURIE OSWALD

CEO, INTERAWORKS AND CO-FOUNDER, BEST YEAR YET FOUNDATION

LEADING THE NEXT WAVE IN BUSINESSWe are in a huge change moment equal to the Renaissance and the Industrial revolution. The way we have always done business cannot continue to work in this new environment. The focus must move away from expecting employees to serve the company with no reciprocity...

ARLEIGH VASCONCELLOS

MANAGING DIRECTOR, THE AGENCY

“When I started The Agency in 2009 as a boutique firm servicing the tech sector in Calgary, I heard the same thing over and over: What tech sector?” Arleigh Vasconcellos, CEO/Founder, The Agency Communications Inc. And they had a point – the tech sector here was small. But the city...

DAVID HESS

MCG DEAN, AUGUSTA UNIVERSITY

The statistics are startling. Georgia routinely ranks in the top 10 states in the country in terms of population size and growth, yet we continue to rank near the bottom in the number of physicians per capita, at a dismal 41st. Recent data show that roughly 185 Georgians die from...

BOB QUINN

PRESIDENT & CEO AT SOUTH CAROLINA RESEARCH AUTHORITY (SCRA)

South Carolina is small, but mighty. It is a relatively small state, but it has a mighty innovation ecosystem. I encourage any entrepreneur, researcher, or investor to choose South Carolina as a place to develop and grow innovation. I’m incredibly proud of what’s being created and nurtured in this state,...

Rui Pedro Almeida

Rui Pedro Almeida

Chair Of The British-Portuguese Chamber Of Commerce

We have worked with both the Portuguese and British Government, local municipalities and several institutions to find solutions and seek out opportunities to local, regional and global challenges and to support the private sector. Our primary mission is to promote bilateral trade and business opportunities between Portugal and the UK...

WRENELLE STANDER

WRENELLE STANDER

CEO, WESGRO

As Wesgro CEO (Wesgro is the official Trade and Investment Promotion Agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape), I am committed to doing my part in making the Western Cape one of the world’s leading regional economies. We recognise that to succeed in a changing world, we will be...

AMY BARBIERI

FOUNDING PARTNER, PRESIDENT, AND CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER, VITAL4

To all my fellow dreamers and doers, let me take you on a journey—a journey filled with challenges, triumphs, and the relentless pursuit of innovation. My name is Amy, and I am not just a female entrepreneur and tech founder, but a student of life and an example of resilience...

Jim Stackhouse

Jim Stackhouse

Founder & CEO - Neolore Networks Inc.

AN EXERCISE IN INNOVATION AND DEMONSTRATING VALUE. The digital landscape of IT Support is forever changing. Just five years ago, the ways IT Managed Service Providers (MSPs) supported their clients is totally different than today. As more companies turn to MSPs for outsourced IT Support and Cloud services, the value...

KATARINA GOSPIC

CO-FOUNDER, EDSVÄRD

FROM STRAWBERRIES TO THE STATES One of my first memories from when I was about 4-years old is about strawberries. I used to close my eyes and imagined one, then another. This little thought experiment was something I became obsessed with. I wanted to be like Lucky Luke, faster than...

ANDREW DOWNS

FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SAGE AUTOMATION

While Australia finds itself in a critical skills shortage, young people who embrace a career in the trades, are finding endless opportunities. When we ask our children what they want to be when they grow up, we hope they will dream big, and pursue a career of enjoyment and meaning....

Alex Sink

Alex Sink - Tampa Bay WaVe

Tampa Bay WaVe

What we see in our startup community is so inspiring. There are so many entrepreneurs building companies with exciting technology and creative thinking. Problems are being solved and doors being opened. Tampa Bay is a community of great opportunities and wonderful people. It is the community that I have called...

NICHOLAS NING

FOUNDER & CEO, FARPOINT

Entrepreneurship and innovation are two sides of the same coin. They are the lifeblood of the modern business ecosystem. Entrepreneurs are the risk-takers who dare to disrupt, and innovation is their weapon of choice. Together, they form a potent mix that drives economies forward, reshapes industries, and even improves lives....

DUARTE AIRES

DUARTE AIRES

CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, VECTOR MAIS

When we chose Oeiras to settle in 16 years ago, we aimed to keep up with the innovation and development that this municipality witnessed since the turn of the millennium with the creation of office parks until then never seen in Portugal. Besides offering the perfect conditions for Portuguese and...

Alex Van Breedam

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...

Ivy V. Estabrooke

Ivy V. Estabrooke

Phd, Vice President For Government And Community Programs - PolarityTE

The United States has long depended on innovation, technology, and small businesses to maintain economic prosperity and a national security advantage. While much of this economic growth has come out of hubs on the East and West Coasts, Utah has managed to create a non-traditional innovation ecosystem that has resulted...

POKU OSEI

FOUNDER AND CEO, BABBASA

Bristol has a reputation for the high-tech industry, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. However, the city is marked as the 7th worst of 348 districts in England & Wales for black and ethnic minority communities to live and thrive. The issue has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. So what...

MATHIAS LOBENDAHL

FOUNDER, LIFESEEDS

AGING IS THE NEXT FRONTIER OF INNOVATION Not because it’s a poetic idea, but because aging is biology, and biology is technology. We’ve spent decades reinventing the digital world while accepting the human body as something fixed and unchangeable. That assumption is about to collapse. I’ve spent years testing treatments...

SOULA PARASSIDIS

CEO, LIVING OPERA

IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE“It’s cancer.” That’s not a sentence you want to hear your doctor say when you’re only 23 years old. Seven days earlier having graduated with my degree in opera, and now I was sitting in a hospital. They say thyroid cancer is the “best” kind...

JEFF REID

FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF GEORGETOWN ENTREPRENEURSHIP

As the founding director of Georgetown Entrepreneurship, Jeff Reid is passionate about educating, mentoring, and infl uencing the next generation of entrepreneurs to use their new business ventures to serve the common good. “Common good entrepreneurship involves creating and operating businesses that not only aim for fi nancial success but...

MIKE ASSELTA

CEO AT COMPASSUS

Throughout my career, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside clinicians who enter the homes of patients and bring not just medical care, but connection, dignity and hope. In home-based care, caregiving is multifaceted—it involves administering medical tasks, offering emotional support and building meaningful relationships with patients and their families....

INNOVATE® Ecosystems