Thought Leaders

INNOVATE™ Vancouver Vol.2

James Mutter - Lawyer & Co-Founder - Whiteboard Law

I started focusing on the technology sector in the mid -90s when I joined a large national law firm in Vancouver. Over the span of 25+ years, I have been a lawyer, co-founder of a software company, President of the BC Premier’s Technology Council, CEO of a fintech company, Senior...

INNOVATE™ Ottawa

Alan Forster

Why do we pursue innovation in health care? The population is aging, and patients are entering the health-care system with more complex health needs. As a leader in world-first health-care research and as a part of the Ottawa community, The Ottawa Hospital pursues health-care innovation to support healthier populations while...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

KUBA KABACINSKI

OWNER AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF CONSUNET.

My parents brought me to Adelaide from Poland at age 12, attracted by the Australian national values of freedom, respect, equality and a fair go. At age 21, while completing my Information Technology studies at Flinders University, a friend and I bought a fledgling web development business for $200. Nearly...

INNOVATE® Georgia

RICH STINSON

SOUTHWIRE - PRESIDENT & CEO

The promise of an all-electric future in North America is here. We’re experiencing a shift from an oil, coal, and gas-based economy to an electrified one. Electric vehicles, data centers, renewables, and other factors are accelerating demand. Society today wants and assumes that everything that can be electric probably will...

INNOVATE® San Diego Vol.1

Ardy Arianpour

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...

INNOVATE™ Botswana Vol.1

MRS. TSHOGANETSO CARL-PONOESELE

ACTING CEO, BOTSWANA TOURISM

What does innovation mean to you? Tourism is an extremely vast field for innovation as a complex cross-cutting socio-economic system. Creating a tourist product, tourist services, booking of air – and train tickets – all these processes have reached a new level with the introduction of the latest developments in...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

PROFESSOR SIMON LUCEY

DIRECTOR, AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE FOR MACHINE LEARNING (AIML), THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

Not only does Adelaide offer a great lifestyle and work-life balance for families, but in my field—artificial intelligence (AI)— the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML) helps position the city as a global leader in research and innovation excellence. I’ve had the privilege of visiting many of the leading AI...

INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2

DR MARC-ALAIN WIDDOWSON

DR MARC-ALAIN WIDDOWSON

DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE OF TROPICAL MEDICINE

In August 2019, I was appointed as the director of The Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp. I studied Anthropology and Veterinary Medicine at Cambridge University before specialising in epidemiology of infectious diseases. I have lived and worked in eight different countries and on projects around the world, with...

INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2

TOM BLOMMAERT

TOM BLOMMAERT

CEO, BLOMMAERT ALUMINIUM CONSTRUCTIONS

I was born in Antwerp, having lived my life in the northern Antwerp suburbs, and still do, now together with my wife and two teenagers. After secondary school, I wanted to pursue a career as a pilot. I therefore studied Mathematics and Science at the University of Brussels, followed by...

INNOVATE™ Stockholm

ALI SARRAFI

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, 4THBRAIN

We are on the threshold of a creative renaissance powered by GenerativeAI—technology that frees us from specialized skills and speeds up the path from idea to execution. In mere hours, what once took months can be accomplished, fueling rapid experimentation and bold innovation. By automating tasks like image generation, software...

INNOVATE® Miami

Felecia Hatcher

Felecia Hatcher-Pearson

Pearson, Co-Founder, Tribe Co-Work & Urban Innovation Lab + Blacktech Week; Founder, Code Fever

The huge influences of the Caribbean, of South America, and Central America that we have here in Miami makes the entrepreneurial ecosystem unique across the States and arguably across the globe. So many people start a business out of necessity, which forces them to be really creative with limited resources—again,...

INNOVATE™ Alberta

MARK KORTHUIS

PRESIDENT AND CEO, GLENROSE HOSPITAL FOUNDATION

The Glenrose Hospital Foundation plays a pivotal role in supporting Canada’s largest comprehensive tertiary rehabilitation hospital, supporting patients of all ages who require complex rehabilitative care. The need for innovation in rehabilitation healthcare has never been greater, given the significant percentage of Canadians with disabilities, the surge in demand for...

INNOVATE® Blockchain

NICOLAS GILOT

NICOLAS GILOT

FOUNDER & CEO, ULTRA

Taking gaming and flipping it on its head with the use of blockchain technology was no small feat. Luckily, Nicolas Gilot and David Hanson, CO-CEOs of Ultra, have a strong background in the games industry and the innovative spark that made dreams come true for gamers and game developers around...

INNOVATE® Minnesota

Shaye Mandle

Shaye Mandle

President & CEO - The Medical Alley Association

You might say modern healthcare was invented in Medical Alley more than 150 years ago when the Mayo Clinic set the standard for care delivery. The medical device industry was born here with Medtronic’s founding in 1949. When the relationship between payers and providers needed to change, HMOs were invented...

INNOVATE™ Montréal

Dr. Fabrice Brunet

Dr Fabrice Brunet - Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM)

Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM)

Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) – Vers un système de santé innovant et apprenant / Towards an innovative learning health system Dr. Fabrice BrunetPrésident-Directeur Général du CHUM English: The health care system is facing major challenges and needs to change if it wants to provide optimal health care...

INNOVATE™ Oeiras

Marco Costa

Marco Costa

Chief Operating Officer International, Talkdesk

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...

INNOVATE™ South Africa

ASHA PATEL

GOOGLE

When it comes to innovation, society tends to lionise entrepreneurs taking companies from the startup phase to global household names....

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

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™ Flanders

SARA BALS

FULL PROFESSOR AND HEAD OF THE ELECTRON MICROSCOPY FOR MATERIALS SCIENCE (EMAT) RESEARCH GROUP, UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP.

Patent or publish, protect or disseminate… As a scientist in academia, these are questions I am faced with increasing frequency. We often assume that fundamental science and innovation proceed at different speeds, or even in entirely separate environments. After all, is there really space for innovation within the context of...

INNOVATE™ Adelaide

HON. CHRIS PICTON

MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Taking hold of the opportunities derived from research excellence and innovation will help us to build a resilient, efficient, and informed health system that supports the future health and wellbeing of all South Australians. Research excellence and innovation will also play a vital role in our ability to proactively respond...

INNOVATE® Orlando

MEGHAN WOLFGRAM

MEGHAN WOLFGRAM

CEO OF SWIFTPAWS

Any founder can recall times when they’ve been faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges, and know the experience of truly questioning themselves and their idea. In these moments, I’ve found two things in my personal startup journey that keeps me pushing forward. The first is an unwavering belief in my business....

INNOVATE® Tampa Bay Vol.3

DR. RICHARD M. SMITH

DR. RICHARD M. SMITH

FOUNDER & CHAIR, STOCKSAVVY

One of the greatest wealth-building tools available, the stock market has long been out of reach for most people. I believe that no one benefits in the long run when we have to depend on other people to invest our money and wealth is increasingly concentrated into fewer and fewer...

INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1

FRANCISCO PEDRO PRESAS PINTO DE BALSEMÃO

CEO OF IMPRESA

I was born in 1980, I’m married and a proud father of three young children. I joined Impresa in 2009 and became CEO in 2016. My background is in Law (Lisbon and Oxford) and I undertook several international post-grad management courses. I also had a brief spell at the Portuguese...

James Mutter - Lawyer & Co-Founder - Whiteboard Law

I started focusing on the technology sector in the mid -90s when I joined a large national law firm in Vancouver. Over the span of 25+ years, I have been a lawyer, co-founder of a software company, President of the BC Premier’s Technology Council, CEO of a fintech company, Senior...

Alan Forster

Why do we pursue innovation in health care? The population is aging, and patients are entering the health-care system with more complex health needs. As a leader in world-first health-care research and as a part of the Ottawa community, The Ottawa Hospital pursues health-care innovation to support healthier populations while...

KUBA KABACINSKI

OWNER AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF CONSUNET.

My parents brought me to Adelaide from Poland at age 12, attracted by the Australian national values of freedom, respect, equality and a fair go. At age 21, while completing my Information Technology studies at Flinders University, a friend and I bought a fledgling web development business for $200. Nearly...

RICH STINSON

SOUTHWIRE - PRESIDENT & CEO

The promise of an all-electric future in North America is here. We’re experiencing a shift from an oil, coal, and gas-based economy to an electrified one. Electric vehicles, data centers, renewables, and other factors are accelerating demand. Society today wants and assumes that everything that can be electric probably will...

Ardy Arianpour

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...

MRS. TSHOGANETSO CARL-PONOESELE

ACTING CEO, BOTSWANA TOURISM

What does innovation mean to you? Tourism is an extremely vast field for innovation as a complex cross-cutting socio-economic system. Creating a tourist product, tourist services, booking of air – and train tickets – all these processes have reached a new level with the introduction of the latest developments in...

PROFESSOR SIMON LUCEY

DIRECTOR, AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE FOR MACHINE LEARNING (AIML), THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

Not only does Adelaide offer a great lifestyle and work-life balance for families, but in my field—artificial intelligence (AI)— the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML) helps position the city as a global leader in research and innovation excellence. I’ve had the privilege of visiting many of the leading AI...

DR MARC-ALAIN WIDDOWSON

DR MARC-ALAIN WIDDOWSON

DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE OF TROPICAL MEDICINE

In August 2019, I was appointed as the director of The Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp. I studied Anthropology and Veterinary Medicine at Cambridge University before specialising in epidemiology of infectious diseases. I have lived and worked in eight different countries and on projects around the world, with...

TOM BLOMMAERT

TOM BLOMMAERT

CEO, BLOMMAERT ALUMINIUM CONSTRUCTIONS

I was born in Antwerp, having lived my life in the northern Antwerp suburbs, and still do, now together with my wife and two teenagers. After secondary school, I wanted to pursue a career as a pilot. I therefore studied Mathematics and Science at the University of Brussels, followed by...

ALI SARRAFI

CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, 4THBRAIN

We are on the threshold of a creative renaissance powered by GenerativeAI—technology that frees us from specialized skills and speeds up the path from idea to execution. In mere hours, what once took months can be accomplished, fueling rapid experimentation and bold innovation. By automating tasks like image generation, software...

Felecia Hatcher

Felecia Hatcher-Pearson

Pearson, Co-Founder, Tribe Co-Work & Urban Innovation Lab + Blacktech Week; Founder, Code Fever

The huge influences of the Caribbean, of South America, and Central America that we have here in Miami makes the entrepreneurial ecosystem unique across the States and arguably across the globe. So many people start a business out of necessity, which forces them to be really creative with limited resources—again,...

MARK KORTHUIS

PRESIDENT AND CEO, GLENROSE HOSPITAL FOUNDATION

The Glenrose Hospital Foundation plays a pivotal role in supporting Canada’s largest comprehensive tertiary rehabilitation hospital, supporting patients of all ages who require complex rehabilitative care. The need for innovation in rehabilitation healthcare has never been greater, given the significant percentage of Canadians with disabilities, the surge in demand for...

NICOLAS GILOT

NICOLAS GILOT

FOUNDER & CEO, ULTRA

Taking gaming and flipping it on its head with the use of blockchain technology was no small feat. Luckily, Nicolas Gilot and David Hanson, CO-CEOs of Ultra, have a strong background in the games industry and the innovative spark that made dreams come true for gamers and game developers around...

Shaye Mandle

Shaye Mandle

President & CEO - The Medical Alley Association

You might say modern healthcare was invented in Medical Alley more than 150 years ago when the Mayo Clinic set the standard for care delivery. The medical device industry was born here with Medtronic’s founding in 1949. When the relationship between payers and providers needed to change, HMOs were invented...

Dr. Fabrice Brunet

Dr Fabrice Brunet - Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM)

Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM)

Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) – Vers un système de santé innovant et apprenant / Towards an innovative learning health system Dr. Fabrice BrunetPrésident-Directeur Général du CHUM English: The health care system is facing major challenges and needs to change if it wants to provide optimal health care...

Marco Costa

Marco Costa

Chief Operating Officer International, Talkdesk

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...

ASHA PATEL

GOOGLE

When it comes to innovation, society tends to lionise entrepreneurs taking companies from the startup phase to global household names....

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...

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...

SARA BALS

FULL PROFESSOR AND HEAD OF THE ELECTRON MICROSCOPY FOR MATERIALS SCIENCE (EMAT) RESEARCH GROUP, UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP.

Patent or publish, protect or disseminate… As a scientist in academia, these are questions I am faced with increasing frequency. We often assume that fundamental science and innovation proceed at different speeds, or even in entirely separate environments. After all, is there really space for innovation within the context of...

HON. CHRIS PICTON

MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Taking hold of the opportunities derived from research excellence and innovation will help us to build a resilient, efficient, and informed health system that supports the future health and wellbeing of all South Australians. Research excellence and innovation will also play a vital role in our ability to proactively respond...

MEGHAN WOLFGRAM

MEGHAN WOLFGRAM

CEO OF SWIFTPAWS

Any founder can recall times when they’ve been faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges, and know the experience of truly questioning themselves and their idea. In these moments, I’ve found two things in my personal startup journey that keeps me pushing forward. The first is an unwavering belief in my business....

DR. RICHARD M. SMITH

DR. RICHARD M. SMITH

FOUNDER & CHAIR, STOCKSAVVY

One of the greatest wealth-building tools available, the stock market has long been out of reach for most people. I believe that no one benefits in the long run when we have to depend on other people to invest our money and wealth is increasingly concentrated into fewer and fewer...

FRANCISCO PEDRO PRESAS PINTO DE BALSEMÃO

CEO OF IMPRESA

I was born in 1980, I’m married and a proud father of three young children. I joined Impresa in 2009 and became CEO in 2016. My background is in Law (Lisbon and Oxford) and I undertook several international post-grad management courses. I also had a brief spell at the Portuguese...

INNOVATE® Ecosystems