Thought Leaders
INNOVATION Quebec
SOPHIE D’AMOURS
RECTRICE, UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL
Le mot innovation est utilisé à plusieurs sauces. Il est toutefois clairement défini par le Larousse comme l’« ensemble du processus qui se déroule depuis la naissance d’une idée jusqu’à sa matérialisation ». Au-delà de l’idée, une solution nouvelle doit être utilisée, commercialisée, achetée ou déployée pour être innovante. Dans...
INNOVATE® Orlando
Thad Seymour
PhD, Interim President | Vice President for Partnerships and Chief Innovation Officer - University o
As Interim President, Vice President for Partnerships and Chief Innovation Officer at UCF, Thad Seymour is helping to implement an aggressive 20-year plan for the university, including overseeing the new UCF Downtown campus at Creative Village in the heart of Orlando. In addition to his multiple entrepreneurial ventures, Seymour helped...
INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1
BIJU KULATHAKAL AND JASON BARSEMA
CO-FOUNDERS, HALO INVESTING
Chicago’s rich history of financial innovation is world-famous for a reason. In 1848, the Chicago Board of Trade launched to promote commerce—most notably around agricultural commodities. Today people recognize Chicago for its role in revolutionizing global finance. It’s here where financial futures, options, and derivatives trading began. This vibrant and...
INNOVATION Quebec
MARIE CLAUDE LAGACÉ
DIRECTRICE PRINCIPALE, INNOVATION ET TRANSFORMATION SOCIALE
Plus jeune, j’adorais tous les jeux, du hockey bottine avec mon frère jusqu’au jeu d’échecs avec mon père. J’avais une certaine aversion pour l’ennuyant Monopoly, qui prenait invariablement fin lorsqu’une personne (habituellement ma sœur) provoquait la faillite des autres. Pas de tueur à démasquer, pas d’épique bataille navale, de dessins...
INNOVATE® Tampa Bay Vol.3
Lakshmi Shenoy
Embarc Collective
As a newcomer to the Tampa Bay region, I’ve had the opportunity to spend the past year immersing myself in the entrepreneurial community that has been growing here. Locals understand that Tampa Bay is a great place to live and get to experience that life each day. However, beyond the...
INNOVATE® Detroit
PHILIP KAFKA
PRESIDENT AT PRINCE CONCEPTS
My company, Prince Concepts, is a real estate development studio, laboratory and office based in Core City, Detroit. We acquire, develop, own and manage land and building projects. The studio works to express personal experience, philosophy and belief through built work. The laboratory tinkers – seeking truth and developing precision....
INNOVATE™ Stockholm
PATRIK STRÖMBERG
PHD MBA, CEO AT ANACARDIO
I have spent my entire career in Stockholm’s vibrant Life Science innovation space, with renowned universities, great scientists, and companies. After attaining a PhD in Biochemistry from Karolinska Institutet, I have held various positions within R&D and corporate development at Astra Zeneca and Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi), such as Vice...
INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports
SARI KITELYN
DIRECTOR OF ESPORTS AND PROJECT DEVELOPMENT, FULL SAIL UNIVERSITY
Building a successful esports program requires a comprehensive, 360 plan to fully support all aspects of the industry. Most importantly and often overlooked – community. The gaming and esports community is the foundation of this explosive industry. Each game genre has unique community identities, and you’ll find both variations and...
INNOVATE™ Oeiras
PAULO ROSADO
FOUNDER AND CEO, OUTSYSTEMS
The uncertainties of the pandemic and decades-old roadblocks in the software development process have driven significant changes in the approaches I see today’s organizations taking when building the applications that fuel their business. These new approaches to development are gaining in popularity because while the pressure on IT to deliver...
INNOVATE™ Vancouver Vol.2
JENNIFER TWINER MCCARRON
THUNDERBIRD CEO
As a leader, people and culture need to be a priority. You need to tangibly demonstrate what a culture of excellence looks like. I believe that attitude and outlook are everything. What you bring to the table (or zoom meeting) directly impacts those around you — personally and professionally. True...
INNOVATE™ Stockholm
SIMON MORITZ
INTRAPRENEUR AND AUTHOR STOCKHOLM SWEDEN
I have spent nearly two decades navigating the digital transformation, watching astonishing breakthroughs in AI, 5G, and autonomous systems roll off the assembly line. Yet, for all this potential, I often feel we are still stuck. Our innovation is stuck in the digital mud. Think back to Henry Ford. The...
INNOVATE™ Alberta
JILL DE GROOD
DIRECTOR, DEVELOPMENT AND PARTNERSHIPS, W21C
Health and health care is something that impacts every single one of us, whether we want it to or not. In Alberta, we have seen tremendous developments in how health care is delivered and in the availability of innovative solutions to better manage care. At the same time, it feels...
INNOVATE™ Adelaide
BEN BAKER
FOUNDER, BEN BAKER STUDIOS
“Mr. President, it’s great to see you today; here is the plan.” Those are words I have spoken to the past five American Presidents and many other world leaders as a photographer trusted to create iconic images that will stand the test of time. How did a kid from a...
INNOVATE® Minnesota
Peter Frosch
CEO - Greater MSP
Entrepreneurship and innovation aren’t new to Minnesota. They’re the source of our current economic success and the key to even greater future prosperity, equity and growth. We have the potential to be the problem-solving capital of the new economy and the GREATER MSP Partnership is working to make that vision...
VOICES of the Future
DR. ABIR HADDAD
THE FUTURE OF LAW
Challenging the status quo requires a brave voice, one that resounds with a clarity and vision that slices through the din to shape the contours of tomorrow. My conversation with Dr. Abir Haddad, a luminary in the realm of legal transformation, unfurls a narrative rich with rebelliousness, innovation, and a...
INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2
SILVIA LENAERTS
PROFESSOR AND VICE-RECTOR VALORISATION & DEVELOPMENT, UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
Silvia Lenaerts has always been a pioneer. She was the first chemist to achieve a PhD at IMEC. She founded a company on gas sensors, as well as the Bioscience Engineering department and her research group. Currently, she is full professor and vice-rector Valorisation & Development at the Universiteit Antwerpen....
INNOVATE® Tampa Bay Vol.3
David Robinson
CEO - DSM Technology Consultants
People say there’s nothing new under the sun, and I completely disagree. If you look at things from a macro- or micro-perspective, cloud computing is merging with mobile computing and that’s going to form what I call “Ubiquitous Computing”—meaning your computing is everywhere. If you think about your business, your...
INNOVATE™ Antwerp Vol.2
TOM LAVEREN
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER VOKA - CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MECHELEN-KEMPEN
The Mechelen-Kempen region is ideally located between the port and the airport and close to the two big metropolises of Brussels and Antwerp. It is a place where it is good to live, work and do business. Where craftsmanship is a brand. The region is booming and many fine and...
INNOVATE™ Atlantic Canada
FLORIAN VILLAUMÉ
CEO, TECHNL
Innovation in technology often conjures images of sprawling metropolises like Silicon Valley—a beacon of transformation where ideas scale into industry-defining movements. But technology thrives where it’s least expected, and I am proud to say Newfoundland and Labrador has earned its place in that conversation. With a population of just 545,000,...
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™ Bengaluru
Mohandas Pai
Founder and Chairman of Aarin Capital
There is no question that Mohandas Pai holds strong opinions on an impressive variety of subjects. He walks the talk too, playing key roles in financial governance, democratic processes, civic issues, education, philanthropy and important in the context of this article, as an angel investor and a mentor. “What guides...
INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports
ROB NEWPORT
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, WEBURBAN
Over two and half decades ago, I remember first picking up a mouse and keyboard to play Quake on a University lab computer for over eight hours straight. Fast forward to today, and that 3dfx Voodoo graphics card has been replaced with racks of memory laden GPU cards chained to...
INNOVATE® Phoenix
Justin Gray
CEO - LeadMD
Introduction Justin Gray is a serial entrepreneur, who has launched four multi-million dollar companies, become a recognized speaker and been published over 350 times throughout his career. Justin is the CEO and founder of LeadMD, a role he’s held for the past ten years. He also co-founded PaidSuite, a SaaS...
INNOVATE® Puerto Rico
MARIA LUISA FERRÉ RANGEL
CEO GRUPO FERRÉ RANGEL (GFR)
When you’re part of a family business with over 100 years of history, the questions often asked are: How do you stay relevant? What is the formula to successfully operate a business for that long? For us, the answer has always been about three things: resiliency, people, and leadership. Be...
SOPHIE D’AMOURS
RECTRICE, UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL
Le mot innovation est utilisé à plusieurs sauces. Il est toutefois clairement défini par le Larousse comme l’« ensemble du processus qui se déroule depuis la naissance d’une idée jusqu’à sa matérialisation ». Au-delà de l’idée, une solution nouvelle doit être utilisée, commercialisée, achetée ou déployée pour être innovante. Dans...
Thad Seymour
PhD, Interim President | Vice President for Partnerships and Chief Innovation Officer - University o
As Interim President, Vice President for Partnerships and Chief Innovation Officer at UCF, Thad Seymour is helping to implement an aggressive 20-year plan for the university, including overseeing the new UCF Downtown campus at Creative Village in the heart of Orlando. In addition to his multiple entrepreneurial ventures, Seymour helped...
BIJU KULATHAKAL AND JASON BARSEMA
CO-FOUNDERS, HALO INVESTING
Chicago’s rich history of financial innovation is world-famous for a reason. In 1848, the Chicago Board of Trade launched to promote commerce—most notably around agricultural commodities. Today people recognize Chicago for its role in revolutionizing global finance. It’s here where financial futures, options, and derivatives trading began. This vibrant and...
MARIE CLAUDE LAGACÉ
DIRECTRICE PRINCIPALE, INNOVATION ET TRANSFORMATION SOCIALE
Plus jeune, j’adorais tous les jeux, du hockey bottine avec mon frère jusqu’au jeu d’échecs avec mon père. J’avais une certaine aversion pour l’ennuyant Monopoly, qui prenait invariablement fin lorsqu’une personne (habituellement ma sœur) provoquait la faillite des autres. Pas de tueur à démasquer, pas d’épique bataille navale, de dessins...
Lakshmi Shenoy
Embarc Collective
As a newcomer to the Tampa Bay region, I’ve had the opportunity to spend the past year immersing myself in the entrepreneurial community that has been growing here. Locals understand that Tampa Bay is a great place to live and get to experience that life each day. However, beyond the...
PHILIP KAFKA
PRESIDENT AT PRINCE CONCEPTS
My company, Prince Concepts, is a real estate development studio, laboratory and office based in Core City, Detroit. We acquire, develop, own and manage land and building projects. The studio works to express personal experience, philosophy and belief through built work. The laboratory tinkers – seeking truth and developing precision....
PATRIK STRÖMBERG
PHD MBA, CEO AT ANACARDIO
I have spent my entire career in Stockholm’s vibrant Life Science innovation space, with renowned universities, great scientists, and companies. After attaining a PhD in Biochemistry from Karolinska Institutet, I have held various positions within R&D and corporate development at Astra Zeneca and Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi), such as Vice...
SARI KITELYN
DIRECTOR OF ESPORTS AND PROJECT DEVELOPMENT, FULL SAIL UNIVERSITY
Building a successful esports program requires a comprehensive, 360 plan to fully support all aspects of the industry. Most importantly and often overlooked – community. The gaming and esports community is the foundation of this explosive industry. Each game genre has unique community identities, and you’ll find both variations and...
PAULO ROSADO
FOUNDER AND CEO, OUTSYSTEMS
The uncertainties of the pandemic and decades-old roadblocks in the software development process have driven significant changes in the approaches I see today’s organizations taking when building the applications that fuel their business. These new approaches to development are gaining in popularity because while the pressure on IT to deliver...
JENNIFER TWINER MCCARRON
THUNDERBIRD CEO
As a leader, people and culture need to be a priority. You need to tangibly demonstrate what a culture of excellence looks like. I believe that attitude and outlook are everything. What you bring to the table (or zoom meeting) directly impacts those around you — personally and professionally. True...
SIMON MORITZ
INTRAPRENEUR AND AUTHOR STOCKHOLM SWEDEN
I have spent nearly two decades navigating the digital transformation, watching astonishing breakthroughs in AI, 5G, and autonomous systems roll off the assembly line. Yet, for all this potential, I often feel we are still stuck. Our innovation is stuck in the digital mud. Think back to Henry Ford. The...
JILL DE GROOD
DIRECTOR, DEVELOPMENT AND PARTNERSHIPS, W21C
Health and health care is something that impacts every single one of us, whether we want it to or not. In Alberta, we have seen tremendous developments in how health care is delivered and in the availability of innovative solutions to better manage care. At the same time, it feels...
BEN BAKER
FOUNDER, BEN BAKER STUDIOS
“Mr. President, it’s great to see you today; here is the plan.” Those are words I have spoken to the past five American Presidents and many other world leaders as a photographer trusted to create iconic images that will stand the test of time. How did a kid from a...
Peter Frosch
CEO - Greater MSP
Entrepreneurship and innovation aren’t new to Minnesota. They’re the source of our current economic success and the key to even greater future prosperity, equity and growth. We have the potential to be the problem-solving capital of the new economy and the GREATER MSP Partnership is working to make that vision...
DR. ABIR HADDAD
THE FUTURE OF LAW
Challenging the status quo requires a brave voice, one that resounds with a clarity and vision that slices through the din to shape the contours of tomorrow. My conversation with Dr. Abir Haddad, a luminary in the realm of legal transformation, unfurls a narrative rich with rebelliousness, innovation, and a...
SILVIA LENAERTS
PROFESSOR AND VICE-RECTOR VALORISATION & DEVELOPMENT, UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN
Silvia Lenaerts has always been a pioneer. She was the first chemist to achieve a PhD at IMEC. She founded a company on gas sensors, as well as the Bioscience Engineering department and her research group. Currently, she is full professor and vice-rector Valorisation & Development at the Universiteit Antwerpen....
David Robinson
CEO - DSM Technology Consultants
People say there’s nothing new under the sun, and I completely disagree. If you look at things from a macro- or micro-perspective, cloud computing is merging with mobile computing and that’s going to form what I call “Ubiquitous Computing”—meaning your computing is everywhere. If you think about your business, your...
TOM LAVEREN
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER VOKA - CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MECHELEN-KEMPEN
The Mechelen-Kempen region is ideally located between the port and the airport and close to the two big metropolises of Brussels and Antwerp. It is a place where it is good to live, work and do business. Where craftsmanship is a brand. The region is booming and many fine and...
FLORIAN VILLAUMÉ
CEO, TECHNL
Innovation in technology often conjures images of sprawling metropolises like Silicon Valley—a beacon of transformation where ideas scale into industry-defining movements. But technology thrives where it’s least expected, and I am proud to say Newfoundland and Labrador has earned its place in that conversation. With a population of just 545,000,...
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...
Mohandas Pai
Founder and Chairman of Aarin Capital
There is no question that Mohandas Pai holds strong opinions on an impressive variety of subjects. He walks the talk too, playing key roles in financial governance, democratic processes, civic issues, education, philanthropy and important in the context of this article, as an angel investor and a mentor. “What guides...
ROB NEWPORT
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, WEBURBAN
Over two and half decades ago, I remember first picking up a mouse and keyboard to play Quake on a University lab computer for over eight hours straight. Fast forward to today, and that 3dfx Voodoo graphics card has been replaced with racks of memory laden GPU cards chained to...
Justin Gray
CEO - LeadMD
Introduction Justin Gray is a serial entrepreneur, who has launched four multi-million dollar companies, become a recognized speaker and been published over 350 times throughout his career. Justin is the CEO and founder of LeadMD, a role he’s held for the past ten years. He also co-founded PaidSuite, a SaaS...
MARIA LUISA FERRÉ RANGEL
CEO GRUPO FERRÉ RANGEL (GFR)
When you’re part of a family business with over 100 years of history, the questions often asked are: How do you stay relevant? What is the formula to successfully operate a business for that long? For us, the answer has always been about three things: resiliency, people, and leadership. Be...