Learn from senior corporate executives from different industries and leading academic experts
Presentations, on-stage conversations, panels and Q&As with corporate & academic speakers from all over the world. Tired of "corporate PowerPoints"? Our formats focus on sharing hands-on experiences and key learnings on different innovation challenges!
CEO
Logitech
As president and chief executive officer of Logitech, Bracken P. Darrell is responsible for Logitech’s strategy for growth and profitability, for the vision for the brand as well as for the company’s operations. Mr. Darrell joined Logitech as president in April 2012, and assumed the role of chief executive officer in January 2013.
Mr. Darrell brings to Logitech more than twenty years of experience in business management and brand management in successful global consumer companies, including Whirlpool, Procter & Gamble and General Electric. His broad executive management experience has spanned manufacturing, supply chain, product innovation, consumer services and marketing – targeting customers in mature and emerging markets. He has led growth and reinvention for iconic brands such as Old Spice, Gillette, Braun, KitchenAid and Whirlpool.
Prior to joining Logitech, Mr. Darrell was executive vice president of Whirlpool Corporation and president of Whirlpool EMEA, where he guided the company through the economic downturn of 2008. Previously, Mr. Darrell was with Procter & Gamble, most recently as the president of Braun, the home appliance business. In addition to a total of twelve years with Procter & Gamble – in executive management positions as well as earlier years in brand management – Mr. Darrell served with General Electric Company for five years, most recently as the general manager of Consumer Home Service. Mr. Darrell began his career with Arthur Anderson and then PepsiCo.
Bracken Darrell holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School and a BA degree in English from Hendrix College in Arkansas.
In this fireside chat, Bracken Darrell (CEO of Logitech) and Dean DeBiase (Faculty Member Kellogg/Northwestern and Chairman at Revieve) will discuss how to instil a culture of entrepreneurship & Design Thinking in the Large Organizations.
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Chief Technology and Sustainability Officer
DuPont
Alexa Dembek is the Chief Technology & Sustainability Officer for DuPont. A 30-year DuPont veteran, she has championed the company’s entrepreneurial mindset to spur growth, while fostering close collaboration with customers. Today, Alexa leads business and innovation strategy alignment to make the most impactful portfolio choices for DuPont. She is passionate about elevating the role sustainability plays in these investment decisions and how DuPont can help customers achieve their own sustainability ambitions with our solutions.
In this on-stage conversation with Alexa Dembek on innovation for sustainability, she will provide insights into her experiences in learning from failure, managing risks, and leveraging technology and science to innovate for sustainability and create customer value.
In this session, Alexa will provide a glimpse of their innovation journey at DuPont and will discuss the role she plays in driving impact and growth including her learnings on leadership, culture, and change management.
“Aligning our science and innovation to the SDGs helps us gauge what the biggest market drivers will be in the years to come and chart a clear path ahead for our businesses. We have curated an innovation culture that drives us to create science-based solutions that create positive societal change and competitive advantages in areas such as clean water, health and safety, 5G, and automotive electrification.” – Alexa Dembek, Chief Technology & Sustainability Officer
Chief Innovation Officer
ABN AMRO
Edwin has over 20 years experience in digital strategy, digital transformation, user experience design, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence in financial institutions. In his current role as Chief Innovation Officer for ABN AMRO he is focussing on accelerating and scaling innovation, putting much emphasis on Distributed Ledger en Artificial Intelligence. Before ABN AMRO, he worked at IPsoft as the global CEO of its Artificial Intelligence platform Amelia, and before that for 16 years at McKinsey & Company, where he was one of the founding partners of Digital McKinsey. Edwin is a visionary leader, who makes things happen. He is passionate about leveraging new technologies to increase joy and ease in life, while aiming to reduce digital divide across the globe.
Edwin van Bommel will share insights on ABN AMRO’s purpose-led innovation approach and data-driven portfolio management framework. He will talk about best practices for creating new businesses from the inside, and how the company accelerates innovation by working with external startups, e.g. through accelerators and corporate venture capital, to further drive growth and innovation.
SVP, Head GSK Transformation Office
GlaxoSmithKline
Line is charged with preparing the GSK organisation for successful separation and the creation of two new companies. She has been with the company for over 13 years in HR business partner roles of increasing responsibility in the Vaccines, Consumer, and Pharma business before taking up this role.
For the past 7 years, Line has been based in London with her husband and 3 daughters, she previously lived in Belgium and Spain. She’s passionate about her family, the outdoors and traveling and never refused an opportunity to learn about another culture.
In this panel corporate leaders will discuss accelerating the transformation journey with leaders as drivers of emergent change, adopting new ways of working, and leveraging new technologies for innovation.
VP, Global Innovation Policy and Communication
Amazon
Paul Misener is Amazon.com’s Vice President for Global Innovation Policy and Communications. An Amazon VP for over 21 years, Paul remains passionate about Amazon’s history, culture, and methods of sustained, customer-obsessed innovation, especially in the context of Amazon’s Leadership Principles. He frequently describes the company to external audiences and newer colleagues worldwide. The founder of Amazon’s global public policy organization, Paul led the team and served as the company’s Vice President for Global Public Policy from February 2000 to May 2016. Paul has testified before the United States Congress over 30 times and many dozens of times before other policymaking bodies around the world. Paul is both an engineer/scientist (Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Princeton University, 1985) and attorney (Juris Doctor, George Mason University, 1993; Distinguished Achievement Award, 2001). Since 1993, he has been a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia. He is an inventor named in three patents.
At Amazon, innovation doesn’t take place during a moment in time—like a hackathon or an incubator—it takes place as part of everyday work. From the Kindle and Amazon Go, to Alexa and Prime, Amazonians work to create products and services that help make life easier for customers. As an Amazon leader for more than two decades, Paul Misener has lived and breathed Amazon’s culture of innovation and its relentless commitment to four guiding principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. In his tenure, he has witnessed incredible invention, growth, speed, and creativity, while also seeing firsthand how the company took calculated risks and failed. In this presentation, Paul will share context for Amazon’s Leadership Principles and ways in which organizations of any kind can apply these methods to cultivate a culture that continually innovates for its customers.
Author and Professor
Awarded #1 in Thinkers50
Columbia Business School
Rita McGrath is a best-selling author, a sought-after advisor and speaker, and a longtime professor at Columbia Business School. Rita is one of the world’s top experts on strategy and innovation and is consistently ranked among the top 10 management thinkers in the world, including the #1 award for strategy by Thinkers50. McGrath’s recent book on strategic inflection points is Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019). Rita is the author of four other books, including the best-selling The End of Competitive Advantage (Harvard Business Review Press, 2013). .
With unprecedented levels of uncertainty facing all of us, now and for the foreseeable future, the tools of innovation have moved up front and center into strategy. Dynamically managing a portfolio of resources, disengaging from projects and programs that are no longer relevant and planning for what’s next in a discovery driven manner are newly relevant. Rita McGrath will share some new tools she is developing to do this better and then engage in a dynamic conversation.
Chairman at Revieve, Faculty Member Kellogg/Northwestern
Revieve + Kellogg/Northwestern
Dean DeBiase is a Senior KIN Fellow and Lecturer of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Kellogg School of Management, a Board Leadership Fellow at the National Association of Corporate Directors and serves in board advisor, independent director and board Chairman roles, supporting civic, non-profit, government, family, foundation, private and public companies. He is an expansion phase CEO and Silicon Valley veteran with a track record scaling emerging growth companies, turning around organizations and embedding entrepreneurial-grade talent into multi-national corporation—to drive innovative growth. He has led public and private corporations through expansion, turnaround, roll-up, spin-out, M&A and IPO phases in Chairman, CEO and lead director roles.
In this fireside chat, Bracken Darrell (CEO of Logitech) and Dean DeBiase (Faculty Member Kellogg/Northwestern and Chairman at Revieve) will discuss how to instil a culture of entrepreneurship & Design Thinking in the Large Organizations.
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Corporations are living in the age of “Uber yourself before you get Kodaked!” These trendy words are easy to say—but difficult to do—unless you learn how to Disrupt the Disruptive Disruptors. See how corporations are shifting toward open-innovation platforms that rely on partnering with global ecosystems. Learn how to plan, navigate and leverage the entrepreneurial-movement, with a program to create impactful innovation partnerships, that can accelerate growth, improve efficiencies, and upgrade the speed and accuracy of your go to market strategy.
Corporate VP New Business, Laundry & Home Care
Henkel
An innovator and problem solver at heart looking to disrupt and give the world products that impact our everyday lives. 17 years of working on brands and delivering market solutions has motivated me to create and bring to life habit changing products & solutions. Now looking to drive new business solutions for Henkel in their Laundry & Home Care division spanning from new brands, new channels, new digital approaches all the way through to new services and partnerships to revolutionise at scale purposeful consumer solutions.
Jonathan Reeves heads Henkel’s new business unit. He will share how the unit looks to create future core businesses for Henkel Laundry & Homecare via creating new businesses through new consumer targets, dialing up new experiences and innovating in adjacencies. Applying user-centric approaches, and seeding innovation from within the organization. He will also share insights on how the unit is set up, how to address change in a legacy based organisation and how to ensure the right environment is in place to nurture new business creation.
Vice President, Sustainability & Packaging Innovation
3M
Ann Meitz is Vice President, Sustainability & Packaging Innovation for 3M’s Consumer Business Group. As part of her role, Ann champions initiatives to improve sustainability in 3M consumer products, packaging, and manufacturing operations. She is also the Circular Economy champion for 3M.
Ann’s 30+ year career with 3M spans a broad range of businesses from electronics to consumer products to health care industries, and she has led both R&D and business teams. Ann’s previous roles include Sustainability Director for 3M’s Health Care Business; Technical Director for Infection Prevention Division, where she directed the development of medical device and drug products used in hospitals to prevent infections; Business Director for Drug Delivery Systems where she was responsible for the Transdermal Drug Delivery business, including the novel microneedle platform; and Technical Director for Optical Systems Division.
Ann has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University as well as an MBA in Marketing from University of St. Thomas.
The panel discusses challenges and best practices in implementing strategic initiatives for circularity and sustainability and how to involve employees, customers and different players across the value chain into those.
Ann Peddle Meitz will share 3M’s approach to innovating for circularity. She will explain how the organization leverages circular design, choice of materials, and business models to develop circular solutions – and will illustrate these with examples. Ann will also discuss key learnings on creating value and tangible environmental impact with circular products.
Technical Director, Office of the CTO
John Abel is a developer turned innovator.His focus is driving customer success blending new technologies such as Blockchain, AI , Internet of Things with existing, deployed, systems to help make ideas become not just reality, but commercially relevant.
John works within a diverse team drawn from multiple backgrounds and skill sets to ensure synergies of different perspectives working together comes to the fore. John also supports a number of STEM projects that are aimed at increasing participation overall but particularly from a wider range of backgrounds.
John began his technology career nearly 30 years ago, working on early AI and even distributed ledger technologies that were deployed to great impact in private and public sector environments. His expertise across many roles within Oracle and now Google in security and data technologies have led to him being a renowned industry speaker, author and commentator on technical and business innovation issues.
John studied at Farnborough College of Technology
John Abel will talk about emerging technologies with an eye to the critical enablers that have allowed them to scale, but which also open opportunities for innovation. He will kick-start his presentation with a brief look at the historical development of AI and VR to underline the importance of enablers in the take-off of these technologies. He will then explain the role of data in this context and will delve into the headwinds of innovation including culture and politics. He will also illustrate the points with a customer co-creation case study.
Catalyst Labs Director
Starbucks
Kathy has worked in technology for nearly 25 years, leading product and innovation, program management and learning and development organizations for start-ups and global companies. Prior to this her early career focused on community development and social change. She holds a BA in Liberal Arts from The Evergreen State College, and an MA in Organizational Systems Renewal from Antioch University. Today she leads a team called Catalyst Labs within Starbucks Technology. Her team delivers on a portfolio of services that include transformational learning and reskill/upskill programs, agility consulting, innovation events and early career pipeline cultivation, to the IT and broader corporate audiences.
Today’s knowledge workers are constantly taking in new information, grappling with new challenges and seeing new opportunities. This coupled with the accelerating pace of change and the complexity of work in the digital age can feel draining and overwhelming. In this conversation between Kathy Doiron (Catalyst Labs Director at Starbucks) and Karina R. Jensen (Practice Director, Centre for Leadership and Effective Organisations at NEOMA Business School) we’ll hear about how Catalyst Labs strategically integrates learning, with hacking, with community to accelerate business transformations such as Modern Engineering and enterprise agility.
Catalyst Labs is a small but mighty team of change makers within Starbucks IT whose focus is on the intersections of learning and innovation. They bring learning journeys and bootcamps, hackathons and innovation expos to Starbucks Technology and business teams. Their work is grounded in the conviction that when learning experiences are tended to and curated with intention and care, we can refresh and renew organizational potential by unleashing confidence, curiosity and attention. In turn, confident, curious and attentive individuals and teams see and create new possibilities.
EVP, Head of Group Strategy and Innovation
DRÄXLMAIER Group
Grzegorz (Greg) is passionate about managing technological innovation from an idea to broad market adoption. His combination of technology, leadership and commercial expertise together with a truly global outlook (having worked across Europe, the USA and China) puts him in a strong position to drive international market success for high-tech innovations. Currently, he is responsible for the Battery Systems Business as EVP at Dräxlmaier to deliver cutting edge technology in a premium market for the automotive sector. In this role, he sets the strategy for the business and oversees the entire product commercialisation, from the initial concept to high volume production. Earlier, he has worked at Qualcomm as a Global Vice President and General Manager of a breakthrough technology licensing business. In this role, he was responsible for business, technology and innovation portfolio development in close collaboration with strategic partners and universities. Grzegorz holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the Silesian University of Technology, Poland and Certificate in Global Management from INSEAD, The Business School for the World. He has been awarded Guest Professorship at the Zhejiang University in China.
In this panel corporate leaders will discuss accelerating the transformation journey with leaders as drivers of emergent change, adopting new ways of working, and leveraging new technologies for innovation.
Vice President Design and Customer Experience
Deutsche Telekom
The design has the power to transform obstacles into new business opportunities, because its essence is innovative. I have dedicated the last 20 years to innovation, first studying at the Politecnico di Milano and then working for major technology companies, which have chosen to change the market with innovative and beautiful products: Samsung Electronics, Whirlpool Corporation and now 3M, the temple of innovation, where not only we design products but solutions. From Milan, one of the world capitals of design, I’m leading the Design Europe Center, where a team of industrial designers, packaging designers, and strategic designers each day translates weak signals into business opportunities for our customers and for the corporation create sustainable business and innovation both B2B and B2C business.
I have previously held various roles of increasing responsibility, Design Manager at Samsung Electronics, Whirlpool Europe Design Centre where several projects have been awarded by ADI, Red Dot, ADA and IDSA. In 2014 I’ve been awarded with the “Merit and Talent “ Award by the Executive Management Association in Italy. Lecturer in Design Management and speaker at international conferences. Since 2012 Board member of the Alumni Association of Politecnico di Milano University.
Hands-on design management executive with a passion to build products that delight people, she has a Customer oriented mindset with the final objective to create value for her Company and the Clients through innovation strategies. Lead product vision, strategy, and building of next-generation of physical and digital products. She has experience in 4 Top Corporations of 3 Nationalities in 4 different Industries (Consumer Electronics, Telecommunications, Innovation Industry, Healthcare, Automotive, Advanced Materials B2B-B2C, Home Appliances): Deutsche Telekom AG, 3M, Samsung Electronics, Whirlpool Corporation-Kitchen Aid. Monica Dalla Riva has also extensive experience in innovation strategy, marketing, technology, and future vision (eg. Ecosystem design, AI, Data-driven design, consumer electronics design, marketing design strategies). Currently VP of Design and VP of Customer Experience at the biggest Telecommunications company in Europe, Deutsche Telekom AG. Forrester CX Pro (CX-1) certified professional. Monica Dalla Riva is the award-winning of the Deutsche Telekom Global “Lead to Win” Award 2020 and of the Woman Leader Award at the Executive Leadership Association, got featured in several prestigious design and business magazines, and her product designs received 20+ design awards in her career. With a vision to change the way businesses think, act, and operate, to innovate while becoming customer centric, she is world-renowned as one of the few Design Corporate Executives in innovation corporations. Monica works with Board Member and Innovation leaders and organisations in nearly every industry to help transform company culture into innovative and customer centric. Former Head of Design at the most innovative company 3M, for Europe. Former Board member of the Alumni Polimi Association, Politecnico Univertity of Milan. Former Design Manger at Samsung Electronics, and Samsung-Armani Alliance design leader Former Design Leader at Whirlpool Corporation and IKEA collaboration. Fast Track Management Program as global talent at Whirlpool. Lecturer of Industrial Design at the Politecnico di Milano University, SDA Bocconi Economic University and at IED European Institute of Design.
How to drive innovation while becoming a customer centric company?
A journey into the transformation companies like Deutsche Telekom are doing to become even more customer centric, learning about igniting more purpose, and motivating teams for a better impact.
Corporate Vice President, Global Public Affairs and Sustainability
Novo Nordisk
Katrine is the Corporate Vice President of Global Public Affairs and Sustainability in Novo Nordisk. The overarching ambition of Katrine and her team of approx. 65 dedicated colleagues is to drive, nudge and support Novo Nordisk towards being a sustainable business. To Novo Nordisk, being a sustainable business means adding value to society and to the future business. This carries an intense focus on the company’s social responsibility brought renewed to life last year with a new Defeat Diabetes strategy. Also important is Novo Nordisk’s ambition is to have zero environmental footprint as stated in their Circular for Zero strategy. In driving Novo Nordisk’s sustainable business strategies, Katrine and her team works with both internal and external stakeholder mobilisation, innovation and new ideas on how to progress, trends analysis and sometimes old-fashioned persuasion! Before taking up the role as Corporate Vice President, Katrine headed up Global Public Affairs as well as R&D Governmental Relations in Novo Nordisk. Prior to joining Novo Nordisk, Katrine worked in the Confederation of Danish Industries and the Danish Ministry of Education and Science. Katrine has a MSc in Political Science.
The panel discusses challenges and best practices in implementing strategic initiatives for circularity and sustainability and how to involve employees, customers and different players across the value chain into those.
Managing Director DSM Venturing & VP DSM Innovation Business Building
DSM
Pieter is the Managing Director of DSM Venturing, the corporate venture capital arm of Royal DSM. This is part of his new (2020) role as VP Innovation Business Building at DSM, IBB.
DSM Venturing is currently invested in a portfolio of close to 40 startup companies across various domains: Human and Animal Nutrition, Industrial Biotech, Biomedical, Solar and Additive Manufacturing. DSM IBB applies startup methods to ventures originated from within DSM, for instance DSM PPE Plus and Hologram Sciences.
Pieter currently serves on the boards of Hologram Sciences, DSM PPE Plus, Miach Orthopeadics and (as an observer) Leading Edge Equipment Technologies. Over the last few years he was a board member of Bio2 Technologies, Leading Edge Crystal Technologies, Frontier Nutrition, Interface Biologics and Essential Medical (acquired by Teleflex in 2018). Pieter was lead investor in Isobionics (acquired by BASF in 2019). He served on advisory boards of MIT.nano, Greentown Labs and Prime Coalition.
Before joining DSM, Pieter gained extensive startup operating and funding experience as co-founder and CEO of OrthAlign (privately owned, 2008-2011) and IsoTis (ISOT, acquired by Integra Life Sciences in 2007) in California.
Pieter started his career in the late (nineteen) eighties in international M&A, investment management and transaction advisory in Europe. He holds a law degree from Leiden University, NL and lives in Boston, MA.
Pieter Wolters will share DSM’s venturing approach. He will detail how the organization builds startups from internal innovation projects, and why it takes a rigorous approach to ensuring startup autonomy.
VP, Global Head of Sustainability
Philips
Robert is a member of Royal Philips’ Innovation & Strategy Management Team, where he holds a double role. He is Head of Sustainability as well as Chief of Staff Innovation & Strategy. As Leader of the Philips Sustainability Function, Robert focuses on strategy and policy development and drives the execution of structural sustainability action programs in the company via the standing organization. In his role as Chief of Staff he is responsible for initiating and driving strategic programs and transformation initiatives across Innovation, Strategy, Design, IP&S and Sustainability. Robert supports and advises the Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer, as well as integrates and prioritizes across the Innovation- and Strategy Management Team. Robert is an experienced global program- and team leader with passion for innovation, strategy, social impact and change leadership. In his previous role as General Manager of the global Group Strategy team, Robert was responsible for building and managing Philips’ central strategy team, driving functional excellence in the strategy process and working with the Philips Leadership team to identify and solve strategic challenges for Philips. Robert joined Philips in 2008 as Head of the Philips EcoVision program, leading development and worldwide implementation of Philips’ program for sustainable innovation (“EcoVision5”). Before joining Philips, Robert worked at McKinsey & Company as consultant where he gained 5 years of experience in strategy and innovation in the high-tech, health-care and public sectors. His background is in journalism, science publishing (Science/ AAAS) and academic research (Theoretical Physics). Robert is married, has three children and lives in the Netherlands.
The panel discusses challenges and best practices in implementing strategic initiatives for circularity and sustainability and how to involve employees, customers and different players across the value chain into those.
Chief Foresighter & Global Breakthrough Innovation Lead
PepsiCo
Tammy is a passionate believer in innovation, the future of the food industry, and how we all as a community inspire great progress. She has built up a broad range of experiences within product development, strategy and also marketing within leading companies like Mars and PepsiCo, and more recently she is partnering with entrepreneurial start up communities in the food and drink space. Currently she looks after Breakthrough Innovation within PepsiCo’s- committed to supporting the winning with purpose agenda and bringing the right products to market for our consumers in this space. Tammy has recently relocated from the UK to Chicago with her family, and is enjoying photographing new sights and exploring the locally available chocolates.
As part of PepsiCo’s Winning with Purpose vision, they are committed to open innovation and collaborating with the change-makers of the future to help lead the transformation of the food and beverage industry. This is why for years PepsiCo has fostered relationships with startup brands through programs like the PepsiCo Greenhouse Accelerator.
Join us as Tammy Butterworth shares more information on the 6 month accelerator program with external startups where the focus is a collaborative growth experience, with a two way learning mechanism built in.
The Greenhouse Accelerator ties back to three critical ideas: embracing the entrepreneurial mindset, seeding future growth, and mutual mentorship, with a commitment to diversity underpinning our efforts. We believe the future of food and beverage is built on collaboration, and in this talk Tammy will discuss the vision of marrying the innovation and agility of small companies with the scale and know-how of big companies.
In this panel, Sudeendra Koushik (Volvo CampX Bangalore), Kara Bortone (Johnson & Johnson), Peter Löfgren (ABB SynerLeap) and Tammy Butterworth (PepsiCo) will discuss the challenges and learnings in collaboration between large corporation and startups.
Adjunct Professor, Organisational Behaviour
London Business School
Tamara J. Erickson is a McKinsey Award-winning author and a widely-respected authority on new approaches to leadership, the changing workforce, collaboration and innovation, and the nature of work in intelligent organizations. At London Business School, Erickson designed and directs the school’s leadership programme for senior-most executives, Leading Businesses into the Future and works with executives in a number of custom and open programmes. She has five times been named one of the 50 most influential living management thinkers in the world by Thinkers50, the respected ranking of global business thinkers. Her leading-edge work is consistently showcased in the prestigious Global Drucker Forum, an international conference of prominent business leaders. She has authored five books and numerous widely-cited articles. An experienced executive and global advisor, Erickson has also served on the Board of Directors of two Fortune 500 corporations, where she served on Governance, Audit, and Compensation Committees and as the Lead Independent Director. Erickson holds a BA degree from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, where she was the recipient of the James Thomas Chirurg Fellowship.
Fireside chat – abstract tba
In this panel corporate leaders will discuss accelerating the transformation journey with leaders as drivers of emergent change, adopting new ways of working, and leveraging new technologies for innovation.
Director Group Digital Operations & Innovation
Electrolux
Born in Vietnam and currently residing in the United States, Hao is an experience junkie. He has worked across North and South Americas, Europe and Southeast Asia in the mobility, financial services sector, energy segment, extreme sports arena and entertainment industry performing various roles such as an innovation director, financial auditor, IT manager, product development manager and his favorite job, as a professional skateboarder. Currently Hao is passionate about nurturing his creative confidence and utilizing innovation to solve complex issues. He is spearheading initiatives to digitally transform a global $17B organization into an digitally innovative powerhouse. Additionally, Hao started a non-profit called Grow by Design that is focused on helping K-12 students nurture their creative skills and spark their innovative fire!
For the past 15 years, Hao Dinh has led digital transformation at GE and Electrolux. He will explain how digital transformation has reached the stage where it requires changing the DNA of the organization, scaling technology, working agile, and upskilling and reskilling people. Hao will share insights and real world examples on:
In this panel corporate leaders will discuss accelerating the transformation journey with leaders as drivers of emergent change, adopting new ways of working, and leveraging new technologies for innovation.
Managing Director
SynerLeap – Powered by ABB
Peter has extensive industry and business experience from several leading positions within ABB and various board member positions. At ABB Peter is responsible for Strategic Collaboration & Business Development within R&D, where he is actively searching opportunities and synergies offered by different types of partnerships both with small and large companies. He is member of boards of start-up company and regional research and development advisory boards, such as Electrumstiftlesen owner of STING, the largest startup accelerator in Stockholm & Kista Science City. Prior to SynerLeap, Peter was heading the global ABB Simulation Network, spanning all sorts of simulation software and hardware resources, in order to fertilize cross utilization and value creation. At ABB Corporate Research, Peter headed the local Automation networks department for seven years.
Peter is the founder and CEO of the growth hub SynerLeap powered by ABB. Member companies can accelerate by accessing unique industrial knowledge and ABB Industry knowledge. Target is to decrease innovation cycles and maximize value creation and where it make sense be a fast track for ABB Technology Ventures investments.
Furthermore he has eight patents and has helped to propel new technologies and products in various industrial fields. Peter has a Master of Science Degree from Chalmers University and a Licentiate of Technology Degree (Swedish intermediate PhD degree) from Royal Institute of Technology.
Peter Löfgren heads ABB’s innovation growth hub SynerLeap. Up to now, SynerLeap has onboarded startups from 19 countries on five continents and initiated more than 135 collaborations, at a pace of one new collaboration every week. SynerLeap is building a value network and leverages an industrial startup ecosystem – expanding the program globally and bringing in partners. Peter will share how the hub collaborates with high-tech startups, and builds a startup ecosystem, focusing in particular on:
In this panel, Sudeendra Koushik (Volvo CampX Bangalore), Kara Bortone (Johnson & Johnson), Peter Löfgren (ABB SynerLeap) and Tammy Butterworth (PepsiCo) will discuss the challenges and learnings in collaboration between large corporation and startups.
Senior Director, Diagnostics & Enabling Technologies
Johnson & Johnson
As part of the Janssen Business Development team, Kara is responsible for leading acquisition, licensing and partnership diligence and transactions for diagnostics, digital diagnostics and technologies that enable digital solutions, with a primary focus in neuroscience.
Kara started at Johnson & Johnson through J&J Innovation, JLABS in 2012, shortly after the flagship JLABS site opened in San Diego. She led and executed on external engagement, company scouting, operational excellence, educational programming and P&L, first as Head of JLABS @ San Diego. As JLABS grew globally, Kara played a critical role in overseeing company sourcing and portfolio management of more than 700 companies in 13 locations.
Kara began her career in 2004 at Galapagos NV in Belgium, where she served in roles of increasing responsibility, including business development, marketing, investor relations and medical communications. She holds a BS in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin.
In this panel, Sudeendra Koushik (Volvo CampX Bangalore), Kara Bortone (Johnson & Johnson), Peter Löfgren (ABB SynerLeap) and Tammy Butterworth (PepsiCo) will discuss the challenges and learnings in collaboration between large corporation and startups.
Sr. R&D Director, Global Head of Sustainable Innovation
P&G
Senior R&D Director in Procter & Gamble. Innovation Leader experiences across wealths of business challenges, i.e. Unit Dose Start-up and established Businesses; Developed World & Developing Markets; Downstream and Front End Innovation (FEI); All product forms. Now Heading P&G Global R&D Sustainable Innovation.
Champion of People & Organizations, with established experience of multi-site globally dispersed organizations and cross-functional teams leadership. Top Global Leader of Culture of Innovation.
Moved assignments every 3-4 years across all key R&D functions and Business Units in Fabric and Home Care; Multiple Regional Delivery Roles esp.WE, North America and now IMEA. Worked across 3 major P&G sites in France, Brussels, Cincinnati.
Frantz Beznik heads Sustainable Innovation at P&G. He will talk about how to innovate for sustainability in a large firm and make sustainability work at scale. Frantz’ motto is to “Make Sustainable Irresistible®” to the 5 billion consumers P&G serves around the world. He will briefly share his model approach and will outline how P&G builds alliances to create systems change and innovate at scale. He will bring this to life through his 50L home project, sharing his key interim progress & leanings – to date – in creating customer-facing sustainable solutions and building an ecosystem.
Head of Mindfulness and Compassion
Scott is at the intersection of the workplace and ancient wisdom traditions. He has been an active advocate for customers and employees in the technology space for over 20 years, with roles ranging from sales, customer advocacy, and customer service leadership. Previously, he was the Vice President of LinkedIn’s Customer Operations organization. In his current role as Head of Mindfulness and Compassion at LinkedIn, Scott blends his lifelong practice and passion with his practical leadership and operations experience. His mission is to change work from the inside out by “mainstreaming mindfulness” and “operationalizing compassion.” He is the author of the book The Full Body Yes, available in May 2021.
The talk will focus on why it’s time to mainstream mindfulness and operationalize compassion. Mr. Shute will share the innovative programs that LinkedIn, and firms like them, are implementing to help employees maintain their mental well-being.
Innovation Director, Head of CampX Bangalore
Volvo Group
Ph.D. Sudeendra Koushik has 28 years of experience is in Innovation and Technology Management in India, Singapore and The Netherlands in various roles, including new product and services development, project management, hardware, software and systems, Intellectual property, people and customer management with more than 20 patents in various stages. He helped several companies, mainly in automotive technology, to develop a culture of Innovation, build Innovation skills and generate business relevant Innovations and intellectual property. He has been actively engaged in the start-up sphere, by mentoring and supporting multiple start-ups, innovation centres, accelerators and incubators in multiple domains. He has also worked closely with academia and innovation, being a part of academic councils forging stronger industry academia collaboration.
His PhD by research is titled “An integrated framework for Innovation talent management” focusing on Innovation & Intrapreneurship, specifically in scaling and managing business relevant Innovation. Sudeendra Koushik is also a TEDx and award-winning International speaker, speaking regularly at multiple forums, universities and conferences. He's a long-standing volunteer at IEEE, PMI and Women in Big Data. I am also a cartoonist and actor.
Sudeendra Koushik will talk about how to drive innovation by directing attention from processes to people and culture. He will share how organizations can enable people to innovate by providing them with the necessary skills and creating incentives to foster desired behaviors.
In this panel, Sudeendra Koushik (Volvo CampX Bangalore), Kara Bortone (Johnson & Johnson), Peter Löfgren (ABB SynerLeap) and Tammy Butterworth (PepsiCo) will discuss the challenges and learnings in collaboration between large corporation and startups.
Americas Regional Manager & Global Design Director, Design Thinking
GE Healthcare
Mark Ciesko is a creative and empathetic design leader who believes in the power of team genius. He leverages nearly 30 years of diverse experiences in senior leadership positions in an agency setting and working for two Fortune 50 companies, where he crafted new approaches to innovation and design thinking. Currently Regional Manager and Director of Design Thinking at GE Healthcare, Mark’s focus is on leveraging empathy across the healthcare journey not just for clinicians, but patients and families as well.
Design Thinking as a framework for innovation has been around a long time. It has its champions, and it has detractors as well. But how do you pull forward the good stuff and make a meaningful impact on your business and for your customers? At GE Healthcare they established a design thinking practice initially as an experiment and have built a sustainable model for nearly 14 years. Mark will share insights into what they have learned over the years, what works, what doesn’t and how to make business leaders fans of design thinking where they keep coming back for more.
Sr. Fellow & Faculty Director, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
UC Berkeley
Mark Coopersmith is an educator, author, entrepreneur, and Fortune 500 executive. A Senior Fellow and Faculty Director at UC Berkeley, he teaches innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership to current and future leaders at UC Berkeley and around the world. He has built and run global businesses for Sony, has founded Silicon Valley startups (his ecommerce startup is now owned by Google), is an active venture capital investor, and is a popular conference speaker and moderator. His entrepreneurship students have launched more than 100 ventures globally.
If COVID has taught us anything over the past 18 months, it’s that we are frequently wrong, especially in times of great uncertainty and fast-moving developments. During these unprecedented times, some organizations have innovated and thrived, while others have stumbled and fallen. Many sectors have been fundamentally reshaped. What separates the winners from the losers, especially when it comes to innovation?
In this fast-paced and provocative conversation, Mark Coopersmith and John Danner – long-time faculty at UC Berkeley in innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership – will address key issues that leaders of innovation need to consider in times like this, including…
Mark Coopersmith and John Danner are Co-authors of “The Other “F” Word: How Great Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work”.
Mark Coopersmith and John Danner are co-authors of the best-selling book The Other “F” Word: How Smart Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work (Wiley, 2015). They also advise organizations around the world on driving innovation, organizational change, and growth. Building on themes they introduce in their “keynote conversation” immediately preceding this Lab, Mark and John will lead an interactive session where attendees gain a better understanding of their personal “failure-savviness” as leaders, and also gain experience with a few of the activities, tools, and exercises from their book “The Other ‘F’ Word.” Mark and John will also share a number of best practices they identified in companies while undertaking research for the book.
During this Lab, participants will…
Sr. Fellow UC Berkeley-Haas & Princeton; WSJ best-selling author
UC Berkeley-Haas & Princeton
John Danner is a bestselling author, faculty member at two of the world’s finest universities, popular public speaker, experienced executive, and advisor to global enterprises, government agencies and emerging ventures. His work as a management consultant, entrepreneur, lawyer and public official has centered on helping organizations deal with the leadership, strategy and innovation challenges and opportunities of unprecedented change.
He is the co-author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Built for Growth: How Builder Personality Shapes Your Business, Your Team, and Your Ability to Win (Harvard Business Review Press, 2017), about the personality characteristics of highly successful entrepreneurs; as well as the Amazon bestseller, The Other ‘F’ Word: How Smart Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work (John Wiley & Sons, 2015), about strategies to leverage failure as a strategic resource. His articles and interviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Entrepreneur, Inc., Forbes, The Economist, Chief Executive and many other US and global media channels.
As a member of the professional faculties at the University of California Berkeley and Princeton University, he teaches executives, graduate and undergraduate students from around the world; and has launched popular campus-wide courses on both campuses. He also anchors and contributes to a number of executive education programs on leadership, strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship for several other prominent organizations in various locations globally – at UC Berkeley, Yale, the Aspen Institute and other US and international organizations.
If COVID has taught us anything over the past 18 months, it’s that we are frequently wrong, especially in times of great uncertainty and fast-moving developments. During these unprecedented times, some organizations have innovated and thrived, while others have stumbled and fallen. Many sectors have been fundamentally reshaped. What separates the winners from the losers, especially when it comes to innovation?
In this fast-paced and provocative conversation, Mark Coopersmith and John Danner – long-time faculty at UC Berkeley in innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership – will address key issues that leaders of innovation need to consider in times like this, including…
Mark Coopersmith and John Danner are Co-authors of “The Other “F” Word: How Great Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work”.
Mark Coopersmith and John Danner are co-authors of the best-selling book The Other “F” Word: How Smart Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work (Wiley, 2015). They also advise organizations around the world on driving innovation, organizational change, and growth. Building on themes they introduce in their “keynote conversation” immediately preceding this Lab, Mark and John will lead an interactive session where attendees gain a better understanding of their personal “failure-savviness” as leaders, and also gain experience with a few of the activities, tools, and exercises from their book “The Other ‘F’ Word.” Mark and John will also share a number of best practices they identified in companies while undertaking research for the book.
During this Lab, participants will…
Sr. Interaction Designer, Google AI
Senior designer and education enthusiast with experience on designing end-to-end digital services, team management and organizing learning formats for communities. In addition to crafting, I have been teaching professionally at universities and companies.
Being visual is one of the fundamentals for a good brainstorming session. Still most people feel more comfortable with sharing their thoughts using words. Visual is a language that everyone knows, but haven’t had a chance to practice. This session is an introduction to how and why to bring it closer to your daily work.
Professor of Innovation Management
Babson College
Professor O’Connor joined Babson in January 2019. She spent 29 years at the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she was Professor of Marketing and Innovation Management and held numerous administrative roles. She earned her PhD in Marketing and Corporate Strategy at NYU, and worked as a contract administrator for McDonnell Douglas Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri.
Gina has published many scholarly papers, five of which have received best paper of the year awards in their respective journals. She has co-authored three books on breakthrough innovation. One of those was named one of the top three business books of the year by Strategy + Business Magazine and the most recent one was named 2nd on the list of recommended books on innovation by InnovationLeader in 2019. In 2018 she was named a Crawford Fellow by the Product Development and Management Association, one of only six recipients of that award.
Gina’s professional objective is to help large established companies learn how to renew themselves through organic growth via breakthrough, strategic innovation. She is an active speaker and consultant for a number of US and European companies, and is passionate about developing the next cadre of innovation leaders.
Common wisdom is that breakthrough opportunities are difficult to find. But practical experience tells us that more often, getting those ideas is much less of a challenge for the large mature company than scaling the new business that is based on a breakthrough, and assimilating it into the mainstream organization. In this session we’ll examine commonly experienced challenges and offer insights from research into how companies can build a capability to ‘Accelerate’ strategic innovations so that they substantially contribute to the mature organization’s growth and renewal.
Global Head of Sustainability Solutions, Polycarbonates Business Unit
Covestro
From intrapreneur to corporate innovation, now continuing the journey on sustainability, Roy currently leads the global Sustainability Solutions of the Polycarbonates business unit of Covestro with a focus on the commercialization of sustainability products and the adoption of circular design strategies for products, services and business models. Roy and its team at Covestro recently launched the world’s first climate neutral polycarbonate materials to help customers meet their climate change and other sustainability challenges. He's also actively building various alliances and partnerships in the value chain to enable closed-loop recycling and enhance material traceability in driving the transition towards a more circular and decarbonized economy. Born and raised in Hong Kong, Roy is currently based in Shanghai where the global headquarter of Polycarbonates BU of Covestro is located.
The panel discusses challenges and best practices in implementing strategic initiatives for circularity and sustainability and how to involve employees, customers and different players across the value chain into those.
Culture, Intrapreneurship Director, Airbus North America
Airbus
Alice de Casanove is in charge of innovation culture in Airbus North America (4000+ employees across the USA), where she fosters the relevant mindset to accelerate future businesses, and she leads the cultural roadmap for digitalization and innovation.
In 2018, Alice was nominated as Woman in the innovation of the year by l’Usine Nouvelle for her innovation project of beehives monitoring by satellites.
Alice plays a determining role in the publication of the ISO referential on good practices in innovation management (ISO 5600 series). Since 2013 she has chaired the international committee gathering 52+ countries in close coordination with WTO, OECD, WIPO, and the World Bank.
Alice has started her career in a video deep-tech start-up then she joined Sagem to manage and develop the value of the Innovation portfolio of the French telecom manufacturer. She has joined the entrepreneurial adventure of Actimagine to develop video technologies on handheld devices (video games consoles and smartphones). Actimagine became the Nintendo Europe R&D center after being bought by NINTENDO. Alice graduated from Telecom Paristech and holds a Ph.D.
Alice de Casanove and Jean-Yves Reynaud will lead an exercise on making culture more agile. They will start the exercise off with a short presentation on the Future-Fit Manifesto followed by two consecutive situation-based group discussion sessions. The session will focus on the following:
Senior Researcher
Harvard University
In books, articles, posts, classes, and talks, David Weinberger, Ph.D. explores the effect of the technology on ideas. A long-time affiliate of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, he recently was a writer-in-residence at Google AI, was co-director of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab, and was a journalism fellow at Harvard's Shorenstein Center. Dr. Weinberger has been a marketing VP and adviser to high tech companies, and a Franklin Fellow at the U.S. State Department. He is the author of best-selling and award winning books, including The Cluetrain Manifesto (co-author) and his latest, Everyday Chaos. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Toronto.
Every application of AI has moral implications that we have to consider as businesspeople, customers, and citizens. But AI — especially the sort known as machine learning — “thinks” about things very differently than we humans do. This is leading us to puzzle through moral questions in new and helpful ways.
In this session we will:
Practice Director, Centre for Leadership and Effective Organisations
NEOMA Business School
Dr. Karina R. Jensen is an educator and change facilitator who enjoys orchestrating global innovation and multicultural collaboration with international leaders and teams. She is a Professor of Global Innovation and Leadership as well as Practice Director of the Centre for Leadership and Effective Organisations at NEOMA Business School in France. She is also Founder and Executive Director of Global Minds Network, an international advisory firm specializing in innovation readiness solutions. Karina has delivered talks, training, and courses to universities, organizations, and associations around the world. Her research and publications explore the challenges and opportunities of leading in a global, multicultural, and digitally connected world. Through research with 200+ leaders at 45 multinational firms, her book Leading Global Innovation presents a framework for leaders and teams to facilitate strategic planning and execution of global initiatives. Dr. Jensen earned her PhD in International Management at ESCP Business School in France. She is a San Francisco native with Scandinavian roots and currently resides in Paris.
Today’s knowledge workers are constantly taking in new information, grappling with new challenges and seeing new opportunities. This coupled with the accelerating pace of change and the complexity of work in the digital age can feel draining and overwhelming. In this conversation between Kathy Doiron (Catalyst Labs Director at Starbucks) and Karina R. Jensen (Practice Director, Centre for Leadership and Effective Organisations at NEOMA Business School) we’ll hear about how Catalyst Labs strategically integrates learning, with hacking, with community to accelerate business transformations such as Modern Engineering and enterprise agility.
Catalyst Labs is a small but mighty team of change makers within Starbucks IT whose focus is on the intersections of learning and innovation. They bring learning journeys and bootcamps, hackathons and innovation expos to Starbucks Technology and business teams. Their work is grounded in the conviction that when learning experiences are tended to and curated with intention and care, we can refresh and renew organizational potential by unleashing confidence, curiosity and attention. In turn, confident, curious and attentive individuals and teams see and create new possibilities.
Executive Director, Kickbox Foundation - Former Chief Strategist & VP Creativity at Adobe
Kickbox
Mark Randall semi-retired in 2019 after 12 years as Adobe’s Chief Strategist and Vice President of Creativity, incubating disruptive new businesses and leading the company’s global innovation process. To empower Adobe’s 20,000 employees to develop their own ideas Randall created Kickbox, a unique innovator’s toolbox which Fortune Magazine called “a magical cardboard bundle to kickstart creative problem solving. In 2015 Adobe open-sourced Kickbox leading to its adoption at thousands of enterprises, universities, governments and non-profits. Kickbox has since grown into the world’s most popular enterprise innovation process with Adobe being been named to both Forbes and Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies” lists. The free, open source Kickbox is now a cross-industry best practice curated by hundreds of volunteer experts at Kickbox.org, a non-profit community of innovation executives, coaches, educators and students. In addition to Kickbox, Randall’s own innovations at Adobe included the creation of new businesses such as Adobe Live and Adobe Pass, which launched the industry shift to TV Everywhere earning an Emmy Award for technical achievement. Randall also pioneered key strategic initiatives including Adobe's pivot into digital content with the $800M acquisition of Fotolia.
What would happen if a company funded every single new product idea from any employee, no questions asked? As an experiment, Adobe did exactly that. Mark Randall will share the surprising discoveries Adobe made in creating Kickbox, the new innovation process that’s already becoming an industry model for igniting a culture of innovation. Each employee receives a mysterious red box packed with imagination, money and a strange game with six levels. Hear from Mark how aligning passion with purpose and nurturing collaboration across the entire organization changes everything and how trust can transform good people into great innovators. Learn what makes Kickbox so effective, why Adobe has freely open sourced the entire process now separated in its own non-profit foundation and how organizations around the world from Cisco to MasterCard to Swisscom are deploying it.
In this interactive workshop you’ll adapt the open source Kickbox innovator’s toolkit to fit your organization’s needs and objectives. Guided by the creator of Kickbox, participants will emerge with a digital Kickbox suitable for pilot deployment.
External Lecturer and Facilitator
Airbus
Jean-Yves Reynaud is a change agent who helps Airbus, and others companies, explore new ideas and make them a reality. He introduced agility at Orange in 1996 and received an award for a product he created in 2001. EDS corp. rewarded him in 2008 for EDSource an innovative open-source-like collaborative environment, and for his work on remote and unbossed organizations. As a manager-coach, Jean-Yves led Sierra Wireless IOT SaaS solution from 2010 to 2013, innovating in IOT professional services and solutions. Working with Airbus, he co-created and delivered “Airbus Innovation Training Program” from design thinking to business models as well as “Digital Coach Program” dealing with Airbus digitization. He also launched and support 19 innovation projects for Airbus “Sprint Program” for 3 years. Jean-Yves is currently coaching leaders, managers, teams, and organizations to become more resilient, more innovative, more inspiring, and more responsible. In 2021, he contributed to the Future Fit Manifesto.
Alice de Casanove and Jean-Yves Reynaud will lead an exercise on making culture more agile. They will start the exercise off with a short presentation on the Future-Fit Manifesto followed by two consecutive situation-based group discussion sessions. The session will focus on the following:
Executive Director
MIT Corporate Relations
Karl Koster is the Executive Director of MIT Corporate Relations. MIT Corporate Relations includes the MIT Industrial Liaison Program and MIT Startup Exchange.
In that capacity, Koster and his staff work with the leadership of MIT and senior corporate executives to design and implement strategies for fostering corporate partnerships with the Institute. Koster and his team have also worked to identify and design a number of major international programs for MIT, which have been characterized by the establishment of strong, programmatic linkages among universities, industry, and governments. Most recently these efforts have been extended to engage the surrounding innovation ecosystem, including its vibrant startup and small company community, into MIT's global corporate and university networks.
Koster is also the Director of Alliance Management in the Office of Strategic Alliances and Technology Transfer (OSATT). OSATT was launched in Fall 2019 as part of a plan to reinvent MIT’s research administration infrastructure. OSATT develops agreements that facilitate MIT projects, programs and consortia with industrial, nonprofit, and international sponsors, partners and collaborators.
He is past chairman of the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP), an organization that seeks to enhance the value of collaborative partnerships between universities and corporations.
He graduated from Brown University with a BA in geology and economics, and received an MS from MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to returning to MIT, Koster worked as a management consultant in Europe, Latin America, and the United States on projects for private and public sector organizations.
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Director for Corporate Programs
The Heartfulness Institute USA
Chris Mills is a 20-year advertising and marketing veteran and is currently a Director, Marketing Strategy for Anthem, a leading U.S. healthcare company. Chris received his M.B.A. in Marketing and Management from the University of Oklahoma and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas Christian University. Chris worked as an advertising account director prior to transitioning to the marketing side within the healthcare and insurance industries. Chris is a practitioner, instructor and student of Heartfulness Meditation, which he has been practicing for over 22 years. He is also a Director for Corporate Programs offered by The Heartfulness Institute USA, where he consults with businesses on development of relaxation and meditation programs as part of their overall health & wellness initiatives. Chris lives with his family in Torrance, California.
Meditation is a mainstream activity in business and can help employees relax, improve focus & productivity and reduce stress levels. Medical research has shown health improvements among individuals who meditate ranging from improved cardiovascular health, reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety and increased coping and problem-solving skills. Meditation can also be a key tool to inspire creativity, to problem solve and to support collaboration amongst team members. As a 15+ year instructor of Heartfulness Meditation and a Marketing Director for a large healthcare company, Chris Mills will present an experiential workshop based on Heartfulness Meditation. In this workshop he will:
Senior Director Home Care & Open Innovation
P&G
Stuart is currently a Senior Director at Procter & Gamble leading Open Innovation in the Fabric & Home Care business unit. He has more than 26 years experience working and leading R&D and multifunctional teams innovating for the FMCG business. He has worked across brands, product platforms and geographical regions delivering disruptive, transformative and commercial innovation to consumer & professional markets. He has lived and worked in the UK, Belgium, USA and China and is experienced and passionate about front end innovation and using open innovation and lean start up principles to explore new innovation areas with start ups & scale ups in the consumer goods arena. He has a particular focus on Safe and Sustainable, Digital, Hygiene domains & new trends and currently runs an innovation incubator, InQbet Campus, at P&G’s Brussels Campus.
Discover the InQbet Campus, a unique open innovation space created by P&G at its Brussels premises. The campus is designed to connect different players and boost innovation in key areas such as sustainability, digital and industry 4.0. Lean innovation capabilities are at the core of the InQbet Campus, which comprises:
Moreover the campus includes offices and event spaces, created in collaboration with Workhero, to allow P&G and the InQbet partners to work closely together and connect globally online for startup pitches, tech talks and more.
Program Director Innovation Center
DHL
Jessica Voss has 20+ years of experience in international innovation and strategy. She leads the customer-centric innovation activities such as workshops, conferences, webinars etc. at the DHL Innovation Center near Bonn, Germany. Being part of DHL’s cross-divisional unit Customer Solutions & Innovation (CSI), she is passionate about connecting with customers across various industry sectors, business partners, and key corporate stakeholders of Deutsche Post DHL group to shape a collaborative innovation agenda. Prior to her current role, Jessica has held various positions in Innovation Management, Strategy and Business Development. Jessica’s career began as a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company. She holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Cologne.
As a thought leader in the logistics industry, DHL structurally invests in trend research and solution development. To enable collaboration, the company brings together customers, research and academic institutions, industry partners, and logistics experts within the DHL business divisions.. Experience the DHL Innovation Center and discover the latest trends and solutions in logistics, guided by the DHL experts from the Centers in Chicago, Cologne and Singapore.
Head of Gore Innovation Center
W.L. Gore & Associates
Linda serves as Head of the Gore Innovation Center in Silicon Valley, exploring how Gore's advanced materials can play a unique role in white space areas for Gore through strategic partnerships and new business development. In addition to her external facing role, Linda has collaboratively led teams to receive additional rounds of internal funding to validate concepts for new product opportunities as an internal startup founder.
Linda led the design and creation of the Gore Innovation Center in Silicon Valley, where she took the facility from its original concept to its execution, completion, and launch. In addition to creating an inspiring physical space to foster innovation, she established the operating model and key performance metrics; while also expanding areas of exploration, establishing partnerships with startups, and advancing relationships and idea generation across the Enterprise.
Prior to her time in innovation, Linda led new product development teams from ideation to commercial launch, drove technical project development and resourcing, and obtained two patents. Linda is currently getting an EMBA at The Wharton School and previously earned Master of Science degrees in both Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame.
Innovative companies have the hunger, momentum and ideas necessary to disrupt their industries. What they may lack is the materials and material expertise to carry them out. That’s where Gore comes in.
The Gore Innovation Center team works with early to mid-stage startups, innovators, academia, corporations and customers. Our process helps innovators accelerate the discovery of new capabilities and paths to successful commercialization of advanced material technology. While we welcome ideas and engagement across the breadth of Gore’s markets, we have a specific focus in sustainability (e.g. SynBio, CCUS, building materials) and other emerging tech.
In addition to working with collaborators in our prototyping lab, the center also serves as a meeting space that brings together Silicon Valley’s thought leaders, innovators, academics, engineers and more to discuss today’s most pressing industry, product and technical challenges.
From ideation to creation, our Innovation Center provides an environment for meaningful partnerships: a place that not only sparks ideas but can bring them to life.
Sr. Manager, Category Experience Design
Nestlé Purina
Stephen is a design and innovation leader fueled by helping organizations rediscover the human side of business. For over 16 years, he’s been pioneering human-centered design across Nestlé as a way to enable and accelerate innovation efforts that both drive external business results while shaping cultural ways of working. He currently leads Category Experience Design at Nestlé Purina North America including strategic direction over their U.S. HQ-based Retail Innovation Center (or RIC) in Saint Louis, Missouri. He holds 17 patents, has guest lectured at Stanford, Chicago’s IIT Institute of Design, 3 IDSA Conferences, and COCABiz, and his work has been a featured in several publications including Global Village, EQ Quarterly, WDCast, the St. Louis Business Journal and IDSA. He is a proud St. Louisan who enjoys simple things like ice cold beer and making things.
Nestlé Purina’s Retail Innovation Center (RIC) is a world class facility where we bring the pet owner experience to life, showcase proprietary insights and experiment with emerging retail technology to unearth new category growth opportunities. It’s an omnichannel learning lab that constantly evolves to reflect changing consumer needs and pet category dynamics. What’s truly revolutionary however, is Purina’s proprietary engagement model called “RICx.” We utilize immersive learning and co-creation methods with our retailer partners to define solutions with clear actions that drive new business opportunities.
Marketing Manager e-Mobility
Dow Consumer Solutions
Luc Dusart is a marketer at Dow, where he has worked since 1993. He has over 25 years of international business experience in the Chemical Industry.
Luc Dusart started his career in FMCG in Italy at Procter & Gamble as market analyst in the household care group. He then worked as Junior Product Manager in the Paint & Coating industry at Boero in Rome, Italy.
Luc joined Dow Corning in 1993 as market analyst in Packaging Innovation Team for 5 years. He then took the position of Global Marketing Manager for Release Coatings and Silicone PSA’s for 8 years. In 2008, Luc moved to the Business & Technology Incubator and led the marketing effort of multiple long-term R&D programs in the field of agroscience, energy storage, lubricants and hotmelt adhesives. Since 2020, Luc is the Global marketing manager for the Mobility & Transportation Electronics Market. He joined Dow in 2016 through the Dow Corning acquisition.
Luc earned his M.S. in Commercial Engineering from the University of Louvain in Belgium and the University Bocconi in Milan, Italy. He participated to a marketing management program at Insead, France.
Dow has the aspiration to become one of the most customer-centric, innovative, sustainable and inclusive company in the world. With this in mind, the inspirationstudio has been designed in Seneffe, Belgium, at Dow Business and Technology Center, to collaborate and accelerate innovation. This amazing and flexible space has the ambition to showcase Dow’s unique innovation capabilities and provide an immersive co-creation environment. After 6 months of operation, the studio welcomed over 260 visitors from all over the world and generated 35 new customer-driven innovation projects. The studio turned virtual during the pandemic period
Head of Innovation Methods and Tools
Airbus
Markus belongs to the Airbus Corporate Innovation team. His mission is about enabling a sustainable innovation culture across Airbus. This covers a comprehensive set of methods and tools for an effective innovation eco-system delivering value to the customers. He has over twenty years of experience in the aerospace industry working in different key positions along the complete product life-cycle. Markus holds a PhD in Cognitive Engineering and Man-Machine Systems. His main interest is on user-centered design with an actual focus on data driven services and digital transformation offering new ways of collaboration along the complete value chain of aviation.
Airbus is a leader in the Aerospace Industry. Our purpose defines why we exist: “We pioneer sustainable Aerospace for a safe and united world.” Innovation helps to deal with global challenges leveraging our assets to create impact. The Airbus Innovation Federation helps to focus on corporate innovation targets and provides the means to complete the innovation journey from idea to impact. Beside passionate creative people, a comprehensive set of methods and tools, space is a key element to succeed innovating.
R&T Business Development Manager
Airbus
Lean & Design Thinker, Agile Believer, Digital Transformer
Airbus is a leader in the Aerospace Industry. Our purpose defines why we exist: “We pioneer sustainable Aerospace for a safe and united world.” Innovation helps to deal with global challenges leveraging our assets to create impact. The Airbus Innovation Federation helps to focus on corporate innovation targets and provides the means to complete the innovation journey from idea to impact. Beside passionate creative people, a comprehensive set of methods and tools, space is a key element to succeed innovating.
Director
InnoWay
Tim is currently the Head of the Global Incubator at Innoway - the only State-owned incubator focusing on international startups [TBC], fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. Prior, he covered the role of Strategy Department Director at 36Kr incubator. He has been actively involved in the startup business since 2011 and he is one of the key-figures in bringing together startups and corporations, by working closely with - to name a few - Intel, Haier, Orange, Baidu. He studied and worked in Canada and Europe for 15 years and has been a mentor and a judge for several national and international startup competitions. He is currently focusing on assisting international startups interested in entering the Chinese market, leveraging his extensive national and international network.
Innoway, created by Beijing and Haidian District, is emerging into China’s No. 1 hi-tech landmark of startup culture and innovation. With strong governmental and international ties, additional to a prime location in Zhongguancun, Innoway acts as an innovation exchange platform between global and local Startups, corporations, institutions and Universities alike. InnoWay supports entrepreneurship and innovation exchange between China and different countries through collaboration with embassies, student exchanges, startup roadshows, bringing KOL and top speakers to global innovation summits. InnoWay support international startups to land in Beijing and the rest of China, helping to find the right investors, location and partners. Startups that InnoWay sees as high potentials and rising stars are also provided with soft landing and incubation services. InnoWay also supports international companies with visa, working space, recruitment, legal and financial support. Since June 2014, Innoway has incubated over 1,900 Startups, with more than 222 international ventures. 743 Startups successfully received investments, accounting for 9.104 Billion RMB.
Founder & Curator
Museum of Failure
Dr. Samuel West is a licensed psychologist and has a PhD in Organizational Psychology. His research focuses on creating climates for innovation by encouraging experimentation and exploration. In 2017 he founded the Museum of Failure showcasing over a 100 innovation failures from around the world. The aim of the museum is to stimulate productive discussions about the important role of failure for innovation and to increase organizational acceptance of failure. The touring exhibit has been to Sweden, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Shanghai and a permanent museum will soon open in Spain.
Museum of Failure is a collection of failed products and services from around the world. The majority of all innovation projects fail and the museum showcases these failures to provide visitors a fascinating learning experience. Every item provides unique insight into the risky business of innovation. Innovation and progress require an acceptance of failure. The museum aims to stimulate productive discussion about failure and inspire us to take meaningful risks.
The museum is curated by Dr. Samuel West, licensed psychologist, PhD in Organizational Psychology.