Speakers

Frans Johansson Frans Johansson is the creator of The Medici Summit, a popular speaker and acclaimed author. A successful entrepreneur who co-founded (while still in his 20's) two businesses in the U.S. and Sweden, Frans truly 'lives what he preaches'—using the intersections in his life to innovate. His best-seller, The Medici Effect, has been translated into 14 languages and has been recognized on numerous lists as a top business book. Recognized as a thought leader on the topics of innovation and diversity, Johansson has long wanted to develop an event that provides a unique learning experience for those ready to embrace the lessons of The Medici Effect.

Ted Childs Ted Childs is the man that Fast Company called the "most effective diversity executive on the planet." After 39 years with IBM, Ted was the exec primarily responsible for its pioneering employment policies. He left his position as VP of Global Workforce Diversity to form his own consulting firm. Today global clients are drawn to Ted because of his passion for diversity, deep understanding of relationships and unique ability to be a catalyst for change.

Nick Donofrio Nick Donofrio is Executive VP of Innovation and Technology at IBM. He has worked at Big Blue since graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1967. Nick also holds a Masters from Syracuse University (both degrees in Electrical Engineering). In 2006, Nick was honored as one of Business Week magazine's 25 Top Innovation Champions, and named IBM's delegate to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. He holds seven technology patents and numerous honorary degrees. Nick is passionate about education and career opportunities for minorities and women; he serves on Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education.

Lina Echeverria Lina Echeverria is the Sr. Vice President at Corning's storied glass-research lab. Fast Company magazine described Echeverria as "an energetic, elfin, Colombian woman who started her career tramping through the jungles of South America studying ancient lavas." Echeverria joined Corning—a 300-year-old company, whose early customers included Thomas Edison—in 1983. Today, she focuses on inspiring and sustaining innovation. She tells her 45 researchers to follow their heart and wants them to be driven by inspiration.

Jay Lenstrom Jay Lenstrom is the CEO of Chicago-based The Radiate Group, a global network of experiential marketing agencies and part of the advertising conglomerate Omnicom. With a reputation as an innovative marketer, Lenstrom is also a strategist who knows how to harness the power of event marketing. Lenstrom is a graduate of Marquette University's College of Business Administration.

Jamil Mahuad Jamil Mahuad was President of Ecuador from August 1998 to January 2000, capping almost 20 years in Ecuadorian politics, including two terms as Mayor of Quito and a member of the National Congress. Today he serves as a Fellow at the Program on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School. Previously he was a Fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics and The Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School of Government. Jamil has also been a visiting professor at the universities of Notre Dame, Saint Gallen in Switzerland and Geneva School of Diplomacy. His academic work focuses on negotiation, leadership, and the challenges facing struggling democracies in the age of globalization. Jamil holds a Masters from Harvard and a JD from Catholic University of Ecuador. He was a contributing commentator to the book Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate by Roger Fisher and Daniel Shapiro.

Matt Mason Matt Mason is an innovator and the author of The Pirate's Dilemma (release date: January 2008). A former pirate Radio DJ, he was founding editor of the underground magazine RWD, the UK's #1 urban music magazine. Today, Matt consults on piracy issues, explaining how, for better or worse, piracy drives innovation and creates opportunity. Adidas, Atlantic Records, Motorola, Nike, Reebok, Virgin, and Warner are a few of the clients he helps deal with this challenging dilemma.

Gina Warren As the Vice President of Global Diversity & Inclusion at Nike, Gina Warren is responsible for the company's diversity initiatives in the Americas, EMEA, Asia Pacific and US Regions. Under her leadership, Nike conducted its inaugural global Cultural Assessments, which helped Nike examine its workplace culture and provided insights into how the company can better optimize the talents of all employees. Before joining Nike, Gina worked for Levi Strauss as Director of Community Relations and Director of the Levi Strauss Foundation. Previously, she worked for AT&T in Arizona where she held several positions in External Affairs, Community Affairs, Human Resource and Labor Relations. But Gina's first career was as an elementary school teacher—in fact, she believes she made her most significant difference as a professional when she taught children.

Markus Åhman Markus Åhman is a researcher with a passionate interest for problems at the intersection of politics, economics and technology. Markus' research focuses on the design of international climate and energy policy, with a particular interest in how it affects investment incentives and innovation. He is regularly consulted for advice by the European Commission, the Swedish government, and numerous multinational corporations. Markus is a Senior Researcher at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, and also holds a research position at the Göteborg Business School. He frequently collaborates with Washington-based Resources for the Future (RFF), Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels and The Energy and Resource Institute (Teri), New Delhi.

Eric Bonabeau Eric Bonabeau, founder and Chief Scientist of Boston-based Icosystem Corp., is one of the world's leading experts in complex systems and distributed adaptive problem solving. His book Swarm Intelligence has been a scientific bestseller for eight years and provided the inspiration for another bestseller, Michael Chrichton's Prey. Eric is the co-author of Self-Organization in Biological Systems (Princeton University Press), a best-selling biology textbook. His articles in Harvard Business Review have explored the limits of human decision making in a complex, decentralized, and unpredictable world. Eric's commercial experience includes years of research and development in the US and Europe. He sits on the advisory board of several Fortune 500 corporations. Prior to his current position, Eric was the CEO of Eurobios, a joint venture with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young which applied the science of complex adaptive systems to business issues. He has been a research director with France Telecom R&D, an R&D engineer with Cadence Design Systems, and the Interval Research Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute.

Reginald Canal Reginald Canal is the First Vice President of HSBC Bank's Premier Corporate and Professional Services Group. In his current capacity Reggie leads a team focusing on Affluent African Heritage clientele, small- to medium-sized companies, and offers exclusive services to HSBC's most distinguished high net-worth individuals. Giving back to the community is central to Reggie, who, in addition to coordinating the HSBC Annual Toy Drive, is a lifetime member of the National Black MBA Association and active in New York City's iMentor Program, improving the lives of inner-city youths in the various boroughs. He is also a member of the 100 Black Men Organization and the 2006 HSBC recipient of the National Eagle Leadership Institute Award.

Charita Carter Charita Carter is a show producer in the Walt Disney Imagineering Blue Sky Studios. She's been in show production for approximately a year, but has worked at Disney for a decade. In keeping with her educational background, she originally spent two years in Accounting and seven years in Finance. She is also a commercial hand model and the owner of a floral design company.

Thomas Frostberg Thomas Frostberg is the Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of Rapidus, a new service focusing on innovation, especially in the ICT and life science cluster in Sweden and Denmark. Rapidus covers university research and the commercialization of that research, as well as innovation within the corporate arena. The primary focus is on innovative start-up companies, although innovation policy is also on the agenda. In 2006, Thomas was one of seven fellows in Stanford University's Innovation Journalism Program. During his stay in the U.S., he worked for the San Francisco Chronicle, in the paper's business section. He is now a board member of the program committee for the Swedish Innovation Journalism Program and was a member of the Executive Committee for the Fourth Conference on Innovation Journalism at Stanford University in 2007.

Enrique Garibay Enrique Garibay is a professor and entrepreneur in Mexico. He currently serves as the Director of the Center for Innovation at Tec de Monterray in central Mexico. His primary academic interests are innovation, entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence, and political economy. Enrique says that reading The Medici Effect was a decisive moment for him and he wants to bring the Medici Effect to Latin America. Enrique is currently finishing a book, which is a handbook on innovative methods; it will be printed in both Spanish and English.

Sweet Joy Hachuela Sweet Joy Hachuela is a diversity expert with a specialization in the development and management of Employee Networking/Affinity Groups in Fortune 500 companies. She has served as the Program Director of The Conference Board's Diversity Business Council and Annual Diversity Seminars. Sweet Joy also focuses on women of color issues in the academic, non-profit, and corporate sectors. In 2001, she was selected as one of seven delegates to accompany former President Clinton to create an International Leadership Program in South Africa. Sweet Joy received a B.S. from the University of California and her M.S. from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Brooke Harrington Brooke Harrington is a Research Professor at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies—an academic think tank in Cologne, Germany. Pop Finance, her book on investor behavior and fiscal policy in America, was released in March 2008 by Princeton University Press. Previously, Professor Harrington taught for nine years at Brown University. During this time, she also consulted with organizations such as the US Social Security Administration, Amazon.com, Bank of America, Fidelity Investments, and Credit Suisse First Boston. Harrington is the recipient of numerous grants and honors, including awards from the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and Brown's Excellence in Teaching. She has been a visiting scholar at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, as well as Princeton University and the Santa Fe Institute think tank.

Omar Hijazi Omar Hijazi is CEO of Tejari, a fast-growing e-commerce network that has become the #1 hub of online trade for businesses and individuals in the UAE. Since taking the helm at Tejari in 2005, Hijazi has helped to establish this Dubai-based regional leader as one of the most recognizable brands in the industry. Hijazi also sits on the Board of Directors of Dubai World, the holding company that owns Tejari and other iconic companies, like Nakheel and DP World. Previously, during his tenure at Ernst and Young LLP in Los Angeles, Hijazi helped lead that company's business intelligence and performance management practices. He also has worked as a Senior Principal at A.T. Kearney, Inc., providing consultancy and thought leadership to high-tech practice and e-commerce groups.

Christian Johansson Christian Johansson is President/CEO of the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore, an organization helping to shape central Maryland's economic growth strategy by uniting leaders from the political arena with those from the corporate community and key educational institutions. Christian assumed his current position at the young age of 31; during the ensuing four years, the Alliance has been recognized for its innovative strategies and impressive investment track record and Christian has been selected as one of Baltimore Business Journal's "40-Under-40" emerging leaders. Christian has held several other prestigious positions, including Co-Chair of Governor Martin J. O'Malley's Transition Committee for Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development. Christian is also a speaker on healthcare and technology advancements—topics he has also written about. In 1997, he authored two books on healthcare quality and continues to serve as a monthly contributor on economic issues to the Baltimore Examiner and the Maryland Daily Record.

Catherine Laine Catherine Laine is the Deputy Director of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG), a non-profit organization that creates SMEs to provide renewable energy, sanitation and clean water to under-served communities in developing countries. A social entrepreneur, she transitioned into the international development from academic pursuits in infectious disease epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health and Oxford University. Catherine is passionate about finding sustainable business solutions to the problems facing the world's poor.

Ariel Phillips Ariel Phillips is an organizer, and a coordinator of mentoring, for the International Development Design Summit at MIT, a month-long residential event, in which students, mechanics, social workers, doctors, carpenters, farmers, and professors from many countries gather to collaborate and build technologies to improve the quality of life in the developing world. Ariel is also a Harvard psychologist, educator, and a co-creator and co-director of Harvard University's Success/Failure Project, which creates opportunities for discussion and creative engagement regarding the meanings of the terms ‘success' and ‘failure' in the lives of faculty, students, and others. Her interests include intercultural communication and exploring the conditions for creativity. She received her Doctorate from Harvard University in Human Development and Psychology, and her Masters Degree from the University of California.

Anil Rathi Anil Rathi is the CEO and Founder of Idea Crossing, Inc., which was formed with the vision of helping organizations capture the world's imagination and use it to solve strategic challenges through the design, production, and operation of online idea competitions (also known as crowdcasting). In 2003, Anil started the Innovation Challenge, now the world's largest MBA idea competition attracting thousands of MBA students from over 50 countries to solve strategic challenges for sponsors like Hilton Hotels, American Express, Harley-Davidson, Google, Shell, IBM, Whirlpool and others. Most recently, Idea Crossing has designed and produced several other idea competitions including the Red Hat Challenge and HopeLab's $300K physical activity idea competition called Ruckus Nation. He is a frequent speaker on crowdsourcing best practices and has been featured in Business 2.0, CNN Money, Inc Magazine, Chicago Tribune and in the new book called "We Are Smarter than Me" from Wharton Business School.

Kristian Ribberstrom Kristian Ribberstrom teaches philosophy and languages at Vargarda High School in Vargarda, Sweden. He is also the "Intersection Hunter" at The Medici Group, because he is passionately interested in exploring intersections between different cultures, migrations, and multiethnic societies. In his work with the Medici Group, he also writes extensively for the Medici Effect blog. Previously, Kristian has worked with the development of experimental case study methodology in various entrepreneurial settings.

Carmen J. Smith Carmen J. Smith is the Vice President of Global Strategies for Diversity and Inclusion at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Carmen began her career in 1982 as a production assistant at ABC and working her way up to Director of HR and Corporate Community Initiatives. Still later, she became VP of Talent Development Programs for the Disney/ABC Television Group. Carmen has been honored many times for her significant achievements in the field of diversity. Some of her more recent awards include recognition as an honoree for 2004 AFTRA Actors' Equity and SAG Diversity Honoree and the Oneness Award for promoting diversity in television and film, as well as the Directors Guild of American African-American Steering Committee Award for outstanding efforts to elevate the stature of women and minorities in the entertainment industry.

Jeffrey Thompson Jeffrey Thompson is the VP of Global Diversity at The Walt Disney Company. He has been involved in structuring, implementing and managing strategic alliances and corporate strategies since 1996, with corporate and consulting experience in marketing, management and finance dating to 1988. During his tenure with Disney, he has served in several key capacities. For instance, he was the lead member of the Corporate Alliance, and has worked on several key initiatives with ABC, ESPN, Buena Vista Pictures, Miramax, and ABC Cable networks in Asia, Europe, and North America. Among other responsibilities, Jeffrey currently serves on an industry-wide High Definition Task Force challenged with increasing the adoption rate of HD in North America. In addition, Jeffrey is working within Disney to speed adoption of the Blu-Ray High Definition disc format in the US. Mr. Thompson earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Southern California, an MBA from the USC Marshall Graduate School of Business, and completed an executive development program at Harvard Business School.

Almut von Biedermann Almut von Biedermann is an Innovator & Strategic Business Executive. Today she serves as the Managing Director of Corporate Development and Marketing for Federal Development, LLC, and a global leader in public-private real estate development with a $16 billion dollar portfolio. She has held past positions as a financial journalist, a financial services professional, product line consultant, and a vice president of investor relationships international. She is also the recipient of the National Business Incubation Association's award for Most Innovative Business Development Best Practices in 2004.

Lim Chin Wah Lim Chin Wah is a businessman with a twist. He is a passionate dreamer eager to help people meet their educational goals, which he has turned into business opportunities. Chin's company, Genesis Education Holding, provides curriculum and teacher training, as well as daily supervision of school operations. He describes his business as multi-faceted; providing training and educational services to schools, as well as the corporate and general public, and also is building schools in Indonesia. Not only does he manage Genesis Education Holding, he also sits on the Board of Singapore Education International.

Chris Yeh Chris Yeh has built Internet businesses since 1995. Today, he serves as VP of Enterprise Marketing for PBwiki, the world's largest wiki host for businesses and schools, serving 400,000 communities and hosting more pages than Wikipedia. Previously, he was first investor and interim CEO of Ustream.TV, which provides an open and distributable platform for live interactive online video. He has also helped start numerous other companies. Chris is an active angel investor and advisor to a wide array of startups ranging from network equipment makers to vertical search engines.  He is the founder and Chairman of the Harvard Business School Technology Alumni Association, the co-chair of SD Forum's Startup SIG, and the author of the popular blog, Adventures in Capitalism.

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Our Moderator:

Kevin O'Connor Kevin O'Connor is a businessman, executive coach, author and speaker. During the Summit, Kevin will be moderate for two plenary session panel discussions. With insight, acumen, and humor, he'll engage our expert panelists, asking the important questions, and inviting the audience to participate in these vital discussions on innovation, execution and global leadership.