Speakers

2012 Conference Keynote Speakers

Greg Hopper, NetApp
Greg Hopper is a Senior Product Manager in the Office of the CTO at NetApp.  He began his career at IBM and held a number of technical and management positions in the microelectronics and personal computing divisions.   Hopper is an adjunct professor at Duke University; a member of the advisory board for the NCSU Technology Incubator and for a local start-up in molecular diagnostics.
 
 

Iain Gray, Red Hat
Iain Gray is Vice President, Global Services at Red Hat. He is responsible for ensuring effective customer adoption of Red Hat products while delivering a profitable contribution to Red Hat’s business, and innovating to reach these goals.  Iain has more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry and has held leadership positions in a variety of engineering and services roles throughout his career.

Read his bio at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/iain-gray/0/267/23b

Stephen Shapiro
Stephen Shapiro is one of the foremost authorities on innovation culture and collaboration. He led a 20,000-person innovation practice during his 15-year tenure with Accenture. He is the author of 5 books, including his latest: “Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competition” (Penguin). He has been featured in Newsweek, Entrepreneur Magazine, O-The Oprah Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and ABC News.
 
 

Other Speakers and Panelists

Edward Browka, Gilero
Ed Browka is a Design consultant with Gilero where he helps both entrepreneurs and fortune 500s bring life saving products from sketch to market.  Previously he was the chief engineer of Ecovative Design, a biomaterials company that creates ultra-sustainable replacements for Styrofoam using mushrooms.  His work from Ecovative is in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial.

Read his bio at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ed-browka/2/388/543

Blaine Childress, Sealed Air
Blaine is Manager of open innovation at Sealed Air. He has defined and managed Sealed Air’s global Open Innovation program since 2007.   Throughout his career he has worked at the North American Research Center in Duncan, South Carolina, the world headquarters for Food Packaging and Medical Products divisions of Sealed Air. He has worked in Technology & Innovation for 32 years.

Read his bio at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/blaine-childress/3/21a/961

Judith Cone, UNC
Judith Cone is Special Assistant to the Chancellor for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She assists the Chancellor, a serial entrepreneur and respected scientist, in strengthening a university-wide culture of innovation. Prior to joining the University, she was Vice President Emerging Strategies with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Read her bio at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/judith-cone/5/3b3/bb7

Linda Daly, Britax
Linda Daly is Consumer Optics Research Manager at Britax Child Safety where she’s in charge of all market, user, and new product development research.  Her role for the past several years has been working with designers and engineers through all stages of the NPD process providing the customer’s perspective and feedback.

Read her bio at http://www.linkedin.com/in/lindadaly

Bonner Gaylor, Raleigh City Council
Bonner Gaylord is Councilor on the Raleigh City Council where he serves as a member of the Comprehensive Planning Committee. He is the General Manager of North Hills (Kane Realty Corporation), where he has overseen and directed much of its expansion. At the national level, he was recently asked to serve on the National Technology Adoption Advisory Council.

Read his bio at http://www.bonnergaylord.com/about_councilor_gaylord

 

Matt Gymer, Novant Health
Matt serves as the Corporate Director of Innovation at Novant Health. In this role, he is responsible for the development of an innovation infrastructure that will drive system transformation, which includes 13 hospitals, 350 physician practices, and numerous ambulatory services. Prior to Novant Health, Matt’s transformation work has impacted the banking, manufacturing, and higher education industries.

 

Mark Munday, Elster Group
Mark Munday is Chief Technology Officer at the Elster Group. With over 30 years of design engineering and executive leadership, Mark is a leading industry visionary in state-of-the-art utility measurement, control, and system technologies in the utilities sector.  Mark has been awarded 31 US and international patents.  He has received numerous awards including three George Westinghouse Awards of Excellence, four ABB Awards of Excellence, and the 2010 North Carolina Technology Associations Technology Executive of the year.

 

Brent Neal, Milliken Company
Dr. Brent Neal is a research scientist and team lead in the Research Division of Milliken & Company. He currently leads Milliken Research’s central materials characterization laboratory. He is co-author, with NCSU Professor John Russ, of “Measuring Shape” which will be available from CRC Press later this summer.

Read his bio at http://www.linkedin.com/in/brentneal

Garrett Putman, Burt’s Bees
Garrett is Global Marketing Manager at Burt’s Bees, Inc, with responsibility for its new güd™ Brand, overseeing its Open Innovation and Licensing ventures, and managing a marketing team that runs all the categories in the Burt’s Bees portfolio except for Lip, Face, & Body.

Read his bio at http://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettputman

Don Ross, Innovare
Dr. Ross is founder and President at Innovare. He is an expert practitioner and thought leader on customer-centered innovation.  He has led the successful development of hundreds of product, service, and technology innovations in both consumer and business to business environments. He is a hands-on innovator, researcher, facilitator and trainer with deep front-end of innovation expertise.

Read his bio at http://www.linkedin.com/in/donrossatinnovare


Stephanie McGarrah, NC Department of Commerce Stephanie McGarrah is Assistant Secretary for Labor and Economic Analysis at the NC Department of Commerce. She supervises the Department’s market researchers and economists, the AccessNC team, the staff of the N.C. Economic Development Board, and the Department’s policy analysts. She was appointed in 2007.
 
 
 
John Tuders, Bank of America
John Tuders is the Product and Payments Innovation Executive within Bank of America’s Consumer and Small Buisness Bank, and is a key member of the Consumer Transformation Team and Center for Future Banking.   In this role, he is responsible for providing a Customer Design Center of Excellence resource for Segment, Product and Integrated Channels.
Read his bio at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-tuders/4/34a/7
 
 
 
Jonathan Vehar, Center for Creative Leadership
Jonathan Vehar is a senior faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership. He is the co-author of many articles and training sources on creativity and innovation, as well as the book, More Lightning, Less Thunder: How to Energize Innovation Teams.  He is an adjunct instructor with the Federal Executive Institute, Buffalo State College and Northwestern University. Read his bio at www.linkedin.com/pub/jonathan-vehar/0/3b8/275