Praveen Gupta
President
Accelper Consulting
Praveen Gupta is President of Accelper Consulting a firm that has helped more than 100 companies achieve dramatic business performance improvements. Gupta developed the Six Sigma Business Scorecard, and Breakthrough Innovation (Brinnovation™) frameworks for achieving profitable growth. His books include Business Innovation in the 21 st Century, Six Sigma Business Scorecard, Service Scorecard, Stat Free Six Sigma, and Six Sigma Performance Handbook. An ASQ Fellow, he teaches Operations Management at DePaul University, and Business Innovation at Illinois Institute of Technology. Praveen is Editor of International Journal of Innovation Science.

Carl Vizza
Director of Professional Development
Illinois Institute of Technology
Carl Vizza, Director of Professional Development, Illinois Institute of Technology, ITM Department. Carl has extensive experience in management, building educational programs, product development and consulting with companies such as AT&T Bell labs, BellSouth, Lucent and Motorola.

Bruce Kuzmanich
Contract Training Manager
Joliet Junior College
Bruce Kuzmanich has been a Contract Training Manager for Joliet Junior College since 1994. He has a Masters degree in Human Performance & Training Technology from Governors State University and has over 25 years of experience in management, customer service, program development, and consulting.

Arvin Sri
Vice-President
Accelper Consulting
Arvin is Vice-President at Accelper Consulting. He developed the Business Innovation training program that is now regularly taught at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). He has helped compile the book – Business Innovation in the 21st Century. He has conducted a number of training programs including Business Innovation at IIT’s Rice and Main campuses.

Paul Davis
President
Scanlon Leadership Network
Paul has served as President of the nonprofit Scanlon Leadership Network for fourteen years. The Network is considered “one of the best kept secrets in American Business.” Members pioneered labor-management cooperation, open-book management, employee involvement, gainsharing and servant leadership practices in organizations. Members share best practices and cooperate to help each other become leaders in their industries. The Network was co-founded by Herman Miller and the Magna-Donnelly Corporation.

Prior to joining the Scanlon Leadership Network, Paul was Director of Management Programs for GMI Engineering & Management Institute (General Motors Corporate College). Paul developed training and consulting services for the over 500 GMI sponsoring corporations. He created one of the first team development programs for skilled tradesmen at AC Rochester and his Leadership development consulting with Buick was credited with helping increase Buick's market share by over 15%. Among the many programs he organized was a unique trade mission to Japan for auto part suppliers.

Paul has authored numerous training programs for the Scanlon Leadership Network, General Motors, Allied Signal, Cummins, and AM General. His whitepaper on innovation based on the experience of Southwest Airlines, 3M and Motorola, Herman Miller, Beth Israel Hospital and Donnelly has generated numerous speaking opportunities and was the basis for the Innovation Simulation™ an innovation training program for organizations. He has also written about the Scanlon Plan. His article "Gainsharing and the Scanlon Plan" has been featured as a chapter in three different professional books on compensation. His article "Leadership from Theory to Action" was published in Leading Edge Magazine. His case-study “Scanlon Principles and Processes: Building Excellence at Watermark Credit Union” was published in the World of Work Journal and Incentive Pay. He is coeditor of Scanlon EPIC Leadership: Where the Best Ideas Come Together.

Paul is frequently asked to speak and to present workshops. He has been an invitational speaker at The Academy of Management (U.S.), The European Foundation (Ireland), the Japanese External Trade Organization (Japan), Dyad Development (South Africa), The Ecology or Work, The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, and The American Society for Training and Development.

Paul has his Master of Labor and Industrial Relations from Michigan State University. He also interned at the Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change, and has studied labor relations and union management as a Walter P. Reuther Memorial Scholar. Paul has served as an adjunct faculty member for GMI Engineering and Management Institute, and Spring Arbor College.

Sarah Miller Caldicott
Great Grandniece of Thomas Edison
Sarah Miller Caldicott is a great grandniece of Thomas Edison, a 20-year marketing veteran, and co-author of Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America's Greatest Inventor. She also teaches innovation at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Stuart School of Business. During Sarah's 3 years of research at Rutgers with Dr. Paul Israel - the world's leading authority on Edison - she discovered patterns in Edison's world-changing innovation methods. Innovate Like Edison is the first book to document these patterns, which she calls Edison's Five Competencies of Innovation™. During her 12-year tenure in the Fortune 500/Global 100, Sarah worked for Pepsico and Unilever developing and launching global brands. She now heads a Chicago-based innovation consultancy, The Power Patterns of Innovation, which specializes in assisting organizations in implementing Edison's Five Competencies of Innovation to accelerate their innovation success.

Larry Gess
Chief Operating Officer
Chicago Manufacturing Center
Larry Gess joined CMC in 2006 bringing 30 years of marketing, sales and management consulting experience. An expert at creating, communicating and capturing value in the B2B channel, Larry designed and implements CMC's STARR SM Solutions for Manufacturers.

Larry's prior assignments with a $3 billion chemical company include P&L responsibility for global business units ranging from start-ups to $400 million divisions; worldwide creation, launch and deployment of platform technologies; and leading successful innovation teams that produced 15 achievement awards, three global chairman's awards, and over $30 million of incremental sales within twelve months of launch.

As Chief Operating Officer, Larry leads CMC's business development and delivery teams as well as managing our partner and alliance relationships. As director of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Center managed by CMC, Larry represents CMC at national MEP leadership meetings.

Larry Gess earned his BA in Biochemistry from The Ohio State University and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Alexis P. Goncalves
Business Innovation Consultant
Innovation Insight Network
Business Innovation Consultant with strong experience in helping organizations to start out on the innovation journey, and those that have already taken the first steps alike, often wish to have strong innovation capabilities. In my practice I use a holistic approach which helps clients institutionalize innovation and attain innovation effectiveness by building capabilities and transforming the culture of their organization. Leveraging on the outcomes of an innovation diagnostic (described above) I help clients increase their overall innovation capability, which includes: leadership, processes, protocols, organizational structure, reward and recognition, metrics, partners and networks.

During summer, Alexis teaches Business Innovation at Georgetown University CIED Program for International MBA students and he was recently invited to teach Business Innovation at the John F. Welch College of Business of the Sacred Heart University for graduate students. He is also an official Judge for the Innovation Award Program of the following business schools: Darden Graduate School of Business and Thunderbird School of Global Management.

His academic experience blends with 18 years as of work as an International Executive for large corporations where he led many transformational programs across different businesses and geographies, including the deployment of the Innovation Program for Citigroup across Latin America. Alexis has recently co-authored a keynote article on Service Design and Innovation published by the prestigious journal Design Management Review (see copy of article attached) and contributed to writing the book “Business Innovation in the 21st Century”, published in 2007 by BookSurge USA. He is also member of the Editorial Review Board for the Service Design Journal, published by the Köln International School of Design (Germany) and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Globalization, Competitiveness and Governability, published by Universia (Spain).

His website is: www.innovationinsight.net

Adam Hartung
Managing Partner & Author
Spark Partners
Adam Hartung is a strategy consultant and public speaker with 20+ years of experience helping companies develop and implement growth, innovation and breakthough strategies. Currently Managing Partner of The Spark Partners strategy and transformation consultancy, he spent eight years as Partner in CSC's consulting organization, where he led initiatives in Intellectual Capital Development and e-business. He has also been a strategist with Boston Consulting Group, and a strategic planning and business development executive with PepsiCo and DuPont. He holds an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School.

Adam J. Hecktman
Director
Microsoft Technology Center - Chicago
Adam J. Hecktman is the Director of the Microsoft Technology Center - Chicago. The Microsoft Technology Center is a world-class facility dedicated to helping organizations maximize business value and ensure long-term success when facing their toughest business challenges and opportunities. He has been with Microsoft in Chicago since 1991.

Prior to Microsoft, Adam was a consultant with Accenture for three years. While at Accenture, Adam worked with clients including those in financial services, government, and utilities. Adam received a Bachelor of Science in commerce and business administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration. He regularly appears on television, print, and radio, and has authored several articles.

Wayne Lindholm
President
Scanlon Leadership Network
Wayne A. Lindholm currently serves as President of the Scanlon Leadership Network in E. Lansing, MI. The Scanlon Leadership Network www.scanlonleader.org helps organizations apply E.P.I.C. Leadership Principles to design systems that encourage full participation and engagement of all members of an organization. Scanlon practitioners were early adopters of company-wide gainsharing programs, open-book management and servant leadership. Prior to his current work, Lindholm worked for over 30 years leading operational improvement programs with General Motors, Morton Salt, Warner-Lambert, and 3M.

Wayne A. Lindholm also has a passion serving the developmental disability community and since 1998 serves as President of the Down Syndrome Foundation, www.downsyndromefoundation.org a 501(c)(3) corporation whose mission is to support independence for persons with Down syndrome.

João Mendes
Phd Student
Universidad de Vigo
João Mendes is a PhD student, Management, at Universidad de Vigo. He is a graduate (Licenciatura em Economia) in Economics from Universidade Portucalense (Porto). He holds an International Executive MBA in Business Strategy from Escuela de Negocios Caixanova (Vigo) and an International Business Program from Georgetown University (Washington D.C.).

At present he holds the position of Economist at Nota de Topo, SA (Transport and Logistic). He has several articles published in "Vida Económica", “O Primeiro de Janeiro” and “Luso-Americano” newspapers. His interests include Business Strategy and Innovation. CE-192 by the Journalist's Professional Card Commission (CCPJ). Presence in numerous training events and exhibitions connected to Business Strategy and Innovation: Business Innovation Conference 2008, Chicago, Sept. 8-10 at Rice Campus of Illinois Institute of Technology.

Nancy Munro
CEO
KnowledgeShift
Nancy Munro, Founder and CEO of KnowledgeShift, has over 17 years in helping organizations implement and deploy learning strategies. Nancy has worked with organization’s like HP, Discover Financial as well as small to mid-sized firms helping them decipher how best to address performance challenges that align to their structural capabilities and revenue goals.

Nancy has published various articles in Ideas Magazine contributing insights on how to use Innovation as a strategic process for organizations world-wide. As a board member of Chicago’s MIT Enterprise Forum’s chapter, Nancy heads up executive education for members and has recently launched PodCasts interviewing the chapter’s latest winners of the “Below the Radar” Innovation Program.

Utilizing what she has learned from other innovators, Nancy is apply this knowledge to her own organization’s learning solutions to improve and accelerate how organizations produce, distribute and manage learning.

PhD student
Universidad de Vigo

Jorge Teixeira is a PhD student at Universidad de Vigo. He is a bachelor in Marketing by IPAM. He holds an International Executive MBA in Business Strategy from Escuela de Negocios Caixanova (Vigo) and an International Business Program from Georgetown University (Washington D.C.).

At present he holds the position of Sales Manager at Mcoutinho Porto. He reconciles that position with that of Partner at Marknor – Consultores de Marketing. His interests include Business Strategy, Innovation, Management, Geopolitics, Climate Changes, Classic Cars and Classic Competition Cars. He was present in numerous training events and exhibitions. His specialties are: Private Credit Cards, Financial Consumers Goods, Marketing Adviser, Communication skills and Automotive.

President
Integrated Consulting firm

Brett Trusko is President of an integrated consulting firm which specializes in IT strategy, forecasting and visioning. He is also a researcher at a leading medical school in Minnisota. Brett has worked with more than 50 healthcare, life sciences and technology companies worldwide to plan, develop and execute innovative technology strategies as well as find new ways to use existing technologies.