James Gardner

Chief Strategy Officer, Spigit

Appearing at BIF-8

James Gardner is Chief Strategy Officer at crowd innovation company Spigit, having twice been a Spigit customer when he was CTO at the UK’s largest public sector organization, and prior to that, when he was Head of Innovation and Investment at the UK’s largest bank.

As a thought leader and innovation practitioner, James has led innovation teams and programs in multiple industries, continents, and cultural settings. In 2009, his team was awarded the prestigious UK Financial Services Innovation Award twice for work with crowd based innovation, and in 2010, he was nominated the most social-media connected financial services executive in Britain. James is the author or three top-selling innovation books, including his 2012 release "Sidestep and Twist": a controversial reimagining of the way innovation efforts should be constructed to create value. His prior books, Innovation and the Future Proof Bank (2009) and Little Innovation Book (2010) have been sold in more than 40 countries. James blogs regularly at Innovatorinside.com and Spigit.com.

Following a Masters degree in Information Science, he was awarded his Doctorate in Innovation Management in Australia, and moved to London a decade later. He presently splits his time between Spigit’s corporate head office in Pleasanton, and visiting and advising clients around the world.