Meet The Team

Making transformational change safer and easier to manage.
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Our People

Michael Private: Dila

Michael Private: Dila
Chief Design Officer

Michael Private: Dila

Michael Private: Dila
Chief Design Officer

@michaeldila


Michael has a passion for starting things. Whether its companies or communities, he has spent much of the last 15 years breaking new ground. He is a leader in design thinking and innovation, with a passion for making both more rigorous and more accessible.

Michael is the founder of UNFINISHED, a transformative new venture in business and design education. UNFINISHED empowers companies and people to learn the pattern language and skills of innovation, moving them from literacy to fluency to currency. UNFINISHED helps people in enterprises accelerate the journey from mind to market.

Michael is a founding member of Overlap, a unique network of front-line innovation practitioners. He also helped establish the Strategic Innovation Lab (slab.ocad.ca) a center for research and development in design, innovation and strategic foresight at the Ontario College or Art & Design. He is chief catalyst of the Unfinished Business initiative (unfinished.torchiswicked.com) to apply open source ideas and methods to the practices of business management and design. And he invented and co-developed (with Matthew Milan) Innovation Parkour, a scalable framework for training people in large organizations to become more innovative. He has led several successful start-ups and is a regular speaker at deign and business events.

A philosopher by training, Michael’s Ph.D. research examined the social history of how ideas and norms of objectivity are shaped by communities of practice.

Michael founded Moso in 2010. He has also co-founded: Foundery (an innovation lab in Toronto, 2010), Torch Innovation (2010), Overlap (peer-to-peer innovation organization 2006), Torch Partnership (Strategic and Innovation Consulting 2006), and Aegis (1999)

Victoria Guck Victoria Guck

Victoria Guck
Director of Operations

Victoria Guck

Victoria Guck
Director of Operations

@vguck
vguck@bif.is


Victoria has the heart of a teacher and the enthusiasm and optimism of a student. She loves to be involved and is excited to help out wherever she can. She is primarily focused on bookkeeping and administrative assistant duties at Business Innovation Factory.

Victoria earned her B. A. from Tufts University in English and a minor in Women’s Studies. She holds a RI Teaching Certificate in Secondary English and has over a dozen years of teaching under her belt; although she loves English, her passion is rooted in mathematics. She is also a world-class sailor and enjoys being active both on and off the water.

Saul Kaplan Saul Kaplan

Saul Kaplan
Founder and Chief Catalyst, Business Innovation Factory

Saul Kaplan

Saul Kaplan
Founder and Chief Catalyst, Business Innovation Factory

@skap5
saul.kaplan5@gmail.com


Saul Kaplan is the founder and Chief Catalyst of the Business Innovation Factory and author of The Business Model Innovation Factory: How to Stay Relevant when the World Is Changing.

Kaplan started BIF in 2005 with a mission to enable business model innovation. BIF makes transformational change safer and easier to manage for institutional leaders by helping them explore, test, and commercialize next practices and new business models.

Prior to BIF Kaplan served as the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and as the Executive Counselor to the Governor on Economic and Community Development.

Prior to his state leadership role Kaplan served as a Senior Strategy Partner in Accenture’s Health & Life-Science practice and worked broadly throughout the pharmaceutical, medical products, and biotechnology industry. Kaplan also spent eight years working for the Pharmaceutical Division of Eli Lilly and Company. As a Marketing Plans Manager, Kaplan assisted in developing the launch strategy and successful introduction of Prozac into the U.S. market.

Kaplan shares his innovation musings on Twitter (@skap5) and on Medium (@skap5).

Kaplan holds an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute focusing on the strategic management of technology and a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island.

Courtney Lester Courtney Lester

Courtney Lester
Business Model Designer & LunaYou Wellbeing Coach

Courtney Lester

Courtney Lester
Business Model Designer & LunaYou Wellbeing Coach

courtney@bif.is


Courtney Lester is a Business Model Designer, and the Wellbeing Coach for LunaYou. She has an entrepreneurial spirit and passion for sustainable impact in communities that need it the most.

Prior to her work with the Business Innovation Factory (BIF), Courtney was the Manager of Recruitment at Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW). While there, she developed a number of innovative programs including a nurturing campaign for accepted students and virtual events for prospective students.

Before BUSSW, Courtney was the U.S. Regional Program Manager at Enactus, a global non-profit operating in 37 countries, enabling business and employment opportunities for college students across the US by combining social enterprise and corporate social responsibility; partnering with colleges and universities to create business ventures that offer life-changing services to communities in need.

Courtney holds a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and a Masters of Social Work.

Outside of work, Courtney serves as a spiritual leader with her husband Pastor Justin Lestor at Congdon Street Baptist Church. Together they are raising a Superhero, Camden Lester.

Our Board

Angela Blanchard

Angela Blanchard
President & CEO, Neighborhood Centers, Inc.

Angela Blanchard

Angela Blanchard
President & CEO, Neighborhood Centers, Inc.

@CajunAngela


Through her more than thirty years of experience, thought leader Angela Blanchard has reached an epiphany: A community should be defined by its strengths, resources, achievements and hopes – not its degree of “brokenness”. As a result of her unwavering and passionate efforts as president and CEO of Neighborhood Centers Inc., Blanchard has extended this community development framework throughout the Houston region to impact over 500,000 people a year. Under Angela’s vision and leadership, Neighborhood Centers remains the largest non-profit in Texas and is ranked in the top 1% of charitable groups in the nation.

Blanchard’s insightful knowledge of community revitalization and its impact on metropolitan areas, has garnered three invitations to the White House to meet with community development leaders, senior white house officials and President Barack Obama. Blanchard is honored to have advised the administration on the President’s Promise Zone Initiative and Ladders of Opportunity, which will work to ensure that all families, no matter where they live, have ladders of opportunity to the middle class.

An expert in Human Capital Development, Blanchard, has participated in The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Leadership Council. The “Met Council” serves as a leader in providing policy makers with research, analysis, and ideas that impact metropolitan areas. Blanchard’s paper in the publication, “Investing in What Works for America’s Communities”, a project sponsored by the Low Income Investment Fund and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, highlights ideas of leading experts in community and economic development, academia, government policy, and philanthropy who offer entrepreneurial solutions to the national epidemic of poverty. Blanchard’s work has also afforded her participation and collaboration at the Clinton Global Initiative, where she offered insight on innovative investment approaches that help build community programs, grow local economies, promote thriving neighborhoods, and present investors with expanded opportunities for financial and social returns.

Blanchard has been featured in Fast Company Magazine, as one of 2013’s Top 1000 Most Creative People in the nation and as a Gen Flux Leader for adapting and leading during troubled and disruptive times. Her Business Innovation Factory speech entitled “Emerging after the Storm” and TEDxHouston talk outlined a powerful transformational model for community redevelopment with important implications for other efforts throughout the nation.

In addition to her work with Neighborhood Centers, Blanchard serves as a Board Member at the Greater Houston Partnership (GHP), the National Community Advisory Board for JP Morgan Chase and was recently appointed to the GHP Regional Workforce Development Task Force. She has spoken at a number of high-profile events, including the White House Social Enterprise and Opportunity Series and Executive Leadership Academy in Australia where she discusses key issues like disaster recovery and leading in a crisis. Blanchard has also presented at the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce: Immigration Summit and Panel, the Houston Rotary Club and the PolicyLink Equity Summit, and many others.

Saul Kaplan Saul Kaplan

Saul Kaplan
Founder and Chief Catalyst, Business Innovation Factory

Saul Kaplan

Saul Kaplan
Founder and Chief Catalyst, Business Innovation Factory

@skap5
saul.kaplan5@gmail.com


Saul Kaplan is the founder and Chief Catalyst of the Business Innovation Factory and author of The Business Model Innovation Factory: How to Stay Relevant when the World Is Changing.

Kaplan started BIF in 2005 with a mission to enable business model innovation. BIF makes transformational change safer and easier to manage for institutional leaders by helping them explore, test, and commercialize next practices and new business models.

Prior to BIF Kaplan served as the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and as the Executive Counselor to the Governor on Economic and Community Development.

Prior to his state leadership role Kaplan served as a Senior Strategy Partner in Accenture’s Health & Life-Science practice and worked broadly throughout the pharmaceutical, medical products, and biotechnology industry. Kaplan also spent eight years working for the Pharmaceutical Division of Eli Lilly and Company. As a Marketing Plans Manager, Kaplan assisted in developing the launch strategy and successful introduction of Prozac into the U.S. market.

Kaplan shares his innovation musings on Twitter (@skap5) and on Medium (@skap5).

Kaplan holds an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute focusing on the strategic management of technology and a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island.

Mickey Ackerman

Mickey Ackerman
Professor, Rhode Island School of Design

Mickey Ackerman

Mickey Ackerman
Professor, Rhode Island School of Design

@MickeyAckerman


An internationally recognized design leader, BIF’s Chief Design Strategist Mickey Ackerman has spent decades teaching designers how to define problems clearly, then solve those problems through multidisciplinary teamwork. For 15 years as the head of the Industrial Design department at the Rhode Island School of Design, Mickey established a portfolio of sponsored projects and created real-world design solutions for industry leaders such as Intel, Rubbermaid, Frigidaire, and General Mills. He also established strategic partnerships with the Harvard Business School, MIT Sloan School of Management, NASA, and Boston’s Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology, among many others. An educator at heart, Mickey is passionate about student-centered learning and serves on the board of directors for the Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Vermont and the Green School in Bali, Indonesia.

Kare Anderson

Kare Anderson
Help Yourself And The World Through Unexpected Connections And Collaboration

Kare Anderson

Kare Anderson
Help Yourself And The World Through Unexpected Connections And Collaboration

@KareAnderson


Kare Anderson speaks and writes about behavioral research-based ways to become more deeply and diversely connected. She has won awards as a writer both for NBC and for the Wall Street Journal. She speaks and writes regularly for Forbes and the Huffington Post on behavioral research-based ways to become more deeply connected. She firmly believes that learning to connect and collaborate more effectively can not only help us succeed, but can also foster collaborations that create opportunities to serve the greater good. “Kare forever changes how you see yourself and your world,” said David Rockefeller Jr., after hearing her speak.

Anderson also consults for clients such as Salesforce, Novartis, the San Francisco Giants, and The Skoll Foundation. Her books include Mutuality Matters, Moving From Me to We, and Getting What You Want. Anderson serves on the advisory boards of Gloopt, Raynforest, Watermark, and TEDxMarin, is a founding board member of Annie’s Homegrown, and the co-founder of nine political PACs.

Vala Afshar

Vala Afshar
Chief Digital Evangelist, Salesforce

Vala Afshar

Vala Afshar
Chief Digital Evangelist, Salesforce

@ValaAfshar


Vala Afshar is Chief Digital Evangelist at Salesforce.com. His prior role was Chief Marketing Officer, Extreme Networks. Prior role was CMO and Chief Customer Officer of Enterasys Networks responsible for global marketing and customer service and support.

He contributes weekly technology, business and leadership articles to Huffington Post, INC Magazine, and other publications.. He also hosts a weekly video show on CXO Talk with the top business executives in the world covering the topics of digital business transformation – digital marketing, information technology, and the changing role of CIOs, CMOs and CDOs. You can watch the weekly show here.

He also contributes to SlideShare covering digital business trends: His SlideShare presentations are approaching 1.5 million views.

You can also read his book about social business excellence here — here is the review in Forbes.

Bruce Linton

Bruce Linton
Executive Director, ingenuityNE

Bruce Linton

Bruce Linton
Executive Director, ingenuityNE


Bruce Linton is Executive Director of ingenuityNE, a non-profit established to plan and operate FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) programs throughout New England. Bruce has worked for many years with the Dean Kamen-led FIRST competition, which helps get K-12 students excited about science, technology, engineering, math and the environment and helps prepare them for a technologically-advanced workplace.

Christopher Meyer

Christopher Meyer
CEO, Nerve LLC

Christopher Meyer

Christopher Meyer
CEO, Nerve LLC

@ChrisMeyer16


Christopher Meyer is Chief Executive of Monitor Networks, a new addition to The Monitor Group. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Monitor Group is a family of professional service firms comprising management consulting, financial services, and capital and advisory services. Monitor Networks is a “human capital intermediary,” providing Monitor and its clients access to leading thinkers in business and science, and offering these individuals attractive opportunities.

Deb Mills-Scofield

Deb Mills-Scofield
CEO/Founder & Mentoring Maven, Mills-Scofield, LLC

Deb Mills-Scofield

Deb Mills-Scofield
CEO/Founder & Mentoring Maven, Mills-Scofield, LLC

@bluelobsternets


Deb Mills-Scofield, a storyteller at #BIF9 and #BIF2017, helps organizations create and implement innovation-based strategic plans. Deb is a Partner at Glengary LLC, an early-stage venture capital firm in Cleveland, Ohio, who has more than years of experience in strategic planning, execution and innovation with manufacturing, service and high-technology companies from large global companies to early-stage. A Brown University alumna, Deb previously worked at AT&T Bell Labs, where one of her designs is recognized as one of AT&T/Lucent’s top revenue-generating patents. She was instrumental in spearheading AT&T’s strategies and execution into e-commerce.

Don Stanford

Don Stanford
Chief Innovation Officer at IGT formerly GTECH

Don Stanford

Don Stanford
Chief Innovation Officer at IGT formerly GTECH

@dlstanford


Donald L. Stanford is a founding member of GTECH and currently serves as its Chief Technology Officer and Technology Fellow.

Don began working for GTECH’s founders in 1979 as Manager of Software Development. Over 30 years, he has held every technical leadership position, including Vice President of Advanced Development and Chief Technology Officer. Stanford guided the growth of GTECH’s technology organization from a software staff of four in 1979 to its current worldwide deployment of over 1000 technology professionals. From 1986 until 1989 Don served on the GTECH Corporation Board. Under Don’s leadership GTECH advanced the state of the art in both transaction processing and wireless communications which enabled it to dominate its industry worldwide and install systems on 6 continents. Stanford earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations in 1972 and a Master’s in Computer Science/Applied Mathematics in 1977 from Brown University. Don serves on several boards including Times Squared Academy Charter School, Spectra Systems and the Business Innovation Factory. Don is a member of the R.I. Science and Technology Advisory Council.

In 2001 Don was appointed Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Brown University and has been teaching undergraduates since 2002. He is also an Adjunct in the School of Engineering and and is an instructor in the Program in Innovation, Management and Entrepreneurship (PRIME). He serves on the Brown advisory councils to the President and the School of Engineering.

In 1999 Don received the Black Engineer of the Year Award for Professional Achievement. In 1999 he also received the Honorable Thurgood Marshall award for community service from the NAACP. In 2002 he received the Brown Graduate School’s Distinguished Graduate award and the R.I. Professional Engineer’s award for Community Service.

Don and his wife Jane live in Pawtucket, R.I. and St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.

Barry Svigals

Barry Svigals
Partner Emeritus, Svigals + Partners, LLP

Barry Svigals

Barry Svigals
Partner Emeritus, Svigals + Partners, LLP

@BSvigals


Artist, architect, writer and public speaker, Barry is the founder of Svigals + Partners, an architecture and art firm, whose mission is to nurture and inspire prosperous, compassionate communities. He believes we are all creative and that capacity needs to find expression in how we live and work together. Awakening creativity, we can participate in bringing to life our communities and more fully contribute to the world we inhabit. It can remind us that our struggles, our joys and sorrows, are shared. They are what bind us as a community.

Perhaps now more than ever, we need to feel again a sense of our collective humanity. Through creative engagement, Barry’s aim is to touch that commonality we all carry in our hearts. This has been his effort as both an artist and architect: to remember, and remind others, that we are born to be creative and we need to bring that creative spirit to our lives, our communities and the world.

Trained as an architect at the Yale School of Architecture, Barry also studied sculpture at the Ecole Nationale Superiere in Paris. Encompassing a wide range of clients, his firm’s architectural designs include projects for Yale University, Boston College and the University of Connecticut, as well as numerous public schools, including most recently, the new elementary school for Sandy Hook. Corporate clients include PepsiCo, Yale New Haven Hospital and the Metroplitan Museum of Art. He has also designed homes for Jane Pauley and Garry Trudeau as well as Keith Richards and Patti Hansen.

Over the last 35 years, he has taught and lectured at a number of academic institutions including the Yale School of Architecture, the Harvard School of Business, and Stamford University. His love of sculpture and figurative art led to its integration into the architecture of his firm, bringing back an historical tradition and providing a dimension which could give it deeper meaning. For this contribution to the practice of architecture, he was awarded the Fellowship to the American Institute of Architects.

Rob Taylor

Rob Taylor
Partner, Partridge Snow and Hahn

Rob Taylor

Rob Taylor
Partner, Partridge Snow and Hahn


Rob Taylor is a partner in the law firm of Partridge Snow and Hahn. Mr. Taylor has almost 20 years of experience in litigation and arbitration proceedings around the country. He also counsels clients on antitrust, unfair competition and other trade regulation issues. He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center and his B.A., cum laude, from Yale University. He is admitted to practice law in Rhode Island, Connecticut and the District of Columbia.

Alice Wilder

Alice Wilder
Director of R&D, Producer, and Writer, Blue’s Clues

Alice Wilder

Alice Wilder
Director of R&D, Producer, and Writer, Blue’s Clues

@alicewilder


As the Director of Research and Development and Producer/writer for Nick Jr.’s break-out preschool series Blue’s Clues, Alice Wilder as part of the creative team is responsible for all content and creative decisions related to every aspect of the series. She conducts all of the formative research used in the creation and ongoing production of the series, and all of its ancillary businesses including publishing, online, magazine, consumer products and special events. She is also one of the Developers of Blue’s Room, a literacy-based spin-off of Blue’s Clues.

Lorne Adrain

Lorne Adrain
Financial Representative, Northwestern Mutual

Lorne Adrain

Lorne Adrain
Financial Representative, Northwestern Mutual

@LorneAdrain


Lorne Adrain has a national life insurance practice focused on estate planning and corporate applications. He has worked with entrepreneurs and businesses across the country.  Mr. Adrain has also been an executive at AT&T and worked for ten years as an entrepreneur in the technology and environmental sectors. He was the founder of KindMark, a leader in the creation of software and technologies to advance philanthropy.

Mr. Adrain is an active philanthropic and community leader.  He was appointed by Rhode Island’s Governor Chafee as Chairman of the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education and to the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education.  He was a candidate for Mayor of Providence. He has served Chairman of the University of Rhode Island Foundation and as vice president and director of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association. He has served or serves on the Boards of The Rhode Island Foundation, Big Picture Learning and The Business Innovation Factory. He is also founder of National Neighborhood Day and is co-founder of Social Venture Partners / Social Enterprise Greenhouse – Rhode Island and BetterProvidence.  Mr. Adrain has served as Chairman of the Rhode Island Special Olympics and President of the University of Rhode Island Alumni Association.   He has climbed Mounts Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Aconcagua, Denali (McKinley) and other peaks in recent years to raise funds in support of women’s education, economic and health programs on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala and to support aspiring inner-city students from Providence.

Mr. Adrain has twice received Northwestern Mutual Life’s National Community Service Award and was recognized as their Most Exceptional Volunteer in the Nation.  He has also been honored with the Rhode Island Foundation Inspiring Partner Award, the Jefferson Award for Public Service, Leadership Rhode Island’s David E. Sweet Leadership Award and the Providence Rotary’s 100th Anniversary Community Leadership Award.  He is also an Eagle Scout and grew up washing pots and pans at Camp Yawgoog.

Mr. Adrain earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School, and a BS from the University of Rhode Island.  Mr. Adrain lives in Providence, RI and has four children.

Irwin Kula

Irwin Kula
President, The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership

Irwin Kula

Irwin Kula
President, The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership

@irwinkula


An internationally sought–after speaker, Rabbi Irwin Kula has inspired people worldwide by using Jewish wisdom to speak to all aspects of modern life and relationships. An engaged and thoughtful trader in the global marketplace of ideas, he led a Passover Seder in Bhutan; consulted with government officials in Rwanda; helped build cultural and interfaith bridges in Qatar; and met with leaders as diverse as the Dalai Lama and Queen Noor to discuss compassionate leadership in the 21st century. Across the U.S., he works constantly with religious, business and community leaders, corporate and family foundations, and religious and philanthropic institutions to promote leadership development and institutional change.

#RCUS Network

Unleashing the Adjacent Possible through Random Collisions of Unusual Suspects

Saul Kaplan Saul Kaplan

Saul Kaplan
Founder and Chief Catalyst, Business Innovation Factory

Saul Kaplan

Saul Kaplan
Founder and Chief Catalyst, Business Innovation Factory

@skap5
saul.kaplan5@gmail.com


Saul Kaplan is the founder and Chief Catalyst of the Business Innovation Factory and author of The Business Model Innovation Factory: How to Stay Relevant when the World Is Changing.

Kaplan started BIF in 2005 with a mission to enable business model innovation. BIF makes transformational change safer and easier to manage for institutional leaders by helping them explore, test, and commercialize next practices and new business models.

Prior to BIF Kaplan served as the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and as the Executive Counselor to the Governor on Economic and Community Development.

Prior to his state leadership role Kaplan served as a Senior Strategy Partner in Accenture’s Health & Life-Science practice and worked broadly throughout the pharmaceutical, medical products, and biotechnology industry. Kaplan also spent eight years working for the Pharmaceutical Division of Eli Lilly and Company. As a Marketing Plans Manager, Kaplan assisted in developing the launch strategy and successful introduction of Prozac into the U.S. market.

Kaplan shares his innovation musings on Twitter (@skap5) and on Medium (@skap5).

Kaplan holds an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute focusing on the strategic management of technology and a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island.

Adam Hansen

Adam Hansen
VP Innovation, Ideas To Go, Inc.

Adam Hansen

Adam Hansen
VP Innovation, Ideas To Go, Inc.


Deb Mills-Scofield

Deb Mills-Scofield
CEO/Founder & Mentoring Maven, Mills-Scofield, LLC

Deb Mills-Scofield

Deb Mills-Scofield
CEO/Founder & Mentoring Maven, Mills-Scofield, LLC

@bluelobsternets


Deb Mills-Scofield, a storyteller at #BIF9 and #BIF2017, helps organizations create and implement innovation-based strategic plans. Deb is a Partner at Glengary LLC, an early-stage venture capital firm in Cleveland, Ohio, who has more than years of experience in strategic planning, execution and innovation with manufacturing, service and high-technology companies from large global companies to early-stage. A Brown University alumna, Deb previously worked at AT&T Bell Labs, where one of her designs is recognized as one of AT&T/Lucent’s top revenue-generating patents. She was instrumental in spearheading AT&T’s strategies and execution into e-commerce.

Christopher Rice

Christopher Rice
Principal Consultant, Christopher S. Rice Consulting

Christopher Rice

Christopher Rice
Principal Consultant, Christopher S. Rice Consulting


Dan Ryder

Dan Ryder
Education Director, Success & Innovation Center, Mt. Blue Campus/Maine RSU 9

Dan Ryder

Dan Ryder
Education Director, Success & Innovation Center, Mt. Blue Campus/Maine RSU 9


Dara Goldberg

Dara Goldberg
President/Founder, Mindsets Consulting, Inc.

Dara Goldberg

Dara Goldberg
President/Founder, Mindsets Consulting, Inc.


Dustin Haisler

Dustin Haisler
Giving Citizens A Voice In The Public Sector Through Technology

Dustin Haisler

Dustin Haisler
Giving Citizens A Voice In The Public Sector Through Technology

@DustinHaisler


Q&A WITH DUSTIN HAISLER

What attracted you to the BIF Summit?

All the people who attend the BIF Summit and speak at the BIF Summit are people I’d love to be trapped on a deserted island with for extended periods of time. They are thinkers, innovators, people I respect and follow, people who are challenging conventional norms in society. The BIF Summit is an opportunity to learn and see them in action, to connect with people with shared visions and purposes. And I’m looking forward to not just sharing my story but hearing what other people are working on, and coming back with lots of ideas and new friends to help advance our mission.

Tell us just a bit about the subject of your BIF Summit story.

I’ll talk about the role people have in facilitating and driving change and innovation in the public sector, and what happens when you give people a voice in government. That’s considered something government agencies aren’t open to. But what happens when you actually do that? What kind of change can you drive in the community, not just the government agency itself?

What, to you, is the value of sharing stories?

Stories are opportunities to hear ideas and to connect different ideas all in one place. A good story will inspire you, inform you, and activate you. Stories drive change by activating people to learn more that they can do. And stories allow us to build on each other’s work. It’s very difficult to pore through pages of academic research — the simplest way to start that process is with a story.

Do you have a motto, or “words to live by”? If so, what is it?

I have one word — empowerment. The role empowerment plays in change is embedded in my talk. Often you’ll read a business book on transformation, and it’s all about leadership. But it’s not sustainable if it’s all driven from the top. True, sustainable change happens when you empower people to lead that change themselves, to create change on their own.

What’s one thing (or more, if you like) would you like Summit attendees to know about you before they hear your story?

What most people don’t realize is that I’m an accidental public servant. I had a career in banking and then was recruited to be the Chief Financial Officer for a city. It wasn’t something I’d planned on, once I got there it opened his eyes to the ability of government and people to work together and do so much together. It became my driving passion.

Dave Gray

Dave Gray
Founder, XPLANE

Dave Gray

Dave Gray
Founder, XPLANE


Elyse Burden

Elyse Burden
CEO, Real World Scholars

Elyse Burden

Elyse Burden
CEO, Real World Scholars


Marshall Votta

Marshall Votta
Chief Market Officer, RowdMap, Inc.

Marshall Votta

Marshall Votta
Chief Market Officer, RowdMap, Inc.


Matt Murrie

Matt Murrie
Chief Curiosity Curator, What If...?360

Matt Murrie

Matt Murrie
Chief Curiosity Curator, What If...?360


Michael Crawford

Michael Crawford
Director of Strategy and Partnerships, Real World Scholars

Michael Crawford

Michael Crawford
Director of Strategy and Partnerships, Real World Scholars


Mike Baldwin

Mike Baldwin
Market Access Manager, Boehringer-Ingelheim

Mike Baldwin

Mike Baldwin
Market Access Manager, Boehringer-Ingelheim


Molly Cantrell-Kraig

Molly Cantrell-Kraig
Founder, Women With Drive Foundation

Molly Cantrell-Kraig

Molly Cantrell-Kraig
Founder, Women With Drive Foundation


Paul Higgins

Paul Higgins
Emergent Futures Pty, Ltd.

Paul Higgins

Paul Higgins
Emergent Futures Pty, Ltd.


Tim McDonald

Tim McDonald
Purveyor of Purpose, CreatingIs LLC

Tim McDonald

Tim McDonald
Purveyor of Purpose, CreatingIs LLC


Cathryn Hrudicka

Cathryn Hrudicka
Founder/Chief Imagination Officer, Creative Sage

Cathryn Hrudicka

Cathryn Hrudicka
Founder/Chief Imagination Officer, Creative Sage


Phil Komarny

Phil Komarny
VP Innovation, Salesforce.com

Phil Komarny

Phil Komarny
VP Innovation, Salesforce.com


Matthew Fritz

Matthew Fritz
Founder, Advanced Vectors

Matthew Fritz

Matthew Fritz
Founder, Advanced Vectors


Philip McCreight

Philip McCreight
Founder, Beer and Napkins

Philip McCreight

Philip McCreight
Founder, Beer and Napkins


Tony Silbert

Tony Silbert
Partner, Spartina Consulting

Tony Silbert

Tony Silbert
Partner, Spartina Consulting


Jonathan Follett

Jonathan Follett
Principal, GoInvo

Jonathan Follett

Jonathan Follett
Principal, GoInvo


Ken Gordon

Ken Gordon
Content, Conversation, & Community Strategist

Ken Gordon

Ken Gordon
Content, Conversation, & Community Strategist


Doug Williams

Doug Williams
Sr. Director, Strategic Services, Spigit

Doug Williams

Doug Williams
Sr. Director, Strategic Services, Spigit


Mark Babbitt

Mark Babbitt
President and Senior Partner, WorqIQ

Mark Babbitt

Mark Babbitt
President and Senior Partner, WorqIQ


Mark Brand

Mark Brand
CEO, MB Inc.

Mark Brand

Mark Brand
CEO, MB Inc.