Catherine Yeo is the co-founder of Altara

Marc Block is a global business leader with more than two decades of experience building and scaling specialty chemical businesses across Asia, Europe, and North America. As Global Vice President at Wanhua Chemical Group, he leads the Performance Chemicals commercial platform, including aliphatic isocyanates, specialty amines, and special monomers. Marc has helped grow Wanhua’s aliphatic…

Adam Klich is Director of Federal Innovation Programs at RTI International and Lead of the Genesis Mission Consortium and TechWerx, a U.S. Department of Energy innovation hub administered by RTI. He works at the intersection of government, industry, academia, and national laboratories to build innovation ecosystems and public-private partnerships that accelerate the transition of emerging…

As a Senior Advisor at NewEdge, Mark has over 16 years of experience in corporate growth and innovation strategy, public speaking and publishing articles on best practices and new methods to drive growth. Mark has led global projects for clients across both B2B and B2C Fortune 1000 companies, leading thinking on current and future trends…

Sivan Zamir is Chief Innovation and Products Officer at Xylem, where she leads enterprise innovation, product strategy, R&D, engineering excellence, and product management. She also established Xylem Innovation Labs, the company’s corporate innovation and venture capital platform. Sivan brings more than 20 years of experience across innovation, engineering, venture, and operations, including founding technology startups…

Dr. Anita Friis Sommer is Associate Professor in Innovation Management and Chief Operating Officer of the Novo Nordisk Foundation CO₂ Research Center. She is an internationally recognized expert in mission-driven innovation and technology leadership, combining senior leadership experience from the LEGO Group with academic research. Anita is the co-creator of the Agile-Stage-Gate® with Dr. Robert…

Aaron P. Stebner is the Eugene C. Gwaltney Jr. Chair in Manufacturing, a James R. and Sarah R. Border Faculty Fellow, and Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He also serves as Associate Director of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute…

David Bem is senior vice president, science and technology and chief technology officer of PPG. He joined PPG in November 2015. Since 2016, Bem has been a member of PPG’s operating committee and serves as assistant secretary of the board’s Sustainability and Innovation Committee. Prior to joining PPG, Bem worked for Dow Chemical, where his…

Frank Johnson is the Chief Technology Officer at Niron Magnetics. Frank leads the technology development team for Niron’s rare-earth-free magnet technology. He has over 30 years of experience in R&D of advanced materials, focusing on the development of nanostructured magnetic materials. Frank joined Niron Magnetics in March 2018. Prior to joining Niron Magnetics, Frank worked…

Dr. Strite is Senior Director of Strategic Marketing at IPG Photonics where he oversees the launch of transformational laser technologies into new applications and markets. He earned his PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in 1993. His early career focused on the commercialization of diode lasers for fiber optic telecommunications at…