How ExxonMobil initiates, manages, and supports open innovation
- Resource Type
- Audio Presentation/Podcast
- Publish Date
- 10/23/2025
- Author
- Innovation Research Interchange
- Topics
- Innovation, Tools and Techniques, Tools for success
- Associated Event
- Webinar: How ExxonMobil initiates, manages, and supports open innovation
Presentation with Kyle Bassler-Reeder
October 2025
R&D organizations rely on a complex mix of tools to accelerate innovation, from foundational AI platforms to design thinking practices and stage-gate methods like patent mining. Yet adoption of new tools is often uneven, with murky ROI and cultural resistance.
Open innovation can unlock vast global expertise—but only when it’s embedded effectively into organizational strategy and culture. How has ExxonMobil achieved this at scale? In this webinar, Kyle Basler-Reeder, Global Open Innovation Lead at ExxonMobil, shares how the company built and manages a corporate-wide open innovation program. Learn how ExxonMobil leverages open talent models, global crowdsourcing, and RFPs to accelerate problem-solving and expand access to new ideas. The session also explores lessons from integrating these processes into a large, technically complex organization—covering strategies for adoption, alignment, and impact measurement through practical KPIs and real-world success stories.
Kyle Basler-Reeder holds an M.S. in Exploration Geophysics from the University of Nevada, Reno and a B.S. in Geology from Colorado State University. A holder of multiple patents in uncertainty quantification, image enhancement, and generative AI, he founded and leads ExxonMobil’s Global Open Innovation program. During his career at ExxonMobil, Kyle contributed to major strategic outcomes, including influencing a $5 billion investment decision through subsurface uncertainty reduction technology and enabling a $3 billion cost reduction. After participating in the company’s Global Innovation Accelerator in 2019, he went on to lead the program and later built ExxonMobil’s External Leveraging capability through an Open Talent strategy. Today, he drives global adoption of open innovation across the company and is a frequent keynote speaker whose work is featured in the book Venture Clienting.