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Ade Adebisi
Founder & President, Ascellon Corporation

Mr. Adebisi is the Global Managing Director and President of the Ascellon family of companies. Under the leadership of Mr. Adebisi over the past 23 years, Ascellon has grown to become a global IT services and management consulting company by providing high quality technical consulting services to private industry and public organizations. Ascellon’s services include enterprise quality management, program management, data management, internet and web solutions, software development, leadership development and training. Ascellon’s customers include private and public-sector organizations in health care, finance and national defense.

Ascellon’s global headquarters is in Landover, Maryland with employees in 28 states, Puerto Rico and Nigeria.

Mr. Adebisi and Ascellon have received numerous major industry awards and recognition, including citations in Washington SmartCEO Magazine; Washington Technology Magazine; INC Magazine; Baltimore Business Journal; Government Computer News; BusinessWeek Magazine; and many others.

Mr. Adebisi’s career includes previous positions in Technology and Management Consulting within global consulting firms such as Deloitte Consulting (formerly KPMG Consulting) and Price Waterhouse Consulting. Mr. Adebisi is a graduate of John H. Sykes School of Business, University of Tampa, Florida where he earned a Master of Business Administration degree, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems and Business Administration.

Charitable Activities: Current Commodore, Board Member and Past Treasurer of Seafarers Yacht Club of Annapolis; Current member of Board of Directors of the Foundation Schools; Past Treasurer, National Black MBA Association; Certified Scout Leader and Volunteer; Mentor for Young Entrepreneurs through the Inner City Competitive Initiative (ICCI).

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Sandra_Arico_headshot.pngSandra Arico
Head of Strategic Engagement and Special Projects, Helimods Pty Ltd

Sandra Arico represents the next generation of young leaders. She has been described as an enabler, a connector and a catalyst for change. Her curiosity, drive and passion for making an impact has led her on an extraordinary journey. Graduating from RMIT with an Entrepreneurship degree, two prestigious university awards - the RMIT Business Medal and the Patricia Guthrie Memorial Award - and a successful entrepreneurial events-based start-up, she was scouted by the CEO of Deloitte Digital to help drive digital innovation in a conservative professional services firm.

Having successfully helped Deloitte build an online education business from the ground-up, Sandra turned left and headed for the Guatemalan jungle, where she spent a year living in a remote community. The years that followed saw Sandra bringing her vision, creativity and commercial talent to CSIRO, to start-ups and community-building initiatives, to RMIT, where she managed and grew a thriving innovation program, and to Swisse Wellness where she was Global Head of Innovation. Sandra’s latest challenge has seen her shift gears and move north to a warmer climate, bringing her experience, passion, energy and fresh thinking to the burgeoning innovation ecosystem on the Sunshine Coast. She is currently working with aerospace tech company HeliMods and with start-ups and scale-ups through the Sunshine Coast Innovation Centre.

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ClaytonBanks.pngClayton Banks
CEO, Silicon Harlem

Clayton Banks is the Co-Founder and CEO of Silicon Harlem. The mission of Silicon Harlem is to transform Harlem and other urban markets into Innovation and Technology Hubs. Under his leadership, Silicon Harlem has been able to partner with the Department of Education for New York City to establish an after-school STEM-based startup accelerator, collaborate with the NYC Mayor’s office to assess wireless broadband in upper Manhattan and coordinate a virtual startup incubator for tech-based entrepreneurs. Banks has established and produces the only comprehensive technology conference in Harlem, the Silicon Harlem tech conference, focused on next-generation internet and its impact on urban markets economic development.

Prior to Silicon Harlem, Banks has been a pioneer in the cable and communications industry for over two decades. He set the vision for Ember Media, a development group that builds digital solutions and interactive applications for top brands and non-profit organizations, across multiple platforms. Known as a pragmatic visionary, Banks has implemented multi-platform strategies for MTV, ESPN, Budweiser, Essence Music Festival, Urban Latino, Prudential, New York Institute of Technology, United Technologies, National Urban League, Denny’s, Scholastic, and other top brands. He has produced multimedia and broadband content for Discovery Networks, HBO, Pepsi, Bloomberg TV, Showtime Networks, Bermuda Tourism, British Tourist Authority, Monaco Tourism, and countless other companies and organizations around the world. Banks has worked with former President of the United States Bill Clinton to publish a first-of-its-kind interactive college guide series called “The Key”, that targets underserved communities and features Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions. The Key was featured on CNN, NY1, Univision, and several other media outlets around the country.

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Jason Bechtold
Economic Development Director, City of Westerville, Ohio, USA

Jason Bechtold is the economic development director for the City of Westerville, a position he’s held since December of 2009. Bechtold has built a program in Westerville that actively fosters relationships to attract, retain and create business opportunities in the community and, most importantly, expand the local tax base. Prior to his employment with the City of Westerville, Bechtold worked in local government in the cities of Gahanna and Delaware, Ohio, focusing on economic and community development and planning.

Bechtold serves as the Vice President of the Mid-Ohio Development Exchange (MODE), a membership organization of local economic development organizations from throughout the eleven county Columbus Region.

Bechtold earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Baldwin Wallace University and master’s degrees in public administration and management as well as city and regional planning from The Ohio State University. Jason and wife Jennifer reside in Westerville and enjoy their two beautiful daughters.

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RobertBell.jpgRobert Bell
Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum

Robert Bell is co-founder of the Intelligent Community Forum, where he heads its research, analysis and content development activities. He directs the multi-stage analysis of communities for the annual Intelligent Community Awards program and authors the in-depth profiles of the Top Seven Intelligent Communities that are core to ICF's mission. Robert developed and leads the Intelligent Community Master Class and Community Accelerator programs, as well as ICF's advisory services for communities, and is a frequent speaker at municipal and telecom events. More

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Erin Bender
Executive Director, The Point at Otterbein University

Erin Bender is founding Executive Director of The Point at Otterbein University – a new collaboration, education and innovation center made possible by public officials at all levels of government, local business and community leaders, public schools, and creative faculty and students at Otterbein. It’s offers student-centered collaboration and cross-disciplinary, high-impact learning that bridges learning with doing, students with professionals, in one shared space at 60 Collegeview Road, west of Otterbein’s main campus. It is a conduit between abstract learning and concrete practice, blurring the lines between time spent in school and time building a career. As a result, it prepares students for success in a new economy. Bender came to Otterbein after working at OSU were she held various positions within the Office of Technology Commercialization. The office facilitates the transfer of university research to licensees for development of new products and services that benefit the public good, foster economic growth and generate revenue. Her past roles with the office include associate director, senior licensing officer and licensing associate. Prior to joining OSU, Bender was an associate at Kremblas, Foster, Phillips & Pollick, a boutique intellectual property law firm that serves small enterprises, large corporations, individual inventors, universities and research institutions. She also worked as a legal assistant at the Chemical Abstracts Service, a division of the American Chemical Society. In 2006, her family established C.A.B.B. Farms, LLC, a 65-acre family farm in Lexington, Ohio, that specializes in natural grass-fed and finished Angus cattle and hay production.

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Mayor Henry Braun
City of Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada

Henry has been an Abbotsford resident for six decades and as a long-time Abbotsford businessman, he is enjoying the opportunity to put his years of business experience to work for the city and people of Abbotsford.

Henry understands that great communities don’t happen without involvement, and has served on various boards and continues to do so as Mayor. Henry was elected to serve as a Council Member with the City of Abbotsford in 2011 and served one term. In November 2014, Henry was elected to serve as the Mayor of Abbotsford. In October 2018, Henry was re-elected to serve as Mayor for another four years.

Henry is a champion for the City of Abbotsford. He is a strategic thinker and exemplifies this along with Council through creating a strategic plan that focuses on Abbotsford as the hub of the Fraser Valley composed of four integral cornerstones - a vibrant economy, complete community, fiscal discipline, and organizational alignment.

Henry is proud to be a husband, father and grandfather. His family is his inspiration for making sure Abbotsford remains a wonderful place in which to grow up and grow old, well into the future!

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mark-buckley-square-headshot.pngMark Buckley
Interim CIO, City of Rochester, New York, USA

Mark Buckley is the current interim CIO for the City of Rochester, New York. He has worked in Information Technology for all of his 36-year career, including private industry with large companies like Eastman Kodak and United Technologies Corporation. Mark changed his IT career path in 2016 to work in the public sector as an Application Services Manager for the City of Rochester, New York. One key driver in moving to the Public Sector, was the ability for Information Technology to improve service delivery for the greater good and prosperity of the City. When Mark started at the City, he organized and led the initiative to submit the 2017 Intelligent Community Forum Smart 21 application. This process provided valuable insight into the various services that were offered by the City, and the collaborative cross-functional processes and projects throughout. Mark’s ability to interview and present the great work of the City, placed Rochester in the top 21 in both 2017 and 2019. In Mark’s quest to continue to improve City services, he continues to build relationships, and share information on Rochester’s Intelligent Community journey.

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Martin Canning
Executive Director, Smart Cities, Evergreen Canada

As the current Executive Director, Smart Cities, and former Chief Program Officer at Evergreen Canada, Martin has been charged with leadership, development and execution of a national suite of programs, focusing on the transition to inclusive, low carbon cities of the future; and evolving the Evergreen Brick Works site and Future Cities Centre into a global hub for urban innovation.

Martin currently leads a national program focused on urban innovation and development solutions in Canadian cities and communities, aligned with the Government of Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge. Working in partnership with Canada’s top experts in Smart, spanning all sectors, the network and platform being developed is the country’s premier centre of excellence in Open Smart Cities.

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Joel_Carnes.jpgJoel Carnes
President, Alliance for Innovation

Joel Carnes is a proven leader and an operations and innovation expert, who optimizes organizations and propels them to exponential growth in quarters, not years. He built new levels of success while leading operations and strategy at XPRIZE, driving the global leader in open innovation from $50M to $200M in three years.  Joel then took the reigns as COO of SecondMuse, a global design firm that creates and operates purpose-driven business incubators and accelerators. In this role he led the Partnership group through the complete redesign and relaunch of the company, including creation of a new product that now accounts for 80% of revenue. His other accomplishments include executive leadership positions in operations and strategy for Activision Publishing and The Walt Disney Company, where he lived out a life-long dream as Sr. Strategist in R&D at Disney Imagineering. Joel has preached the power of innovation and the effectiveness of Human-centered Organizations around the world, in locales as diverse as Dar es Salaam, Tokyo, Budapest, and Washington DC. Audiences have included global business leaders, philanthropists, the general public, and the US Congress.

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Moez_Chaabouni.jpgMoez Chaabouni
Sr. Account Executive, Informatica

Moez Chaabouni serves as a Sr. Account Executive at Informatica leveraging his many years of experience in the CIO role to be a trusted adviser and advocate for his customers and help their combined Business and IT teams move quickly to empower transformational data automation initiatives leveraging the right components of our market-leading Informatica Intelligent Data Platform for Data Integration, Cloud Data Management, Big Data Management, Data Quality, Data Security and Master Data Management. Moez is also an adjunct member of The Ohio State University faculty with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Before he joined Informatica, Moez was the Deputy CIO with the City of Columbus where as a member of the Director's office participated in the overall operations and administrative management of the Department of Technology by directing the activities of the applications, GIS, Quality Assurance, Database, and Architecture groups. Moez also lead the nomination team for Columbus to win the Intelligent Community of the Year in 2015, laying the foundation for Columbus to win the US-DOT Smart City Challenge in 2016.

Moez received his bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems from The Ohio State University and a master’s degree as well as postgraduate PhD-track studies in Computer Science from Wright State University. Moez resides in Upper Arlington, Ohio with his wife Kathryn.

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Maggie ChaoMaggie_Chao_2.jpg
Project Manager, ICF Taiwan

Ms. Maggie Chao is the Manager of Networked Communications Industry Development Department at Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan. Ms. Chao has 15+ years of experience in the ICT industry, where she currently manages the team under the Smart City Project Office delegated by Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs. With this capacity, she oversees all marketing and promotional affairs, and is the main representative for international liaison with corporates and not-for-profit organizations relevant to Smart City and Next Generation Communications. Prior to joining ITRI in 2002, Ms. Chao received her master’s degree from National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan.

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Nicola Chemello
Chairman, SecureCube slr

Ing. Nicola Chemello is the Chairman of SecurCube srl, Italian digital forensics company specializing in phone records (CDR) analysis, forensics cell towers (BTS) coverage survey and IMSI Catcher detectors. He is EnCE, CCO, CCPA, CCME, Oxygen, XRY certified and he has been working on CDR analysis and BTS investigation since 2007. Annually, he provides trainings, in digital forensics examination to law enforcement, experts and universities worldwide.

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Dr. Kenny Chen
Director General, Department of Information Technology, Taoyuan City Government

In addition to heading Taoyuan’s IT department, Kenny Chen is director of the Asia Silicon Valley Redevelopment Agency of the city government and director of the Academic Resource Center at Huafan University. He has served as an assistant professor of that university as well as R&D manager at XDMA Technology Co. He holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of Space Science at the National Central University and is an expert in data analysis, electronic system design and IoT applications.

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Jimmy Chiou
Deputy Secretary General, Taoyuan City Government

Jimmy Chiou serves in the senior administrative role of Deputy Secretary General of Taoyuan City Government in Taiwan. He holds a masters in political science from Taiwan National University.

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Bill Coleman
Founder, Community Technology Advisors

Bill helps communities make the connection between telecommunications and economic development. As principal in Community Technology Advisors since 2000, he assists clients develop and implement programs of broadband infrastructure investment and technology promotion and training. Coleman believes that both are required for community technology and economic vitality. Prior to forming Community Technology Advisors, Bill managed Onvoy’s (now Zayo) Integrated Community Network (ICN) rural market development efforts. ICN, a Nortel Networks sales process, was a superb market development strategy to link a community’s economic development planning to telecom providers’ broadband infrastructure business planning, creating a win-win environment for providers and communities.

Earlier, Bill staffed the MN Department of Trade and Economic Development Star City and Business Retention and Expansion Programs, working with local community teams to vision, strategize and implement local economic development programs. Bill is a current board member of PCs for People, a non-profit dedicated to getting computers into the hands of those without. He is a former board member of the Economic Development Association of Minnesota and the Midwest Institute for Telecommuting Education.

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François Croteau
Member, Executive Committee, City of Montreal; Borough Mayor, Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie

François Croteau holds a BA in History and Art History from the Université de Montréal, an MBA from ESG-UQÀM, as well as a PhD in Urban Governance in Montreal. He has been a researcher at the Chair of Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development at UQÀM and a lecturer at the MBA. In addition to being Mayor of Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie since November 2009, he sits on the Executive Committee of the City of Montreal, where he is responsible for Smart City, Information Technology and Innovation. He is also a member of the Agglomeration Council and a member of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM).

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Andrea-Cruciani-297x297.pngAndrea Cruciani
CEO and Co-Founder, TeamDev srl & Agricolus srl

Andrea Cruciani is an entrepreneur and software architect based in Perugia, Italy who specializes in GIS, web, mobile and cloud technologies. He is CEO and co-founder of TeamDev, a software house developing GIS systems, multi-device applications and training and consulting services as a Microsoft-certified partner and and ESRI partner company. He is also CEO and co-founder of Agricolus, a startup that develops solutions for smart agriculture based on a cloud-ecosystem of precision farming applications, decision support systems, forecast models, smart pest and disease control and remote sensing.

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Richie_Doyen_headshot.pngRichie Doyen
Director, Unacast

Richie Doyen joined Unacast in 2018 after two and a half years selling big data capabilities at Dun & Bradstreet. Prior to that, he served 10 years in the United States Marine Corp serving in numerous roles form supply chain and logistics to recruiting.

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gregory-dunn-square-headshot.pngGregory Dunn
Partner, IceMiller

Greg Dunn has represented telecommunication clients for more than 40 years, providing legal and strategic assistance to a variety of private and public clients.

Greg has a comprehensive knowledge of both public utility and broadband issues and regularly works with clients on Smart City initiatives and public-private partnerships. His clients include municipalities, The Ohio State Supercomputer Center, competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC), data centers and wireless providers. He also consults on state of Ohio broadband and Internet of Things (IoT) public policy issues with Ice Miller Whiteboard LLC and has Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) experience in electric issues.

Greg assisted with the development and creation of the Dublink concept in Dublin, Ohio, which includes 125 miles of fiber optics, a conduit system and a Wi-Fi system, all connected to a municipal data center and the Ohio Academic Resource Network (OARnet). Dublin has attracted international attention, including being named one of the top seven intelligent communities of the year by the Intelligent Community Foundation (ICF) in both 2010 and 2011. Dublink also received an award from the National Science Foundation and the White House's broadband initiative, US Ignite.

Another of Greg’s clients, the City of Columbus, has pursued the broadband plan written by Greg in 2007. Columbus’ successful execution of that plan has led to Columbus also being selected a top seven Intelligent Community by Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) for 2012, and being named Intelligent Community of the year in 2016.

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Wendy Dupley
Executive Director, City of Abbotsford Economic Development

Wendy Dupley is the Executive Director of the City of Abbotsford Economic Development and is a strategic, visionary and creative leader with global experience in both private and public sector environments. Talented in building strong partnerships and working collaboratively with a wide range of domestic and international stakeholders, Wendy’s specialty areas include identifying key domestic and international economic indicators, as well as workforce strategies to support business development. Wendy has completed business development assignments in Europe, the UK, the USA, Australia, Asia, South America and Central America. Wendy holds an impeccable track record of a more consensus building approach to achieving business goals.

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Ari Fitzgerald
Partner, Hogan Lovells

Ari Fitzgerald’s practice focuses on wireless, satellite, international communications, and Internet-related issues as well as on communications-related policy matters within the U.S. Executive Branch, the White House, and on Capitol Hill. Ari also provides strategic and legal advice on a wide range of telecommunications and spectrum-related issues. He serves as counsel to several communications-related trade associations in the United States and Europe, and represents several telecommunications carriers, telematics providers, equipment suppliers, and investors in major spectrum-related and regulatory policy proceedings at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). He has also provided advice on telecommunications privatization and market liberalization issues. At the Federal Communications Commission, he served Legal Advisor to the FCC's former Chairman, William Kennard. In this position, he advised the chairman on wireless, international, and spectrum policy issues. Ari later served as Deputy Chief of the FCC’s International Bureau, overseeing the development of FCC policies on international telecommunications, foreign ownership, satellite services, spectrum allocation, and promotion of the Internet. Prior to working at the FCC, Ari worked as a lawyer in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, counseling the White House and federal government agencies on constitutional and administrative law matters. He also served as Legal Counsel to former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley.

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Gina Funicelli
Dean, Applied Research, Mohawk College, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Gina Funicelli leads applied research at one of Canada’s most successful and innovative two-year colleges. Gina has been immersed in roles in industry, the public sector and academia throughout her career and most recently was Dean, Applied Research and Innovation at Lethbridge College in Alberta. She brought strong skills and experience in creating and empowering teams that are highly successful in solving complex problems creatively and balancing innovative “out-of-the-box” thinking with pragmatism. Prior to Lethbridge College, she served as director of the commercialization office at multiple universities, director for economic development for the province, and director of products at NovaLIS Technologies.

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Chris Gould
Chief Operations Officer, Bluewater Regional Network

Chris Gould serves as a Vice President of Operations at Bluewater Regional Networks, which was formed to create a locally controlled, carrier-grade high speed fiber network services company that provides reliable, affordable and customer focused services in the Sarnia-Lambton area. He has been responsible for all aspects of company launch including network construction, business control/KPI stewardship and policy/procedure development. Prior to this position, he served as VP Utility Development and VP Operations for Bluewater Power Distribution Corporation, where he was responsible for smart grid initiatives and day-to-day operations for electrical distribution.

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Lawrence Greenspun
Director of Public Sector Engagement, The Drucker Institute

Lawrence created the Drucker Playbook for the Public Sector and spearheads its marketing and delivery. He also serves as a senior advisor to the City of Lifelong Learning program.

Lawrence arrived at the Institute with a background in education and community service as well as freelance writing and editing. As a teacher, Lawrence spent more than two decades in public, private, and religious school systems, serving in roles ranging from first grade teacher to principal of a Hebrew high school and junior college. More than 20 years ago, Lawrence integrated community service within the educational programs at his school, and he worked extensively with City Year and the Penn-Edison Partnership in Philadelphia. As the director of Main Line Writing & Educational Services (later La Jolla Literary Services), Lawrence assisted academics, entrepreneurs, professionals, and students with their writing and editing needs.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in religious studies, he served a stint on the Philadelphia Eagles media relations staff before embarking on his career in education. Lawrence teaches a graduate course on leadership in the University of Notre Dame’s ESTEEM Master’s program in entrepreneurship. He also serves as a Prairie Ambassador for the American Prairie Reserve, which is creating a three-million acre wildlife reserve in Montana.

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Sam Hasty
Director of Finance, Let’s Innovate Through Education

Sam is currently the Director of Finance at LITE. Sam has spent 5 years teaching full-time at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Most recently, Sam completed a year in Poland as a Fulbright Scholar, where he taught and conducted research on entrepreneurship development and financing to new ventures in rural areas. He hopes to bring lessons learned to LITE, and the greater Memphis community. Sam is a proud graduate of Rutgers University, where he was a letter winner on the baseball team and earned dual degrees in Political Science and Economics.

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Joost Helms
Co-Director, Binh Doung Smart City Office; Director, Eindhoven International Projects Office

Joost Helms is director of the Eindhoven International Project Office (EIPO), guiding and supporting regions and cities around the world on Triple Helix collaboration, Smart Cities and socio-economic development strategies. He also chairs the Eindhoven Academy, institute for education and training focusing on successful collaboration in the Brainport Eindhoven ecosystem.

With EIPO, Mr. Helms is working closely together with Binh Duong province (Vietnam) on implementing Binh Duong’s new socio-economic development strategy as co-director of the Binh Duong Smart Region project office.

He graduated Eindhoven University of Technology in Chemical Engineering in 1996, gained 10 years of experience as an entrepreneur and has been in politics for another 10 years. He served as Vice Mayor of the City of Eindhoven when his city was awarded ICF Intelligent Community of the Year in 2011. Like no other, he understands the differences in motives, interests and processes of the different partners within Triple Helix collaborative ecosystems.

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Victor Hoskins
Director, Arlington Economic Development

Victor Hoskins became the Arlington Economic Development (AED) Director in 2015 and is most known for leading the team that successfully attracted Amazon HQ2 to Arlington County, VA, a deal that will bring 25,000 high tech jobs, invest $2.5 billion and occupy four million square feet of commercial office space. This is one of the largest economic development deals in North American history. It is estimated it will generate $3.2 billion in revenue for the State of Virginia and over $315 million for the County.

Since joining AED, he has led efforts that have resulted in approximately 229 deals, representing 11.5 million square feet in new and retained office leases and the creation or retention of more than 67,000 jobs. The diversification strategy he designed resulted the in the expansions and attractions of companies such as Nestlé, Grant Thornton, Lidl, Deloitte, Oracle/OPower, Applied Predictive Technologies, Amazon Web Services Innovation Center, March of Dimes and Phone2Action.

Previously, Mr. Hoskins served as Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development for Washington, D.C., where his achievements included the creation of 52,600 jobs through public private partnership projects and the groundbreaking and/or completion of 87 mixed use projects totaling $7.5 billion in 3 . years. Projects included the Southwest Waterfront and City Center. Mr. Hoskins repositioned the District to emerge as a “tech town” and a global city with a booming economy and growing population.

Mr. Hoskins holds a Master’s degree in City Planning: Real Estate Finance/ Economic Development from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Bachelor of Arts, with Honors: Psychology/Urban Studies from Dartmouth College. He also studied Development Finance at Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.

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Jane Howington
City Manager, City of Hudson, Ohio, USA

Jane Howington has more than 25 years’ experience as a city manager. Jane worked as city manager for Kalispell, Montana, from 2009 to 2012, assistant city manager for Dayton from 2007 to 2009 and city manager for Oxford, Ohio, from 2000 to 2007.

She earned a masters of public administration from Miami University, a masters of urban and regional planning from Texas A&M University and a bachelors of environmental studies from Ramapo College of New Jersey. Jane has been with Hudson for the last 4 ½ years.

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Li Wen (Ema) Hsieh
Director, ICF Institute, Taiwan

Beginning in 1989, Li Wen (Ema) Hsieh has worked for the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI); one of Taiwan’s most important research organizations. She held several significant positions during her career here, including Head of PR, Project Manager in Latin America, and the New Business Director of the Technology Center for Service Industries.

After her retirement from ITRI in 2013, she was invited to be an advisor to the Joint Innovation Center of the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Industry Association to assist the Taiwanese industry with expanding its sales to Latin America. In 2018, she joined the ICF Institute in Taiwan and is responsible for business development and marketing. She also has an extensive network with the smart city solution providers in Taiwan. Li Wen (Ema) Hsieh holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Chung Hua University, Taiwan.

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Paul S. Hsu
Section Chief, Department of Information Technology, Taoyuan City Government

Paul Hsu serves as section chief in the IT department of Taoyuan City.  He holds a Ph.D in computer science and engineering from National Chung-Hsing University and an MA in computer science from Kansas State University.

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Norman Jacknis
Senior Fellow, Intelligent Community Forum

NormanJacknis.jpg

Dr. Norman Jacknis is currently Senior Fellow at the Intelligent Community Forum. His responsibilities include leading ICF’s Rural Imperative, building on the ideas he developed for the US Conference of Mayors on a future-oriented economic growth strategy for cities. Before joining ICF, he was Director, Cisco’s IBSG Public Sector Group (the company’s open innovation and pro-bono strategic advisory group), where he worked extensively with states and local government, the National Association of Counties, the US Conference of Mayors and the staff responsible for the Federal government’s website and citizen engagement. In addition to citizen engagement, his focus was on economic growth, innovation, and the future of technology. More

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ToddJackson.jpgTodd Jackson
Chief Information Officer, City of Westerville, Ohio, USA

Todd Jackson has worked for the City of Westerville for 20 years. After a stint in the private sector, he joined city staff as GIS Manager and, in 2004, was named CIO. In that role, he is responsible not only for the city’s internal IT infrastructure but also for its WeConnect fiber network and municipally-owned data center, the only such facility in the nation, which has become a key economic development attractor for the city.

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Mark_Jamieson_headshot.pngMayor Mark Jamieson
Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

Mark Jamieson has led a distinguished career in both the public and private sectors. He has approached all his roles with the personal ethos to not only do well, but do good.

Mark Jamieson has been the Mayor of the Sunshine Coast Council (the fifth largest local government in Queensland) since April 2012. He was re-elected for a second term on 19 March 2016 with 76% of the vote on a two-candidate preferred basis.

He is reshaping the Sunshine Coast economy, strengthening community programs and supporting and building on the region’s already outstanding environmental credentials. This includes driving a major regional infrastructure program that has the most innovative mix of public and private investment opportunities in Australia. It is underpinned by a clear 20-year blueprint established for a new economy for the Sunshine Coast and which is already delivering results. On 20 October 2016, Mayor Jamieson was elected overwhelmingly by his Mayoral and Councillor colleagues from across Queensland to serve as President of the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) for the next four years.

Prior to his election as Mayor in 2012, Mayor Jamieson enjoyed an extensive career of nearly 30 years in chief executive and senior leadership roles in media and publishing. He had strategic and operational responsibilities for customer satisfaction, staff development, business performance and shareholder growth. In 2006, he was appointed Chief Executive of APN Australian Publishing, where he was accountable for newspaper assets valued in excess of $1 billion.

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Bernadine_Joselyn_headshot.pngBernadine Joselyn
Director of Public Policy and Engagement, Blandin Foundation

Bernadine directs Blandin Foundation’s Public Policy and Engagement program area, where she leads efforts to facilitate the building of knowledge and catalyze community action around issues and opportunities that align with the Foundation’s mission of strengthening rural Minnesota communities, especially the Grand Rapids area. A native of Minnesota, Bernadine spent the first 15 years of her professional life in Soviet (and then post-Soviet) Affairs. She served seven years as diplomat with the U.S. Department of State, where — after an initial tour in New Delhi, India — she was assigned to Moscow, Russia, and Washington, D.C., focused on the U.S.-Soviet/Russian relationship. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Bernadine left the diplomatic corps to work on international academic and cultural exchange programs with the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) and subsequently the Eurasia Foundation, where she oversaw a $5 million annual grant program.

In 2000 Bernadine returned to Minnesota to complete a second masters degree in public affairs at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute. She also has an undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in international security policy and certificate in advanced studies from Columbia University.

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JohnJung.jpgJohn G. Jung
Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum

ICF co-founder John G. Jung originated the Intelligent Community concept and continues to serve as the Forum's leading visionary. Formerly President and CEO of the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance and Calgary Economic Development Authority, he is a registered professional urban planner, urban designer and economic developer. He leads regular international business missions to US, European, Asian, Indian and Australian cities, and originated the ICF Immersion Lab program. John is a regular speaker at universities and conferences and serves as an advisor to regional and national leaders on Intelligent Community development. More

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Dr. An-Pang Kao
Director General, Department of Education, Taoyuan City Government

Currently director general of Taoyuan’s Department of Education, Dr. Kao has served as president of Kainan University as well as a member of the faculty, as well as an independent director of the Hua-Nan Commercial Bank and president of the Association for China Economics Studies.  He holds a Ph.D in Resources Economics from the University of Massachusetts, MA degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and National Chengchi University, and a BA in public finance from National Chengchi University. 

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Faith Knutsen
Director, Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, Ohio University

Faith Knutsen has served the Voinovich School since 2008. Faith directs the Social Enterprise Ecosystem (SEE) project, funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission. SEE has a dual mission: bringing venture development services to regional social enterprises, which combine a market-based approach with a mission for social good, and capacity-building for philanthropic funders interested in impact investment. Faith lectures on entrepreneurship and venture development and aids in regional K-12 and college pitch competitions. Before joining the Voinovich School, Faith worked for 12 years in an executive role at Sunpower, Inc., an Athens Ohio-based, 60-employee research and development engineering firm. Her early career in international development began with a tour as a Peace Corps volunteer in Central Africa and segued into international consulting. Faith holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Ohio University.

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Wendy_Lawson_headshot.pngWendy Lawson
Dean, School of Health, Mohawk College, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Wendy is a highly regarded leader and respected for her research work related to hemophilia and ultrasonography. She currently serves as Chair of the Canadian National Interest Group for Point of Care Ultrasound in Hemophilia and Co-Chair of the International Experts Group: Ultrasound and Artificial Intelligence. She has won numerous awards including the Award of Fellowship from Sonography Canada in 2015, and the 2014 College Sector Educator Award from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

As a former professor and coordinator in the Medical Radiation Sciences program and most recently she served as Associate Dean, Medical Radiation Sciences and Allied Health. Wendy has also led the development of the Centre for Health Care Simulation and Medical Technologies Innovation Centre at Mohawk’s Institute for Applied Health Sciences at McMaster University. In this role, Wendy worked across the health portfolio to improve processes, strengthen teams and advance projects focused on supporting research and innovation, and promoting excellence in teaching and learning.

A graduate of Mohawk College, Wendy holds Advanced Diploma, Medical Imaging Technology, and Ultrasonography. She also has a Masters of Applied Science Degree in Medical Imaging, from Charles Sturt University, New South Wales, Australia, and an Honours Bachelor of Science, Biology, from the University of Waterloo.

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doug-mccollough-square-headshot.pngPaul Leedham
Chief Innovation Officer and Director of IT, City of Hudson, Ohio, USA

Originally from Rochdale, England, Paul Leedham currently serves as the City of Hudson’s first Chief Innovation Officer/Director of IT, where he is responsible for network operations and security, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and digital communications. Since 2014, Leedham has been deeply involved with bringing municipal broadband services to the businesses of Hudson and currently serves in an advisory capacity for the City’s Velocity Broadband program. With previous work as an independent consultant and for the County of Summit GIS Department, Leedham boasts more than 20 years of experience with current initiatives that include: IoT Smart Lighting, deploying an enterprise document management system, continuous improvement, wireless fire detection and exploring various virtual dispatch and Intelligent Traffic Management/Parking solutions.

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doug-mccollough-square-headshot.pngDr. Po-Chou Lin
Chief Researcher, IoT Laboratory, Telecommunication Laboratories, Chungwha Telecom

Dr. Lin holds a PhD degree in Communication Engineering from National Chiao-Tung University, Chinese Taipei. His fields of research include 3G/4G/5G wireless communications technology, LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) technology, intelligent transportation systems, telematics, the connected car and IoT applications.

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Bruce_Lincoln_headshot.pngBruce Lincoln
Co-Founder, Silicon Harlem

Bruce Lincoln is the Co-Founder of Silicon Harlem (http://wwwsiliconharlem.net). Silicon Harlem is a nationally recognized for-profit social venture dedicated to transforming Harlem into a hub for technology and innovation. A member of the Mayor’s Broadband Advisory Task Force, Bruce has been at the forefront of the equitable development of the Internet in Harlem and the City of New York since 1994. From 1994 until 2004, Bruce was the Senior Educational Technologist and Manager of Community Outreach at the Institute for Learning Technologies at Teachers College, Columbia University where he managed a ten-year cycle of projects that served as national models for equity and access to the socioeconomic benefits of Internet.

  • The Harlem Environmental Access Project (1994-96)
  • The Eiffel Project (1996-2001)
  • The Harlem Renaissance 2001 Project (1999-2001)
  • The SmartForce E-Learning Digital Scholarship Fund (2000-2002)
  • The New York Online Neighborhood Educational Network Project (2000-2003)
  • New York City Community Technology Center Bank Project (2001-2004)

From 1998 through 2001, under the Clinton Administration, Bruce served as an advisor to the White House and was a member of the PITAC, The President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee. Bruce is a Senior Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) at the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University and from May 2008 until June 2011, he was the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Center for Technology, Innovation and Community Engagement (CTICE), Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.

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Rob_McCann_headshot.pngRob McCann
Founder, Clearcable Networks; President, Hamilton Technology Centre

Rob McCann is the founder of Clearcable Networks and the President of the Hamilton Technology Centre. He has been working with advanced broadband service deployments in mid-market and rural cable and telephone systems since 1998. He is responsible for building and maintaining technical, network, and application intelligence. Rob works closely with several carriers, cable systems, municipalities, and network service providers in Canada, the US, and the Caribbean providing them with the technology, integration, and business practices required to effectively operate voice, video, and data services in the changing broadband service provider industry.

Most recently Rob represented Clearcable as an inaugural board member of The Intelligent Community Forum Canada, a member of the Seneca College Communications Advisory Committee, and previously has served as a Director with the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Ontario Chapter, a contributor to the CRTC Interconnection Steering Committee, and a frequent keynote speaker at the Canadian Cable System Alliance, Canadian Independent Telephone Association, and National Cable Telephone Cooperative annual trade shows.

Rob’s active projects include work with ICF recognized Intelligent Communities by chairing the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce Digital Infrastructure Working Group and providing technical insight to Sarnia’s Bluewater Regional Network. He was named the Canadian Independent Telephone Association’s 2016 Supplier of the Year and holds degrees in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and Economics from McMaster University.

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doug-mccollough-square-headshot.pngDoug McCollough
Chief Information Officer, City of Dublin, Ohio, USA

Doug is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the City of Dublin, Ohio, where he leads initiatives in IT Innovation, Digital Experience, Smart City, Broadband, Intelligent Communities, and Blockchain. Dublin, Ohio has a growing reputation as a haven for technology oriented businesses interested in the collaboration opportunities between Smart Cities and the Private Sector. The City is innovating in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Broadband, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, Smart Mobility, Intelligent Transportation Systems, IoT, UAVs, and Automation.

Through the Global Institute for the Study of the Intelligent Community and the Intelligent Communities Forum, Dublin reaches out to communities throughout the State of Ohio in an effort to establish the first Intelligent State with the Intelligent Communities Forum. The City partners with the 33 Innovation Corridor Council of Governments in the establishment of the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor for the testing of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles.

Doug supports the Smart Columbus project (SMRT CBUS) through sitting on the Data Policy Workgroup of the Smart Columbus Operating System (SCOS). Is is a member of the National Advisory Board of Tech Corps, and the Advisory Board of Per Scholas Columbus. As a motivated advocate for extending the opportunities of the IT industry to the widest possible community of talent, Doug has spoken on the priorities of diversity, inclusion, workforce development, and opportunity with Columbus Women In Technology, and is Chair of the Planning Committee for the 2018 CIO Tomorrow Conference. He was honored with a C-Suite Award in 2017, and has spoken on numerous technical topics in Colorado, California, New York, Toronto, and Ohio.

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DanaMcDaniel.jpgDana McDaniel
City Manager, Dublin, Ohio, USA

City Manager Dana McDaniel is the chief administrative and law enforcement officer of the City of Dublin, responsible to City Council for the day-to-day operations for the City. Other responsibilities include advising Council regarding the financial status and future needs of the City, reporting to Council on the general operating of City departments, divisions, offices, boards, commissions, bureaus and agencies, as well as exercising leadership in the development of City projects.

Dana is actively engaged in the regional technology sectors of central Ohio as he leads a strategy to develop an ecosystem for new startup companies and technologies. The city is at the forefront of constructing intelligent infrastructure to support the emerging industry around connected and autonomous vehicles, and continues to build upon its successes in emerging industry clusters such as technology, healthcare, automotive and R&D.

Dublin is a two-time Top7 Intelligent Community and home to a Global Institute for the Development of the Intelligent Community, which is spearheading creation of Intelligent Ohio.

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Eric_McGill_headshot.jpgEric McGill
Senior Technology Manager, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Eric McGill presently serves as a Senior Technology Manager for the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center’s (GSFC) Strategic Partnerships Office (SPO), where he manages the intellectual property portfolio for the Earth Sciences, Applied Engineering & Technology Directorate (AETD) and Mechanical Systems and Missions assurance divisions. He also leads in matters pertaining to business development and direct marketing of technologies for licensing and partnerships. He possesses a strong scientific background in research and technology development, as well as entrepreneurial experience gained from discovering, developing, and successfully launching and commercializing his own patented technology.

Prior to joining NASA, he served in commercialization and technology transfer positions with Acuity Edge and TRSG, and was a senior scientist at BD Biosciences, where he discovered and patented a composition and method for obtaining amplifiable nucleic acid from gynecological transport media.

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Chris_Moon_headshot.jpgChris Moon
Managing Director, Technology and Telecom Banking, ING

Chris Moon is a Managing Director in ING’s Telecom & Technology Banking group where he has responsibility for lending origination in the US, Canada and Latin America. Mr. Moon has over 15 years of experience arranging capital for multi-national corporates along the entire spectrum of Telecom and Technology verticals, including: Telecom Carriers, Datacenters, Towers, Fiber Networks, Enterprise Software, Cybersecurity, Data Analytics and Semiconductors. He is a frequent contributor to trade publications and regularly speaks at industry events focused on the expansion of telecom infrastructure and emerging technologies. Prior to joining ING, Chris held positions at PwC and Goldman Sachs. Chris is a CFA Charterholder and a Certified Public Accountant.

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Hunter Newby
Owner, Newby Ventures

Hunter Newby is an American entrepreneur, investor, conservationist and the owner of Newby Ventures. His primary field of interest has been network infrastructure. As Co-Founder, Chief Strategy Officer and a Director of Telx, he pioneered the carrier-neutral Meet-Me-Room and the development of carrier hotels and data centers in the United States leading to massive value creation and economic development throughout the Country. Since the sale of Telx, he has been and continues to be a founder, developer and investor in the creation of multiple network-neutral infrastructure businesses all across North America.

Mr. Newby is a recognized authority in the network-neutral interconnection and data center industry. He has served on multiple company boards, is a published author, public speaker and has been quoted in several publications including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today. He has also been the recipient of numerous awards including being named to the Global Telecoms Business Top 40 Under 40 in 2010.

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Viet Long Nguyen
Deputy CEO, Becamex IDC; Director, Smart City Office, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam

Dr. Nguyen is a mathematical engineer and PhD in management sciences, who serves the Director of International Relations & Strategy for Becamex Conglomerate Group, one of the leading Vietnamese developers in industrial parks, infrastructure & urban area. He is also Director of the Smart City Office of Binh Duong province (Vietnam), which coordinates breakthrough strategic projects for the socio-economic development of the province.

Dr. Nguyen is a former member of the Scientific Board of University Paris - Dauphine, and the Academic Assembly of Paris Sciences & Letters. He has been lecturing and conducting research internationally in the U.S., France, Germany, China, Vietnam, etc., particularly in the field of Intercultural Management.

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Carleton Nolan
Chief Technology Officer and First Deputy Commissioner, City of Chicago

As CTO for the city, Carleton is responsible for managing and defining the strategic and tactical direction of the city’s technology portfolio, including commercially licensed applications and products and large custom-built systems. Prior to joining the city, he was a senior business manager for online services for AT&T/SBC/Ameritech.

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Mark Paddenburg
CEO, Innovation Centre, Sunshine Coast

As CEO, Mark and his team are currently assisting over 45 startup and high growth companies. In previous roles, Mark assisted in the establishment of a range of new ventures including Dascom (now owned by IBM), QuickBeds (now owned by Flight Centre), FireWire, Tracknology, Venture Commander, Storey Bridge Climb and Stella Gems. Mark has also assisted a range of larger companies such as Unisys, Lockheed Martin, Digicel Pacific, Youi, Virgin, Sandvik, Talisman Energy whilst Manager at Invest Queensland. Mark helped introduce the Pitch for Investment Competition, DemoDays, Startup Weekend, Boardroom Briefings and new networking groups on the Sunshine Coast. Mark has also worked in a range of business development roles in Australia, the UK and China with Shell, Peregrine Capital, The Office of Economic Development for the City of Brisbane Ltd and he also played a key part in establishing Australia TradeCoast, Brisbane Airport Corporation Ltd, the ourBrisbane portal, the Smart State Strategy and the Cities of Asia Pacific Conference.

Mark chairs the Sunshine Coast Health Panel, is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a member of the local Business Council and was President of the Brisbane Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1995. Mark completed a Bachelor of Commerce at Griffith University and Graduate Certificate in Management at University of Queensland.

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Blair Patacairk
President, TGS, Inc.

For a wide range of local and international clients, Blair Patacairk provides executive-level leadership and strategic business counsel. He develops effective change management, government relations, communications and marketing strategies, and identifies and cultivates strategic partnerships and networking opportunities. TGS develops and executes foreign direct investment and business development initiatives, undertakes risk analyses and market research, offers strategic counsel and facilitates import/export transactions.

Prior to his position with TGS, Blair served as Managing Director for Investment and Trade at Invest Ottawa; Vice President for Business Development at Vayyoo; and Director for Corporate Communications and Government Relations at Dell Canada.

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Carlos Eduardo Pires
Founder and CEO, Uhub

Carlos Eduardo Pires is founder and CEO of Uhub ( Fala Cidadão in Brazil ), a digital platform that connects citizens and public managers.

Through radical transparency and innovative digital practices, they managed to reinvent communication in the cities of Brazil, where they work in more than 40 cities with a high degree of satisfaction and commitment to the population.

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Edgar_Salas_headshot.pngEdgar Salas
Founding Partner, AZLOGICA

Edgar Salas is a Mechanical Engineer, at Universidad de America, with post graduated formation in International Business at the University of London - London School of Economics in England, and Economic Engineering (Engenharia Económica) at MPU in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He has 20 years of professional experience in management positions in multinational companies such as General Motors, Allianz, and Lo Jack, among others. Edgar is an experimented speaker, for international events such as WOBI (World of Business Ideas), GSMA MOBILE (MWC Latin-American series), FASECOLDA, (Insurers Guild in Colombia), EXPOLOGISTICA, AWS EXPERIENCE, INTEL EXPERIENCE Day, and many others. He is a founding partner of AZLOGICA®, a leading company in the development of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions with presence in Latam and Europe, which provides its clients with world-class tools to monitor, manage and optimize their assets in a flexible and safe way. For 11 years it has achieved a compound growth of more than 55% annually. AZLOGICA has won awards for innovation, recognized as a company of extraordinary growth for many regional institutions and selected by some local entities as one of the best companies to invest. With a selected group of clients such as Coca Cola, Renault, AXA, G4S, AON, Millicom, Tigo Une, Avantel, among others, AZLOGICA is also partner with world-class companies in the technology sector, such as AWS, INTEL, HUAWEI, ORACLE, NOKIA, ALLIANZ and others.

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andy-saldana-square-headshot.pngAndy Saldana
Director of Operations, NY Tech Alliance

As Director of Operations at NY Tech Alliance (formerly NY Tech Meetup), Andy has the privilege of meeting, vetting and selecting the companies that are selected to demo on the monthly stage to a crowd of over 800 attendees.

He sees tech from all verticals, and is always on the lookout for amazing technology that is being developed in NYC and around the world. Making community connections is at the heart of his day-to-day role.

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mark-scullion.pngG. Mark Scullion
Trade Commissioner, Foreign Investment Attraction to Canada, Canadian Consulate General in New York

As a trade commissioner with the Canadian Consulate General in New York, Mark Scullion concentrates on foreign investment attraction into Canada. Prior to his posting to New York, Mark served as Deputy Director for EU-EFT Commercial Relations for Global Affairs Canada, as Senior Advisor on client service and strategic integration at Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, and as a Senior Trade Commissioner in Mumbai, India.

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scott-semet.pngScott Semet
Head of Business Development Americas, Voltaware

Scott Semet heads up Voltaware’s operations in the Americas, based in Miami, FL. Previously, he set up, launched and managed the research departments of some of Russia’s largest investment banks, and was key to sourcing, valuing and managing private equity investments as well as developing and leading teams in companies large and small. His 25-year career has encompassed numerous roles, functions and geographies.

Scott has an MBA from Columbia Business School, an MA from Yale University a BS (Molecular & Cellular Biology) from the University of Arizona and is a CFA charter holder.

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Pablo_Servent_headshot.pngPablo Servent
CEO, Smartmation

Pablo Servent has served as CEO of Smartmation since 2017. Headquartered in Buenos Aires, the company is Latin America’s leader in smart street lighting solutions, with over 85,000 smart light nodes awarded in contracts during 2018.

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Stephen_Shih_headshot.pngStephen H. H. Shih
Project Manager, Smart City Development Project Office, Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan

Stephen Shih currently serves as the Project Administrator of Smart City Development Project Office delegated by Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs. His main role includes advising local governments on smart city development and supporting the promotion of nation-wide smart city initiatives in Taiwan. In addition, he is also the Deputy Project Manager at Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), where he is involved in developing and transforming Taiwan's communications industry since 2003.

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Jim_Stifler_headshot.pngJim Stifler
Chief Economic Officer, City of Hudson, Ohio, USA

As a 25-year resident of Hudson, Jim Stifler has chosen to perform his encore career as the City of Hudson’s Chief Economic Officer. After a successful 33-year career as a Wall Street executive, Jim is able to showcase his extensive private sector experiences and use his strong ties in the community to move the City forward.

In addition to attraction and retention, Jim provides strategic oversight to Hudson’s rapidly growing, city - owned, fiber-optic broadband business.

Jim’s most gratifying work as Chief Economic Officer has been in conjunction with Hudson’s Chief Innovation Officer by leading the charge to become an Intelligent Community, and to expand and capitalize on the innovation bias Hudson is blessed to have. It was a tremendous boost to be named to the ICF’s Smart21 Intelligent Communities for 2018.

To compliment all of these efforts Jim works with innovative start-ups and scale-ups that have qualified for mentoring support at JumpStart Inc. JumpStart is a public /private business acceleration program in Northeast Ohio, that is now 2 decades strong.

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Päivi Sutinen
Director for City as a Service Development, City of Espoo

Päivi Sutinen has worked over 25 years as a director or developer at the two biggest cities in Finland: Espoo and Helsinki. She has worked at City of Espoo also as a Corporate Services Director, Director for Occupational Health Services and at Helsinki as a Development Manager and Section Director. Recently she has been leading the development of the business models for the New Open Cities as a Service for new innovations in Espoo, which was named ICF’s Intelligent Community of the Year in 2018. She serves as Chair of the 6Aika - Strategy for Open and Smart Services - The Six City´s strategy´s steering group. 6Aika is the joint strategy for tackling their common urban challenges with six largest cities (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Oulu, Tampere and Turku) in Finland. The 6Aika is Finland's flagship in the EU Cohesion Policy's 30th anniversary year 2018. Her dissertation was “The Essence of Developing as a Director: Experiences of Directors in the Municipal Sector”. Her EMBA-Thesis was “New Open City - The Root causes, change drivers and new tools for the Future Challenges in the Cities leadership, management and development”. .

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Luis_Taveras.jpgLuis E. Taveras, Ph.D.
Chief Information Officer, City of Buffalo, New York, USA

Luis serves the City of Buffalo as its chief information officer, responsible for all aspects of internal information technology and IT policy affecting residents and organizations. Prior to joining the City, he served as CIO of RWJBarnabas Health and Hartford HealthCare Corporation, and managed healthcare, consumer and industrial business segments for Accenture and IBM. Dr. Taveras earned his Ph.D. at the University of Sarasota, his MBA from Rutgers University and a Bachelor of Science from Wesleyan University.

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MarkThomas.jpgMark Thomas
Senior Vice President, Partnerships, New York City Economic Development Corporation

Mark Anthony Thomas is a creative writer and professional and has served in leadership roles in publishing, communications, and the public sector. In October 2016, Mark became the first Senior Vice President of Partnerships for New York City's Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).

The Atlanta-native began his professional career with Georgia-Pacific Corporation, managing a portfolio of economic, philanthropic and environmental health initiatives before leading public relations for Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s Medical School for International Health.

In New York, he served as the Deputy Director of the Manhattan-based think tank Center for an Urban Future and developed the business model to relaunch its magazine, City Limits, as a startup news media. Appointed Publisher / Executive Director, he led the establishment of City Limits’ new organization and governance structure, expanded content across digital platforms, acquired the Bronx News Network, founded the Brooklyn Bureau, and launched collaborations with New York’s leading civic institutions and foundations, and e-commerce companies.

In 2014, he became the City of Los Angeles’ first Fuse Corps executive fellow and served as the Senior Advisor to the City's top budget official. He was appointed as the Director of the Mayor’s Operations Innovation Team, a public-private partnership with the L.A. Coalition for the Economy and Jobs, to reform the City’s procurement, asset management, and workers compensation operations.

Mark serves on advisory boards for the CUNY's Center for Community & Ethnic Media, Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation’s InnovateLA, and FUSE Corps. He has served as the President the Board of Directors for Helping Teens Succeed, Inc. and a founding trustee of the University System of Georgia’s African American Male Initiative program at the University of West Georgia.

Mark earned his MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and an MPA in Advanced Management and Finance from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He received his Bachelor of Business from the University of Georgia, where he became the first African American Editor-In-Chief of the 122-year old daily student newspaper, The Red & Black. In 2013, he was honored as one of the University’s Top 40 Alumni Under 40 and keynoted the school’s inaugural TEDx Conference.

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Jenny Tremblay
Director General, Smart Cities Challenge, Infrastructure Canada

Jenny Tremblay is the Director General of the Smart Cities Challenge at Infrastructure Canada. The Smart Cities Challenge is a Government of Canada initiative that is sparking innovation in communities around the country by encouraging communities to explore how data and connected technology can improve residents’ lives. Prior to joining the Smart Cities team, Jenny held a number of positions in the Government of Canada where she brought together her passion for innovative change in public policy with her commitment to meaningful civic engagement, driving new approaches in national social policies, skills and learning, and early learning and child care for Indigenous peoples.

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Mauro Tosi
CEO, Ledcom & CellLED

Mauro Tosi, CEO, is the founder and visionaire behind Ledcom & CellLED. Entrepreneur, investor and executive, Mauro has launched several companies including Idealabs, ATP, and MT Communications. He has also served as CEO and senior executive positions in large tech and telecoms companies such as Sirti Corp. (Tampa, USA), Priority Telecom (The Netherlands, a Liberty Global company), E-via and Retelit (a public company for which he was Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chairman of the US subsidiary Retelit USA, LLC). In the early nineties Mauro was also Vice-Chairman of the UK Cable Television Association Planning & Design Committee.

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Mailiina Turanlahti
Regional Head, North America, Business Finland

Mailiina Turanlahti heads the Business Finland North America organization. As a team and together with our partners, we help Finnish companies to enter and grow in North America. We attract companies and investors from North America to invest in Finland and drive innovation partnership with universities and other partners, as well as promoting travel through Visit Finland.

Our North America team consists of experts located in New York, Texas, Washington D.C., New Orleans and Silicon Valley. In addition, we work in close cooperation with the Finnish Embassies and General Consulates in Ottawa, Canada, Washington D.C, New York and Los Angeles. Business Finland services are financed by the Finnish Government, and are mostly free of charge for our customers.

Prior to joining Business Finland, Mailiina held program and portfolio management positions with Microsoft and Nokia.

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Ron Van Horne
Chief Administrative Officer, Lambton County

As Chief Administrative Officer (C.A.O.) for the County, Ron Van Horne is responsible for the overall administration and operation of the County of Lambton. The C.A.O. provides a leadership role by developing, implementing and monitoring the County's strategic planning, operations and departmental/management performance policies and systems, initiating appropriate changes, and ensuring efficient departmental resource utilization and a high level of management performance. The C.A.O. also interprets and administers Council policies and decisions and provides a communications network amongst Council, Managers and staff at all levels. Media relations and internal and external communications are coordinated through this office as well.

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Kristina Verner
Vice President, Innovation, Sustainability & Prosperity, Waterfront Toronto

Kristina Verner is the Vice President, Innovation, Sustainability and Prosperity for Waterfront Toronto, where she is responsible for a variety of strategic initiatives for one of the world's preeminent urban revitalization projects. Her portfolio includes the digitalization of the urban experience, sustainability and resiliency priorities, as well as the economic development and partnership engagement aspects of the organization. She lead the innovation components of the Waterfront Innovation Centre procurement and proponent select and is a key member of the team leading the Quayside project.

She is active both nationally and internationally in the intelligent community movement. In 2014, she lead the City of Toronto bid to be named the Intelligent Community of the Year. She was the founding board Chair of ICF Canada and serves on the boards of both the Intelligent Community Forum Foundation and ICF Canada.

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Bill Weber
Warden, Lambton County Council; Mayor, Lambton Shores, Ontario, Canada

Warden Weber began his political career as a Councillor for Stephen Township in 1986, was elected Deputy Reeve of that municipality in 1992 and Reeve in 1995.  He served on Huron County Council from 1992-1997.  In 2000, Warden Weber was elected to serve on the newly amalgamated Lambton Shores Council and held the position of Ward 2 Councillor until 2010 when he was elected Mayor of Lambton Shores, a position he was re-elected to in 2014 and 2018. He is currently serving his second consecutive term as Lambton County Warden.

Warden Weber is a retired dairy farmer, owning and operating a modern, 300 acre family farm for over 25 years.  During his time in the industry, Weber successfully implemented leading edge technology that included computerization of milk production and production-based ration balancing as well as innovative feeding practices.  These innovations led to substantial increases in productivity that placed the farm in the top 10 dairy herds in the county.

Warden Weber, a retired dairy farmer and Harley Davidson enthusiast, and his wife Ginger will have been married for 45 years this fall, and together they have three children and five grandchildren.

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Sara Wiedenhaefer
Marketing Manager, Coord

Sara Wiedenhaefer is the Marketing Manager at Coord. With a career purely at SaaS companies, she has a proven background in customer acquisition, branding and integration partnerships across various industries in global markets. When she's not up to her marketing wizardry, you can find her on the golf course or consuming some kind of cheese.

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LouZacharilla.jpgLouis Zacharilla
Co-Founder, Intelligent Community Forum

Louis Zacharilla helped found the Intelligent Community movement. He is the developer of the Top Seven and Intelligent Community of the Year Awards programs. He helps the New York-based think tank communicate the importance of developing viable and innovative communities and cities audiences worldwide and oversees the new Institutes of the Intelligent Community Forum around the world. He is a frequent keynote speaker and a moderator at conferences and events. He appears regularly in the media to discuss the impact of broadband and access technologies on the rebirth of the world’s communities. More

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