Prof. Gideon Samid, Washington, DC

Dr. Samid has been managing innovation for NASA, for Exxon, for the Pentagon and for various industries, running R&D shops, budgeting projects, and practicing raw innovation in large and small frameworks. Gideon has been developing the Universal Theory of Innovation which includes tools and methodologies to appraise innovation, to estimate cost-to-complete, and time-to-finish, to measure progress, to map the innovation path, and to offer an iterative procedure for continuous innovation. His Innovation^SP program is geared towards community based innovation. His BiPSA tool was designed to handle innovation uncertainty through binary polling of all sources of relevant knowledge.

Prof. Gary Wnek,
Cleveland, Ohio

Dr. Wnek combines state of the art molecular research with an innovative master of engineering and management at Case Western Reserve University. Where most of his peers at the advanced levels of electrospinning, bio-mimmicking, central nervous system research, artificial cells, highly selective membranes, etc. are oblivuous to the questions of cost-to-complete, and time-to-finish their research work, Gary is constantly interjecting the aspects of innovation productivity to guide his efforts in advancing our molecular knowledge. Gary has educated cadres of students, owing their practical innovativeness to his teaching and guidance.

Prof. Hubert Vaughan
Beijing, China

Dr. Vaughan has combined technology with management for nearly four decades, spanning five continents, encompassing IBM Unisys. DEC, and The Bank of Montreal, active in software development, professional services, product development, technology consulting, project/program management, strategic planning as well as business development. Dr. Vaughan is currently a research Fellow at the China Institute of Management Science, a Professor at the Institute of International Engineering Project Management of Tsinghua University, the Graduate School of China Academy of Science, and the Beijing Aeronautic and Astronautic University.

Prof. Shlomo Maital
Haifa, Israel

Prof. Maital has been teaching innovation management to more than 1000 R&D engineers, at the Technion -- Israel Institute of Technology and in MIT Sloan School of Management. He authored eight books including "Innovation Management", 2007. His research currently focuses on profit-driven innovation -- how to combine creativity and discipline to achieve marketplace success.

Mr. Bar-El
Southfield, Michigan

Mr. Zion Bar-El, an innovation visionary who has imported to the West the Russian methodology for inventiveness, TRIZ. Bringing over pre-eminent Russian scientists, he founded Ideation International implementing TRIZ in the automotive, and chemical industry with great success.