BOLD SOLUTIONS
New Ideas, Bold Solutions, and Exploration.
This is what The Future of Innovation is.
The Future of Innovation Conference is an annual RBC Leadership conference, hosted by the J Herbert Smith Centre, that sparks new conversations about cutting-edge solutions for problems that are persistent throughout Canada and the world.
About J Herbert Smith Centre
The J Herbert Smith Centre for Technology Management and Entrepreneurship (JHSC) was founded in 1988 to cultivate new ideas, creative thinking, and an entrepreneurial spirit for careers in the ever-changing world of technology. Over the past 35 years, JHSC has aided countless startups to move from ideation to early startup and equipped them with the skills they need to apply their expertise in a business environment.
Keynote Speakers
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EDDY CAMPBELL
Change, Leadership & Inspiration
Eddy Campbell is a Canadian mathematician, university professor, and former president of the University of New Brunswick. He served as the 18th President and Vice-Chancellor of UNB from 2009 - 2019. Dr. Campbell earned two degrees in mathematics from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and completed his doctorate at the University of Toronto. He held an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Western Ontario. In 1983, he joined the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, eventually rising to head of that department. His main research interest is the invariant theory of finite groups. Campbell then served as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at Queen's. He served as president of the Canadian Mathematical Society from 2004 to 2006.
RAMILA KHAFAJI ZADEH
Futures Literacy
Ramila Khafaji Zadeh is a trainer and designer in Futures Literacy learning processes at Hanze University of Applied Science and UNESCO Chair Futures Literacy. She coordinates and leads projects for governments, industries in various sectors, higher education institutions, the United Nations, and NGO’s.
She has extensive experience in designing and leading Futures Literacy interventions related to social innovation and governance, ranging from local municipalities to larger governmental entities. Ramila has also served as a consultant in the fields of transformation and organizational change, and she is currently dedicated to making Futures Literacy more accessible to communities.
Panel Discussion: Leading Change
JULES MAITLAND
Dr. Jules Maitland is an experienced researcher, designer, and strategic thinker. She connects the dots between people, problems, and possibilities to identify opportunities for social impact. She has a PhD in Computer Science and a multidisciplinary background in nursing, human-computer interaction, digital health, and social innovation. She moved to Canada in 2009 to join the National Research Council's People-Centred Technologies Group, before transitioning to industry. She is the founder of All In Research & Innovation Inc., a public service design and social change agency. She is also co-founder of Civic Tech Fredericton, a member of the Atlantic Social Impact Exchange Advisory Committee, and has supported public sector innovation initiatives in Canada, the UAE, and the UK.
KUMARAN
THILLAINADARAJAH
Kumaran is the co-founder and CTO of Smart Skin Technologies, developed the initial concept of Smart Skin in 2008. Since then the company made several strategic pivots until they found the right market. Today Smart Skin provides IIoT based productivity solutions globally to the food, beverage, & pharmaceutical sectors. Along the way Smart Skin Technologies has won a variety of awards, most notably in 2015 Smart Skin was listed on Deloitte Fast 50™ 2015 Companies-to-Watch and won 1st place at the World Beverage Innovation Awards in Germany in 2016. Kumaran was listed in RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrants across the country in 2016. Smart Skin won best innovation in manufacturing at Pharmapack 2020 in Paris.
LUMAS HELAIRE
Lumas is the assistant dean for population health management and health equity education at Harvard Chan. He develops creative, innovative, and effective strategies for management, growth, and solving complex problems. He is also currently the faculty head for the Lemann Program on Creativity and Entrepreneurship.
ESTELLE DOIRON
Estelle Doiron started her professional career in car sales at BMW/MINI Moncton. After being awarded the top salesperson in Canada, she continued her passion for sales teaching at CCNB and to sales professionals across Canada. She is an award-winning entrepreneur and the founder of Koffee Beauty, a natural line of body care products. Koffee Beauty products are distributed across Canada, the US, and sold online internationally. Estelle sold her company in 2023. When she's not helping businesses with sales training, Estelle enjoys golfing, outdoor activities and traveling along with her fiance.
Panel Discussion: Social Change
LESLIE COLES
Leslie Coles is Manager of Accelerators and Partnerships for the Lemann Program on Creativity and Entrepreneurship at Harvard University and a Founding Advisor of Harvard HealthLab Accelerators (H2A). She is passionate about the power of creative entrepreneurial education to change the world. She brings experience co-founding and leading the non-profit Moms as Mentors, an organization focused on equipping moms with the tools and opportunities to raise girls to be confident leaders, including in the entrepreneurial and social impact sectors.
As Director of Programs at the non-profit VentureLab, she led the development of programs and curriculum to teach entrepreneurial mindsets and creative thinking to support VentureLab's mission to create the next generation of changemakers and innovators. While there, she directed the complete overhaul of their K-12 entrepreneurship curriculum into one that now reaches 506K youth from over 150 countries and all 50 U.S. States.
As Director of Strategic Initiatives and Programs at the National Coalition of Girls' Schools (NCGS), she designed and executed national conferences, expanding NCGS’ reach by engaging top universities in the U.S. and across the globe, non-profits, corporations and thought-leaders. Most recently, Leslie served as Project Manager for the Playful Journey Lab at MIT, where she managed a global cross-disciplinary research team, including graduate and undergraduate students. Leslie received a B.A. in Psychology from Haverford College, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude.
CAROL J. NEMEROFF
Carol J. Nemeroff, Ph.D., is Dean and Professor of Interdisciplinary Leadership Studies at the University of New Brunswick’s Renaissance College, and a Principal at the Maine Regulatory Training and Ethics Center (MeRTEC) at the University of Southern Maine. Her research and teaching explore the intersection of culture and human cognition, focusing on the impact of intuitive thinking on decision-making in everyday life. Applications include contagion and illness risk perceptions; moral overtones of food, eating, and social identities; cognitive barriers to sustainable solutions (e.g., public perceptions of recycled water and ‘how to get the cognitive sewage out once the physical sewage is gone’); and gender and leadership. Her current work with MeRTEC integrates cognitive and emotional aspects of decision-making into innovative ethics education, aiming to build ethical resilience for a stressful world.
Dr. Nemeroff received her B.A. from McGill University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.
SUSAN REID
Susan Reid, O.N.B., PhD.is a professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at St. Thomas University. Her research focuses on the most vulnerable women and youth in our society. Dr. Reid has spent over three decades working with youth in care and custody and more recently with criminalized women. As an applied researcher, her work has focused on understanding the lived experiences of those who are caught within the criminal legal system and raising their voices to be heard in matters of policy, programming and legislation. With a firm commitment to social justice, Dr. Reid was the recipient of a Social Innovation Award from Research New Brunswick for a program that creates video play dates between incarcerated mothers and their children. She has just completed a multi-year program development initiative supported by Women and Gender Equality Canada to facilitate the co-creation of programming related to trauma and gender based violence with incarcerated women. Her commitment to the community through her active participation with non-government organizations and her steadfast support for the strengths inherent in all persons, was celebrated with the highest civilian honour in the province, the Order of New Brunswick.
MARCEL LEBRUN
Marcel LeBrun is the founder and driving force behind the 12 Neighbours Community project. LeBrun is a Co-Founder and serves as Chairman at Potential Motors. He serves as a Member of the Board of Directors at World Vision Canada. LeBrun served as Venture Partner at Real Ventures. He served as Advisory Board Member at Whitecap Venture Partners. He served as Senior Vice President and General Manager- Salesforce Radian6 at Salesforce.com. Previously he was working with Radian6.
Prior to joining Radian6, Marcel was vice-president oftechnology consulting at IPTV solutions firm, Mariner Partners. He has also served as chief executive officer and general manager of SalesBridge Canada Corp., and vice-president, fixed solutions division (FSD) of Paris-based, Alcatel, a leading provider of communications solutions to telecommunication carriers. In 1998, Marcel co-founded and was president and CEO of ImagicTV Inc. a start-up company that quickly became the worldwide market leader in IPTV video software solutions. Marcel began his career at NBTel (Aliant Inc.) holding various positions in engineering, planning and marketing.
Panel Discussion: Health
CURTIS KENNEDY
Curtis started working on inventions at the age of seven and filed his first patent application at the age of 19. He is passionate about first-principle design thinking and its ability to result in meaningful innovation. Curtis went to UNB to study mechanical engineering and graduated from the TME program. In his third year of studies, he started developing a personal muscle care device that came to be known as Vertiball. Curtis used the UNB Makerspace to make hundreds of prototypes before finalizing the product's design for mass manufacturing. To get funding for the first product, he competed in several university business competitions, winning around $40,000 in prize money from 1st place in the NBEX Business Plan Competition (2017), 1st place in the Apex Business Plan Competition (2018), Winner of the Canada’s Business Model Competition (2018), Semi-Finalist at the International Business Model Competition (2018) and UNB Technology Management & Entrepreneurship Student Leader Award (2018). Curtis spent considerable time in China finding manufacturers during the 2018 school year and eventually had success producing the first production run for the company’s flagship product, Vertiball. The company that was started came to be known as Symbodi, and since launching its first product in October 2019, it has over 250,000 customers. In 2022, Symbodi was awarded a Deloitte Fast 50 Award, recognizing it as one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada.
TRISTAN RUTTER
For more than 20 years Tristan has worked in health data management with particular focus on electronic medical records, population health, clinical trials and data exchange.
Tristan has co-founded multiple health data management businesses including populus plus.com and nonte.io
Based in Fredericton, Tristan is currently involved in innovation projects with Texas Medical Center, World Health Organization and Horizon Health.
JENNIFER RUSSELL
Dr. Jennifer Russell is the Executive Director of the University of New Brunswick’s Institute of Population Health and President of the New Brunswick College of Family Physicians. She previously served as New Brunswick's Chief Medical Officer of Health from 2018 to 2024, where she was recognized for her leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr. Russell’s career spans clinical practice in family medicine, mental health, and addictions, as well as extensive public health leadership. Before her time as Chief Medical Officer, she served as Deputy Chief from 2014 to 2018. She has also held roles as a medical officer in the Canadian Armed Forces and worked with the Horizon Health Network in Fredericton, focusing on opioid replacement therapy, mental health services, and hospital-based care.
Dr. Russell holds a Bachelor of Science from UNB, a Bachelor of Arts from Dalhousie University, and a medical degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland. She completed her family medicine residency at Dalhousie in 2001. She has been honored with an honorary Doctor of Laws from Mount Allison University and an honorary Doctorate in Health from Université de Moncton. She was named Canada’s 2020 Physician of the Year for New Brunswick and invested into the Order of New Brunswick in 2021.
Workshops
Futures of Food & Agriculture
Rillwan Shokunbi
Rillwan Shokunbi is a seasoned business leader and an alumnus of the University of New Brunswick (UNB), where he earned a master’s degree in Technology Management and Entrepreneurship from the prestigious J. Herbert Smith Center. With over five years of experience, Rillwan has worked across multiple capacities for Fortune 500 companies, including TD Bank and Forte Oil Plc, bringing a wealth of expertise in business analysis, finance, operations, and software implementation.
As the Chief Operating Officer at CropMind Inc., Rillwan leads a team that leverages Artificial Intelligence to address challenges in the tree fruit industry. He is passionate about creating technology-driven solutions that improve agricultural practices, particularly in orchards and vineyards. Rillwan regularly collaborates with farmers in the field to ensure that CropMind’s AI-powered tools are tailored to meet their specific needs, enhancing productivity and crop management.
When he’s not working, Rillwan enjoys exploring craft beers, honing his chess skills, and watching thought-provoking documentaries.
Futures of Education
Catherine Foster
Catherine joined the Faculty of Education on UNB campus as the Coordinator of External Partnership Development in 2011 after living and working in Tanzania and South Africa. She has a B.A. in International Development studies and Women’s studies from Trent University, a graduate certificate in International Development management studies from Humber college, and a M.Ed. in Adult Education from UNB. In the faculty of education, she coordinates opportunities with international partners for faculty and students in the areas of professional development, curriculum review, and practicum placements.
Futures of Healthcare
Coming soon.
Futures of Technology
Scott Everett
Scott Everett is a futurist, entrepreneur, and engineer with a passion for driving innovation and empowering positive change through technology. As the co-founder of Eigen Innovations, Scott has played a pivotal role in advancing AI-driven solutions for industrial quality control. His background in mechanical engineering and leadership experience as both CTO and CEO have shaped his unique approach to solving complex problems with data-driven strategies. Currently, Scott leverages his expertise to explore the future of technology and its transformative potential in industries worldwide.
Philip LeBlanc
Philip LeBlanc is a brand strategist and designer with over a decade of global experience spanning design, strategic planning, and human-centered innovation. Having worked with startups in Canada, Europe, and Japan, Philip maintains the importance of the role of design in creating impactful business solutions. Working at the intersection of design and technology, he champions human-centered approaches, ensuring that technology enhances our humanity and fosters deeper connections between creativity, culture, and progress.
Agenda
OCTOBER 11
8:30 AM
9:00 AM
9:10 AM
10:00 AM
10:45 AM
11:00 AM
11:45 AM
12:45 PM
1:45 PM
2:15 PM
2:45 PM
3:00 PM
3:30 PM
4:00 PM
5:00 PM
Registration
Welcome / Opening Remarks
Futures Literacy
Workshops
Break
Workshops
Lunch
Keynote Speaker
Panel Discussion: Leading Change
Panel Discussion: Social Change
Coffee Break
Panel Discussion: Health
Fireside Chat
Wrap Up / Reception
Closing Remarks
Previous Speakers
Speakers Hosted:
Steve Blank
Ann Makosinski
Bibop Gresta
Spencer Boyer
Dr. Sakena Yacoobi
Devesh Bharadwaj
Gaëtan Thomas
Muthu Singaram
Madhu Verma
Allison McCain
Pasumarthy Seshu
Janine Darling
S. R. Mahadeva Prasanna
Sandy Bird
Kevin McCracken
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