Company - Leadership

InnovationPoint's leadership team brings a deep heritage in the best practices of Strategic Innovation. We are business leaders and practitioners with proven backgrounds and experience focused on driving business growth.

Soren Kaplan, Ph.D.

Soren Kaplan's passion for innovation and business strategy is exemplified through his diverse experience - from managing Hewlett-Packard's internal strategy consulting group, to co-founding an enterprise collaboration software company, to consulting to start-ups and Fortune 1000 companies. Soren possesses a results-oriented approach focused on the discovery and development of new business opportunities and building organization capabilities for innovation.

Prior to founding InnovationPoint, Soren co-founded iCohere, an enterprise collaboration software company, for which he remains on the advisory board today. Before starting iCohere, Soren served as Manager of Business Strategy Consulting at Hewlett-Packard Company, where he led an internal consulting group that assisted management teams across HP with strategic planning, product and service innovation, and new market discovery and development. Soren was previously a consultant with Cambridge, MA based IdeaScope Associates and consulted to global companies – including Kodak, Siemens, Nestle, Avery Dennison, HP and 3M – in the areas of new opportunity identification, new product and service development, and business process design to support sustainable innovation.

Soren has presented at numerous institutions and universities, including the Creative Education Foundation and the Harvard Business School. Quotes and articles from Soren have appeared in numerous publications including Fast Company, Collaborate, MX (Medical Devices) Management, the Journal of Creativity and Innovation Management, the Journal of Strategic Change, and Strategy and Leadership. He holds Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Organizational Psychology.

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Derrick Palmer

Derrick Palmer consults on strategic innovation with global and Fortune 1000 companies, medium-sized businesses and new ventures. His areas of focus include corporate strategy, consumer-inspired new product innovation, designing best-in-class innovation processes, and strategic innovation training.

With 25 years of line management and consulting experience, Derrick brings a wealth of traditional and non-traditional consulting approaches. He has extensive experience leading cross-functional and multi-cultural teams 'from chaos to clarity', and in fostering collaboration across organizational lines, brokering business relationships and facilitating decision-making.

He sits on the Advisory Board of Idea Crossing and is a final-round judge for its annual Innovation Challenge®, the largest business innovation competition in the world. Prior to co-founding InnovationPoint, Derrick served as Vice President, Business Strategy with NOVO/Giant Step, an Internet Professional Services consulting firm where he established and grew the Business Strategy practice.

Previously, he was a Senior Director with IdeaScope Associates, an innovation management consulting firm, where he worked with global companies to identify new revenue opportunities, develop innovative business strategies, create new lines of business and develop new products/services.

A transplanted European, Derrick has lived in six countries and is attuned to the cultural sensitivities of working with global teams. Fluent in several languages, he holds a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics from the University of York, England, and a Masters degree in Marketing Management from Lancaster University, England.

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Stu Winby

Stu Winby’s expertise lies in strategy innovation, management of innovation, and organizational strategy and design. Stu has over 25 years management experience as well as cross-industry international consulting experience. His recent work has been mostly with CEO, Chief Innovation Officer, and executive team members of medium to Fortune 500 size firms, including Microsoft, Yahoo!, Alegent Health, Kimberly-Clark, Abgenix, and Procter & Gamble.

For over ten years Stu was Director/General Manager of Hewlett Packard's Strategy, Organization, and Change Group, which included four practice areas: Business Strategy Innovation, Organization Architecture and Change, R&D Solutions Lab, and Product Generation Solutions. He worked on the Compaq-HP merger as a key member of the Central Program/Change Office Merger Integration Team. Prior to this Stu managed HP's Factory of the Future organization and program.

Stu is on the board of the University of Southern California’s Center for Effective Organizations (CEO). He was Vice-President for Advisory Services at the American Productivity Center (APC) where he was responsible for productivity management, organization strategy and design, and work innovations research and application. His work has been documented in numerous books, articles and professional journals. Several Harvard Business School Cases have been written on projects on which he has consulted, as well as numerous best practice case studies documented by the Conference Board and others.

Stu has been an active member in numerous initiatives such the White House Initiative on Productivity and the California Governor Workplace forums. He has been a frequent guest lecturer at various Universities such as Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Wharton, UCLA and USC business schools.

He received degrees from San Jose State University with additional graduate studies from Stanford University. He is a graduate of Harvard's program on Professional Services Management and Stanford’s program on Innovation Management.

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Bob Hill

Bob Hill's approach to strategy development was shaped by 20+ years of line management and consulting experience. In his marketing and strategy work with Procter & Gamble, Clorox, Quaker Oats and Nestlé, Bob has managed every stage of the business lifecycle. His line experience - and the more recent years as a consultant - has reinforced Bob's belief that even the most innovative business strategies are only as good as their supporting in-market initiatives and actions. In order to effectively enhance business performance Bob has developed expertise in Business Visioning, Strategic Market Planning, Brand Building, New Product Development and Portfolio Management.

Immediately prior to InnovationPoint, Bob was the principal in Hill & Associates, a consulting firm focused on helping clients with strategic market planning - deciding where and how they should compete in the marketplace.

His clients have spanned food, beverage, medical devices, computing peripherals, household products and professional services. After a number of client engagements focused on new product innovation, Bob identified a lack of idea screening methods that provide real and actionable diagnostics. Based on this, Bob co-developed ConceptDetectorTM - a research tool designed to not just validate or invalidate business and product ideas, but to also help strengthen them.

Bob holds an MBA from Northwestern University, and a BS degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Stephanie Keller-Bottom

Passion for actionable innovation distinguishes Stephanie Keller-Bottom. With 20 years of executive leadership roles in Fortune 500 companies creating new marketplaces, Stephanie brings solid expertise in identifying new sources of profitable growth for companies, strategy creation, ecosystem design, business operations, investment, and the diffusion of new technologies and applications. Well-honed communication skills and a talent for building collaborative teams have enhanced her ability to bridge technical and business organizations.

At the core of Stephanie’s competency in developing new marketplaces is an understanding of consumer behavior. Her focus in this area started with her experiences in the Retail banking industry. She was director of Consumer Credit Operations at Citibank/Citicorp, where she managed consumer credit operations for the California franchise. Stephanie then moved into strategic acquisitions and corporate strategy.

As Vice President of E-Commerce Marketing and Product Development for Visa U.S.A., Stephanie collaborated with top U.S. financial institutions to build strategic plans that addressed the emergence of the electronic banking marketplace and digital banking challenges such as risk management and identification, pricing models, digital authentication and identity.

Understanding the importance of leveraging innovation in large corporations, Stephanie then joined Hewlett Packard as director of Marketplace Creation. She worked closely with the CEO to utilize innovative approaches in partnership, collaboration, and build market entry strategies for emergent businesses.

In 1999 Stephanie joined Nokia as a director in Nokia Ventures Organization, the group charged with corporate renewal and innovation. She then created Innovent, Nokia’s groundbreaking innovation unit. Under her direction, Innovent leveraged collaboration with early stage entrepreneurs to explore emerging markets and generate focused, timely insights for Nokia. Over eight years Innovent’s investment portfolio grew to 22 companies that provided insights and strategic opportunities in emerging markets such as identity management, personal media, sensor networking, location based services and health and wellness.

Stephanie’s expertise in corporate innovation, strategic scenarios/planning, risk management, and market research provides clients the opportunity to leverage strategies and tactics necessary to develop new profitable, customer-focused businesses.

Stephanie holds a Master of Science in Psychology from Arizona State University. She is a graduate of Citibank’s Executive Risk Management Program.

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Ron Kubinski

Ron Kubinski moved into innovation consulting after 28 years experience with 3M Company, a company renowned for innovation. At 3M Ron has held a variety of positions including new product development, manufacturing and marketing. He has considerable experience in new product commercialization, customer interfacing and long range business planning.

During his tenure as the Director of New Product Commercialization at 3M, Ron provided leadership training and consulting on a variety of leading edge methodologies related to innovation, new product/service idea generation and speeding time to market. His most recent accomplishment at 3M was the creation of a methodology focused on “Customer Inspired Innovation" that allows business units to reinvent themselves with a portfolio of breakthrough new products and services.
Ron was recognized for this accomplishment by receiving 3M's prestigious Circle of Technical Excellence award. Ron is also a recognized industry expert pertaining to innovation benchmarking and has spoken extensively throughout Europe, Australia and the United States.

He is on the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Chapter of the Strategic Leadership Forum. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee to The Conference Board's Learning Group on "Growth Through Innovation", and speaks at Conference Board meetings on the topic of sustainable innovation.

Ron attended the University of Minnesota and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering, as well as an extensive background in psychology that he has applied to the development of cutting-edge customer exploration methodologies.

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Andrew Maisel

Andrew's current focus is on building – both startups and new ventures within existing organizations. Much of his work involves developing and implementing strategies for market identification and prioritization, product development, and sales traction acceleration.

Andrew has spent the last ten years working with start-ups and venture firms. He founded or co-founded four companies: SuperKids, ExactBid, Knowledge Share, and Entrinsec, and held executive roles at three others: Cranite Systems, CertCo, and Cidco. In addition, Andrew has had led extended engagements with more than two dozen other start-ups dealing with everything from application and enterprise software, to broadband cable services and cybersecurity tools, to pharmaceuticals and plastics, to multiple web-based enterprises.

Prior to his new venture consulting career, Andrew was an executive at Sun Microsystems, Inc. During his nine year career there, his positions included worldwide marketing responsibility for a $600 million/year subsidiary, and development of Sun's Internet strategy with respect to the National Information Infrastructure. Andrew has also held positions with The Boston Consulting Group, and the General Electric Co. He holds a bachelors degree from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business.

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Lisa Parker

Lisa joined InnovationPoint after ten years consulting to a wide range of global 1000 companies while a Senior Director at IdeaScope Associates. Lisa has extensive experience in the identification of large scale new market opportunities, brand introductions, and strategic innovation process development and implementation.

Lisa has also worked with small businesses and non-profits, designing and leading one- and two-day idea generation and team-building sessions. She is a seasoned focus group moderator and continues to find new ways for her clients to immerse themselves in their consumer's worlds using non-traditional approaches and a variety of media. Her passion lies in the invention of new processes that lead to breakthrough thinking, and in delivering innovation training that inspires teams to operate at new levels.

She has worked on a range of domestic and international initiatives (China, Russia, Sweden, Germany, UK, Japan, Canada) as well as a number of pro bono projects for non-profit organizations. Her client work includes Agilent Technologies, Avery Dennison, Coca-Cola, Gerber Foods, Harvard Business School, Hewlett-Packard, The Screen House, Schott Glas, Siemens, IBM, Fortune Brands, and Swarovski Jewelry. She has extensive experience in healthcare and healthcare devices, consumer products, computing technology and printer technology.

Earlier in her career, Lisa worked in product management for Frito-Lay at the national headquarters in Plano, Texas. Her assignments included managing national new product rollouts, developing consumer and trade promotion programs, advertising strategy development and working closely with R&D and Market Research to develop new products. Lisa has been a guest lecturer in marketing classes for the MBA program at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. She is a Trustee of Kieve Affective Education Corporation in Nobleboro, Maine, and sits on the Alumni Advisory Board of the Fuqua School of Business.

Lisa earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Trinity College in Connecticut. She graduated from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, with an M.B.A. with a concentration in marketing strategy and operations.

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Harvey Ehrlich

What do you get when you combine customer insight with visionary thinking and then substitute the Power Point for colored markers, butcher paper, eye-catching persuasive artwork and stand-up comedy?

As InnovationPoint’s creative gadfly and Illustrator/Visual Illuminator, Harvey Ehrlich infuses an inspirational visual dimension into the innovation process – and drives a team’s creative imagination to new heights. InnovationPoint’s shirt-sleeves work sessions bring Thought Leaders, customers and consumers face-to-face with client teams. In these sessions Harvey creates provocative, real-time illustrations that capture (and spark) innovative thinking. His illustrations bring bold new ideas to life – at the conceptual, strategic and executional level – crystallizing and communicating consumer insights, emerging trends, growth opportunities, and strategic directions, as well as packaging, branding and new product concepts.

Harvey does not merely document ideas generated by the client team, Thought Leaders and consumers – he advances and expands upon these ideas – and is himself a prolific source of radical concepts that inspire the team to envision breakthrough opportunities on entirely new level. After our work sessions his visual renderings are often taken into concept testing with customers and consumers. They also provide a compelling visual record of the team’s work that serves as a communication aide to build support across the larger organization. Harvey helps client teams discover the power of the cartoon as a communications medium when presenting to the Board, key accounts or other key stakeholders.

It’s a different world – visit the Innovation Gallery to take a look at some examples of Harvey’s work.

Harvey's career as a designer, illustrator and fine artist spans more than thirty years. He has designed products, exhibitions, museums and world's fair pavilions, Broadway and movie posters, packaging, corporate identity, animated sculpture and film, advertising, editorial illustration and direct mail, point-of-purchase, industrial shows, paintings and drawings. His extensive client list includes Hewlett-Packard, Agilent, IBM, Intel, Cisco, Nokia, General Foods, Quaker Oats, Coca Cola, Lipton, Nestle, and Pizza Hut. His range and expertise in creative idea generation makes his rare talent and contribution invaluable to the Strategic Innovation process.

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Jeannette de Noord

Jeannette de Noord possesses a passion for exploring and uncovering untapped opportunities, and defining innovative solutions that make them reality. Her 20 years of line management in international consumer business have shaped and strengthened her conviction that the biggest successes are created at the intersection of analysis and creativity, and by balancing visionary thinking with pragmatism.

During her career with Royal Dutch Philips, Jeannette held a variety of international marketing, business development and sales management roles.   With a focus on business innovation and growth, she led teams across Europe and Asia, always ensuring success through her sensitivities to local cultural and adapting her approaches to leadership and market strategy.  Jeannette’s experience spans product, service, and business model innovation, including integrating product design strategy into strategic solutions through ensuring close collaboration with Philips Design, one of the premier in-house design organizations.  She most recently led Philips’ “Senior Solutions” initiative which resulted in the acquisition of Lifeline Systems and was nominated for the One Philips award.
 
She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Kids 2020 Foundation and an advisor to several European start-ups.  She is based in The Netherlands.

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