I teach customer science, economics, and disciplinary management practices - restoring customer asset performance. I am a founding partner and teaching fellow at the Field Bell Institute, and author of one of our core texts, 'The Customering Method' (Routledge & CRC Press, New York and London).

My solo work can be viewed at spinley.co
My work at the Field Bell Institute can be viewed at fieldbell.co

Helping business leaders accelerate EBIT growth by supercharging their "Supplier Collaboration & Innovation" programmes with Vizibl.

Board member and Founder of Procurement Leaders.

Raluca CIBU BUZAC is Founder and CEO of Luminspino, an advanced process consulting company focused on the complete innovation management lifecycle, both in the private and the public arenas.

Raluca holds an extensive experience in economic development – policy design and implementation, management of EU funded projects, coupled with experience in coordinating and orchestrating multi-stakeholder initiatives at international level.

With Luminspino, Raluca provides innovation management and scaling advisory support for a significant number of European Union-based SMEs developing radical climate innovations, technical assistance through programme and project evaluations for European Commission pilot innovation schemes, as well as advisory work for regional development agencies and line ministries in drawing up guidelines for proposals within the topics of research, innovation, technology transfer, innovative startups and SMEs.

Raluca generated two “signature” services for Luminspino, both endorsed by the European Innovation Council as “Partner services,” and that already demonstrated success – the “Breakthrough to Scale” advanced process mentoring for climate innovators, and the “Learning Networks for First Movers” facilitated process for change makers.

Before Luminspino, Raluca was a prominent member of the Steering and Advisory Bureau of Enterprise Europe Network, and led the West Romania Digital Innovation Hub, the Tehimpuls centre for innovation and technology transfer, and the activities of internationalisation and business support for the West Regional Development Agency in Timisoara.

Moreover, Raluca acts as an evaluator for the European Commission, concerning projects submitted under the EU Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programmes, I3 – Interregional Innovation Investments, or Regional Innovation Valleys, as well as within DG Regio’s Operational Programmes’ components focused on research and innovation.

At European-wide level, Raluca acts as expert for exploitation of research results, go to market, business planning and access to funding within the BOOSTER platform. As well, Raluca is a coach for the BLUEINVEST community supporting innovative enterprises in the blue economy, and a mentor for the German Innovation Network for Advanced Materials.

Trained with Lead International in sustainability, with Invest Europe in venture capital, with Oxford University in Nature-based Solutions, and certified as innovation expert by Kearney IMP3rove, Raluca is currently working on her PhD in consciousness studies at the International University for Professional Studies in the United States, under the guidance of Dr. Christian de Quincey, American philosopher, and author in the fields of consciousness and cosmology.

With the aim of exploring how alternative states of consciousness inform and influence our everyday lives, Raluca studied “Active Dreaming,” i.e., a body of knowledge and a training programme crafted by Robert Moss, American historian, journalist, and author, and she became certified as “dream teacher,” by the creator of the School of Active Dreaming.

She founded SUNCHILD with the vision to offer active dreaming workshops and coaching, and she already did so in Romania, Jordan, and Germany.

Charlie is a leadership advisor, executive coach, author, and researcher specializing in AI leadership, AI governance, and responsible AI strategy. He works with Chief AI Officers, CTOs, and senior leadership teams navigating the organizational, ethical, and leadership challenges created as AI becomes core enterprise infrastructure.

His work focuses on the intersection of AI strategy, leadership capacity, ethics, and the future of work, helping leaders move beyond tool-centric adoption toward developing the human judgment, governance structures, and organizational coherence required to scale AI responsibly. Charlie’s perspective is grounded in systems thinking, human-centered leadership, and extensive qualitative research with senior AI leaders across sectors.

Charlie is the author of Be More and the publisher of The AI Leadership Compass, a widely read thought-leadership newsletter synthesizing insights from ongoing interviews with AI executives, policymakers, and advisors on leadership, trust, and decision-making in an AI-mediated world.

Founded, developed, and grew three consulting and technology businesses from concept to sustainable expansion over the last 23 years. Gained extensive cross-functional business, information technology, consulting, and commercial experience in working with clients in government and various industry sectors.

Achieved growth and profit objectives through executive leadership in operations, compelling business models, focused business development, optimised processes in finance, procurement, logistics, and attention to people management. Built management teams and developed leaders. Retained an active role in sales & marketing, personally closing many significant professional services engagements.

Influenced strategic decisions, facilitated board-level interventions and redesigned corporate strategy, interfaced with investors, investment bankers and analysts. Consulted to clients on product design, innovation, development, and product strategy, offering innovative solutions that create change and impact customers' top and bottom line.

Introduced commercial and technology concepts, products and solutions to business leaders, experts, and analysts internationally. In the process, honing facilitation, public speaking, co-design, and innovation skills.

Specialist skills in consulting, strategy, innovation, solution design and have been recognised as a thought leader in Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption, the Internet of Things, Smart Cities, Govtech, Fintech, Data Privacy & Cyber Security.

Innovation keynote speaker Gijs van Wulfen (1960) is awarded as the number one global thought leader on Design Thinking in 2024. He is the founder of the FORTH innovation method, a proven methodology for the start of innovation, which is implemented on six continents. His book ‘The Innovation Maze’ was crowned as Management Book of the Year in The Netherlands. As LinkedIn Influencer with 300.000+ followers he travels all over the world to inspire people as keynote speaker or workshop facilitator. Gijs’s lectures are straightforward, practical, inspiring and entertaining. He is a real STORYTELLER!

As business economist, Gijs worked the first fifteen years of his career as marketer in the Food sector and later as strategy consultant at Ernst & Young and Boer & Croon. At the end of 2002 he started his mission to inspire people all over the world to become better innovators. In 2006, he published ‘Creating New Products and Services’, the first of his six English books on how to start innovation effectively. He is keynote speaker at large events, such as the ‘Turkish Innovation Week’ in Istanbul or ‘Product Innovation Berlin’. And he facilitates innovation workshops for 3M in the USA, DuPont in the UK, NEC in Japan and AIRBUS in France.

Some testimonials on Gijs's keynote public performances:

"GIJS MADE THE AUDIENCE LAUGH, THINK AND WONDER”. Agata Wiewiora, Polish Innovation Day.

“HE LEADS AN AUDIENCE TO NEW KNOWLEDGE IN A FASCINATING WAY”. Chris Baldwin, European Conference on Innovation Management, Hungary.

“Gijs’s presentation was beyond amazing, brilliant! He was born to be on stage – so inspiring!”. Hristina Borisova, Innovation Explorer Conference, Bulgaria.

“GIJS’S SPEECH WAS EXACTLY WHAT MANY COMPANIES IN OUR INDUSTRY NEEDED”, Adam Ismael, Executive Director Global Organization for EPA, and DHA Omega-3, Canary Islands.

“GIJS IS TRULY INSPIRING TO A DIVERSE CROWD”. Dr. Audrey Verhaeghe, Chairman South African Innovation Summit, South Africa.

“ENTERTAINING, VERY INSPIRING AND INSIGHTFUL”
Dries Laperre, Organiser Innowiz, Belgium.

“Gijs was among our top 5 out of more than 50 speakers.” Delegates said about his performance: “Wildly inspiring and entertaining”, “Outstanding Visualizations” and “The perfect mix of great presentation, content and delivery.” Michael Ratcliffe, production director, ‘Product Innovation Berlin’.

“The lecture of Gijs was one of the most useful and worth visiting lectures at Strelka. Gijs gives his vision on how to become an innovator and shares his practical approach in a very personal interactive way.” Maria Biryukova, Executive Director of Public Program, Strelka Institute, Moscow, Russia

“Gijs has a natural ability to engage with his audience in a nice balance of anecdotes, facts, personal insights and humor.” Heather Spidell, President and CEO of the Center for Entrepreneurship Education and Development (CEED), Halifax, Canada.

Some testimonals from in-company events:

“A COLOURFUL, ENGAGING, INSPIRING STORYTELLER”. Delony Langer, 3M, USA.

“HE CREATES AN INNOVATIVE MINDSET AT THE AUDIENCE”. Anne-Laure Pardijon, AIRBUS GROUP.

“HE GAVE A BRILLIANTLY ARTICULATED PRESENTATION FULL OF PASSION, EMOTION AND METAPHORS”
Ignacio VILLOCH, Innovation Events & Activities Manager, BBVA Innovation Center, Spain.

After having gained his BSc and PhD degrees from Imperial College (1983 and 1986, respectively) and performing post-doctoral research at the University of Texas at Austin, Barron joined the faculty of the chemistry department at Harvard University (in 1987) as Associate Professor before being promoted to Associate Professor in 1991. In 1995 he Barron joined Rice University as the Charles W. Duncan, Jr. – Welch Chair of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science and Nanoengineering. He was the first faculty member to be hired for the first nanotechnology center in the world. He is presently the Sêr Cymru Chair of Low Carbon Energy and Environment at Swansea University.

He is the author of over 550 publications, 50 Patents, 25 books (in chemistry and project mangement), and has graduated 33 PhD students. He has an h-factor of 82 and over 25,00 citations. His early research focused on the chemistry of aluminum and related elements and spanned catalysis, electronic materials and nanotechnology. His current research involves the fundamental problems in energy and climate change, including projects involving water purification and carbon dioxide mitigation.

Prof. Barron is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and the recipient of several awards, including the Star of Asia Award. In 2009 Barron was appointed as the Prince of Wales Visiting Innovator. In 2011 he won the World Technology Award at the same time as Steve Jobs.

Barron is the co-founder of several companies over a diverse range of industries: Oxane Materials, Natcore Technology, Apex Water Solutions, MiDAS Green Innovations, Algae Products International, C-Zero, and FXI, Inc. He has just founded a program for water purification in developing regions of the world in order to create agriculture ready land from desert.

In addition to teaching in chemistry and materials science, Prof. Barron created the first educational programs at Rice University to span the schools of Science, Engineering and Management. He was a co-founder of the Rice Alliance which is now the highest ranked entrepreneurship program in the US as well as the highest ranked business plan competition in the world. For relaxation Barron races cars on both sides of the Atlantic.

Named as one of the most influential people in banking and a Top Fintech Influencer to Follow, Jim Marous is an internationally recognized financial industry strategist, co-publisher of The Financial Brand, host of the podcast Banking Transformed, and the owner and publisher of the Digital Banking Report. Marous advises on innovation, portfolio growth, customer experience, marketing strategies, channel shift, payments, and digital transformation within the financial services industry.

As a sought after keynote speaker, author and recognized authority on disruption in the financial services industry, Marous has been featured by CNBC and CNN, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Financial Times, The Economist, The American Banker, Accenture and the Irish Tech News and has spoken to audiences worldwide. Jim has also advised the White House on banking policy and is a regular contributor and guest host for the Breaking Banks broadcast hosted by Brett King.

Sam Gupta has been an ERP thought leader in the digital transformation space for nearly two decades, with the primary focus on financial systems and ERP. He has been part of large transformation initiatives for fortune-500 corporations but now spends his time consulting with SMEs as a Principal Consultant at ElevatIQ.

He is involved with digital transformation projects ranging from enterprise technology selection, integration, upgrade, implementation, and training.

Sam regularly speaks at industry conferences and contributes his experiences through many popular blogs and publications.

He also hosts a podcast called WBSRocks focused on business growth through digital transformation and ERP where he interviews top influencers and executives from ERP, Supply Chain, Digital Transformation, Supply Chain, and Accounting.

Karl Smith is a globally recognised authority in Human Centered Design, Agile and Digital Transformation. He has focused these skills and knowledgebase of facilitating valuable business and technology optimisations in organisational design, lean portfolio management and market entry or refocus directed towards customer engagements in ecommerce and social media.

Karl is the Founder and CTO of All me the secure, anonymous, privacy by default, personal and professional interaction application, without advertising.

Karl has been recognised for his influence and leadership with a fellowship from the British Computer Society in 2011 regularly engaging in peer and client discussions. Further he is a subject matter expert in several areas listed at Thinkers360 and other Thought Leader systems.

He has always been fascinated by how technology can augment the lives of humans;

"My desire was not to build things that humans already do but to find out how technology could evolve our human experience."

Karl is a founder in the field of UX from 1989 taking usability audits to the next level into solutions as user experience consultancy (UX) underwritten by research and Ecosystem Strategies. He launched UX in Accenture and was a cofounder of Wipro Digital a customer centered global consultancy. Founder of Customer Agility Framework https://customeragilityframework.com/ business site Customer Agility https://customeragility.com/.

He continues customer centric consultancy as an interim CIO or Director of Transformation through the strategy and implementation of new ways of working including Agile and DevOps. He has evolved Agile Target Operating Models for several global organization in line with his 2021 book A short Guide to Agile Transformation delivering globally. He continues offering this unique capability as his main consultancy service, underwritten by service design, today.

Karl A L Smith is a co-founder of the Agile World with Sabrina C E Bruce. The voluntary entertainment, media and education ecosystem Agile World https://agile-world.charity/.

He is an avid learner and polymath from school to Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, Middlesex University and later Napier University his knowledge sits across design, engineering, science and the humanities. He is best known for launching new business capabilities or optimizing existing ones and provides consultancy service globally.

Karl A L Smith is a prolific writer in spite of his dyslexia, his blog is widely reposted and syndicated https://karlsmith.info/.