Keynote speakers (plenaries)
Second Conference of the Forum, Galicia, 2009
The Columbus Torino Association is proud to join its efforts to those of distinguished experts from international institutions, local governments, business associations and representatives of the financial sector who have accepted to participate in the conference "Regional Innovation Systems: from Vision to Reality".
Keynote speaker, plenary session "Regional innovation systems", Thursday, 2 April, 05:30-08:00 pm
Professor Bianchi is Rector of the University of Ferrara and Full Professor of Applied Economics. He has been visiting professor in many prestigious universities and has served as advisor for industrial policy to several national and international institutions. He acted as advisor to the President of the Interamerican Bank of Development for small and medium sized development policy. In 1997 he was appointed in the Board of Directors of IRI, the Italian State Corporation, in charge of privatization of the Italian state enterprises, in 1999 President of the National Agency for Development. Since 2000 he is advisor of the PR China Government for the GuangDong Province development, in 2005 he was awarded as Honorary Professor at South China University of Technology, Canton.
Mario Calderini holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Manchester and a MSc in Engineering from Politecnico di Torino, where he is now Full Professor of Strategy and Innovation Management. He also holds responsibilities in several organizations focusing on research and innovation public policies: President of Finpiemonte, the Piemonte Regional Development Agency and Financial Holding Company; member of the Board of Directors of the newly established "Italian National Agency for Innovation"; head of the "Public Policies for Science and Innovation" unit of the COTEC Foundation for Innovation, chaired by the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano; and President of "Piemonte Aerospace District".
Renato Caporali is an economist, Master in Philosophy and PhD in Economic Development (EHESS of Paris). He is Executive Manager of International Cooperation of the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry - CNI. Since 2000, Renato has been working with projects directed to the development of Brazilians clusters of SME's, since basic methodology until the interinstitutional framework for a comprehensive Brazilian program on cluster's development. Currently, he is designing with the Technology Division of IADB a program for Regional Systems of Innovation in Brazil. He also is the manager of a Territorial Development Project supported by Multilateral Investment Fund of IADB.
Dr. Giovanni Colombo graduated in Electrical Engineering at Politecnico di Torino. He acquired extensive management experience in Telecom Italia Labs. He was appointed Head of Research of Telecom Italia Labs (2001-2003), Chief Technology Officer of TIlabs (2003-2005) and Head of long-term research at Telecom Italia (2005-2006). For the European Commission he has been Chairman of Mobile Domain (1997-1999) and Member of ISTAG (IST Advisory Group). In July 2008 he was nominated Member of the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. He is adjunct professor at the Politecnico di Torino.
Emiliano Duch was one of the pioneers in cluster development. In 1994, he founded Competitivenes.com, the first consulting company exclusively dedicated to clusters, where he has led more than 120 cluster initiatives in Europe and Latin-America. He was as well the founding chairman of The Competitiveness Institute. Presently he coordinates the Clusters Summer School at IESE Business School in Barcelona and Universidad Adolfo Ibañez in Santiago (Chile). He holds an MBA and MPA from Harvard University.
Gordon is the CEO of Urban Age Institute (San Francisco and Washington DC), which began as a magazine inside the World Bank in 1992 and 10 years later became an independent non-profit research organization. He convenes a yearly summit for leaders from public and private sector, sponsored by Toyota, Siemens, Metropolis, UN, World Bank, ADB, and others. UAI works as a partner and advisor to cities and regions all over the world, corporations, and with trade associations. Gordon received, with honors and cum laude, Columbia University undergraduate and graduate degrees. He was awarded numerous fellowship, including one from the Japanese government to work there and in China during the later months of 2009.
Facilitator and trainer, expert in participatory planning, meetings management and organisational development at national and international level. Owner of Genius Loci, a facilitation and development company, he is a professor of participatory planning at Trento University and at the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Certified Professional Facilitator.
Journalist and Communications advisor.
Pedro Meyer presented and directed news shows, debate programmes, and special editions on political and institutional themes on RTVE throughout his entire career. At RNE he also directed the most representative news programmes of the channel: "España a las ocho" and "24 horas"; he was Director of Programming and Broadcasting for 2 year.
He was also Subdirector General of Social Communications of the Defence Ministry from 1987 to 1992. He gives seminars on TV presentation an locution, business communication, efficient presentation and spokesperson training in various universities.
Ms. Painter joined the Inter-American Development Bank, where she is now Chief of the Bank?s Science and Technology Division, in 2000. Previously, she spent more than 10 years leading private sector development projects in countries as diverse as Poland and Bulgaria, the Philippines and Indonesia, Nicaragua and Guinea-Bissau. Since joining the Bank, she has worked on numerous projects throughout Latin America in the areas of productivity and competitiveness policies; technology and innovation; small and medium enterprise (SME) development; promotion of clusters and value chains; business climate; and local/territorial development, including regional innovation systems. At the Bank, Ms. Painter has also served as Senior Advisor for operations in the Southern Cone.
Prof. Profumo has been Rector of the Politecnico di Torino since 2005. He was previously Dean of its Engineering Faculty. He is a Member of the Italian Academy of Science and is a Registered Professional Engineer in Italy. He has participated in many projects in the framework of EC activities, either as coordinator or partner. His fields of interest are power electronics conversion, high power devices, applications of new power devices, integrated electronic/ electromechanical design, high response speed servo drives, new electrical machines structures, power conditioning systems for fuel cells applications.
He has published more than 230 papers in International Conferences and Technical Journals.
Professor Bianchi is Rector of the University of Ferrara and Full Professor of Applied Economics. He has been visiting professor in many prestigious universities and has served as advisor for industrial policy to several national and international institutions. He acted as advisor to the President of the Interamerican Bank of Development for small and medium sized development policy. In 1997 he was appointed in the Board of Directors of IRI, the Italian State Corporation, in charge of privatization of the Italian state enterprises, in 1999 President of the National Agency for Development. Since 2000 he is advisor of the PR China Government for the GuangDong Province development, in 2005 he was awarded as Honorary Professor at South China University of Technology, Canton.See presentation >>> (PDF format - 469 KB)
Keynote speaker, plenary session "Regional innovation systems", Thursday, 2 April, 05:30-08:00 pm
 © OECD |
Mr. Bonturi's present position is Head of the Regional Competitiveness and Governance Division in the OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate. In this capacity, he manages a team of experts working on issues related to territorial development (including rural and metropolitan areas), regional innovation systems and multi-level governance.
See presentation >>> (PDF format - 458 KB) |
Keynote speaker, plenary session "Regional innovation systems", Thursday, 2 April, 05:30-08:00 pm
Mario Calderini holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Manchester and a MSc in Engineering from Politecnico di Torino, where he is now Full Professor of Strategy and Innovation Management. He also holds responsibilities in several organizations focusing on research and innovation public policies: President of Finpiemonte, the Piemonte Regional Development Agency and Financial Holding Company; member of the Board of Directors of the newly established "Italian National Agency for Innovation"; head of the "Public Policies for Science and Innovation" unit of the COTEC Foundation for Innovation, chaired by the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano; and President of "Piemonte Aerospace District".Keynote speaker, plenary session "Regional innovation systems", Thursday, 2 April, 05:30-08:00 pm
Renato Caporali is an economist, Master in Philosophy and PhD in Economic Development (EHESS of Paris). He is Executive Manager of International Cooperation of the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry - CNI. Since 2000, Renato has been working with projects directed to the development of Brazilians clusters of SME's, since basic methodology until the interinstitutional framework for a comprehensive Brazilian program on cluster's development. Currently, he is designing with the Technology Division of IADB a program for Regional Systems of Innovation in Brazil. He also is the manager of a Territorial Development Project supported by Multilateral Investment Fund of IADB.See presentation >>> (PDF format - 499 KB, in Portugese)
Keynote speaker, plenary session "Innovation and entrepreneurship: What really works?", Friday 3 April, 09:30-11:00 am
Dr. Giovanni Colombo graduated in Electrical Engineering at Politecnico di Torino. He acquired extensive management experience in Telecom Italia Labs. He was appointed Head of Research of Telecom Italia Labs (2001-2003), Chief Technology Officer of TIlabs (2003-2005) and Head of long-term research at Telecom Italia (2005-2006). For the European Commission he has been Chairman of Mobile Domain (1997-1999) and Member of ISTAG (IST Advisory Group). In July 2008 he was nominated Member of the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. He is adjunct professor at the Politecnico di Torino.Keynote speaker, plenary session "Regional innovation systems", Thursday, 2 April, 05:30-08:00 pm
Emiliano Duch was one of the pioneers in cluster development. In 1994, he founded Competitivenes.com, the first consulting company exclusively dedicated to clusters, where he has led more than 120 cluster initiatives in Europe and Latin-America. He was as well the founding chairman of The Competitiveness Institute. Presently he coordinates the Clusters Summer School at IESE Business School in Barcelona and Universidad Adolfo Ibañez in Santiago (Chile). He holds an MBA and MPA from Harvard University.Coordinator, Special Workshop "Mapping your road to regional innovation", Thursday 2 April, 11:00 am to 01:30pm.
Gordon is the CEO of Urban Age Institute (San Francisco and Washington DC), which began as a magazine inside the World Bank in 1992 and 10 years later became an independent non-profit research organization. He convenes a yearly summit for leaders from public and private sector, sponsored by Toyota, Siemens, Metropolis, UN, World Bank, ADB, and others. UAI works as a partner and advisor to cities and regions all over the world, corporations, and with trade associations. Gordon received, with honors and cum laude, Columbia University undergraduate and graduate degrees. He was awarded numerous fellowship, including one from the Japanese government to work there and in China during the later months of 2009.Main presentation (PDF format - 2.02 MB)
Background document: New thinking on regional development issues >>> (PPT presentation - 2.4 MB).
Background document: New thinking on regional development issues >>> (PPT presentation - 2.4 MB).
Facilitator, Open Space (work groups)
Facilitator and trainer, expert in participatory planning, meetings management and organisational development at national and international level. Owner of Genius Loci, a facilitation and development company, he is a professor of participatory planning at Trento University and at the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Certified Professional Facilitator.Moderator, plenary session "Regional innovation systems", Thursday, 2 April, 05:30-08:00 pm
Journalist and Communications advisor.Pedro Meyer presented and directed news shows, debate programmes, and special editions on political and institutional themes on RTVE throughout his entire career. At RNE he also directed the most representative news programmes of the channel: "España a las ocho" and "24 horas"; he was Director of Programming and Broadcasting for 2 year.
He was also Subdirector General of Social Communications of the Defence Ministry from 1987 to 1992. He gives seminars on TV presentation an locution, business communication, efficient presentation and spokesperson training in various universities.
Keynote speaker, plenary session "Regional innovation systems", Thursday, 2 April, 05:30-08:00 pm
Ms. Painter joined the Inter-American Development Bank, where she is now Chief of the Bank?s Science and Technology Division, in 2000. Previously, she spent more than 10 years leading private sector development projects in countries as diverse as Poland and Bulgaria, the Philippines and Indonesia, Nicaragua and Guinea-Bissau. Since joining the Bank, she has worked on numerous projects throughout Latin America in the areas of productivity and competitiveness policies; technology and innovation; small and medium enterprise (SME) development; promotion of clusters and value chains; business climate; and local/territorial development, including regional innovation systems. At the Bank, Ms. Painter has also served as Senior Advisor for operations in the Southern Cone.See presentation >>> (PDF format - 884 KB, in Spanish)
Keynote speaker, plenary sessions: "The Forum in a global perspective. Agenda for 2009-2010.", Friday, 3 April, 12:30-13:30 pm
and "Presentation of new Forum Member Regions", Wednesday, 1 April, 17:30 to 18:15.
Prof. Profumo has been Rector of the Politecnico di Torino since 2005. He was previously Dean of its Engineering Faculty. He is a Member of the Italian Academy of Science and is a Registered Professional Engineer in Italy. He has participated in many projects in the framework of EC activities, either as coordinator or partner. His fields of interest are power electronics conversion, high power devices, applications of new power devices, integrated electronic/ electromechanical design, high response speed servo drives, new electrical machines structures, power conditioning systems for fuel cells applications. He has published more than 230 papers in International Conferences and Technical Journals.
He is currently President of the Columbus Torino Association that administrates the Forum.
