This Carnegie Council panel asks: How do sustainable innovations make it to market? Three very different inventors talk about their creative process, how their inventions have had a social impact, and what a more sustainable society might look like. Panelists include energy entrepreneur Shakeel Avadhany of Levant Power, sustainable architect Rick Cook of Cook+Fox Architects, and technology innovator Peter Hartwell of HP. Niko Canner of Booz & Company is the moderator.
Shakeel Avadhany is president, CEO, and co-founder of Levant Power Corp. Previously, he worked with MIT professor Yet-Ming Chiang, founder of A123 Systems, on the DARPA-funded microbattery program for reconnaissance devices. Avadhany joined Lux Research in 2007 to survey the global energy landscape and perform due diligence on emerging cleantech solutions. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including 2009 Innovator of the Year by the Entrepreneur's Organization.
Peter Hartwell is a senior researcher at HP Labs, the exploratory and advanced research group for Hewlett Packard. He is currently the project team lead for HP Labs Central Nervous System for the Earth (CeNSE) which aims to build a planet-wide sensing network using billions of tiny, cheap, tough, and exquisitely sensitive detectors. Trained in the field of micro-electro-mechanical systems, Hartwell joined HP Labs in 1999 to work on the atomic resolution storage (ARS) program. ARS sought to miniaturize a CD-RW–like storage system on a single silicon chip creating a new type of non-volatile, solid-state storage. He joined the Quantum Structures Research group at HP Labs in 2005.
Richard A. (Rick) Cook is a founding partner at Cook+Fox Architects. He is best known for designing ecologically friendly buildings, including the Bank of America Tower in New York. His firm has been awarded three Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certificates. Previously, Cook was a founding partner and architect at Richard Cook & Associates. He has appeared on PBS, NPR, and the National Geographic Channel, and spoken at the United Nations, Greenbuild, Wired NextFest, and other forums on sustainable design.
Niko Canner is a senior partner in Booz & Company's organization and change leadership practice, and a member of the North America Management Team. He is based in the New York office, and works with a range of global clients. Canner has advised leading companies in many industries, with a particular focus on the strategic and organizational questions that define the long-term evolution of large enterprises. He was named one of ten "new gurus" by Fortune magazine in November 2008, and is frequently quoted as a thought leader on management and business strategy in publications such as BusinessWeek, Financial Times, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Canner was co-founder and managing partner of Katzenbach Partners LLC, prior to the firm's combination with Booz & Company. He led Katzenbach Partners as the firm grew organically over ten years to 100 consultants across four offices. Canner began his consulting career at McKinsey & Company, where he was a founding member of the McKinsey Change Center. He subsequently co-founded Mitchell Madison Group's Organization Practice.