Keynote: The Intrapreneur’s Playbook

Event Overview

Leading successful innovation initiatives comes with a daunting set of challenges. You have to know how to navigate the tension between maintaining operational stability and fostering a culture of experimentation, all while managing stakeholder expectations, handling resource constraints, and making sure your innovation strategies are firmly aligned with organizational goals. That’s a lot.

There isn’t an app for that, but there is a playbook that includes proven strategies for driving innovation that you can learn and bring to your organization. If you can leverage your technical smarts with strong people skills, then you can keep teams excited, motivated, and emboldened to make smart decisions with sometimes incomplete information.

Join Andrea Ippolito, Cornell Engineering lecturer, entrepreneur, and former Presidential Innovation Fellow, and Suzanna Fowler, AVP of National Operations at AT&T, as they discuss how to overcome challenges to the innovation process and share proven pathways toward successful product development.

Whether you’re at a startup or at an established powerhouse like AT&T, you will discover practical frameworks for leading and driving innovation and business success.

What You'll Learn

Proven strategies to secure leadership support, set measurable innovation goals, and allocate resources for maximum impact
How to apply lean startup validation and design thinking principles — even run hackathons — to accelerate tech development and team engagement
Develop confidence-building techniques that can help overcome innovation obstacles and maintain stakeholder trust

Speakers

view details hide details

Andrea Ippolito

Lecturer and Director of Women Entrepreneurs Cornell

Cornell Duffield Engineering

Andrea Ippolito is a lecturer in the Engineering Management Program at Cornell University as well as the founder and Director of Women Entrepreneurs Cornell (W.E. Cornell). She is also the founder and CEO of SimpliFed, a company supporting every family on the baby-feeding journey.

Prior to joining Cornell, Ms. Ippolito served as the Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Innovators Network within the VA Center for Innovation. She completed her M.S. in Engineering and Management at MIT. Prior to MIT, Ms. Ippolito worked as a research scientist within the Corporate Technology Development group at Boston Scientific. She obtained both her B.S. in Biological Engineering in 2006 and Master’s of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering in 2007 from Cornell University.

view details hide details

Suzanna Fowler

Assistant Vice President of National Operations

AT&T

As Assistant Vice President of National Operations at AT&T, Suzanna Fowler leads the transformation of the Business Operations organization, driving improvements in operational effectiveness and elevating the service experience for customers across the enterprise. Suzanna is passionate about technology and brings deep expertise in sourcing complex technology solutions, ensuring AT&T remains at the forefront of innovation and operational excellence.

In this pivotal role, Suzanna oversees the development and execution of workforce strategy, ensuring the organization is agile, future ready, and equipped with the skills needed to thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape. She champions the integration of artificial intelligence and automation to streamline processes, enhance decision making, and deliver measurable impact. Suzanna directs the centralized operational effectiveness impact assessment program, establishing best-in-class practices for evaluating, prioritizing, and activating change initiatives that support critical business outcomes.

View Keynote by completing the form below.

Gain access to this free event

KN Event Topics