Innovation Insights are a series of talks with subject matter experts designed to spark you creative genius to help solve some of the world's biggest problems. This series will run through June and July 2020 to help individuals who are hoping to submit ideas for the Amazon Catalyst Competition for NW Washington.

visit our website to see other upcoming talks https://competition.nwirc.com

For this talk, Lara Merriam-Smith, Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Services for NWIRC, will talk with Michael Rubel - an entrepreneur, investor and advisor to multiple startups in Cleantech, telecommunications and more. We will talk about innovation opportunities for the future for local and larger scale businesses.

There will be time at the end of the conversation for Q&A.

More about Michael:

A transformative business leader with proven success cultivating teams, opportunities, partnerships, acquisitions, startups, and products to be better, faster, more efficient and profitable. He has led Global Projects, turn-arounds, spinouts, startups, Sales teams, Product teams and Incubators.

Michael is an Advisor, Board Member and Investor in the Clean Tech and Telecommunications Markets. He is an active Advisor to the 5G Open Innovation Lab in Seattle, and several stealth mode startups.

Michael was the Director of New Ventures and Partnerships at Ericsson, responsible for creating business opportunities, strategic Partnerships and cultivating internal new ventures. He also led their 5G Incubator, helping Fortune 100 Companies to envision, test and validate future business models for a highly connected world.

At GE Ventures, he worked across Business Units to cultivate innovation and identify new venture opportunities. He led a technical team to develop an asset tracking and data analytics platform that increased Customer Success margins by 25%.

Michael focused on Clean Tech investments at Intellectual Ventures, where he ultimately led the development, spinout and exit of a Data Analytics Company, in Partnership with the Basel Action Network.

Mr. Rubel also spent 8-years at Michelin where he served as the Director of Corporate Development in Africa, India and the Middle East. He also developed Michelin’s Venture and innovation Platform and led several Product Development Teams.

Before starting his business career, Mr. Rubel was a Naval Officer, decorated with three Navy Commendation Medals, one Navy Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Southwest Asia Service Medal and the Carhart Award for exemplary leadership. He remains committed to Veteran affairs and is active in a number of Military support groups around the Country.

Michael has a Bachelor of Science from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MBA from Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International Management. He lives in Seattle, WA with his wife and two daughters.