<!--Abstract: Transformation starts with a simple question: what exactly will change for the customer and the business? Drawing on his experience at Cargill, Cordell will share how leaders connect customer insight, science, and cross-functional expertise to define the right scope of change and develop market-ready solutions that can scale. Key Take-Aways:

• Identify the customer or consumer need and business outcome the transformation should address, then define measures of progress
• Assess whether the change belongs in the product, process, capability, operating model or business model, using customer value and technical feasibility to set the scope
• Build a path from customer insight through technical validation, collaboration, manufacturing readiness and commercialization, with clear decision points and owners

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Rockstar Insights:

Cody Gill
Executive Director, Partnerships
UCF
 
Why You Should Listen to Cody:
Cody Gill serves as Executive Director of Partnerships at the University of Central Florida, where he helps companies navigate the university and build strategic, mutually beneficial partnerships across research, talent, academic programs, executive education, philanthropy, and innovation. In this role, he works across UCF’s colleges and institutes to connect corporate priorities with the right faculty, programs, and resources, serving as a front door for industry engagement with one of the nation’s largest and most innovative universities. Prior to joining UCF, Cody worked in regional economic development and corporate engagement in Pittsburgh, supporting business investment and growth across the region. His work is centered on bringing industry and higher education together to create opportunities for students, faculty, companies, and the communities they serve.
 
Allison McGinley
Executive Director, Partnerships
UCF
 
Why You Should Listen to Allison:
Allison McGinley is Executive Director of Partnerships at the University of Central Florida (UCF), where she leads strategic engagement with corporate and foundation partners to advance innovation, research and student success. Before joining UCF, Allison spent 30 years at WKMG News 6 in Orlando, rising from intern to News Director and leading the station through major news events, transformative initiatives, and award-winning public service journalism. A proud UCF alumna, she served as Chair of both the Radio Television Digital News Association and its Foundation. She was inducted into the UCF Nicholson School of Communication and Media Hall of Fame in 2022.
 
Jennifer Wolf
Executive Director, Partnerships
UCF
 
Why You Should Listen to Jennifer:
Jennifer Wolf, MA, CNP, CITM is a strategic partnerships and philanthropy executive with more than 25 years of leadership experience advancing institutional growth, philanthropic investment, and cross-sector collaboration across higher education, healthcare, public media, and nonprofit organizations. She is recognized for cultivating transformative partnerships, aligning stakeholder interests around shared priorities, and translating ambitious vision into measurable outcomes that strengthen organizations and communities alike. Guided by a deep commitment to service, she champions the power of partnership, philanthropy, and innovation to address complex challenges, advance education and healthcare, and create enduring social benefit.

Abstract:
Transformation starts with a simple question: what exactly will change for the customer and the business? Drawing on his experience at Cargill, Cordell will share how leaders connect customer insight, science, and cross-functional expertise to define the right scope of change and develop market-ready solutions that can scale.

Key Take-Aways:

• Identify the customer or consumer need and business outcome the transformation should address, then define measures of progress
• Assess whether the change belongs in the product, process, capability, operating model or business model, using customer value and technical feasibility to set the scope
• Build a path from customer insight through technical validation, collaboration, manufacturing readiness and commercialization, with clear decision points and owners

Headliner:

Cordell Hardy
Vice President, Research & Development, Food North America
Cargill
 
Why You Should Listen to Cordell:
Cordell connects customer and consumer needs with scientific and technical capabilities to develop market-ready food solutions at Cargill. His experience spans formulation, sensory and technical validation, customer collaboration, manufacturing readiness and commercialization, giving him a practical perspective on how organizations define transformation and turn innovation ambitions into solutions that can scale.

Abstract:
Innovation does not always follow a straight line from idea to ROI. This session explores a practical approach to defining success upfront, measuring business impact across financial and operational outcomes, and using structured milestones to determine when to scale, pivot, or stop an innovation investment.

Action Items:

• Define measurable success criteria and expected business outcomes before launching an innovation initiative.
• Build milestone-based checkpoints that connect experimentation and learning to business value and investment decisions.
• Evaluate outcomes beyond traditional ROI, including efficiency, capability development, adoption, and unexpected value creation.

Rockstar Insight:

Ramya Ramadurai
Director, Enterprise Digital Transformation PMO
Lincoln Electric
 
Why You Should Listen to Ramya:
Ramya leads strategic program execution, portfolio governance, and cross-functional alignment to connect transformation investments to measurable business outcomes at Lincoln Electric. With more than 15 years of transformation experience across manufacturing, higher education, media, and life sciences, Ramya brings a practical perspective on defining value, measuring impact, and turning innovation into disciplined execution.

<!--Abstract: At Amazon customer obsession is grounded in empathy as we work backwards from the problem(s) they face to understand what the human motivation is to move and react. That approach has helped us solve customers’ issues in a manner they may not have thought about before, often creating solutions to problems they did not realize they had. This mental model and methodology does not solve every problem but has sparked innovative solutions at scale for some of the industry’s biggest problems. Key Take-Aways:

• Examples of why human motivation is key to understanding customer perspective
• Key findings on why working backwards from the customer perspective is a critical factor in defining solutions to problems
• Insight on Omdenken (upside down thinking), and why it is the mental model that helps deliver unique solutions at scale

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Rockstar Insight:

Shruti Ahluwalia
Vice President, Technology, AI, and Product Experience
The Institute of Internal Auditors
 
Why You Should Listen to Shruti:
Shruti brings more than 15 years of experience leading AI-enabled platforms, digital product strategy, and enterprise transformation, all with the goal of achieving excellent customer experiences. Most recently at The Walt Disney Company, she led AI platform strategy across a $300M+ portfolio. She also held senior digital leadership roles at Citigroup and American Express, delivering measurable growth, operational efficiency, and customer impact. As co-founder and Chief Digital Officer of a healthcare practice, she built and scaled a technology-driven organization from the ground up.

Abstract:
Innovation depends on how strategy, structure, processes, people, and rewards work together. In this interactive roundtable, participants will explore how to jumpstart their innovation system by diagnosing organizational barriers, matching operating models to different innovation needs, and strengthening ownership, collaboration, and culture to turn ideas into action.

Action Items:

• Evaluate your innovation system using an organizational design model to identify misalignments and prioritize key organizational barriers to address
• Build an operating-model roadmap that matches team structure and resources to innovation needs, clarifies decision ownership, and defines collaboration across functions and geography
• Develop an action plan that pairs a practical capability-building step—including AI enablement—with a leadership behavior that reinforces experimentation and shared accountability

Rockstar Insight:

Tony Marchetta
Head of Innovation
Vitamix Corporation
 
Why You Should Listen to Tony:
Tony has over 25 years of experience at companies including Fortune Brands Innovations, Newell Brands, and Procter & Gamble. He brings practical experience leading global teams, designing innovation operating models, and building capabilities and cultures that turn ideas into growth.
 

Abstract:
Innovation’s acceleration is accelerating. Market disruption is continual, with accelerating disruption of the disrupted. And there is no going back. To win the future, organizations must identify and prioritize critical emerging signals, embrace, and interpret what they reveal, and mobilize the enterprise to act across both familiar and unfamiliar terrain.

Key Take-Aways:

• Reimagine your innovation strategy to build a structured capability that identifies, prioritizes, and acts on external opportunities aligned to growth goals
• Assess innovation readiness and remove legacy structures that may limit breakthrough innovation
• Build an agile innovation model that aligns internal teams, external partners, and go-to-market strategies to accelerate innovation

Rockstar Insight:

Dr. Sterlena Taylor
Innovatist
 
 
Why You Should Listen to Sterlena:
Dr. Taylor, PhD, MBA, aka “the innovatist,” is an award-winning innovator, futurist, thought leader, scholar and expert in innovation with more than two intrapreneurial decades in global organizations, mid-size firms, and start-ups driving growth and transformation across diverse industries. She is an inspiring sought-after speaker and author who has shared at SXSW, Microsoft’s IGNITE, AI4, and many other innovation events. She offers thought-provoking and unique perspectives on the future of innovation and its impact on orgs and society.