Radical Innovation

Our Team

Are you looking to work with the thought leaders in the breakthrough innovation space?

Did you know that our academic field research started in 1995 with Fortune 1000 companies and is defining the path for building an effective breakthrough innovation capability?

Founding Partners

Joanne Hyland

Joanne Hyland (NPDP) is President of the RI Group and former Vice President, New Venture Development at Nortel Networks where Joanne, with her innovation team, founded its internal venturing program, a multi-million dollar investment fund that led to 12 business startups. The Corporate Strategy Board, RPI, Fast Company magazine, and others have acknowledged and/or benchmarked this program. Joanne is now working with major corporations to link innovation with strategy and to develop systems, leadership and culture capabilities that drive growth and corporate renewal. The Radical Innovation Group’s client list includes Air Products, Danfoss, Eaton, HP, Kodak, Motorola, NOVA Chemicals, Novozymes and Shell among others.

As a thought leader, Joanne speaks regularly on topics related to innovation and corporate venturing and has been a member of the faculty or guest speaker in executive education programs at Babson College, Danish Technical University (DTU), Industrial Research Institute (IRI), MIT, Motorola University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Joanne is a featured executive in the book Radical Innovation: How Mature Companies Can Outsmart Upstarts and has written about "Using VC Experience to Create Business Value", a chapter in From the Trenches—Strategies from Industry Leaders on the New e-Conomy (Wiley & Sons, June 2001). She is co-author of the chapter "Bringing Radical Innovation and Other Major Innovations Successfully to Market – Bridging the Transition from R&D to Operations" in the Product Development Management Association’s (PDMA’s) 2004 ToolBook. Joanne has held a variety of corporate and startup board roles. She is a graduate of Concordia University in Montreal, Canada and is a certified New Product Development Professional (NPDP).

Dr. Gina O'Connor

Dr. Gina O'Connor is the Academic Director for the Radical Innovation Research Project, Associate Director of the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship and an associate professor in the Lally School of Management and Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York (RPI). Gina is a well-recognized thought leader in the field of innovation having been widely quoted in The Economist and Fast Company among other publications. Her fields of interest include new product development, radical innovation, technology commercialization and strategic marketing management in high technology arenas. The majority of her research efforts focus on how firms' link advanced technology development to market opportunities.

She has articles published in Organization Science, The Journal of Product Innovation Management, California Management Review, Academy of Management Executive and The Journal of Strategic Marketing to name a few and is co- author of the book Radical Innovation, How Mature Firms Can Outsmart Upstarts, published by HBS Press in December, 2000. In addition, Gina is the lead author on Grabbing Lightning, Building a Capability for Breakthrough Innovation, published by Wiley & Sons in February 2008. Gina is co-author of the chapter "Bringing Radical Innovation and Other Major Innovations Successfully to Market - Bridging the Transition from R&D to Operations" in the Product Development Management Association's (PDMA's) 2004 ToolBook. Her executive education experience includes programs with companies such as General Motors, IBM and Albany International and she is consulting with others to help them develop, embed and sustain radical innovation management capabilities. Prior to joining RPI in 1988, Dr. O'Connor earned her Ph.D. in Marketing and Corporate Strategy at New York University and before that worked at McDonnell Douglas and Monsanto Chemical.

Consulting Associates

Dr. Ron Pierantozzi

Dr. Ron Pierantozzi is currently the CEO of PPT Research, a materials technology company in Allentown, PA. He recently retired from the management ranks of Air Products& Chemicals, Inc. He is also a member of the Radical Innovation Group, a consulting firm that works with global companies to develop their innovation capability. Ron is also a partner in Cameron and Associates, a consulting firm focused on developing relationships with Fortune companies committed to corporate venturing through technology and innovation. Ron previously served as Air Product’s Director, Business Development, which focused on new venture creation and technology transfer. This involved a wide range of duties that included identifying and commercializing new technologies, forming and incubating new technology-based ventures, managing external partnerships and forming market alliances, and investing in both early and late stage companies working through high profile VCs. Ron continues to work closely with VCs in the advanced materials and machine-to- machine sectors, where he provides expertise in market strategy and business valuation. Ron previously served as Director of Technology with APCI for platforms in hydrogenation, amination, and nitration technologies. He also held various positions the Performance Ceramics & Process Systems Group, and was Director of the Adsorption Technology Center. Ron is an inventor/co- inventor, and holds of 32 U.S. patents and authored 16 publications. His most recent publication "Implementing a Learning Plan to Counter Project Uncertainty" with Mark Rice and Gina O’Connor was published in "Sloan Management Review, January 2008". Ron is a professor at Wharton, and Lehigh University business schools, where he frequently lectures on subjects dealing with innovation and entrepreneurship. He is also a member of the faculty for the program on Corporate Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Danish Technical University, where he conducts a seminar on developing business plans for the global enterprise. He is an executive in Residence at RPI’s Lally School of Technology Management for the 2007- 2008 academic year. Ron received his B.S. in Chemistry from Temple University and his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from The Pennsylvania State University.

Remy Arteaga

Remy Arteaga has over 20 years experience in entrepreneurial, innovative and strategic roles. Mr. Arteaga began his career with General Motors, where he was part of an internal consulting group, whose sole mission was to change the way GM did business. There, he developed ideation, customer needs, and competitive analysis business methods that were deployed throughout GM. After GM, Remy spent 7 years advising clients on the deployment of IT strategy and the launching digital divisions. Over the next 11 years Remy successfully started up five different ventures in varied industries from Medical Device to Software. As COO of Extreme Interactive Media Inc he built the company into the top competitor in its media space. More recently, Remy was hired as a senior consultant for a boutique strategy-consulting firm that advised CEOs on strategy, talent and execution. In the spring of 2007, Remy was named CEO of a technology firm in New York, DualAlign LLC, focused on transforming emerging computer vision technologies into advanced software solutions. Remy holds a BSEE from the University of Rochester and an MBA from Lally School of Management and Technology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. While at RPI, Remy specialized in Radical Innovation including “The Learning Plan” where he deployed it for the commercialization of nano- technology. Remy went on to publish a premier web site on Innovation, which features Innovation University an in-depth report on innovation types, methods and frameworks. The web site has been well received by leading executives from GE, MeadWestvaco and 3M.

Greg Foust

For more than three decades, Greg Foust has utilized innovative solutions to successfully create, grow and turnaround businesses.

Formerly an Eastman Kodak executive, Greg held a wide variety of senior management positions in mainline business units and Kodak’s New Business Incubator. He now heads a successful consulting business, focused on assisting startup and mature companies achieve dramatic, profitable growth through innovation.

With an exceptional track record driving the introduction of award winning products and services, Greg has been directly responsible for an impressive number of highly innovative, successful market introductions. He also has been a driving force in the development and launch of breakthrough businesses. He is widely regarded as an expert in innovation, innovation processes and business transition management. His rich blend of business and technology experience enables him to uniquely match market needs with commercially viable technology.

Throughout his career, Greg has had P&L responsibility for a number of global businesses ranging in size from $10M to over $200M and has continually led and grown complex, major businesses. He has amassed substantial international experience working with partners and customers developing networks and alliances and providing strategic leadership for internal organizations as well as international partners.

Greg received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, has attended executive management programs at the University of Virginia and Duke University. He holds three US patents.

Martin Groth & Allan Silfverberg

Martin Groth and Allan Silfverberg developed a mutual interest for innovation while completing a post graduate degree at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. They wrote a dissertation on the development of a new framework to assess firms' capabilities for Radical Innovation (RI) using state-of the art knowledge within that field. It was successfully tested in Novozymes, a Danish Biotech firm known for its focus on innovation. During the process of writing the dissertation they developed a wide network of leading scholars and practitioners, firms, and other organizations within innovation. Inspired by this outcome, they formed a consultancy firm, Radical Innovation Consulting (RIC), which specializes in assisting large firms in developing their capabilities for radical innovation. To that end, RIC holds inspirational seminars, workshops, coaching events, and assessments for radical innovation. In addition, Martin and Allan facilitate sessions in Denmark on behalf of the Radical Innovation Group.

Founding Advisors

Dr. Nick Colarelli

Dr. Nick Colarelli is the founding partner of Colarelli, Meyer & Associates of St. Louis, Missouri, a firm of organizational psychologists. For the past 25 years, Nick and his firm have specialized in partnering with over 1000 companies, from a broad array of industries, to provide hands-on, sustained support in planning and implementing radical change driven by technology, globalization, deregulation and other market forces. Nick works closely with executive and management teams to bring about the necessary changes in organizational structure, culture, and personnel required by radical change. He brings focus to the extent to which a given business culture supports and/or obstructs radical change. He is skilled in assessing the readiness of personnel to accept and lead radical change, and has developed approaches to assist individuals in participating in and promoting radical change efforts in their companies. Nick received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Northwestern University.

Dr. Mark P. Rice

Dr. Mark P. Rice is the Murata Dean of F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business and the Jeffry A. Timmons Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at Babson College, where his focus is on expanding Babson's strategic initiatives in innovation and entrepreneurship, linking management and technology, and promoting innovation in curriculum. Dean Rice is co-author of Radical Innovation: How Mature Companies Can Outsmart Upstarts. His research on corporate innovation and entrepreneurship has been published widely - in academic and practitioner journals including Organization Science, R&D Management, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Academy of Management Executive, and California Management Review. Dean Rice previously served as Director of the nationally recognized RPI Incubator Program and the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has been a director and chairman of the National Business Incubation Association, which honored him in 1998 with its Founder's Award. With Dr. Jana Matthews, he co-authored Growing New Ventures -- Creating New Jobs: Principles and Practices of Successful Business Incubation. In 2002, Dean Rice received the Edwin M. and Gloria W. Appel Entrepreneurship in Education Prize. Dr. Rice holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.