Andrea Kates

Innovation Advisor and Co-Founder, Suma Ventures

Andrea Kates ([email protected]) is a Silicon Valley-based innovation advisor, former tech CEO, and author of the award-winning book, Find Your Next, a complete guide for transforming ideas into concrete actions. She is also the creator of a five step sprint strategy series called Get to Next.

Global Advisor. Andrea advises large enterprises (Ford, Shimizu, Intel, KK Wind, Tata), innovative organizations (Copenhagen Fintech, Mayo Clinic, Stanford Center of Responsible Digital Leadership), governments, and nonprofits to drive impact for their stakeholders, customers, investors, partners, and communities and has spearheaded significant transformation across multiple industries, including ecosystem strategy, AI, Fintech, mobility, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, education, future of work and technology across 5 continents.

Tech CEO. Andrea was the CEO of the Silicon Valley SaaS company that pioneered the application of the lean startup and gold standard I-Corps methods with more than 13,000 corporate teams. A dynamic thought leader, Andrea is in high demand globally as a speaker and has delivered keynotes at some of the world’s most prestigious conferences, including the Business Ecosystem Alliance (in collaboration with Thinkers50), TED main stage, Aspen Ideas Festival, Dubai2020, the Edison Awards, IRI (Innovation Research Exchange), Rueda de Innovación, Nordic Fintech, OpenFinance Mexico, Innov8rs, and the CXO Forum in Tokyo and was recently the commencement speaker at MIT for the Legatum Institute.

Thought Leadership, Research + Publications. Her research and thought leadership articles have been featured in Harvard Business Review, Research and Technology Management Journal, Engineering and Technology, Merck KGaA strategy review, and Tid and Tendenser.

Corporate Residencies + University Affiliations. Andrea has taught at major universities in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia including Stanford University, Princeton, Cal Berkeley, Business Institute Denmark, Copenhagen Business School, Singapore Polytechnic, and Hitotsubashi University. She served as strategist in residence at Cisco and Tata and Open Innovation Gateway/Fujitsu.

Andrea is Senior Fellow with The Conference Board and Advisor to MIT Legatum Fellows, a global graduate program in business, technology and innovation.