Total Innovation Podcast

44. Sonia Ferreira: Inside Maersk’s Innovation Ecosystem

Sonia is a global executive, board member and strategic advisor with over 20 years of experience across Europe, USA, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Bringing a blend of commercial strategy, technology leadership and innovation expertise, with a focus on enterprise-level decision-making, long-term value creation and responsible growth.She's led and overseen digital transformation, product innovation and global commercial initiatives across multiple industries, supporting organizations as they navigate scale, complexity, risk and disruption. Contributes a forward-looking perspective on innovation, AI, sustainability and ecosystem partnerships, grounded in practical experience operating across mature and emerging markets.Sonia serves ona number of boards and advisory councils including Stanford Seed, Harvard Business Review and the European Innovation Council, contributing to governance, strategy, and long-term value creation across global organizations.. Recognized for sound judgment, constructive challenge and the ability to operate effectively at board level across cultures and geographies.

43. Marta Jakab: Aligning Strategy, Innovation, and AI

Marta started her journey in innovation in 1998 as the product manager of the first idea management platform, which became a market leader and served global customers such as Pfizer, Cargill, Belgacom and many more, to which she also consulted on innovation best practices.Subsequently, Marta moved into corporate technology consulting, then back again into innovation management with a Spanish startup.For the past six years, Marta served as a Strategy and Innovation manager at NatWest bank, where she implemented an intrapreneurship programme and oversaw the delivery of enterprise-grade AI innovation solutions.Outside work, Marta is interested in social innovation and robotics.She currently lives in Edinburgh with her family.

42. Robyn Bolton: The Value Gap: How Leaders Unlock Real Innovation

Robyn Bolton works with leaders of medium and large businesses to help them navigate uncertainty and confidently grow revenue. At MileZero, she has worked with companies including Medtronic, Ariadne Labs, and Teachers Pay Teachers to transform deep customer insights into viable businesses. She has also worked with organizations including Alexion, Sanofi, and The Cable Center to build their innovation capabilities and cultures.Prior to founding MileZero, Robyn was a Partner at Innosight, the innovation and growth strategy consulting firm founded by Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen. She served Global 1000 companies, nonprofits, and startups in industries including healthcare, retail and apparel, and consumer packaged goods. Her teams collaborated closely with clients like Nike, Ahold USA, and Nestle to identify new markets, design and launch new business models, build innovation structures and processes.After earning her MBA at Harvard Business School, she worked as a consultant and project leader for The Boston Consulting Group in both Boston and Copenhagen Denmark. 

41. Tom Staley: Why Open Innovation Still Fails – and How the Best Organisations Are Finally Making It Work

Recognised as a Trusted Advisor, Tom works across the Public, Private and Defence Sectors, enabling organisations to establish the foundations to innovate, while leverage the capabilities of a diverse partner ecosystem; from startups to hyperscalers, in order to experiment, scale and commercialise new solutions.Tom is a member of the British Standards Institute (BSI) committee for Innovation Management, and is actively contributing to the ISO 56000 series of Innovation Management standards.

40. Susanna Laurson: The Edge Advantage: Building Innovation from the Faroe Islands

Súsanna Laursen is one of the driving forces behind the Faroe Islands' emerging innovation ecosystem. Based in Tórshavn, she works at Hugskotið — the Islands' startup incubator, founded in 2014 by the municipality of Tórshavn — where she supports early-stage founders and helps shape an environment where bold ideas can take root in one of the world's most remote and distinctive places. In eight years working in the ecosystem, she has seen Hugskotið support over 200 companies, the launch of FarBAN (the Faroe Business Angels Network), and growing interest from international investors who are increasingly paying attention to what's being built here.Súsanna is also co-founder of TONIK itself — the event you're at right now. TONIK was born out of a conviction that a small island nation doesn't have to think small. By blending technology, art, and meaningful human connection against the backdrop of the Faroese landscape, TONIK has become a gathering that draws founders, investors, and creative thinkers from across the Nordics and beyond — and sends them home with new collaborations, new friendships, and a new understanding of what's possible at the edge of the world.Her work is rooted in a simple but powerful idea: that the same qualities that make the Faroe Islands distinctive — resourcefulness, creativity, the habit of wearing many hats, and the necessity of solving your own problems — are precisely the qualities that make great innovators.