Andrea Kates

Andrea Kates is an expert in taking companies from stuck to scale, by addressing critical questions: Why don’t the best ideas become the best businesses? Why do important initiatives die on the vine?

Silicon Valley innovation strategist and former tech CEO, Andrea is the author of the award-winning book, From Stuck to Scale, the new playbook for achieving technology commercialization, ecosystem-driven innovation and business growth. She is the Entrepreneur in Residence at MIT where she focuses on applied innovation.

Andrea served as CEO for the SaaS software company that commercialized innovation, working with more than 13,000 teams to support the I-Corps program - the US initiative that brought R&D from government, universities, scaleups, and corporations including Mayo Clinic, Nasdaq, Roche, and WL Gore.

Andrea has led projects with companies like Ford, Shimizu and Tata. As a dynamic thought leader, she has delivered keynotes at some of the world’s most prestigious conferences, including the TED main stage, Business Ecosystem Alliance, Aspen Ideas Festival, the Edison Awards, the National Association of Manufacturers, Dubai2020, Rueda de Innovación (Colombia), Nordic Fintech, OpenFinance Mexico, and the CXO Forum in Tokyo. 

In addition to her role as Senior Fellow with The Conference Board, Andrea serves on the Editorial Board for Research Technology Management journal, advises the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s Carbon Research Center, and is Technical Advisor to RUFORM Africa, a consortium of 175 leading universities in 40 African countries.

Connect with her at andrea@andreakates.com.