Delve Talks

Hector Silva founded a design education nonprofit called Advanced Design that, since 2016, has exploded. Their programming seeks to disrupt professional development in the field of industrial design, and if you have designers on staff, chances are they’ve heard the name before. It’s working.

Hosts Dave Franchino and Stefanie Norvaisas chat with Hector about:

- The gap between design education and real-world practice

- How design has changed from “form giving” to strategic weapon

- Mental health and diversity in the design industry

Lennon Rodgers is an engineer who has worked at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the International Design Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Today he oversees an ecosystem of courses, programs, and more than 40,000 square feet of design and fabrication spaces within the University of Wisconsin College of Engineering. Lennon shared his passion for art, how makerspaces are becoming a catalyst for entrepreneurship and innovation, and what employers can expect when the next generation of engineers and tinkerers start working professionally.

- Art and engineering

- Engineers are more hands-on today

- Makerspaces as interdisciplinary innovation accelerators

- Engineers must be user-centered

Brenda Chamulak was recently named President and CEO of Tekni-Plex, a global packaging solutions leader. In her new role, Brenda is leveraging her considerable experience in innovation and user experience to help propel a growth strategy for the company. Brenda shared her thoughts on what’s needed to guide a rapidly growing company in a rapidly changing industry through a watershed time in our history.

- Growth requires alignment

- Growth through acquisition means looking at the bigger picture

- Your brand needs to stay relevant as consumer choices change

- Triangulation helps guide “skating toward the puck”

- Innovation comes from within

Co-hosts Dave Franchino and Stefanie Norvaisas talk with QuHarrison Terry, a growth marketer at Mark Cuban Companies, a Dallas, Texas, venture capital firm, where he advises and assists portfolio companies with their marketing strategies and objectives.

Co-hosts Dave Franchino and Stefanie Norvaisas talk with Ben Morris, CEO and Founder of Coaster Cycles, Coaster Outdoor and CC Face Shields. Coaster Cycles develops innovative, eco-friendly transportation solutions for passenger, last-mile and cargo needs. Coaster Outdoor focuses on pedicab-based marketing solutions. He started both companies in 2004. This year, in light of the needs for PPE at the beginning of the pandemic, he started CC Face Shields.

Co-hosts Dave Franchino and Stefanie Norvaisas talk with Deanna Ballew, Chief Innovation Officer of Widen Enterprises, a marketing technology company with a multi-faceted software platform that spans brand management, contact, lifestyle management, life-cycle management, video, and creative management solutions.

Deanna talks about the journey Widen has taken to evolve from engraving to printing to software to meet their users' needs. She shares the company's commitment to learning how to create and effectively executive a 3-5 year innovation pipeline of products and services. A commitment to ongoing learning is critical to the company's 70 years of success and its future.

Co-hosts Dave Franchino and Stefanie Norvaisas talk with Winnie Karanja, the founder and executive director of Maydm, a Madison-based organization that provides girls and youth of color in grades six to 12 with skill- based training in the technology sector.

Winnie talks about her experiences in founding Maydm as a young entrepreneur, the barriers and biases in place that have kept women and people of color out of the tech industry, and the tremendous opportunities for innovation available if we can enable all kids to work to their full potential. She talks about the importance of partnering with other people and organizations to bring about greater social and racial justice.

Co-hosts Dave Franchino and Stefanie Norvaisas talk with Adam Elsesser, Chairman and CEO of Penumbra, a California-based company that develops innovative products for neurological and vascular conditions. Adam co-founded Penumbra with a physician friend in 2004. It was their second venture together, after selling their first medical device company to Boston Scientific. Adam talks about the importance of making sure the work is meaningful as a guide for all Penumbra's innovation projects. He also discusses the challenges and opportunities that have been revealed during the Covid 19 pandemic and how it's changing the way he and the company operate.

Co-hosts Dave Franchino and Stefanie Norvaisas talk with Kevin Conroy, President and CEO of Exact Sciences, a Madison-based biotech. Under Kevin’s leadership since 2009, the company has grown from three people to more than 4,200. Their flagship product, Cologuard, is a proprietary multi-marker test for the early detection of colorectal cancer. In this interview, Kevin talks about the challenges his company has faced during the pandemic and how they quickly developed a Covid-19 test and partnered with the state of Wisconsin to make it widely available. He also discusses the opportunities that the growing acceptance of telehealth is opening up directly reaching consumers and increasing the rate of screening.

Co-hosts Dave Franchino and Stefanie Norvaisas talk with Julie Norvaisas, Senior Director of User Research at LinkedIn, the world's largest professional social network with 675 million members worldwide. Julie talks about how a strong, transparent, and inclusive culture helps her foster creativity and a shared sense of purpose among her team of researchers and writers, who work in disparate locations around the world.