The Long Island innovation economy has many leaders, but few as driven or accomplished as Kevin Law.

Known best as the longtime president and CEO of the Long Island Association, Kevin has amassed an amazing economic-development record across Long Island’s public and private sectors, helping to generate $5 billion in government and private infrastructure investments – a lawyer, planner, conservationist, business networker, affordable-housing spearhead and relentless soldier for Long Island’s myriad socioeconomic causes.

In today’s conversation, the nominee to lead Albany’s Empire State Development Corp. joins Spark Host Gregory Zeller to remember his most influential mentors, review his long public-service career and share his brightest hopes for the future of Long Island energy, transportation and housing development.

Innovate Long Island readers already know David Chauvin, executive vice president of ZE Creative Communications in Great Neck and a cornerstone of Innovate LI’s fantastic Voices column.

As our government and media expert, David has explored a wide breadth of accessible and important topics, ranging from social responsibility to the Millennial mindset to the importance of science over sensationalism, with a healthy exploration of social media’s risks and rewards. These topics, of course, cross his desk constantly at ZE Creative Communications, where David manages day-to-day operations and helps numerous clients share their best public face.

In today’s conversation, the executive VP joins Spark host Gregory Zeller to discuss innovation in the PR world – and how being a Mets fan creates a certain air of pollyannish optimism.

This month marks one full year since Dr. Timothy Sams assumed the presidency of the State University of New York College at Old Westbury. And what a year it’s been. 

Succeeding longtime president Dr. Calvin Butts III, Tim took over smack dab in the middle of the ever-changing COVID pandemic – a unique challenge for any new administrator, though it turns out his particular set of experiences with inclusive innovation and strategic change, and his decades of professional success at well-regarded universities, prepared Tim well. 

In today’s conversation, the SUNY Old Westbury president joins Spark host Gregory Zeller to discuss the importance of liberal-arts education and social justice – and the need for creative management of society’s most crucial resource: young, impressionable minds.  

Mitch Maiman truly needs no introduction to the Innovate Long Island audience. A fixture of Long Island innovation, he’s the president and cofounder of Intelligent Product Solutions, a Hauppauge-based product-development consultancy that’s carved a mighty niche as one of the region’s premier creator/enhancers.

Mitch has led the company since its 2007 launch and straight through its 2018 acquisition by Forward Industries, which actually relocated itself from Florida to Long Island to allow IPS to stay in its well-developed flow. Recognizing a job well done, the longtime president finally stepped down on Jan. 1, 2022 – but there are many itches for this experienced engineer and unparalleled entrepreneur left to scratch.

In today’s episode, Mitch joins Spark Host Gregory Zeller to discuss the past, present and future of Intelligent Product Solutions – and reveal what “retirement” has in store for one of Long Island’s great innovators.

Renee Flagler is knee-deep in partnerships and outreach efforts designed to help future socioeconomic innovators positively influence the world they inherit – specifically, the next generation of young professional women.

The teacher, award-winning writer and passionate public speaker is entering her fifth year as executive director of Girls Inc. of Long Island, the regional chapter of the national organization devoted to empowering girls to be strong, bold and self-confident in work and all facets of life.

In today’s conversation, Renee joins Spark Host Gregory Zeller to discuss community-based programming, critical capital campaigns and the “human duty of service” – and to reveal how running a Girls Inc. chapter is the perfect way for a natural-born writer to express herself.

Brian Fried is an inventor in the truest sense – a home-based tinkerer with a garage full of exciting contraptions, a real dedication to creating a better world and a fully realized sense of human nature.

Since he made his first commercial mark in 2007 with Pull Ties Fasteners – think “Twisty Ties: The Next Generation” – Brian has created podcasts, written books, launched professional consultancies and formed inventor clubs, all designed to help other makers commercialize their designs. What started as a monthly Suffolk County-based entrepreneurs club has now gone national, exponentially expanding Brian’s ability to help rookie inventors get where they want to go.

In today’s conversation, Brian joins Spark host Gregory Zeller to retrace his steps toward inventive mentor, define his personal creativity process and discuss the differences between a good idea and a commercially viable idea – not always the same thing!

Change is in the air at Hofstra University, where freshly minted President Dr. Susan Poser – the first woman to fill the post – has completed her first 100 days in office and is steaming toward a bold new future for Long Island’s largest private university.

A lawyer and long-experienced academician, Dr. Poser now runs what is, essentially, a small city: Hofstra boasts nearly 120 buildings across a sprawling 244-acre campus, with a student body of 10,000-plus and more than 2,500 staff and faculty members. And while she’s already impressed by the institution and its accomplishments, she’s promising some big changes – at her October inauguration, the new president announced a yearlong effort to solicit input from the Hofstra community on where the university will go in a post-pandemic world, and how it will get there.

In today’s conversation, Dr. Poser joins Spark host Gregory Zeller to define that ambitious innovation strategy and discuss the rich history, multifaceted programs and powerful off-campus alliances that make Hofstra University a true jewel of Long Island’s academic crown.

Stony Brook University cornerstone David Hamilton is one of the hardest workers in all of Long Island innovation.

As executive director of Stony Brook’s Clean Energy Business Incubator Program (the “incubator without walls”) and chief operating officer for the university’s Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center (a New York State-funded Center of Excellence), he’s a teacher, a mentor, a master networker, a logistics expert and a team leader for dozens of early-stage energy and sustainability companies … exactly the kind of roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-’er-done type inexperienced entrepreneurs need to help them navigate the treacherous, unforgiving waters of business development.

In today’s conversation, David joins Spark host Gregory Zeller to discuss the past, present and (increasingly international) future of CEBIP and the AERTC – and to underscore the critical work of the busy Stony Brook University incubator programs, which operate on the front lines of the global war against climate change.

Armed with gallons of courage and the latest ghost-busting technology science can offer (forget the proton packs, this is serious stuff), the 17 volunteer members of the Long Island Paranormal Investigators team are knee-deep in the other side – facing fearsome phantoms and probing petrifying poltergeists in Long Island’s cemeteries, haunted houses and spooky woods.

Fiction, you say? Maybe. But co-founder Michael Cardinuto, a lead director at Westbury-based special-needs social-services agency Tiegerman Community Services, can tell you stories that will turn you white as a ghost: disembodied screams, mysterious hooded beings, demonic pig-lizards, shadow people and more, all here on Long Island and all very real, according to the paranormal professional.

In today’s conversation, Michael joins Spark host Gregory Zeller to debunk the “nonsense” of “reality TV” ghost-hunting, review his most blood-curdling experiences from 18 years of real-life afterlife investigations and confirm that – if you know where and how to look – the truth is out there. Happy Halloween, brave listeners!

With its trendsetting tradeshows, forward-looking committees, 1,300-plus member companies and 11-square-mile industrial park – packed daily with more than 55,000 employees – the HIA-LI (formerly the Hauppauge Industrial Association of Long Island) ranks among Long Island’s most powerful economic engines.

As its face, voice and guiding hand, President and CEO Terri Alessi-Micelli occupies a prominent spot in the Long Island zeitgeist and plays a critical role in the Island’s ever-evolving quest for economic progress. Pulling the HIA-LI’s strings since 2004, Terri has led the government-lobbying group and regional networking lynchpin through significant changes – and headfirst into the digital age.

In today’s conversation, the major-league rainmaker joins Spark host Gregory Zeller to discuss the past, present and post-pandemic future of the HIA-LI, where COVID-19 has forever altered the playing field – but not the goal, which has remained unchanged over the organization’s 42-year history: socioeconomic greatness for all of Long Island.