Scaling Innovation: AI and Digital Strategies for Business Transformation

David Bell is a trailblazer in eCommerce and omnichannel strategy, referred to as the “Guru of the direct-to-consumer movement” by Inc. magazine. He brings a first-principles viewpoint to commerce and entrepreneurship as an investor, academic, and co-founder of Idea Farm Ventures, which focuses on “better-for-consumers, better-for-the-planet” products that reinvent staid categories. His team provides capital and partners closely with founders on strategic decisions. Early investments include Bonobos, Diapers.com, Jet.com, Harry’s, Warby Parker, and Cotopaxi.

Through his consulting firm, Acamania, David advises emerging and established companies on innovation and growth. He’s a sought-after speaker on digital business strategy, delivering keynotes for Google, Alibaba, Nike, Mastercard, OECD, and others worldwide.

As an academic, David published in all premier marketing journals and received multiple awards from INFORMS and POMS, including the Frank M. Bass Outstanding Dissertation Award and multiple Best Paper finalist recognitions. He was formerly a chaired professor and award-winning teacher.

David holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Statistics from Stanford, an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Auckland. He resides in New York City and is a U.S. Permanent Resident and New Zealand citizen.

Garud Iyengar is the Avanessians Director of the Data Science Institute (DSI) and a Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research at Columbia Engineering. In his role at DSI, he leads education and research initiatives for Columbia’s central hub of data science and AI scholarship, which includes more than 400 affiliated faculty. He received his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur, and his MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Garud’s research interests span control, machine learning, and optimization, with current projects focusing on large-scale power systems and supply chains, causal inference, and modeling of cellular processes. He was elected an INFORMS Fellow in 2018 and served as Chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from 2013 to 2019. From 2021 to 2024, he served as Columbia Engineering’s Senior Vice Dean for Research and Academic Programs, and he was an Amazon Scholar from 2019 to 2024.

Prof. Harry West Professor West is a professional practice in the department of industrial engineering and operation research. He's the driving force behind Columbia's innovative curriculum, focusing on design, data, and behavior change to reduce consumption. As the Principal of Invisible Design, he tackles complex business challenges and guides organizations to align their design work with strategic goals. Harry's impressive background includes being the former CEO of frog, Senior Partner at Prophet, and CEO at Continuum. He's had a hand in creating groundbreaking products like Swiffer and ThermaCare for P&G and reimagining interactions in financial services with BBVA and Fidelity. His extensive global experience spans numerous companies, from American Express to BMW, with a track record of billion-dollar product and service designs. Before his design consulting career, he taught engineering at MIT, holding a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the same institution, and holds a deep academic background with degrees from Cambridge University and MIT.

Hod Lipson - An award-winning researcher, teacher, and communicator, Lipson enjoys sharing the beauty of robotics through his books, essays, public lectures, and radio and television appearances. He is a professor of Mechanical Engineering and Data Science at Columbia University, where he directs the Creative Machines Lab, which pioneers new ways to make machines that create, and machines that are creative.

Before joining Columbia University in 2015, Lipson spent 14 years as a professor at Cornell University. He received his PhD in 1999 from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, followed by a postdoc at Brandeis University and MIT. His work on self-aware and self-replicating robots challenges conventional views of robotics and has enjoyed widespread media coverage. He has also pioneered open-source 3D printing, as well as electronics 3D printing, bio-printing and food printing. Lipson has co-authored over 300 publications that received over 14,000 citations to date. He has co-founded four companies, and is a frequent keynote speaker at both industry and academic events. His TED Talk on self-aware machines is one of the most viewed presentations on AI and robotics.

Dr. Yahui Anita Huang holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin, an internationally recognized program for its strength in both theoretical and applied linguistics. Prior to joining Columbia's East Asian Languages and Cultures Dept, she was an Associate Professor at the University of Alabama/Birmingham, where she played a leading role in shaping the university’s Chinese language and culture curriculum, mentoring junior faculty, and developing innovative academic programs.

Her research lies at the intersection of linguistics, pragmatics, and cross-cultural communication. She investigates how speech acts and cultural values are conveyed through language. She has also authored original studies on the Analects and Zhuangzi, focusing on their linguistic and cultural interpretations. She has presented her research at major international academic conferences, and continues to contribute to thought leadership in her field. Her expertise has also positioned her as a well-regarded and trusted advisor to global business executives navigating complex intercultural environments.

Xiaobo Lü is the Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Political Science at Barnard College. Professor Lü was the founding Director of Columbia Global Centers | East Asia in Beijing in 2008-10.  While in China, he was a visiting professor at Tsinghua University and taught courses at the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua. He also lectured at Remin, Zhongshan, and Peking Universities and participated in several conferences on regulatory reform and environmental governance in China.

Professor Lü teaches courses on Chinese politics, political economy, and comparative politics. His research interests include post-socialist transition, corruption and good governance, regulatory reforms, and government-business relations. As a principle investigator, he was responsible for leading an international research project, “Central-local relations and environmental governance in China”, funded by Global Public Policy Network (consisted of Columbia, LSE, and Sciences-po) in 2008-10. Currently he is working on a book manuscript, From Player to Referee: the Rise of the Regulatory State in China.

He has published widely on these subjects. He is the author of the book Cadres and Corruption (2000). He is also a co-author of Danwei: Changing Chinese Workplace in Historical and Comparative Perspective (1997). His recent book (with Thomas Bernstein) is on the political and economic changes in the Chinese countryside, Taxation without Representation in Contemporary Rural China (2003).  He was visiting professor at Tsinghua University and Jiaotong University in China; City University of Hong Kong; Institute of Political Science (Sciences-Po) and Paris University I-Sorbonne in Paris. Professor Lü serves on the editorial boards of several international scholarly journals.

Xiaobo Lü is a member of Council on Foreign Relations, Committee of 100, and the National Committee of US-China Relations. He is a regular commentator on China and US-China relations on PBS, CNN, BBC, and NPR and has delivered speeches and briefings to organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations, the Asia Foundation, the Asia Society, World Affairs Council, National Committee for US-China Relations, American Center for International Leadership, Asia Society, the China Institute of America, and the Japan Society.

Professor Lü received his PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1994. He received an Individual Project Fellowship from the Open Society Institute in 1998–1999 and was appointed a National Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, for the same year. In 2001, he was named an International Affairs Fellow by the Council on Foreign Relations. Professor Lü joined the Barnard faculty in 1994.

His research focuses on quantitative behavioral finance models that incorporate human emotions and psychology into financial decision making, and on intelligent wealth management solutions using optimal control and machine learning techniques. Zhou is well known for his work in indefinite stochastic LQ control theory and application to dynamic mean-variance portfolio selection, in asset allocation and pricing under cumulative prospect theory, and in general time inconsistent problems. He directs the FDT Center for Intelligent Asset Management, a research center funded by a FinTech company. He has addressed the 2010 International Congress of Mathematicians and has been awarded the Wolfson Research Award from The Royal Society (UK), the Outstanding Paper Prize from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, the Humboldt Distinguished Lecturer, and the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship. He is both an IEEE Fellow and a SIAM Fellow. Zhou received his Ph.D. in Operations Research and Control Theory from Fudan University in China in 1989. He was the Nomura Professor of Mathematical Finance and the Director of Nomura Center for Mathematical Finance at University of Oxford during 2007-2016 before joining Columbia.

Dr. Xiang is a leading authority on China business. His insights on the innovations in China, globalization of Chinese companies, China’s development models, global implications of China’s transformation and economic disruption have been widely acclaimed. He serves as an independent board member of several companies (including three Fortune Global 500 companies) listed in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and the United States.

Dr. Xiang’s research interests include the reform of state-owned enterprises, innovation, and the role of the private sector in China, and economic disruptions. He is a leading authority on China business, innovations in China, globalization of Chinese companies, China’s development models, global implications of China’s transformation, social innovation, economic disruptions, China-US relations, global trade and investment systems and global governance. His writings and cases on these subjects are considered among the most influential in China and beyond.

Dr. Hong Chen is Professor of Management Science at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB). He is one of the founding faculty members of CKGSB and the director of the Clean Energy and Carbon Neutral Development Research Center. Prior to joining CKGSB, he held the positions of Alumni Professor of Supply Chain Management at the University of British Colombia Sauder School of Business, and Professor of Management Science at Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance. In recent years, his research has focused on clean energy and carbon neutral development, particularly in the fields of investment, technology, and market opportunities in the entire hydrogen value chain. Dr. Hong Chen received his PhD from Stanford University