Linda Bernardi

Chief Innovation Officer, Cloud and IoT, IBM

203 - Disruption, Innovation, IoT, and Women: Disrupt to Succeed!

Passionate about women in technology and business (as reflected in her latest column for the Washington Post), Linda Bernardi recently joined IBM as Chief Innovation Officer, Cloud and Internet of Things. Ms. Bernardi believes in the perspective, ability, and creativity that women bring into technology roles, leadership, and business. She is one of the Founding Board Members of the Anita Borg Institute and the 2013 Grace Hopper Celebration. In her work with large corporate clients, Ms. Bernardi constantly reminds them as to why there is a need for women in technical and executive leadership roles globally. She is active with venture and angel funds investing in women-founded startups, and is a strong advocate of promoting women entrepreneurs and mentoring women. In her 2012 book, ProVoke, Ms. Bernardi discussed the importance of disruption in order to innovate, and dedicated a chapter to women entrepreneurs. This formed the premise for the Culture of Disruption and her work with large enterprises.

In a complete journey of vision to execution, Ms. Bernardi founded, grew, and sold ConnecTerra, Inc., a software provider connecting RFID technology to large enterprise IT. As the creator of the Bernardi Leadership Institute, she engages with corporations around the globe as a consultant, speaker, and coach, training personnel in her passionate, organic leadership theories. An active entrepreneur, technologist, educator, investor, and board member, Ms. Bernardi was the founder and CEO of StraTerra Partners, a technology strategy consulting firm that works closely with large enterprises and technology developers to promote innovative, disruptive products, business models and strategies. She holds a Master's degree in applied statistics from UCLA.