Innovation Management Program – Innovation Leader of the Year

The Innovation Leader of the Year is an award initiated by Vinnova, RISE, and the professional association Innovationsledarna. The prize aims to inspire, recognize, and highlight innovation leaders who have built capability and created value within their organizations and for society.

Award Ceremony: Innovation Leader of the Year 2024

The ceremony to announce and present the awards for Innovation Leader of the Year 2024, in both the public sector and private industry, will take place on December 17th at Vinnova in Stockholm and Online. 

Registration and the current program can be found on the website of the Professional Association for Innovation Leaders – follow the link to the event where the Innovation Leader of the Year 2024 will be announced and receive their awards. Please note that the event and page are in Swedish.

Previous Innovation Leaders of the Year

The winner of Innovation Leader of the Year 2023 was Magnus Sundström, Head of Research and Innovation at the Swedish Maritime Administration. At this link on YouTube, you can watch the award ceremony from the 2023 Quality Fair. The presentation is in Swedish.

If you're curious to learn more about previous winners, you can find information in Swedish at the following link: Innovation Management Conference 2022 and 2021.

Nomination Criteria

The nominee has:

Contributed to building the capability to systematically lead and organize innovation work in an organization or multiple organizations in collaboration. The person has, for example, worked with: facilitation, development of innovation strategy, vision and mission, building an innovation organization, processes, etc.
   
and/or

Contributed to realizing and scaling value from innovations. The person has clearly contributed to moving from intention to value. Value creation can consist of new organizational innovations, as well as product, service, and business development, or value created from a broader societal and systemic perspective. As further examples, long-term value can be created through advances in sustainability and linked to the global sustainability goals.

Jury

The jury consists of representatives from academia, the public sector, and the private sector.

Trond Bugge 
Director of User Experience & Venture Growth 
Ericsson

Maja Påhlman 
Head of Innovation, Arla Foods ​
Chair of the Swedish professional association Innovationsledarna

Leif Denti 
Ph. Lic., Senior Lecturer 
University of Gothenburg 

Ingrid Kihlander 
Researcher, Innovation management 
RISE Research Institute of Sweden 
Adjunct professor, Swedish Defence University 

Fredrik Lindencrona 
Lead for strategic improvement and international collaboration, Mental Wellbeing, SKR
Head of Research Co-Creation, Inner Development Goals 

Christian Appelt​
Grundare av Ambient Society​
Tidigare chef inom tjänstedesign på Polestar