Joanne Friedman is CEO and Principal, Smart Manufacturing at Connektedminds Inc. where she empowers executives to be digital —not do digital to succeed at   Digital Transformation or Industry 4.0.  An award-winning technology innovator and industry thought leader, Dr. Friedman is a former manufacturing industry CIO turned IT Industry Analyst (Gartner) with a history of delivering innovative technology solutions to global leaders in the pharmaceutical and electronics manufacturing sectors. A natural storyteller, Joanne is an effusive personality whose passion for human centered design and penchant for witticisms punctuate her keynotes on Industrial transformation, cyber-security in manufacturing, AI, and CIO leadership. Ranked among the top 100 Global Voices on Digital Ecosystems by Thinkers 360 (2022) and among the top 30 Voices on Industrial IoT by Onalytica (2020) Dr. Friedman was elected to serve on the America’s Board of MESA.org in 2023, and continues to participate in technical standards development within iNEMI, W3C, ISO, IEEE. A staunch advocate for women in STEM, Joanne is a regular contributor on RackN’s Cloud 2030 podcast and featured speaker on Coffee with Digital Trailblazers. Most recently Joanne was featured on Endeavour Media’s Executive Perspectives, Nomad Futurist, IT Visionaries and is regularly quoted in CIO and trade publications. The author of Business Bites Back, and Zen and the Art of E-business early in her career, she is currently at work on her next tome, “Digi-waaat?”