What does it mean to be an innovative leader? Lloyd Trotter of GenNx360 Capital Partners, Peter Buca of Parker Hannifin, Anthony Knight of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and Maryrose Sylvester of GE Lighting shared words of wisdom at a Cleveland State University Presidential Forum on March 4, 2015.

2. “Innovators spend a lot of their time being
uncomfortable – and they’re pretty comfortable with
that. When you’re leading innovation, it’s all about
creating a safe space for people to share thoughts, to
push the edge and to challenge things.”
PETER BUCA
VP of Technology & Innovation / Fluid Connectors Group
Parker Hannifin

3. “We all play a role in helping spur
innovation, in getting ideas from the
laboratory to Wall Street. If we want
hopes and dreams in the
marketplace, let’s start by
supporting those hopes and dreams
for each and every individual.”
LLOYD TROTTER
Founder & Managing Partner
GenNx360 Capital Partners

4. “Innovation is what keeps you in business. To stay in
business, you have to reinvent yourself every single day.”
MARYROSE SYLVESTER
President & CEO
GE Lighting

5. “Innovation is a creed in something. It has to be
something unique. It could be almost anything. You can
be innovative about your business practices. You can
be innovative about technology. You can even be
innovative about government.”
ANTHONY KNIGHT
Associate Commissioner for Innovation Development
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office

6. “Innovators fail. One of the jobs of a leader of
innovation is to protect your failures. Pick those pieces
up and find a way to turn those into value.”
PETER BUCA
VP of Technology & Innovation / Fluid Connectors Group
Parker Hannifin

7. “If we don’t change, we run the risk of being Kodak.
That’s what gets me out of bed. Not on my watch – it’s
not going to happen.”
MARYROSE SYLVESTER
President & CEO
GE Lighting

8. “Business leaders who are forward-thinking really
understand the value of something that you can expand and
build on and make it into a product that will give you first-
mover advantage. That’s where innovation really connects.”
LLOYD TROTTER
Founder & Managing Partner
GenNx360 Capital Partners

9. “If you don’t have the leaders in place to help you and to
allow you to go forward with ideas, it just doesn’t work out.”
ANTHONY KNIGHT
Associate Commissioner for Innovation Development
U.S. Patent & Trademark Office

10. “Pull people together who have an
opportunity to drive change. Tell
them: Get nuts. Tell me what’s
possible. Tell me what you need.”
MARYROSE SYLVESTER
President & CEO
GE Lighting

11. “Our sports culture does us a disservice when you think
about business and innovation. We have this mental
model that there’s a game going on, and at the end of
the game someone wins and someone loses. Innovation
is a game that never ends. There really is no loser and
no winner. It’s a matter of continually trying.”
PETER BUCA
VP of Technology & Innovation / Fluid Connectors Group
Parker Hannifin

12. (l to r) Anthony Knight, Lloyd Trotter, CSU President
Ronald M. Berkman, Peter Buca and Maryrose Sylvester

13. These quotes were taken from the forum “From Laboratory to Wall Street: How Hopes and
Dreams Enter the Marketplace,” presented March 4, 2015, at Cleveland State University by
the Monte Ahuja College of Business and the Washkewicz College of Engineering as part of
the 50th Anniversary CSU Presidential Forums series.
For a complete schedule of upcoming forums in the series and registration information,
please visit www.csuohio.edu/50/forums.html
© 2015 Cleveland State University