Suna Polat, Ph.D., Director, Collaborative Innovation & Social Product Development Consulting Practice

Dr. Suna Polat has over 23 years of experience in technology development, product development, innovation management, implementation of strategic innovation capabilities—including modeling and simulation (M&S), open innovation, knowledge management, and social technologies—and driving change and adoption, through her career at Procter & Gamble (P&G) and with her own consulting practice thereafter.

Prior to joining CIMdata, Dr. Polat developed expertise in transport phenomena (and CAE modeling) in academia, and spent over 21 years at P&G, where initially she developed process and material technologies for diverse product categories. Subsequently, Dr. Polat held various leadership roles; she was responsible for the implementation of strategic innovation capabilities, such as open innovation, M&S, and social innovation platforms, for which a common thread was driving organizational culture change and adoption. During her tenure at P&G, Dr. Polat worked with and benchmarked best-in-class companies in diverse industries including consumer goods, material suppliers, IT technology, auto, airline, and pharmaceuticals, to source technology and identify both best practices and new approaches for cultivating innovation and innovation productivity. Dr. Polat’s current interests include methods to assess the state of connectivity and collaboration in large organizations and networks; the effect of organizational culture on innovation output; and the influence of communities and social technologies on employee experiences, creativity, and innovation output.

Dr. Polat holds a BS (Middle East Technical University, Turkey), an MS (University of Pittsburgh), and a Ph.D. (McGill University, Canada) in Chemical Engineering.

Ken Versprille, Ph.D., Executive Consultant and Practice Manager, Social Product Development & Collaboration

Dr. Ken Versprille has over 35 years of experience in the application of computer-based solutions for engineering and manufacturing. He joined CIMdata after 16 years heading the Design Creation and Validation service at CPDA. His research spans geometric design, design collaboration and automation, PLM standards and openness, and the integration of CAD across PLM applications.

During 15 years at Computervision, Dr. Versprille became the equivalent of CTO, and was R&D Vice President of core applications. He was a lead architect of the CADDS 4 product, with responsibility for the initial design of Computervision’s 3D graphics system. As General Manager of CV-Doors, he led the group that introduced and managed the CAD industry’s first geometric kernel business.

Dr. Versprille received a BS in Mathematics from the University of New Hampshire. His MS and Ph.D. in Computer Science are from Syracuse University. Dr. Versprille is recognized for publishing the first description of NURBS, the mathematical curve-and-surface formulation, now an international standard in CAD and Computer Graphics. In 2005 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award by The CAD Society.