Itai Green
Large organisations know they need to innovate faster than their own R&D cycles allow. They have budget, scouting teams, and pilot programmes, yet most startup engagements stall before any technology reaches a revenue line. The hard question is not where to find innovation; it is how to build the internal structure that lets a corporate actually absorb it.
Itai Green is the founder of Innovate Israel and helps global corporations turn startup collaboration into commercial outcomes rather than pilot fatigue.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Itai Green
- He runs the executive playbook for open innovation, built on programmes delivered for named multinationals including Toyota, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Maccabi Healthcare, and Electra.
- He owns the access point to two of Israel’s largest vertical startup communities, ITTS (around 350 traveltech founders) and IITS for insurtech, which gives corporate audiences a direct route into live deal flow.
- His forthcoming book with Business Expert Press, “Innovation or Elimination: Winning in a World of Constant Change,” codifies a two-decade framework for collaboration between corporates and startups, so the keynote carries a published thesis rather than a deck.
- He has briefed senior executive audiences at repeat Economist summits, UNWTO, and Amcham Brazil’s CEO Forum, which means he calibrates to board-level decision makers, not technology enthusiasts.
- He headed corporate innovation at Amadeus IT Group before building the consultancy, so he speaks to the internal politics of innovation programmes from the same side of the table as the buyer.
Biography highlights
- Founder and CEO, Innovate Israel (2017 to present).
- Co-Founder & CEO of “Global Innovation & Strategy Consulting”, since 2024.
- Former Head of Business Development and Innovation, Amadeus IT Group Israel.
- Former CEO, Maxtech Technologies; former VP Business Development, Techtium; prior roles at Elbit.
- Co-founder, JerusalemOnline.
- Author, “Innovation or Elimination: Winning in a World of Constant Change,” Business Expert Press.
- Founder of the ITTS and IITS startup communities covering traveltech and insurtech in Israel.
- Keynote speaker at Economist summits (2018 to 2022), UNWTO Tourism Startup Competition, and Amcham Brazil CEO Forum.
Biography
Most corporate innovation programmes fail quietly. They produce pilots, demo days, and scouting reports, but very little that reaches a P&L. The gap is not talent or budget; it is the wiring between the corporate and the outside ecosystem it claims to work with.
Itai Green has spent two decades inside that wiring. As Head of Business Development and Innovation at Amadeus IT Group in Israel, and before that as a CEO and operator across Maxtech, Techtium, and Elbit, he built the internal muscle that most large organisations are still trying to grow. In 2017 he founded Innovate Israel to run that playbook for global corporates, connecting them to Israeli startups across IT, pharma, finance, travel, retail, banking, insurance, energy, and construction tech. Client work has included Toyota, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Maccabi Healthcare, and Electra.
Alongside the consulting practice, he built two of the largest sector communities in Israel’s ecosystem. ITTS (Israel Travel Tech Startups) now covers around 350 founders. IITS does the same job for insurance technology. For a corporate buyer, those communities are the live deal flow behind the keynote.
His book “Innovation or Elimination: Winning in a World of Constant Change,” published by Business Expert Press, sets out the framework he has been using with clients: how leadership teams structure open innovation, how they absorb external technology without breaking their core business, and how they stop confusing pilots with outcomes.
Key speaking topics
- Open innovation and corporate-startup collaboration
- Generative AI in corporate strategy
- Israeli innovation ecosystem and ecosystem engagement
- Traveltech and insurtech
- Corporate venturing and scouting models
- Innovation leadership and organisational readiness
- Business model innovation under geopolitical and tariff pressure
Ideal for
- Chief Innovation Officers, Heads of Corporate Venturing, and Chief Strategy Officers building or resetting an open innovation function.
- Executive committees in travel, insurance, pharma, retail, energy, and banking evaluating engagement with Israel’s startup ecosystem.
- Business development and R&D leaders who have active scouting but no reliable path from pilot to deployment.
- Boards and CEO forums looking for an operator’s view on turning innovation spend into commercial growth.
Audience outcomes
- A working definition of what separates a functioning open innovation programme from a scouting theatre.
- A clear map of how to engage with Israel’s startup ecosystem without burning internal credibility on dead-end pilots.
- A perspective on where generative AI shifts the corporate-startup dynamic, grounded in live client work rather than forecasts.
- Specific internal structures and incentives that leaders can use to move a pilot from proof of concept to a line of business.
- A candid read on where open innovation tends to fail inside large corporates, from someone who has sat on both sides.
Talks
A keynote on how leadership teams should respond to tariff shocks and geopolitical disruption by rebuilding their innovation model, not retrenching.
Key takeaways:
- How tariff exposure reshapes corporate innovation priorities across supply chain, sourcing, and technology.
- Why defensive cost-cutting tends to accelerate elimination rather than prevent it.
- Practical moves leaders can make to convert geopolitical pressure into an innovation agenda.
A direct talk on why most corporate innovation programmes stall and what an operating model for real open innovation looks like.
Key takeaways:
- The common failure patterns that turn innovation programmes into pilot theatre.
- How corporates should structure engagement with external startup ecosystems.
- What internal sponsorship, governance, and incentives a serious programme requires.
A working session on how generative AI is changing the corporate-startup relationship and where it creates real commercial leverage.
Key takeaways:
- Where generative AI is moving from hype to P&L impact across functions.
- How corporates should partner with AI startups without losing strategic control.
- A view on governance, risk, and vendor selection in an accelerating AI market.
Videos
Testimonials
Books
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Asia Pacific | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Europe | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Middle East & Africa | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| South America | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| United Kingdom | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| US East Coast | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| US West Coast | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Virtual | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |