SRI CEO Curtis R. Carlson to Address Malaysian Leaders on the Challenges and Opportunities in Building an Innovation Economy

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia and Menlo Park, Calif.—July 20 , 2009—SRI International, an independent nonprofit research institute, announced its president and CEO, Curtis R. Carlson, Ph.D., will present a keynote address, Innovation and Creativity: The Innovation Imperative, at a full-day event, Malaysian Innovation Economy: Concept and Leadership Challenges, taking place July 23 in Kuala Lumpur. Dr. Carlson will address Malaysian government and business executives on strategies for building a robust Malaysian innovation economy.  

SRI’s Five Disciplines of Innovation™ Program
SRI will also host innovation development programs for the Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR). During the visit, Dr. Carlson and other SRI executives will also meet with companies and other organizations in the region.

Dr. Carlson, author of Innovation: the Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want, states “Innovation is now the primary driver of growth, prosperity, and quality of life. Fortunately, we live in a world of abundance—not scarcity. There have never been more opportunities. But it is a world where individuals, their teams, and their enterprises need the right innovation skills to first identify and then develop these opportunities.”

“Malaysia has an important base of assets, including a motivated workforce, a wealth of natural resources, a market-driven economy, and an established educational system,” said Stephen Ciesinski, SRI vice president of strategic business development. “We are honored to be part of this strategic program in Malaysia and to present an actionable strategy and vision that is in line with Prime Minister Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak's recently announced plans for a new economic model that will focus the country on innovation best practices. Leveraging SRI’s Five Disciplines of Innovation, Malaysia can further entrepreneurship, increase workforce productivity, and move the country toward its goal of becoming an innovation-driven economy.”  

Dr. Carlson became president and CEO of SRI International in December 1998. Over the course of his career, he has helped form dozens of new companies and products. He started and helped lead the high-definition television (HDTV) program that became the U.S. standard and in 1997 won an Emmy® Award for the team for outstanding technical achievement. Dr. Carlson has published or presented many technical publications and holds fundamental patents in the fields of image quality, image coding, and computer vision.

Carlson has been on numerous public and private boards, including Nuance Communications (computer speech recognition), Pyramid Vision (computer vision), Sensar (iris biometric identification), and Sarif (LCD displays). He serves as co-chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Singapore National Research Foundation. He is also a charter member of the Innovation Council for the World Economic Forum.

About SRI International
Silicon Valley-based SRI International is one of the world's leading independent research and technology development organizations. SRI, which was founded by Stanford University as Stanford Research Institute in 1946 and became independent in 1970, has been meeting the strategic needs of clients and partners for more than 60 years. Perhaps best known for its invention of the computer mouse and interactive computing, SRI has also been responsible for major advances in networking and communications, robotics, drug discovery and development, advanced materials, atmospheric research, education research, economic development, national security, and more. The nonprofit institute performs sponsored research and development for government agencies, businesses, and foundations. SRI also licenses its technologies, forms strategic alliances, and creates spin-off companies. In 2008, SRI's consolidated revenues, including its wholly owned for-profit subsidiary, Sarnoff Corporation, were approximately $490 million.