MEET OUR EXECUTIVE TEAM & FACULTY
The Academy of Tomorrow is directed by a diverse group of creative, business and tech leaders who are committed to shaping our collective future by helping to develop the next generation of leaders and innovators.
Lital Marom
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Lital Marom is a serial entrepreneur, an innovation strategist & visionary passionate about finding new ways to use emerging technologies and system thinking to create an impact on a global scale.
Lital led the global strategy and sales of Fortune 100 corporations across three continents before going on to found four enterprises: UNFOLD, the BDN Ventures, Beyond and the Academy of Tomorrow.
She founded the Academy of Tomorrow with the mission to prepare the next generation for the future of work. Lital’s passion is to create a new landscape for learning that fosters curiosity, tenacity, and an undeniable belief that we are all capable of making a positive, long-term impact on the world around us.
Her company, Beyond, was a gaming label backed by a global community of parents, designers, educators, and gaming enthusiasts. The vision was to free children from gender stereotypes. She strongly believes that games—when designed, created, and informed with progressive thinking—can promote inclusivity and collaboration, reverse stereotypes, and motivate children to reach their full potential. Beyond built games that reflect a new generation of design and creativity, ultimately promoting a more balanced industry and world. Introducing conscious game design to the world.
At her consultancy UNFOLD, she works closely with executive teams to leverage the power of exponential technologies and form data strategies to grow and scale their business.
A sought-after global keynote speaker, corporate innovator, and frequent lecturer of innovation, new business models, and the digital platform economy. She applies her extensive research to leading recurring Master Classes in partnership with Spark Institute, IBS Business School, and Singularity University. She is a keynote favourite who has spoken at hundreds of corporate leadership summits of Fortune 500 companies, TEDx Amsterdam, and a long list of industry conferences including MEF, IAB, GSM, Mobile World Congress (MWC) Asia, NAB and iHollywood.
Lital started her career in engineering and product management in Europe. She is a thought leader on agile business processes, impact and transformation towards digital businesses. She holds a computer science and business degrees from the Reichman University. She studied investment banking at NYU’s Stern School of Business, Transformative Strategies and Artificial Intelligence at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and is a fellow of THNK School of Creative Leadership.
Lee Feldman
Founder & Investor
Lee Feldman is the founder and partner of the THNK School of Creative Leadership in Vancouver. Prior to this, he founded CycleSpace; co-founded and served as Chief Experience Officer of the digital agency Blast Radius (which went multinational 10 years after its beginnings in his apartment); mentored with Rockstart; was CMO of FITMO; and was a design sales consultant for IKEA Business.
Lee has been recognized with gold and silver Clios and mentions in Communication Arts Design Annuals and Marketing Magazine’s Top 100, and has contributed to numerous global design and awards panels.
Alex Trisoglio
Chief Learning Officer
Alex is an executive coach and leadership advisor, with extensive experience in leadership development, improving individual and team performance, and catalyzing organizational change. He has two decades’ experience working with leading global businesses, professional firms, and international organizations, and has served clients on all five continents and in a wide range of cultural and industry contexts, with a particular focus on knowledge-based businesses.
His experience includes 15 years advising senior leaders at McKinsey & Co., and three years working with the CEO and Management Team at IFC/The World Bank.
Alex has also worked with the CEOs and senior leaders at many Fortune 500 companies, business families, entrepreneurial start-ups and non-profit organizations. He holds a first-class degree in Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University, and a PhD in Leadership and Organizational Behaviour from London University.
Robert Wolfe
Director of Experiential Learning
With a background in management training, leadership coaching, improvisation acting and writing, Robert trains leaders to use storytelling as a way of moving others into action, and leads innovation workshops for corporates and NGOs.
As a facilitator at Stanford University’s MediaX Global Innovation Leadership program, he helps forward-thinking executives turn challenges and crises into opportunities, and lead break-through innovation in their organizations.
He is also a member of the founding faculty of THNK School of Creative Leadership. Born in Australia, educated in Holland, and with vast international experience, Robert leverages his expertise as an author of young adult fiction to help students move confidently onto the leadership stage.
Kate Inglis
Director of Leadership Development
As an educator, facilitator, strategist, and author, Kate Inglis’ award-winning storytelling spans both creative and corporate realms. From her base on the wild shores of Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, Kate has inspired people of all ages. Beyond her acclaimed work with aspirational and established organizations around the globe, Kate has toured her creativity workshops in schools, libraries, and literary festivals across Canada.
Her published works range from literary non-fiction to children’s literature. Her fourth book, Notes for the Everlost: A Field Guide to Grief (2018), was internationally featured and earned her the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Literary Award. Her children’s novels have received several award nominations, and her latest picture book A Great Big Night (2020) garnered critical acclaim with a Kirkus star.
For organizations, including the THNK School of Creative Leadership and the YOXI Innovation Lab, Kate's leadership has led to brand reinvention, incisive culture commentary, and entrepreneurial growth. With decades of experience facilitating transformation through storytelling, Kate's rich tapestry of energized creativity engages all.
Laura Barron
Director of Leadership Development
Laura is a lifelong educator, performer, and social activist committed to cultivating creative confidence and collaboration skills through experiential and arts-infused learning. All of Laura’s socially impactful initiatives are designed to empower participants to become instruments of change in their own lives.
Laura’s powerful facilitation work has also had a broad global reach through youth songwriting and interdisciplinary art projects that she has led in India, Nepal, and Columbia. She founded Instruments of Change, a non-profit that leads highly innovative, arts-based community development initiatives with at-risk youth, underserved school children, marginalized adults and incarcerated women. Laura’s additional collaborative facilitation work brings her into several BC schools, leading cross-curricular Artist in the Classroom projects for ArtStarts, for the Vancouver Biennale’s Big Ideas program, and as a Vancouver Opera Music Champion.
With a doctorate from McGill, she formerly served on the music faculties of the Universities of Oregon, Wisconsin and Northern Arizona. In this capacity, she mentored many of North America’s most elite arts leaders into positions with various prestigious orchestras, universities and arts non-profits.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The Academy of Tomorrow is directed by a diverse group of creative, business and tech leaders who are committed to shaping our collective future by helping world-changing ventures and entrepreneurs scale their social and environmental impact.
May Lee
Chief Strategy Officer of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Former Dean the School of Entrepreneurship & Management at ShanghaiTech, and Vice Chancellor of NYU and NYU Shanghai.
Over the course of her 20-year career, May has become a sought-after partner for companies and organizations wishing to be successful in highly competitive, global environments. She has a knack for spotting—and realizing—growth opportunities. A leader with an independent spirit and steadfast integrity, she energizes teams to think big while never losing sight of the details..
Her career highlights include:
As Chief of Staff to the partners in charge of Goldman Sachs' Fixed Income Division, May envisioned and eventually became part of the core team that built the Credit Derivative business, which has since grown into one of the firm’s largest business units.
As CEO of Fly Communications, May grew revenues in the double digits year-over-year by strategically transforming the advertising firm into the agency of choice for select private-equity fund portfolio companies.
As Vice Chancellor of NYU Strategic Initiatives in Asia, May spearheaded the creation and implementation of NYU Shanghai, the first integrated western higher education program in China.
In 2014, May joined ShanghaiTech University as Dean of School of Entrepreneurship and Management. She has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from NYU School of Law. May is currently the Chief Strategy Officer of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Steve Vranakis
Creative Activist. Former Executive Creative Director of the Google Creative Lab and one of the world’s most influential creative leaders.
He is also a passionate advocate for young leaders and innovators, as evidenced by his leading role in Google Science Fair, which invites youth to put their ideas forward to change the world. He’s also been central to the wildly successful YouTube Space Lab Channel and launch video (with 50 million chanel views to date), which encouraged teens worldwide to send their science experiments to space in partnership with NASA and judged by Stephen Hawking.
Steve has worked at some of the biggest and best creative agencies in the world—including VCCP London, Foote Cone & Belding San Francisco, WCRS Arnold Worldwide Partners in London, Modem Media UK and DDB in Vancouver. As one of the original partners and Creative Director at VCCP, he oversaw award-winning campaigns for O2, Coca-Cola and comparethemarket.com, and led the agency in creating campaigns and platforms that provide utility, content, entertainment and value to people’s lives. In his long and distinguished career, he has worked with many of the globe’s leading brands, such as Google, YouTube, Coca Cola, Levis, Microsoft, PlayStation, Apple iPhone and amazon.com.
His work has been featured in WIRED, The New York Times, Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, Creative Review, Huffington Post, FT, Design Week, Adage and he’s written columns for Adweek, Marketing, Campaign and conducted interviews with the BBC, CNN, CNBC, Lürzer's Archive and Shots.
Steve has spoken at TEDx about 'Making technology matter', SingularityU about ‘Nation Branding’ and the Palais in Cannes on 'What creativity can do'. He also serves as an advisor to fashion technology startup unmade.com as well as SUPERPERSONAL, an AI company using visual personalisation tech.
In 2017 he was president of D&AD where he made it his mission to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds get into the creative industries.
Edward Bilous
Director of the Center for Innovation in the Arts at Juilliard School
Edward joined the faculty of the Juilliard School in 1984 and developed many of the institution’s most innovative programs including the Arts and Education Program, the Music Technology Center, the Center for Innovation in the Arts and Beyond the Machine. In 2012 he was awarded the William Schuman Scholars Chair by the Juilliard School in recognition of his life-long contributions to arts education.
Bilous began his career in 1978 as one of the first teaching-artists at the newly created Lincoln Center Institute. He also served on the National Endowment for the Arts panel for Learning In the Arts and was the Senior Education Advisor in the creation of The Academy – A Program of the Juilliard School, Carnegie Hall and the Weil Institute.
Bilous’ creative work includes many projects that foster understanding and social awareness including Basetrack Live the documentary films Scottsboro (2001 Academy Award nominee) and Portraits of Grief – A Tribute to the Victims of the September 11th Tragedy (New York Times Television) and Forgiveness (PBS). He recently joined the creative team of SACRED a global-documentary event produced by PBS.
Other compositions include Basetrack Live, Lucid Dreams, (American Composers Orchestra) the score to The Emperor of All Maladies – a film by Ken Burns and five works for Pilobolus Dance Theater.
Bilous received his MM and DMA from the Juilliard School where he studied with Elliott Carter and Vincent Persichetti. He also studied privately with Krzysztof Penderecki.