Alex Ryan is the CEO of Synthetikos, a boutique global consultancy based in Toronto that helps transformational leaders to shift systems. He previously led partner solutions at MaRS, helping government and corporate partners accelerate the adoption of innovation in their organizations, markets and cities. Alex is also an Executive in Residence with the Business Design Initiative at Rotman and teaches strategy, foresight and design at the Canadian Forces College. Alex holds a PhD from the University of Adelaide in applied mathematics. His dissertation advanced a multidisciplinary approach to complex systems design.

In this session, which took place in February 2024, Alex shared his experiences innovating at the systems level across various scales and contexts:

• Being at the centre of introducing systemic operational design into the U.S. Army, transforming the operational and strategic planning process of a million-person organization in the middle of fighting two wars
• Establishing Alberta CoLab, the first social innovation lab in a provincial government in Canada, leading 100+ systemic design and strategic foresight projects across every ministry of government, with a focus on integrated resource management and energy transition
• Scaling the MyStartr youth employment program from a stickie note on a MaRS Solutions Lab wall into a national program that has helped 20,000+ NEET youth find their first full-time job

Alex also shared some of the participatory systemic design methodologies and tools that he helped develop over the past 15 years to enable systems change in complex environments, such as the Systemic Design Toolkit.