Biography
Michela is an innovation catalyst who bridges the worlds of science and art, design and technology, and academic research and industry, with a track record of over 25 years of innovation. She is innovation advisor to the European Commission and the G7 leaders, Member of President von der Leyen’s High Level Round Table for the New European Bauhaus, and the creator of the Industry Commons. She is Chair of the Industry Commons Foundation with a Steering Board of thought leaders in Open Innovation, which is tasked with development and sustainability of the Industry Commons tools, methodology and ecosystem.
In 2017 she was awarded European Woman Innovator of the Year and in 2016 she was presented with an Innovation Luminary Award for Creative Innovation. She is the founder and CEO of MTF Labs, a global community platform of around 8000 creative innovators and scientific researchers. The platform provides a test case for innovation in areas as diverse as neuroscience, forestry and microcomputing.
She has served on the CAF Advisory Forum of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme 2013-2018, both at meta level regarding future directions for the programme, and more specifically as coordinator of the recommendations by the Innovation Working Group. Over 20 years she ran Stromatolite Design Lab in London with global clients such as Apple, Nike and Nokia.