Stefan Agamanolis

Stefan has over 20 years of experience serving in various leadership roles revolving around developing and commercializing new technologies and cultivating innovation ecosystems. Most recently he was Chief Innovation Officer at Akron Children’s Hospital, where he built an innovation center that commercialized staff inventions and formed connections with the business community for co-development collaborations and investments. He also created the Patient Experience function for the hospital, assisted in research administration, and led earlier efforts in telehealth and telemedicine.

Having worked in a healthcare institution for 12 years, and as a software engineer, digital media technologist, and interaction designer by background, Stefan enjoys supporting Project Medtech clients working in the areas of digital/online services, software/IoT innovations, data/analytics-oriented opportunities, and medical devices and supplies. He can provide guidance on a wide variety of matters including development road-mapping, intellectual property strategy, advisory board creation, research study design, negotiation of licenses and other deals, and the navigation of healthcare institutions for assistance and collaboration. He is also uniquely positioned to provide strategy development and operational support services for innovation and venture programs within healthcare institutions and ecosystem organizations.

Earlier in his career, Stefan had more than 10 years of experience inside the MIT Media Laboratory, first as a graduate student and later as one of the founding research directors at Media Lab Europe, its former sister lab in Ireland. He later became the founding chief executive and research director of Distance Lab, an initiative in Scotland that developed digitally-enabled product and service concepts to address healthcare, education, and other challenges in rural and remote areas of the world. In 2010, this lab became part of a renown educational institution in Europe, the Glasgow School of Art. Stefan also served as a visiting associate professor of engineering during the formative years of NYU Abu Dhabi, where he led an intensive learning experience in design and innovation for first-year university students.

In parallel with his role in Project Medtech, Stefan is the Chief Strategy Officer for Xploro, a digital health start-up seeking to empower young patients with healthcare information, leveraging augmented reality, gameplay and artificial intelligence. He is also an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Youngstown Business Incubator.