CHARLES J. BREZ

 

Vice President, Sales and Marketing, NineSigma

 

Brez has been leading “Open Innovation” practices since joining NineSigma as Vice President, Sales and Marketing in 2001 and he is currently Vice President, Innovation Alliances. NineSigma was founded in 2000 and started engaging the marketplace in 2001 with a creative, new innovation-sourcing business model. Brez works closely with Global 1000 clients to implement open innovation strategies and with innovation provider communities to collaborate with technology seeking companies.

Brez has corporate management, commercial and technical experience. Prior to joining NineSigma, Brez worked with ABB Automation, its predecessor Bailey Controls Company, and Monsanto Company. Brez has been Senior Vice President/General Manager of the $100 million US chemical and pharmaceutical business unit for ABB and was responsible for the successful integration of these respective business units as ABB merged with Bailey Controls. He was Vice President/General Manager of the process business unit for Bailey Controls and Vice President of the $250 million global sales organization for Bailey Controls Company. At Monsanto and their Fisher Controls subsidiary, Brez had leadership responsibilities in business management, strategic planning, business development, acquisitions, product management, and systems engineering.

Brez has been an invited speaker on open innovation practices, technology transfer, and collaborative networks in Chile, Estonia, Hungary and England in addition to the US.

He was invited to participate on a five day Intellectual Property tour in Chile in October, 2006 that was organized on behalf of the Chilean government wanting to transition from a natural resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy.

He was an invited speaker at the European Commission Innovation Relay Center annual meeting in Estonia in September, 2006 and he delivered an invited talk to the European Commission Conference on Technology, Innovation and Industrial Information in Budapest in May, 2004.

He presented an invited talk to the Royal Society of Chemistry Management Group Conference on Creating Business through Trading Technology in London in April, 2004.

Brez was a principal organizer and moderator for a one-day workshop on Open Innovation at the Licensing Executive Society Annual Meeting in NYC in September, 2006.

Brez is a Director of the AIChE Management Division and served on the Advisory Board for their most recent Management Conference on Innovation held in 2005 where nine CTOs of major corporations presented their innovation business models.

Brez holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from St. Louis University.