Meet Omar Hatamleh: the former Executive Director at the International Space University, and the former Chief Innovation Officer of Engineering at NASA.
Prior to these positions, Omar was the Deputy Chief Scientist at NASA ARC. He was responsible for identifying new and promising areas of scientific research and supporting technologies that can be integrated into the center’s capabilities. Omar has twenty-three years of aerospace and industry experience and has published over 33 international journal articles.
As a Chief Innovation Officer myself, innovation and technology are always top of mind. I welcome the chance to talk to people outside of the financial services industry because no matter what the technology is that is being developed, people are people. How we interact with each other doesn’t change much, no matter what the industry is.
Omar and I have been friends for a long time and are both strong proponents of collaboration across industries. No matter how curious you are, it’s hard not to get siloed working within one industry. Cross-industry collaboration is a great way to prevent this and keep our thinking innovative and fresh.
During our talk, Omar discussed the concept of exaptation -- when something created for one use ends up being used for something completely different. He described a company that builds toll roads who were having difficulty anticipating the flow of traffic. They borrowed a pricing concept from the airline industry to raise prices as usage increases, to limit the number of cars entering the roadways.
I can already think of many examples of this concept in the world of banking and fintech!
Omar is also helping develop an event called Ecosystems 2030 -- June 3-5 in Granada, Spain -- that explores cross-industry collaboration and what experts in various technological fields who do not often have a chance to meet can teach each other.