text: James Gardner is Mindjet’s Chief Technology Officer and Chief Architect of Spigit. As a thought leader and innovation practitioner, James Gardner has led innovation teams and programs in multiple industries, continents, and cultural settings.
  Prior to joining Mindjet, Gardner was chief technology officer at Spigit, having twice been a Spigit customer—when he was CTO at the UK’s largest public sector organization, and when he was head of innovation and investment at the UK’s largest bank. In 2009, his team was awarded the prestigious UK Financial Services Innovation Award twice for work with crowd-based innovation, and in 2010, he was nominated the most social media-connected financial services executive in Britain.
  Gardner is also an accomplished author. He has written three top-selling innovation books, including his 2012 release “Sidestep and Twist”, a controversial reimagining of the way innovation efforts should be constructed to create value. His prior books, “Innovation and the Future Proof Bank” (2009) and “Little Innovation Book” (2010) have been sold in more than 40 countries.
  Following a master’s degree in information science, he was awarded his doctorate in innovation management in Australia.