Community of Practice

Designer Members

Alex Ryan

Dr. Alex Ryan is CEO of Synthetikos Inc, a boutique innovation strategy agency with military, government and corporate clients in Canada, Australia, the US and the UK. Dr. Ryan has lectured at the Canadian Forces College on a range of topics including design, systems thinking and strategy since 2012. Dr. Ryan is also an Executive in Residence at the Rotman School of Management, where he has taught design and systems thinking.

Previously, Dr. Ryan was an executive at North America’s largest urban innovation hub, MaRS Discovery District. While at MaRS, Dr. Ryan led over 100 cross-sector complex systems change initiatives, including conducting the first cultural health assessment for Canadian Special Forces Command. Dr. Ryan co-founded and led Alberta CoLab, the first policy design lab in a Canadian provincial government.

Dr. Ryan taught at the U.S. School of Military Studies, co-authored the first US Army Design doctrine, and trained and advised strategic design teams at US Special Operations Command, US Strategic Command, US Cyber Command, and Australian Special Operations Command. Dr. Ryan started his career as a scientist with the Australian Defence Science and Technology Group, where he was the Australian National Lead for a five eyes working group on complex adaptive systems for defence. Dr. Ryan is author of a book chapter on Military Applications of Complex Systems and numerous articles on systems thinking, innovation and military operational art. His PhD thesis advanced a multidisciplinary approach to complex systems design.