Lynn M. Banaszak is a senior executive and nationally recognized innovation and communications leader who builds high-trust institutions, convenes cross-sector coalitions, and translates complex priorities into measurable outcomes. She is known for pairing strategic rigor with narrative clarity - helping leaders align decision-makers, activate partnerships, and unlock investment across public, private, philanthropic, and market-facing environments.

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Her leadership spans Amazon, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative, RiverPoint, and the Society of Automotive Engineers, where she has led enterprise-scale strategy and execution, built governance, events, and operating models that hold up under scrutiny, and advanced innovation economies through disciplined stakeholder engagement and executive communications.

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In corporate environments, Lynn has led global strategy and operating execution for programs spanning 1.6 million employees across 64 countries, managing a $10M budget and building the cross-functional delivery cadence, dashboards, and course-correction mechanisms required for high-visibility initiatives. In higher education innovation, she has founded and led two distinct centers with separate strategies and corporate portfolios, stewarding $26M and $27M budgets while building governance, reporting, fundraising, and operating systems to support growth, compliance, and measurable delivery.

In regional economic development, Lynn helped build a statewide commercialization pipeline supporting 400+ companies and enabling $1B in follow-on funding. She created the first-ever $10M VC fund managed by a non-profit, wrote presidential strategy and comms, delivered formal testimony and briefings to state, U.S. House, and Senate stakeholders on innovation-economy priorities, and helped shape investment pathways tied to public accountability. Her Tech Belt work contributed to the creation of the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII), including a $30M federal award matched by $40M in community support - an example of her ability to turn coalition alignment into funded execution.

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Lynn is also an invited author with World Scientific (Digital Transformation for the University of the Future) and a frequent keynote speaker and panelist with 100+ invited talks on innovation ecosystems, commercialization, public-private partnership models, and workforce readiness. She is also the producer and co-host of a nationally top-ranked podcast, Innovation Unleashed. She has consulted with global organizations and advised senior leaders across operations, policy, product, and communications, bringing a rare blend of ecosystem fluency, operational discipline, and executive storytelling.

After the tragic death of her 17-year-old niece Caileigh, Lynn founded the Caileigh Lynn McDowell Foundation to honor Caileigh’s legacy by building tangible pathways for young people and families to thrive, with a focus on scholarships, community programs, and civic engagement that strengthen belonging and opportunity. To date, the foundation has awarded nearly $100,000 in scholarships, registered 2,000 first-time voters, hosted 100 family bereavement gatherings, and performed thousands of random acts of kindness.

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Through One Red Arrow, Lynn partners with founders, CEOs, and institutions to deliver strategy, alignment, and storytelling that unlocks investment so important work becomes clear, credible, and actionable to the people who must say yes.

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