In Memoriam: David C. Bonner, Ph.D. – Former Chairman and CEO
December 10, 1946 – June 6, 2026
Over many years, Dr. Bonner has shown unwavering dedication to Ideation and its business and has always been ready to share his vast knowledge, remarkable intelligence, rich executive experience, and resources.
Post-COVID, Dr. Bonner has organized Friday morning Zoom meetings attended by a TRIZ-dedicated group of accomplished individuals from around the world. Under his invaluable leadership, the group discussed the potential of Ideation, shared vital information, explored current technologies, and exchanged information vital to the group. These meetings allowed everyone to appreciate further Dr. Bonner’s extensive knowledge, keen intellect, and the goodness in his heart. See the group members’ words of remembrance and memorial expressed during the meeting held on June 26 here.
Before becoming an Ideation leader, Dr. Bonner held C-level officer roles at The B. F. Goodrich Company (Akron), Westlake Chemical Co (Houston), and Cabot Corporation (Boston). He has institutionalized I-TRIZ at several companies and has been a management sponsor of several major Directed Evolution® projects for strategic scenario planning.
He has led several start-up ventures, including two in regenerative medicine/stem cells, which have treated patients with approved therapies in the U.S., Argentina, and the Cayman Islands (a British Overseas Territory).
In his large corporation career, Dr. Bonner had functional supervision over patent law groups supporting his organization. He has negotiated multimillion-dollar licensing agreements.
He was previously an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University and held a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He was named a Distinguished Engineering Graduate of the University of Texas in 2001. Dr. Bonner has also served on several Committees and Boards of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences. He has also lectured internationally on business innovation processes at several universities. Dr. Bonner was named a founding member of the Academy of Distinguished Chemical Engineers (University of Texas) in 2017.
Boris Zlotin – Chief Scientist, TRIZ Master
Boris Zlotin holds M.S. degree in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.
Mr. Zlotin is considered one of the foremost TRIZ theorists in the world today. With over 20 years of experience as a design and research engineer and 38 years as a TRIZ expert.
Mr. Zlotin organized the I-TRIZ Expert Boot Camp, trained over 10,000 people to apply TRIZ applications and solved over 10,000 inventive problems.
He is a multiple patent-holder and author of books, papers, and special publications on TRIZ.
Ms. Alla Zusman – Director of Product Development, TRIZ Master
Ms. Zusman holds M.S. degree in Radio Physics, is a specialist in the area of non-destroying control of materials and products, and is an experienced patent agent.
She has 20 years of experience in R&D and up to 40 years as a TRIZ expert. She is a primary contributor to the development of TRIZ applications–specifically to ARIZ, the patterns of systems evolution, AFD and DE methodologies, and the TRIZSoft® family of software.
Ms. Zusman has co-authored 14 books on TRIZ and has conducted numerous seminars, workshops, and lectures.
Svetlana Visnepolschi – Director of Anticipatory Failure Determination, TRIZ Specialist
Ms. Visnepolschi holds M.S. degree in electronics and is responsible for the development of Ideation’s Anticipatory Failure Determination (AFD) System software and is the author of the first TRIZ-based software based on the AFD methodology.
Ms. Visnepolschi is a certified TRIZ specialist trained by G. Altshuller.
Ms. Visnepolschi has over 35 years of experience in TRIZ and has participated in various projects including pump improvement, electric engines, lifting cranes and others.
She also participated in the first project application of “TRIZ for solving business problems at Moscow Stock and Commodity Exchange” and in the first project applying TRIZ to election consulting during the presidential election campaign in Moldova.
Teruyuki Kamimura – Vice Chairman, Certified I-TRIZ practitioner, CEO of Ideation Japan
Mr. Teruyuki KAMIMURA is a Japanese patent attorney and is the founding partner of Willfort International Patent Firm, having founded Willfort on 1 March 1993.
Mr. Kamimura holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Keio University.
Before entering the intellectual property field, he worked for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
More recently, Mr. Kamimura is active in providing consulting services in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan on matters related to strategic patenting, inventive problem solving, invention enhancement, licensing, and related topics.
He is the author of Why Wasn’t the iPhone Invented in Japan? (Gentosha Literary Publications; 2012)
In memoriam Zion Bar-El – Former Chairman and CEO
June 1, 1942 – December 3, 2019
Zion Bar-El, co-founder of Ideation and Face Innovation has been recognized by the World of TRIZ as one of the strongest, consistently devoted and enthusiastic supporter and promoter of TRIZ. For almost three decades he was following his mission to give every individual (a child, an adult, professional, etc.) a chance to learn how to become more creative in addressing real life problems or any enterprise to become a world leader in their field.
Zion was born on June 1, 1942 in Israel (see his formal bio here). He had a wonderful life (see his story in his own words here) and enjoyed every minute of it, through its ups and downs. His passion and energy attracted thousands of people to TRIZ and to him personally, converting them into colleagues, associates, fans. He has eventually grown a huge network of people, and he considered all of them as his friends and part of the family. Zion’s passing away was devastating news to all of them, their responses to this sad event were overwhelming … We wanted to share some of these responses here.