Jim Watson

Mayor, Ottawa

Keynote

Jim Watson was elected Mayor of the City of Ottawa on October 25, 2010. Mayor Watson has dedicated most of his career to public service in Canada's Capital. First elected as a Councillor in 1991, he was re-elected in 1994. Three years later he was elected as the youngest Mayor in Ottawa's history with 82% of the popular vote.
An active member of his community, Watson has also served on the boards or as honorary chair of several community organizations.

Jack Young

Head of Qualcomm Life Fund and General Partner at dRx Capital

Keynote

Jack heads up the Qualcomm Life Fund (QLF) at Qualcomm Ventures, which was ranked as one of the most active venture investors in digital health. He is also a fund manager at dRx Capital, a Novartis and Qualcomm joint investment company. His investment interests are focused on the intersection of healthcare products and services and digital/wireless technologies. Jack’s current digital health investments include: Airstrip, AliveCor, ClearCare, Doctor On Demand, goBalto, Telcare and Welltok. Prior investments include: Validity (acquired by Synaptics), and Fitbit (NYSE: FIT).

Duncan Stewart

Director of Technology, Media and Telecommunications Research, Deloitte Canada

Keynote

Duncan is the Director of Technology, Media and Telecommunications Research for Deloitte Canada. He is a globally recognized speaker and expert on the forecasting of consumer and enterprise technology, and media and telecommunications trends. Working worldwide and across all industries, Duncan advises clients on the impact of new and existing technology, and demographic and regulatory changes to their business strategies.

Mike Collett

Founder and Managing Partner of Promus Ventures

Keynote

Mike Collett is Founder and Managing Partner of Promus Ventures in Chicago.  Mike previously was Founder and Managing Partner of Masters Capital Nanotechnology Fund, and was also with Masters Capital, a hedge fund.  Mike was Vice President at Merrill Lynch in the M&A Group as well as an Associate with Duff & Phelps.  Mike has invested in over 60 software startups, and is currently on the board of Spire, Dispatch, Gauss Surgical, Enview and Daylight Solutions.  Mike received his BS in Math and BA in English from Vanderbilt University and MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.  Mike and his wife Paige have four children and live in Chicago.

Roman Kikta

Managing Partner & Founder, Mobility Ventures

Keynote

Roman Kikta is a venture capitalist, wireless industry innovator, anthropologist and author with over 25 years of experience creating, building, inspiring and accelerating every organization he touches.

He's highly skilled in conceptualization and as an innovator led the development and commercialization of several generations of mobile devices and the creation of several wireless industry firsts: cellular payphones, voice recognition dialers, cellular in-building systems and played a role in the initial launch of cellular (analog) and PCS (digital) in the U.S.  As a venture capital fund manager, Roman has invested in more than 25 pioneering, disruptive seed and early-stage companies and played active roles in their growth, increasing their probability of success. Under his leadership Entrepreneur Magazine named his firm as one of the Top 100 Venture Capital Firms for Entrepreneurs in 2004 and was a Finalist for the Tech Titan Technopolis Award in 2005. Roman was also named a “High Tech All-Star” in 2001 and is an RCA Fellow.  Roman has authored over 100 articles and four books published by McGraw-Hill.  Roman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University, and is a graduate of the Private Equity & Venture Capital Program at the Harvard Business School; Strategy & Innovation Program at MIT Sloan School of Management.

Jeffrey Johnson

Partner, Deloitte Canada

Jeff is the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) leader at Deloitte in the National Capital Region (NCR). Jeff’s primary responsibility is to bring in-depth industry knowledge and insights to our technology clients to help them grow and thrive in an increasingly competitive and global environment. He translates his experience advising clients into helping the local team of over 70 professionals dedicated to technology companies bring differentiated value and business solutions.

Sam Ifergan

Managing Partner, iGan Partners - Rowanwood Ventures

Sam has over 15 years of entrepreneurial, technology and venture capital experience. As leader of the iGan Partners team, he is involved in evaluating new investment prospects, structuring transactions, helping companies raise funds, and leading the firm’s other efforts with respect to portfolio companies. Sam has been extensively involved in many portfolio companies, often serving as CEO particularly in the early stages of each company’s development.

Sid Paquette

Director at OMERS Ventures

In his role as Director at OMERS Ventures, Sid Paquette is responsible for contributing to the identification and execution of investment opportunities for OMERS Ventures in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) sectors. Prior to joining OMERS Ventures, Sid was a senior manager in the international tax practice of Deloitte, as well as the Ontario Clean Tech leader for Deloitte and a member of its TMT executive team. Prior to Deloitte, Sid was called to the Bar of Ontario and worked for one of Canada’s leading corporate law firms. Sid has over a decade of experience providing business, tax and legal advisory services to high-growth companies in the TMT sectors. He has specialized in providing M&A advice to Canadian and foreign-based multinational corporations, as well as developing and implementing innovative intellectual property strategies.
Sid holds a B.A. from York University, J.D. from Osgoode Hall Law School, MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University and an MTax from the University of Waterloo.

 

SK (SungKeun) Kim

General Manager, Hyundai Ventures

SK is the General Manager of Hyundai Ventures, an investment branch from Hyundai Motor Group, located in Menlo Park. He is responsible for coordinating between Silicon Valley companies(start-ups & grown-ups) and Hyundai Motor Group's relevant teams to develop brand new technology applicable to vehicles in the future. Focusing on strategic investments, SK has developed a broad network with Silicon Valley venture eco-system.

Aymerik Renard

Director, Venture Capital Management, SanDisk Ventures

Mr. Renard joined SanDisk in 2014 to head the US datacenter and mobile investing initiatives.

Mr. Renard has 20 years of business development and venture capital experience, including 14 as a corporate investor for the Orange-France Telecom Group in North America. Mr. Renard has had portfolio companies go public on the Nasdaq, NYSE, and Neuer Markt. Others have been acquired by Cisco, Yahoo, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Cable & Wireless, IBM, Keynote, and SAP.

Jean-François Marcoux

Managing Partner, White Star Capital

Jean-François (“JF”) Marcoux has several years of experience in managing startups and investment projects. He was the co-founder of Ludia, a leading digital videogame publisher, and managed all non-product related operations including Finance, Legal, Strategy and HR. JF gained extensive operational experience with his role at Ludia which grew from a startup to a highly profitable 300 employee company today. 

Vito (Vitaly) Vishnepolsky

Founder and CEO, Martal Capital

Vito Vishnepolsky, MBA, is running Martal's North American operations. An experienced entrepreneur, operations manager and business development executive he leads Martal's team of proffessional consultants. Vito has 13 years of experience in projects management and operation as well as business and financial analysis. In addition to private companies’ boards and international consulting, he served as Enterprise Guiding Program regional manager for Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor.

Dan Park

Vice President, Azure Capital Partners

Dan Park is a Vice President at Azure Capital Partners and is responsible for evaluating investment opportunities across Canada. In addition, Dan supports the firm in the US in software and related infrastructure technologies as well as mobile, web and digital media. Dan currently is a board member of Kissmetrics and works closely with Ranovus, PumpUp, SubPac, Julep, FilterEasy, Telly and The Bouqs Company.

Immediately prior to joining Azure, Dan was a Vice President and a founding member of Foros Group, a technology-focused investment banking advisory firm based in New York.  In this capacity, he helped launch the firm and was responsible for business development and transaction execution.  In 2011, Dan helped Foros achieve a top 15 ranking in the Thomson Reuters US M&A league tables.  Prior to Foros, Dan worked at Deutsche Bank Securities in New York focusing on technology, media & telecommunications, and healthcare and at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

Gopal Rajaraman

Investment Principal, Motorola Solutions Venture Capital

Gopal Rajaraman is an Investment Principal with Motorola Solutions Venture Capital. In this role, Gopal identifies, executes, and manages strategic minority private equity investments for Motorola Solutions. He also assists in the analysis, management, and review of the current Motorola Solutions Venture Capital portfolio. Prior to joining Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, Gopal spent fifteen years working within Motorola Solutions' Government and Public Safety business unit in various roles. He started his career in Motorola's Home and Networks (H&NM) business unit, developing and architecting software solutions. He has also worked with the CTO’s Emerging Business team to help manage MSI’s internal innovation program. Gopal holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business with a concentration in Analytical Finance and Accounting. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Engineering from Purdue University and a B.Tech degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

John Albright

Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Relay Ventures

John is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Relay Ventures, an early stage venture fund exclusively focused on mobile connectivity.  During his tenure in the venture capital business, John has gained extensive experience assisting entrepreneurs shape their vision and capital plans into successful long term growth programs which typically involved an aggressive financing strategy.  John has a history of assisting entrepreneurial companies through significant growth and eventually to the public markets. 

John currently serves as a director of Fuse Powered, Achievers, Touch Bistro, Nymi, ClearFit, Blue Ant Media, InPowered, Difference Capital Funding, theScore and OCAD University.  In addition, John serves as an advisor to The Next 36, Ryerson Digital Media Zone, and OCAD University’s Imagination Catalyst.  

John is a Chartered Financial Analyst and received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Schulich School of Business at York University.

Sam Haffar

Real Ventures

Sam joins us from Silicon Valley where he has actively been involved in starting and growing top tech companies for nearly a decade. Only six months after launching his first company while in university, Sam was offered a founding team role at Chegg, a leading education technology company where he drove many of the key growth initiatives and marketing strategies, Chegg went public in 2013. After Chegg, Sam ran marketing Kno, an education technology company backed by Andreessen Horowitz that creates engaging digital learning technologies, the company was later acquired by Intel. Before making the move to Montreal, Sam ran marketing and sales for EAT Club, a fast growing venture backed food tech company that provides enterprise catering solutions for companies.

Sergey Gribov

Flint Capital

Sergey Gribov is a technology entrepreneur and investor with 20 years of experience. Over the years he participated as a founder or top manager in many startups in USA, Israel and Russia. Sergey has a lot of experience in IT, across such sectors as software development, VoIP, bioinformatics, finance, internet, social networks and e-commerce.

Today Sergey is Partner at Flint Capital, as well as investor or part of top management / board of several companies in USA, Israel and Russia.

Sergey holds an MBA from MIT and B.Sc. in Computer Science, Cum Laude from Beer-Sheva University.

John Fielding

Ontario Centres of Excellence

John Fielding is the Regional Director of Business Development for Eastern and Northern Ontario at Ontario Centres of Excellence. He heads a team of Business Development Managers responsible for industry and academic engagement, support for the Regional Innovation Centres, OCE program delivery and overall business development.

John has over 26 years experience in technology industries with Nortel, Mitel and Bookham Technology, dealing with many aspects of semiconductor and optical components business. He has held senior management positions dealing with strategic relationships and mergers and acquisitions ranging from small, less than 100 persons, to large several billion dollar investments.

His recent experience includes university, college and industry relationships, business development, entrepreneurship and working with start-ups. 

Matan Hazanov

Associate, Terracap Ventures

As an Associate at Terracap Ventures, Matan leverages his education and experience in finance and as an entrepreneur by analyzing investment opportunities and assisting portfolio companies succeed. Matan has been involved in over 10 transactions totaling over $15 million and is responsible for overseeing and assisting 8 companies in Terracap Ventures' portfolio on behalf of investors. He is currently a board advisor and/or board member of several for profit and not for profit organizations. Matan has spoken on university campuses and conferences on the topics of entrepreneurship, ethics and leadership and holds an International BBA from the Schulich School of Business.

Scott Miller

CO-MANAGING PARTNER, MBM

Scott Miller is co-managing partner at MBM and Chair of the Litigation Department. He has also been certified as a specialist in all areas of Canadian Intellectual Property Law (Patent/Trademark/Copyright) by the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Scott’s driven business approach to resolving disputes includes a no-nonsense style dictated by enormous energy and passion. This approach has resulted in countless successfully negotiated settlements as well as a proven track record of litigating cases before all levels of Court, including the Supreme Court of Canada, Federal Court of Appeal, Federal Court, and the Superior Courts of various Provinces.

Scott has 20 years of IP litigation experience ranging from trademarks, patents, copyright and industrial designs to NOCs, anti-counterfeiting, domain names and trade secrets. He appreciates that IP acquisition, IP utilization and litigation are business tools that can be used as a sword or shield depending on the client’s business strategy. Armed with this understanding and his extensive experience, Scott works closely with his clients to develop and implement strategies that meet their business needs. Scott’s clients include many multinational companies in the fields of health and personal care products, cosmetics, sports, clothing, restaurants, optics, medical devices, telecommunications, transportation and alcoholic beverages.

Scott is a regular speaker for a variety of professional associations and has also lectured on litigation law at a local college. He is an avid sports enthusiast with over 15 years of experience coaching hockey. His motto is equally applicable around the hockey rink as it is in the practice of law: “Don’t be afraid to go into the corners”.

Dr. Tony Bailetti

Director of the TIM program at Carleton University, Ottawa

Dr. Tony Bailetti is the Director of the TIM program at Carleton University, Ottawa. He holds a faculty appointment in both the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering and in the Sprott School of Business. His areas of expertise include: 

• Development of products and services

• Technology entrepreneurship

• Sustainable growth of technology companies

• Technology, product and service commercialization

• Product management

He also supports entrepreneurship though Lead To Win - an award winning business development program with the objective to establish and grow businesses in Canada's National Capital Region. Lead To Win ensures venture’s globalization rapidly and early.

Janice McDonald

M.A. ICD.D

Janice McDonald is an award-winning serial entrepreneur with expertise in the music industry & apparel/accessories with www.istyleoriginals.com. She has Leadership training from Harvard & INSEAD and was appointed to the Women’s Leadership Board of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.   WXN recognized Janice as one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women in 2013 and 2014. She was awarded a World of Difference 100 Award in Washington from The International Alliance for Women and a National Leadership Award in 2011 from Canadian Women in Communications.    She has a B.A. Communications, M.A. Canadian Studies, Board Director training and certification from The Canadian Institute for Conflict Resolution. She is completing her MFA at King’s College. She is past-Chair - National Board Women in Communications and Technology and President- International Women's Forum Ottawa Chapter. She received her ICD.D designation from The Institute of Corporate Directors. 

Ian Krepps

Thales Canada

Currently the Director of the Secure Communications business line at Thales Canada, Ian had over 16 years of service at the Department of National Defence before joining Thales as the Project Manager for the Land Command Support System in 2010. This project developed, delivered and maintains the Land Command Support System Software for the Canadian Forces. Promoted to Director in 2012, Ian currently oversees a team of engineers and technologists in secure communications and looks forward to growing this business with his team at Thales.

Jennifer Stewart

Syntax Strategic, Director

Jennifer Stewart is a leader in the strategic communications sector, named one of the ‘Top 25 People’ in the Capital by Ottawa Life Magazine, and a finalist for 2015 'Ottawa’s Female Entrepreneur of the Year’ award, presented by the Women’s Business Network.

Stewart has worked with several clients in number of sectors, including petroleum, automotive, nuclear, pharmaceutical, technology and Aboriginal affairs.

She is actively involved in the Ottawa community. She is currently Co-Chair of the National Capital Region's Canadian Women in Communication and Technology Chapter, a board member of the Kanata Food Cupboard, and  The Ottawa Writer’s Festival and a committee member of Project North.

Blair Patacairk

Managing Director, Investment and Trade

Blair Patacairk moved into the position of Managing Director of Investment and Trade in November of 2014. Prior to taking on this role, Blair was engaged as a special advisor to Invest Ottawa in the areas of foreign direct investment and government relations. As such Blair was responsible or the attraction of investment, companies and people to the Ottawa region, the management of Ottawa’s local and global partnerships and the international spokesperson on marketing Ottawa to the world. He also implemented the first ever business, retention and expansion program for Invest Ottawa. 

Blair has over twenty years of experience in the public and private sectors, including working directly for the former Mayor of the City of Ottawa, Bob Chiarelli. He brings a wealth of knowledge on strategic partnerships and growing both SMEs and Fortune 500 companies. His previous experience includes roles at: Vayyoo Inc., a mobile solutions tech startup where he was Vice-President; Dell Inc. where he was the Director of Communications, Public Affairs and Business Development; and OCRI as the Director of Investment, Marketing, Media and Government Relations at OCRI, where he used his extensive network of business and media contacts to promote Ottawa-based technologies companies around the world.

A recipient of Ottawa’s Top 40 Under 40 award in 2008, Blair has volunteered his time as a board member with numerous organizations and currently sits as the Chairman of the Rideau Canal Festival. He also shares his experience as a business and marketing/communications mentor in local universities/colleges and high schools.