MEET OUR TEAM
Meet the people who are working day & night to solve pressing environmental problems and bring transformative technologies to market.
TEAM
Jeanette Jackson
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER
Jeanette Jackson
Jeanette is an experienced CEO, entrepreneur and business strategist with broad-based experience in technology, business development, marketing and operations. Jeanette brings innovation, integrity and passion to all projects and is thrilled to bring her tenacious commitment to help Foresight achieve its next phase of growth milestones.
With local clean-tech company, Light-Based Technologies, Jeanette held the position of founding CEO. She successfully raised millions in investment funding, established partnerships to maximize revenue potential, led cross-functional teams to deliver real results, and created highly functional advisory teams and boards of directors. As President of The Brag Company, a combination of online and retail product distribution for smart travel products, Jeanette oversaw the complete restructuring of the business. This included growing local and international sales channels, engaging outsource partners to optimize operations, launching new product and services, and developing a comprehensive plan for the next stage of growth. Recently, she helped Canadian loyalty and reward platform, eTrove, scale their technology for mass adoption and ramp up sales throughout the US with a focused go-to-market strategy.
Over the last 4 years, Jeanette has supported more than 20 Foresight companies as an Executive In Residence in several markets including bio-energy, electric vehicles, smart buildings, water tech, robotics and wind. She is excited to bring the new vision of Foresight to life: advancing the adoption of Canadian transformative cleantech companies through programs that help them launch, scale and grow.
Catriona Power
DIRECTOR OF PARTNERSHIPS & STRATEGY
Catriona Power
Catriona has worked at the intersection of business, sustainability and technology for the last nine years with organizations in Canada, UK, Europe and India. She recently joined Foresight as Director of Partnerships and Strategy, taking a lead on delivering high profile programs around clusters, partnerships, collaboration and communications.
Most recently she was Director of Business Development and Marketing for Vericatch, a Vancouver based technology company working in the fisheries sector. Previously, she was Head of Business Development at Energy Unlocked, Sustainability Advisor at Forum for the Future and Program Officer for Skype founder’s family foundation, Zennstrom Philanthropies where she led a cleantech program called the Green Mentorship Award. She has been a jury member for cleantech and innovation competitions including EcoSummit, Start-Up Energy Transition and a mentor in the Innovation Forum and CleanTech Challenge programs. Catriona has a MA Environment, Development and Policy from University of Sussex, UK and a BSc International Development from University College Cork, Ireland.
Stephen Wilson
DIRECTOR OF
OPERATIONS
Stephen Wilson
Stephen is experienced in sales, business development, and operations. Always looking to add a positive contribution to all stakeholders, Stephen brings high-level thinking and a broad base of experience.
Stephen graduated from the Sauder School of Business with a Bachelor in Commerce. Starting his career at an event marketing company, he moved into fashion before finding his passion for electronics. Having worked with startups in the LED lighting space to a global company in power conversion, Stephen has worked in teams both small and large to raise financing, launch products, drive volume and deliver on complex custom sales.
Dylan Groven
DIRECTOR OF CORPORATE INNOVATION
Dylan Groven
Dylan has spent 15 years in customer-facing roles in high-tech & R&D. He’s an experienced Director of Business Development with a demonstrated history of working with industry stakeholders to yield productive outcomes. Skilled in sales strategy, coaching, leadership and operations, Dylan is interested first and foremost in helping companies leverage innovation to better compete in the global marketplace.
Dylan has a MASc in Electrical Engineering from Carleton University focused on high-speed IC design.
George Lawton
DIRECTOR OF
FINANCE
George Lawton
George Lawton has been an executive leader in the financial, accounting, and operational systems functions across a broad spectrum of technology and industrial companies. In the majority of businesses George has worked with, he has been a leader in all sorts of capital raising and funding initiatives which resulted in the successful closing of several financing transactions that were material to each company.
George’s tenure as a senior executive includes leading companies employing as many as 3,000 employees. He earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree as well as a Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting from the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa. George holds the designation of Chartered Professional Accountant.
Tony Dhaliwal
PROGRAM
MANAGER
Tony Dhaliwal
Tony has a demonstrated history of working in the renewables and environment industry. Skilled in consulting firm Operations Management, Project Management, Sustainable Marketing and Education. Tony is a strong community and social services professional having dealt with a cross-section of individuals and ethnicities. He previously worked for G-Pak Technology as a Sustainability Project Manager and at RecycleSmart Solutions as an Operations Manager.
Tony began his educational journey at the University of Calgary where he was on scholarship for the Dinos Men’s Basketball team. He completed his BA Geography and Minor in Sociology at the University of Fraser Valley (UFV). Tony’s Master’s research assessed the City of Abbotsford’s waste management program through the lens of intergenerational Sikh families at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC).
Astrid Nuñez
MARKETING & EVENTS
MANAGER
Astrid Nuñez
Astrid is a marketer with experience in project management and vast knowledge in events coordination. She has a degree in marketing and a Masters degree in Business Administration, as well as several courses and diplomas in management and project management.
Astrid is passionate about communications and has experience working in market research, merchandising, advertising and branding.
Diane Currie Sam
RESEARCH &
CONTENT MANAGER
Diane Currie Sam
Diane is an award-winning writer, a corporate educator, and master storyteller with hands on expertise guiding the business communications of multi-million dollar companies. Diane is a strategic communicator with a broad base of experience in technology and entrepreneurship. Her ability to combine solid research with good storytelling as helped bring in millions of dollars in investment, tax credits and business opportunities for entrepreneurial and high tech companies across Canada and the US. She has a Bachelor’s of Science degree from the University of BC and a Masters of Arts in Psychology from Trinity Western University.
Michelle Hunt
OFFICER
ADMINISTRATOR
Michelle Hunt
Michelle is experienced in customer service, project management and administration. Her various roles for companies ranging from small consultancies to large retail chain stores has proven her adaptability and efficiency. Juggling timelines and being exposed to a variety of projects feed Michelle’s desire to make things happen and keep it interesting. She is a licenced pyrotechnician, level 3 curling Ice technician and level 2 curling coach and has a degree in Music from Mohawk College.
EXECUTIVES-IN-RESIDENCE (EIR)
Aaron Cruikshank
EIR
Aaron Cruikshank
Aaron has been involved in technology commercialization since 1998. His area of expertise is how to leverage government programs for technology commercialization and market intelligence to drive go-to-market strategy. Aaron has worked with nearly 600 organizations to date and has experience in the cleantech sector at the SME and Enterprise scale.
He is currently the President of CTRS Solutions – a tactical research and strategy firm that specializes in market intelligence and go-to-market strategy for SMEs. Aaron’s EIR skills include taking an idea on a napkin into a ready to deliver the first product company, voice of the customer research, market validations, regulatory affairs and product development lifecycles.
Andrew Watson
EIR
Andrew Watson
Andrew has over 18 years’ experience in progressive roles within oil and gas. He is currently the VP Operations & Engineering for a small private oil company in Calgary. His oil and gas background is focused on various EOR methods including polymer and ASP flooding, water floods, heavy oil, and CO2 flooding. He enjoys working with entrepreneurs focused on clean technologies, energy efficiency, and innovation through the full project development. Andrew also has his own consulting firm that works with various international oil and gas producers to help improve their EOR projects. This includes polymer, ASP, and CO2 floods, as well as a current focus of thermal projects with a key emphasis on clean technology and minimizing water usage and carbon intensity.
Andrew is currently focused on increasing his technical skillset in various renewable energy production methods. This includes pursuing education through a Solar Engineering micro-Masters, Wind energy, and other clean technologies. Andrew also has a particular interest in innovation and entrepreneurship. He has pursued various opportunities in the redeployment of existing oil and gas infrastructure to increase or extend their economic value. Andrew is also pursuing his Executive MBA through McGill.
Andrew has a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calgary in 2001. He is also a member of APEGA, APEGS, SPE, CanSIA, CanGEA, and CanWEA.
Beth Loughney
EIR
Beth Loughney
Beth Loughney’s career has spanned three decades in start-ups in 3D graphics for Hollywood, multi-billion dollar international firms, and even a stint keeping the world safe from nuclear annihilation by helping dismantle the Soviet nuclear stockpile. She has over 25 years’ executive management in large and small companies and actively consults with entrepreneurs in areas such as cleantech and AI/machine learning. Her most recent focus has been on change management and market expansion strategies taking into account international security and macroeconomics as factors in business decision making. Founder and executive chair of Zorroa, an AI/machine learning software company based in California, she is also an Executive-in-Residence at the Foresight Cleantech Accelerator in Vancouver. Until May 2005, Beth was the founder and General Manager of NVIDIA Corporation’s Entertainment division. She was CEO of Exluna and headed Strategic Marketing at Open TV during the largest IPO of 1999. Before transitioning to the commercial sector, Beth was a program manager with the US Government’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program to dismantle the former Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons.
Beth has an M.A. in National Security Policy Studies and a B.A. in Asian Studies, both from the George Washington University.
Betsabeh Hermann
EIR
Betsabeh Madani Hermann
Betsabeh is a champion of deep sciences that address Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in health and environment.
Currently an investor and an advisor, her career spans operating and executive hats across a portfolio of companies in North America (3-26,000 employees, $5M-$26B Market Cap) where she has led corporate and innovation strategy.
Betsabeh holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, a Master of Engineering in BioMechanical Engineering, and Honours Bachelors in Physics and in Biochemistry.
Chris Reid
EIR
Chris Reid
Chris has been involved in the clean technology sector for over 20 years. He excels at pulling together diverse elements of opportunities to turn them into successful ventures. Chris has had successful experience developing companies from the nascent stage, through technology development, productization and cost down, market establishment, sales, as well as establishing highly effective teams.
Chris was co-founder and CEO of Cellex Power Products which was subsequently acquired by Plug Power in 2007. Chris then ran the Motive Power Division of Plug Power for 3 years. He is currently Chairman of Hydrexia, an Australian hydrogen storage company, and he recently led them through major financing.
Chris’s specialties include: company creation and development, business/opportunity analysis and synthesis, creating and/or strengthening customer value propositions, raising capital, technology development, establishment of product delivery organizations, market development and customer sales, and CEO/leadership mentoring. As well, Chris holds a masters degree in engineering and has worked extensively with cryogenics, novel materials, energy conversion systems, hydrogen, fuel cells and other clean technologies. Chris is part of the BCIC mentoring group and a director of the Working Opportunity Fund.
Clay Braziller
EIR
Clay Braziller
Clay is a seasoned COO, innovation catalyst and evangelist who enjoys working with cross-functional interdisciplinary teams of engineers, researchers, and business people to advance new products and services that strengthen the community and environment. Clay’s vast experience embodies all aspects of technology commercialization, strategic planning, change management, governance, and stakeholder engagement. Clay is passionate about sustainability, circular economies, cooperative business models and social ventures.
Cormac O’Cleirigh
EIR
Cormac O'Cleirigh
Cormac O’Cleirigh is a senior business development executive with extensive international experience in technology scouting, corporate business development and partnering/licensing in the consumer, life sciences and technology sectors. After almost 10 years of global technical/business roles with a division of Associated British Foods he moved to Vancouver and for 4 years was the Chief Business Development Officer of a local life sciences company, Renaissance BioScience, before starting his own consulting practice in July of 2019. Cormac works with a number of early-stage small/medium-sized IP rich companies looking to transform their businesses through industry partnerships.
Cormac holds a B.Sc. in Biotechnology and a Ph.D. in Bioprocess Engineering.
David Sanguinetti
EIR
David Sanguinetti
David Sanguinetti, President, Sanguinetti Engineering Ltd., is a widely respected executive engineer with over 24 years of industry experience in multiple engineering and management positions at high profile companies in the cleantech sector. David specializes in technology development, project management and process engineering. As Executive-in-Residence at Foresight Cleantech, he has been spearheading an Industry Roadmap project across BC, and mentoring growing companies in clean technologies. He is the former Chair of the Water Working Group for the Canada Mining Innovation Council and an instructor/course developer for the Deliver program for cleantech CTO’s now being delivered across BC and Alberta.
Ean Jackson
EIR
Ean Jackson
Ean Jackson has invested the past 25 years of his professional career in management, technical and business development roles in the technology industry. He has been employed by a wide range of businesses across North America ranging from technology startups to major multinational corporations including IBM, Sprint International, and Oracle Corporation.
Jackson is very active in the Vancouver business community. In his current role as President of Analytics Marketing Inc., a provider of contract business development and coaching services, he is accountable for delivering new revenues, new clients and investors to growing businesses.
Jackson is an angel investor, a frequent speaker on business and technology topics and serves on multiple boards. He is a sessional professor in the business faculties of the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University and coaches early-stage businesses as Executive in Residence (EiR) for Foresight, New Ventures BC, and EMBERS Ventures. A former Canadian National Team manager, competitive long-distance runner, and triathlete, Jackson remains heavily involved with amateur athletics.
Fluent in four languages (English, French, Spanish, German), Jackson’s educational background includes an undergraduate degree in Arts (University of Western Ontario), a graduate degree in Electrical Engineering (Southern Methodist University) and certificates in Internet Marketing (UBC), Business Analysis and Project Management (The George Washington University).
Elena Popovici
EIR
Elena Popovici
Elena is a Computer Science PhD with over a dozen years of industry experience using algorithms to solve complex, real-world business and engineering problems across a wide variety of domains. She was doing data science long before it was called that. Through research and development, she has delivered time&cost-saving software and analyses to Fortune and Global 500 companies, governments and non-profit organizations in areas such as Energy Management, Naval Engineering, Fisheries Supply Chains, Healthcare, Pharma, Insurance, Advertising and more. She has generated Intellectual Property material that was patented in the US and Europe.
For the past few years, Elena has been focused on opportunities to drive business value in the cleantech sector. She believes that impactful solutions can only be delivered through an end-to-end approach: communicate with business stakeholders and subject matter experts to identify current and future needs, map them to appropriate computational approaches (be they machine learning, evolutionary optimization, network analysis, scheduling, simulation or something else entirely) and use cross-functional teams to implement solutions and deliver results.
Elisabeth Paul
EIR
Elisabeth Paul
Elisabeth’s passion is in developing and deploying complex technology solutions both from outer space and earth to make our world a better place! She excels at strategic business development & project management for large zero-emissions demonstration programs at ports and within cities. Using her unique blend of technical and people leadership skills, she brings together commercial partners and vehicle operators, secures funding from government and corporate sources to deploy new clean technology projects.
Before joining Zen, Elisabeth spent 20 years at MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates in technical and business leadership roles within the Space & Earth Observation Industry, from Software Engineer for the CanadArm and the International Space Station to Program Manager of the RADARSAT-2 satellite ground systems (earth observation image processing and management in near real-time) for major surveillance and intelligence customers. She led both the business development and delivery of mission-critical complex systems in the most rigorous environments; overseeing a group of 30 engineers. Fascinated about all facets of the earth observation business, Elisabeth also held the role of Director of Geospatial Product Development to create new cloud-based solutions deriving information from radar images for smart enterprise mapping, defense and intelligence, self-driving cars and forestry.
Elisabeth studied Computer Engineering at École Polytechnique de Montréal and Université Libre de Bruxelles. Fluent in both English & French, she embraces cultural differences and perspectives while conducting business worldwide.
Frans Tjallingii
EIR
Frans Tjallingii
Jay Milroy
EIR
Jay-Milroy
A 25 year veteran of the Software/IT Consulting business, Jay is a disciplined design thinker and practical business strategist who has brought 4 software products to market. Equally passionate about the product design-build process and the execution of go-to-market strategies Jay is a patient listener, considerate communicator and generous collaborator who believes in the good in everyone. A family man with adult children Jay’s roots are in Toronto, but his heart is on the left coast.
Jean-Louis Iaconis
EIR
Jean-Louis Iaconis
Jean-Louis is an Entrepreneurial product development professional with a unique combination of creative, analytical and management expertise driven by a passion for creating new products in both the cleantech and consumer electronics spaces. Renowned for developing simple, creative solutions blending engineering principles with bold design aesthetics and successfully leading multidisciplinary teams through numerous new product development cycles from ideation to implementation.
Jeff Reading
EIR
Jeff Reading
Jeff has more than 35 years’ experience in putting companies into global markets that focus on cleantech, energy innovation, energy efficiency along with climate change mitigation and adaption solutions.
He has a particular interest in working with early stage ideas and coaching, mentoring and adapting leadership towards company creation and scaling, company development (ie shareholder agreements and registration), Founders Team structuring, definition of first customer, key partnerships/relationship development, value proposition and differentiation clarity, viable multi-sided business models, customer relationships, commercialization channels, key resource definition, investor package and proforma development, IP and data strategies, innovation ecosystem connections, funding ecosystem connections, revenue stream clarity, cost structure clarity, industry relations, and tactics for staying focused and on point.
Primarily the focus has been on sectors that include utility innovation (renewables, microgrids, data analytics, platform orchestration, automation, smart/intelligent technologies, blockchain, high performance buildings and energy storage), electrification of transportation, multi-sector low carbon cleantech, along with carbon capture and conversion technologies.
Jeff holds a Bachelor of Arts (York University), a Bachelor of Education (Queen’s University) and a Master of Arts (San Diego State University), along with lots of “education” in the trenches of being an entrepreneur.
Jeff has worked in education, within government, in the corporate/private sector and the not for profit arena. In addition, Jeff teaches at the University of Calgary and is the Chair for the Green Learning Canada Foundation, co-founder of the Alberta Council for Environmental Education (ACEE), an advisor with Carbon Talks Canada and sits of the Alberta Ecotrust Foundation.
John Wallace
EIR
John Wallace
John R. Wallace is currently serving as a Board director for SBE, a provider of low impedance capacitors and ICRTec, who is developing high efficiency gas turbine engines for class 8 trucks. Mr. Wallace retired from Xantrex Technology in 2008. He joined Xantrex as Chief Executive Officer in November 2005 after serving as interim CEO since July 2005. Wallace has been a Director of Xantrex since May 2003.
Since 2002, Wallace provided management, business and technology consulting services to a number of companies in the alternative energy and power electronics industries. From November 2004 until May 2005, Wallace was interim Chief Executive Officer of AVESTOR, a developer and manufacturer of a lithium-metal-polymer battery, based in Boucherville, Quebec and from 1982 to 2002, Wallace worked for the Ford Motor Company, where he spent more than a decade helping Ford become the world’s largest producer of alternative fuel vehicles. His final assignment with Ford was serving as Executive Director of THINK Group, where he was responsible for the development of hybrid electric, fuel cell electric and battery electric vehicles. Prior to Ford, John was a leader in microprocessor development in high growth technology companies such as Texas Instruments and Intel.
Wallace has also been named as Chief Technical Advisor to the China/UNDP Fuel Cell bus program.
Wallace holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and a M.S. in Computer Science.
Kirk Hamilton
EIR
Kirk Hamilton
Kirk Hamilton is an executive with international experience implementing strategies for technology adoption to capitalize on unique business opportunities in Information Technology, Telecom, and Manufacturing industries. As CEO of a number of public and private companies for over 20 years, he has led them from a loss position to profitability. During his career, the scope of his assignments ranges from the repositioning and turnaround of a global provider of smart card equipment and software solutions, NBS Technologies Inc, to major telecom start-up operations with leading edge technology for BCE and others, to turnarounds of manufacturing operations within GE Canada.
Currently, through personal engagement with client businesses of Élan Tactical Management Inc., he leverages business and management experience to assist companies improve market growth, productivity and cost performance. Additionally, he coaches entrepreneurs of the BC Venture Acceleration Network as an Executive-in Residence for BC Innovation Council. Kirk is an active Angel Investor in a variety of BC based start-up businesses and as an investor member through E- Fund Vantec Entrepreneur’s Fund.
Kirk is a graduate of Electrical Engineering from McGill and received his MBA from the Rotman School of Business from University of Toronto. He is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors and trained in Board Effectiveness for Small and Medium sized businesses.
Len Zapalowski
EIR
Len Zapalowski
Len Zapalowski has more than 30 years of senior management experience with some of Vancouver’s most successful companies, including Nexus Engineering, Creo Products, Pivotal Software, Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies and Mazza Innovation.
His broad global business experience includes executive & general management, R&D, sales, marketing, and business development in North America, Asia, and Europe. Len graduated with a BSc and MSc from Imperial College, London.
Mark Grist
EIR
Mark Grist
Mark is an entrepreneur with a track record of success in new ventures and energy markets. His experience base spans a variety of industries ranging from LNG and hydrogen to advanced imaging to gas processing technologies. He has experience developing relationships with strategic partners in Europe, North America and Asia and his corporate development experience includes execution of acquisitions and divestitures.
Over his career Mark has held senior level business development and marketing positions with large enterprises such as FortisBC, Methanex and C-I-L and with a series of startups that includes BrightSide Technologies, QuestAir, SunCentral and R-Lux Innovations.
Mark has an MBA from Queen’s University and a B. Comm from UBC and his specific strengths are in business strategy, leadership and early stage revenue generation. Market areas of particular interest include clean tech, renewable and low carbon fuels and transportation.
Rick Gagner
EIR
Rick Gagner
Rick began his career in finance, and quickly rose to the level of CFO after graduating from SFU with a BBA and obtaining his Chartered Professional Accountant (CMA) designation. His first taste of high growth was in apparel and sporting brands, going from early stage to $50M in 6 short years. Subsequently, Rick turned around two publishing enterprises, one of which he transitioned into digital marketing as the media world changed over, and ran as President for 7.5yrs, before making a successful exit.
Rick’s talents in leading growth were called upon once again, as he first consulted and then took on joint finance and operations roles in a startup food processing concern that quickly grew to $10M after 3 years. He then moved on to another processing concern where he was responsible for 5 plants, 1800 employees, representing .$5B in revenues. Since then Rick has focused his time on fast growth small to mid-size enterprises in food and advanced manufacturing, and has had the greatest satisfaction coaching and mentoring them following a coaching model based on EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System).
In addition to Rick’s work in industry, he was also a Director, Vice Chair, and then Chair of the BC Food Processors Association (over an 8 year period), BC’s largest food, beverage, and natural products manufacturing industry association. He was also a Director of Investment Agriculture Foundation of B.C., an industry-led, not-for-profit organization working with industry partners and funders to invest in projects that enhance the competitiveness, profitability and sustainability of BC agriculture and agri-food.
Rustam Sengupta
EIR
Rustam Sengupta
Rustam presently works for Sustainable Development Technologies Canada and has been a cleantech entrepreneur for most of his adult life. He is also an impact investor and base of the pyramid (BoP) expert with extensive research experience of over a decade in sustainable social enterprise design and renewable energy access. He has expertise in identifying, designing and analyzing strategies for the clean energy space and has worked on projects in India, Tanzania, Zambia, Myanmar, Nepal and Puerto Rico. He has authored of the book De-mystifying Impact Investing an Entrepreneurs’ Guide, which provides strategic advises and recommendations on impact investment and has served as a useful guide for several emerging entrepreneurs and investors. Rustam also holds a patent for dynamic pricing based smart energy meters used in solar pre-paid micro-grids and has over ten years of direct field experience in micro-grids and solar rooftops.
Rustam founded Boond (www.boond.net), one of India’s fast-growing solar energy access enterprise that creates distribution channels for development products like solar rooftops, solar microgrids solar lamps, solar home systems in the remote parts of India. He was one of the top entrepreneurs who accompanied the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi as a part of his Startup India delegation to the US in 2015. In addition to his role in impact investment advisory and deal structuring to start-ups, he has had wide experience in private banking and strategic consulting and has worked in organizations like Standard Chartered (in Singapore), Syngenta (in Switzerland) and Deloitte Consulting (in the US). He is the board member and investor of Emsys Electronics (P) Ltd (a company that designs and manufactures high-quality electronic products), Mynergy Solar (P) Ltd., (a company that specializes in leasing, crowd-funding and asset management for solar rooftop projects). Owing to his first-hand experience in the development sector and emerging economies, he has collaborated with international agencies like the United Nations, GIZ The World Bank, Asian Development Bank and universities like Columbia University, Aalto University of Finland, University of British Columbia, University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh.
Rustam holds an INSEAD MBA graduate with MS degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine. He has been awarded the ‘Echoing Green Fellowship’ for work in Climate Change in 2014 and the Chevening Rolls-Royce Science and Technology Fellowship in 2017.
Sam Grill
EIR
Sam Grill
After working as a forest fire fighter in the early years after graduating from University of BC with a BA in economics, Sam started a financial advising business in 2005. In early 2008 Sam sold his book to a colleague and returned to grad school in Toronto where he graduated with an MBA from the University of Toronto in 2010. Working for the next four years in investment banking and commodities trading, Sam moved out of finance in the Summer of 2014 to take over a struggling waste-to-resource startup. As the CEO of IMR, Sam brought the company to profitability one year later and in 2017 built a new facility in partnership with a global player in the recycling industry.
Seeking a challenge above all else, Sam thrives in a dynamic setting where the only sure thing is the unexpected. A broad skillset built through years in finance, managing companies and time in the outdoors allows him to operate at an elevated capacity. Using a relational management style and focusing on motivation through responsibility, Sam develops the trust and respect of clients, contacts and colleagues to effectively execute his duties.
Sean Irvine
EIR
Sean Irvine
Sean Irvine is a professional engineer (Civil – P.Eng. – Carleton University, 1986) and an expert in technology commercialization and strategic management (C.L.P.). He started as a project manager overseeing construction projects located from Ottawa to Iqaluit including innovative work on giant gravity fed septic systems and installing municipal services in permafrost.
Within the federal government, Sean was a senior patent examiner where he issued over 1,000 patents in the arts of buoyant and propelled marine structures, railway rolling stock and solar-related systems integration. For the NRC, he was an Associate IRAP ITA and became their go-to advisor on IP matters in Western Canada. In 2000, he became Industry Canada’s life sciences lead across Western Canada where he worked closely with provincial governments on fed/provincial strategic plans such as Saskatchewan’s Life Sciences Strategy (2007). He also provided due diligence support for federal funding into various hundred million dollar investments such as the Michael Smith building at UBC, and Genome Canada. After 2008, Sean managed several grants and contributions programs at WED, and then DFO’s Aquaculture Innovation and Market Access Program.
Sean was a board member at BC Medical Devices Association (now LSBC), and as a board advisor at Life Sciences BC, the Canadian Health Information Technology Association (now CATA-Health), and the BC Centre for Aquatic Health Science.
As a professor at UBC, Sean taught two intellectual property management courses over two decades. During this period, he was co-chair of the Canadian Education Committee for the Licensing Executive Society (Canada-USA), and a member of IPIC and the PDMA.
Today, Sean is the Managing Director at Mojo Ventures advising on growth strategy and competitive dynamics. Over 30 years, Sean has owned an advertising agency, a real estate business, and two management consulting firms. He is currently an Executive in Residence at Foresight CleanTech Accelerator, an executive advisor to technology firms, and an angel investor. He has finance experience that includes venture capital investment management and governance, CFO responsibilities in small organizations, the Canadian Securities Course (1992), the Canadian Exempt Market Dealer Program (2018). Finally, Sean has over 20 years of operational management experience supervising CPA’s and other professional staff.
Shannon Bard
EIR
Shannon Bard
Shannon is a dynamic leader with over 25 years of experience in commercializing innovations, sustainability, environmental health, biomedical research, toxicology, ecological impact and risk assessment. She has extensive experience in leading regional, national and international multidisciplinary technical teams to tackle complex interdisciplinary environmental problems. Her environmental health and sustainability work has required forging working relationships with multiple stakeholders including business, industry, government regulators, environmental managers, politicians, academia, environmental groups, First Nations, media and the public.
Shannon is currently global Director of Innovation for Hemmera and Ausenco. She developed and launched a global corporate Innovation Program for >2000 staff to undertake industrial-academic-government R&D collaborations to develop and commercialize new science and engineering services to solve sustainability issues. She oversees a Board-directed innovation incubator to invest in applying new technologies and approaches, including AI, automation, data analytics, clean tech, VR/AR & digital solutions, biological and genomic tools to reduce the environmental footprint of industry activities. Formerly, Shannon was a professor of Environmental Science at Dalhousie University, Director of the Marine Ecotoxicology Laboratory and co-winner of the Senate Environmental Award.
Trevor Stuthridge
EIR
Trevor Stuthridge
Dr. Trevor Stuthridge brings extensive international executive and governance experience in innovation and technology commercialization organizations in the forestry, bioeconomy and clean technologies sectors. Trevor recently served as Executive Vice President for FPInnovations – the world’s largest not-for-profit forestry sector research organization – where he led R&D operations and staff across 3 campuses and was responsible for business development, organizational strategy, and executive level engagement with industry, federal and provincial governments, academia and indigenous communities.
In addition to his operational duties, Trevor also led change programs to improve inter-disciplinary collaboration and established Centres of Excellence to drive innovation. Trevor also worked to harmonize internal business management and research delivery systems and re-invigorated the ideation-to commercialization innovation pipeline, including a customized stage-gating system, entrepreneurship program, and an online open innovation platform.
Hami Ben Bassat
MENTOR
Hami Ben Bassat
Hamutal is a business Development expert with over 12 years experience in creating new platforms that support the organization’s global growth. Hamutal is passionate about finding the right growth vehicles and is a strong believer in multidisciplinary environments.
Over her career, she enabled growth by a multitude of vehicles and processes including investments, mergers and acquisitions, strategic cooperation agreements, devising and implementing market entry strategies, leading BI-CI teams, business model analysis, capital raising for start-up and mature companies and International public bids.
Hamutal holds an LLB and an MA in philosophy. In the 5 years, she practiced law, Hamutal lead various Public offerings (TASE, NASDAQ), closed numerous International transactions and M&A processes.
Hamutal worked with leading global water technology companies as well as startups and new ventures. Her focus is on international expansion and finding the best platform to generate growth.
With extensive experience in LATAM and Asia Hamutal offers deep knowledge of these business environments.
In her last role, Hamutal lead the Business Development activity of Essilor’s online Division, expanding its activity to LATAM and Europe through M&As and organic expansion. She currently works as a consultant for various organizations and is a mentor at the e@ UBC LLP program.
Jennifer Thompson
MENTOR
Jennifer Thompson
Jennifer has a not-so-secret passion for all things applied science that could make a significant and positive difference to people’s lives. A true left-coaster, the themes of environment, innovation and entrepreneurship have woven their way through her entire career. Scarred by early memories of driving through Silicon Valley selling software with a Sun Microsystems monitor so large it required a dolly and convertible car to transport, she has focused the remainder of her career on hardware projects.
She has helped commercialize a wide variety of Vancouver-based technologies including a novel food dehydration system for food and pharmaceuticals (Enwave Corp), natural gas engines for buses and trucks (Westport Fuel Systems), black soldier fly larvae for animal feed and people food (Enterra Feed, Heilu), point-of-use drinking water sterilization (Acuva Tech), human-machine interaction for surgeons (NZ Tech) and pill packaging IoT (CuePath).
As a business mentor, Jennifer prefers to work with full-time founders who are dedicated, organized and coachable and whose technologies will benefit the many on the planet, not the few.
John Bruce
MENTOR
John Bruce
John has been involved in building, managing, and investing in early stage energy and technology based ventures for 20 years.
John is passionate about Products and getting them right, the first time. He believes Products that deliver superior value to customers and strong returns to investors come about through early and rigorous use-case analysis, customer value proposition evaluation, business model optimization, and unambiguous product definition. His experience includes new product development management, market analysis, business model and strategy development, and program management. He is recognized for the capacity to take initiative, think creatively, and bring strategic context to product and technology development challenges.
He has an established product management consulting practice focused on clean technologies where he has worked with clients such as Westport Innovations and Delta-q Technologies. Start-up experience includes founding an innovative Health Coaching venture. Prior to this, he was Director of Product Management and Vice President Business Development with Cellex Power Products Inc., Product Manager at Creo Products, and Investment Manager with Ventures West Management. John holds a Bachelor of Applied Science and a Master of Engineering in Advanced Technology Management both from the University of British Columbia.
Mike Walkinshaw
MENTOR
Mike Walkinshaw
Mike has over 20 years of experience in energy technology and venture capital and is passionate about helping entrepreneurs achieve their dreams. Mike is currently CEO of TIMIA Capital Corp., a Vancouver based Revenue Financing platform focused on Canada’s technology community. Prior to TIMIA, Mike was a Managing Partner in energy technology venture capital firms Fronterra Ventures and Chrysalix Venture Capital. Mike has made successful investments over the past decade in many clean energy companies including Liquid Light, H2scan, FatSpaniel, and Akermin.
For over five years, Mike was with Ballard Power Systems, the world’s leading developer and manufacturer of PEM Fuel Cells. He held a number of roles within the organization and was the Manager of Product Strategy and a Product Manager for the Nexa Power Module, the world’s first commercial fuel cell module, and the precursor to many of Ballard’s current products. Prior to Ballard, he spent six years with Price Waterhouse in Vancouver, gaining his Chartered Accountant status and helping small entrepreneurial businesses grow.
BOARD MEMBERS
Beth Loughney
DIRECTOR
Beth Loughney
Beth Loughney’s career has spanned three decades in start-ups in 3D graphics for Hollywood, multi-billion dollar international firms, and even a stint keeping the world safe from nuclear annihilation. She has over 25 years’ executive management in large and small companies and actively consults with entrepreneurs in areas such as cleantech and AI/machine learning. Her most recent focus has been on change management and market expansion strategies taking into account international security and macroeconomics as factors in business decision making. Founder and executive chair of Zorroa, an AI/machine learning software company based in California, she is also an Executive-in-Residence at the Foresight Cleantech Accelerator in Vancouver.
Until May 2005, Beth was the founder and General Manager of NVIDIA Corporation’s Entertainment division. She was CEO of Exluna and headed Strategic Marketing at Open TV during the largest IPO of 1999. Before transitioning to the commercial sector, Beth was a program manager with the US Government’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program to dismantle the former Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons stockpile. She has been with Foresight since its founding working with companies in hydrogen as a service, upcycling waste into fuel and building materials, and a specialty in software solutions.
Beth has an M.A. in National Security Policy Studies and a B.A. in Asian Studies, both from the George Washington University
Elicia Maine
DIRECTOR
Elicia Maine
Elicia Maine is a Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Simon Fraser University. She is also the Academic Director of the Invention to Innovation program, aimed at giving PhD Scientists and Engineers the skills to lead Science & Technology Commercialization. Prof. Maine teaches Managing Technological Innovation in the Management of Technology MBA program, Managing Innovation in the Executive MBA program, and Lab to Market in the Invention to Innovation program at SFU Beedie School of Business. She has used her expertise at home and abroad to guide innovation policy and strategy and to mentor emerging talent. Shaped by formative experiences at Shad Valley and at M.I.T., she is passionate about the positive impact that can be made by scientist-entrepreneurs in addressing global challenges. Dr. Maine holds a PhD in Technology Management from the University of Cambridge, Masters degrees in Technology & Policy and in Materials Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bachelors degrees in Materials Engineering and in English from Queens University. She publishes extensively on Innovation Management in journals such as Research Policy, R&D Management, Nature Nanotechnology and Nature Materials. She has worked in industry as a strategy consultant, specializing in technology management in the automotive sector and in advanced materials sectors. She is active as a speaker on innovation policy and the commercialization of science
Jeanette Jackson
DIRECTOR
Jeanette Jackson
Jeanette is an experienced CEO, entrepreneur and business strategist with broad-based experience in technology, business development, marketing and operations. Jeanette brings innovation, integrity and passion to all projects and is thrilled to bring her tenacious commitment to help Foresight achieve its next phase of growth milestones.
With local clean-tech company, Light-Based Technologies, Jeanette held the position of founding CEO. She successfully raised millions in investment funding, established partnerships to maximize revenue potential, led cross-functional teams to deliver real results, and created highly functional advisory teams and boards of directors. As President of The Brag Company, a combination of online and retail product distribution for smart travel products, Jeanette oversaw the complete restructuring of the business. This included growing local and international sales channels, engaging outsource partners to optimize operations, launching new product and services, and developing a comprehensive plan for the next stage of growth. Recently, she helped Canadian loyalty and reward platform, eTrove, scale their technology for mass adoption and ramp up sales throughout the US with a focused go-to-market strategy.
Over the last 4 years, Jeanette has supported more than 20 Foresight companies as an Executive In Residence in several markets including bio-energy, electric vehicles, smart buildings, water tech, robotics and wind. She is excited to bring the new vision of Foresight to life: advancing the adoption of Canadian transformative cleantech companies through programs that help them launch, scale and grow.
John W. Tak
DIRECTOR
John Tak
John is a cleantech consultant advising the federal government and acts as strategic advisor to the Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre on the development of a B.C. Cleantech Cluster Strategy.
John was CEO of the Canadian Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Association (CHFCA) and prior to that managed Mitsubishi Canada’s multi-million dollar specialty chemicals business based out of Vancouver. He also worked in Tokyo for five years as the Senior Representative for the BC Trade and Development Corporation. John started his career working for Magna International at the corporate head office and opened Magna’s first office in Tokyo. Magna is Canada’s largest automotive parts company.
John also serves as Vice President & Board member of the Canada Japan Society of British Columbia (CJSBC). He has served on the Advisory Board of the National Research Council’s Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation and as a member of the Board of Governors of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Japan.
Keith Gillard
DIRECTOR
Keith Gillard
Mr. Gillard is General Partner at Pangaea Ventures Ltd., an industry leader in early stage advanced materials investment. He joined Pangaea in 2010. Mr. Gillard has over twenty years’ experience as an investor and entrepreneur, with the past twelve years focused on Cleantech and advanced materials.
From 2006-2010, Mr. Gillard served as President of BASF Venture Capital America. He was responsible for the establishment of the Silicon Valley office and expansion of the team. Mr. Gillard led investments into SDCmaterials Inc., Luca Technologies LLC, Ultracell Corporation, Arcadia Biosciences, Inc., Sciona, Inc., and ARCH Ventures VII, among others. From 2001-2006, Mr. Gillard was with Mitsubishi Corporation and responsible for venture investment and business development activities in Canada, with a specific focus on Cleantech. He was instrumental in establishing Japanese markets and partners for several Canadian and American Cleantech companies, with a special focus on fuel cells, solar and smart grid applications. Prior to joining Mitsubishi, Mr. Gillard began his career in investment banking, structuring mergers and acquisitions as well as manufacturing technology joint ventures into China. In the late ’90’s, he spent five years as an full-time entrepreneur, establishing three IT companies in succession. Mr. Gillard sits on the board of directors of Vestaron Corporation and NewLeaf Symbiotics Inc. He is also the co-author of “Inside the Minds: Energy Venture Capital Best Practices”, published in 2008 by Aspatore Books. Outside of work, he is a high-energy father of two, an avid cyclist and a Canadian Independent Music Award winner.
Mark Longo
DIRECTOR
Mark Longo
Mark Longo is Co-Chair of Osler’s Emerging Companies Group and Managing Partner of Osler’s Vancouver office. Mark has over 20 years of experience in corporate finance, M&A, and technology law. During his career, he has served in General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and senior executive capacities for a number of private and publicly traded technology companies, including Intrinsyc Software International Inc., Star Data Systems Inc. and Datawire Communication Networks Inc. In the three years immediately prior to joining Osler, Mark was a partner in the Vancouver office of a boutique law firm focused on the technology industry. Previous to that, Mark was a partner in the technology and corporate finance groups of a Vancouver-based law firm for over three years.
Having earned an LL.B. from Queen’s University in 1992, Mark also obtained his Masters of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in 2001. Mark is called to the Bar in BC and Ontario. Mark’s hobbies include playing and coaching/managing his daughter and son in various sports, including hockey, volleyball and squash, and climbing the North Shore mountains in Vancouver.
