Meet The Team
Founders and Board Members
Founder, Chair of the Board
John Ruffolo
Founder and Managing Partner of Maverix Private Equity , founder of OMERS Ventures, an organization that he ran for 8 years. OMERS Ventures is the venture capital arm of the OMERS pension fund. During his leadership, OMERS Ventures invested over $500 million of capital in over 40 disruptive technology companies across North America, including investments in Shopify, Hootsuite, Desire 2 Learn, Hopper, Wattpad, and League.
Founder, CEO
Dr. Tom Corr
Former President and CEO of Ontario Centers of Excellence for 10 years, previously held the joint positions of president and CEO of the Accelerator Center at the Waterloo Research and Technology Park, and Associate Vice President of Commercialization at the University of Waterloo.
Founder
Patrick Horgan
Entire professional career at IBM and at the time of his retirement in 2017 was COO of IBM Canada. During this period, he was responsible for the successful implementation of the AI and High-Performance Computer initiatives with the Government of Ontario.
Founder
Michael Nobrega
Former president and CEO of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), one of Canada’s largest pension funds with more than $100 billion in assets under management. Previously served as president and CEO of OMERS’ wholly owned subsidiary, Borealis Infrastructure Management Inc.
Advisory Board
Advisor
Real (Ray) Tanguay C.M.
Former Toyota executive for 24 years. Held roles of a Senior Managing Officer in Japan, EVP of Toyota Engineering Manufacturing NA, and Chair and President of Toyota Canada. The Toyota Canada Manufacturing Operations have more JD Power Awards than any other plants in the world except one Toyota sister plant in Japan and are a showcase for innovation, systems integration, supply chain and people development . Recipient of the Order of Canada (2017) and the Order of the Rising Sun in Japan.(2020]
Advisor
Cameron Schuler
Chief Commercialization Officer & Vice President of Industry Innovation at the Vector Institute. Former Executive Director of Amii, where, for 8 years, he led one of the top-ranked Machine Learning and AI groups in the world. Career includes covered finance, business & product development, consumer products, and IT.
Advisor
Ted Dzialowski
Serial entrepreneur, angel investor, business mentor, researcher and educator. Following a Corporate career in Labour Relations, Strategic Planning, and Mergers and Acquisitions, Ted’s business ownership and investments have covered firms in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, agriculture and food processing, IT, marketing services, and franchising sectors.
Advisor
Keith Thomas
Serial entrepreneur and investor for 20 years. Previously worked restructuring and financing companies in the US, Latin America, Europe and Australia. Member of YPO and former Business Board Chair at the University of Toronto. 30 years’ experience operating and financing companies as well as building three growth companies. He is a proven entrepreneur and was most recently CEO of Vive, a specialty chemicals company.
Advisor
Taylor Cuthrell
Former Partnership/Marketing Director for BAND (Division of NAVER Inc) a Mobile/Desktop, Group/Team based Communication Tool with 100M Downloads globally. Taylor managed numerous national organizations product implementation and ongoing marketing support. Taylor was instrumental in recruiting and landing partnerships such as Cal Ripken Baseball, a primary BAND client. He has years of experience with content strategy, lead generation, and client onboarding.
Advisor
Sherry Shannon-Vanstone
Serial tech entrepreneur, angel investor, and builder of high-performing teams. Sherry has led startups to successful exits in Silicon Valley and the Toronto-Waterloo Tech corridor. She is the founder, President, and CEO of Profound Impact, a data analytics firm that leverages AI to provide the perfect match of funding opportunities with academic and corporate researchers. In 2019, Sherry received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Western University.
Leadership
CEO
Dr. Tom Corr
Former President and CEO of Ontario Centers of Excellence for 10 years, previously held the joint positions of president and CEO of the Accelerator Center at the Waterloo Research and Technology Park, and Associate Vice President of Commercialization at the University of Waterloo.
CTO
Garry Chan
Founding Managing Partner at Procase Consulting, building the IT professional services company in Canada, United States and China. Garry is a tech entrepreneur and founder of companies in the fintech and SaaS sectors.
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CFO
Mark Ellingson
CFO and co-founder of Mobi, a Toronto based educational toy company, that designs and sells high-quality, educational toys around the world. Former auditor at Deloitte Private with clients ranging from software to real estate with revenues over $1 billion.
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VP Corporate Development and Acquisitions
Stephen Cuthrell
Former Director - Mergers and Acquisitions - USWEB and responsible for the acquisition of the USWEB affiliates which allowed USWEB to go public resulting in a company with a run-rate of $1 billion in revenues and a $3 billion valuation.
VP Strategic Partnerships
Bob Albert
Former Director - Franchise Development - USWEB and assisted in growing USWEB from a start-up to a network of over 50 affiliates. Executive level sales, business development and franchise development at organizations such as USWEB, Sprint, MicroAge, and Computerland.
Marketing Manager - Technical
Dorian Marquez
Former sales and marketing representative for Beam On Technology, Apex Leadership Co., and NAVER BAND Inc. Dorian has diversified experience in education technology marketing, manufacturing sales, partnership marketing, and event management. Dorian leverages his leadership and understanding of technology to find success in client facing roles that promote growth and education.
Marketing Manager - Content
Nicholas Krahnke
Senior Partnership Marketer with over 7 years of experience in partnerships, marketing, & business development. He is well seasoned in content creation, account management, & client onboarding. Over the years Nick has helped build brands from the ground up, whether B2C or B2B. Nick was recognized for his outstanding work ethic & commitment to his clients by winning Varsity Spirit’s partner of the year award in Feb. 2020.