Mr. Michel Vulpe founded i4i, Inc. in 1993 and serves as its Chief Technology Officer. Prior to i4i, Mr. Vulpe worked in the research and development group of Geac Computer Corporation. Mr. Vulpe serves as a Member of Founders Board at Round 13 Capital. Mr. Vulpe attended the University of Victoria and the graduate school at the University of Toronto where he studied Political Economics.

A young creative with big ideas and an entrepreneurial spirit. A recent Computer Science and New Media Studies graduate from the University of Toronto, he continues to marry his two lifelong passions: technology and the arts. His love for art and performance stems from his time in the Stratford Festival, appearing in a production of The King and I. In high school, he began to shoot and edit dance videos with friends. This accumulated into a performance at the Hip-Hop World Championships where Axel placed 17th. Leaving his mark on the global dance community, Axel became a close collaborator to visiting stars from the Philippines. Loving the creative process, he formed Red Label Studios; his very own production company. Wearing multiple hats on set, Axel has been trusted to work with companies like Nike, Family Channel, and ET Canada.

His most recent venture, StageKeep, solves a problem he found in his early days of dance and still encounters today: why do we still use a pencil and paper to demonstrate choreography? As Axel moves forward, his goal is to solve problems his fellow creators run into.

Captain (Navy) Tim O’Leary is a native of Toronto and a graduate of U of T, St. Michael’s College, for his undergraduate, and RMC for his Master’s.  With twenty-eight years in The Service he is a Naval Warfare Officer who has sailed in a number of Her Majesty’s Canadian Ships with both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, as well as with Strike Force NATO. The highlight of his seagoing service was the three years Capt(N) O’Leary spent in the North Atlantic in command of Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship MONCTON , a ship he had previously served in as Navigating Officer. He also enjoyed three years in command of Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship YORK, the Naval Reserve Division that is the heart of Toronto’s naval community. He has deployed to 23 countries, including tours in Bosnia-Hercegovina and Afghanistan. Presently Capt(N) O’Leary serves as the Central Region Captain, responsible for the seven naval reserve units and roughly one thousand five hundred naval reservists serving throughout Ontario.

Steve is obsessed with making tech human, using simple tools and techniques to make big changes.

He’s a 20 year tech veteran and runs Visible (vzbl.io) helping teams with digital+DevOps transformation. He also organizes Toronto’s largest DevOps community (devopsto.com) with a monthly meetup and annual conference, and advises several underrepresented startup teams. He’s a big fan of movies, video games, escaping winter and frisbees 🙂

Alana is the Co-founder and CTO at HiMama. HiMama is a leading technology platform for preschools and early learning programs. With HiMama, child care centers can build stronger relationships with their families, streamline business operations, and document classroom learning & development. Alana’s passion is to support improvements in early childhood education because of its vital role in shaping our world and is a currently undervalued part of the education system. Before HiMama, Alana has spent the last decade building products, has worked as an English teacher in rural France, a danger zone manager in East Africa, a keyboardist in myriad garage bands, and is an advocate for young women who have interests in STEM.

Jeremy is the Chief Technology Officer of The Sky Guys, Canada’s leader in UAV services and technology for heavy industry and government. Jeremy founded TSG’s technology division in 2016, which today employs 11 engineering staff and provides novel long-range drones, data management software, and software analytics to help oil and gas clients comply with safety standards, and help government agencies with aerial Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR). Jeremy was previously a member of the University of Toronto Aerospace Team (UTAT) for four years, and has contributed to technical and policy research at the German space agency and Canadian Forces Aerospace Warfare Centre. Jeremy was chosen as one of The Next 36 in 2016, one of AIAA’s Tomorrow’s Aerospace Engineering Leaders in 2018, and is also a Hatchery alumni from 2014. Jeremy graduated with a BASc in Engineering Science, and is currently pursuing an off-site MASc in Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo.

Andrew Reid (@ReidAndrew) is the founder and CEO of Rival Technologies, a Vancouver-based software company that develops voice, video and chat solutions for market research. He currently sits on the board of the BC Tech Association and is an active member of YPO. Andrew was a finalist in the 2010 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards. Prior to Rival, Andrew founded Vision Critical, a customer intelligence platform provider that went on to become one of Canada’s fastest-growing tech companies.

Senior Fellow, Impact Centre

Charles Plant is an unrepentant entrepreneur and budding economist. He is a Senior Fellow with the Impact Centre, conducting research and writing in the area of technology innovation and entrepreneurship. Aside from numerous research papers he has recently written a book that is available on Amazon entitled Triggers and Barriers: A Customer Perspective on Innovation.

Charles has been an officer, director or investor in several dozen technology companies. He was co-founder and CEO for 15 years of Synamics, a telecommunications software firm that provided mass calling platforms to telcos. Active for much of his career in the world of finance, Charles has been a venture capitalist, investment banker, and corporate banker. He also worked for four years at MaRS Discovery District.

As an educator, Charles spent seven years on the faculty of York’s Schulich School of Business teaching in the MBA program and now teaches innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto. He has an MBA in marketing, is a Chartered Accountant and is currently pursuing a PhD in Economics. 

Luna Yu is the CEO of Genecis Bioindustries. She completed her Bachelors and Masters in Environmental Science at the age of 21 at the University of Toronto. During her Undergrad, Luna co-founded, grew and exited from two profitable software startups. The exciting advancements in fields of synthetic biology, bioinformatics, and machine learning led her to infuse her passion and experience together. This created Genecis, where biotechnology enables the conversion of food waste into high value materials.

After graduating from Trinity College in 1992, Richard studied at the graduate journalism program at Ryerson before working as a newspaper and magazine reporter. He shifted careers into marketing for high-tech and financial-services companies in 1996, and after holding management positions at top global PR agencies and serving as the director of communications for a public software company, Richard founded VerbFactory in 2003. The agency, which is based in San Francisco and New York, focuses on helping technology and financial services companies grow their businesses by telling their stories through branding, writing, and media relations. Richard recently relocated to his adopted hometown of Toronto to start a practice focused on the growing Canadian technology community. He has written more than 1400 articles for publications including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Silicon Valley Business Journal on topics ranging from classic cars to baseball, and also played bass on a Grammy-nominated album.

Zakir (Zak) Hemraj is the Co-founder and CEO of Loopio, a Toronto-based software company that accelerates the RFP response process for companies in a variety of industries. He started his career at Achievers, where he worked in a few roles across Software Development and Sales, as the company grew from 20 to 300 employees over 8 years. After being inspired by the problems and opportunities he was exposed to at Achievers, Zak decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge. He co-founded Loopio in 2014 along with his closest friends, Matt York, and Jafar Owainati. Loopio has grown to over 90 people, raised $9M in Series A funding from OpenView Venture Partners, and serves more than 500 customers globally. Since Loopio’s inception, Zak has primarily divided his focus across Loopio’s Product, Customer Success, Sales, and People Operations teams. He is a people-focused leader that loves building things, regardless of the domain.

ABOUT LOOPIO:

Based in Toronto, Canada, Loopio is the leading RFP response solution that streamlines the way enterprises respond to Requests for Proposals (RFPs), Requests for Information (RFIs), Due Diligence Questionnaires (DDQs), and Security Questionnaires. Since 2014, Loopio has empowered hundreds of Sales, Proposal, and Security teams across world-leading organizations, including Thomson Reuters, IBM, Netskope, Sprinklr, Citrix, and many more.

A visionary leader and entrepreneur, Shaul Kuper founded Destiny Solutions Inc. in 2001 to spearhead the opportunity for change he foresaw in the higher education industry.

Passionate about technological innovation and the spirit of collaboration, Kuper’s focus on world-class customer service and business excellence at post-secondary institutions has led to Destiny Solutions’ partnerships with leading institutions and significant year-over-year growth.

In 2012 he founded The EvoLLLution, an online community newspaper dedicated to serving non-traditional education providers and evoking positive change in the shifting higher education landscape. As a public commentator on the business of non-traditional education and the role of technology, he regularly advises on student engagement strategies with industry leaders in higher education.

Prior to founding Destiny Solutions, Kuper was President of Destiny Web Designs, a Toronto-based website development firm. He holds a B.Sc. Honours degree from the University of Toronto.