CEO Message

June has been an exciting and busy month for Profound Impact!

I am thrilled and grateful to welcome a group of female investors, including many who are first-time investors, into our network as part of our latest funding round. Women need opportunities to invest and grow their portfolios, and I’m proud that so many made the decision to make their first-time investment in Profound Impact, sending a clear message of confidence in the company’s vision and the team’s leadership!

We are also pleased to announce the launch of Profound Impact’s inaugural Board of Directors, composed of distinguished business leaders with a wealth of skills and diverse backgrounds. Joining me, as founder, president and CEO of Profound Impact, this experienced board, which will help guide the company toward its next phase of growth and success, includes:

Board Chair – Deborah Rosati, FCPA, FCA, ICD.D, GCB.D, CCB.D: An award-winning corporate director and entrepreneur and founder of Women Get On Board.

Board Director – Sharon Castelino, MBA, LLM, ICD.D: An award-winning financial services executive and corporate director with three decades of experience in multiple sectors and across global jurisdictions.

Corporate Secretary – Kasia Malz, CPA, CA, MAcc.:  In addition to her role as CFO, Kasia will serve as corporate secretary for the board of directors.

We were excited to present and demonstrate our Research Impact product at Collision in Toronto from June 26 to 29. As this conference brings together global technology leaders and companies, high-potential start-ups and top journalists to participate in more than 20 content tracks, Collision was the ideal venue for showcasing Research Impact’s capacity to serve as a matchmaker for collaborators and researchers to connect with industry partners and government granting agencies. In addition to demonstrations in our booth, I was pleased to present the benefits of Research Impact along with Deloitte partner Jigna Shah on the AWS StartUp Loft Theatre stage. You can learn more about Research Impact and our participation in Collision in this newsletter.

This month’s Impact Story profiles Shann McGrail, Chief Executive Officer of the Haltech Regional Innovation Centre. You’ll learn how Shann uses both her extensive experience in the technology sector and her improv skills to lead Haltech in its mission to serve as a strategic connector and educator for start-ups in Halton and across Ontario.

Finally, we have received impressive nominations for the Impactful Action Awards. Thanks to all who let us know about incredible people around the world making a great impact!

Thank you for connecting with us and the Profound Impact community!

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

Research Spotlight: Research Impact at Collision 2023

Profound Impact Presents Research Impact at Collision 2023

This month’s Research Spotlight focuses on Research Impact, Profound Impact’s research matchmaking product. As the company that connects great people to do great things, Profound Impact was proud to present and demonstrate our Research Impact product at Collision in Toronto on June 26 – 29, 2023. The annual Collision conference brings together global technology leaders and companies, high-potential start-ups and top journalists to participate in more than 20 content tracks that cover topics including corporate innovation, health, finance, sustainability, start-ups, venture capital and the future of work.  

Profound Impact had the opportunity to participate in the Alpha Startup Program which connects early-stage companies with outstanding potential to the world’s most influential people and companies. Our CEO, Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, was selected to participate in the PITCH competition and was chosen to advance to the top ten from over 500 startups! Sherry also teamed up with Deloitte partner Jigna Shah on the AWS Collision stage to present the benefits of using Research Impact to meet the challenges of making those connections.

Profound Impact launched as a data and analytics company to work with universities to empower their alumni and students on their career journeys. Research Impact was developed to help those universities connect with industry partners and government granting agencies. Connections between industry and universities are essential as researchers seek industry partners for research programs and industry looks to researchers for insight into long-term research directions to develop strategic development road maps. On average, it takes 17 years for fundamental research to move to commercial practice.  Global issues like climate change, water contamination, public health, energy, food insecurity and cybersecurity can’t wait more than a decade for the application of groundbreaking research results. A different approach, featuring collaboration between researchers and industry, is required to accelerate innovation.

Over $300 billion in global research funding is available annually for 8.8 million researchers and hundreds of thousands of industry partners around the world. But there are challenges in making connections between researchers and industry partners, knowing where to look for the right funding programs and understanding eligibility requirements.

How do companies navigate the challenges of finding academic research partners and applying for grants? How do researchers find all of the funding programs relevant to their areas of expertise? Without effective tools, many hours are spent researching available funding programs, attempting to reach out to funding agencies and submitting applications for grants in programs that are oversubscribed and competitive without necessarily meeting eligibility requirements.

What if there was an automatic way to match academic and industry researchers to each other and to funding programs? Research Impact combines private and public data using Al and data analytic tools to optimize research funding opportunities.

As demonstrated by the Profound Research team at our booth at Collision, Research Impact features an easy-to-use dashboard that manages researcher areas of focus, funding opportunities, grant deadlines, historical funding matches and industry projects. The tool’s automatic loading of grant programs and researcher profiles, streamlined and targeted communication with researchers and the use of AI and machine learning to make appropriate matches greatly simplifies the process for applying for research funding. The increased efficiency and resulting additional access to funding opportunities can save as much as 80% of the time previously spent by academics, university funding offices and industry researchers.

Profound Impact’s presentations of Research Impact’s power to provide research organizations and industry partners with an increased share of grant funding and a resulting boost in institutional rankings were met with great interest and enthusiasm by Collision’s national and international audience.  We look forward to working with universities, research institutions, industry researchers and funding partners to deploy Research Impact in their organizations.

CEO Message

The application of technology in healthcare has increased significantly since the advent of COVID 19 in 2020. This month’s newsletter highlights the role of health informatics, which combines communication, information technology and health care to transform and greatly improve patient care through the sharing of information, accurate and timely diagnoses and treatments and personalized medicine.  You’ll learn about interdisciplinary research in areas including big data, environmental and global health, patient monitoring and acceptance and adoption of technologies for health management.  And you’ll meet Dr. Helen Chen of the Professional Practice Centre in Health Systems at the University of Waterloo who works with health care sector partners and professional staff and faculty from the University of Waterloo to tackle interesting and important real-world problems.

This month’s Impact Story highlights the work of Lily Pourzand, who came to Canada from Iran in 1999 in search of political safety and personal freedom.  A finalist for the 2023 Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards, Lily is a passionate and outstanding advocate for girls and women, both in Canada and around the world, as she works to create community linkages and establish relationships with stakeholders, organizations, funders and policymakers to bring positive social changes.

The Profound Impact team is planning for a busy June and we hope to see you at one of the events we’ll be participating in this month. We’re proud to sponsor the CS-CAN 2023 conference at McGill University from June 5 to 9.  Our team will be in Montreal to meet with computer science researchers and students from across Canada.  We’ll also be taking part in the Collision 2023 conference at the Enercare Centre in Toronto, from June 26 to 29 as part of the Startup Alpha program.  And I’ll be presenting, in conjunction with Deloitte, on the AWS stage at the conference.

Nominations are open until June 14th for our Impactful Action Awards. We believe that one profound impact leads to another and that’s why the recipients of our awards will be able to select a charity of their choice for a donation made by Profound Impact.  To make a nomination, or learn more about the awards, please click here: https://news.profoundimpact.com/…/2023-impactful…/

Finally, we are pleased to announce the appointment of Kasia Malz to Profound Impact as Chief Financial Officer. Kasia joined the Profound Impact team in April and brings more than 15 years of experience working in diverse financial leadership roles in start-up and high-growth environments. She received both her Masters of Accounting and Honours Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, holds a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) designation and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the state of Illinois. Adding Kasia as our CFO signals a time of growth, expansion and investment here at Profound Impact and we know that she will be an invaluable member of our team as we grow.

We look forward to receiving your nominations for the Impactful Action Awards and to meeting you at the CS-CAN conference in Montreal and the Collision conference in Toronto.  Thank you for connecting with us and the Profound Impact community!

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone