CEO Message

March is Women’s History Month, an annual celebration of the vital role and contributions of women to society. Profound Impact is proud to celebrate women through the stories you’ll read in this month’s issue of Profound Connections, as well as activities we’re sponsoring throughout the month.

This month’s Impact Story profiles Zainab Azim, a young woman whose passion for space, education, neuroscience and public policy has inspired her to found an organization that works towards providing access to quality education, serve as a mentor in the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs Space4Women program and present her research to audiences around the world – all before completing her undergraduate degree!  Read about Zainab and her plans for expanding her work in mentoring and in the policy space to empower young girls and women interested in pursuing space and STEM fields.

In this month’s Researcher Spotlight we feature Julita Vassileva, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Saskatchewan. You’ll learn about Julita’s passion for promoting the status of women in computer science and in all areas of science and engineering where women are underrepresented. You can also learn about her ground-breaking research on applying AI to solve educational and social problems.

International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated on March 8 each year and the theme for IWD 2024 is Inspire Inclusion. Profound Impact is proud to be a sponsor of IWD 2024 events presented by WCT-WR, the Waterloo Region Chapter of Women in Communications and Technology. WCT-WR will host two live events on March 8 and March 27 that will include conversations featuring trailblazing professionals in the arts and culture sector, entertainment, and musical interludes.  Full information about those events and registration information is available here.

In last month’s newsletter, we announced the launch of Women Funding Women (WFW).  Founded by myself, Profound Impact board chair Deborah Rosati and Lara Zink, VP of Client Service and Development at Delaney Capital Management, WFW is a collective working to address the funding gap faced by women-led ventures.

We’re excited about the incredible energy generated by WFW’s two-day launch event on February 7 and 8. Our keynote speaker was Joanna Griffiths, founder and President at Knix, who shared her story with our collective.  

You can also tune into the From Fear to Fire podcast, where I speak with Heather Hansen O’Neill about how WFW is leading the charge to challenge established norms within the venture capital sphere, redefining the landscape for women founders and funders.

Are you a researcher looking for the perfect funding match? For a limited time, Profound Impact is offering a free evaluation of our AI-powered tool, Research Impact, to individual researchers, colleges and universities. You can view a video here or sign up for a live demonstration during one of our Demo Days.

Thank you for your support and we hope that you enjoy this month’s edition of Profound Connections!

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

CEO Message

The first few weeks of 2024 have been busy as the Profound Impact team continues to work with universities and colleges and industry partners across Canada to deploy our AI-powered Research Impact tool, which matches researchers with the best research funding opportunities in their field and helps find industry partners to support successful grant applications. Through our innovative new partnership with CS-Can|Info-Can, the first of a series of collaborations with researchers across Canada, Profound Impact is providing CS-Can|Info-Can member Computer Science departments and researchers with free evaluations of Research Impact. Interested in learning more about Research Impact? You can view a video here or sign up for a live demonstration during one of the bi-weekly Demo Days that the Profound Impact team will be presenting throughout 2024.

I was pleased to share my insights on building Profound Impact’s team and our successful and healthy small business culture in the Grow a Small Business podcast. Profound Impact and my work were also featured in an edition of Women’s Biz podcast, where I talked about my journey in information security, my role in commercializing Elliptic Curve Cryptography, and the inspiration behind founding Profound Impact.

In August of 2023, Profound Impact announced the successful close of a $3.125 million pre-seed funding round of nearly all female investors, including many first-time angel investors. Inspired by this achievement, I joined forces with Profound Impact board chair Deborah Rosati and Lara Zink, VP of Client Service and Development at Delaney Capital Management, to create Women Funding Women Inc. (WFW). This collective, which challenges the status quo in the venture capital world and with first-time female angel investors by breaking barriers and building bridges for a more inclusive investment community, will launch in Toronto on February 7. You can read more about how WFW plans to change the VC landscape in Disruption Magazine’s recent article.

In this month’s Impact Story, you’ll meet WFW co-founder Lara Zink and learn more about her journey from working as a political aide to a successful career in finance. In our Researcher Spotlight, we profile Dr. Luigi Benedicenti, Professional Engineer, researcher and Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of New Brunswick, whose career took him from Genoa, Italy to Regina, Saskatchewan to Atlantic Canada.

We hope you enjoy this month’s edition of Profound Connections!

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

Lara Zink

Lara Zink
Co-Founder, Women Funding Women

It was serendipity that brought Lara Zink from Vancouver to the University of Western Ontario (now Western University) and the keen interest she developed in politics in grades 11 and 12 led her to study political science. “I visited a great aunt in London while in high school and thought the Western campus was amazing,” says Lara. 

Lara’s journey, from graduating with an Honours BA degree in political science to working as part of the federal government team that negotiated the NAFTA agreement to a long and successful career in finance, was a non-traditional one. Her experience makes her a role model dedicated to helping women overcome barriers to entry and to ensure that leadership, representation, and gender equity exist within the finance industry.  

Lara’s degree in political science and experience working with the Young Conservatives as a teenager led to a role as political assistant to federal Member of Parliament Michael Wilson, then Minister of International Trade and Industry Canada. “I loved my two years working in Ottawa,” says Lara. “I was able to speak with members of Parliament and their staff about the benefits of NAFTA to Canada and traveled to Washington for the final stages of negotiation of the agreement.”

After two years on Parliament Hill, Lara wrote the GMAT exam and applied to business schools, including the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto where she ultimately earned her MBA. Although she had hoped to return to Vancouver after graduation, job opportunities were more plentiful in Toronto. After considering options in marketing and private wealth, Lara chose to enter a corporate lending training program with RBC in Toronto. She started in business banking and moved to another lending group in RBC’s financial institutions group before embarking on a 20-year career in global equity sales and trading on the trading floor at RBC Capital Markets.

When she left RBC in 2019, Lara paused and considered her next career move. “While exploring job opportunities during the pandemic lockdown, I threw my name in the hat for the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of Women in Capital Markets,” says Lara. She joined WCM, the largest network of women in finance whose mission is to accelerate equity, diversity and inclusion in finance, in 2021. Lara led WCM in developing programs to unite the finance industry in supporting EDI in capital markets and delivering research, programming and strategic value to the organization’s sponsors, members and stakeholders. 

Lara left WCM in September of 2023 to join a woman-led asset management company, Delaney Capital Management, where she currently serves as Vice President of Client Service and Development.

Lara’s commitment to embracing equity and helping women succeed, both in the finance sector and as company founders, is reflected in her role as a member of the board of Canadian Women’s Network, where she will work to help Canadian female founders grow and secure funding. She recently joined Sherry Shannon-Vanstone and Deborah Rosati to create Women Funding Women (WFW), a collective aimed at addressing the persistent funding gap faced by women founders in North America. 

WFW, which will launch on February 7 in Toronto, brings together organizations and resources committed to empowering women, offering gender equality, and catalyzing economic growth by increasing access to seed funding for women-led ventures. Lara’s vast experience in capital markets and her passion for driving change and ensuring women’s success is key to the work that WFW will do to increase access to funding for women founders. 

Lara’s professional success in the finance sector, her belief that strategy and culture differentiate organizations, and her work as a leader and mentor for women – as entrepreneurs, funders and investors – have made her an influential champion for equity, diversity and inclusion, and a powerful initiator of change for women’s access to venture funding.

Do you have an impact story to share? Let us know at connections@profoundimpact.com for a chance to be featured in an upcoming newsletter!

PARTNERSHIP TO TRANSFORM COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH FUNDING IN CANADA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

A recent partnership between CS-Can|Info-Can and tech startup Profound Impact creates the potential for Computer Science researchers to access new sources of funding.

WATERLOO, ON | JANUARY 23, 2024 Profound Impact™ Corporation, a technology company based in the Toronto-Waterloo corridor, is excited to announce its partnership with CS-Can|Info-Can, an organization with over 60 member Computer Science departments across Canada that aims to foster excellence in Computer Science research and higher education. 

As part of this partnership, Profound Impact will provide CS-Can|Info-Can member Computer Science departments and researchers with free evaluations of Research Impact, Profound Impact’s AI-driven researcher to funding matching tool. Research Impact uses proprietary AI-powered algorithms to match industry and academic researchers with the over $300-billion available in funding opportunities worldwide.

“We are thrilled to embark on this transformative partnership with Profound Impact™ Corporation, as it signifies a significant stride forward for our CS-Can|Info-Can members. Profound Impact’s commitment to providing free evaluations of Research Impact, their cutting-edge AI-driven researcher-to-funding matching tool, aligns perfectly with our mission to foster excellence in Computer Science research and higher education across Canada. This collaboration opens doors for our member Computer Science departments and researchers, addressing the funding challenges that often hinder the expansion of vital research initiatives. We believe this partnership marks the beginning of a fruitful series of collaborations, empowering our members to achieve their funding goals and contribute to the advancement of Computer Science research in Canada.” says Gina van Dalen, Executive Director CS-Can|Info-Can.

This partnership with CS-Can|Info-Can is the first of a series of collaborations with researchers across Canada as Profound Impact works with industry leaders and researchers to initiate new research funding connections to help Canadian research institutions and their partners meet their funding goals.

“Computer Science research drives technological innovation. Yet many researchers and departments struggle to find funding to continue and expand their research,” says Profound Impact President & CEO, Dr. Sherry Shannon-Vanstone. “We are excited to offer this solution to the CS-Can|Info-Can membership. We all succeed when researchers get the funding they need to continue to innovate.”

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ABOUT PROFOUND IMPACT CORPORATION 

Based in the Toronto-Waterloo technology corridor, Profound Impact’s AI-powered tool – Research Impact – helps academic and industry researchers find the perfect funding match. With over $300 Billion in research funding opportunities, 100,000s industry partners and 8.8 Million researchers globally, finding the optimal grant for academic and industry innovators is often overwhelming and unnecessarily time-consuming.  More than just a search engine, Research Impact offers automatic, targeted and timely matching.  Profound Impact’s customers include top North American research institutions, universities and industry partners.  CEO and Founder Sherry Shannon-Vanstone is a serial technology entrepreneur with an unparalleled track record.  She has had five successful start-ups and exits in Silicon Valley and Canada, including two IPOs and acquisitions.    

About CS-Can|Info-Can

CS-Can|Info-Can counts among its members more than 60 Canadian organizations active in computing research: academic departments of computer science and computer engineering; laboratories and centres in industry, government, and academia; and affiliated professional societies. CS-Can|Info-Can works with these organizations to represent the computing research community and to effect change that benefits both computing research and society at large.

Visit us at www.profoundimpact.com

Connect with us at 

Facebook: @aprofoundimpact

Instagram: @aprofoundimpact 

LinkedIn: Profound Impact Corporation

Twitter: @aprofoundimpact

YouTube: @profoundimpactcorporation

For media inquiries, please contact:

Scott Hamilton

Durrell Communications

scotth@durrellcomm.com

media@profoundimpact.com 

CEO Message

Happy 2024!

Profound Impact is excited to start the new year with the announcement of a new partnership with CS-Can|Info-Can, a professional organization representing more than 60 Computer Science departments and faculties across Canada.

CS-Can|Info-Can and Profound Impact worked together in 2023 to produce two webinars on researcher and industry collaboration. Recordings of those webinars are available for viewing here.

This new partnership provides an exciting benefit to the CS-Can|Info-Can members – a free evaluation of Research Impact, which uses advanced AI to match researchers with the best research funding opportunities in their field and helps find industry partners to support successful grant applications.

Would you like to see Research Impact in action? You can view a video here or sign up for a live demonstration during one of the bi-weekly Demo Days that the Profound Impact team will be presenting throughout 2024.

This month, we’re proud to present profiles of two 2023 Impactful Action Award finalists. These finalists exemplify what it means to make a profound impact in the world, and we are honoured to share their stories. You’ll meet Leigh Zachary Bursey, an activist, journalist, former three-term politician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and author, and Lynn Smith, a proud member of the Peavine Métis Settlement who is leading her northern community through a significant change to take control over monitoring the impact of climate change on their land and waterways.

The Profound Impact team is excited about our plans for 2024 and looks forward to sharing those with you. Enjoy this month’s edition of Profound Connections and best wishes for a productive and happy new year!

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

CEO Message

Message from the CEO

November was a busy month for the Profound Impact team as we released our annual Social Impact Report, participated in industry conferences and met with venture capitalists in the US in preparation for the company’s next funding round.

The Profound Impact Social Impact Report highlights strategies we’ve undertaken over the last twelve months to maintain and improve a positive environment for our employees. These initiatives have included monthly in-person team meetings, team-building activities, virtual social events (including group cooking sessions), group volunteering, professional skills and growth support education programs, a team-wide book club and the matching of charitable contributions to community organizations. I’m proud to report that Profound Impact has achieved an employee retention rate of 100% (with 0% attrition) while growing the team by 33%. This employee retention rate is in stark contrast with tech companies globally, where the average attrition rate sits at 13.2%. 

Conference attendance and presentations took Profound Impact employees across North America to learn more about key technologies and to meet current and potential customers.  

Our Technical Program Manager, Sohail Ramzan, attended AWS Reinvent in Las Vegas to meet with AWS experts and to learn about the latest cloud industry innovations and how generative AI is revolutionizing the workplace.

Sherryl Petricevic, Director of Strategic Alliances and Partnerships was joined by Mike Folinas, Director of Research Administration at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto to present a case study on the use of Profound Impact’s Research Impact tool at the Canadian Association of Research Administrators (CARA) East in London, Ontario.

Jacqueline Watty from our Business Development team represented Profound Impact at qConnect 2023 in Calgary to connect with researchers and industry representatives discussing Canada’s role as a leader in quantum research and development, and how and why quantum is going to affect, change and benefit businesses.

Karl Burger, Director of Sales, attended the VentureLAB HardTech Summit, Canada’s premiere technology and innovation-focused summit that brought together global industry leaders, Canadian founders, investors, and innovators to explore the necessary ingredients to build a strong, connected hardware and semiconductor ecosystem in Canada.

Dr. Deborah Rosati, the chair of Profound Impact’s board of directors, and I took part in Pathways to Silicon Valley, where 24 female founders from across Canada participated in a curated immersion program designed for women founders of start-ups on their path to global business growth. We joined this program to establish relationships with US venture capital firms to prepare for our next fundraising round and our launch into the US in 2024.  

December is the season of giving and the team at Profound Impact is demonstrating the power of small acts of kindness through our annual 12 Days of Impact, a program that encourages generosity. Our 12 Days of Impact campaign provides great examples of easy and inexpensive ways to be kind and generous and has also helped members of the Profound Impact team create a meaningful sense of contribution to their community while increasing bonds of collegiality on the job. We encourage you to download the 12 Days of Impact calendar and challenge your team to participate through small acts of kindness that have great big impacts.

I wish you all the best for 2024 and look forward to working with you in the new year.

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

Profound Impact Achieves Staff Retention of 100% Over Two Years, Releases Social Impact Report and 12 Days of Impact Downloadable Calendar

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOCAL TECH COMPANY PROFOUND IMPACT ACHIEVES 100 PERCENT STAFF RETENTION OVER TWO YEARS DESPITE TUMULTUOUS MARKET CONDITIONS

Profound Impact attributes a staff retention rate of 100% to employee programs driven by purpose

WATERLOO, ON | NOVEMBER 27, 2023 Profound Impact™ Corporation, a local tech company in the Toronto-Waterloo corridor, has reported in its annual Social Impact Report that it has achieved an employee retention rate of 100 percent (zero percent attrition) while growing the team by 33 percent. This employee retention rate is in stark contrast with tech companies globally, where the average attrition rate sits at 13.2 percent. 

“It’s a rarity to see a start-up tech organization embody social impact programs so early in their company journey,” says Renata Rusiniak, who leads People & Purpose programs at Profound Impact. “Our CEO, Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, understands the business value of purpose-driven work and invests accordingly. Her early adoption of programs that support her team to engage with community organizations has created a culture of generosity and as a result, an impressive employee retention rate.” 

The Social Impact Report highlights strategies the Profound Impact team undertook to maintain and improve a positive environment for their employees. Initiatives included monthly team meetings with team-building activities, virtual social events such as cooking sessions conducted through online platforms such as Zoom, team wellness programs such as team volunteering, professional skills and growth support education programs, matching charitable contributions to community organizations, book clubs, and much more.

Profound Impact’s annual ‘12 Days of Impact’ program encouraging generosity and the impact of small acts of kindness upon others, has also helped employees create a meaningful sense of contribution to their community while increasing bonds of collegiality on the job.

“Our 12 Days of Impact campaign provides great examples of easy and inexpensive ways to be kind and generous,” says Dr. Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, the CEO and Founder of Profound Impact. “ We’re encouraging our team members and our whole community to demonstrate the power of many through small acts of kindness that create big impacts in society.” 

Profound Impact’s AI-powered tool, Research Impact, offers automatic, targeted and timely grant matching. The company is also passionate about community, environmental sustainability, and employer-supported volunteerism. In addition to giving back through the 12 Days of Impact, Profound Impact has implemented employee donation matching, time off for volunteering, and group volunteering. To learn more about Profound Impact’s purpose-driven business, take a look at our FY23 Social Impact Report.

Individuals and organizations participating in the 12 Days of Impact can download the 12 Days calendar and share their actions on social media using #12DaysOfImpact.

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ABOUT PROFOUND IMPACT CORPORATION 

Based in the Toronto-Waterloo technology corridor, Profound Impact’s AI-powered tool – Research Impact – helps academic and industry researchers find the perfect funding match. With over $300 Billion in research funding opportunities, 100,000s industry partners and 8.8 Million researchers globally, finding the optimal grant for academic and industry innovators is often overwhelming and unnecessarily time-consuming.  More than just a search engine, Research Impact offers automatic, targeted and timely matching.  Profound Impact’s customers include top North American research institutions, universities and industry partners.  CEO and Founder Sherry Shannon-Vanstone is a serial technology entrepreneur with an unparalleled track record.  She has had five successful start-ups and exits in Silicon Valley and Canada, including two IPOs and acquisitions.    

Visit us at www.profoundimpact.com

Connect with us at 

Facebook: @aprofoundimpact

Instagram: @aprofoundimpact 

LinkedIn: Profound Impact Corporation

Twitter: @aprofoundimpact

YouTube: @profoundimpactcorporation

For media inquiries, please contact:

Scott Hamilton

Durrell Communications

scotth@durrellcomm.com

media@profoundimpact.com 

CEO Message

We’re excited to make innovation in medicine the focus of this month’s newsletter and to introduce you to two Canadian trailblazers who are making profound changes in the treatment of diabetes and gynecologic cancers.

Our November Impact Story features Dr. Harald Stöver, Professor in the Faculty of Science at McMaster University and founder and CEO of Allarta Life Science. You’ll learn how Harald has moved his research on polymer hydrogels, bio-relevant macromolecules and the delivery of biologics from the laboratory to market to fundamentally change the way that patients with Type 1 Diabetes receive treatment.  

You’ll also meet Dr. Laura Hopkins, a gynecological oncologist with the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency and Professor in the Division of Oncology and Provincial Lead for Gynecologic Oncology. A dedicated clinician, Laura’s devotion to providing excellent and timely care for patients through all stages of cancer treatment has led to the launch of the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency’s first investigator-initiated trial to explore patients’ preferences for precision medicine in ovarian cancer.

In keeping with the focus on medical technology innovations, this month’s Research Spotlight explores technologies that are providing advanced tools that, thanks to innovative research partnerships between clinicians, scientists, patients and industry, are vastly improving patient care and clinical outcomes.

This month’s newsletter also features an article about CANARIE, Canada’s National Research and Education Network, in recognition of its 30th anniversary. Along with its provincial and territorial partners, CANARIE operates NREN, Canada’s National Research and Education Network. This nationwide, ultra-high-speed network connects Canada’s researchers, educators, and innovators to each other and to global data, technology, and colleagues.

In late October, I was appointed as Vice-Chair for the CANARIE Board. I am extremely honoured to take on this role and have the opportunity to work closely with the Board Chair, Larry Rosia, President and CEO of Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Past Chair, Sylvie LaPerriere and the other Board members. As the CEO of a female-founded company, I’m proud to serve on the board of an organization committed to diversity as reflected in the appointment of Kathryn Anthonisen, CANARIE’s first female President and CEO, and, when women occupy just 23% of board seats in Canada, a board that is 60% female.

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

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

CANARIE – Advancing Innovation in Canada

CANARIE connects Canada to the world with programs that equip researchers, students, and start-ups in Canada to excel on the global stage. Established in 1993 by the Government of Canada as a non-profit corporation to advance Canada’s knowledge and innovation infrastructure, the organization’s priorities, as established by Innovation, Science and Development Canada, are to:

  • Provide an internationally competitive ultra-high-speed network for Canada’s research, innovation and advanced education communities;
  • Develop, demonstrate and implement next-generation technologies;
  • Bolster Canada’s technology capabilities by assisting Canadian institutions and companies operating in Canada to advance innovation and commercialization of products and services.

CANARIE members include colleges, universities, healthcare facilities, research and post-secondary institutes, non-profit innovation organizations, government agencies and private sector organizations from across Canada.

“The organization’s mandate has evolved over its 30-year history,” says Kathryn Anthonisen, CANARIE President and CEO.  Initiatives led by CANARIE since its inception include:

  • laying the groundwork, with provincial partner networks, for the first commercial Internet in Canada;
  • incubating the Internet Registration Authority in Canada, now known as CIRA;
  • working with global peers to align international research and education infrastructures to support globally collaborative research, now formalized via the Global Network Advancement Group (GNA-G);
  • developing the grid certificate authority in Canada that provides secure access to data generated from the Large Hadron Collider and other advanced digital technologies;
  • supporting the uptake of cloud technology by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Canada;
  • identifying gaps in research software and championing the development of powerful research software tools to efficiently enable researchers across many disciplines to accelerate discovery, a program that has transitioned to the Digital Research Alliance of Canada as part of the Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) Strategy; and
  • supporting Research Data Canada to align research data activities within Canada and internationally, now transitioned to the Digital Research Alliance of Canada as part of the DRI Strategy.

CANARIE’s current mandate includes enhancement of the cybersecurity capabilities of Canada’s research and education institutions. “The post-secondary education sector is one of the top three targets in Canada for cybersecurity breaches” notes Anthonisen.  “Threat actors from nation-states are sophisticated, well-funded, and well-organized. They target research data, intellectual property and infrastructure to disrupt and disable the peace of mind of Canadians,” she says

To address its cybersecurity mandate, CANARIE launched the Cybersecurity Initiatives Program (CIP) in November 2020. 97% of 220 research and post-secondary organizations that are eligible for the program are now participating in the CIP, which offers funded services to strengthen organizations’ cybersecurity capabilities.

As part of this work, CANARIE and its provincial and territorial partners in the National Research and Education Network (NREN) launched a national cybersecurity assessment service, based on the five key dimensions of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework. The goals of the assessment are to provide a clear, comprehensive picture of the cybersecurity maturity of Canada’s research & education sector, and identify risk-based priorities for the planning, investment, and delivery of future cybersecurity initiatives at the organizational, regional, and federal level.

CANARIE, with its partners in the NREN, is also piloting a federated Security Operations Centre for the research and education sector, CanSSOC. Given that many institutions and NREN partners have already invested in cybersecurity expertise, processes and infrastructures, “CANARIE’s goal is to stitch together these existing investments to cost-effectively enable advanced threat detection and response for universities, colleges, polytechnics and CEGEPs across Canada,” says Anthonisen.

To support innovation in the private sector, Canadian companies with fewer than 500 employees have access to CANARIE’s DAIR Cloud Program, which provides resources to assist start-ups and SMEs for rapid and scalable design, development, validation, and demonstration of products and services. Over 1900 start-ups have used the DAIR Cloud program to build and test new products and services. This service is part of CANARIE’s Private Sector Innovation mandate, which recognizes CANARIE’s unique position at the nexus of research, technology, and government policy, and serves to accelerate the adoption of transformative technologies among Canadian businesses.

“CANARIE is an essential service,” notes Sylvie LaPerrière, who serves as Past Chair on the organization’s Board of Directors.  “We are very much at the service of the community. We do a lot of listening to uncover future needs. And through this listening comes innovation.”

CANARIE is deeply committed to equity, diversity and inclusion, which is reflected in the diversity of its Board of Directors. The Board of Directors includes members from across Canada, representing research, education and industry from all regions. “A plurality of voices makes the board stronger,” says LaPerrière. “The CANARIE Board, with extensive expertise from both the public and private sectors, strengthens CANARIE’s ability to deliver on its mandate priorities by ensuring a diversity of perspectives that challenge management to maximize the value CANARIE delivers to its stakeholder communities.”

This commitment applies equally to CANARIE’s 84 employees. “When people feel they can bring their whole selves to work, they are able to bring richness and value to the organization,” says Anthonisen.

In late October, Profound Impact founder and CEO, Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, was appointed as the Vice Chair of the CANARIE board working with the newly appointed Chair, Larry Rosia, President of Saskatchewan Polytechnic, and Past Chair, Sylvie LaPerrière.

Sherry’s appointment as Vice Chair of the CANARIE board reflects the significant contributions she has made to a range of industries, including cryptography, information security, and telecommunications as well as her dedication to the advancement of women in technology. “I look forward to working with my fellow board members to strengthen Canada’s national digital infrastructure and ensure our country continues to inspire ground-breaking innovations and remain globally competitive,” she says.

We Live to Build Podcast

Our Founder and CEO, Dr. Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, joined Sean Weisbrot, host of the We Live to Build podcast, to talk about her previous career in cryptography, her new role encouraging women in business, and the power of female investors.