Lisa Lambert

Lisa Lambert
CEO, Quantum Industry Canada

Growing up in small community in Northern Ontario, Lisa Lambert was a curious kid. “I would stare at the night sky, fascinated to know what was going on up there,” she says. “My mother was very patient with me as I was always up to something – building things or taking things apart.”

Her maternal grandfather, a self-trained mechanic and power engineer who loved nature, encouraged her inquisitiveness. “We’d go out for a walk and he would say: ‘Be careful where you trot, this is living stuff.’ He had a second-grade education but was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. He was civically engaged and cared about how the world worked. I had conversations about politics with him from a young age, which tuned me into the importance of government policy. He taught me to be curious, understand my world, and not take things for granted.” Her grandfather’s wisdom stuck with her and remained inspirational for Lisa as she navigated the path she would follow for her studies and her career.

Lisa wanted to study science and decided to attend Western University in London, Ontario. “We had family friends in London and I knew the city from visits with them,” she says. “I didn’t realize how big the Western campus was, with a student population larger than that of my entire hometown!”

She had planned to pursue an MD and PhD in neuroscience, but her interest in the importance of bridging science to society was sparked by her undergraduate thesis supervisor, who was very involved in science communication outreach in the field of neuroscience. Lisa decided to attend Laurentian University to study Science Communication, the first-and-only program of its kind in Canada offered at the graduate level in collaboration with Science North. “Being such a new field, it was a risk to study science communication instead of enrolling in more traditional graduate training. But it enabled me to chart my own path filled with exciting opportunities to make a difference.”

Lisa’s curiosity has informed her career path. “My formal education was important, but some of my best learning has been from trying new things.” After completing her graduate studies, she worked as an intern at CREO, a Montreal studio that was an innovator in science education projects. Lisa collaborated with creative, production, and technical teams on a range of interactive, game-based projects to ensure that the studio’s award-winning solutions captivated target audiences while incorporating scientific rigour.

Her next position, as one of the first Program/Research Associates at the Council of Canadian Academies in Ottawa, is where she learned about science, technology and innovation policy. “I worked with Peter Nicholson, who had a wealth of experience at the intersection of different areas, and the best experts from across disciplines to learn about how the assessment of evidence on complex scientific topics of public interest is used to inform science policy in Canada.”

Her growing expertise in science communication and public policy served Lisa well in her role as Manager of External Relations and Public Affairs at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo. “Perimeter had just started construction of the Stephen Hawking wing and was shifting its focus from a national to an international mandate in research and educational outreach,” notes Lisa. “It was a great place to grow as I worked with talented colleagues and researchers on global outreach, external relations, government relations, and special projects to establish Perimeter as a top global brand in the field.”

Prior to joining the leadership team at TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator centre, Lisa was selected as one of 250 emerging leaders across Canada to participate in the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference 2015, a unique two-week program aimed at broadening perspectives on leadership, work, communities, and country. The conference’s theme of Exploring Innovation and Leadership provided Lisa with the opportunity to hone skills in stakeholder engagement, brand development, strategic partnerships, public policy, business transformation, community building, and strategic communications.

Lisa moved to British Columbia to join TRIUMF shortly after a new Executive Director was hired. As part of her responsibilities for transforming communications from a service unit into a strategic function to revitalize strategy, operations, and culture while elevating the global profile, Lisa worked on a fresh approach to a five-year plan that resulted in what was then the largest public investment in the organization’s history.

Early on in her role at TRIUMF, she applied to and was selected as one of 100 high-performers around the world to participate in one of the early cohorts of the altMBA program, a pioneering online leadership development workshop. Founded in 2015 by bestselling author Seth Godin, the altMBA engaged a group of students in an intense four-week process to hone critical leadership skills in decision-making, navigating uncertainty, change management, sales, and marketing. Lisa was recognized with the altMBA’s Winograd Award, a peer-nominated distinction awarded based on the recipient’s generosity in helping others. After completing the program, she was invited to join the coaching team and went on to become a Head Coach in the altMBA and other business workshops led by Godin. “I was exposed to a lot and I learned a lot in that capacity,” says Lisa. After working for four and half years at TRIUMF, Lisa’s curiosity and passion for developing new skills prompted her to consider her next career step.

Lisa’s experience in business coaching led to her founding two consultancies, one where she worked with deep-tech start-ups, helping them land and manage first proof of concepts/pilots and scale partnerships with large companies, the other where she helped organizations successfully navigate change and growth by building trust. She co-authored a book on trust-centred leadership with Rick Kitagawa. The Future is Trust is a concise and practical guide to building trust that became an Amazon bestseller.

“I have been fortunate,” says Lisa. “One of the highlights of my career has been to work with and to learn from Margaret Atwood on her legacy project, Practical Utopias: An Exploration of the Possible powered by Disco.” Lisa collaborated with the world-renowned author, teacher, and environmental activist to develop and deliver a global futures-design experience to explore possibilities for a net-zero future that was centered on community, collaboration, and interaction.

“When the project with Margaret was complete, I wanted to continue to work on advancing transformational solutions and was considering how I could bring my skill set to Canada’s growing clean-tech or quantum sectors,” she adds. While at Perimeter, Lisa had worked with the quantum research community. She reached out to former colleagues and quickly learned her timing couldn’t have been better: Quantum Industry Canada (QIC), the national industry-led consortium of quantum technology companies and allied organizations, was in the process of recruiting its inaugural CEO and Lisa’s experience and expertise was a perfect match for the organization. She joined QIC in October of 2023.

QIC’s mission is to translate the country’s quantum capabilities and strengths into business success and economic prosperity. “Canada has been an early quantum pioneer. As the quantum landscape moves from lab to market, this critical sector presents an enormous opportunity to shape our country’s future for the better,” says Lisa.

As a woman who has worked in largely male-dominated environments, Lisa is pleased to see that the landscape is changing. “I was often the only woman in the room. In Canada in particular, I’m delighted to see that there are a considerable number of extraordinary women in leadership roles in quantum. We are at the dawn of the industry – now is such an important time to have role models to help encourage more young women in the field.”

Lisa Lambert has dedicated her career to driving innovation, execution, and business growth in high-velocity, ever-evolving environments. As a mentor to young entrepreneurs her advice to young people interested in a career in science echoes what she learned from her grandfather: “Go have fun. Explore. Take chances. Never stop learning. Be a professional curiosity seeker!”

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!

Research Spotlight: Advanced Manufacturing in Canada – Collaborative Innovation by Industry and Researchers

The traditional view of manufacturing features unskilled labour working on assembly lines for the mass production of cars, farm machinery, electrical equipment and textiles. In 2023, Canada’s advanced manufacturing eco-system employs innovative technologies, a highly skilled workforce and partnerships with world-renowned research facilities to develop unique solutions to challenges in areas including health care, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, food and beverage processing and the assembly of electronic vehicles.

Canada’s history in manufacturing began with the use of gristmills to process grains into flour in the 18th century in New France. Confederation and the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 19th century paved the way for factories to produce lumber, grains and food products for domestic use. With the discovery of electricity and the demands of the First World War, Canada’s manufacturing expanded to shipbuilding and the production of steel and pulp and paper. The Second World War led to yet more manufacturing growth, with the fabrication of vehicles, aircraft and weapons and a manufacturing industry that employed more than 25% of Canada’s workforce.

Manufacturing in Canada today has made great strides and includes the use of robotics, nanotechnology, advanced materials, 3D printing, artificial intelligence and the integration of network and information technology to advance product development, reduce costs, increase quality, functionality and customization and reduce supply chain issues and time to market. 

According to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), manufacturing represents more than 10% of Canada’s total GDP, with exports of more than $354 billion each year, representing 68% of all of Canada’s merchandise exports and employing almost 2 million people across the country. The government of Canada recognized the importance of manufacturing to the country through the creation of Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen), one of five national networks supported by Canada’s Global Innovation Clusters (Supercluster) initiative.  According to François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, “Our government’s investment in the clusters has been about finding new and innovative ways to build connections. By incentivizing collaboration and growing strong Canadian ecosystems, the Global Innovation Clusters are generating good, well-paying jobs across the country, developing a highly skilled and diverse workforce, and contributing to our economic recovery by creating stronger and more resilient economic growth.”

NGen is a non-profit organization with the goal of “strengthening the competitiveness and growth potential of Canada’s advanced manufacturing sector, enhancing the support capacity of Canada’s advanced manufacturing ecosystem, and contributing to the well-being of Canadians.” NGen’s 5,000 members include more than 1,000 manufacturers, over 2,500 SMEs, 372 industry partners and 261 academic and research partners with over 200 students working on 165 NGen-funded projects.

Research partners participate through invitation by NGen-funded industry partners, working mainly on technology development and are funded by federal and provincial research and development grants. CEO Jayson Myers notes that NGen projects provide funding to Canadian manufacturers and technology companies to work together with university researchers and their students to develop transformative and customized solutions to solve demand-driven challenges.  “Each project partner has a role to play. Universities and research facilities provide training and education and a long-term view of the use of technology as well as access to research test-beds.  Industry partners supply innovation and ingenuity and use of facilities. Partners collaborate to focus on developing transformative solutions.”

Cities across Canada – including Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Waterloo and Ottawa – are centres of excellence in advanced manufacturing, with expertise in areas including bio-industrials, nanotechnology, geospatial data collection and analysis, advanced communications and navigation, aerospace manufacturing, cleantech, automotive, aviation, robotics and the development and integration of defence and security products. NGen plays a strategic role in connecting and supporting collaborations between experts in these centres in a broad range of projects. Examples include:

  • A partnership between Sona Nanotech in Halifax, the VIDO-Intervac Research Centre at the University of Saskatchewan and the Runnymede Healthcare Centre in Toronto to use Sona’s proprietary nanotechnology to develop a rapid point-of-care antigen test to screen for COVID-19.  The test has been commercialized in Europe as a screening tool for individuals in high-risk settings and has resulted in $100 million in sales.
  • Magna’s Stronach Centre for Innovation and Maple Advanced Robotics in Ontario, in partnership with the University of Waterloo, the University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University worked together to develop an Autonomous Adaptable Robot System (AARS), a novel robot integration solution. AARS integrates 3D vision technology, artificial intelligence and collaborative robots to allow any operator with minimal training to quickly modify the robot path and workspace, significantly expanding the role of robots in large-scale or small and medium-size production and in retail services such as auto body repair shops.
  • Advanced BioCarbon 3D in Rossland, BC is conducting a feasibility study and a pilot project with KF Hemp in Regina, Virtual Layer in Kelowna, BC and a research team at the University of British Columbia to support the development of a commercial-scale biorefinery for the production of high-performance bioplastics and other advanced materials made from hemp.
  • In Ontario, Linamar in Guelph is partnering with Westhill Innovation in Simcoe and McMaster University in Hamilton to scale up production of Westhill’s inverter technology for use in zero-emission vehicles. The technology uses 1/12th the space and mass of other competing inverters and the project proposes to develop a manufacturing process to produce smaller, lighter inverters for use in Zero-Emission Vehicles.

Canada has provided significant investments in advanced manufacturing to maintain and grow the country’s role as a global leader in system integration, artificial intelligence, sensors, machine vision and automation.  In addition to NGen Supercluster funding, Canada has introduced federal tax credits, including a 100% write-off for newly-acquired manufacturing and processing equipment. The Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) Program provides income-tax credits and refunds for expenditures on eligible R&D activity in Canada.  And the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) supports business activities including R&D projects, collaborative technology demonstration projects and clean technology adoption and decarbonization.

Innovation in Canadian manufacturing has evolved from Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aid Manufacturing (CAM) to today’s use of advanced technologies to produce big solutions to big challenges. Federal tax credits, funding of research and development, the results of NGen-funded collaborative advanced manufacturing projects and the training of the next generation of workers provided through these projects all serve to secure the progress of Canada’s manufacturing sector in order to deliver innovative products and processes for Canada and the world.

Researcher Spotlight: So-Ra Chung

So-Ra Chung, Professor, School of Engineering and Technology and Principal Investigator, Centre for Smart Manufacturing, Conestoga College

Growing up in Seoul, South Korea, Dr. So-Ra Chung wanted to be a scientist with a Nobel Prize like Marie Curie. Her father was a Philosophy professor and when his sabbatical year at the University of Toronto brought the family to Canada, So-Ra enrolled at Jarvis Collegiate as an international student with a very rudimentary knowledge of English and a love of science.  So-Ra credits the compassionate, talented and open-minded teachers at Jarvis for recognizing her enthusiasm for science and for supporting and encouraging her.

So-Ra completed high school and, inspired by a presentation by a University of Toronto biomedical engineering researcher, decided to study Engineering Science in university.  But, while a student at the Electrical and Computer Engineering at Western University in London, Ontario, she became interested in Meteor Burst Communications. Studying these signals, which are sent to shooting stars, combined her love of the outdoors, where she could observe the stars, and the appeal of applying science to real-world problems.  After completing her Master’s degree at Western, So-Ra returned to Korea to work in the Space Business Division of Hyundai Electronics building commercial satellites.  Then she returned to Canada to work as a systems engineer in the MDA Space Mission International Space Station Program for 8 years.  Her desire to be a professor eventually drew her to pursue her PhD in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo.

So-Ra is passionate about her work as a professor in the School of Engineering and Technology at Conestoga College and a Principal Investigator in the school’s Centre for Smart Manufacturing. “I am guided by what John Tibbits, President of Conestoga College, says – What you do here counts out there”, says So-Ra.  “My goal is for my students to be more employable by adding a meaningful line on their resumes that distinguishes them. I want them to learn about ethics and critical thinking and to be able to work independently and as part of a team.” 

As with all degree programs at Conestoga, the project-based Bachelor of Engineering curriculum features a mix of theoretical and hands-on learning, where students apply what they’ve learned in the classroom to projects that bring that knowledge to life. Working with industry partners within the Centre for Smart Manufacturing allows students to participate in providing solutions to industry problems related to topics including robotics, automation, mechanical design and prototyping, cybersecurity, machine learning control of automation and machine vision. So-Ra’s dual role as professor and principal investigator provides her with the opportunity to teach the next generation of engineers as well as to work on tangible problems with industry.

To relax, So-Ra enjoys learning how to read different languages.  She is currently learning Greek and Arabic and compares matching sounds to letters to solving an encrypted code. “It uses a different part of my brain than engineering”, she notes. 

So-Ra credits her parents, and especially her father, for supporting her early interest in science and her academic and professional journey. “I have been lucky to have great mentors in my parents and my colleagues in the Centre for Smart Manufacturing.” And, in turn, she participates in outreach programs to encourage the study of STEM subjects and to promote women in engineering.

So-Ra Chung’s passion for teaching and mentoring her students, her inquisitiveness and her work as a professional engineer who has found a way to combine her love of the outdoors with her love of science is an inspiring researcher, professor and role model in her personal and professional communities.