I'm a partner in Dentons' Ottawa office, a member of the Firm's Corporate and Venture Technology & Emerging Growth Companies groups and the Corporate Group Lead. I specialize in advising investors and startups and helping companies with relationships and exits.

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Devashish Paul founded BluWave-ai in 2017 and has built out one of the world’s premiere renewable energy and transport electrification companies, based in Ottawa. In his role at BluWave-ai, he has taken AI concepts to live working systems from Asia to Europe to North America, successfully navigating the growth of the company through the critical COVID-19 pandemic, onboarding new customers worldwide and growing the team with an international employee group from 15 different countries.

Devashish has taken the company to multi-million dollar SaaS revenue and has been an inventor on several of the company’s patents.

He is also a world traveler who loves connecting with people in diverse cultures both for personal interests and driving BluWave-ai's goal to become the premier global renewable energy AI company.

Ewan Reid is Founder & CEO of Mission Control, a Canadian Space company that develops software for Earth, Moon and Mars.

Prior to founding Mission Control Ewan was a subsystem design lead for the development of three rover prototypes for the CSA. He was a mission controller for ten of the last 12 Space Shuttle missions at Mission Control at NASA JSC and conducted numerous pre-mission launchpad tests at NASA KSC. He has also supported flight programs for ESA and JAXA.

Ewan has degrees in Electrical Engineering and Economics from Queen’s University, a Master’s degree in Technology Innovation Management at Carleton University and is an alumnus and adjunct faculty member at the International Space University.

Ewan has published multiple opinion pieces on Canada’s role in space exploration in the Globe and Mail. Ewan is treasurer and serves on the board of directors for Space Canada. Ewan is committed to inspiring the next generation to always keep exploring.

Sarah Sedgman, Founder & CEO of LearnExperts.ai, has owned some of the largest and most profitable learning businesses in the technology industry during her career at Cognos, IBM, PTC, and Kinaxis.

She started her career as an instructional design and eventually became Chief Knowledge Officer and Chief Customer Officer. Sarah then founded LearnExperts, to reinvent instructional design by automating the process so that anyone can build great training in 67% less time.

This past year the company hit accelerated growth winning major logos across the globe, and now LearnExperts LEAi is leading the industry in autonomous instructional design.

Currently the President and CEO of the Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization (OBIO®), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing health technology innovation and commercialization.

I have over 30 years of leadership experience in managing successful companies in all key sectors of biotech, including private and public companies, universities and research institutes, and government-funded public sector research organizations.Prior to assuming the leadership of OBIO®, I was the organization's Chair of the Board of Directors from November 25, 2019 to February 1, 2022.

As a strategic thinker with expertise in technology transfer and commercialization of intellectual property, I have held various roles in senior management over the years. Most recently, I was the Vice-President of Intellectual Property and Contracts for Turnstone Biologics and played a crucial role in the company's seed, and Series A, B, C, and D financing, in addition to executing two large pharma-licensing deals, raising over US $370 million for Turnstone in six years since the company's inception in 2015.

Previously, I served as Director, Intellectual Property at VBI Vaccines. Among the various roles I held in my career are Senior Research Program Manager, and Manager of Technology Transfer & Commercialization at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Director of Intellectual Property for PainCeptor Pharma Corporation, and Manager of Technology Transfer at the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems National Centre of Excellence. I hold a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Ottawa, and an M.Sc. and a B.Sc. in biochemistry from Queen's University in Kingston.

Mr. Dane Bedward is the CEO of NeuroBot Inc., a strategic advisory company focused on assisting Medtech, Digital Medicine and Biopharma companies with their business strategies.

Prior to founding his advisory company, Dane was Senior Vice President International for Genzyme Corporation, one of the top 5 global biotech companies before being acquired by Sanofi-Aventis. His first assignment with Genzyme was as Managing Director and President of the Canadian subsidiary Genzyme Canada Inc. Genzyme Corporation is a pioneer in the development of products for rare genetic diseases.

Throughout his career Mr. Bedward has also worked with other organizations such as Nordion International, Johnson and Johnson (in Canada and Europe), Flow Laboratories, and McMaster University. Dane serves on the Board of Directors of The National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) and Panthera Cryosolutions, as well as chairs the Board of Directors for Spiderwort Inc.

He is also a member of the L-Spark MedTech Advisory Committee, an Executive Fellow with Mistral Venture Partners, a Steering Committee member for Alacrity Ottawa, a medical markets strategic advisor for Welch Capital Markets, and a Charter Member of TiE.

Dane has previously served on the following Boards: the Board of Governors of the University of Ottawa, the Board of Trustees for Bridgewater State University, The National Medical Devices Alliance, The Ottawa Health and Life Sciences Cluster, The New England-Canada Business Council, The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, The New England-Latin America Business Council, The Ottawa Life Sciences Council, and the Board of Directors for NeuroBiotech Inc.

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Ms. Korets-Smith is an entrepreneur and biotechnology executive with extensive experience building and funding companies. She is co-founder of Virica Biotech, a revenue generating Series B funded company and Virano Therapeutics, an early stage innovative biotech, both in the cell and gene therapy space. Ella is also founder of EKS Business Development, an advisory firm creating value for founders and innovators through strategic partnerships and transactions.

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Dr. Charles M. Cuerrier is the CEO and co-founder of Spiderwort Inc. He has been leading the company since its incorporation in 2015 and has raised a total of $20M CAD to date. He holds a Ph.D. in pharmacology and a postdoctoral training in regenerative medicine.

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