Founders
Amanda
A passionate enabler of people, IP and opportunity, Amanda has over 20-years of experience helping organisations to exploit their ideas, maximise their ROI and build sustainable ventures, whether these are publicly-funded initiatives or profit-making companies.
Amanda works closely with senior executives and innovation teams to identify opportunities for new products/services and markets, challenging assumptions and “opening-doors” given her extensive network. This has recently resulted in significant new contracts and capital ($multimillion) for emerging technologies in supply chain security, fintech and consumer retail.
An active member of the international innovation community, Amanda has worked at the higher levels of Government, trade organisations, universities, RDAs and clever companies operating in a variety of sectors in the UK, Europe, North America, MENA, SE Asia and Australasia. She has delivered strategic advice and tactical plans for the use of entrepreneur ecosystems as economic development tools, and has assisted in the improvement of these in order to produce better outcomes for clients – the mantra being “raising the quality and quantity of investable startups an ecosystem generates”. Amanda has been instrumental in establishing and managing investment funds and investor platforms. Using this know-how, she helps companies of all sizes secure funding for innovation and growth.
After establishing a highly profitable and rapidly growing nutraceutical company in the late 1990s, and raising capital for it, Amanda became passionate about entrepreneur and investor enablement. She completed Post Graduate qualifications and served as the senior researcher for Professor John L Thompson, a Roger M Bale Chair in Entrepreneurship.
Darin
Darin has over 20 years of experience leading innovative initiatives that take creative ideas to the marketplace. He brings extensive international experience in leading R&D programs and helping build innovation ecosystems and research initiatives in Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Korea, and the United Kingdom. A champion of collaboration, he has worked closely with a variety of unique groups to engage industry with academia and research institutions to enhance technology-based applied outcomes (specifically AI), facilitating economic growth through increasing knowledge, and helping develop human capital.
Darin has developed the Canadian R&D strategic and operational AI activities for LG Electronics and Samsung, having launched their new advanced AI research labs in Toronto. As a member of the founding operational team, Darin helped lead the creation and formation of the Vector Institute – the premier AI research institute in Canada. He has held the primary leadership position in several organizations, including ORION (Ontario’s Research and Innovation Optical Network), NZi3 (New Zealand’s ICT Innovation Institute), and CITO (Communications and Information Technology Ontario, an Ontario Centre of Excellence).
Darin received his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Toronto, with his thesis focused on advanced neural networks for autonomous robotic control systems; a MASc in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Toronto, and a BMath in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.