Leadership Experiences

I have often taken active leadership in building and managing teams, or promoting causes I care about. Here I describe a few of these journeys and what I learned along the way.

Leadership Experiences

I have often taken active leadership in building and managing teams, or promoting causes I care about. Here I describe a few of these journeys and what I learned along the way.

QuWare Inc.

Co-Founder & CTO

In 2016 I co-founded a company called QuWare that is changing the way we assess health, both clinically and for medical R&D. Our goal is to achieve functional real-time imaging of cells and tissues beneath the body’s surface at microscope-grade resolutions. To do this, we are exploiting recent breakthroughs in the field of quantum optics, which allows us to better control how light interacts with tissue.

Our Journey With The Creative Destruction Lab:

Together with my co-founder Professor Amr Helmy at the University of Toronto, I had the immense thrill of leading our company through the competitive Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) program, a Toronto-based accelerator that is redefining the startup ecosystem. This program consists of bi-monthly meetings that bring together some of the most talented entrepreneurs, angel investors, and business thought-leaders in North America. You get the chance to meet one-on-one with incredible individuals who have built hundred-million-dollar companies from scratch (often multiple times), pitch your company to them, and receive invaluable feedback. They also become your mentors between meetings. Later, you stand in front of a room full of investors who discuss your company and give you a series of actionable, measurable milestones to achieve by the next meeting. They are asked whether they’d like to see your company again. Each meeting, companies are eliminated. For those that survive the program, the mentors and angel investors you’ve interacted with often become your first financial backers.

QuWare survived and successfully graduated from the CDL program, and it was an incredible journey. During the program we were paired up with two talented MBA students who helped us refine our pitch and strategy. We came to understand how investors think. We were challenged time and again to reframe and strengthen our vision, product, and market (hence the “creative destruction”). The most important takeaway was the process of validated learning, a powerful mindset for quickly prototyping, testing, and iterating your business.

Becoming More Business-Savvy:

My time with QuWare has been an extraordinary growth experience. I’ve developed many valuable skills for navigating the startup world: crafting pitch decks, holding investor meetings, drafting term sheets, filing IP, building a strong legal foundation (super-important), financial forecasting, market research, finding early adopters, establishing customer relations, grant filing and tax credits — the list goes on! Along the way, I’ve met and learned from many incredible people, and have gained a business intuition that complements my technical background and will serve me well into the future.

More recently, I’ve had an opportunity to give back to the CDL program by helping mentor one of the new startups in their Quantum Machine Learning stream, where I’ve passed on many of the valuable lessons we’ve learned.

Inside a CDL meeting.

Queen's Fuel Cell Team (QFCT)

Technical Director

I spent several years as part of the Queen’s Fuel Cell Team (QFCT) while an undergrad at Queen’s University. Our mission was to help build a greener, emissions-free future by promoting the innovative use of fuel-cell technology.

I served as a member of the team executive, first as the Electrical Systems Manager (2010-2011) and later as the team’s Technical Director (2011-2012). Our goal at that time was the design of the world’s first hydrogen-powered snowmobile, to compete in the annual SEA Clean Snowmobile Challenge.

What I Did:

As Technical Director, I was responsible for defining and coordinating projects overseeing multiple vehicle systems including:

electrical (fuel cell, battery, motor interface, battery management systems)
mechanical (transmission redesign, electric motor mounting)
control (thermal management, integrated safety systems)

My other responsibilities included recruitment, outreach, and sponsorship. Fostering personal and professional growth was also a big focus for our team. I worked hard to provide mentorship and training to our 40+ team members. This mentorship aspect was a particularly thrilling part of the experience for me.

Our snowmobile ended up winning 3rd place in its first debut at the SEA competition (zero-emissions category).

What I Learned:

My time with QFCT made me a better leader. I learned that effective leadership is often about service: clearing roadblocks, providing support and resources, and maintaining a clear vision so that your team is able to do their absolute best work. Clear communication is essential. It’s also critical to address the human dimension of teams: form good relationships with your team members, get to know them, and check in with them at the start of each meeting to see how they are doing (i.e. in general) and what’s on their mind.

This was also my first real exposure to the art of getting funded. We crafted pitch decks, sponsorship strategies, brochures, news releases, and placed many phone calls before finally closing on the financial and resource backing needed to take our project from vision to reality. I was also involved in hiring decisions, an experience that has enhanced my judgment when crafting teams.

I’d like to give a shout-out to my fellow QFCT executive Mike Schmidt, now CEO at DoveTail. An alumni of the Next 36 Business program at UToronto, he was always a fountain of excellent insights, and I learned a lot from working with him. I’d also like to mention Chris Palmer, the team’s General Manager, who was simply an amazing leader, and set a fantastic example.

Queen's Fuel Cell Team (QFCT)

Technical Director

What I Did:

As Technical Director, I was responsible for defining and coordinating projects overseeing multiple vehicle systems including:

electrical (fuel cell, battery, motor interface, battery management systems)
mechanical (transmission redesign, electric motor mounting)
control (thermal management, integrated safety systems)

Our snowmobile ended up winning 3rd place in its first debut at the SEA competition (zero-emissions category).

What I Learned:

QueensYOU Campaign

Founder & Student Ambassador

How it started:

In early 2012, a major issue faced many of the students preparing to graduate from Queen’s University. Their academic transcripts, which for the past three years had reflected a percentage-based grading scheme, were abruptly translated into a letter-graded GPA-based system. This was triggered by the rollout of a new campus-wide HR/database software system. As a result, the graduating class was left with a “hybrid” transcript that was difficult to interpret and negatively skewed their grades. Many students reported difficulties getting into competitive graduate school programs or had encountered frustration from prospective employers as a direct consequence.

I heard many of these stories first-hand from my friends and colleagues, and it really affected me. It touched not only my sense of justice, but also my sensibilities as an engineer and problem solver. How could this situation come to pass? Surely there was a better way forward. I had to do something about it. I sparked into action.

What I Did:

I began by talking to people: the affected students, professors on scholarship committees, staff involved in the new HR/database system rollout. I got a rounded view of their stories, their pain points, and the problem origins (part of the cause was that adding percentages back to transcripts cost considerable money, as intended by the software company’s pricing strategy).

Based on these views, I formed a campaign called QueensYOU, focused on bringing these concerns to the attention of University administrators, and working together with them towards constructive solutions or at least mitigation strategies. I quickly found many people wanting to back our campaign’s cause. Support poured in from students and professors. I became a conduit. I met or spoke with the heads of nearly every student government on campus, and organized a round-table discussion where we all gave our viewpoints and pitched ideas on how to move forward. Esteemed members of our community, including Professor Art McDonald who would later share the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics, also lent their voices to the discussion.

I soon secured a one-on-one meeting with the University Principal, who listened openly, and agreed to allow me to voice our concerns at the University Senate. On February 28th 2012, I gave a speech at Senate that drew applause, and the University Provost committed to investigating the issue further and following up with me in person. (A copy of the Senate meeting minutes can be found here ; see Page 5, Section III – REPORTS OF COMMITTEES, Part 3 – Academic Procedures, Subsection a) Report to Senate on grading practices.)

A date was set for me to meet one-on-one with the Provost. Meanwhile the discussions were ongoing. The University held town-hall meetings among departments. I gave interviews with the university newspaper and radio station. Working with head of the Department of Computing, we came up with a creative solution: using some clever techniques, we could get around the HR software limitations and add verified percentages back to the transcripts of students for whom the new grading scheme had not been grandfathered in. These percentages were still held in departmental servers and local databases.

When I finally met with the Provost, I presented our proposed solution to him. He said he would consider it. As our conversation progressed, however, it was clear that the political aspects of the situation ran very deep. I held my ground, but from that point on, I knew we were going to encounter a lot of resistance and face-saving.

Unfortunately the clock ran out on us. The Provost gave only vague reports of his investigations, and the issue was stretched out beyond the final Senate meeting of the academic year. With myself and my cohort now leaving, it was up to the newly-elected heads of student government to carry the torch.

What I Learned:

This experience taught me volumes about the human dimension of decision-making, leadership, and politics. One of the most amazing things was the power of approaching disagreements with a constructive, win-win attitude. Instead of becoming inflammatory, we became creative and curious. This opened a lot of doors, led to solutions we hadn’t considered before, rallied new allies to our cause, and allowed us to quickly enter into a progressive dialogue with the University administration.

This was new territory for me. I got a taste of how to navigate a nuanced political landscape. I became the champion of a cause that suddenly put me into the spotlight, and I had to quickly learn to manage all the new challenges and responsibilities this came with.

Leading this campaign also reinforced the importance of staying focused on the goal, getting out there and listening to people, and building bridges between different groups to pursue a shared vision. I believe we did these things very well, and that this was directly responsible for the astonishing pace of our progress: from me founding the campaign to my speech at University Senate less than three weeks later.

All in all, it was a thrilling experience. Inspired to action by the stories of my peers, leading this cause, seeing it resonate with others, and watching it grow was a source of tremendous energy that allowed me to take on all of this additional work (several hours per day) while still managing my other responsibilities during an extremely busy time of the year. On top of QueensYOU, I was finishing my fourth-year thesis, staying on top of the crushing Engineering Physics courseload (it was the “crunch-time” part of the semester), and leading several projects with the Queen’s University Fuel Cell Team.

By the way, I loved my time at Queen’s University. The overwhelming majority staff and instructors were passionate, selflessly dedicated, and committed to cultivating an environment in which every student could achieve their best, and indeed push far beyond their perceived limits. I had many fantastic mentors there, and owe much to the support and energy of the Queen’s community.

QueensYOU Campaign

Founder & Student Ambassador

How it started:

What I Did:

What I Learned:

ECE Connections Graduate Symposium

Co-Chair

In 2014 I co-chaired the ECE Connections symposium at the University of Toronto. This annual event brings together industry and academia in an exhibition of cutting-edge research in Electrical and Computer Engineering. It’s aim is to strengthen ties across the UToronto community and with industry by promoting cross-collaboration, showcasing interdisciplinary research, and providing a social environment for students, faculty, and industry to interact.

Our event consisted of distinguished keynote speakers, a booth session, competitive student presentations, a discussion panel on industry vs. academic research, as well as a networking dinner and awards ceremony hosted at the Hart House. We had over 150 attendees, and speakers included Dr. Brendan Frey (Deep Genomics), Dr. Aleksey Tyshchenko (Intel), Dr. Inmar Govani (Kobo), and Dr. Karl Martin (Nymi). Entrepreneurship was also a big focus, with The Creative Destruction Lab, Mitacs, and UToronto’s Hatchery discussing programs and resources available for startups.

My Role:

Together with my co-chair Liyao Xiang, I oversaw all aspects of event sponsorship, planning, and implementation. I was also responsible for the committee structure, task delegation, workflow, and ensuring all deadlines were met. I had a wonderful time coaching the talented 8-person planning committee we assembled, and I wore many hats, working alongside them on securing funding, attracting speakers, promoting the event, and handling the event logistics. Our sponsors included Intel, Infinera, and Altera.

This day-long event had many moving parts, so it was an excellent experience in project management and a great refresher of many of the lessons and skills I learned during my time with the Queen’s Fuel Cell Team.