Professional
Co-Founder & CEO, Synbiota Inc. | 2013 - current
Oversaw the day-to-day operations of Synbiota Inc. through startup, to growth (including >$2mm raise) across offices and laboratories in 4 cities and 2 countries. Oversaw the launch of 4 biological products, 2 software products, and an online community. I spearheaded relations with stakeholders in government and industry, as well as a very successful PR campaign to introduce DIY genetic engineering, winning global recognition, and awards including SXSW Interactive Accelerator.
Mentor, SOSVentures' RebelBio & IndieBio Accalerators | 2014 - current
Aligned the pieces for the inaugural Rebel Bio Synthetic Biology Accelerator in Cork, Ireland, the world's first Life Science Accelerator. This has sparked a greater interest in tech VC firms around the globe to think of biotech as just another opportunity alongside hardware and software, fundamentally changing how biotech is funded, and what type of projects get funded.
Fellow, SynBERC | 2015
Advised officials at the PHAC, FDA, EPA, DOD, FBI, DHS, and OSTP about distributed bio-manufacturing, and how it can change the way medicines, materials, food, and fuel are created and distributed. SynBERC is a major U.S. research program to make biology easier to engineer.
Fellow, Mozilla Labs | 2011 - 2012
One of the first Fellows at Mozilla Labs in Mountain View, CA. Stewarded Mozilla's foray into decentralized open biotech. Led a geologically distributed team of software developers and biologists to release GENtle 2, a web standards based DNA development tool under MPL 2.0 open source license.
Director R&D, Interaxon Inc. | 2008 - 2010
Drove research and development of a number of non-invasive brain-computer interface experiences, including installations at the Premiere of Ontario's Innovation Awards, Province of Ontario's Wings of Innovation, and at Ontario House at the 2010 Winter Olympics. IP gained from these experiences was commercialized as the Muse Brainwave Sensing Headband.
Experience Director, Changing The World Conference | 2008
This event brought over 800 of Canada's brightest university students from STEAM backgrounds to Toronto for a free 1-day TED-style conference. Speakers included Nobel Prize winner Eric Chivian, International Designer Karim Rashid, Ex. facebook & Investor Chamath Palihapitiya, and Gerontologist Aubrey de Grey.
Founder, CEO & CTO, Kameraflage Inc. | 2007 - 2010
Involved in every aspect of the development, and commercialization of an early Augmented Reality display technology, including working with suppliers, manufacturers, and regulatory bodies, to licensing, and intellectual property management. Awarded US Patent #8,531,308.
Research Associate, MIT Media Lab | 2006 - 2007
Developed and built a number of Context-Aware Computers as an extension of the Attentive User Interface (AUI) work done at the Human Media Lab. One of the projects at MIT turned into a research effort for PepsiCo. The "Attentive Vending Machine" was showcased at WIRED NextFest in NYC, as well as an installation at PepsiCo. HQ. Aspects of the project continue to be included in vending devices from PepsiCo., and was awarded US patent #8,594,838.
Executive Editor, Epstein Creative. "Oy! It's a boy!" | 2004
Responsible for communications with the executives within the CBC, as well as ensuring highest broadcast quality and compliance of the production. Also served as technical consultant to those involved in production and post-production. Created for CBC television show "ZeD TV", broadcast weekly across Canada.
Research Associate, Human Media Lab | 2001 - 2005 & 2011
Developed, built and published projects based on, and extending the Attentive User Interface (AUI) paradigm. Using a number of sensing methods, including eye-trackers, and eye-contact-sensor, computers became considerate of a user's limited attention resources. One of these projects; the Attentive Television, was awarded US Patent #8,672,482. This project was later commercialized by SAMSUNG as "Smart Pause" and "Smart Scroll" on the Galaxy line of smartphones.
Skills
Human
leadership, teaching, finance, strategy, media, sales, legal, event, relations, pr, mediation, public speaking
Technical
programming, scripting, modelling, signal processing, electrical, power supply, pcb, nIR optics, networks, genetic engineering, bio manufacturing, IP & patent, rapid prototyping, aws
Design
camera, lighting, video, sound, editing, animation, writing, publishing, photoshop, 3D printing, 3D scaning, blender, unity