Advisors

Adam Schlesinger is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of experience in transformation and revenue growth leadership roles across the banking and technology sectors. He currently advises startups in the FinTech, Payments, and AI spaces and serves as an independent board director for a federally chartered U.S. Bank.

Adam has successfully built and exited startups to major companies like Zoom and Bumble and taken others public on the TSX, Nasdaq, and NYSE. As the former Chief Transformation Officer at First Republic Bank, he developed client-focused technology offerings and innovative solutions that challenged industry norms. Prior to this role, he led Breakout Ventures at the National Bank of Canada, creating $1B+ revenue streams and spearheading digital and data platform transformations.

With a decade-long tenure at Microsoft, Adam managed significant financial services relationships and drove over $1.5 billion in revenue. His diverse expertise includes investment banking, M&A, and software sales.

Adam holds a Master of Engineering from MIT and a Bachelor of Commerce from McGill University. He splits his time between Miami, Los Angeles, and Montreal.

Alexander has 30 years of experience as CEO, President and Executive Chairman at public and private global businesses covering a broad range of sectors. Prior to taking on executive roles, he was a Partner of McKinsey & Company and worked at the Toronto, Brussels, Montreal, and Stockholm offices. Alexandre is primarily focused on developing the Firm’s executive and advisor network as well as serving on the Inovia Capital Investment Committee.

Bernard Paradis has been active in the venture capital industry since 1985, mainly as Senior VP of Desjardins Capital de Risque. Recently, he has focused his activities on advising SMEs as well as managers of VC funds. Bernard played a key role in the launch of Capital Régional et Coopératif Desjardins, Desjardins Innovatech and Fier Partenaires. Bernard has been a Board Member or Advisor with Inovia Capital since 2004.

Brian Heath is a technology entrepreneur, investor, and advisor with two decades of experience founding and building enterprise B2B and B2G technology companies. He founded and led Drivewyze, growing it into North America’s largest connected-vehicle SaaS platform for commercial trucking before its successful exit in 2024, and also founded Intelligent Imaging Systems, a leading intelligent transportation systems provider for government agencies. Brian holds an MBA from Queen’s University and 13 U.S. patents for sensor and software systems. As Senior Advisor and Executive-in-Residence at Inovia, he focuses on a national compute and energy strategy and supports portfolio companies on a wide range of topics, including AI-enabled growth.

Colleen is Chief Client Officer at Osler. She is responsible for implementing Osler’s client-focused business development strategy. Colleen works closely with the Managing Partner and the members of the firm’s Client Relations Committee to deepen and strengthen existing client relationships and also provides advice and guidance on new markets and business development opportunities.

Colleen has extensive experience building successful companies and valuable brands. She is a respected business leader with senior management experience in financial services, technology, business and web-based services. Colleen has held a variety of corporate leadership positions and has a deep understanding of business development strategy in the services sector.

Colleen has had a long successful career in the financial services industry that spans over 20 years. She began her career at Merrill Lynch and CIBC. Colleen was a co-founder and President of E*TRADE Canada — building the firm from its pioneering roots as an e-commerce start-up to its position as the largest independent on-line investment firm in Canada. She also served as Vice President and General Manager of E*TRADE Financial Global Corporate Services. In her role as President and CEO of Nexient Learning, Colleen successfully restructured and recapitalized this company, transforming it into Canada’s leading corporate learning and skills development provider. As Entrepreneur in Residence at the private equity firm Signal Hill Equity Partners she worked to identify and evaluate new Canadian mid-market investment opportunities and also assisted portfolio companies with strategy execution. Colleen is a Board member of Merrco Payments Inc.

Since 1981, Dan Freedman has founded, grown, sold, integrated, managed, and financed software companies, primarily in the networking and security sectors. Dan served as VP of Security Products at anti-virus giant McAfee Corporation, and has established successful companies in the networking, security, financing, and Internet Telephony spaces. Dan joined Inovia Capital in 2008 as a member of our Investment Committee, and has since moved into an advisor role. His leadership roles today include executive coaching, corporate governance, strategy development, negotiation, and advising on complex sales/marketing scenarios.

Donny is passionate about developing products that harness healthcare data analytics and machine learning to promote healthier living in a sustainable and responsible way. Currently, he leads engineering for the Healthcare and Life Sciences AI product portfolio at Google Cloud, including generative AI applications like Google’s MedLM.

Prior to this, Donny was a senior scientist at a Toronto-based medical device startup, focusing on medical imaging device design and image reconstruction algorithms. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, where his research centered on quantum computing.

Driven by a commitment to continuous learning, Donny is excited to tackle complex challenges in healthcare data understanding.

Felicia Bochicchio has been a passionate advocate for SaaS technology since 2000, leveraging her expertise to navigate the full lifecycle of SaaS companies—from inception to scale. She began her career during the dot-com era, building and leading a high-performing sales organization at Active Network. Under her leadership, Active Network transformed from a startup into a $400M NASDAQ-listed company.

Relocating to Vancouver in 2008, Felicia immersed herself in the dynamic early-stage tech ecosystem, mentoring founders, consulting on growth strategies, and advising executives on scalable growth engines. Her contributions as a VP of Sales at seed-stage technology companies have supported fundraising efforts and established solid foundations for growth.

In 2018, Felicia joined Unbounce, a mar-tech SaaS leader, as Chief Revenue Officer and later CEO. During her tenure as CEO, she spearheaded the development of generative AI tools designed to empower digital marketers with higher campaign ROI.

Today, Felicia channels her expertise as an advisor, consultant, board member, and investor, working with businesses that are shaping the future of technology. She is particularly committed to championing women-owned businesses, supporting women in tech, and fostering innovation in small businesses driving economic progress.

CORE EXPERTISE
Revenue Development & Optimization | Operational Maturity & Scaling | Strategic Planning & Market Expansion | Executive Leadership & Team Building | Culture Building & Employee Engagement | Customer Journey Activation & Growth Strategies | Sales, Marketing, & Customer Success Leadership | Early-stage Board Development & Governance | Fundraising & Investor Relations

François Gauvin is a CPA, CA with over 35 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, international tax planning and venture capital. He has provided Inovia Capital steady, diligent leadership for over more than a decade, ensuring that transparency and rigour remain core to the Firm’s reputation.

Prior to joining Inovia in 2007, François was the Investment Director at the Fonds de Solidarité FTQ (FsFTQ), a $16B Montreal-based labour-sponsored fund, where he was responsible for FsFTQ’s investments in venture capital funds. After investing in Inovia’s first fund on FsFTQ’s behalf, he joined the Firm as Partner-CFO and has been involved in every single transaction Inovia has ever done. He is a board member of Réseau Capital and an active member of the CVCA CFO task force.

Ilia Tulchinsky is Senior Vice President of Software Development at Verily, where he also serves as Verily Product Engineering Lead and Site Lead for Verily Canada. He joined the company in March 2021 to help transform the innovation lab into a mature company focused on using precision data to power care and life sciences research.

A software developer with over 30 years of experience, Ilia has worked across the medical device, mobile, media, and data mining sectors. His career began in neurology-focused medical devices, and he later spent 15 years at Google building infrastructure and applications across Ads, mobile, enterprise tools, and AI. He went on to lead the development of the Google Cloud Healthcare and Life Sciences platform, advancing interoperability standards and foundational AI models in natural language processing and medical imaging.

Verily, an Alphabet company launched from Google X in 2015, applies a data-driven approach to improving health and life sciences research. Its mission is to make precision health accessible to all by integrating clinical, behavioral, social, and real-world data into evidence-based, personalized solutions.

Ilia lives in Canada with his two daughters and spends every winter weekend on the ski slopes.

Jan Peeters is the President and CEO of Olameter, which he founded in 1998. Olameter is a leading meter service and data management company in North America. Jan was also the founder (1988) of ƒONOROLA Inc., a highly successful long distance telephone company, and the main developer of inter-city fibre-optic-based networks in Canada and northern United States. The company was sold to Sprint in 1998. He has served on the Board of Intersil Corporation (2000-2016). He is a Governor Emeritus of McGill University, having served on that Board from 1999 to 2008. While there, he helped launch MSBi (now Inovia Capital). Jan is a graduate of McGill University with degrees in Engineering and Accounting.

JF Cote joins Inovia Capital as an Executive in Residence, bringing over 25 years of business experience, including 15 years dedicated to scaling tech companies.

As a two-time winner of EY’s Entrepreneur Of The Year award, JF’s leadership style has been recognized by his relentless focus on innovation, scalability, and growth.

His contributions to adtech have made waves in the industry, including co-founding Montreal-based startup District M in 2013, securing over $50M in funding, and orchestrating the merger-acquisition with Silicon Valley-based Sharethrough in 2020. Under his leadership as President & CEO, he led one of the world’s largest ad exchanges while steering the company through an IPO process. This journey culminated in a nine-figure exit to Equativ in 2024, where he now serves on the Board of Advisors.

JF has served on multiple boards, and currently sits as Chairman of the Board for the travel tech company Stay22. Currently enrolled in Harvard Business School’s Executive Program, JF holds an Executive MBA, a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce, specializing in Finance, and is a CPA by training.

JF brings to Inovia a wealth of experience in building profitable, cash-flow-positive businesses, navigating complex markets, fostering unique cultures with high-performing teams, and delivering value to investors and stakeholders.

Beyond his professional achievements, JF is an active philanthropist, supporting children’s education and promoting youth sports through active board memberships and hands-on charity work. In his personal life, he is passionate about travel and exploring new cultures with his family.

JP Chauvet, with over 25 years of technology leadership experience, is Inovia Capital’s new Executive in Residence. He played a pivotal role in transforming Lightspeed Commerce into a global tech leader. JP joined Lightspeed in October 2012 as Chief Revenue Officer, became a board member in September 2013, and was named President in April 2016. He served as CEO from February 2022 until February 2024, guiding the company through significant milestones, including strategic acquisitions, listings on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange, and the launch of Lightspeed Payments.

Under JP’s leadership, Lightspeed grew to employ nearly 3,000 staff worldwide and became a one-stop commerce platform for merchants globally. Before Lightspeed, JP held various leadership roles at Atex Group, Nstein Technologies, and IXIASOFT Technologies.

Now, as an Executive in Residence at Inovia, JP brings his wealth of experience and strategic insight to support portfolio companies, offering guidance on growth, M&A, and sales strategies.

Marc joined Inovia as a Corporate Advisor after leading Life House as its CEO, where he oversaw its growth as a vertically integrated hotel management and technology company and guided its joint venture with Lark Hotels. Previously, he was Chief Financial & Strategy Officer at FlightHub Group, one of North America’s largest online travel agencies.

At Inovia, Marc contributes to strategic initiatives alongside the leadership team. With an MBA from London Business School and a background in management consulting, he has built a track record as a trusted advisor across hospitality, travel technology, and corporate strategy.

Mike has 20+ years of industry experience working as a Staff Engineer.  He has worked most of his career at Google building scalable and reliable SAAS solutions.  His contributions to many domains include Observability, Experiments frameworks, Ads and CI/CD.  He is really passionate about delivering scalable solutions that exhibit operational excellence.

Mike holds a BMath from Waterloo University with a Double Honours degree in Combinatorics & Optimization and Computer Science.  Outside work, he enjoys spending time with family, hiking, fishing and camping.

When brands like Google, Starbucks, Shopify and GE want to leverage technology to better connect with their consumers, they call Mitch Joel. He has been called one of North America’s leading visionaries and the Rock Star of Digital Marketing by Strategy Magazine, but he is much more than that. Mitch Joel is Founder of Six Pixels Group – an advisory, investing and content producing company that is focused on commerce and innovation (although he prefers the title, “Media Hacker”). Prior to Six Pixels Group, Mitch spent close to two decades building, running and (eventually) selling his business. He was President of Mirum — a global digital marketing agency operating in 25 countries with close to 3000 employees. Mirum is owned by WPP.

Mitch has been named one of the top 100 online marketers in the world, and was awarded the highly prestigious Top 40 Under 40.

Mitch’s first book, Six Pixels of Separation, named after his successful blog and podcast is a business and marketing bestseller. His second book, CTRL ALT Delete, was named one of the best business books of 2013 by Amazon. Mitch is frequently called upon to be a subject matter expert for publications like Fast Company, Strategy, Forbes, The Globe & Mail and many others. He is a columnist and journalist for the Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, The Huffington Post and many other magazines and newspapers.

Mitch speaks frequently to diverse groups like Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Microsoft, Procter and Gamble, Twitter, Unilever and every organization and association in between. Since 2005 he has given anywhere between 40-60 keynote presentation a year.

Mitch is also the host of Groove — The No Treble Podcast, where he is slowly trying to build the largest oral history of electric bass players in the world.

Nithum has almost a decade of experience in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. At Google, he contributes to efforts to better understand Machine Learning, Responsible AI, and Large Language Models. Prior to this, he worked on Perspective, one of the world’s first content moderation systems in use by global content platforms like the New York Times and taught Natural Language Processing at the UC Berkeley School of Information as well as working for and advising a number of startups.

Nithum has over 40 publications at venues like NeurIPS, JMLR, EMNLP, and ACL. He holds a PhD in Mathematics from McGill University and an MBA from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes scholar.

Paul Church is an Executive in Residence at Inovia Capital with nearly two decades of experience at Google. A seasoned engineering leader, Paul helped scale teams and drive product innovation in ads and healthcare, working at the intersection of machine learning, cloud infrastructure, and global standards. Most recently, he led engineering for the Healthcare and Life Sciences data platform portfolio at Google Cloud, including the Healthcare API. Based on a 122-acre farm near Waterloo, Paul draws on his deep technical and operational expertise to support early-stage founders tackling complex problems in AI, healthcare, and enterprise software.

Rasool is a serial entrepreneur with experience in the software, healthcare, and organic grocery industries. He continues to maintain his passion for technology as an active angel investor with a focus on b2b, consumer SaaS and health tech. Rasool maintains an active role with CEO’s as a board member, mentor and advisor. He currently serves on the boards of the Victoria Foundation, VIATEC, and Checkfront Software.

Robin Bienfait was the chief enterprise innovation officer and senior advisor for Samsung, responsible for building strong partnerships with large global customers to deliver enterprise class services. Robin joined Samsung with over 30 years of experience in mobility, security, business development, enterprise sales, wireless network operations and engineering. As a global intrapreneur, Robin launched Samsung Business Services and advised on the B2B investment strategy. Now as CEO for Emnovate, Robin is advising and providing software solutions to emerging businesses. Prior to Samsung, Robin served as chief information officer for BlackBerry, where she led the enterprise business unit and software development team, end to end product security, tier 3 technical customer service, global network services, corporate security and corporate IT. For the majority of her career, Robin held senior leadership positions across AT&T including Bell Labs, Global Network Services/GNOC, business continuity and disaster recovery, and compliance. As an officer at AT&T, Robin’s last role was leading global network services and chief compliance officer, environment, health and safety.

Robin holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Central Missouri State University and a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology with a master’s degree in management of technology. A global influencer holding 15 patents, she is the recipient of several awards and was named as one of the top 100 CIO’s in STEM. Robin currently serves on multiple boards as an independent director, Empower Retirement, Putnam Investments, GW Lifeco and MUFG.

Shyam is a seasoned Product leader with 25+ years of experience across enterprise, consumer, telco and Google infrastructure products.  Most recently, he was at Google where he led efforts to protect users from malicious ads and built on-device counter-abuse infrastructure for Gen AI applications.  He has a history of applying a pragmatic approach to solving complex interdisciplinary problems that require navigating product, engineering, regulatory, privacy, legal and PR concerns.

He previously co-founded Fixmo (backed by Inovia), built a R&D centre in Pune (Redknee, India), and started a Product Management consulting practice.

Shyam lives in Waterloo with his wife and three kids.  He holds a BASc in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.  When not working, he can be found coaching baseball or hiking with his family.