Volunteer Mentors
Adrien Beyk
Founder, Quanta Vici
Adrien is the founder of Quanta Vici, a pioneering company in smart clothing technologies. With over a decade of experience in product management and full-stack engineering, Adrien excels in guiding early-stage startups towards market success. His expertise includes go-to-market strategic planning, product-market fit, DTC and B2B sales, and leveraging AI/ML for business optimization. Adrien has a track record of successfully raising funds for seed stage startups. His comprehensive technical background and business acumen make him a valuable mentor for innovative tech ventures. Complete profile available here!
Anibal Jodorcovsky
Independent Health Informatics Consultant
Anibal (BEng ‘95) is a Senior Executive with proven results in delivering high quality output and throughput via team development and sound engineering practices. He is skilled in diverse negotiation activities, growing teams, managing conflict and delivering results. Anibal likes talking to students and passing on experience that can help young entrepreneurs. Complete profile available here!
Anish Kaushal (MD, Edinburgh)
Investment Analyst, Amplitude Ventures
Anish is an Analyst at Amplitude Ventures, a capital catalyst for highly innovative companies at the point of value acceleration that works with Canada's most promising healthcare companies that share our vision of bringing groundbreaking technologies to patients.
Anish is a physician by training, but decided to forgo clinical medicine to move to the forefront of healthcare innovation. He is also a mentor at Front Row Ventures, Canada’s largest student-run Venture Capital Fund. Complete profile available here!
Ankit Mishra
Energy Contributor at Forbes and Head of Growth at Astreas
Ankit Mishra is a seasoned startup operator with over a decade of experience in launching high-growth tech companies. He is the Head of Business Operations at Astreas, a Fellow at Energy Futures Lab, and an Energy Contributor at Forbes, where he shares insights on economic growth, energy transition, and the future of work. His work has been featured in leading media outlets, including Forbes, CBC Canada, BNN Bloomberg, and Techcrunch.
Previously, he worked in venture capital and was an economist at the Ontario Government and the OECD. Ankit also mentors early-stage ventures at McGill Engine's TechAccel Program and coaches HBA and MBA students at Ivey Business School's New Venture Project. He holds a master's degree in international economics from Sciences Po Paris and a bachelor's degree in mathematics from York University.
Chaity Tarafder
COO & Co-Founder, NameShouts
Chaity Tarafder is the Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of NameShouts, a SaaS startup that is simplifying the way people make first connections, one name at a time. Her skills include building an early-stage startup, product management, and data analysis with a strong interest in data science. Chaity is a proud McGill alumna and would love to give back to her community. Chaity's time at McGill taught her many essential skills that have proved invaluable in her startup-founder journey. She is excited to share her experiences and support the next generation of entrepreneurs coming out of McGill. Complete profile is available here!
Chloë Ryan
CEO & Founder, Acrylic Robotics
Chloë co-founded Acrylic Robotics through Engine’s TechAccel Program back in 2020. Since then, she has been a part of Engine sharing her entrepreneurship experience to fellow McGill students who are passionate about Entrepreneurship and Innovation. McGill Engine was the springboard for building her venture and she would love to give back! Complete profile available here!
Colin Ryan (MBA, HEC; BEng’89, McGill)
Entrepreneur and Angel Investor
Colin is an engineer who started his career in the natural resources industry. He has, among other things, managed a great number of projects for Shell Canada and Groupe Noranda. In 2011, he made the decision to go back to school to undertake an intensive MBA at HEC Montreal. Diploma in hand, he dove into the world of business and met great successes. Barely six years later, his business reached over 30 M$ in annual sales revenue. Nowadays, Colin is involved with entrepreneurs as an Angel Investor and business coach. Complete profile available here!
Fadi Albatal (MSc)
COO and Partner, Innovobot
Fadi is a serial entrepreneur, technologist, and senior executive experienced in innovating and building enterprise software products. He held executive positions in startups and global Fortune 100 companies with focus software products development and commercialization. Fadi holds a MSc in software engineering from ESIG. Complete profile available here!
Ferhan Bulca
Founder, CEO, Tech Executive, Mentor, Advisor, Investor
Ferhan built and exited one company as an entrepreneur and four business lines as an intrapreneur, creating over $1B annual recurring revenue. Still active in value-creation, Ferhan focused his energy into two key areas: 1) medical technology innovation, 2) growth of Canadian technology commercialization. One component of Ferhan’s activities is mentoring startup founders and investing in early-stage companies. Complete profile available here!
Gilles Fayad
Director, Initiatives, AI Commons
Fayad would like to give back to the community that gave his the opportunity to succeed, and he can't help but be active in the emerging technologies and taking them to market as disruptive solutions and startup entities. Complete profile available here!
Guylain Roy MacHabée (BEng’86, MEng’90, McGill)
High-Tech Exec, Entrepreneur, Sailor
Based in Vancouver, Guylain brings 30 years of experience across wireless, embedded, hardware, location and high-availability software systems. He loves the challenge of vetting, developing, and guiding innovation through the complexities of engineering, IP development, operations, business development, licensing, and sales channel strategies. He’s experienced the highs and lows of startups, bootstrapped teams, secured venture financing, and negotiated successful exits and spinoffs. Nowadays, Guylain heads a boutique advisory firm called Novescor Labs, with a particular interest on cleantech and sustainability innovations derived through IoT, location and AI. Complete profile available here!
Hassan Hanano (B.Eng., MBA)
CEO, World Assurance
Hassan is the founder and CEO of World Assurance, a software solution provider for the Insurance Market, most notably the Marine & Aviation Insurance industry, focusing on making processes easier for insurers and clients. Prior to this role, Hassan worked as an Investment Director at the Venture Capital division of CDP Capital and as an Engineer at Matrox. Hassan Graduated from McGill University (BEng in 1996 and MBA in 2000) and is a CFA Charterholder. Complete profile available here!
Hugh Cameron (PhD in Applied Mathematics from University of Cambridge)
Visiting Professor, Software and Business Innovations, Makerere University, Kampala
Hugh is a multidisciplinary system engineer and entrepreneur. Since 2010, Hugh has been a visiting professor at Makerere University’s College of Computing and Information Sciences in Uganda and lead their Software Business Incubation Program. In 2002, Hugh became the co-founder and CTO of Accentus, a Canadian company providing outsourced medical transcription and web applications for medical departments, faculties and hospitals. Complete profile available here!
John Tentomas (BEng'94, McGill)
Owner, Nature's Touch Frozen Foods Inc.
In 2004, John founded Nature’s Touch in his basement . He packed his first order by hand at a small rented room in a warehouse. Since then, John has dedicated himself to find the best quality frozen fruits and vegetables foods. He travels the world with his team, visiting farms and inspecting facilities. His company service 6 out of the 15 largest retailers in the world. Complete profile available here!
Juliana Munoz (PhD'17, McGill)
Analyst at Amplitude Ventures
Juliana is an Analyst at Amplitude Ventures, a capital catalyst for highly innovative companies at the point of value acceleration that works with Canada's most promising healthcare companies that share our vision of bringing groundbreaking technologies to patients.
Juliana is also a business developer in pharma and not-for-profit organizations. She is always striving to push discoveries into applications. Complete profile available here!
Kamran Ahmed
Technology Entrepreneur, Mentor, Investor
After a very successful professional and entrepreneurial career including a major exit, he is now focusing his efforts on giving back to the community. One aspect of this is through mentoring and advising entrepreneurs. Complete profile available here!
Konstantinos Korgiopoulos (PhD Materials Engineering, McGill)
Operations Lead-Montreal, Kingston Process Metallurgy
Konstantinos, a PhD graduate of McGill University specializing in Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, currently works at Kingston Process Metallurgy as the Montreal Operations Lead. With a background encompassing academia, entrepreneurship, and industry, he brings a unique blend of expertise to his role as a mentor. Konstantinos is passionate about driving innovation and he has a keen interest in bringing cutting-edge technologies and solutions to the market. Complete profile available here!
Mitchell Wasserman (BEng'84, CPA'86, McGill)
Chief Operating Officer at Sportlogiq
Mitchell is an experienced software CEO having founded, led and successfully exited multiple software startups over his 30+ years in the business. Mitchell has proven skills in Entrepreneurship, Growth-Oriented Strategic Planning, Business Development, Organizational Structures, Agile Methodologies, Software Design and Building Customer Relationships. Complete profile available here!
Nicholas Nadeau, Dr. of Engineering
Founder & Fractional CTO, Nadeau Innovations
Nicholas Nadeau is a dynamic CTO and seasoned professional engineer specializing in next-gen technology development and executive leadership. With a Ph.D. from École de technologie supérieure, Nicholas has a strong background in AI/ML, biomedical, collaborative robotics, humanoid robotics, Industry 4.0, and additive manufacturing.
As a trusted mentor in the Montréal startup community, he supports accelerators like NextAI, Techstars, Creative Destruction Lab, and FounderFuel. Nicholas is dedicated to empowering hard-tech startups and driving corporate innovation by providing expert guidance, strategic direction, and access to cutting-edge technology, fostering inventive solutions, building high-performance teams, and inspiring confidence in clients. Complete profile available here!
Odero Otieno
Sr Director of Platform & Experience Engineering, Humana
Odero is the Sr. Director of Platform & Experience Engineering at Humana, where he spearheads innovation in cloud environments and data platforms to enhance personalized healthcare services. With a robust background in full stack software development, architecture, and deployment, he leads efforts to elevate member experiences across various health services. Previously, Odero held key roles at Microsoft and founded DawaSwift, a digital healthcare platform streamlining interactions between patients, pharmacies, and insurance companies. He holds a Master of Engineering from McGill University and has completed advanced programs at Stanford University and the University of Toronto. His expertise in cloud engineering, data analytics, and machine learning is pivotal in driving Humana's digital transformation. Complete profile available here!
Pedro Gregorio (BEng’92, MEng’95, McGill)
CEO, Independent Robotics; Operating Partner and Head of Innovobot Lab’s Robotics Laboratory, Innovobot
Pedro is a creative engineering executive with a proven record of excellence in design, project management, and team leadership. With a keen emphasis on resolving both business and technical challenges, he excels in developing lasting customer relationships. His extensive global business experience spans various industries, including manufacturing automation, robotics, technology porting, consumer electronics, aeronautics, and medical innovation. With a portfolio of over one hundred issued patents, Pedro brings a unique blend of engineering creativity and leadership to every project. Complete profile available here!
Roger Tambay (B.Sc., MBA, BCL/LLB)
Serial Entrepreneur
Roger is a serial entrepreneur and intrapreneur with extensive experience in developing business unit strategies incorporating competitive issues, trends in industry, and growth from new external factors. He has a comprehensive view of all aspects involved in both growing a successful manufacturing business and in acquiring businesses, with experience covering a wide range of products and verticals such as chemicals, plastics, packaging, agriculture, and food. Roger most recently built a cleantech company from scratch and took it to the expansion phase before exiting. Complete profile available here!
Samuel Suss, Dr. of Engineering (B.Eng., M. Eng., PhD)
Principal Consultant
Samuel is currently an independent consultant for operations and execution in private and public organizations. Samuel began his career in the aircraft industry developing, adapting and implementing computational mathematics techniques for the improvement of design and manufacturing methods. He later went on to build a contract manufacturing firm which he and his partner grew to an industry-leading company of over 300 employees, operating in the United States and Canada. In 2007 Samuel returned to McGill to complete a PhD in engineering management. Since then, Dr. Samuel has worked as a consultant to government, hospitals, and industry on various projects to improve operational performance. Complete profile available here!
Sarim Malik
CEO & Co-Founder, Neat
Sarim co-founded Neat through Engine’s TechAccel Program back in 2020. Since then, Sarim received his BEng in Mechanical Engineering and has been working on building next-generation software at Neat. Sarim would love to give back to the Engine community and be there for other student startup teams beginning their journey. Complete profile is available here!
Stuart Kozlick (M.A,Sc'13, Concordia)
Professor of Practice, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, McGill University
With over 15 years of experience in medical technologies, Stuart is an accomplished leader, engineer, and business development professional who leverages a strong foundation in medical research and product development. He is recognized for the ability to master complex science, engineering and medical applications in addition to his business and organizational development experience. Stuart's expertise spans several clinical areas, including electrophysiology, structural heart, cardiovascular, endovascular, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, orthopedics and surgical devices. Complete profile is available here!
Suman Rao (PhD'15, McGill)
Associate at Lumira Ventures
Suman is an Associate at Lumira Ventures, a leading North American healthcare & life sciences venture capital firm investing in innovative entrepreneurs developing best & first-in-class therapeutics & medical technologies. She completed her PhD (McGill University) and Postdoctoral Fellowship (Harvard Medical School) in Cancer Biology and Drug Discovery. Prior to joining Lumira Ventures, Suman worked as a Senior Associate Consultant at L.E.K. Consulting (Boston, MA), a global management consulting firm, providing strategic solutions to biotech and pharma clients. Complete profile is available here!
Thomas Karatzas
Software Engineer in Silicon Valley
Thomas was a part of McGill Engine back in 2016. It was a huge part of his university experience and helped him a lot. He wants to give back to the community and build the next generation of McGill Alumni! Complete profile available here!
