2010/03/31
2010/03/2
Amika Mobile Announces PSA Security Distribution Network Partnership & Latest Award
2009/09/17
Board of Advisors
Ken Nickerson, Founder, iBinary
Ken Nickerson is the founder of iBinary LLC., a private technology research and investment firm. Nickerson "angels" several early stage technology companies as well as contributes as an advisor or board member. He recently completed both investing in and operating as CEO of OpenCola Inc., a collaborative search engine company (sold to OpenText Inc.), and CTO of ClearPulse Inc., a private research company developing non-invasive medical technologies and The DocSpace Company (sold to CriticalPath Inc.) along with several other start-up organizations.
He and his wife are active in philanthropy with a focus on early childhood development. Mr. Nickerson was the General Manager of the Microsoft Network (MSN) in Canada, a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, and was responsible for all e-commerce and consumer activities in Canada (1991-2000). While at Microsoft, Mr. Nickerson initiated the acquisition of Hotmail, the leading provider of web based email service world wide. Prior to joining Microsoft in 1991, Nickerson worked in software engineering for several banking and insurance concerns and was the Vice President of Technology Development for Rogers Communications Inc.
Mr. Nickerson is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the Association of Computer Machinery (ACM).
Ihab Abu-Hakima, President/CEO, Meru Networks
Sue is co-Founder, President/CEO of her second start-up Amika Mobile Corporation, One of a handful of women technology CEOs who has built her reputation on excellence and innovation.
Sue has formed boards of directors and advisors and directs the business strategy, ensuring that product development matches customer pain points. Her first company, launched as a spin-off from NRC in 1998, is AmikaNow! The compliance business unit within AmikaNow! was purchased by Entrust in 2004. As VP of Content Technology at Entrust, Sue transitioned the compliance business within Entrust. Over her tenure as a CEO she has created over 130 jobs - 80 of them in software engineering using AI.
Sue holds a Bachelor of Engineering from McGill University and Masters and Doctorate degrees from Carleton University specializing in Artificial Intelligence. She is an adjunct Professor at the University of Ottawa. She is a Director sits on the Board of Directors of the Ontario Centers of Excellence and is the Chair of the Board of Management for the Center of Excellence for Communications and Information Technology. She is a member of the Private Sector Advisory Board of the National Centers of Excellence. She is also on the Executive Board of the Ottawa Software Cluster created by OCRI. In 2003 she was one of the contributors to the Prime Minister's Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs.
She has given countless invited talks on entrepreneurship, lessons on start-ups and messaging and security. CATA WIT honored her as Canada's Advanced Technology Entrepreneur in 2007. During her 28 years in the high-tech sector, Sue has established an exemplary record of professional accomplishment and service to her community; as an Industry leader, employer and a technology pioneer in the field of practical applications of AI. Sue holds 25 International patents in messaging, content analysis and security (and has 6 pending). As many as 27 Global Companies have cited her pioneering patents. She has published and presented over 100 papers. Sue is an avid Ottawa Senators hockey fan. View some of the Dr. Sue Abu-Hakima publications.
Caroline Somers, Co-President and CEO, Cassidy-Bay Group
Caroline Somers has over 20 years of experience in the high tech industry. She currently is Co-CEO of Cassidy Bay Group Inc., a consulting organization that assists companies with their business strategies and management coaching. She is also active as an angel investor in the Ottawa Angel Alliance and a Managing Partner of the Band of Scoundrels, a partnership of angel investors.
As a consultant, Caroline has helped companies with their product and marketing plans while her coaching clients are technology executives. She is a leader for OCRI’s Entrepreneurs Edge course focused on helping entrepreneurs learn how to build successful companies. Ms Somers was co-founder and VP Marketing and Product Management of Vienna Systems, a pioneer of Voice over IP products which was acquired by Nokia in 1998. She has also held management positions at Newbridge Networks and Bell-Northern Research in Product Management and Finance.
Ms Somers serves as a board member of DNA Genotek, on the board of Parteq, an advisor to the Kingston Cancer Research Institution and a member of the Arts and Science Dean’s Council at Queen’s University. She is currently on the board of Volunteer Ottawa and has also served as a board member of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Center Foundation. Caroline received her MBA and Bachelor of Arts degrees from Queen’s University and is currently training to be certified coach specializing in helping entrepreneurs build successful companies.
Kashif Hassan , Chairman, Ooober Inc.
Kashif Hassan is the Chairman of Ooober founded in 2006 which brings together providers of content such as audio, pictures, and video with buyers. Kash was also the President at Diversinet in 2006 which he joined from Mobile Diagnostix, where he was Chairman of the Board of Directors until the company was acquired in 2004.
Prior to that, Mr. Hassan was the President and CEO of Wysdom Inc., where he led the company in building and deploying a highly-packaged, open standards Service Delivery Platform that empowers mobile operators to offer high-value data services to their consumer and enterprise customers. Under his leadership, Wysdom financed, developed, launched and successfully marketed world-class mobile data products to leading mobile network operators around the globe.
Prior to founding Wysdom, Mr. Hassan co-founded and served as President of Wyrex Communications Inc., a global mobile systems integration firm. Mr. Hassan earlier participated in the development of future mobile services through his employment at mobile network operators Rogers AT&T and TeleZone.
