Amika Mobile Corporation

Suhayya (Sue) Abu-Hakima, Co-Founder, President/CEO Amika Mobile Corporation

Sue is co-Founder, President/CEO of her second start-up Amika Mobile Corporation launched in 2007. As one of a handful of women technology CEOs who has built her reputation on excellence and innovation, Sue is the driving force behind the company.

As a two-time founder/CEO, she has formed boards of directors and advisors and directs the business strategy, ensuring that product development matches customer pain points, as well as customer relationships which are key to an SMB. 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 until Dec 2006, Sue transitioned the compliance business within Entrust. Sue started her career at BNR (Nortel Labs). Over her tenure as a CEO she has created over 180 jobs - 110 of them in software engineering and AI.

Sue holds a B.Eng. from McGill University, M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees from Carleton University specializing in Artificial Intelligence. Sue is an adjunct Professor at University of Ottawa and has mentored countless undergraduate and graduate students in AI. Sue is the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Centers of Excellence and she is on the private sector advisory board of NSERC's National Centers of Excellence. She has also contributed to the Prime Minister's Task Force on Women Entrepreneurs.

She has given countless invited talks on entrepreneurship, AI as it pertains to messaging and security. Sue was named to the Order of Ontario in 2011 for excellence and achievement, the Province’s highest honour. She was chosen Canada’s Advanced Technology Entrepreneur in 2007. During her 28 years in high-tech, 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 has filed 30 International patents in messaging and content analysis. 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 Dr. Sue Abu-Hakima's publications or speaking engagements.

Louis Payant, Director

Louis brings over 35 years of expertise to Amika Mobile in mobile technologies, telecommunication solutions for the enterprise and software development leadership and methodology for emerging companies. He is a veteran executive in the high tech community. As CTO and VP of R&D at N-able Technologies, he helped transform it to be a market leader in delivering software solutions that transform service organizations into managed service providers (MSPs). He helped create a world-class software development organization with award-winning products. Following a planned transition, he remains a Technical Advisor to the CEO.

Louis has founded two companies: Vienna Systems and Norlite Technology. Louis founded Vienna Systems in January 1996. There he served as Vice President of R&D and Operations. He focused on overall technology creation processes of world class VoIP (Voice over IP) solutions that included gateways, call processing servers and peripherals. Vienna became an early global leader in the emerging VoIP market for enterprise and carrier. Nokia acquired Vienna in November 1998 and Louis took dual responsibilities as General Manager and Vice President of the Ottawa Nokia Product Center where he managed the Vienna product integration. Louis founded Norlite Technology in September 1986. At Norlite, he created turnkey call center hardware and software systems targeted at small and medium-sized call centers. He created the business plan, raised $4M of seed capital and managed all aspects of the corporation. The technology created by Norlite became the seeding technology for Vienna Systems.

In August 1982, Louis was Director of Software Development for Mitel Corporation. In the late '70s, he held several senior software development positions: Communications Research Center Government R&D Labs, CAE electronics in Montreal and Comterm Inc. His most recognized achievement was the implementation of real time operating system software for Canadian Air Traffic Systems in the late 1970s. He holds a BSc from the University of Ottawa and an MSc from the University of Toronto both in Computer Science with a primary focus in Software Engineering.

Debbie Weinstein, Director

Debbie is a co-founding partner at LaBarge Weinstein, a business law firm which focuses predominantly on high tech firms and emerging growth companies emerging growth companies, established public and private technology businesses, venture capital funds and investment bankers. Her work focuses on securities, mergers and acquisitions, and business law advice for public and private technology based companies.

Debbie has participated in more than a dozen high technology initial public offerings including Corel, Crosskeys, Tundra, Lumonics, and JDS Fitel Inc. (now JDS Uniphase). Debbie sits on the board of directors and is corporate secretary of numerous public and private high tech companies, as well as on the board for the Ottawa Heart Institute Foundation and CDNX Exchange Board of Directors. Debbie is a co- founding partner at LaBarge Weinstein, a business law firm which focuses predominantly on high tech firms and emerging growth companies emerging growth companies, established public and private technology businesses, venture capital funds and investment bankers. Her work focuses on securities, mergers and acquisitions, and business law advice for public and private technology based companies. Debbie has been a Director with AmikaNow! since 1999 and has been a Director with Amika Mobile since launch in March 2007.