The University of British Columbia

Greg Aasen

Mr. Aasen currently sits on the Boards of BCIC and Sierra Wireless. Mr. Aasen was the founder and the chief strategy officer at PMC-Sierra up to June 2007. Previously he was vice president and general manager of the Communications Products Division. Prior to that, Mr. Aasen was chief operating officer and chief technology officer of the Company. Bringing over 20 years of experience to the semiconductor industry, Mr. Aasen began his career at Mitel where he held both product and design engineering positions. In 1984, he started his first startup called Aptron. In 1986, he joined MPR Teltech and later established the Pacific Microelectronic Centre (PMC), MPR Teltech¹s first business division. In 1992, Mr. Aasen's vision was realized when PMC-Sierra was spun-out from MPR Teltech through an investment from Sierra Semiconductor. In June 2000, Mr. Aasen was named ³Person of the Year² by the B.C. Technology Industries Association and was awarded ³Entrepreneur of the Year² in BC from Ernst & Young in 1996.

Vikram Devdas

Mr. Devdas is the President and CEO of Akshay Semiconductor Inc., a privately held semiconductor company based in Vancouver, B.C. He was the founder of West Bay Semiconductor (now a part of Intel Canada) and one of the early members of Zeugma Systems. Bringing in over 15 years of semiconductor and Networking system design experience, Mr. Devdas previously held various positions including Technical Leader, System Architect and Principal Engineer at HP and Cisco. Mr. Devdas started his career at Bell Northern Research as an ASIC designer and also worked at PMC-Sierra in the position of Product Design Engineer. In the past, Mr. Devdas has been on the technical advisory board of several Venture Capital firms in the Bay Area. Mr. Devdas holds several patents in the fields of Networking and Semiconductors and has made significant contributions towards telecom standards both at ITU-T and T1X1. He received his BASC and a MASC in EE from the University of British Columbia.

Brian Gerson

Brian Gerson, a founder of PMC-Sierra, has served as Vice President and Fellow, Research and Development, since 2002. Mr. Gerson also serves as Vice President of Mixed-Signal Development where he oversees all analog, full custom and DSP research and development. He has led that division as Director and then Vice President since the Company's formation. Previously, Mr. Gerson was employed at Bell Northern Research (BNR) and Northern Telecom, now known as Nortel Networks.

Paul Geyer

Paul Geyer is CEO of LightIntegra Technology Inc. LightIntegra has developed the ThromboLux technology which is used as a point of care device to determine platelet quality for blood transfusions. Paul is also Chairman of Neovasc Inc. a new specialty vascular device company that develops medical devices for the rapidly growing vascular and surgical marketplace. From its inception in 2001 to June 2008, Mr. Geyer held the position of CEO at Medical Ventures and was responsible for raising over $40 million in Equity financing in the Private and Public markets and growing the company’s product portfolio through both internal development and the acquisition of 3 other companies. In 1991 he founded Mitroflow International Inc., a tissue heart valve company. Paul was President and CEO of Mitroflow and grew the company from 9 employees in 1991 to more than 125 employees in 1999.


Paul graduated with a B.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the UBC in 1988. He has served on the board of directors of MEDEC (Medical Devices Canada) and the Medical Device Development Center located in Vancouver.  Paul has also served a member of the Technology Commercialization Advisory council for the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research. Paul was one of the founders of the Life Sciences BC Excels Program. 
 In 2010 Paul was awarded the British Columbia Angel Investor of the year. He is an active supporter of the local Angel investment community, donating his time to assist local companies and investors through education programs and direct one-on-one mentoring.
 In 2008, Mr. Geyer established a scholarship endowment at UBC for the support of students in the newly established Biomedical Engineering program. 

Victor Goncalves

Victor Goncalves graduated from UBC with a B.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering in 1987. He worked for a short time for a Cable TV company in the lower mainland before joining Alpha Technologies Ltd as a power supply design engineer. He became Engineering Manager in 1992 and Director of Engineering in 1995. In his current position at Alpha Victor is in charge of Research and System Engineering. His research team is developing modern digitally controlled high energy density switching power supplies which are designed into hardened outdoor power cabinet systems that provide the backup power needs of today's fast changing wireless communication networks and outdoor security systems.

Jim Gurney

Jim Gurney graduated from UBC in 1971 with a B.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. He has been with BC Hydro and related companies for 40 years in a number of engineering and management roles. He is a founding member of the ECE Industry Advisory Council and served on the review committee for the most recent ECE external review. During his career, Jim has been very involved with development programs for new engineers and has maintained a close association with ECE students and faculty. He has served on the IEEE Standards Board and the Canadian National Committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

Kris Iniewski

Krzysztof (Kris) Iniewski is managing R&D at Redlen Technologies Inc., a start-up company in Vancouver, Canada. Redlen’s revolutionary production process for advanced semiconductor materials enables a new generation of more accurate, all-digital, radiation-based imaging solutions. Kris is also an Executive Director of CMOS Emerging Technologies (www.cmoset.com), a series of high-tech events covering Communications, Microsystems, Optoelectronics, and Sensors. In his carrier Dr. Iniewski held numerous faculty and management positions at University of Toronto, University of Alberta, SFU, and PMC-Sierra Inc. He has published over 100 research papers in international journals and conferences. He holds 18 international patents granted in USA, Canada, France, Germany, and Japan. He is a frequent invited speaker and has consulted for multiple organizations internationally. He has written and edited several books for Wiley, CRC Press, McGraw Hill, Artech House, and Springer. His personal goal is to contribute to sustainability through innovative engineering solutions. 

Barry Jinks

Mr. Jinks is founder and CEO of Colligo Networks, a software company that develops and markets collaboration and content management software. He is a serial entrepreneur who has participated on the founding management teams and boards of directors of several successful technology companies. Prior to founding Colligo he was CEO of Spectrum Signal Processing, where he took the company from a startup to a 200 person, $40 million, NASDAQ and TSE listed company. While at Spectrum, he was named Ernst and Young's 1997 Pacific Region 'Entrepreneur of the Year' for High Technology.
Mr. Jinks holds degrees in Science and Electrical Engineering from UBC, where he won several academic awards. He is a member of the World President's Organization (WPO), the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (APEGBC), the board of directors of the BC Technology Industries Association, the Board of Governors of the BC Business Council and the Board of Directors of VRX Worldwide (VRW.V). He has also served on the Science Council of British Columbia and was Chair of the B.C. Advanced Systems Institute.

Richard Juren

Richard Juren has been with MDA since 1979, starting as a Co-op Student in 1978 and working his way through the Engineering ranks to become an Engineering Manager of Space & Defence systems, Airborne radar and e-commerce groups. In his time with MDA he has served as a Software Engineer, System Engineer, Team Lead, Project Engineer, and Project Manager. In 2006 Richard was appointed Director of Engineering. As Director, Richard was responsible for MDA's overall technology management, engineering process definition and improvement, engineering staff development and the provision of engineering services to Corporate management. Richard was promoted to become a Chief of Operations for the Systems Group, spanning several locations in Canada and United States in 2010. He is the lead for managing the Solution Engineering competency for MDA Corporate.
Richard holds degrees in Electrical Engineering and in Physics (Hon.), both from UBC. He has been expanding his expertise through continuing education, including Aerospace System Architecting under Eberhardt Rechtin. He has presented papers at international conferences. He is involved with local universities and industry on numerous fronts and has participated in the B.C. Premier's Technology Council.

Winnie Lai-Fong

Winnie Lai-Fong is a business consultant at TELUS for enterprise-wide program and change management. She has over fifteen years of experience in managing engineering teams, strategic planning, technology assessment, and service development. Being passionate about coaching and development, she was instrumental in creating the TELUS Engineer-In-Training program nationally, and is currently co-leading a leadership development program for business graduates. Winnie is a P.Eng, and received her B.A.Sc and M.A.Sc engineering degrees from UBC. She has held various positions in IEEE and APEGBC in the past.

Terry Lee

Mr. Terry Lee is a leading industrial expert in RF/microwave technologies and ASIC/microelectronics designs. He is the founder of TRL Microwave Technology Inc. and co-founder of SST Wireless Inc., a reputable microwave design house and a leading wireless tire pressure monitoring system manufacturer respectively. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering (major) and Management Science (minor) from the University of Waterloo. He has been the treasurer and a member of the board of Canada Western Telecom Group. He has served the president of Association of Korean-Canadian Scientists & Engineers, expert panel reviewer for Canada-California Strategic Innovation Program, and key speaker, section chair and lecturer in several international conferences and seminars. He currently serves as a member of the peer review committee for the national microelectronics designs at Canadian Microelectronics Corporation Microsystems, a member of expert reviewer panel for Canadian university projects under the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and a member of the external advisory committee for Information and Communication Technologies Sector, National Research Council. 

Karl Reardon

Karl Reardon, P.Eng. has over fifteen years of technology innovation and telecommunications experience. Karl has worked closely with industry and standards groups, financial and telecommunications partners, utilities and public safety agencies to develop and deploy innovative and effective solutions, including IP based financial processing communication networks, 2.5G cellular data systems (GPRS and EDGE), land-mobile radio, SCADA, and workforce automation systems. Karl has significant experience in developing and deploying solutions requiring ‘5NINES’ reliability as well as stringent security, latency and performance requirements. Prior to joining Planetworks Karl’s experience included positions as: CTO of a company developing IP communication solution for Financial processing customers; and Product Director and General Manager of Motorola’s Vancouver Research and Development Center responsible for wireless IP data. While at Motorola Karl played a key role in the standards group that spearheaded the GPRS specification and holds seven US and EU patents for wireless and data technology.

Bob Stewart

Bob Stewart is Principal Engineer - Electrical at BC Hydro. Bob graduated from the UBC Electrical Engineering - Power Option in 1981. He has been with BC Hydro for 30 years in both technical and management roles. His experience spans working on designs in the generation, transmission and distribution areas, as well as providing support for maintenance activities. This included several years at Gordon Shrum Generating Station in the management of maintenance and operations. Bob also worked in Ontario for one year in the design and development of transmission lines with Ontario Hydro. He is a Senior member of IEEE and is a past member of the IEEE Substation Committee. He is also BC Hydro's liaison with the Energy Systems (ES) Option of UBC's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department through which BC Hydro provides support of ES students via guest lectures and site tours of their facilities.

Bill Tam

Bill Tam is the President & CEO of the BC Technology Industry Association (BCTIA), Vancouver, British Columbia. Bill has been guiding the success of entrepreneurial companies for over 20 years. In 2010, he joined the BCTIA as a CEO-in-Residence with Centre4Growth, advising a wide-range of technology firms. Prior to BCTIA, Bill was the CEO of EQO Communications and a Partner at SpringBank TechVentures, where he led investments in software and wireless. Bill has held senior executive positions at AT&T Canada, Rogers Communications, and Bell Canada. He is currently Chairman of the Board at Colligo Networks and a board member of BC Bioenergy Network, an organization focused on building a world class bioenergy capability in BC.

Jill Tipping

Jill Tipping is Vice-President Operations and CFO at Schneider Electric Solar. Schneider Electric’s global Solar business is headquartered in BC with 450 global employees and 4 global engineering hubs, the largest of which is in Burnaby.  In 2014 Schneider Electric was recognized by GTM Research as one of the top 3 global Solar inverter companies. Jill started her career with Deloitte and spent 10 years in the London UK office focusing on the technology sector. In 2006 she joined Burnaby-based Xantrex Technologies Inc and played a pivotal role in the strategic sale of Xantrex to Schneider Electric in 2008. She became VP Finance in 2009 and added responsibility for Operations in 2012.  A strong advocate of cleantech and BC’s Tech sector, Jill is an inspiring leader with a powerful reputation for change management and out of the box thinking. Jill has a MA (Hons) in Economic History from St Andrews University, Scotland and a MSc in Management from Stanford University. Jill serves on the boards of the Museum of Vancouver and the BC Technology Industries Association and chairs the United Way campaign for Schneider Electric Solar. She is married with a 2 year old daughter.

Annelies Tjebbes

Annelies Tjebbes’ (BASc ’12 ECE) passion for engineering stems from her desire to solve challenging problems and discover technological ways to contribute to her global community. Throughout her education at UBC, Annelies was recognized for her commitment to Engineers without Borders and her outstanding academic achievements with awards including the Outstanding Future Alumnus Award from the Faculty of Applied Sciences.  Her desire to make the world a better place and reduce injustices launched her into her career path as a Biomedical Engineer with a social conscience. Annelies currently works at StarFish Medical developing medical innovations with a focus on user experience and user needs. She also sits on the Board of Directors for Engineers Without Borders acting as a member representative to bring the voice of the community to the table.  In her spare time Annelies volunteers for the Tetra Society developing assistive devices for people living with disabilities and stays healthy playing on a Division 1 soccer team and riding her bike!

Willie Waung

William Waung is the Director of Intellectual Property at Sierra Wireless, Inc. In the past 7 years, William's focus has been on intellectual property and is tasked with the establishment and management of the patent program. His responsibilities include management of the patent prosecution activities and the support of IP licensing and litigation activities within Sierra Wireless.
William has worked in the mobile data communications industry for over 30 years. He was a key member of the Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) specification team, the first cellular wireless data standard. He further served as the Technical Liaison of the Wireless Data Forum (later CTIA, the Wireless Association). William also co-authored Internetwork Mobility, the CDPD Approach, a book on wireless data. William holds multiple patents in wireless mobile data technologies.
William received his B.A.Sc. (Elec.) from University of British Columbia, his M.A.Sc. (Elec.) from the University of Toronto, and his Master of Business Administration from UBC. He is a registered professional engineer in the province of British Columbia.