Board of Directors
Daniel Cyr, FIER ID & ID Capital, Director
Daniel Cyr is Managing Partner at ID Capital and Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Telesystem. With more than twenty years of experience in managing investments and corporate finance, Mr. Cyr holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and is a member of the Ordre des comptables agréés du Québec. At Telesystem, Mr. Cyr was involved in dozens of M&A transactions, and in the implementation of over $1.5 billion in financing for Telesystem and the enterprises it has invested in. Prior to joining Telesystem in 1992, he was Director, Finance at the head office of Steinberg and worked for more than four years in auditing and financial modeling at Coopers & Lybrand. Mr. Cyr has sat on the boards of TIW, Microcell Telecommunications, Look Communications, Zone3 and a number of other private information and communications technology companies.
Shawn Abbott, iNovia Capital, Director
A partner with iNovia Capital, Shawn Abbott has a passion for building communications and Internet start-up companies. Shawn is presently an investor and board member at Metafoam, Tynt, CoolIT Systems, SiXtron, Peraso and Reflex Photonics. He has played entrepreneur, investor, technical and general management roles across fifteen technology start-ups in three continents over 20 years. His work pioneering internet security as CTO, then President, at Rainbow Technologies saw the company grow ten-fold in profitability before being sold to SafeNet for nearly a half billion dollars. In the late 1980s, he established and built the AND Group, which pioneered the CD-ROM locking used on several million discs. He is an accomplished public speaker, having presented at more than one hundred conferences on digital security and entrepreneurism, and taught software design courses internationally. He is past chair of the Banff Venture Forum and on the Venture Capital Association of Alberta executive. He holds an early patent as one of the inventors of now popular USB keys. His publications include a chapter on hardware cryptography in the ICSA Guide to Cryptography. Shawn earned his Bachelor’s of Science in physics at the University of Alberta and has done postgraduate study at the University of Calgary, Stanford, and UC Irvine. Shawn is also an active rotary wing pilot.
David Bernardi, ID Capital, Director
David Bernardi is a a managing partner in ID Capital, a venture partner at Propulsion Ventures (a sister, software-focused fund), as well as the Head of Technology for Telesystem. He has more than twenty years of experience in telecommunications and software engineering, more than half of which he has gained in an operational environment. Over the course of his career, Mr. Bernardi has managed large software development teams in a multi-site, multi-schedule environment. He was one of the first North Americans to have a development team in India (1994). In terms of hardware development, he provided technical governance for the only non military data satellite constellation in the world. As a consultant to Canadian and American telephone companies, he analyzed and planned the reengineering of his clients’ processes to improve their competitiveness and efficiency. David Bernardi's experience also includes product and strategic planning, negotiating complex, billion-dollar joint venture agreements in an international environment, helping build engineering and operations organizations from the ground up, and providing technical and commercial guidance to various projects and start-ups. Mr. Bernardi holds Master's and Bachelor's (Honours) degrees in Electrical Engineering from McGill University and a Diploma in Arts (History) from Université de Montréal. He is or has been a board member or advisor to the following companies: Audiokinetics, Colubris Networks, CVT Corp, Fox Group, Idilia, Metafoam, Microsigns, NCI Technologies, Rololight, and StreamTheWorld.
Dominic Pilon, Metafoam's Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Director
As Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Dominic Pilon is responsible for Metafoam’s product development efforts and focusing the company’s technology and product roadmap towards market centric applications. Dominic has extensive knowledge of consumer electronics’ thermal management needs and market requirements. His business and product development efforts have lead to the creation of several strategic partnerships with major ODMs, OEMs, and thermal management companies in the Asian consumer electronics’ industry. Before founding Metafoam in 2004, Dominic completed graduate studies in mechanical engineering in both North America and Europe. He is the author of 5 patent applications and over 20 scientific papers and conference proceedings which have solidified Metafoam’s position as a provider of innovative technologies for the thermal management industry.
Vincent Guyaux, Metafoam's President & CEO, Director
Vincent Guyaux has extensive management and business development expertise in North America, Asia and Europe in high-tech industries. Since 2008, he is President & CEO of Metafoam, a metal foam manufacturer. Prior to that, Vincent was President & CEO of Imaginum, a fabless chip manufacturer, Co-founder and President of Embrase Business Consulting, General Manager of Mindready's Embedded Systems Division, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at Locus Dialog (acquired by InfoSpace) and Sales Manager at Apple Canada. Since 2006, he also guest-lectures on creating business plans for the MBA program at McGill University. Vincent holds a diploma in Applied Computer Science from the University of Quebec in Montreal.
Daniel Cyr is Managing Partner at ID Capital and Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Telesystem. With more than twenty years of experience in managing investments and corporate finance, Mr. Cyr holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and is a member of the Ordre des comptables agréés du Québec. At Telesystem, Mr. Cyr was involved in dozens of M&A transactions, and in the implementation of over $1.5 billion in financing for Telesystem and the enterprises it has invested in. Prior to joining Telesystem in 1992, he was Director, Finance at the head office of Steinberg and worked for more than four years in auditing and financial modeling at Coopers & Lybrand. Mr. Cyr has sat on the boards of TIW, Microcell Telecommunications, Look Communications, Zone3 and a number of other private information and communications technology companies.
Shawn Abbott, iNovia Capital, Director
A partner with iNovia Capital, Shawn Abbott has a passion for building communications and Internet start-up companies. Shawn is presently an investor and board member at Metafoam, Tynt, CoolIT Systems, SiXtron, Peraso and Reflex Photonics. He has played entrepreneur, investor, technical and general management roles across fifteen technology start-ups in three continents over 20 years. His work pioneering internet security as CTO, then President, at Rainbow Technologies saw the company grow ten-fold in profitability before being sold to SafeNet for nearly a half billion dollars. In the late 1980s, he established and built the AND Group, which pioneered the CD-ROM locking used on several million discs. He is an accomplished public speaker, having presented at more than one hundred conferences on digital security and entrepreneurism, and taught software design courses internationally. He is past chair of the Banff Venture Forum and on the Venture Capital Association of Alberta executive. He holds an early patent as one of the inventors of now popular USB keys. His publications include a chapter on hardware cryptography in the ICSA Guide to Cryptography. Shawn earned his Bachelor’s of Science in physics at the University of Alberta and has done postgraduate study at the University of Calgary, Stanford, and UC Irvine. Shawn is also an active rotary wing pilot.
David Bernardi, ID Capital, Director
David Bernardi is a a managing partner in ID Capital, a venture partner at Propulsion Ventures (a sister, software-focused fund), as well as the Head of Technology for Telesystem. He has more than twenty years of experience in telecommunications and software engineering, more than half of which he has gained in an operational environment. Over the course of his career, Mr. Bernardi has managed large software development teams in a multi-site, multi-schedule environment. He was one of the first North Americans to have a development team in India (1994). In terms of hardware development, he provided technical governance for the only non military data satellite constellation in the world. As a consultant to Canadian and American telephone companies, he analyzed and planned the reengineering of his clients’ processes to improve their competitiveness and efficiency. David Bernardi's experience also includes product and strategic planning, negotiating complex, billion-dollar joint venture agreements in an international environment, helping build engineering and operations organizations from the ground up, and providing technical and commercial guidance to various projects and start-ups. Mr. Bernardi holds Master's and Bachelor's (Honours) degrees in Electrical Engineering from McGill University and a Diploma in Arts (History) from Université de Montréal. He is or has been a board member or advisor to the following companies: Audiokinetics, Colubris Networks, CVT Corp, Fox Group, Idilia, Metafoam, Microsigns, NCI Technologies, Rololight, and StreamTheWorld.
Dominic Pilon, Metafoam's Founder & Chief Technology Officer, Director
As Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Dominic Pilon is responsible for Metafoam’s product development efforts and focusing the company’s technology and product roadmap towards market centric applications. Dominic has extensive knowledge of consumer electronics’ thermal management needs and market requirements. His business and product development efforts have lead to the creation of several strategic partnerships with major ODMs, OEMs, and thermal management companies in the Asian consumer electronics’ industry. Before founding Metafoam in 2004, Dominic completed graduate studies in mechanical engineering in both North America and Europe. He is the author of 5 patent applications and over 20 scientific papers and conference proceedings which have solidified Metafoam’s position as a provider of innovative technologies for the thermal management industry.
Vincent Guyaux, Metafoam's President & CEO, Director
Vincent Guyaux has extensive management and business development expertise in North America, Asia and Europe in high-tech industries. Since 2008, he is President & CEO of Metafoam, a metal foam manufacturer. Prior to that, Vincent was President & CEO of Imaginum, a fabless chip manufacturer, Co-founder and President of Embrase Business Consulting, General Manager of Mindready's Embedded Systems Division, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at Locus Dialog (acquired by InfoSpace) and Sales Manager at Apple Canada. Since 2006, he also guest-lectures on creating business plans for the MBA program at McGill University. Vincent holds a diploma in Applied Computer Science from the University of Quebec in Montreal.