The Power of 3: Innovation, Collaboration, Entrepreneurship

Managing Director of District 3

JD Bégin is a venture capitalist turned entrepreneur and angel investor. As head coach at District 3, Bégin helps founders find product market-fit, grow their key metrics, and secure financing. Having previously worked as a growth advisor and mentor to firms such as VM6 Software Inc., Techstars and Traction Ventures, Bégin leverages more than 15 years experience to uniquely equip startups with the tools they need to grow into successful enterprises. Bégin holds an MBA from Concordia University, as well as a bachelors of Business Administration in accounting and finance from UQAM.

Biotech Stream Lead, District 3

Margaret Bywater-Ekegärd’s international experience includes new product development for human health applications of technology and agricultural biological markets. Most recently, she founded and became Executive Vice President Technology and Innovation, working in a high-level team to build a high-growth company in the agricultural sector. She’s a co-founder and member of the board of directors at Morphocell Technologies, as well as involved in establishing Bioponix Agriculture Corp.

Social Innovation Coach, District 3 

Jonathan Chaloux was the former Manager of Culture at l’Esplanade, an accelerator and collaborative workspace specializing in entrepreneurship and social innovation, as well as co-founder of Coworking Québec. Passionate about social impact and the mechanisms to create it, he works collaboratively with ecosystem players and enjoys making connections to accelerate the development of social projects.

Senior Coach, Healthcare Stream Lead

With a wealth of international experience in taking ideas to market—always at the dynamic intersection of where entrepreneurship and experiential learning meet—Edna Chosack, M.Sc., MBA, is the Healthcare Stream lead and Senior Coach at District 3. 

As the co-founder and VP, Strategic Marketing at Simbionix Inc., Edna co-built the company into an international surgical-simulation leader, becoming internationally recognized as one of a few experts who leverage medical-simulation experiential learning into business success stories. 3D Systems acquired the company for $120M USD.

In Montreal, she established and served as Director of CAE’s surgical-simulation business line. She was a member of the advisory committee at McGill University’s Steinberg Centre for Simulation and Interactive Learning. She held her consultancy services for private internationals in the US, Europe & China, as well as for Canadian customers such as the Canadian National Research Council.

Co-Founder, Lean for Flourishing

Combining experience with her strong entrepreneurial skills and ability to build successful enterprises in emerging markets, Ondine has always aimed to affect positive change within her community and industry through business. She is a highly creative and innovative business developer and strategist, having started six successful organizations over two decades. Ondine can turn ideas into revenue generating socially focused businesses and has successfully managed this process from creation to established entity. 

Ondine is the co-founder of Lean4Flourishing, a social enterprise focused on designing Flourishing Business Model Innovation accelerators, incubators, and startup programs. She is a social impact coach at District 3, Concordia University, providing specialized coaching, mentorship and development of social enterprises. In addition to District 3, Ondine in heavily involved in the startup ecosystem, providing coaching and mentoring for several notable organizations such as: Innoweave Social Enterprise Coach, LEF Business Mentor, Futrepreneur Mentor, Startup Weekend mentor, McGill Dobson Cup judge Mentor, SLASA mentor, InnoCite MTL Mentor, Startup Day Canada Mentor, YES Montreal Mentor. 

Social Innovation Coach, District 3

Julie Hamel (MBA) is a senior business advisor with over 25 years of experience. She began her career as an entrepreneur before becoming a social economy advisor in 2006. She successfully managed many fast-food franchises through the 90s before becoming the general manager of a major private non-profit golf course. Her range of expertise includes among others, marketing, operations, and business development. For the past ten years, her social preoccupation has led her to invest most of her time and energy in the field of social economy, including helping dozens of non-profit organizations. Julie has been involved with Concordia’s District 3 since 2015 as the Social Entrepreneurship Coach.

Innovation Enabler, Concordia for now

Xavier-Henri Hervé has a 25 years track record for transforming strategic plans for innovations into business on an international scale. An engineer, Hervé leverages 20 years of experience in several technologies and engineering intensive domains such as aviation, information systems, simulation, and green tech, at Mechtronix, Oracle Corporation, CAE Electronics and Bombardier. Hervé enjoys a worldwide network built in over fifty countries. In 2011, Hervé was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Concordia University’s Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science. He holds an MBA from INSEAD, as well as a bachelor of engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from Concordia University. 

Director, AI Commons

Gilles Fayad spent his entire career launching new products. His track record has been to move up the food chain to successfully solve one problem after the other, and in doing so he acquired a broad technical expertise, managerial acumen, and international exposure. He is deeply fascinated with the impact of technology on society, complex mathematical problems, deep learning, reinforcement learning, and the relationship between form and function in design. If you cannot find him sailing or diving, you can lure him with a coffee into a game of chess, Go, or simply in a discussion on reinventing the world.

President, BEEM & Validation Coach

Alexandre Lataille is driven by a true passion for automotive technologies that have always pushed him to innovate. As the CEO and co-founder of BEEM, an auto tech company, he is focusing on reinventing the way we interact within the automotive ecosystem, starting with the customer, the vehicle, the dealership and the manufacturer. 

Prior to founding BEEM, Alexandre specialized in data-driven automotive product development, business processes and analytics. He managed projects to the highest industry standards, with a tenacity that saw him rise swiftly in the ranks of Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP), a leading recreational products manufacturer. Alexandre started his career as a testing engineer for the Volvo Group, where he realized his passion for a data-driven approach to problem-solving and product development, which he applies to BEEM today.

Chief Scientific Officer 

Vincent Martin is an Associate Professor in Microbiology in the Department of Biology at Concordia University and holds the Canada Research Chair in Microbial Genomics and Engineering. He obtained a B.Sc. in Microbiology from McGill University (1989), an M.Sc. in Environmental Biology from the University of Guelph (1993) and a PhD in Microbiology from the University of British Columbia (1999) under the supervision of Dr. Bill Mohn, where he elucidated the metabolic pathway for plant diterpene biodegradation in Pseudomonas. His post-doctoral studies were performed with Dr. Jay Keasling at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where he engineered E. coli for over-production of isoprenoids. In 2003, he joined the Physical Biosciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The same year, with help from a $43 million grant from the Gates Foundation, he co-founded Amyris Biotechnologies where he currently serves as a scientific advisor. 

In 2004, he joined Concordia University as an Assistant Professor, Vincent Martin’s interests are focused on the metabolic engineering of microbes for the degradation of plant biomass and the production of commodity and high value chemicals. He is the project co-leader for a recently funded $13.6 million Genome Canada grant aimed at the commercial production of high-value plant metabolites in microbial fermentation systems. Vincent Martin is also the fermentation theme leader for the AAFC Cellulosic Biofuels and the NSERC Bioconversion Networks. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Microbiology, Bioengineered Bugs and the Water, Air and Soil Pollution journal.

Coach, District 3

Louis has a 20+ years track record of helping emerging and growing technology and media companies propel their business to the next level. An experienced operator, Louis can help businesses meet short-term revenue targets while building longer-term growth capabilities. Louis is particularly experienced in sales management, marketing, partnerships, M&A, and general operations.

Louis started his career as a commercial attorney in a leading Canadian law firm, advising high technology and biotechnology companies in areas such as mergers and acquisitions, corporate financing, and partnerships. With this experience and an MBA, Louis made the move to business operations early on and never looked back, rapidly progressing through the ranks of established and growing international tech companies, including Open Text, Bell Canada, Softvoyage, k-eCommerce, and mdf commerce.

Louis holds a master’s in business administration (MBA) from the École des Hautes Études Commerciales de Montreal (1996), a bachelor’s degree in law (Ll.b.) from the University of Montreal (1993), and is a member of the Quebec Bar (1994).

Life Sciences Fellow & Biohub Manager, District 3

Mahzad Sharifahmadian is the Life Sciences Fellow and Biohub Manager at District 3. She empowers life sciences researchers to bring their research to market, and has built a network of research experts for collaboration and co-creation to solve societal and industry challenges. 

She holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry & Molecular Medicine from Université de Montréal, with expertise and publications on the design and development of novel drugs for antibiotic-resistant infections. While finishing her Ph.D., she co-founded Rubisco, a biotech company offering point-of-care diagnosis of pathogens (dissolved in 2018).

Co-Owner, DX Consultant

Daniel Stoll has always strived to design and develop products that bring delightful customer experiences, to have products sell themselves. He has a track record of galvanizing innovation and creating go-to-market strategies based on a product-led growth approach, providing value to customers by shortening time to value. His work has been recognized for shortening the sales cycle significantly in complex sales. Daniel holds a Master’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the École d’ingénieurs du numérique.