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via2020-04-02 08:34:062020-04-02 08:34:06Meet the Team: Emma Fechney, Senior Lead, People and OperationsGot Problems? Solve with VIA.
VIA was founded to solve asset management and operational issues alongside key players in the energy industry. Since then, we have worked with governments, regulators, and large global utilities on AI initiatives like predictive maintenance and contingency planning.
AI can be easy if you have data. Unfortunately, that’s a big if…
We found enormous interest in AI in the energy industry, but every company was dealing with the same hurdle: the data. Some companies had too little data, some companies didn’t have clean data, some companies have a lot of data but not in any single location.
So, we created TAC™.
Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™)
TAC™, with over 10 patents pending, is the bridge that securely connects confidential data, distributed across many locations, to potential AI solutions and provides:
Privacy Protection
TAC™ delivers the algorithm to the data, so that data always remains secure and on premise.
Virtual Data Pooling
TAC™ virtually aggregates company-wide data across any location and allows multiple organizations to pool their data anonymously for more rigorous analysis.
Regulatory Compliance
TAC™ uses smart contracts to automate and enforce the exchange of algorithms and analysis results.
What’s Happening
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via2020-04-02 08:34:062020-04-02 08:34:06Meet the Team: Emma Fechney, Senior Lead, People and Operations
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via2020-03-19 08:02:112020-03-25 23:42:34Meet the Team: John Muddle, Team Lead, Data Science
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via2020-03-16 10:30:392020-03-16 12:49:14The End of Pilot PurgatoryOur Team
We’re the one-two punch of the industry.
Thousands of startups are born every year, all with innovative ideas and enthusiasm to match. Enthusiasm isn’t a substitute for experience, however. Whether it’s experience growing startups, implementing brand new technologies, or working with complex power systems, collectively our team has what it takes to make VIA stand out in the crowd. Oh. And, we’re enthusiastic too!
Leadership
It all starts with the right people.
Every member of VIA’s leadership team has experience founding and growing companies and has in one way or another been involved in the energy sector.
Colin Gounden
Chief Executive Officer
Since co-founding VIA in 2016, Colin has brought several of the world’s leading energy companies on board as clients and initiated the development of VIA’s blockchain application, Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™).
Prior to VIA, Colin was the first investor and co-founder of five MIT spinouts, two of which became profitable in their first year of operations. Previously, Colin sold Grail Research, where he grew the company from its first employee in 2006 to more than 300 employees in 2009. He was a partner and elected board director at a top five global strategy consulting and private equity investment firm with $2Bn in assets under management. Colin also worked with IBM across Europe and North America before co-founding a technology services firm that he grew and sold for $97M in 1999.
Colin graduated from Harvard University with a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology.
Kate Ravanis
Chief Operating Officer
As a co-founder, Kate established VIA’s client service program to make the company’s technologies more accessible to a broader group, beyond artificial intelligence (AI) specialists and mathematicians.
She has been certified by FERC as an expert in AI. Kate’s previous experience with smart grid technology is the reason why VIA is providing solutions to the energy industry.
Before VIA, Kate was with Grail Research, where she oversaw 10 to 20 clients per year and grew select accounts to multi-year, million-dollar per year contracts. She joined the company in its first year of operation and helped build the firm’s marketing, finance, and account management functions. Prior to joining Grail Research, Kate worked with one of the world’s leading public relations firms, Weber Shandwick.
Kate graduated summa cum laude from Northeastern University with a degree in organizational communication.
Jeremy Taylor, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
As co-founder and CSO, Jeremy monitors state-of-the-art research developments in AI and machine learning to help benefit VIA’s energy clients.
Jeremy’s recent research includes topics in explainable and interpretable AI, causal inference, distributed learning, and privacy-conserving machine learning.
Jeremy has been founder or first-hire in multiple startups, all centered around commercializing machine learning and simulation technologies. He has a long track record of solving difficult problems in computational science, including his role as CTO at Atomistix, where he developed and provided simulation tools to the R&D labs of the world’s leading electronic manufacturers.
Jeremy received his Ph.D. in physics from McGill University and has held research positions at the Technical University of Denmark and the Canadian Centre for Magnetic Fusion, located at Hydro-Québec’s IREQ campus.
Joe Babiec
Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives
Joe brings more than twenty years of experience consulting with companies on their corporate strategies, including product launches, enhancing brand image, and integrating both teams and products across a wide variety of industries like software and electricity.
His primary focus at VIA is stewarding client relationships from first introductions through product implementations. He plays a major role in gathering feedback and understanding market needs across stakeholders in the energy industry. Joe is also VIA’s primary representative at industry gatherings.
Before VIA, Joe led Rosc Global’s advisory work with government, industry, and civic leaders on technology and innovation strategies for improving global competitiveness.
Joe graduated from MIT with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science, and from the London School of Economics with a master’s degree in political economics.
Jesus Cardenes
Vice President, Product Architecture
Jesus is responsible for the technical roadmap, architectural design, and integration for all of VIA’s products. He provides oversight on technical development at VIA to ensure high quality product delivery for customers. In addition, he led the architectural design of VIA’s Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™).
Before joining VIA, Jesus was with TandemLaunch, a venture capital firm specializing in the commercialization of early-stage technologies. He held several roles there: a technologist in residence and later a software architect and founding member of Sensaura, an emotion tracking technology. Jesus created a strategy for the architecture of Sensaura’s platform, taking into account the adaptability of devices to the system and use cases. He also developed applications to demo Sensaura’s technology at events including CES Las Vegas. In addition, he developed the real-time emotion recognition API.
Jesus earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial electronics and automatic engineering and his master’s degree in automatic and robotic from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid.
K Cheung
Vice President, Engineering
K Cheung brings more than twenty years of experience in managing large project teams to his role. His primary focus at VIA is on the development and growth of the Montreal-based technical team.
Using his expertise in algorithmics, cryptocurrencies, and machine learning, Cheung works alongside the team to create the design and roadmap for VIA’s technologies, including its blockchain-based application, TAC.
Cheung is a seasoned practitioner in cryptography (including encryption, cryptocurrency, and blockchain), cybersecurity, and application development. Throughout his career, his projects successfully delivered Fortune 100 companies shrink-wrapped software development products, telecommunications server solutions, content-management systems, machine-to-machine communication network, and secured data communication software.
Cheung graduated from University of Waterloo with a degree in computer science.
Chris Daher
Vice President, Data Science and Technology
Chris oversees the growth of the technical delivery team in Montreal, which includes identifying opportunities for professional and career development for each individual and supporting recruitment activities. In addition, Chris leads sprint ceremonies to align sprint objectives with overall company milestones.
Prior to joining in 2018, Chris worked at Ericsson as a Software Engineer for five years with a focus on design and architecture in microservices environments and full stack development. During his time there, he was a team leader and Scrum Master and spearheaded an innovation project that led to the development of a product for which he later became Product Owner. In this role, Chris oversaw gathering input from internal stakeholders, creating the product roadmap, building the budget and development strategy, and scheduling all sprint ceremonies, such as planning, grooming, retro, and standups.
Chris earned his bachelor’s degree in software engineering from Concordia University and his MBA at McGill University.
Jackie Finn
Vice President, Marketing
Jackie is focused on VIA’s overall marketing strategy which aims to make VIA’s complex technologies accessible to a range of audiences. She oversees all marketing efforts including outbound communication, product marketing, and content creation. Jackie joined VIA in 2016 to build the foundation for its marketing program.
Prior to joining VIA, Jackie worked at a legal services firm where she developed and implemented the strategic marketing plan for their largest global business unit. This included introducing new service lines, building awareness through public relations, and build sales collateral.
Prior to Integreon, Jackie worked at FIBA Technologies, a Massachusetts-based manufacturing company that provides gas containment and equipment services. She helped manage multiple functions, including quality and compliance, analytics and reporting, and event planning.
Jackie graduated from Northeastern University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing.
Kristen Merrill
Vice President, Client Delivery
Kristen brings nearly twenty years of client management experience to her role, and has led several high-stakes projects since joining in 2017 including predictive maintenance on 10,000 miles of transmission line data and contingency planning to restore power after multiple simultaneous switch failures.
Before VIA, Kristen was co-founder and head of client services at Fuld Omniscope where she led an array of projects, including leading a workshop focused on the utilities sector alongside one of their largest clients. Prior to Fuld, Kristen was with Grail Research where she was responsible for business development, account planning, and project delivery for some of their most important accounts. She was a senior consultant at the Monitor Group and a member of the leadership team within the Monitor Software business unit, where she specialized in data visualization and analytics, decision support models, dashboards, and forecasting tools.
Kristen graduated from Cornell University with a degree in chemical engineering.