Amiral Ventures

Nectarios Economakis is a co-founder and partner at Amiral Ventures, a Montreal-based venture fund investing in Canadian enterprise AI companies at seed stage. Previously, he co-founded The PNR, a management consulting firm focused on corporate strategy, and held value creation roles at institutional investment funds working with portfolio companies on scaling operations. He was an early employee at Google's Montreal office and is an active angel investor.

Julie Lacasse is a Venture Partner at Amiral Ventures with founding experience at TrackTik. She works with entrepreneurs on business strategy, operations, and scaling, and provides coaching and mentoring to CEOs. Her background spans growth, people management, customer success, sales, marketing, and product management.

Aditya Pendyala is a founder-turned-investor and startup advisor who works with entrepreneurs across fundraising, product strategy, team building, and go-to-market execution. He advises on areas including market disruption and organizational development.

Benjamin Desmarais is a Partner at Novacap. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer of a network service provider company, leading the business from its 2007 founding through a successful exit in 2016. His experience spans business strategy, financing, startup development, and operational management.

Charles Guay is a business executive with experience as president, COO, and CEO at large financial services and SaaS companies. He currently serves as a board member and chair of the Nominating & Governance Committee at AGF Investments, and is involved in executive advisory and investment activities. He speaks occasionally on topics including leadership, governance, and investments.

Éric Brunelle is president and owner of Druide informatique inc. His background combines entrepreneurship, computer science, and linguistics, with expertise spanning natural language analysis, object-oriented programming, team leadership, and interface design. He has specialized in strategic monitoring and quality management within software product development.

Francois Arbour is an entrepreneur and angel investor with over 25 years of experience in technology and marketing. He founded Premiumbeat, which was acquired by Shutterstock, and is currently co-founder of paraito. Arbour also serves as a mentor and angel investor.

Frank Sullivan is Chief Commercial Officer at BrainBox AI. He brings over 25 years of experience in sales, marketing, and business development within the information, communications, and technology sector, with work spanning Canada and international markets. His background includes leadership in large account management and the development of strategic partnerships.

Frederic Boulanger is co-founder of Aventure Capital and a venture partner at AQC Capital, where he scouts and evaluates startups in digital health, cybersecurity, and enterprise productivity. He previously founded and served as CEO of Macadamian Technologies, a software design and development firm that grew to over 200 employees before its 2020 acquisition by emids, and currently leads Fredz, a seed investment firm. Boulanger serves on the board of Ottawa River Keeper and co-founded the Ottawa High School Technology Program.

Guillaume Bazinet is Chief Executive Officer of Ateko, which was acquired by Bell Canada in 2023 following the company's founding as FX Innovation. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration with a specialization in information technology and completed an executive development program in entrepreneurship at MIT's Sloan School of Management. Bazinet serves as Chairman of the Board of the Computer Research Institute of Montreal, an organization he has been involved with since 2014.

Boreal Guild member; Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Workleap.

Hassan el Bouhali is Chief Information Officer at Vale Base Metals, where he oversees operational technology budgets exceeding $500 million and manages global functions across multiple countries. His background includes technology strategy, digital transformation, and IT portfolio management, with experience negotiating major contracts with global suppliers and developing technology leadership talent. He serves as a board advisor, mentors startup founders at University of Toronto incubators, and participates as an angel investor with Maple Leaf Angels.

Jean-David Begin is a venture coach at Mila—Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute. With experience as a venture capitalist, entrepreneur, and angel investor, he advises founders on product-market fit, metrics growth, and fundraising strategy.

Jean-Francois Leduc is Co-Founder and Partner at Point of No Return, a corporate strategy firm built around proprietary software. He has held executive and business development roles at Yahoo! and a digital agency that was acquired by a Tokyo-based advertising company, and has completed multiple exits as an entrepreneur and angel investor. Leduc advises mid-market CEOs on value creation and stakeholder alignment.

Jean-François Levesque is a technology entrepreneur and certified corporate director (C.Dir.) who has founded and exited two companies in IT, SaaS, telecommunications, and cybersecurity sectors. He currently serves as Managing Partner at GLCE and holds board and advisory positions, focusing on corporate governance as a mechanism for performance and growth. He invests in early-stage companies and provides strategic guidance to entrepreneurial teams.

Jean-Simon Venne is President, Founder, and Chief Technology Officer at BrainBox AI. He brings over 25 years of experience in telecommunications, biotechnology, and energy efficiency, with a focus on commercializing technological innovations. His background includes work on organizational effectiveness, cost optimization, and performance acceleration across multiple industries.

Laurent Féral-Pierssens is founder and CEO of BlockZero and has spent 25 years building and funding technology companies across Canada, the United States, and Europe, including through leadership roles in emerging-technology practices at Deloitte and KPMG. His focus centers on strategic and sovereign technology applications in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and digital assets across finance, energy, defense, and healthcare sectors. He serves on advisory committees for technology education programs at George Brown College and McGill University and has taught master's-level technology courses.

Louis-Martin Rousseau is a professor and Canada Research Chair who serves as a Board Member at Polytechnique Montréal. He has held roles spanning academia, entrepreneurship, and investment, including positions as a founder, scientific director, and advisor focused on translating scientific research into practical applications.

Marie-Chantal Chassé is an executive coach and impact consultant who works with senior leaders and entrepreneurs on innovation, governance, and sustainability issues. She previously served as Minister of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change and as a Parliamentary Assistant, where she oversaw the Quebec research and investment strategy in innovation and organized the first major innovation forum. With 25 years of entrepreneurial experience and a background as a materials engineer, she has also served on numerous boards of directors.

Martin Lebeau is a founding investor at Amiral Ventures with over 20 years of experience in operational and financial management across early and mid-sized technology companies. He previously served as CFO of Accedian, overseeing the company from its early stages through its 2023 acquisition by Cisco, and held finance and corporate development roles at venture-backed companies in satellite telecommunications and software analytics, as well as at a publicly-traded multimedia firm. Lebeau is a CPA member since 1996, holds a Bachelor's degree from HEC-Montreal and an MBA from McGill University, and has completed executive education programs including Stanford's Executive Program and the ICD Directors Education program.

Patrick Ostiguy founded Accedian, a network performance monitoring company that grew to 300 employees and $80 million in annual revenue while serving over 300 telecom carriers across 64 countries; he served as CEO before becoming Executive Chairman in 2019, leading the company through acquisitions in Sweden and France and its 2023 sale to Cisco. Earlier in his career, he co-founded Avantas, which was acquired by EXFO for $100 million in 2001, and was part of the initial team at Positron Fiber Systems, which was acquired for $200 million in 1998. Ostiguy has over 30 years of experience in telecommunications and networking technology and currently serves as Entrepreneur in Residence at Centech Mtl.

Remi Fournier is a Partner at BDC focused on clean energy, climate technologies, and sustainability investments. With over 20 years of experience in venture capital and entrepreneurship, he cofounded Fibrenoire, a fiber optic network for businesses in Eastern Canada that was subsequently acquired by Videotron, where he served as VP of Sales and Engineering. His background spans telecommunications, digital advertising, software technologies, and product commercialization, complemented by technical expertise and farming operations.

Sam Ramadori is Co-President and Executive Director of LawZero, a nonprofit organization focused on advancing safe-by-design AI systems research and technical solutions. Previously, he served as CEO of BrainBox AI, where he oversaw the application of AI technology to decarbonization in the built environment sector. Ramadori has 15 years of private equity investment experience across institutional asset managers and family offices, and holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business and civil and common law degrees from the University of Ottawa.

Sebastien Caron is Vice-President of Business Solutions at Beyond Technologies, a professional services firm specializing in SAP integration and business process optimization. With 16 years of experience in SAP implementations across multiple industries, he has held roles as functional consultant, integration manager, project manager, and solutions architect. His current work focuses on solutions architecture for manufacturing, distribution, and retail clients ranging from small to large enterprises.

Boreal Guild member; co-founder and CEO of Workleap.

Steve Desjarlais is a former Head of Product at Ubisoft who previously led a 60-person development team responsible for online features across major game franchises including Splinter Cell, Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, and Just Dance. He co-founded Heyday, applying his software development and gamification expertise to user experience design, and currently serves on the board of directors at Glowtify while providing mentorship and investment to entrepreneurs in the technology sector.

Vincent Fraser is President and Chief Executive Officer of Croesus, a position he has held since April 2024. He brings more than 25 years of experience working across business, technology, and value creation, including his role as co-founder of Processia, a Product Lifecycle Management consulting and technology firm, which he helped build and grow for over two decades. Fraser serves as a board member, business advisor, and investor, focusing on organizational growth, talent development, and sustainable value creation.

Youcef Bouayad is an entrepreneur focused on workplace improvement and employee engagement. He previously built an organization dedicated to creating better working environments and is currently seeking to acquire and operate a profitable small-to-medium enterprise in the Greater Montreal or Laurentian regions, with annual revenue between $2-10 million, excluding food service and retail sectors.