The Germinator

The Germinator is where we explore ideas about commercialization, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, innovation, and any other pathway that takes science/engineering/technology from the lab/workshop and into people’s hands. This is NOT a course, and ALL are welcome to attend. You don’t need to have prior knowledge or experience, your curiosity is all that is needed.

Throughout the year, I will bring guests, either in person or virtually, to share their stories and experiences with commercialization, entrepreneurship and innovation. If you would like to suggest possible guests you think others would like to hear from, feel free to connect with me at alon.eisenstein@ubc.ca

(If no information is provided regarding a guest speaker, I will be the one leading the meeting)

March 20

Ty Summach is the Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of SportsShare, Co-Founder and General Partner of Aero Ventures, Entrepreneur in Residence for e@UBC Okanagan, and Executive in Residence at Accelerate Okanagan.

With an MBA in Executive Management, he’s known as a “triple threat” amongst his peers. Ty has held the role of Chief Operating Officer, Chief Product Officer and Chief Marketing Officer, all while navigating startups from the private markets to the public markets and through various mergers and acquisitions.

March 6

Erika Le, Vice President of Sustainable Solutions at Rehrig Pacific Company

Erika is the Vice President of Sustainable Solutions at Rehrig Pacific Company and sits on the Board of Directors for the Reusable Packaging Association. Her expertise is leveraged in both organizations on their mission to make supply chains more sustainable, specifically in the US, Canada and Latin America.

Erika holds a MSc in Inorganic Chemistry and has been honored with the ‘Environment + Energy Leader Top 50’, ‘Waste360 Top 40 Under 40’, ‘Plastics News Rising Stars’ and ‘International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories – Go Beyond’ awards throughout her career. 

February 21, 3-4pm IN PERSON and ONLINE

Paul Matthews, P. Eng., Partner at Lawson Lundell LLP

Paul is an engineering and technology lawyer with over 25 years’ experience overseeing technology and capital investment in the energy, digital and big data technology sectors. He is experienced practicing in the fields of technology commercialization, engineering, procurement and construction, strategic sourcing, and privacy and data security. He is also well versed in strategic innovation capture, protection and development and engineering design and procurement, and project management, planning and execution.

Paul has extensive experience working with entrepreneurs, start-ups, emerging and growth companies, and large publicly traded companies. He is a collaborative dealmaker who approaches sophisticated development opportunities by formulating the strategy, and balancing the interdependencies of business, technology and law. Paul also devotes significant time to organizations in the BC start-up community, including Accelerate Okanagan, and entrepreneurship@UBCO.

Paul has significant experience designing, building and leading legal teams in new, complex practice areas such as major projects and technology.

February 7, 2024 3-4pm IN PERSON and ONLINE

Jenna Marttila, Director, Planning & Strategy at Carbon Alpha

Jenna’s current role is the Director of Planning and Strategy at Carbon Alpha, and she is a member of the founding team that started the company in February of 2021. Carbon Alpha’s purpose is to develop carbon capture and storage assets, focused in Western Canada. CCS is a necessary tool to decarbonize industrial processes and enable carbon removal technologies such as direct air capture. 

Jenna graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering in 2007. The majority of her career was spent in upstream oil and gas at various company sizes. These positions exposed her to technical challenges as well as business challenges. Her skills gravitated her to less engineering-focused work such as financing analysis, corporate planning, project management and business strategy. 

Jenna also gained awareness of how businesses operate by involvement in two family-owned landscaping and snow removal businesses. Business registration, payroll, expense tracking, tax planning, budgeting and forecasting are crucial elements to understand regardless of business size.

January 24, 2024, 3-4pm PST ONLINE ONLY EVENT

Francis Jeffers, Founder, Curator, and Executive Director of the Canadian Multicultural Inventors Museum

Francis is the Founder/ Curator and Executive Director of the Canadian Multicultural Inventors Museum (CMIM). Francis is also the Founder and past Executive Director of The Visions of Science Network for Learning, and is a Partner with Jeffers Associates, Diversity and Organizational Development Consultants. Most recently, Francis received the 2023 Harry Jerome Community Service Award.

Francis graduated from the University of Toronto Scarborough with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Political Science.  His extracurricular activities were focused in the promotion of Youth Development/Empowerment, Science/Technology and Engineering within the African-Canadian community and low-income communities. 

The Canadian Multicultural Inventors Museum is a federally registered non-profit organization/social innovation organization based in Toronto, whose mandate is to educate and increase the public’s knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of inventions by individuals from the diverse multicultural communities that make up Canada by collecting, assembling and exhibiting their inventions to the general public through travelling inventions museum. 

Visions of Science Network for Learning is an initiative focused on the promotion of Science, Technology and Engineering to the African-Canadian community with a special emphasis on stimulating young people to view the field of Science and Technology as a viable career option. 

Francis received many awards recognizing his community work and leadership, including: African Canadian Achievement Award for Science; Harry Jerome Community Service Award; June Veecock Award for Leadership; University of Toronto at Scarborough’s (UTSC) 40th Anniversary Alumni Award; Michael Clemons “Pinball” Award for Community Leadership and William L. Hubbard Award (City of Toronto – Race Relations & Diversity)

January 10, 2024 3-4pm IN PERSON

Segun Fatudimu, Founder and CEO, Impact Toolbox

Segun is a social impact strategist, known for his work in coaching, training and developing learning resources for social ventures to increase their social impact and revenue. Segun is the founder of Impact Toolbox, a social enterprise incubator that provides early stage entrepreneurs with knowledge, support and resources that they need to build sustainable businesses for social good.

In addition to over ten years of experience in the social sector leading youth development, social entrepreneurship, healthcare, and education projects, Segun has consulted for esteemed organizations including the American Red Cross, International Research and Exchange Board, Technology Associations of Grant Makers, and some municipal governments.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Dental Surgery from the University of Ibadan and a Master of Arts in International Development and Policy from the University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy. Segun’s contributions to helping early stage social purpose organizations grow have earned him various accolades, including being a Mandela Washington Fellow and Chicago Booth Business School Tarson Fellow. As an Obama Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative Scholar, he continues to make significant strides in helping organizations and businesses to increase their revenue and social impact.

Currently, he is a Canadian Foundation for Governance Research Bertram Scholar, an International Doctoral Fellow and doctoral candidate at the University of British Columbia, conducting research on enhancing accountability in philanthropic foundations and helping them navigate challenges associated with social impact measurement.

December 13, 2023 3-4pm PST ONLINE EVENT

Elissa Ross, Mathematician / CEO & Cofounder at Metafold 3D

Elissa Ross is a mathematician and the CEO of Toronto-based startup Metafold 3D. Metafold makes an engineering design platform for additive manufacturing, with an emphasis on supporting engineers using metamaterials, lattices and microstructures at industrial scales. Elissa holds a PhD in discrete geometry (2011), and worked as an industrial geometry consultant for the 8 years prior to cofounding Metafold. Metafold is the result of observations made in the consulting context about the challenges and opportunities of 3D printing.

November 29, 2023 3-4pm

Rick Cooper, Accomplished Entrepreneur, Executive, Strategist, Angel Investor and Outdoor Enthusiast

Accomplished serial entrepreneur with experience in eight start-ups. I have been working in senior management positions, including CEO, COO, CFO, VP BD, Sales and Marketing, in high tech and cleantech start-ups since 1996. 

My work in clean technology goes back to the early 80s and includes some interesting research on rechargeable lithium battery technology for the Canadian company Ballard – now the world leader in hydrogen fuel cells. 

We sold one of the companies I was involved with starting up for $400 M and we did an IPO on the AIM exchange in London with another company. I have lead or been involved with 14 proposals that resulted in 13 government contracts or grants totaling $28M. Most of my work has been in automotive, consumer electronics, portable power and scientific instruments. I’ve worked in a joint venture and other collaborative relationships with most of the world’s leading companies in those sectors including Ford, Mercedes Benz, General Motors, Nissan, Chrysler, BYD, Samsung, Sanyo, Toshiba, Panasonic, Lenovo, Intel, NEC and HORIBA Instruments. I’m an experienced angel investor and former Treasurer, Board Member of Tech Coast Angels, a southern California based angel investment network.

Most recently I was co-founder and CEO of MANTA Instruments where we successfully commercialized a breakthrough scientific instrument for characterizing nanoparticles. Based on our outstanding team, important intellectual property and market validation through initial sales, MANTA was acquired by HORIBA Instruments Inc. Currently I’m a Director at South 8 Technologies where we are commercializing a breakthrough electrolyte for lithium batteries.  I am also an Entrepreneur in Residence for the Office of Innovation and Commercialization at UC San Diego, and Mentor at UBC Okanagan.

November 15, 2023 3-4pm PST

Shiven Vinod Khera,CEO & Co-Founder, Linkbase

Shiven Vinod Khera is a recent graduate from the Faculty of Management, completing his undergraduate degree in 2022. Originally from New Delhi, India, he pursued his undergraduate education at UBC Okanagan (UBCO). Shiven’s journey has been characterized by a strong drive for entrepreneurship and leadership. During his time at UBCO, Shiven actively engaged in student leadership, participating in university elections and eventually serving as the Vice President of the Student Union Okanagan (SUO) in 2021, where he played a crucial role in student governance.

Along with his university friends, he embarked on the journey of creating an IoT platform. This platform evolved into the company known as Linkbase, where Shiven serves as a co-founder and focuses on business strategy and operations. Linkbase has developed an automation tool for short-term rental property managers. This tool streamlines the guest journey, digitizes operations, and integrates with major lock companies like Salto, Schlage, and Yale, as well as property management software providers such as Guesty and Hostaway. Property managers can automate essential functions like changing door codes and guest communication using Linkbase.

November 1, 2023 3-4pm PDT

Serena Mandla, P.Eng, MASc., CSO & Co-Founer, Noa Therapeutics

Serena Mandla, P.Eng., MASc., is the Chief Scientific Officer & Co-Founder of Noa Therapeutics, a pre-clinical biotech company transforming the treatment of complex immune diseases with their novel tri-modal therapeutics. Serena is experienced from R&D to commercialization of novel small peptides for cardiovascular and skin disease applications. She is experienced in the design and execution of animal models and the clinical translation dermal therapeutics with an extended network of advisors, mentors, and investors. Prior to Noa Therapeutics, Serena was involved in a spin-out from her MASc in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto, Quthero Inc., where Serena has successfully raised financing and commercialized products. She has over 15 scientific papers, from her research at the University of Toronto, and Harvard and is passionate about translating research and bringing it to the clinic and is looking forward to seeing and developing new technologies and treatments. Outside of work, Serena is avidly involved as a mentor with underrepresented scientific youth through the U of T Alumni Mentorship Program, the Canadian Biomaterials Society, and has delivered talks on entrepreneurship at Queens University, Western University, and the University of Toronto.