Alumni Advisory Board

Damineh Akhavan is a professional engineer with over 19 years of technical experience in the aerospace industry. She is the Founder and CEO of Global Women in STEM, promoting human rights for women and equity-deserving groups and challenging the status quo in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) through education, innovation, advocacy and action. 

Julie Angus is the CEO and co-founder of Open Ocean Robotics, a marine robotics and data analytics company. She is a bestselling author, scientist and explorer who received National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year award when she became the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean from mainland to mainland. She is a keynote speaker who has inspired hundreds of corporate audiences sharing lessons in leadership, teamwork and overcoming challenges.

Rob Bennett has been involved in multiple local tech companies as a software developer, founder, investor, mentor and coach. For the last 15 years, he has been working with VIATEC in different roles, supporting innovation and entrepreneurship in tech companies. His current role is COO and program director, assisting entrepreneurs with the development of their start-up and early stage companies through a variety events, programs and resources.

Jennie Christensen is the CEO and founder of TrichAnalytics Inc., an award-winning company that specializes in laser ablation technology in environmental and human tissues to assess metal and nutritional element concentrations. Christensen has been working in the field of toxicology for 20 years and has analyzed thousands of hairs for nutritional elements and heavy metal exposure. In 2021, she opened another company in Paris, France, Theío Vitality, that provides this hair analysis service to the public.

Prabha Ibrahim is the co-founder of ReRx Therapeutics, a start-up company focused on developing novel therapies for obesity and metabolic diseases. Prabha has over 30 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and has held multiple leadership roles at companies working in drug discovery and development.

Michael Kuzyk is the co-founder and head brewer at Category 12 Brewing, turning an interest in homebrewing into an entrepreneurial career. His beers have won numerous national and international awards. Prior to founding Category 12, Michael held roles as a senior product manager at scientific software company GenoLogics, and a research assistant professor with UVic's Proteomics Centre.  

Robert Niven is a serial cleantech and advanced materials tech entrepreneur with experience leading R&D, commercialization, venture capital fundraising, regulatory and policy change and global deployment. XLYNX is an early stage specialty chemical company serving the semiconductor and electronics industries. Prior to joining XLYNX, Niven was the Founder and CEO of CarbonCure Technologies, the global leader in carbon dioxide utilization for the concrete industry with over 500 industrial installations in over 20 countries that have saved over 750,000t CO2. Robert is the recipient of the UVic President's Distinguished Alumni Award, $20M Carbon XPRIZE, Governor General Innovation Award, Canada's Top 40 under 40 and Cleantech Group Hall of Fame. 

Karl Swannie is the CEO of Intlabs, a company working to create a data governance platform for governments and large enterprises. He has been the creative, persuasive and decisive force behind many successful SaaS platforms, and recently exited Echosec systems, a company he founded and led that created a global intelligence platform. 

Fabian Wolk is president and co-founder of Rockland Scientific, a Victoria, BC-based innovative ocean technology company manufactures instrumentation for the measurement of marine turbulence. This technology empowers scientists around the world to understand climate-related phenomena in the world’s oceans. In his 25+ year career in the oceanographic sector, Wolk has worked in academic research and industry-based technology development in North America, Europe and Japan.