Senior Technology Executive
Resume:
Dan Cohen
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Dan Cohen is an experienced business strategist with a deep background in several science and technology disciplines. With an outstanding track record of early innovation and creative strategies, Dan has been a leader or advisor for more than forty growing enterprises. Active in multiple business disciplines, he has participated and presented at international conferences, professional development bodies and academic faculties. Most of Dan’s work is concentrated in areas where innovation has a tangible impact on the world in education, the environment, health care or sustainable development. Projects and Engagements
2017 – present President and Founder, FLITE Material Sciences Corp. Negotiate a license for disruptive technology from the University of Rochester that uses lasers to transform the surface of materials. Research market opportunities across smart manufacturing, design engineering, coatings and treatments for a variety of industries. Raise capital from angel investors and government funds to launch the business. Reach out to clients and users via direct marketing, cleantech incubators and IP licensing portals. Operate proof-of-concept experiments in aerospace, food and beverage, oil and gas, semiconductor and durable goods sectors. Selected for the prestigious acceleration programs at CENTECH (2018), Techstars Air Force (2019) and Starburst (2020), Joules Accelerator, FreeElectrons and MassChallenge. Placed 2nd in the world finals of the Entrepreneurship World Cup (2020) and 1st in the world at the Unicorn Startup Battle (2021). 2013-2017 President, Accelerated Ventures
Accelerated Ventures was reactivated in 2013, not as an advisory firm, but as an instrument for raising new venture funds and building new incubators. Currently under development are two funds, one for early stage life sciences and one for education and knowledge-based products, and a separate regional incubator. The company also offers private “accelerator services” to bring R&D projects from the lab into sponsor companies. We designed and built a seed project incubator for technology transfer candidates, Raise $6.4M in capital and $8M in commitments for the fund. The team qualified and select 11 projects for licensing from hundreds of candidates, developed partnerships with medical research and related facilities, and created a novel hybrid donation/investment instruments for the Canadian marketplace. 2016 – 2017 Chief Technology Officer, renewz sustainable solutions inc. (now iSun) Renewz was a leader in solar-powered structures for the smart city and residential markets. As Chief Technology Officer, Dan was responsible for R&D projects such as the design of an off-grid, self-managing IoT solar recharging station for rural environments; the assessment and licensing of small solar technologies and next- generation islanding inverters, and the collaboration of an offsite development team for e-commerce and integration with solar design tools. Dan was also responsible for business plan and financial modelling documentation, SR&ED documentation, and in-house information technology. 2016 VP Strategy, Inolife Technologies (INOL)
Inolife Technologies is a developer of needle-free injection technology for the retail and clinical markets. Dan was responsible for the business plan and financial models, as well as taking a role in corporate development – raising capital, and licensing to clients in the target markets for North America. Dan also took a lead role in Dan Cohen
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negotiating with manufacturers, R&D licensors, regulatory compliance groups and the investor communications team.
2015 VP Business Development, CSI Diagnostics
For this software as a service provider in the corporate due diligence industry, redesign the market approach and business model and campaign for its adoption in the venture capital and private equity sector. Run a direct marketing campaign to angel networks, seed funds, and institutional partners, including a 4-month conference circuit of direct presentations and trials. Position the company and its deep knowledge network for adoption in risk reduction, company benchmarking and KPI uses. 2012-2013 Director, Research Commercialization - Jewish General Hospital The Sir Mortimer B Davis Jewish General Hospital decided in 2012 that it would pursue its own technology transfer and commercialization activities rather than rely exclusively on McGill University. The director’s role was to research best practices, and to prescribe a policy, process and structure for these activities. Research projects were assessed to determine commercial possibilities and the business development process was initiated. New relationships were made with OTT peers around the world, IP licensing providers, and health care industry leaders. Institutional and angel investors were lined up for the launch of the innovative fund structure. 2012 Chief Technology Officer (Interim), Odotech Inc. For this cleantech company in the odor detection and modeling industry, act as Chief Technology Officer. Leadership position in product development (launching a 2nd-generation odor visualization product, adopting new atmospheric boundary layer models, and a new way of engaging the public stakeholders in industrial odor control). Oversee local design and manufacturing team, ensure CE label compliance and support the installation and integration teams. Investigate in-licensing and co-development of new technologies for the odor detection platform.
2010-2011 Interim President - Integrated Clinical Care, Inc. ICC was a service-based software to operate an oncology clinic, including record keeping, patient care, guidelines and pharmacy components. The mandate was split between building out a business development effort and fundraising on both the public and private equity marketplaces. Timed with the launch of the US Government’s tax incentives for physicians to adopt electronic health care records, the company is positioned to use its superior product to carve out a significant portion of the oncology EHR marketplace. 2009 Consultant, Strategy - Interfacing Inc.
Evolving from a simple business planning mandate, this company was leveraging its assets and relationships in enterprise business process management (BPM) for new products in clinical guidelines. The product was created for a single customer with IP owned by Interfacing, who was then free to explore commercial opportunities in partnership with their well-known client. The finished strategy and related forecasts were innovative and international in scope.
2008-2012 Principal Consultant - Accelerated Ventures Building on a history of venture capital financing, business planning and strategy, offer venture advisory services to emerging businesses in science, technology, environmental and health care sectors. With partners in retail finance, tax planning and R&D, this ventures’ hand-picked project portfolio is enjoying outstanding successes. Dan Cohen
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Projects were sold to a collaborating firm in 2012 to engage in the commercialization project at the Jewish General Hospital without conflicts of interest.
2009 Technology Consultant, Global IT and Telecommunications, Future Electronics For this world leader in electronic component sales and distribution, complete a distressed IT project in the worldwide rollout of the virtual desktop. Along with data center modernization, application re-engineering, and coordinating support, training and rollout resources, we converted 140 of the 160 sales offices on 4 continents to use a virtual desktop. The resulting operational savings, reuse of aging IT equipment, improved security and performance returned the investment to the company within 18 months. 2008 Interim Chief Technology Officer, 3CE (Formerly Logical Properties) For this software as a service firm in the logistics sector, lead the software development and infrastructure team in the completion of their latest web ontology product and operate a pilot project with the Canada Border Services Agency. The leading-edge, AI-based classification system for harmonized system coding and compliance demonstrated massive risk reduction, compliance and revenue generating capabilities for government clients. 2006-2007 Principal Consultant - Clear Thinking Technology At the request of clients in the Montreal area, offer services and lead the search for startup capital, partnerships and joint ventures for a number of emerging enterprises. Sectors included consumer packaged goods, scheduling software, medical devices, and green technology, oil and gas contracts. Services included assessment of opportunities and risk, sector research, business plan writing, grant research, angel networking, negotiating and structuring placements, reverse takeovers and alternative finance. 2005 Consultant, Strategy and Business Planning - Warlock Project For an innovative technical product in the aftermarket automotive industry, perform business research and planning to prepare for a reverse takeover as a funding strategy on the “pink sheets” market in Canada and the United States. Redesign the business strategy to maximize potential valuation, product and service differentiation, branding and long term recurring revenue potential. Identify service and product partners to help an inexperienced management team bring the product to market. The company raised over $10M as a result of the RTO and marketing effort.
2004 President and Founder - emPonder Project
A new startup offering web-based applications for school management systems to the K-12 marketplace in North America. Local design and early development angel funded and assisted with government SRED credits. Venture capital sought in Boston, Florida, Northern and Southern California as well as through OMERS in Ontario. Early clients included local schools in Montreal and prospects in Los Angeles and London, England. Board of advisors and directors included successful entrepreneurs and leaders in education in Canada and the US. Complete business plan drafted with solid projections and valuation. Partnerships negotiated with textbook, content and fundraising providers.
Dan Cohen
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2003 Consultant, Strategy and Business Planning - LINCS Inc. For this new business in the transportation and logistics industry, apply sector knowledge to assess the opportunity’s strengths and weaknesses, and develop an architectural approach to execute the strategy based on feasibility, time and money constraints, and the technical environments of the early adopters. Contribute to the negotiations with local and international partners on the development of a complex service and the shared revenue and co-branding model.
2002 Co-founder, Chief Technology Officer - Discover Learning Interactive A three-way partnership between experts in education, educational technology, and content, this project leveraged an existing base of material and clients with bleeding-edge education delivery and learner management systems. A self-funded project with government credit backing, the design was launched with solid client responses in the sector in spite of intense competition. 2001-2003 Chief Technology Officer, Oceanwide Inc. As CTO, lead four software development groups on related industry products using an array of Microsoft technologies, and prepare the firm for growth. Create, staff and lead departments of technical support, system integration, infrastructure management, security and audit, project management and central documentation, and quality assurance. Grow the team from 45 to 115 and budgets up to $5M. Assume responsibility for critical R&D tax credit process and external technical audits from demanding customers in the insurance industry. Grow the business from 45 to 115 employees and $15M in revenue. 2000-2001 President and Founder, Genieomics Inc.
Launch a new business based on original product and service designs, secure seed funding for the business planning and feasibility stage, gather a board of directors and advisors, create a working prototype and show to early adopter clients. The fundamentals of the business appear simple, but are based on an extremely complex flow of value improvements and revenue streams to make a feasible business model. 2000 Chief Technology Officer (Interim), Timing Corporation For this emerging business in clinical management systems, targeting the small-to-medium sized general practitioner market, ensure that the product is completed and compliant with HIPAA and other standards. Oversee decentralized development group and represent product in client meetings, investor presentation and industry conferences.
2000 Managing Director, ThoughtBridge International As part of this full-service consulting and CxO for hire group, assess business plans for interesting prospects in information technology, medical technology, telecommunications, education and related fields. Provide assessment services, business plan refinement and strategy advisory to angel investors in the $1M-$5M placement range. Over 100 business plans and ideas were reviewed, 14 in depth with a success rate of over 70%. Act as CTO or CMO for hire to assist new businesses in the transition period. Dan Cohen
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1999 Lead Architect and Methodologist, Air Canada – Canadian Airlines Merger (IBM, ISM) During the merger between these Canadian airlines, the lead outsourcing organization for Air Canada (ISM, a division of IBM) and SABRE collaborated to transfer all of the CA data and systems to Air Canada. As a consulting architect, led the effort to document the enterprise systems and their relationships, and employ the IBM Global Services Method to the migration strategy.
1999 Technical Architect. Star Alliance – Global Airport Integration (IBM) During the early days of the STAR Alliance among international airlines, a major challenge was the exchange of data between airline systems, and the flexible airport design was hampered by the lack of a common information terminal. The successful short mandate was to solve the problem without requiring the adoption of one company’s system over another, avoiding millions of dollars in reconfiguration and training. 1999 Consultant, CN Rail – Pricing Program (IBM Global Services) CN Rail’s operations moved a great deal of cargo across Canada, but their approach to pricing was neither standardized nor automated. For this 5 month mandate, gather requirements, identify innovation points, and complete architectural design (business and technology) for an automated pricing system to be incorporated into CN’s growing e-commerce tools.
1997 Founder and President, People Services Group
As the founding entrepreneur, assess the current tools and marketplace and innovate for a telephone-based home care service. Design and prototype a novel service that created a highly personalized “acceptable degree of supervision” with entertainment, shopping and health care options. Forge partnerships with security, health care, pharmacy and emergency service providers.
1996-1998 Founder and President, GURU Project
As the founding entrepreneur, pursue funding for the completion of a software package for commercialization. Product was a skills and knowledge database with searchable components for “on-the-spot” answers to questions, offered as both a product and service. Self-funded the prototype and design from the revenues and resources of an operating technology consulting group, acquired the first client, and campaigned for angel capital.
1997-1998 Consultant, RFP Process, Global IT Services, Clorox Corporation As lead architect, mandated to gather requirements, assess current solutions in place, compose the Request For Proposal and distribute to pre-qualified vendors. Completion of the mandate included information sessions for respondents, review and scoring of submitted proposals, and recommendations for the new vendor along with key performance indicators for the migration.
1997 Consultant, Knowledge-based design, Sun Microsystems With the prime contractor, design a new content management system for the 1M+ document repository powering Sun’s intranet, extranet and website. Design and deploy cutting-edge indexing and text search tools, media search repositories, and measurement tools for management. 1996-1998 Chief Architect, Oracle University, Oracle Corporation As the lead architect, design the Oracle University offering composed of 9 separate tools and systems within Dan Cohen
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Oracle, adding services and content from select vendors to complete the package. One of the first comprehensive, multimedia corporate universities, the system was rolled out in 10 months internally to 4 Oracle global data centers, and activated as a SaaS platform for customer revenues 12 months later. 1996 Chief Architect, Retail Education and Development, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. For this regulated discount brokerage with nationwide offices, design and implement a multimedia lab for the development of new educational media, user experience design, testing, and enhanced communications. Act as supporting architect for implementation, change management, and infrastructure services within Schwab. Support a staff of 20+ educational technologists and developers. 1996 Consultant, Business Continuity / Joint Venture Partnership, Pilot Network Services For this cutting edge high security internet service provider, prepare technical disaster recovery plans and engage the market for partners to create a coherent, differentiated offering for business continuity services. 1995 Consultant, Disaster Recovery Planning, Providian Bancorp For this market leader in consumer credit services, prepare an enterprise disaster recovery plan to comply with regulatory requirements, including complete recovery options, system disasters, facility disasters due to earthquakes and civil disobedience.
1994-1995 Technical Architect, Canadian Security Establishment For this high-security branch of the Canadian government, provide UNIX system design, implementation, administration, and integration to their common desktop and standard server environment. Implemented all services on budget and ahead of schedule, and achieved 99.9% uptime in operations. 1993-1994 Technical Architect, The LGS Group (Ottawa) For a variety of government clients and mandates, act as lead architect on 3-6 months consulting engagements. This included the infrastructure architecture for the Public Works and Government Services merger with Government Telecommunication Services, a systems management mandate for the Secretary of State, and a global directory integration project across all departments of Transport Canada. 1990-1993 Technical Architect, The LGS Group (Quebec) For a variety of corporate clients and mandates, act as lead architect on 6-9 month consulting engagements. This included multiplatform technology rollouts for Ultramar Inc (oil and gas), the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ, Quebec’s parapublic institutional investor), security and intervention consulting for Hydro Quebec, and engagements for Air Canada.
1989 Systems Administrator, Spar Aerospace
For this large Canadian space products and services company, work with a large team on system support and implementation, system administration, security, integration, disaster recovery planning and testing. The company’s 1100 engineers used almost every computer technology available on the marketplace, so the team’s ability to manage and integrate multiple platforms was a key success factor in the launch of several notable Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite projects.
Dan Cohen
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Other Entrepreneurship Projects
• Seedscout Ventures (Venture Associate) - for this seed investment accelerator, qualify and perform basic due diligence on investment prospects, counsel early stage entrepreneurs in financial models, business strategy and early stage investment vehicles.
• TenX2 Inc. (Partner) - For this boutique consulting firm, establish relationships with emerging companies in North America and promote their fundraising, M&A and business development activities with TenX2 partners in Europe and Asia.
• Enterprise Futures – for this provider of innovation and business plan competitions at leading Universities, act as opportunity screener, mentor, coach, and judge for competitions at Columbia, Rice, Stanford, Berkeley, and other business and technical faculties.
• Centre of Excellence in Energy Efficiency – working with the founding members, raise capital for a Series A private equity fund that would invest in the successful cohort members of their seed fund. Find fund-of-fund and institutional partners to complete the $50M CAD raise and create structures for the managing director.
• 360 Capital – provide industry and entrepreneurship counsel to companies in Asia considering the Canadian marketplace as their entry for raising capital (CSE), approaching the marketplace, finding innovation partners, and regulatory compliance (FDA and Health Canada).
• Ekomini Inc. – work with the founders to build on a successful product that teaches children and teens to save money. Build a mobile app and game-enabled back-end to encourage savings, basic financial skills, and market to retail banks in North America and Europe for their clients.
• RaisedDigital – as a coinventor, lead a startup company in the field of parental control software, offering value-based content and usage controls of digital media devices for families.
• Build-a-Block – create a novel offering, technical design, business plan and financial model for a new SaaS offering that powers the shared economy at the neighborhood level. Plan was prototyped and launched, received $1M funding in a reverse takeover.
• Amnesty Media – a startup company in software privacy and media (music, video) including the business plan, financial projections, IP protection profile, brand and marketing solution, development plan and partnerships.
• Ignite – a simplified replacement for business plan documents, incorporating dashboard technology, collaboration, and business canvas model elements for a SaaS offering. Adopted into a crowdfunding offering Aug. 2011.
• LED Lighting – an assessment of the commercial LED lighting opportunities for new building construction, commercial and industrial retrofit, and LEED certification purposes in North America.
• Plasma Arc Reaction technology – an assessment of the marketplace and infrastructure contributors to the plasma burning industry, converting waste to energy with virtually zero environmental impact. Reactivated with the EC Group (Hong Kong) in 2014-2015, re-targeting the nuclear waste disposal industry.
• VOOM – a combination online shared storage solution with rudimentary process and document validation, designed and built for the professional services industry (accounting, legal, M&A). Dan Cohen
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• Electroosmotic soil remediation – a survey of the technologies and financial implications of soil remediation techniques for the removal of brownfield contaminants in Quebec and Ontario.
• Nanotech fabrication – an assessment of the carbon nanotube market with predictions relating to supply and pricing, a recommendation for partnerships with an emerging player in the United States as well as a government body in Quebec
• Rubber tire recycling – a speculative but feasible business plan for gathering discarded tires in Quebec, recycling the material into rubber crumb using new (German/Chinese) mobile technology, and disposing of the material in five distinct markets.
• SportsViews – develop and model revenue streams for an online fantasy gaming platform, including market research, valuation and risk models, and regulatory requirements in three major markets.
• White roof project – an investigation of white roof technologies and methods for commercial and residential roofing for energy savings, positive environmental impact, and LEED certification.
• Axon – assess the technology behind a revolutionary audio product, and make strategic recommendations for presenting it to the market in a crowded, competitive environment with virtually unsinkable incumbents.
• Quantum High – for a party of investors, design an innovative hybrid social networking system with gaming elements for the tween-teen marketplace. Draft business plan with budgets for multiple scenarios, find development partners, and assess the current state of tools and systems for the initial launch.
• OutCode – for a New York law firm, design and implement a service where software under development between a client and outsourcer is automatically entered into an escrow facility, with security capabilities, project risk indicators, and financial controls for a project.
• ColdFridge – innovative, patent pending design for an aftermarket refrigerator/freezer enhancement that brings clean, cold air in from the outside when external temperatures are below threshold.
• Montreal M&A Forum - with a partner (Elkin Consulting Group), launch and host an event to showcase late-stage VC and private M&A company targets in Montreal, Canada. First event in a series, gathering 125 attendees for a full day of presentations, keynote speeches and networking. Revise the business model for aggressive national growth in 2016.
• DiagnosisX – a University –based technology transfer project, where an online virtual patient technology needed to be moved out of the lab and into the marketplace. Crafted a business plan including financial projections, market study, competitive survey and an innovative business model for that industry to sidestep the incumbents.
• Red Lambda – for this University of Florida spinout in grid computing and security services, act as technical due diligence agent and perform business development outreach.
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