More Research, more findings

FOUNDER

Roy is the founder of Computing for Humanity (formerly Cancer Computer).

Spanning a career of over three decades, Roy has held progressively senior roles in government, industry, and non-profit organizations delivering high-value workloads from modest to high scale national and international level e-infrastructure.

Roy is currently the Director of Architecture at the Digital Research Alliance of Canada.

Roy also serves on the ACCESS Coordination Office (ACO) as an External Advisory Board Member and is a Steering Committee Member on Hyperion’s HPC User Forum. He graduated with a Degree in Philosophy from Carleton University and has completed Executive Programs at MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Sloan School of Management.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Elisabeth is an accomplished lawyer with a passion for making a positive impact on society. Driven by a desire to use her legal expertise to help others, Elisabeth transitioned into the non-profit sector, where she has spent the past few years working as the executive director of CFH.

Under Elisabeth’s leadership, the charity has a new and expanded mission and look and has grown significantly in both scope and impact, expanding its programs and partnerships to reach more people in need.

Like so many people, Elisabeth has lost friends and family to devastating diseases which can leave loved ones feeling helpless and alone. But in the face of such tragedy, there is also an opportunity to turn grief into something positive - to honor the memory of those lost or affected by giving back to others who are in need. This fuels her passionate drive and commitment to making a positive impact in the world.

CHAIR OF THE BOARD

Holding more than 25 years of experience in the life sciences sector, Mr. Béraud has particularly acquired a solid expertise in business development. With a background in sales and marketing within multinationals in the field of clinical diagnostics, his career path has led him to assume responsibility for business development for an SME in the domain of biotechnology, in addition to working as a consultant within the industry as well as a technology transfer organization.

Mr. Béraud has also worked on managing the policies and strategic development of an industrial association in the life sciences sector before joining Montréal InVivo’s team. Highly socially engaged in education, the health and homelessness.

Why I am involved with CFH

As the chair of the charitable organization Computing for Humanity aims to provide leading researchers with the computing power of refurbished supercomputers.

BOARD MEMBER

Shane is Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Schrödinger, a New York City based company specializing in computational chemistry software and solutions. Shane has held technical and leadership roles in a variety of organizations from academia and startups to mid-sized and Fortune 50 companies.

Shane combines a deep technical background in Linux and High Performance Computing with a passion for building teams and empowering people and organizations. He believes deeply in the impact of accelerating technological change and is excited to be a part of bridging the social, educational, and economic gaps that exist and to help heal our world.

Why I am involved with CFH

I've seen first hand the transformation power that access to technology provides. I've also seen generations and millions of dollars of computer equipment disposed of after it was no longer economically viable in its primary mission. Helping to provide a new life and new opportunity for literally tons of computers while utilizing that power to advance science and humankind is a win-win that I'm proud to support.

BOARD MEMBER

Estelle is Senior Manager & Special Assistant (Chief of Staff) to the Chief Digital and Payments Officer at TD Bank Group. Prior to this position, she was responsible for leveraging fintech and knowledge on emerging trends, identifying new partnership opportunities and supporting the acceleration of emerging business models. Curious and active in her community, Estelle has been coaching young leaders and entrepreneurs since 2014.

She is also involved in several non-profit organizations, as a member of the board of directors, speaker and member of the advisory board - notably as Co-Founder & Co-President at La French Tech Toronto which brings together French and Francophone tech entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors, academics and French and Canadian government officials. Estelle chose the piano as a passion at the age of 4 realizing her concertist dream at the age of 12 with Chopin's Concerto for Piano no.1 then Rachmaninoff's Concerto for Piano no.2.

Why I am involved with CFH

Having lost loved ones to cancer, I joined Computing for Humanity without hesitation as a Board Member in July 2020 to help accelerate scientific advances that will benefit humanity, through supercomputing power.

BOARD MEMBER

Shiva is the VP, Head of AI and Data Intelligence at Pivotal Life Sciences where she is building a data science team and AI platforms for a growing international life sciences investment group.

She was formerly the Director of Data Technology and Infrastructure at 23andMe where she built technology for the consumer health and the drug discovery side of the company.

Previously, Shiva was the Director of Data Science at Zymergen Inc., a molecular technology company in the Bay Area focused on generating new chemicals. Prior to Zymergen, she was the CEO of BioSymetrics Inc., a biomedical machine learning startup in New York. She has a PhD (DPhil) in Computational Biophysics from the University of Oxford and a HBSc. In Computer Science and Human Biology from the University of Toronto.

BOARD MEMBER

Dr. Michael Binder was the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) He was appointed to this position in January 2008 and reappointed for a second five-year term, effective May 2013. As CNSC President, Dr. Binder led and managed the Commission to protect the health, safety and security of Canadians and the environment; to implement Canada’s international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy; and to disseminate objective scientific, technical and regulatory information to the public.

Throughout an extensive career in the federal public service, Dr. Binder has held senior positions at Industry Canada, the Department of Communications, the Office of the Comptroller General of Canada, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Ministry of State for Urban Affairs and the Defence Research Board.

Why I am involved with CFH

As a graduate student, I faced the challenge of accessing computing power. However, I saw it as an opportunity to make a positive impact and participated in initiatives like Connecting Canadian Program and Computers for School Program. Now, with Computing For Humanity, I aim to inspire the global research community to leverage High-Performance Computing resources to address medical challenges.

SPECIAL ADVISOR

Neil Sahota (萨冠军) is an IBM Master Inventor, United Nations (UN) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Advisor, Faculty at UC Irvine, and author of Own the A.I. Revolution. With 20+ years of business experience, he works with organizations to create next generation products/solutions powered by emerging technology. His experience spans multiple industries in the private sector and government. Neil lived and worked in Ningbo, China as part of IBM's Corporate Service Corps leadership program.

In addition, Neil assists startups with investor funding, serves as a judge in various startup competitions as well as a mentor in several incubator/accelerator programs.

He is currently supporting causes in organizations such as Zero Abuse Project, Computing for Humanity, and Planet Home.

Why I am involved with CFH

Almost all of us know someone who has been diagnosed with cancer. We can do our part to contribute to finding a cure. For me, that's investing my technical knowledge, resources, and connections to ensure our scientists and researchers have the tools and computing power they need to do their work.

SPECIAL ADVISOR

Joanne is the former Executive Director of Computing for Humanity.

Joanne is General Partner of REDDS Capital, a Californian based VC firm investing in global early-stage IT startups. She has worked with many global IT corporations (IBM, HP, SAP, Cisco) as a manufacturing engineer, business development manager, solutions architect, and a director in strategic investments.

Joanne is IEEE Entrepreneurship Chair , connecting tech entrepreneurs to an engineering-driven global Innovation network.

She is a mentor/advisor for multiple startups. Joanne has served on several boards including the Government of Canada ICT sector council setting research and advising ICT policy for the country.

Why I am involved with CFH

I´m passionate about this great cause providing much needed high-performance computing for biomedical researchers so that they can leverage the power of computing to fight today’s and tomorrow’s illnesses and diseases.

SPECIAL ADVISOR

John Towns holds two appointments at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the Executive Associate Director for Engagement NCSA (http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu), and Deputy CIO for Research IT (http://researchit.illinois.edu) in the Office of the CIO at Illinois.

With over 30 years of experience, Towns has been influential in advancing advanced research computing and data technologies for scientific research and education. He has held leadership roles in national and international organizations and is the founding Chair of the Steering Committee of PEARC (Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing, http://www.pearc.org). He holds M.S. degrees in Physics and Astronomy and a B.S. in Physics.

Why I am involved with CFH

As a 30+ year veteran to research computing, both as a researcher myself and as a builder of research computing and data resources, I am well aware of the need for such resource to fundamentally advance science. Compounded with losing both of my parents to cancer, I could not resist becoming involved in this endeavor.

OFFICE MANAGER

As the Office Manager at Computing for Humanity, Joan has leveraged 20+ years of work experience focusing on the development of policies and procedures. Joan aims to create a robust community identified with our cause and develop the content telling the stories behind projects. Prior to joining us, Joan worked in the Ecuadorean Tax Administration and was a consultant at the World Bank in Washington D.C. analyzing the impact of tax evasion and evaluating fiscal international laws.

She published several articles focused on entrepreneurship, finances, and technology for the magazine “LIDERES”. She received her BS in Economics from the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral and her master in Social Economy from the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía. She received the Hubert Humphrey scholarship from the US Department of State.

Why I am involved with CFH

I'm sure that our researchers will find cures, and treatments for diseases that afflict the world, and develop new ways to slow or stop global warming helping new generations. Working here is my way to supporting researchers to accomplish new achievements.