David Cox
David Cox founded Sensilaser Technologies in 2006 and since then has raised an excess of $2 million for the company through VC’s and grants. David brings over 20 years of experience to the Management Team and is responsible for overseeing business planning and execution, budget preparation and P&L. Prior to creating Sensilaser Technologies, David worked as the General Manager for both the North America and Asia-Pacific offices of Paradigm Geophysical, a provider of enterprise software solutions to the global oil and natural gas E&P industry. In this role, he successfully restructured the company’s declining operations by building and leading regional teams that worked to increase annual revenue through a focus on customer support, sales, and consulting.

David is fluent in both French and English and has an MBA from the University of Edinburgh, an M.Sc, D.I.C in Petroleum Technology from Imperial College and a B.Sc.(Hons) in Earth Sciences from the University of Leeds.

Qing He
Qing brings over 15 years of experience in fiber optic WDM component and sub-system development to Sensilaser Technology’s Management Team. He has extensive knowledge of designing and manufacturing solid-state lasers, FBG based products and optical performance monitoring sub-systems. Before co-founding Sensilaser, Qing was the Director of R&D Engineering at Pactonix, where he was in charge of low-cost tunable filter development for optical performance monitoring. Qing has also held the titles of Project Leader for JDS Uniphase and Project Engineer for Bragg Phototonics.

To date, Qing has published over 20 journals and conference technical papers. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Nice where he successfully developed the world’s first waveguide LiNbO3 laser. His prior education includes an M.S. degree in Optics and Signal Processing from Ecole Nationale Superieure de Physique, France and a B.E. degree in Optical Instruments from the Nanjing University of Science in China.

Phil Neri
Phil is a strategic thinker and hands-on professional with many years of experience in the oil & gas exploration industry, running strategic and technology rich operations around the world. He also has a deep and thorough understanding of the industry, having worked both sides of the fence with some of the industry’s leaders, such as Shell, Schlumberger and Paradigm Geophysical. While at CGG he founded and grew CGG’s  innovative and successful software division, FlagshipGeo, until the group was acquired by Paradigm Geophysical.

Phil has presented at many of the industry’s major conventions and is well authored with a recent publication appearing in the E&P publication.

Phil holds bachelor and master’s degrees in geology and geophysics from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He has also completed the “Owners & Directors” course at INSEAD.

Chris Usher
Chris is a senior executive in the oil and gas exploration industry having spent most of his time in the seismic industry. His most recent position was with Paradigm Geophysical where he served as corporate VP of integrated services and was responsible for strategy and had full P&L responsibility for the company’s 20 service centers around the world. Prior to that Chris was president of PGS’s global data processing. In addition he has held many other high profile positions with Baker Hughes and Western Atlas.

Chris has presented at many of the industry’s major conventions and events. He also served as a panel member and key speaker at Internet-Energy 1999 in Houston.

Chris holds a degree in geology and geophysics from Yale University.

Tino Alavie, Ph.D.
Dr. Alavie, President and Chief Executive Officer, established NOVX Systems in 2001. As the driving force behind the innovative research and development conducted at NOVX, Dr. Alavie has been instrumental in positioning the company for success in the global marketplace. Dr. Alavie began his career as a researcher working on advanced sensing technologies at the University of Toronto. The culmination of his work with collaborators resulted in the formation of a spin-off company — ElectroPhotonics Corporation (EPC). Dr. Alavie was the founder and President of EPC leading it through two successful rounds of private placement and the final acquisition by E-TEK Dynamics in June 1999. EPC was a pioneer in the development of fiber optic sensors for physical parameter measurements and later for components in optical networks. Under his direction, EPC progressed steadily and successfully from zero revenue to nearly a $40M run rate at the time of his departure in 2000. Dr. Alavie has served on the board of a number of high technology companies and currently is a member of the Advisory Board for the Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto. He has published over 50 articles in journal and conference papers and has been awarded 6 patents with an additional 4 pending. Dr. Alavie earned his Ph.D. at the Florida Institute of Technology.

Sylvain Savaria
Sylvain is a professional engineer with 10 years' industrial experience in the telecommunications, aircraft navigation and medical device industry. Prior to joining BDC Venture Capital in 1999 he spent three years developing a medical device start-up company where he was Vice-President, Engineering. The company recently made its entry into the Toronto stock market. At the outset of his career, Sylvain worked on leading edge R&D programs with Canadian Marconi.

Sylvain holds a Bachelor degree in Engineering from École Polytechnique de Montréal and a Master of Science degree in Telecommunications.

Michel Gautier, MBA, M.ENG.  &  C.O.B
Michel Gautier is a seasoned manager with extensive experience in major national and international organization. A master of global business financing, Mr. Gautier is an expert diagnostician who helps companies plan mergers and acquisitions, determine strategic positioning and provide guidance to entrepreneurs with regard to business management.

Dr. Denis Faubert  — Advisory Board Member
Dr. Denis Faubert is the General Manager of Hydro-Québec’s Research Institute, where he is responsible for the planning and  delivery of the R&D program. He was previously the Director General, Research and Development Programs at Defence R&D Canada, an agency of the Department of National Defence. He has also worked with DRDC Ottawa’s Radar Division, where he did research on space-based and airborne radar systems.

In 2001, Dr. Faubert received the Head of the Public Service Award for Valuing and Supporting People. In 2005, he received the Deputy Minister and Chief of the Defence Staff award for Innovation.

Dr. Faubert has a Bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean, a Master’s degree in Science and a PhD in physics from Université Laval. He has written over 50 technical works on lasers and radar.