Mark Anthony Sdao

Investment Committe Member

2021

President and Principal Consultant

2018

Directence has a single mission: To enhance productivity and competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). To that end, we evangelize relentlessly, with laser-like focus, for evidence-based decision-making in business. The vision is to make sophisiticated decision-support processes and systems available to SMEs by becoming a single point of expertise for robust decision process design as related to: • Data-driven decision-making ; • Digital transformation; • Enterprise architecture; • Innovation management; • Change management; • Organizational development.

Vice President - Investment, Venture Capital and Digital Strategies at Desjardins Capital

2019 - 2021

Chief Technology Officer

2018 - 2019

Building a SaaS-based analytics platform that leverages artificial intelligence and IoT-supported building automation to enhance value creation through provision of Facility Management services in Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).

Manager, Innovation and Operations

2017 - 2017

My mandate was to transform two traditional business units of a high-growth firm to a next-generation operating model. My key achievements, in addition to fulfulling overall operational responsibility were: • Directed a 60% expansion of the corporate head office and operational integration of a major satellite office; • Initiated a new business intelligence program, facilitating real-time performance measurement and data-driven capital allocation; • Led eight back-office automation initiatives resulting is significant productivity gains; • Supervised operational and financial integration of two acquired companies; • Defined the corporate operations strategy and established a new digital roadmap to support future growth.

Business Development Consultant

2016 - 2017

• Managed the full B2B (Business-to-Business) sales pipeline using Salesforce CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to maximize deal flow; • Conducted a social selling campaign to expand the sales funnel, accelerate lead qualification and enhance needs discovery; • Developed tailored value propositions to nurture relationships, close deals and maximize conversion rates.

Entrepreneur in Residence

2016 - 2016

• Led the customer development process to accelerate the search for a scalable, repeatable business model for start-up commercializing a novel artificial intelligence (AI) / machine-perception technology; • Analyzed market intelligence and developed a focused strategy canvas to reorient the value proposition to a "Blue Ocean" competitive positioning; • Developed and pitched strategic plans to direct development and monetization of cloud-computing / software-as-a-service (SAAS) delivery of a new AI-based product.

Engineering Program Manager

2013 - 2015

• Developed the vision for the Engineering department and established action plans for implementation of processes and systems to increase alignment of Engineering activities with corporate strategy; • Led a multi-disciplinary team of direct reports and sub-contractors in the development of new avionics products to increase the efficiency and safety of passenger aircraft; • Renegotiated major commercial contracts to achieve a 20% increase in revenue from major clients; • Devloped (in SQL) a custom extension to the corporate enterprise resource panning (ERP) system to provide a real-time dashboard to improve program cost control; • Introduced new business processes, automation systems and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to increase project execution efficiency.

Program Manager, GHGSat

2011 - 2013

• Led an international team of engineers and researchers to close the initial phases of financing, technology development and regulatory approvals for Canada's first satellite for remote measurement of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from industrial sites; • Negotiated with customers and partners to translate market needs into technical requirements and development plans with buy-in from all stakeholders; • Developed a tailored project management process definition to minimize risk and mazimize agility in the execution of a low-cost satellite mission; • Implemented software systems to facilitate collaboration among geographically dispersed teams (virtual teams) in a consortium of small-medium enterprises (SMEs), multinational enterprises (MNEs) and government agencies.

Project Manager

2009 - 2011

• Managed scope, budgets and schedules for technology development projects to ensure profitable execution of engineering services; • Gathered customer requirements and translated them into a new product line of electronic hardware and embedded software implementing a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) that resulted in new business and increased revenues; • Deployed a cloud-based solution for collaboration with team members and partners to ensure rapid resolution and tracking of customer support issues; • Developed custom software for automatic parsing and execution of unit tests to improve the efficiency of a Test-Driven Development (TDD) software project.

Team Lead

2006 - 2009

• Delivered a novel distributed software system for real-time processing of 2-D and 3-D imagery; sensor data fusion; and autonomous robotic control, resulting in a 10-fold increase in annual revenue from a major client; • Developed an Excel/ODBC/SQL extension to the firm's human capital management (HCM) system that strengthened the firm's competitive position by yielding high-fidelity cost estimates for project proposals; • Led Xiphos' Engineering Process Group through an audit of the company's business processes and developed action plans for resolving the identified gaps, resulting in access to new commercial contracts.

Software Developer

2005 - 2006

• Delighted a major client by delivering an automatic code-generation extension to Matlab/Simulink to empower control engineers unfamiliar with embedded software to program an embedded controller at the click of a mouse; • Translated customer technical requirements into designs for custom circuits and embedded software for satellite camera control to enable a low-cost space mission; • Perfomed integration, verification and validation of embedded hardware and software for control of instruments aboard Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to ensure that mission objectives were achieved.

Research Associate

2005 - 2005

• Analyzed empirical data to author research reports on the impacts of emerging technologies on national energy consumption and efficiency trends.