Our Pledge

Steve Leach is a partner in the firm of Ridout & MaybeeLLP.

Established in 1893, Steve is a founding member of the Hamilton Innovation Factory and speaks regularly at the invitation of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office on IP related issues.

Gina has 30 years of experience in the private, public and academic sectors, fifteen of them as a Senior Administrator responsible for applied research strategy, capacity building and industry partnerships. Gina grew up in Montreal and spent the first half of her career working in the ICT industry developing Geographic Information Systems software products for the Canadian and US markets.

Prior to completing an EMBA at Saint Mary’s University in 2004. Gina worked in community economic development in rural Nova Scotia where she acquired skills in entrepreneurship and business incubation.

In 2005, Gina became the Director of the Industry Liaison Office (ILO) representing Saint Mary’s, Mount Saint Vincent and NSCAD Universities in Nova Scotia. She was responsible for building strategic partnerships with private sector companies to commercialize research.

As the Dean, Applied Research at Lethbridge College in Alberta and Mohawk College in Hamilton, Gina worked to identify, develop and implement business and partnership strategies for applied research and to establish innovative opportunities for experiential learning that meet the needs of industry. Today, Gina is a consultant helping Colleges build applied research capacity.

Developed Regulatory Strategy for various international markets & government agencies, Strong knowledge of safety Management Systems (SMS) & Quality Management Systems (QMS), Developed standards with Transport Canada and Department of Transportation (US), Conducted risk assessments and applied risk controls, Developed policies and procedures to comply with Management Systems, Strong auditing skills and consistently provided timely and actionable findings, Customer Segmentation: identifies strengths, weaknesses and opportunities in the current customer base, opportunities and challenges for growing the customer base

Experienced sales professional with a demonstrated history of working in the semiconductor industry who has spent his career from electronics designer of consumer products to Global Account Manager for medical device companies.

Steven has worked with key decision-makers to take technical concepts into commercial products with companies such as Abbott, BlackBerry, Ciena Networks and Tyco as well as several start-up companies.

In contrast to touching the latest technologies, Steven is a volunteer fixer at the Repair Café at MakerSpace Brampton and loves working on vintage cars and motorcycles.

Paul is a seasoned, senior executive and an angel investor in a number of industrial technologies in Ontario as well as President of STANMECH Technologies Inc., an engineering equipment company located in Burlington Ontario. Paul also mentors the CEO's of a number industrial technology companies throughout the Oakville, Burlington and Hamilton region and provides strategic advice and consulting services through Enhanced Performance Inc.

Paul is a graduate of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and is member of the Canadian Society for Senior Engineers. Paul has spent the last 35 years in senior management and senior technical roles in both large and small industrial enterprises including companies such as General Motors and Canadian Occidental Petroleum. Paul lives in Burlington and is a founding member and Secretary of the Angel One Network and sits on a number of Boards of private companies and selected community organizations.

I am Julia Matthews, the CEO and founder of Not Your Child Corp. I am a Rotarian, we believe in “Service Above Self”.

I founded Not Your Child Corp. after my nephew (my brother Lefrancs’ son) and I were walking in a mall, he pulled his hand out of my grip and ran off. I was terrified. He thought we were playing a game, and when he ran off, I lost sight of him for about 3 minutes. Those three minutes were the most paralyzing gut churning minutes of my life.

On the way back to my brothers’ house, I looked at my phone and saw the find my iPhone app. I considered; how easy is it to lose a child? How many parents suffer that agonizing fear for hours? days? years? A feeling I will never forget. I put pencil to paper and started my designs for clothing with GPS devices for children and I was inspired to push forward.

I also have lost friends from inebriated driving and have had friends that suffered from addiction, it is because of this I created the world’s first Tracking Interlock Breathalyzer System, that promises to save lives on our roads by pro-actively protecting young drivers, their passengers and those suffering from alcoholism.

It was after speaking with parents during the aforementioned project, that the socially responsible movement #whywait4tragedy was born, the tag for this cause is “Because in matters of life and death, hindsight is just too late”. This movement was thought of because I, as well as the parents spoken to, believe putting devices like ours should become a normalized behaviour in society, a kind of Pro-active safety belt no different than bike helmets and leather protective gear.