New directors bring expertise in government, business, startups and venture capital

May 6, 2021

EDMONTON, AB – The Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) is pleased to welcome five new additions to its board of directors, adding to the wealth of expertise already present among the directors. The new directors will bring experience from the business and venture capital communities, as well as from technology startups and the public sector. For more information on Amii’s role as a world-leading AI research institute, visit amii.ca.

The new directors include:

• Zarina Bhambhani, Partner at KPMG Canada and Member of the Board of Governors at the University of Alberta

• Joan Hertz, Board Chair at Edmonton International Airport and ATB Financial

• John Knubley, Former Deputy Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development at the Government of Canada

• Josh Pantony, Co-Founder and CEO of Boosted.ai and Co-Founder of Maluuba

• Todd Simpson, Partner at Inovia Capital and former Chief Innovation Officer at Mozilla

“We are thrilled to welcome these stellar individuals to our board,” says Bruce Johnson, Chair of Amii’s Board of Directors. “Already, we have a wealth of experience and expertise amongst our directors – across industry, venture capital, government, academia and startups – and with our newly welcomed colleagues, we’re pleased to grow that expertise. I’m proud to work with such accomplished individuals to enable Amii to continue to deliver transformational impacts here in Alberta and across Canada and the globe.”

“Amii has been on a growth trajectory over the past eighteen months,” says Cam Linke, Amii CEO. ”In welcoming these new directors, we will continue building our position as world leaders in the science of AI and accelerate AI adoption with industry partners to make Alberta a global destination for companies seeking to invest in their in-house capabilities. Alberta boasts some of the best AI talent in the world, and that’s matched by the expertise of our board.”

The new board members will contribute to Amii’s vision of inspiring world-changing machine intelligence for good and for all. Over the next years, Amii is focused on making AI and machine learning drivers of sustainable growth for Alberta’s economy through advancing leading-edge research, supporting business adoption of AI and training Alberta’s AI workforce.

Learn more about the newly appointed directors below.

“Artificial intelligence is fundamentally changing how we all work and think – and how businesses operate to deliver their products and services. We have so many new opportunities for collaboration, innovation and to change the status quo. In my role at Amii, I’m looking forward to continuing to enhance Edmonton’s reputation as a global technology leader and creating productive partnerships with the business sector.” – Zarina Bhambhani

Zarina Bhambhani is a Partner at KPMG’s Audit Practice in Edmonton. She is also a member of the Board of Governors of the University of Alberta and has served as Director and Treasurer of the Edmonton Downtown Business Association since 2017.

Zarina has a proven record of being an effective leader with considerable experience developing and managing large teams, overseeing complex engagements, and working with clients on technical matters, including numerous acquisitions, financing transactions, framework conversions, and business process design. Zarina possesses a strong knowledge of corporate governance and works directly with the executive teams, audit committees, and boards of directors at several large organizations.

“Artificial intelligence will power Alberta’s future. I’m optimistic about our economic recovery and our chance to be a leader in the adoption of machine learning and AI. With global leading entities like Amii right here in Edmonton, it’s ours to grasp. The research, know-how and talent is here, and it’s incumbent on us as business leaders to embrace it. I’m excited to be part of sharing the possibilities.” – Joan Hertz

Joan Hertz is an executive, lawyer and strategic consultant who has served as Interim President and CEO – as well as Vice President, External Affairs and Corporate Counsel – for NorQuest College. Joan currently serves as the Chair of the Board for Edmonton International Airport and Chair of the ATB Financial Board of Directors.

Joan has diverse professional experience in leadership positions, private law, in-house corporate counsel, strategic consultancy, and board experience which combine to make her a strong advocate and strategic thinker. She has worked with many organizations in the establishment, development, and execution of successful strategies and governance structures. Joan also teaches Legal and Fiduciary Duties of Directors at the Institute of Corporate Directors, and for over 25 years has provided governance, legal, and strategic advisory services to private sector and crown clients ranging from small to large institutional firms.

“After playing a role in Ottawa in the foundations and funding of Amii through the inception of the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy, I’m honoured to join the Board and help continue the great work in Alberta of advancing leading-edge research and enabling industry adoption of AI.” - John Knubley

John Knubley is a Corporate Director, Strategic Advisor and formerly the Deputy Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada from 2012 to 2019. He has over 35 years of experience in the federal government, serving across eight departments, including Privy Council Office, Agriculture and Agrifood Canada, Transport and Infrastructure Canada, Natural Resources Canada and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

In 2020, John founded InnovAction Advisory Services. InnovAction provides strategic counsel to organizations across a variety of sectors and verticals including agriculture, food production, technology, innovation, and post-secondary education. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Conference Board of Canada, the Asia-Pacific Foundation and the Ontario Energy Board.

“Machine learning is one of the most potent technological forces in the modern day with the potential to improve almost every aspect of the economy. Alberta is in the exciting position of both being one of the major centers for the machine learning revolution along with having a number of industries that are at the earliest stages of adopting this technology. This gives Amii a tremendous opportunity to make a positive impact, and I'm excited to be part of it. ” - Josh Pantony

Josh Pantony is a co-founder and CEO of Boosted.ai – an artificial intelligence company that brings advanced machine learning tools to institutional investors. Since starting Boosted.ai in 2017, the company has helped dozens of investment managers – whose AUM totals over $1 trillion – implement machine learning in their portfolios.

Prior to founding Boosted.ai, Josh was a Principal Machine Learning engineer at Bloomberg for 4 years. At Bloomberg, he helped start and build numerous critical Machine Learning initiatives including Ranking, Recommendation, Question and Answering, Crowd Sourcing, and Knowledge Graphs. He also acted as a consultant on numerous initiatives across the company and helped build several ML teams.

As a student at the University of Waterloo, Josh co-founded his first company, Maluuba, a deep learning natural language processing company. At Maluuba, he built the earliest prototype, recruited the entire machine learning team, and oversaw general technology development. Maluuba was later bought by Microsoft.

“AI is now a fundamental building block of almost every software business. Being connected to Amii, one of the world's preeminent AI institutes, helps us to close the loop between industry and research: we learn the latest in technology and ethics while feeding back how the latest technology is being deployed in the field by early-stage companies.” - Todd Simpson

Todd Simpson is a Partner at Inovia Capital, investing in early-stage software companies. Previously he held executive roles at AVG Technologies, Mozilla, and Ditech Networks. He has also founded, built, and run numerous companies. Originally from Calgary, where he got his Ph.D in Computer Science, he now lives in Silicon Valley.

Todd holds deep technical knowledge combined with years of business and corporate experience and a passion for using technology to improve the world. He’s currently interested in the decentralization potential of recent technology advances and is excited about the opportunity for technologies like AI to democratize work and wealth.