Meet the People Building the Next Generation of Tools for AI Innovation
A snapshot of the Zetane team and their expertise.
Building the next generation of tools for data scientists and machine learning engineers so they can do their best work is quite the challenge. Here we provide a directory of one group of professionals that are embracing this laudable feat head-on.
Zetane is growing, so expect this list to change in a heartbeat. (Last update: May 2020)
Our founding members
Guillaume Hervé, BEng & MBA
CEO and all-around business wizard
Guillaume has an extensive background in technology companies. In the past six years, he has been a business consultant in strategy and innovation-driven growth, having consulted for large and medium-sized companies in various sectors. He is the Chairman of the Board of CTS Santé, the most active accelerator for medical technologies and devices in Canada and the Chairman of the Board of CM Labs, a Montreal high-tech software company offering simulators and simulation software for vehicles, the defense industry, robotics, construction and port operations around the globe. He is an active mentor and coach with tech start-ups at FounderFuel, TechStars, District 3, CTS Santé, and the Business Families Foundation. Previously, Mr. Hervé was a senior executive at CAE Inc. where he held several key positions. He was the founder and CEO of CAE Healthcare which leveraged simulation, haptics and virtual reality technologies and best practices in aviation simulation to offer surgical simulators, integrated simulation-based training solutions, and patient simulators to medical schools, hospitals and defence organizations worldwide. The company grew to $50M in revenues by year 3. He was also President & CEO of Presagis, specializing in delivering high fidelity, physics-based simulation and graphics software to defense and aeronautics organizations worldwide. Prior to this, he was an Executive VP in CAE Inc.’s core business. Some of his responsibilities included VP Global Operations and Technology for Commercial Aviation Training, VP Aviation for Americas and Asia, and Head of Engineering. Prior to CAE, Mr. Hervé was an officer in the Canadian Air Force. He completed an M.Sc. degree in business from the State University of New York, a Bachelor of Engineering in aerospace from the Royal Military College of Canada, and a Master degree in Program Management from the Canadian Forces School of Aerospace Studies.
Patrick St-Amant, MSc
CTO; Senior software developer and inventor of Zetane’s IP
Patrick is the inventor of Zetane’s technology and built our first MVP. Previously, he was a mathematics professor at Collège International Saint-Anne and an independent researcher in numbers theory, set theory and fundamentals of mathematics. He also founded and managed the innovation Makerspace at College Saint-Anne where he guided and mentored over 100 student projects in mathematics discoveries. He received the Virtual and Augmented Reality Grant from Entente Canada-Quebec in 2016, a $68k grant for the development of virtual and augmented reality applications for learning languages. Mr. St-Amant did PhD studies (not completed) in mathematics, categories theories and foundation of computing groups at the University of Ottawa (2007). He was invited to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (2006 & 2007) where he studied in neural sciences. He completed his Master’s degree in computer science and fundamental mathematics and a Bachelor of Mathematics and Physics, both at UQAM.
Jonathan Magoon, BA
Chief IT architect and lead software developer
Jon is an experienced technology leader in start-ups. He is a graduate of the TechStars program in Boulder, Colorado, one of the top start-up accelerator programs for high-tech companies in the USA. He was the lead engineer and full-stack developer at Meet Mindful, a relationship and dating application site, where he led the development of technology applications for server, network and hosting environments, data modelling, business logic and user interface and experience. Previously, he was Software Engineer and IT Lead responsible for distributed systems architectures web and cloud-based services at Lewan Technology, an IT services, outsourcing and support company. Mr. Magoon has advanced knowledge of various software languages, IT architectures and platforms including Amazon Web Services, C++, Ruby on Rails, Javascript, Backbone, React, Cordova, Postgres, Redis, Ansible and Rapid scaling. He also trained and acquired extensive experience in Agile and other software development processes and SaaS business models. He holds a BA Philosophy from Tulane University.
You can listen to first-hand accounts from these gents about the founding of Zetane in this podcast with host, Laura Bernhard:
Our more recent recruits
Omar Hesham, PhD
Software developer and lead high-performance computing specialist.
In addition to being a ray of positivity in the office, Dr Hesham is a published expert in academic research concerning computer modelling and simulations; you can find a collection of his work here. Ask him about how rude people taking public transit in Ottawa are reflective of swarm patterns in urbanism and architecture.
Aman Singh, MSc
Lead Software developer and machine learning engineer.
After studying with leading scholars in AI in Alberta, Aman now calls Montreal home. He has advanced experience with developing AI technologies for Fortune-500 corporate clients. Though often deep in thought, a rockin’ tune emanating from the office speaker will soon get him in the mood for a singalong.
Semih Cantürk, BEng, MEng (candidate)
Software Engineer specializing in Machine Learning.
Semih is a published academic researcher that now specialises in the development of complex artificial neural networks (article in press; see some of his pre-print work here). We look forward to Semih moving from Istanbul to pursue his Master’s degree in our home town at the Université de Montréal this autumn. Oh, and it’s not a stretch to say he has fierce pilate abilities.
Samrat Debroy, BEng
Software developer.
Samrat executes such feverish typing skills when he codes that sometimes the sound is reminiscent of a dear hamster running on a wheel at our former headquarters. Such passion at his fingertips exemplifies why he has diverse experience with developing software for major technology corporations in Canada and the USA.
Valdemar Duk, DEC
Junior Software Developer & Hardware Technologist
Valdemar built up rare expertise in connecting hardware interfaces with software. His hip vintage clothing and guitar playing skills will make you question whether he moonlights as a barista in the Mile-End. They indeed appear to inspire his designs for our cool dashboard features (see, for instance, our cover image for this article).
Jason Behrmann, PhD
Director of marketing and communications; lead qualitative researcher for user and product-requirements.
Following his research in the biomedical sciences, Dr Behrmann became captivated by Montreal’s tech start-up scene (check out his research publications here). He now is a marketing and communications specialist in artificial intelligence and technology who led the marketing departments at multiple AI startups. He is also a technology activist and Montreal’s tech commentator on Passion with Dr Laurie Betitio, Radio CJAD800 (here is a playlist of his past interviews).
Want to join our team? Are we on the look-out for talent? Of course you do, and yes we are!
Though we may not have a position that’s right for you at the moment, we will keep you in mind. Submit your CV and links to your portfolio and online profiles to info@zetane.com. Bonus points if you submit interesting content that shows your passion for AI innovation. Rest assured that we will never share your information.
