Charles Mire Email & Phone Number

Waterloo, On, Ca

Finance:• Financial analysis of P&L and cost breakdowns• Built a financial model to aid scenario projections and growth planning, updating monthly• Increased cash efficiency through banking & financial structures for U.S. branch• Prepare reconciliations for accountants for U.S. (federal & state) & Canadian tax filings and transfer pricing agreements• Responsible for cash flow management & currency exchange across multiple bank accounts• Responsible for A/P to suppliers and contract partners• Writing SR&ED filings• Writing successful government grant applications (federal and provincial)• Keeping company liability insurance policy up-to-dateLegal:• Leading contract negotiations (e.g., lease agreement)• Leading update efforts for the company's management structure and legal documentsBusiness Development:• Managing commercial relationships & collaboration efforts (e.g., Vectric software resale)• Analyzing market, competitor & customer data to support new product launches• Growth strategy research (3PL, payment processors, real estate)• Support and planning for trade shows• Special projects (e.g., set up Windows licensing supply chain for touchscreen computers)Mentorship:• Mentoring team members in marketing, operations, engineering, & C-suite

• Developed and delivered lectures for the Lab2Market and Raise programs; topics included “Investor Ready Checklist,” “Communicating Deeptech,” and “Revenue Streams and Cost Structure.”• Mentored entrepreneurs through office hours and 1:1 meetings; topics included IP, Go-To-Market, traction, Product Market Fit/Founder Market Fit, investor relations, due diligence, business model and market size assessment.• Screened program applications for Lab2Market and Raise for final selections.• Coached entrepreneurs in Lab2Market and Raise on pitch deck content and delivery.

Advised an assigned group of deep tech entrepreneurs within the cohort to help them assess the market opportunity and market readiness of their academic research projects. Topics include IP strategies, market interview feedback, fundraising/finance, general business/entrepreneur coaching, legal details (e.g., shareholders agreement, NDAs), operations, and sales. During the program, I held weekly scrum sessions with the students to track their progress and help them with any challenges, in addition to 1:1 office hours.

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

• Fundraising: Crowdfunded $126,000 on Kickstarter (exceeding the initial target by 400%); Raised $650,000 in further funding. Accepted into three respected accelerator programs: Communitech HYPERDRIVE (March 2014), HAX Boost (October 2015), and Techstars (July 2018). Developed strong relationships with key channel partners and government agencies, such as Export Development Canada (EDC), Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), Business Development Canada (BDC), NSERC and IRAP.• Finance: Responsible for cash flow, SR&ED claims• Operations: Responsible for global logistics, inventory management, supply chain, manufacturing, supplier & reseller contracts, and IP filings.• Product Management: Steered the launch of 3 products, from concept to market.• Sales & Customer Success: Technical sales engagement with customers at all stages, including pre-sales, fulfillment, post-sales & onboarding/training, and long-term technical support. Sold over $1M of product worldwide to customers including Fortune 500 companies and top universities. Exhibited at over 13 trade shows, including CES, to directly engage with customers and study competitors.Invited Talks:> "Hardware Startups: Practical Evolution to Sales Growth" -- ACTION Conference 2017 (Hamilton, Ontario, November 2017)> "The Art of Building a Hardware Company: The Basics, Strategies, & Pitfalls" -- ACTION Deepdive (Hamilton, Ontario, April 2017)> 3D Printing Panelist, TiECon2016 (Ottawa, ON, November 2016)> "5 Important Items to Do in Your Company’s First Year" -- ACTION Conference 2016 (Hamilton, Ontario, November 2016)> "How to Build and Grow a Hardware Startup" -- ACTION Conference 2015 (Hamilton, Ontario, November 2015)> "The Untapped Opportunities for 3D Printing with Soft Materials" -- RAPID (Toronto, September 2015)

Waterloo, Ontario

Worked on advanced materials and systems for 3D printing under Professor Leonardo Simon.

Waterloo, On

Worked across a broad range of materials deposition methods (extrusion, aerosol, inkjet, capillary, screen printing), my responsibilities included:• Experiment design a. Outline standard conditions and variables for materials testing; b. Constructed custom equipment (e.g., goniometer based on a webcam) for experiments• Materials testing a. Investigate printability, durability, and electrical characteristics of interconnect materials; b. Investigate novel materials for standard processes, such as die attach• Data analysis: review matrix of data to determine trends in materials and methods• Summary reports a. Write executive summaries reviewing experimental results b. Draft reviews of potential equipment for acquisition c. Illustrate details of printing complexities to improve team understanding of challenges• New ideas: generation, testing, verification• Collaboration with fellow employees in all research and product efforts• Assessment of printing technologies and methods with respect to the manufacturing process and requirements• Drafted vendor technical assessments (RFIs) for both hardware and materials; interfaced with vendors to ensure completion• Helped manage non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) with vendors• Establishing collaboration efforts with universities: a. Initiated conversations with professors at Rochester Institute of Technology and Harvard b. Continued to act as a liaisson with these universities through project duration

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

• Managed a multidisciplinary project involving a small team of researchers, engineers, and programmers.• Outlined project tasks and milestones.• Led weekly project status meetings with team.• Directly performed, assisted with and designed laboratory experiments.• Designed custom instrumentation for experiments.• Analysed experimental data and discussed results with team members.• Built custom equipment and modified existing equipment per project requirements.• Reviewed scientific literature for topics relevant to project.• Authored company whitepapers.• Engaged other research teams to augment project undertakings.

Thesis: Printing Conducting Polymer Structures on and Embedded in Biopolymer Platforms.Intelligent Polymer Research Institute (IPRI), ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES),School of Chemistry, University of Wollongong.IPRI/ACES is a multi-disciplined research group investigating the use of conducting polymers in organic synthesis, photovoltaics, fibers, printing, batteries, bionics (drug release, electrophysiology), electrochromics, actuators, and metal corrosion. The researchers in this group commonly collaborate, both internally and externally, on projects requiring several specialties.1) Design and construction of two syringe printers, including the development of the software interface for one. Trained other students and researchers on using the custom printers.2) Conducting polymer and bio-polymer device fabrication using a Dimatix inkjet printer and my two custom-built syringe printers.3) Developed laboratory methods using a Deerac NS-101 spot station to simplify the work required to place nL-sized drops of nanotube solution onto silicon wafers. Trained other students with the new methodology.4) Synthesizing conducting polymers, particularly polyaniline composites and poly(3,4 ethylenedioxythiophene).5) Characterization experience includes circular dichroism, UV-vis-NIR, electron microscopy, tensile testing, fluid properties (surface tension, viscosity, contact angle), particle size analysis, 4-point probe, current-voltage measurements, electrochemistry, and profilometry.

• Maintained and resolved issues in object-oriented Perl and PHP code, and MySQL queries (LAMP architecture).• Updated HTML as needed.• Developed custom website enhancements per customer requests (U.S. and U.K. sites). • Liaised with internal team and external customers.

I worked on a variety of back-end software development projects that mostly dealt with intelligent automation, verifying data integrity, automatic error-handling, regular expressions, and file parsing.Technologies used: Solaris, Red Hat Linux, Perl, Perl Objects, extensive shell scripting (awk, sed, ksh), PL/SQL, iSQL, Oracle, Sybase, PGP.• Re-engineered legacy processes and resolved data issues using a combination of Perl, Unix shell scripts (bash, korn, sed, awk), and SQL with Oracle and Sybase databases.• Engineered job-controlling program (using Perl) to replace use of Unix crontab, and implemented it over multiple business units to run over 300 jobs daily.• Consolidated FTP functionality onto single FTP server for multiple business units, and engineered processes to handle various FTP jobs.• Resolved data issues using SQLPlus, TOAD, DBArtisan, hex editors, and other tools as needed.• Maintained PGP key server.• Enhanced local Gentran Server for Unix installation and configuration.• Created and maintained EDI maps in Gentran Server for Unix.• Trained other users on Gentran Server for Unix administration and EDI mapping.• Liaised with all levels of the company.• Assisted with several server migrations, upgrades, and various weekend projects that affected our server jobs.• Participated in all aspects of software development lifecycle, including project management.• Involved significantly with internal company consolidation projects, including travel to Tampa and New York City for knowledge transition.• Taught Perl and Unix shell programming to other developers.

• Negotiated new VAN service contract which saved the company $300K/year.• Mapped X12 EDI transactions using Gentran Server for Unix.• Interfaced EDI transactions to SAP IDOCs where appropriate.• Set up new EDI trading partners and maintained trading partner database in Gentran Server for Unix.• Investigated and resolved problems with EDI-related files, which included checking Unix system log files.• Wrote Unix shell scripts (awk, nawk, ksh, sed) to simplify tasks and create reports from EDI files.

• Responsible for entire company network and related issues.• Managed $100K annual technology budget.• Trained other employers on technology systems.• Project management of technology systems.• Responsible for company implementation of EDI processes, terminology, ANSI Standards and Transaction Sets, and barcodes.• Coordinated EDI system migration. Continued to resolve customer and system-related issues involving EDI.• Supervised Y2K project through completion.• Installed new Unix system (enterprise and EDI) for sister company, Smith Abrasives, based on Jokari's system.• Assisted Smith Abrasives with Y2K testing with EDI Trading Partners.• Purchasing wholesale products from production factories.

Taught English to Russian children.Devised lesson plans, quizes, tests.Made lessons more exciting by incorporating games, such as the classic hangman -- but the students enjoyed my introduction of the American "Spelling Bee" contest the most.

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Chemistry

Msc, Applied Physics

Bachelors, Russian

Spent 5 months studying in Moscow. Have been to Russia 3 times since 1990 and witnessed the many changes of the 1990s. Still retain decent.