The Forge is a startup incubator, servicing McMaster University and GTA, with the mission to foster the foundation and accelerate the growth of highly scalable technology-based businesses. Since 2016, I:• Developed and executed incubator programming to withstand a high intake volume while maximizing focus and resources on high potential clients• Built a diverse network of mentors, service providers, and investors• Connected clients to the people, resources, and programs relevant to their stage and industry• Assisted clients with market validation, market assessment, prototyping, financial forecasting, financial strategy, capital structure, intellectual property, business development, and investment• Advised 96 different startup clients, guiding 46 companies to raise over $3.3M in government grants and $3.8M in private funding

During this temporary assignment, in addition to my business development role, I:• Expanded and restructured Forge staff to meet growing incubator demand, including a new position to emphasize building external partnerships• Established and led a new early stage program leveraging design sprint methodologies, reducing early-stage program length from 6 to 4 months• Improved year-over-year co-op participation at our incubator by 16x• Grew our intake pipeline by nearly 3x versus the previous 6 months

• Collaborated with dozens of McMaster researchers (professors, post-docs, graduate students) to evaluate prospective McMaster University technology applications• Liaised industry partners with researchers to link innovative technology solutions to market needs• Provided research & development goals based on market and business insights• Drafted and filed US provisional, PCT, and US patent filings in collaboration with IP lawyers• Supported the writing of government grants for research commercialization worth millions of dollars

• Founding member, capitalizing on years of research, including my PhD thesis• Established expert on semiconductor nanowire fabrication, characterization, and photovoltaic devices• Lead fabrication R&D of an emerging low cost, high efficiency solar cell technology, resulting in: o Record efficiency of 4.1%, a 58% improvement over the previous state-of-the art o Improved process repeatability to a success rate greater than 92% o Two provisional patent filings o Ten peer-reviewed publications o Collaboration relationships with research groups in Denmark, France, Brazil, and Canada• Refined technical predictions, financial case, and competitive analysis to identify that the low to medium concentration solar market was where this technology was most competitive- Built business case to secure incremental investment and partnership agreements

- Management of an experiment based thesis project on group III-V heterostructure nanowires- Attained project goals by:. - Acquiring an aptitude for a broad suite of semiconductor fabrication tools. - Developing a theoretical and practical expertise in the epitaxial growth of semiconductor nanowires. - Obtaining operational and analysis proficiency with several electron microscopy techniques.- Developed Python programming skills necessary to build a model for nanowire growth physics- Produced relevant and applicable results:. - Pioneered a multi-purpose fabrication process capable of industrial-level scaling. - Developed a reliable and versatile framework for studying nanowire growth physics. - Published 4 peer-reviewed papers and presented at multiple international conferences. - Presented results that were pivotal in attaining initial funding for Nanotech Solar

- Assembled a 3D image correlation system to precisely measure strain in zirconium samples - Researched, designed, assembled, and tested the system until accuracy goals were met- Employed use of AutoCAD Inventor, LabView, and basic programming skills- Kept as an employee beyond my initial summer commitment to continue work in this area throughout the school year