Focused on early-stage investments (preseed, seed, Series-A). I am open to solutions across all tech sectors. Interested in dataops, applied AI and industrial automation. Adore learning and supporting smart teams attempting bold things. IMHO, diversity of thought and experience are the building blocks of resilient, high performing teams and what I look for in collaborators/founders.

I am thrilled to work with a team committed to elevating entrepreneurs in pursuit of daring ideas. We have ambitions to improve the world by solving problems at scale. By adding venture capital to my toolbox, my evening and day jobs have now blended together, allowing me to invest wholly in helping good people succeed: founders, mentors, innovators and leaders in our communities.

Membre indépendante du conseil d’administration de la Société des loteries du Québec nommée par le Conseil des ministres du Gouvernement du Québec.Date de nomination : 16 décembre 2020Échéance du mandat : 15 décembre 2024Independent Board Member of the Quebec Lottery Corporation named by the Cabinet of the Quebec Government.

Accélérateur-Incubateur basé à Québec depuis 2015

Support the active TEDxMontreal administratively and strategically, and continue our connections to the global TED network.

TED is a non-profit at the forefront of spreading ideas through online videos in 18 mins or less. Since launching TEDx in 2009, 40k volunteer teams in 3200 cities have produced 178k+ local talks in 100+ languages, generating a staggering 6.2 billion views with 34M subscribers worldwide.TEDxMontreal is a Level 2 licensed TED event run 100% by volunteers:• Lead a team of 25+ volunteers to find, coach and produce 12-15 TEDxtalks, fundraise $100 000+ annually and produce an annual event with 500+ attendees, 3 university satellite events and worldwide live streaming.• Specialist in idea and talk development, speaker coaching and the art of storytelling.• Selected to attend TEDSummit2016 & 2019 - 1000 international TEDsters exploring ideas that matter most now and in the future. https://tedsummit2016.ted.com/• TEDxMontreal has 2 talks on TED.com - only 600 TEDxtalks out of 150 000+ have been chosen for this honour, reinforcing the high caliber of our content.If you are interested in joining our incredible team, becoming a partner/sponsor or collaborator with us for our next event, please email me at katy@tedxmontreal.com

• Select, invest and accelerate 8 tech startups in a 4-month program out of 175+ applications annually.• Manage a network of 300+ mentors with 290+ meetings with cohort founders.• Structure support for startups & the ecosystem with our sponsors: AWS, BDO, BFL, EY, Fasken, Microsoft, RBC, Silicon Valley Bank.• Dramatically accelerate market traction, financial growth and product roadmap development to prepare startups for pre-seed/seed investment.• Help CEOs construct compelling stories that showcase their vision in pitches for investors.• Produce a Demo Day Event for 1000+ investors and the startup community.

UNLTD | Unlimited | Virtual Reality Production | VR/360/AR | MontrealUnlimited (UNLTD) offers VR/360/AR content production for immersive and interactive media including films, series, apps, games and advertising.

Nominated as a 2020 All-Stars Mentor (Top 1% of the global mentor network) Selection Committee Member for TechStars AI Montreal programLead Mentor for the TechStars AI Cohort 2019, 2020, 2021 in Montréal with 10-12 startups selected per year from around the world (Moscow, Slovenia, France, USA, India & Canada).https://www.techstars.com/montreal-ai-program/https://www.techstars.com/mentors/katy-yam/

Responsible for generating MQLs (marketing qualified leads) at the top of the deal pipeline for conversion to SQLs (sales qualified leads) for our sales teams to act upon. Also responsible for accelerating SFDC opportunities towards close with ABM (account-based marketing) activities in support of SDRs (sales development reps) and account executives. Selection, implementation and execution of Marketo as our marketing automation platform in-sync with Salesforce (SFDC) as our CRM. Define criteria and conversion ratios for MQL to SAL (sales accepted leads) to SQL with our sales ops team. Work tightly with legal to ensure compliance with CASL, GDPR and shifting privacy regulations around the world.Led a robust team of 7 to drive AI solution awareness into our target industries. Expertise in the team ranges from Market Intelligence (market sizing, competitive analysis) to Revenue Generation campaigns in Industry GTM Plans to Events Management. Collectively our team manages our budget, its allocations and the ROI on our activities vs our MQL & SQL targets. I focused on enabling our Industry marketing managers to create product focused industry campaigns with multiple touchpoints and drip/nurture paths for the fiscal year. Campaigns layer in a variety of activities to build interest and momentum with potential clients. Content driven touch points include blogs, webinars, private events, sponsored conferences (speaking & booth), industry trade publications, targeted influencers, whitepapers, landing pages and others all in order to drive lead scoring and conversion.Target sectors are Financial Services and Supply Chain.- Insurance, Banking and Capital Markets- Retail/CPG, Manufacturing and Transportation & Logistics

As Element AI's first Marketing Director, I managed the global growth of the Element AI brand including all owned, earned and paid media strategies and platforms. I grew the team from 3 to 20+ with sub-teams in Events, Channels, Market Intelligence and Content Creation. Spun out Government Relations from MarComs by recruiting its director and onboarded our new global marketing VP. The team was laser focused on 3 key areas to build credibility; Academic AI Research, Industry Awareness and AI Thought Leadership.Channels we maximized included public relations, websites (elementai.com; jfgagne.ai; Element AI Lab blog), digital media channels (LinkedIn, FB, Twitter, Instagram), internal communications and global event sponsorships and partnerships. Hired M&C Saatchi LA to create our manifesto, brand prints, taglines and channel strategies for both Element AI and JF Gagné brands. Managed the evolution of our visual assets (logo, favicon, colour palette and iconography) from a startup to a 360 brand experience including UIs (user interfaces) for our AI products. Created our first manifesto video for internal use and also our first external facing company video highlighting our staff as ambassadors for the human side of AI._______At Element AI, we advance cutting-edge research and turn it into scalable solutions that make your business safer, stronger, and more agile.Our ValuesWe are world class professionals that act like owners.We are bold, creative and impactful.We value equality and work collaboratively.

Entrepreneur-in-residence hired by CEO to build an AI division to spin off as an independent subsidiary. Joined pre-Series A.Element AI is co-founded by AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio and serial AI entrepreneurs, Jean-François Gagné, Nicolas Chapados amongst others and is backed by Microsoft Ventures, Intel Capital, NVIDIA, Tencent, DCVC, Fidelity Investments Canada, BDC, National Bank of Canada, Hanwha, Real Ventures, GIC and several other funds.

• Actively manage a multi-million budget to grow a product portfolio generating over $500 million in annual revenues.• Manage 16 professionals (6 SAS/SQL analysts & 10 product and project managers)• Product development team added to previous responsibilities to enable optimization of the full product lifecycle.• Downsized and streamlined the workload and resources of a director and 3 managers into 1 managerial role.

• Selected to integrate, then manage the business intelligence (SAS analytics) team providing insights to 6 departments. In addition to existing product management responsibilities. • Optimized product revenues by adapting the product mix to consumer insights derived from ethnographic and client segmentation studies and other quantitative and qualitative consumer research.

• Mandated to implement a CPG product marketing structure by the VP of Marketing & Sales including a company wide restructuration, the hiring of a Product Management Director and over 12 product managers.• Led strategic alignment initiatives across 4 regional operations including corporate branding, product launches, pricing, placement, loyalty program, social networks, onsite events and promotions.

• Recruited from Maple Leaf Foods by Marketing VP to gain clarity regarding the emotional drivers - motivations, needs and wants - that consumers seek to fulfill when choosing gambling as a form of responsible entertainment.• Developed a predictive behavioural model to identify strategies to responsibly renew the aging client base.

Canada bread, Fresh Bakery (a Division of Maple Leaf Foods)Fresh bakery leader in Canada generating over $1 billion in annual sales with 22 bakeries from Vancouver, BC to St. John’s, Newfoundland, the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2009, Maple Leaf Foods generated sales of $4.8 billion and had 24 000 employees worldwide.• Managed CBCL’s largest bread segment at $250M with the 2nd largest marketing budget at $4M.• Brands managed: Dempster’s, POM, Ben’s & McGavin’s with a focus on SMART worth $80M in its fourth year.• Successfully led the cornerstone Back to School promotion for 3 years, generating sales of $13M in 2 months. Developed comprehensive TV/ radio/ online/ print/ PR campaigns with multi-category product participation, internal sales force competitions and consumer microsite contests with unique promo code prizing. Partners included Apple & Nintendo. • Delivered marketing plans, over a dozen product launches, advertising campaigns, brand microsites, grass-roots and stunt initiatives, in-store and online promotions, working with multi-agency project teams across 5 time-zones.• Actively managed the planogram for all banners with category management based on comprehensive Nielsen data.• Coach for the New Product Development stage-gate innovation pipeline (2-year implementation).

Led an 8-month strategic environmental packaging project reporting to the President and SVP Marketing with a 10-person cross-functional team. Mentored by a Senior Black Belt coach and the VP of Corporate Environmental Affairs. The entire recommendation was presented to the management team and implemented. The completion of this project enabled me to earn my Six Sigma Green Belt Certification via an accumulation of relevant experience points.

Responsibilities: • Managed Quebec’s # 1 brand of health breads - Bon Matin with 13.6% share selling over 26MM units/year• Developed and executed brand plans for Bon Matin, SunMaid & Petite Douceur product lines with Key Accounts, Sales and Operations to determine volume and sales targets in line with corporate top and bottom line objectives.• Managed new product launches, financials (P&L, GP), Nielsen market metrics, consumer promotions, advertising, and packaging with cross-functional teams including PR, advertising, branding and promotion agencies.Achievements:• Increased share by 1.5pts from 12.1% to 13.6% by working tightly with Key Accounts on ad and display support• Launched the 1st national bread variety under a regional brand as CBCL transitioned towards a standardized product offering for marketing and operational efficiencies.

3 Full One-Year rotations as;1. Territory Manager - Greater Toronto Area (Fresh Bread Division)Managed 9 independent franchisees, all male between the ages of 24 to 65 with sales of $6.7MM. Sales representative for 80+ retail stores ranging from big banners (Costco, Wal-Mart, Sobeys) to independents and food service. 2. Assistant Brand Manager - Quebec Fresh Bread Division (POM, Bon Matin)Managed the Healthy Way organic product launch (2MM units/year). Successfully built the business case for organics; directed R&D with consumer research validation; aided in the organic certification of the St. Come plant. Collaborated extensively with brand design, promotional and advertising firms. Extensive micro and macro project management. 3. Production & Logistics Planner - Viau Plant & Finished Goods - Quebec DivisionOptimized the Viau plant production schedule (600K units/wk) by minimizing overtime while managing all 16 outside-purchase suppliers (250Kunits/wk). Coordinated weekly interplant transfers to reduce overtime paid for unionized shifts.

Led a 3-month DMAIC project as a Green Belt project manager that generated an annual $78K in perpetual savings by optimizing the efficiency of the bagel distribution process across 2 plants and 3 distribution centres in 2 provinces.