2024 Awards Judging Panel

James is President of Valentis International Inc, an Edmonton-based consulting company that supports early-stage technology companies with advice on growth strategy.  He was previously SVP, Digital Strategy at Convrg Innovations (formerly Westgen Technologies Inc) and CTO at Zedi Solutions Inc, both technology solutions providers to the upstream Oil & Gas industry. He has 34 years of technology, marketing, product development and finance experience in telecom, electric utility, upstream oil and gas, and agriculture sectors in early stage, scale-up, and large enterprises.  James has significant expertise in SaaS software development, IoT systems design, and back-office enterprise systems management. He is an active angel investor and is a Venture Partner with Weave VC, a new seed-stage investment fund active in Western Canada.  James acts as an Advisor to the Alberta IoT Association, supporting their Fast Track and Start-up Visa programs, and is an Executive-in-Residence with Foresight, a Canadian Cleantech accelerator.  He is a Professional Engineer, holds a MSc Degree in Electrical Engineering and an MBA, both from the University of Alberta, and is a Fellow with the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.  In his personal time, James is passionate about fitness and actively trains many sports including running, cycling, and martial arts.