Rob Crawhall is an innovation executive and strategic advisor across a broad range of sectors. He is the Executive Director of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (cae-acg.ca) and serves on several Boards. He is active on standards committees and previously led not-for-profit innovation organizations with over $140 million in programs partnering with over 200 companies and 25 academic institutions. Previously, he managed Canada's largest private sector university research program.

Robert was CEO of the National Capital Institute of Telecommunications, Executive Director of the Ontario Research Network in Electronic Commerce, CEO of NanoQuébec, and VP Operations of Precarn Incorporated.

At Nortel/BNR, Robert rose from the role of Member of Scientific Staff to Director. He led advanced technology strategic planning, advanced research networks, disruptive technologies, and global external research. 

Robert began his career in innovation with General Electric (Canada) and Sulzer (Canada) in manufacturing and project management for nuclear power systems. 

Currently, Robert is a board member of NanoOntario, the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies, and the Partnership Group for Science and Engineering (PAGSE). He is active in standards development for new technologies including the CSA Strategic Steering Committee on Power Engineering and Electromagnetic Compatibility (SCOPE). Robert served one year as Executive-in-Residence" at the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa. 

Robert has a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Business, and a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering both from McGill. 

Robert received his PhD in electromagnetic compatibility at the University of Ottawa. 

He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, a Senior Member of the IEEE, a registered Engineer (P.Eng) in the Province of Ontario, a certified project management professional (PMP), and a certified corporate director (ICD.D).

Steven Fraser is a strategic advisor and frequent conference speaker on tech transfer, company-academic R&D partnerships, and agile software development practices.

Based in Silicon Valley, his work is focused on partnerships to accelerate product R&D through collaboration, networking, and "open innovation" ecosystems. 

Steve serves in a variety of conference leadership roles for the ACM, Agile Alliance, and IEEE. He has published more than 75 technical reports: publication portfolio

Prior to his work at Innoxec, Steve led HP's Global University Programs and served as the Director of the Cisco Research Center where he orchestrated more than $10 Million in annual university research investments, led PhD recruiting, and managed academic-company partnerships on six continents. 

Steve managed innovation recognition programs such as the Cisco Pioneer Awards and led Qualcomm's technical training and education programs in software engineering and wireless technologies.

Steve was a Senior Manager (Global External Research) and Sector Lead at BNR/Nortel for $2M investments in university research. As a Visiting Scientist at Carnegie Melon University's Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Steve prototyped and piloted team-based domain engineering techniques to leverage commonality in software product families.

Steve is an expert in the design and delivery of hybrid (a mix of virtual and in-person) conferences with in-depth experience from organizing 20+ global corporate forums for Cisco, Qualcomm, and Nortel/BNR.

Steve received a PhD in Electrical (Software) Engineering from McGill University (Montréal), a MSc in Engineering Physics (Queen's at Kingston), and a BSc in Physics and Computer Science (McGill). 

Steve is a Senior Member of both the ACM and the IEEE.