Our Mission and Vision

The Professional Development Institute PDI Inc. is a Canadian leader in the creation and delivery of online and face-to-face learning solutions, skills-development services and cutting-edge products to excel in the post COVID-19's decision-making world, where ubiquitous uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity require unprecedented rigour, agility and novelty. Available in English, French and Spanish, our webinars and seminars focus on governance, collaborative innovation, exemplary leadership, project and risk management, and strategies for competitive advantage with context-pertinent novelty, agility and foresight.

Our mission is twofold:

• Coaching and providing leaders with impartial expert advice;
• Empowering professionals at all levels with proven team-leadership skills, universal competencies and practical instruments to excel as exemplary high achievers.

By "universal", we mean the cutting-edge and competitive competencies, skills and best practices essential for today's executives, entrepreneurs, managers at all levels, executive assistants and other professionals, regardless of their functional domain (policy & governance, general management, human resources, comunications, IT, finance & accounting, engineering, R&D, intelligence, production, customer services, health, procurement, security, marketing and sales).

These universal competencies include resilient self-leadership and exemplary-team leadership, principled negotiation, collaborative and disruptive innovation, value incubation for competitive advantage (including darwino-pasteurian scenarios), virtual-team project management, system thinking, finance, the complete risk-management webinar series, strategic- and operational-communications including writing and presentation skills, time management for virtual teams, and management of crises (from incubation diagnosis and communication to resolution) with high-severity risks (oil spills, gas, mining, nuclear power, aerospace, supply chain, food and airport security, pandemics).

These skills not only complement but also facilitate the mastery of the technical skills specific to your job.

Tailoring in-house sessions to client needs is among our distinctive strengths.

We are the only organization licensed by Harvard University to create and deliver Harvard University Global System^™ (HUGS) and software applications. HUGS is among the propietary frameworks and instruments we exclusively apply to help our clients excel in the performance and productivity of virtual and hybrid teams in a turbulent environment.

Our vision is a long journey to contribute, to the best of our modest means, in making cutting-edge decision sciences, exemplary leadership and management education accessible to adults and youth worldwide, by pushing the boundaries of innovation and complexity reduction in decision-making.

Alain Paul Martin built PDI’s professional team whose experience spans across a wide range of sectors from biotechnology, software development, banking and strategic communications to aerospace, energy, sustainable mining, R&D management and government (agriculture and food security, international trade, diplomacy, intelligence, national defence, emerging transportation technologies and STEM education). Alain is a 2012 Harvard Fellow, Advanced Leadership and is a 1999 Harvard Business School's alumnus. He advised two prime ministers (4 years), the UNESCO's DG, research directors at Teck (12 years), Canada largest diversified resource company. He was praised by Desjardins' CEO for his strategic support role in building "North-America's fastest-growing general insurer [quadrupling sales and yielding tenfold raise in profit] and crafting "the vision and strategic direction of a $75 billion financial institution" and the "world's second strongest bank" (Bloomberg). Alain teamed-up with the same CEO coaching a new team (in the public sector) which, in 5 years, despite 15% higher highway traffic, saved lives by reducing deaths (-35%) and severe bodily injuries (-43%); turning $486 million deficit into $20 million surplus.

Excellence, gender parity and global diversity characterize the exclusive membership of our distinguished International Board of Independent Advisors comprised of entrepreneurs and professionals in private equity, finance, economics, governance, marketing, science (medicine, astrophysics, biotechnology), IT, diplomacy and government policy. All members share our vision to “democratize exemplary leadership and management education worldwide, by pushing the boundaries of innovation and complexity reduction in decision-making”.

Erik Baker is a Co-Founder and Managing Director of GF Capital Management & Advisors, LLC, a private equity firm based in New York. He is a member of the firm’s Private Equity Investment Committee, where he concentrates on making investments in the media and branded consumer product sectors. Mr. Baker is currently serving on the Board of Directors of Jonathan Adler, Blue Man Group, Whalerock Industries and GF Sports Holdings, and was formerly a board member of Airborne, Repucom and Trade Service.

Prior to co-founding GF Capital in 2001, Mr. Baker served as a Senior Vice President of Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder ("A&SB"), where he worked in the Corporate Finance department in addition to managing a number of A&SB corporate development activities. Prior to A&SB, he was an Analyst with Gleacher & Co., an M&A advisory boutique. Mr. Baker has been a featured speaker at several private equity conferences.

Mr. Baker graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (B.S. with honors), and is a member of the National Advisory Board of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ambassador Nouzha Chekrouni
Dr. Nouzha Chekrouni is a Senior Fellow, Advanced Leadership, at Harvard University, who holds a Doctorate degree and a post-graduate Diploma in Linguistics, both from Sorbonne-Nouvelle University in Paris. Her diversified experience combines six years in diplomacy as Ambassador of Morocco in Canada and 22 years in academic, political and union leadership, during which she undertook ground-breaking initiatives in job creation, social justice and solidarity, both nationally and internationally.

Ambassador Chekrouni held several Cabinet-Minister porfolios. As the first woman in the Cabinet’s economic domain responsible for the country’s diaspora affairs, she built strategic levers for international trade, investment and community relations, including initiating the consultations that led to the establishment of Bombardier as an anchor for an aerospace cluster in Morocco. Dr. Chekrouni was also Minister for the Advancement Women, Family and Children Protection, Secretary of State for the Handicapped and Co-Chair of both the Immigration and Foreign Relations Committees. She was a full-Tenured Professor and Chair, French & Foreign Languages in the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences at the University of Meknès; Visiting Professor, Middlebury College in Vermont and Lecturer on Linguistics at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris. As a Vice-President, Socialist International Organization (London, UK), Ambassador Chekrouni played an active role on a host of projects and initiatives (geopolitical, human rights, social justice), all focusing on international, progressive and innovative solidarity for a more equitable and fairer world.

Ambassador Chekrouni is currently incubating, with the support of Harvard faculty and students, the Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute for Progress in Africa (ELIPA).

Dr. Nouzha Chekrouni is teaming up with Professor Jean-François Geneste, Hadrien Lessard, Alain Paul Martin and Dr. Rob Stephens on wide-application innovations, leveraging proven technologies during the current-crisis and the post-COVID-19 harsh environments. As a virtual team, the quintet is marshalling its collective expertise and strategic allies to further advance the practice of innovation, governance, transportation (clean airships) and sustainable mining. It also provides new webinars on today's exemplary team leadership and innovation skills, applying Harvard University Global System^™ (HUGS), among other instruments to excel in value incubation, creation and high-performance delivery under social-distancing and hybrid teams (both virtual and face-to-face teams).

Isabèle Chevalier is President of Bio K+ International Inc., a leading company in the research, innovation, manufacturing and retail of probiotics. She is an experienced leader in manufacturing, R&D, sales and marketing in the health food, drug and mass retail sector in Canada and the United States. Mrs. Chevalier is a woman of passion and determination who has held all positions in the company and is now driving for its next level of development.

Bio K+ International grew from 8 employees to over a hundred, and expanded its market from Québec-based natural-food-stores to a network of hospitals and clinics, natural-food stores and grocery and pharmacy chains, across the U.S. and Canada. It owes its success to innovation, rigor, exemplary leadership and a dedicated professional team. By continuously pursuing research, optimizing its product’s quality and effectiveness, the company gained outstanding results in the fight against intestinal and infectious diseases and successfully obtained the first worldwide claim on C. Difficile acquired infections. Mrs. Chevalier has been involved in every step of the growth and played an active role in all aspects of the company from accounting to research, production, sales and marketing, customer service, IT and distribution. Through time, she has led the strategic vision, developed and launched product lines, managed and supervised budgets, timelines and teams both in Canada and the U.S. She ingrained a new culture of communication within the organization, implemented training programs, gained new distribution in key markets and segments, enforced better control systems through implementation of CRM and Salesforce accountability generating better velocity and growth.

Isabèle Chevalier holds a Master's in Management from the University of Montreal's HEC business school. Involved in a host of pro-bono activities, she takes to heart children and health involving herself to make a difference in people’s lives and in her community.

Dr. Emmanuel Duplàa is a professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, specialized in information and communication technology (ICT) for learning. After earning a BA in mathematics and a master’s degree in cognitive sciences, he completed a PhD in education on the unconscious dimensions of online relationships in the context of e-Learning. He participated in different projects on ergonomic design and planning (Institut de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique in France), on e-learning (Télécom-ParisTech and Centre d’Études Supérieures Industrielles) and training aspects of e-Health (TÉLUQ, the distance learning arm of the University of Quebec). He is currently conducting research at the Faculty of Education on digital literacy, on design processes in e-learning and on educational video games (in partnership with the School of Information Technology and Engineering).

Dr. Ismahane Elouafi is the Director General of the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), a cutting-edge research organization with a team of international scientists conducting applied R&D to improve agricultural productivity and sustainability in marginal and saline environments. Previously, Dr. Elouafi was Director of the Research Management and Partnerships Division at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Senior Advisor to the Assistant Deputy Minister of Research at the Federal Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food (AAFC) in Canada. She has also worked as a scientist with Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), the International Center for Agricultural Research and Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the International Maize and Wheat Center (CIMMYT).

Dr. Elouafi holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from Cordoba University (Spain) and has a passion for science, its leadership and management and its integration with policy. She considers science as fundamental to decisions and sustainable-development plans necessary to achieve the innovations and efficiencies to alleviate discrimination and poverty.

Dr. Elouafi is a recipient of many international awards, including the Excellence in Science award from the Global Thinkers Forum (2014), and the National Reward Medal by His Majesty Mohamed VI, the King of Morocco (2014). In 2014, Muslim Science ranked Dr. Elouafi among the 20 Most Influential Women in Science in the Islamic World under the Shapers category, and the CEO-Middle East Magazine listed her among the World's 100 Most Powerful Arab Women in the Science category.

A mathematician, a physicist and a broad-spectrum engineer, Professor Geneste spent 33 years in the aerospace field, including writing the satellite roadmap for Astrium Telecommunications, before being appointed Chief Scientific Director of Airbus Group, a position he held for 10 years. In this role, he was in charge of the group's overall scientific roadmap for 20 years and beyond. He was also responsible for the careers of the overall Airbus Group's technical experts and their recruitment.

Throughout his experience before and at the Airbus Group, Professor Geneste has proven his ability to address deep and complex problems in diverse areas to the satisfaction of key stakeholders: clients, shareholders peers and other stakeholders, including the supply chains and other institutional organizations. He has designed and produced a host of exceptional and disruptive prototypes; sold them to clients; and been recognized both as an outstanding scientist and an opinion leader.

Among his unclassified achievements, he designed tropospheric and stratospheric airships, a new launcher and a stratospheric platform. He also studied indepth the fractionating of satellites and the issue of "responsive space".

Jean-François Geneste was also invited for two years, as an international expert and professor of innovation and entrepreneurship, to the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (founded, in Moscow, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Professor Geneste is working with Dr. Nouzha Chekrouni, Hadrien Lessard, Alain Paul Martin, and Dr. Rob Stephens on wide-application innovations, leveraging proven technologies during the current-crisis and the post-COVID-19 harsh environments. As a virtual team, the quintet is marshalling its collective expertise and strategic allies to further advance the practice of innovation, governance, transportation (clean airships) and sustainable mining. It also provides new webinars on today's exemplary team leadership and innovation skills, applying Harvard University Global System^™ (HUGS), among other instruments to excel in value incubation, creation and high-performance delivery under social-distancing and hybrid teams (both virtual and face-to-face teams).

Dr. Reyes Tamez Guerra is a leading scientist and an international authority on education and leadership. A 2012 Harvard Fellow in Advanced Leadership. Dr. Tamez served as Secretary of Education both in the national cabinet of President Vincente Fox and for the State of Nuevo León where he also was President of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León (UANL). A recipient of the Jorge Rosenkranz National Prize in Medical Research, Dr. Tamez co-authored two immunochemistry books, has presented over 120 papers at national and international conferences and has published over 30 articles in several national and international journals. He graduated from the Autonomous University of Nuevo León in 1975 with a bachelor’s in Chemistry, Biology and Parasitology and received both a master’s degree and a doctorate’s in immunology at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN). Later on he did a postdoctoral residency at the Institute of Cancerology and Immunogenetics at Villejuif (France) and was inducted into the Mexican Academy of Sciences in 2001.

Dr. Cecilia Kindelàn is concurrently Associate Director, MBA Program, IESE Business School in Barcelona; Director of the MBA Exchange Program & International Affairs; and Secretary General, Fundación Excelencia, where she works with the Board of Trustees (24 Nobel prize-winners, former heads of state/government and eminent experts) and organizes multidisciplinary conferences and events on leadership, science and technology, bringing together these dignitaries and university students. Previously, she was the Vice Principal of the Spanish Association of Corporate Directors and CEOs (AED); Director of Postgraduate Programs Sek International University in Ecuador, focusing on the creation and implementation of new graduate degrees; and Professor & Researcher in the Faculty of Communication. In Canada, Dr. Kindelàn led a strategic project for Saint-Paul University’s Rector, developing a new degree-granting curriculum (Social-Solidarity Economy) and advising the Rector and the Deans in strategic planning and international opportunities for the University. She also led the communications portfolio of Universia which is co-owned worldwide by a consortium of 1100 universities. Early in her career, Dr. Kindelàn led the development of the international communication and marketing strategy for the internet company iBest in Mexico, Brazil and Spain.

Dr. Kindelàn holds a Doctorate’s, Summa Cum Laude, in Comunication from the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a Master’s in Leadership & Strategic Management from IESE Business School (University of Navarra), a Law Degree from the National University of Distance Education (UNED) and a Degree in Information Sciences & Communication from University San Pablo, a Master’s in Corporate Communication Management from Complutense University.

Sophie L’Hélias began her career as an M&A attorney in New York and Paris. She later joined an event-driven hedge fund in New York as Managing Director and founded a strategic corporate governance advisory firm. An expert on governance issues, she co-founded the International Corporate Governance Network (www.ICGN.org), today’s leading global investor-led governance organization, where she had several roles. Sophie L’Hélias recently founded LeaderXXchange™ in the United States, which collaborates with institutional investors, business leaders and other market participants to promote diversity on corporate boards worldwide.

Author of the book “Le Retour de l’Actionnaire” (“The Shareholder Comeback”), Ms. L’Hélias has frequently had articles published in Europe, the United States and Canada and is a regular speaker at international business and academic forums on international corporate governance, shareholder activism and board diversity.

Sophie L’Hélias is an inactive member of the New York and Paris Bars. She holds an MBA from INSEAD, an LLM from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Masters of Laws from the law schools of the University of Pantheon-Sorbonne- Paris I, following law studies at the University of Saarbrücken, Germany.

Sophie L’Hélias is a Senior Fellow at economic, strategic or governance think tanks in the United States including the Conference Board, Governance Center and the Samuel Heyman Center for Corporate Governance at Cardozo Law School in New York. She has been a member of Sciences-Po US Foundation in New York and the Board of Governors of the University of Ottawa, Canada. Since 2016, she is an independent director in the board of Kering SA, a company listed on Euronext Paris and a world leader in apparel and accessories that manages the development of a series of renowned Houses in Fashion, Leather Goods, Jewelry and Watches: Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, Dodo, Qeelin, Ulysse Nardin, Girard-Perregaux, as well as Kering Eyewear. In 2017, Kering had nearly 29,000 employees and a revenue exceeding €10 billion.

Hadrien Lessard has made a remarkable contribution to the Canadian aerospace industry. He is among the very few technical leaders who combine advanced education with cutting-edge expertise in leadership skills and innovative aircraft-engineering talent in propulsion, aerodynamics, structure, aircraft systems and flight simulation, in commercial, business and military jets.

Armed with a Masters in Aerospace Engineering and Management from the University of Glasgow (Scotland), an engineering degree from the École Polytechnique of Montréal and an MBA from HEC Montréal, all of which with distinguished scholarships, Hadrien currently leads the deliveries of Textron's full flight simulators to airlines and flight training centers around the world.

Mr. Lessard started his professional experience as structural engineer on the Canadian F-18 Hornet at L3 MAS, a leading aerospace defence company. He went on to Bombardier in his role as project manager, leading different aircraft certification campaigns. He worked notably on the certification of the A220 (former CSeries), which now became one of Airbus' flagship products.

Hadrien Lessard works in French and English, has a comprehensive fluency of Spanish and a basic knowledge of Vietnamese. He is teaming up with Dr. Nouzha Chekrouni, Professor Jean-François Geneste, Alain Paul Martin and Dr. Rob Stephens on wide-application innovations, leveraging proven technologies during the current-crisis and the post-COVID-19 harsh environments. As a virtual team, the quintet is marshalling its collective expertise and strategic allies to further advance the practice of innovation, governance, transportation (clean airships) and sustainable mining. It also provides new webinars on today's exemplary team leadership and innovation skills, applying Harvard University Global System^™ (HUGS), among other instruments to excel in value incubation, creation and high-performance delivery under social-distancing and hybrid teams (both virtual and face-to-face teams).

Gabriel-M. Lessard is a retired career diplomat who has served as Canadian Ambassador to Vietnam and Ethiopia and held postings in Switzerland and throughout Africa, involving trade policy, personnel management and the United Nations. In the Department of External Affairs (now Global Affairs), Ambassador Lessard held several positions in the fields of human rights, Israeli-Arab relations, human-resource management and the United Nations. He was Director of Francophonie Affairs, Deputy Executive Director and Director of Global Issues of the Intelligence Assessment Secretariat of the Government of Canada. While on leave from the government from 1977 to 1980, he worked for Alcan Aluminum in Aix-en-Provence, covering Africa and the Middle East.

Active in several pro-bono community services, Ambassador Lessard is currently President of the “Association Richelieu Fondateur”, Former Secretary of “Fondation Montfort” and Member and Former President of “le Comité Juno-Canada”. He is also interested in arts, literature and music and is a designer and producer of artistic stained glass panels.

Ambassador Lessard received the Peacekeeping and Service Vietnam medals for his participation in the International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICSC), and decorated with “l’Ordre du mérite des arts des lettres et de la communication” of Burkina Faso and the insignia For Peace and Friendship between Nations of Vietnam. Ambassador Lessard holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science & Economics and a Master’s in International Relations from Laval University. He is an Executive-Program alumnus of London Business School.

Dr. Panicker is the founder and CEO at SparkHealth; an innovation group, based in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), dedicated to bringing proven and sustainable big-data analytics and artificial-intelligence (AI) solutions to healthcare.

The group provides mentorship, global-distribution networks and support to mobilize funding (Series A and B rounds) for young innovative technology companies that have proven product and market. It also offers professional development to leaders of innovative companies and healthcare ecosystems (payers, providers) to facilitate acceptance and implementation of these technologies. Through a collaborative initiative with Cureus, it provides an open-access publishing platform for researchers based in the EU, the USA and Asia.

Dr. Panicker is a medical doctor who ran her clinics in Mumbai, India. Having accrued five years of experience in hospital and clinical medicine, she moved to the Netherlands and obtained a Master’s in International Health from the Vrije University (VU) in Amsterdam. Since this graduate degree was offered across tropical-education member institutions, Dr. Panicker honed her skills in shaping strategy and implementation in public health across several European universities besides VU Amsterdam; namely, the University College of London (UCL, United Kingdom), the Rupert-Karls University in Heidelberg (Germany) and the University of Bergen (Norway).

In 2012, Dr. Panicker founded, in the Netherlands, the Monad Health Consultancy in public health with special focus on Corporate Social Responsibility in middle- and low-income countries, largely for India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Her work involved services to public-health NGOs from Southeast Asia and select countries in Africa and to agencies such as Unilever, FHI360, Algeos, Agha Khan Foundation, Save the Children, UNFDP and the World Bank. Her projects included policy debates in health sectors, international development, public-private partnerships in Asia, advanced planning, monitoring, evaluation and SMART analysis in healthcare programs.

As project coordinator and facilitator, Dr. Panickere has partnered with the Ministry of Health in India and academic hospitals in designing field trials for point-of-care screening in infectious diseases and big-data analytic studies. She is a member of the editorial board of the Global Journal of Medicine and Public Health.

Dr. Irene Porro brings to the Board an unwavering commitment to social justice, a wealth of scientific and pedagogical expertise and a diversified experience including managerial and entrepreneurial leadership. She is the Director of the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for integrated Science Learning at Framingham State University.

Dr. Porro combines research skills in physics and astrophysics with an interdisciplinary approach to education. Over the years, Dr. Porro developed a deep understanding of the issues in formal science education and a strong expertise in informal science education. She also pursued important collaborations with educators and scientists at local and national universities, science centers and out-of-school time organizations. For the past fifteen years, she has had regular opportunities to teach at the undergraduate level for teacher professional-development programs and courses for non-science majors.

A native of Torino, Italy, Dr. Porro received her Ph.D. in Space Science and Technology from the University of Padova (Italy). Before entering the field of education, she was a researcher in astrophysics at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge (MA), and the Max Planck Institut für Astronomie in Heidelberg (Germany). She then joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she became the Director of the Education and Outreach Group of the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. She is an alumna of the International Space University, an international education program that specializes in providing graduate-level training to the future leaders of the emerging global space community.

Dr. Porro strongly supports the integration of artistic and science learning experiences, where both the arts and the sciences are fully respected and valued. She is also a Design Team leader at the Central Square Public Charter School (Lynn, MA) which promotes a project-based and integrated learning environment and the development of social entrepreneurship skills. The aim of the School is to implement, test and disseminate educational strategies based on sound research in pedagogy, psychology and education. These strategies are accomplished in accordance with the needs of local communities to allow all children, and especially those who struggle in a traditional education setting, to fully develop into lifelong learners and productive members of society.

Ivan Shumkov has taught at Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), New York University, Pratt Institute School of Architecture, Parsons the New School for Design, International University of Catalonia, and ETSA Barcelona. A New York based architect, entrepreneur, professor, scholar and curator, he is a pioneer in online education and founder of the BUILD ACADEMY, providing professional education for the building industry. He graduated with masters’ degrees from ETSA Barcelona, University of Florence, and Harvard University GSD, as a Fulbright scholar. He earned his PhD in Architecture in 2009 at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and Columbia University GSAPP, as fellow of the Fondation Le Corbusier.

He served as a member of the Board of Directors of Harvard Alumni Association 2011-14 and as founding president of Harvard Architectural and Urban Society Alumni 2008-14. Dr. Shumkov is a licensed architect in Spain and Italy and principal of ISA - Ivan Shumkov Architects, a company working in the fields of architecture, urbanism, landscape and design with offices in New York. He has worked, lectured and exhibited his projects and research in Europe, Brazil, Colombia, China, and the USA.

With a PhD in nanotechnology and a track record in directing engineers and scientists, Dr. Rob Stephens is a strategic thought leader and an innovator in the mining and advanced materials industries with international experience in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. He has thirty years of technical and strategic leadership, culminating in six years as Director, Applied Research and Technology (ART) for Teck (Canada's largest diversified resources company), and including a decade supporting the development of innovation ecosystems in Canada. Dr. Stephens continues to provide expertise in minerals and materials processing, non-destructive testing, aviation, professional development, and venture capital.

During twenty years with Teck, Dr. Stephens built and led large, diverse teams of internal and external technology specialists and vendors to advance and integrate technologies to solve Teck's complex challenges. With a budget of $10-25 million, his ART team of forty engineers, scientists, and technicians, a third of whom had doctoral degrees and supported by an extended team of thirty external experts. The team worked on a broad portfolio of technical projects and programs, ranging from advances in ore body knowledge, coal, oil sands and mineral processing technologies to environmental sustainability. Its hallmark was the ability to rapidly learn new technical disciplines to integrate ideas and partial solutions from a wide range of sources and become experts in the required disciplines.

Dr. Stephens' expertise ranges from foresight and strategy development, people and team development, technology and innovation management, environmental and climate change technologies, to ore body knowledge, advanced materials and minerals processing, and metals smelting and refining.

Dr. Stephens has been a director for not-for-profit organizations, leader in professional societies, and a member of oversight boards for complex technical programs, as well as significant capital projects. He played a national leadership role in developing collaborative innovation ecosystems through participation in the Canada Mining Innovation Council (CMIC), engagement with numerous universities and science and technology organizations such as Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the National Research Council (NRC), and advising on government policy and program directions.

Dr. Rob Stephens is teaming up with Dr. Nouzha Chekrouni, Professor Jean-François Geneste, Hadrien Lessard and Alain Paul Martin, on wide-application innovations, leveraging proven technologies during the current-crisis and the post-COVID-19 harsh environments. As a virtual team, the quintet is marshalling its collective expertise and strategic allies to further advance the practice of innovation, governance, transportation (clean airships) and sustainable mining. It also provides new webinars on today's exemplary team leadership and innovation skills, applying Harvard University Global System^™ (HUGS), among other instruments to excel in value incubation, creation and high-performance delivery under social-distancing and hybrid teams (both virtual and face-to-face teams).

Professor Thierry Warin has published extensively on finance, economics and global affairs in refereed journals. He is a Visiting Scholar in Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and Associate Professor, International Business at HEC in Montreal. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the International Trade & Finance Association and a Board-of-Editors’ member of the of International Journal of Economics and Business Research.

Professor Warin is Fellow and Past Vice-President Strategy and International Economics at the Centre for Interuniversity Research and Analysis on Organizations (CIRANO); Researcher and a member of the Steering Committee of the European Union Center of Excellence (EUCE).

At the École Polytechnique of Montréal, he was Associate Professor of International & Financial Economics, Head of the International Projects program, Co-Founder of the Global Management of Technology research group (GMT Lab), Founder of PolyFinances investment fund and Academic Supervisor of PolyMonde (Europe, South Africa and Australia campuses).

Professor Warin was also the Editor-in-Chief of Le Québec International, Co-Founder of Avant-Garde for Young Leaders and Associate Professor of Economics and Director of the International Studies and the International Politics and Economics programs at Middlebury College, Visiting Professor in Beijing’s University of International Business and Economics and Academic Director & Visiting Professor at Guangzhou’s Sun Yat Sen University. Earlier in his career, Professor Warin lectured at the Sorbonne and both HEC and ESSEC in Paris.

Professor Warin holds PhD (Highest Honors) in Monetary Economics and Finance from ESSEC in Paris. He is pro-bono President and co-founder of the NGO Ed’ Haiti and Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Sciences, Technologies and Advanced Studies of Haiti (ISTEAH).