Pascale Nini

Executive chair, Immervision

Conversation: Photonics and its future markets

20 years ago, Pascale Nini seized the opportunity to position herself at the centre of the wide-angle vision trend that was emerging at the time. Pascale Nini’s greatest assets are her innovative vision and leadership. Her company, Immervision, is now a global leader in intelligent vision for all new devices in areas such as mobile telephony, automotive technology, robotics, aerospace, IoT and security.

Sébastien Blais-Ouellette

Founder & President, Photon etc.

Conversation: Photonics and its future markets

Twenty years of innovation in optics. Photon etc. has established itself as a true leader in hyperspectral and infrared imaging systems. The vertical integration of our platforms facilitates better quality control at every stage of production and optimisation for the most niche applications. In addition to our proven product ranges, we are leveraging our expertise and technologies through a growing number of collaborations and partnerships with industry and researchers around the world.

Charles Lespérance

Partner – Deep tech venture fund, BDC

Investments – Strategy, trends and opportunities for the photonics industry

Charles is a Partner in BDC Capital’s Deep Tech Venture Fund, created in 2021. Charles served as Assistant Vice-President Ecosystem Development after he joined BDC Capital in 2016. Previously, Charles worked in private equity at PSP Investments and management consulting at McKinsey & Company where his main functional areas were strategy, operations and finance, with a focus on the mining and oil & gas sectors.

Charles holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University in Montreal as well as an MBA from Harvard University. He also continues to be involved in academia as a guest lecturer on the topic of entrepreneurial finance.

Éric Bolduc

Investments director – venture capital, Desjardins Capital
Investments – Strategy, trends and opportunities for the photonics industry

With a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Royal Military College in Kingston, Éric served as a combat systems engineer in the army, and took part in numerous missions. Before being promoted to manager of a major project, he completed an MBA in finance at HEC Montréal.
Following his retirement from the army in 1999, he became Investment Director of the Innovatech fund, where he made numerous seed investments in various technology companies in the greater Quebec City and Chaudière-Appalaches regions, particularly in optics/photonics, sitting on several boards of directors.
He then spent 10 years working for technology companies, mainly establishing strategic partnerships with various players in America, Europe and Asia.
He joined Desjardins Entreprises in 2016, where he primarily makes investments in Series A equity rounds to propel the commercialization phase of technology companies.

Claude Vachet

Managing Partner, Cycle Capital

Investments – Strategy, trends and opportunities for the photonics industry

Claude is Managing Partner at Cycle Capital – an impact investor and leading cleantech venture capital investment platform with $600M AUM. He has 30 years of operational, Venture Capital and fund management experience of Venture Capital portfolios investing in high tech companies. Over the course of his career, he has built a solid track record of investments, led large team of investment professionals and has been involved in the execution of numerous exits, including GaN Systems who has signed an agreement to be acquired by Infineon AG for 830 m US.

Before joining Cycle Capital, he was Managing Partner of successful teams at both Kirchner and Multiple Capital managing large venture capital funds. He has also worked at Innovatech Montreal as VP of IT&C Portfolio, where he participated in the sale of the portfolio – the largest transaction of a Venture Capital portfolio in Canada with its 108 companies and 15 funds. Early in his career, Claude worked at Degremont in Clean technologies (water, energy and waste).