Board of Directors
Patrick Weinmayr
Executive Director
Executive Director, Alberta IoT
Mr. Weinmayr is a seasoned executive with a diverse career spanning over 15 years in the technology sector and another decade in post-secondary education. Mr. Weinmayr’s technology journey has taken him through leadership roles at SMART Technologies, Pivotal CRM, and two startup ventures in optical networking and education. Mr. Weinmayr’s dedication to the community extends to the higher education sector where he held senior management positions at SAIT and NAIT, collaborating closely with industry to shape talent development and education strategies.
His expertise encompasses marketing, international distribution channel management, software product management, alliances, IP and content licensing, and education program development. This unwavering commitment to both technology and education continues to fuel his mission of supporting Alberta’s entrepreneurs in building thriving companies, developing critical talent, and connecting communities across the province.
Victor Lee
Acting Chairperson
CEO, CoreData
Victor is an Engineer turned technology entrepreneur with 25 years in applied computer technologies. He has successfully built companies in safety, commercial real estate, engineering automation, and is currently operating an advanced software development company focused on practical applications in artificial intelligence. Victor has extensive knowledge in emergency health services with projects for the provincial government of Alberta.
In industry, Victor applied computer advancements to oil & gas, mining, power generation, and the ISS Canada arm. Victor has degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and is currently serving as a Director in two startups, CEO of CoreData, Vice Chair of Alberta IOT, and Chief Technology Officer & Co-Founder of LevellingUp.
Laine Hotte
Secretary
Director of Development, Geoforce Canada
Mr. Hotte joined Geoforce Canada in 2020 as part of the acquisition of Trakopolis IoT Corp, where he previously served as Chief Technology Officer and continues to work with his team by leading the Geoforce Canada technology department focused on research and development, cross-company engineering initiatives and collaboration in the world of IoT/M2M focused on evolving visibility for customers using sensors and connectivity. Prior to his time in the world of IoT, Laine worked for 15 years in software architecture and development for several large scale commerce integrations and business system applications across many different companies such as the American Heart Association, Cablevision Systems Corporation, US Homeland Security, Hyatt Hotels, and Verisign.
Working as a founding member and volunteer Director of the Alberta IoT Association (AIOT), Mr. Hotte works to fulfill the AIOT’s vision by promoting collaborative projects and membership engagement in a variety of topics related to his work with Trakopolis and the expanding association of technology driven companies.
Mr. Hotte holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computing Science from the University of Alberta.
Steve Liang
Director
Founder & CTO, SensorUp
Dr. Steve Liang is a global influencer and change maker of Internet of Things. Steve is the founder and CTO of SensorUp, and an associate professor who holds an IoT research chair at the University of Calgary. Dr. Liang is chairing and the editor of several key IoT enabling standards in Open Geospatial Consortium and UN’s ITU-T. Dr. Steve Liang’s leading edge research and product development efforts are designed to unlock the full potential of the IoT by transforming heterogeneous “silo-ed” IoT systems into a homogeneous IoT system of systems. For example, Steve is the editor of the OGC SensorThings API, an IoT cloud API standard that has been widely implemented around the world for applications ranging from homeland security, logistics, smart cities to energy.
Steve is recognized as a thought leader, especially in IoT and geospatial technologies. Dr. Liang has published more than 60 research publications, and delivered more than 100 invited talks in more than ten countries around the world. Dr. Liang also received numerous pretisgeous awards, include Killam Emerging Research Leader Award, Calgary’s Top 40 under 40, the SSE Early Research Excellence Award, the SSE Research Excellence Award, University of Calgary’s Peak Scholar Award, and more. He served on the prestigious Council of Canadian Academies’ expert panel on Enabling Sustainability in an Interconnected World, Competing in a Global Innovation Economy: The Current State of R&D in Canada, and US Transportation Research Board’s report on Connected Airport and the Internet of Things.
Wilson Howe
Director
President & CEO, Symroc Business and Project Management
The president and CEO of Symroc, Wilson Howe, is a highly skilled engineering and business management professional with a track record of success in developing and improving projects for industrial operations. Wilson has obtained significant industrial experience in Oil and Gas exploration, production, oilsands development, chemical/petrochemical and power industries. Wilson is a Professional Engineer registered with APEGA, a certified PMP and has received his MBA with the University of Alberta. Wilson is also an original founder and a board member of Alberta IOT association.
Matt Eskandar
Director
President, MR Control Systems International
As one of the original founders of Alberta IoT Association, Matt has been one of the key players to help the IoT Association to grow in Alberta and abroad. Currently, as a Director, Matt serves on the Alberta IoT board of directors.
Matt Eskandar is also the President of MR Control Systems International Inc. ( www.mrcsi.com ). Matt’s extensive experience in monitoring, control and automation projects worldwide has inspired him to develop a new generation of Monitoring and Control platform that merges Industrial IoT with SCADA Systems. This new platform has allowed MR Control Systems to provide software platform to help companies with their IT/OT convergence solutions.
In 2012, Matt also started the Southern Alberta IEEE Control Systems and Instrumentation joint chapters. As a key committee member, Matt has helped this chapter to grow its membership to over 1000 members and supporters in Southern Alberta.
Matt is an active member of IEEE, APEGA and APEGBC associations.
Tom Groenland
Director
CEO, mcThings
Tom Groenland is the CEO and founder of mcThings and founding member of the Alberta IoT association. He has been integral to bringing several IoT products to market including medical and consumer devices. mcThings has built an ultra-low power, enterprise grade IoT hardware platform designed to vastly lower the overall cost of ownership for IoT solutions. The system is being used in applications like livestock monitoring, construction, supply chain management and many others.
Andy McGirr, M. Sc., P. Eng.
Director
CEO, Aurora Wireless Networks
A graduate of Queen’s University. Andy’s career includes Bell Northern Research (Nortel) developing analog, digital and radio frequency hardware for digital transmission and exploratory wireless systems, including the first T1 transceiver on a chip. Andy joined NovAtel in 1987 and became manager of the Antennas & Propagation Group and then Technical Program Manager for RF data products. His groups produced several successful products as well as a host of research and development tools, patents and publications. In 1992 Andy co-founded Murandi Communications in 1992 – doing global wireless product development & associated research. Andy was a co-founder of Aurora Wireless Networks in 2014 – focussed on ultra energy efficient long range IoT wireless data applications. Andy is both a Director and CEO.