Jon Dogterom has been named the new senior vice-president of venture services at the MaRS Discovery District.
Dogterom replaces former president of venture services, Salim Teja, who departed in May to join Radical Ventures, a $471 million AI fund led by Layer 6 co-founder Jordan Jacobs. The former managing director of MaRS’ Cleantech practice, Dogterom will lead the Toronto-based hub’s strategy for helping startups scale and manage stakeholder relations.
“Our innovation ecosystem has grown exponentially in recent years and it’s gaining traction internationally.”
“I’m thrilled about the opportunity and challenge ahead of me,” said Dogterom. “My priorities are to fuel success across the tech ecosystem, here in Toronto and across Canada. The companies we work with solve real problems for real people, and they have tremendous potential to grow the economy and make a positive social impact.”
In his former role, Dogterom recruited cleantech startups to MaRS, and helped launch the hub’s Advanced Energy Centre, a public-private partnership which focused on innovation energy programs and strengthening international relationships to drive exports.
“Jon was instrumental in helping Canada’s cleantech sector grow both domestically and internationally through his work at MaRS, and because of that influence and exceptional leadership, he was a natural choice to lead our entire venture services team,” said Yung Wu, CEO of MaRS. “Our innovation ecosystem has grown exponentially in recent years and it’s gaining traction internationally. I’m excited to see what Jon can bring to the table to accelerate the important work MaRS is doing for the Canadian economy.”
RELATED: MaRS may see layoffs as province continues with tech funding cutbacks
Along with Dogterom’s position change MaRS also announced a shuffle of its venture services leadership team, with some existing staff promoted to roles with more responsibility. The news follows a BetaKit report in May that a 30 percent provincial budget cut to MaRS’ funding could lead to layoffs. The innovation hub has since told BetaKit, however, that there have been “no other moves,” since it first hinted at the potential layoffs.
With the shuffle, the current leadership team includes:
- Krista Jones is leading scale programming across all MaRS sectors. The Toronto organization was among three innovation hubs that received federal funding totalling $52.4 million, tasked with implementing the government’s Scale-Up program. Jones was the former managing director of MaRS Enterprise.
- Jane Kearns will lead start and grow programming across all MaRS sectors, focusing on early-stage companies. She was formerly a senior advisor at MaRS Cleantech.
- Richard Blundell is now the managing director of MaRS Cleantech. He is the former senior director of corporate innovation networks at MaRS.
- Oshoma Momah is managing director of MaRS Tech, which includes technologies like 5G, autonomous vehicles, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and enterprise. He was previously the chief technical advisor at MaRS.
- Roy Kao is now managing director of MaRS Fintech.
- Ying Tam is now managing director of MaRS Health.
- Jason MacFarlane has become managing director of MaRS Advanced Manufacturing.
- Jon Worren is currently leading MaRS venture services programming;
- Susan McLean will lead MaRS venture services operations.