Human Technology Alliance Institute
People and partners
HTAI is built around a network spanning research, technical implementation, governance, capital formation, founder support, and strategic infrastructure.
People
Founder and AI/ML Researcher
Sarah founded HTAI and Kripke AI. Sarah has a background in logic, mathematics, privacy law, cybersecurity, and computer science, including as a SME for ISC2. Her AI governance work focuses on cybersecurity, privacy, auditability, interoperability, access to information, model governance, the preservation of human dignity, and the empowerment of the public and public servants through responsible AI education, research, and deployment.
Legal, regulatory, and interdisciplinary research
Matthew is a lawyer, author, and interdisciplinary scholar with two PhDs spanning history, philosophy, social science, religion, and semiotics, an LLB, and an MSc in Regulation from the London School of Economics. He has practised law in British Columbia and worked in strategy and business development for legal technology. His current research includes forthcoming co-authored work with Professor Terrence Deacon of UC Berkeley.
Post-secondary technology and research support
Roman is a University of Toronto computer science alumnus who works at the University of Toronto in Information Technology Services, with experience supporting networking, data centres, cybersecurity, research computing, post-secondary technology environments, and institutional coordination.
Applied research and technical sales architecture
Camilo is a Canadian-certified inventor and PhD candidate researching AI safety. He brings applied computer science and technical architecture experience spanning SQL, AWS, IBM Watson Cloud, Google Cloud, proof-of-concept deployments, and global technical sales cycles. His work was selected for the Shenzhen Innovation Competition, where he represented Canadian innovation in an international showcase organized in partnership with the City of Toronto and Shenzhen. He has also participated in Canadian commercialization programs through the DMZ at Toronto Metropolitan University and MaRS Discovery District, connecting AI safety research, cloud infrastructure, commercialization, and applied innovation ecosystems.
Partners and advisors
AI governance, privacy, cybersecurity, and auditability partner
Kripke AI develops foundation models and governance technology, including the Universe Model research program, with applications including in natural sciences, law, and defence. Kripke’s work advancing the natural sciences is reflected in its role as AI advisor and use-case partner to an established Bay Area natural-sciences lab for its application to the Genesis Mission. Kripke’s natural-sciences division has spoken at AGI House on automated research in the natural sciences, and its legal software work was a finalist at the Stanford CodeX LLM x Law Hackathon. Kripke contributes model-agnostic tooling for auditability, traceability, interoperability, privacy-aware workflows, and public-sector evaluation.
Founder ecosystem and commercialization partner
Connection Silicon Valley brings more than a decade of work at the intersection of entrepreneurship, innovation ecosystems, commercialization, and global market access. Led by Joanne Fedeyko, it has supported more than 600 Canadian founders across technology, AI, life sciences, and emerging sectors through founder immersion programs, commercialization support, cross-border market access, strategic introductions, ecosystem convenings, expert and investor engagement, talent-retention strategy, and Silicon Valley connectivity for Canadian companies and researchers.
Human data infrastructure and Canadian founder ecosystem partner
Kaius is building human data infrastructure for advanced AI systems, focused on high-quality, real-world human data for AI labs, robotics companies, enterprises, and builders developing more capable, adaptive, and globally representative models. Kaius was founded by Nadia Genevieve Masri, a Toronto-born Canadian entrepreneur, five-time founder, and inventor with patents in bot prevention and mobile data-collection user experience.
Nadia brings HTAI experience in company building, Canadian founder support, multimodal data, human intelligence, user experience, machine-learning infrastructure, and commercialization. Her C100 affiliation and Canadian ecosystem relationships add founder and community access relevant to HTAI’s broader research and ecosystem work. Her work strengthens the institute’s focus on human-centered AI, responsible deployment, public-benefit technology, and the data systems needed for AI that reflects real-world human context across sectors and communities. She has been recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30, CNBC’s Top 100 Startups, and Flybridge’s Top 100 Women in AI.
University of Waterloo-connected research compute partner
ShadowStack is a Waterloo, Ontario technical partner whose team includes mathematics researchers and published academics conducting research at the University of Waterloo, with involvement in university governance and familiarity with academic research obligations, intellectual-property considerations, protection of research, teaching, and learning at Canadian post-secondary institutions, successful commercialization of technology, and the diversity of AI use cases. ShadowStack operates as a fractional CTO and technical staffing partner across high-performance computing, statistics, optimization, cybersecurity, technical diligence, staffing, and researcher-facing implementation.
Sovereign AI, AI infrastructure, life sciences, and Asia-Pacific advisor
Damien is a Stanford graduate and co-founder of Revelis Bio, a Stanford AI-for-drug-discovery and genomics spin-off with exit experience. He is a GP advisor with MirAI Venture Funds at Whiz Partners, a Japan-linked investment group founded by Japanese industry leaders with approximately $900M AUM and focused on AI infrastructure and life sciences. He has advised UCSF startups, served on the Wedu board, led AI investment and product strategy work at Mastercard, worked in venture impact investing at Omidyar Network, held private-equity roles at Aureos Capital / Abraaj, supported Asia Fund growth and healthcare exits, advised EDBI on biotech-hub development in Singapore, and built international networks across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, including connections to Mila and the Vector Institute.
Strategic Advisor, International Ecosystem & Capital Development
Julius is a German founder, investor, and ecosystem builder based in San Francisco. He supports HTAI with sovereign-AI alignment, international strategic development, foreign-investment relationships, capital formation, and partnerships connecting Canada, Germany, and the wider technology ecosystem. His work spans founder and investor communities, frontier technology, talent development, and cross-border company building.
Julius helps lead the AGI House community in San Francisco. His experience connecting founders, researchers, investors, and international partners supports HTAI’s work in allied sovereign-AI ecosystems, strategic capital, and the development of durable pathways between research and deployment.
Grant writing, partnerships, market development, and data-centre ecosystem advisor
Brigitte supports HTAI with grant writing, strategic partnerships, market development, commercial strategy, M&A, business development, public/private funding strategy, and Canadian data-centre ecosystem development. She brings experience advising early-stage companies, building business models and go-to-market strategies, supporting fundraising initiatives, and participating in ecosystem work connected to data-centre build-out pathways in small towns in Canada.
Strategic Advisor, Technology Infrastructure & Supply Chain Development
Michael Kocourek is a mechanical engineer and strategic advisor with more than 28 years of experience supporting the development, procurement, and deployment of advanced technology infrastructure throughout Canada. He has worked with hospitals, universities, government agencies, data centers, telecommunications providers, and private-sector organizations, developing a broad network across technology, infrastructure, and construction ecosystems.
His expertise spans the full lifecycle of large-scale digital infrastructure projects, including strategic planning, supply-chain development, technology sourcing, procurement optimization, preferred pricing and sourcing pathways, data-center infrastructure, power systems, networking, storage, server platforms, software solutions, systems integration, operational readiness, and scalable deployment. He maintains established relationships with manufacturers, distributors, integrators, infrastructure providers, engineers, construction professionals, technology architects, and operational experts, supporting access to current technologies, best-in-class resources, efficient procurement pathways, competitive sourcing, and practical guidance from concept through deployment and ongoing operations.
Artist-in-Residence and Ecosystem Advisor
Kourosh brings more than 14 years of professional artistic practice alongside arts and culture advisory, international ecosystem scouting, venture sourcing, market access, strategic introductions, and business-development work across AI, software, advanced materials, infrastructure, energy, and defence-adjacent industrial networks.