Team
Don Simmonds
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Experienced executive and serial entrepreneur, Chairman and CEO of Blyth Group Family Office, member of Canadian Telecommunications Hall of Fame, Chancellor of Crandall University, Director, Baylin Technologies.
Phil Warbrick
Subject Matter Expert
Phil (BSc, BE, ME: Civil, Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering, FEngNZ) is the founder and owner of Synergine Group Limited and is a well recognized practitioner and thought leader in city development, having been extensively involved with the investigation, planning, design, construction and management of cities globally. Phil works closely within industry, academia, Government-to Government relations, and in the sporting world. Phil has a passion football / soccer and was the Manager of the New Zealand men’s team that went to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
Milton Friesen
Managing Director
Milton has served a three-year term as an elected municipal councillor and is completing a Ph.D. at the University of Waterloo School of Planning that is focused on new ways to measure the social fabric of neighbourhoods. He has served on the steering committee of the Thriving Cities Project at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture (University of Virginia) and is a member of the Program Committee for the Computational Social Sciences Society of the Americas, where computer modeling is used to explore the origins and development of inequality.
PAUL HADDADEN
Marketing and Policy Support
Paul is an Urban Consultant and a Senior Project Manager with over 20 years of experience. He managed and worked internationally on a variety of urban projects and programs that are diverse in scale, complexity, stakeholders, and nature. He has a M.Sc. in Urban Planning and Studies, a B.Sc. in Architecture, and is currently completing a Master’s in Theological Studies and urban and Community Development at the University of Toronto. In addition, he has his Certificate in Project Management and Lean Six Sigma and is certified by the United Nations as an entrepreneurship trainer.
Rony Thomas
Data Scientist
Rony joined CitiIQ in July 2019. He has earned an MSc. in Big Data Analytics (Canada) and a B-Tech in Computer Science (India) and spent 16 years as a Software Engineer in the IT industry with IBM UK (Client: Nationwide UK), IBM India (Clients: Nationwide UK, Apple, Nokia Siemens Network, Reliance Jio, IBM Network Analytics Center of Excellence) and Mahindra Comviva India (Clients: Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Awalnet Saudi, Tata Telesoft). Current responsibilities include development of automatic and manual data acquisition for the Global4000 platform, UNHabitat COVID-19 tracker site, implementation of COVID-19 scoring algorithms, Amazon Cloud (AWS) data management and company-wide database design and support. His passions include driving and hiking.
Natalie Richards
Data Collection and Quality
Natalie contributes to developing indicators and data acquisition for the CitiIQ measurement system. She holds a BA in International Development and is completing her M.Sc in Biology (McGill University), in which she investigates the civic and scientific priorities of sustainable development. She has collaborated in establishing and coordinating various research- and education-oriented sustainability initiatives, including Sustainable Canada Dialogues, Climatable, and the National Climate League of Climate Reality Canada. She is also skilled in facilitating techniques of participatory futures thinking and the design of positive solutions within multi-stakeholder groups. Her favourite place to be is on her bike.
Luis Grijalva
Data Analyst
Luis comes from a Chemical Engineering background from his hometown in El Salvador, where he discovered his passion for science-oriented programming. He then came to Canada to pursue a Computer Programmer degree from Durham College, while also working at the AI Hub in the college. During this time, CitiIQ approached the AI Hub with a project to create an automatic scraper and later, a COVID-19 automation effort. He has since then worked on the automatic insertion of data sources for said project and for the 4000 Index ranking as well.
Mackenzie Bent
Global Development Manager
Mackenzie is the manager of Global Development with CitiIQ. Her work advances the application of CitiIQ’s technology across cities, while maintaining a focus on global and regional development challenges. She holds an MSc in International Development Studies from SOAS, University of London (UK) and a BA from the University of Toronto (Canada). She has conducted and collaborated on many projects related to resource management and sustainable development including the valuation of low carbon transformations throughout the world.