Alik Sokolov, Co-Founder & CEO
Alik’s experience spans the fields of finance and AI in industry and academia. Alik spent 6 years in Deloitte consulting as an ML team lead, and a year at Mithril Capital as a venture capitalist investor.
He is also an accomplished researcher, having published works on applying deep learning to financial time series as well as for ESG investing. The latter set of algorithms is the backbone of Responsibli.
Joseph Hydoski, Co-Founder & CTO
Joseph’s career began in Deloitte consulting, where he spent 6 years as a software engineer, forensic consultant, and engineering manager. Most recently, Joseph served as a senior engineer and early team member at Irwin, a leading Toronto fintech company.
Joseph has an eclectic engineering skill set including full-stack development, DevOps, big data and databases, as well as specialised skills in natural language processing and event sourcing. He is also an active open-source contributor and an experienced team leader.
Vladimir Golubin, Co-Founder & COO
Before joining Responsibli, Vladimir has spent a decade managing complex end-to-end sales cycles and client relationships. He has an engineering background from the University of Waterloo and is accustomed to promoting sustainability in buildings and infrastructure.
Today, he values the opportunity of improving sustainability and driving impact on a global scale.
Luis Seco, Advisor
Luis is the director of the mathematical finance program and professor of mathematics at the University of Toronto. As an academic, Luis is a known thought-leader and innovator in the field of quantitative finance, with ESG and machine learning being his primary research interests.
He is also the president and CEO of Sigma Analysis and Management, a portfolio management firm that specialises in absolute return products and research. Luis brings deep academic and industrial expertise in finance to our team, as well as his own experience in running successful commercial enterprises with academic roots.
Wendy Knight, Advisor
Wendy, FCPA, is a former vice-president at RBC, ombudsman, and corporate banker with extensive experience in identifying and implementing processes and behavioural standards to support sustainable business growth. Throughout her career, she has leveraged ESG data to drive meaningful changes in sales practices and conduct, and drive more sustainable business and investment decisions.
Wendy is a long-term member of CPA Discipline Committees with a focus on delivering fair and ethical treatment by the CPA membership, and a founding activator of SHEeo, providing financing, learning, mentoring, and networking opportunities to female entrepreneurs.
Bill Tilford, Advisor
Bill is a respected, results-oriented problem solver with deep technical and fundamental skills for building successful investment strategies using big data, AI, and statistical and financial disciplines. He has over 3 decades of investment experience building and leading investment teams at RBC Global Asset Management Inc, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Connor, Clark & Lunn.
During his career, ESG has been a focus in all investment processes from helping manage the Ethical Growth Fund while at CC&L, to managing the Responsible Investment Team at CPPIB. He obtained his master’s in mathematics in 1992, specialised in statistics and finance, and his honours bachelor of mathematics in 1988 – both from the University of Waterloo.
Sedef Akinli Kocak, Advisor
Sedef is a Director of Professional Development at Vector Institute for AI where she develops AI programs for Vector sponsors and partners. She has led several large scale multi-industrial applied AI projects at Vector such as Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, and Privacy Enhancing Technologies. She is listed in “Top 25 Women in AI: Canada Edition” and nominated DMZ Women of the Year Annual Award 2022 for her impact on the Canadian tech ecosystem.
Sedef completed her PhD at in Data Science at Ryerson University, and is an accomplished researcher and academic advisor in the areas of AI and sustainability design in software intensive systems. Sedef also served as a member of the Compute Ontario Board Advisory Committee and AI program development advisor at the Continuing Education, University of Toronto.
Hongwei Liu, Advisor
Hongwei Liu is the CEO of Mappedin, a Waterloo based indoor mapping company working with customers across 40 countries and maintaining a digital source of truth for over 700 million square feet of indoor space. He has led the company’s growth from the founding team to the 85-person operation. Hongwei grew up in Ottawa and studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Waterloo.
Bruce Shewfelt, Advisor
Bruce is the President of Acuity Sales Inc., a company that assists entrepreneurs in developing effective sales strategies and practices. He has extensive experience in sales and management, providing comprehensive coaching to CEOs and sales executives. Bruce also sits on several advisory boards.
Previously, Bruce co-founded Clariti Strategic Advisors and served as Managing Director of Beutel Goodman. He also held senior management positions at Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group and TD Bank Financial Group. During his time at Connor, Clark & Lunn, Bruce headed up institutional sales, growing the company assets under management by $30B and was appointed CEO of Private Capital in 2012.
Bruce is dedicated to giving back to his community and serves on the board of Covenant House Toronto. He also volunteers at MaRs Discovery District, supporting growth-oriented startups in sales strategy, sales process management, and capital raising.