Dr. V.I. Lakshmanan is an internationally renowned scientist, innovator, entrepreneur and teacher in the area of technologies for sustainable development. He has more than 40 years of hands-on experience in technology development and commercialization, having successfully guided process technologies from concept through development and demonstration to commercialization for energy (including renewable energy), resources and chemical (including specialty chemical) industries. Dr. Lakshmanan has consistently identified and developed innovative applications in technology commercialization.

Born and educated in India, Dr. Lakshmanan obtained his Ph.D in Chemistry from Bombay University and moved to Canada in 1974 after serving as Lecturer in Minerals Engineering at the University of Birmingham, UK. His corporate experience includes roles in Noranda, Eldorado Nuclear, ORTECH Corporation and Process Research ORTECH, the last of which he founded and guided to become a global leader in sustainable process technologies through its laboratory and pilot plant. He has extensive client contacts and relationships at senior levels with major international corporations, as well as academic and government sectors globally. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lakshmanan is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and Fellow, Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum and holds numerous patents.

Mr. NdoutouMvé holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Dortmund (Germany), with specializations in Environmental Engineering and Particles Technologies. He was a research associate at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Toronto, and R&D scientist in Water Research Engineering at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (US). He is a member of the Association of German Engineers (VDI), PMI and PEO.

Mr. NdoutouMve is a strategic leader and outside thinker, an Agile Project Manager that advocates and promotes responsible transfer of knowledge, Appropriate Technology and (localized) innovation. Jacques has been involved in multimillion USD projects in Africa, Europe and North America, Asia in energy, infrastructure, mining.

Mr. NdoutouMvé is a trisector athlete with 17 years of experience, engagement, and collaboration across the private, public, and social sectors, resulting in creating strong partnerships and impactful projects.

He also serves as Vice-President of the Canada Africa Chamber of Business and Chairman of the SSAHI (US). Native French and Fang (spoken in 5 central African countries) with bilingual proficiency in English, Jacques is also fluent in German, Farsi, with limited working proficiency in Spanish.

Passionate about breaking conventional industry paradigms through value creation and transformational change driven by intelligence and creativity. He combines technology and innovation with talented people to generate tangible solutions for the industry’s most pressing challenges. Respect and the engagement of the environment and communities as partners is paramount to the success of this philosophy. Value creation is at the forefront.

Peter’s career has been devoted in transforming organizations through innovation and delivering highly effective technology solutions within Barrick Gold, Inco (Vale) and Noranda (Glencore). The ability to adjust to working environments and work in teams, while creating long term roadmaps foster value creation in a sustainable way.