About the Authors

James W. Hinton is a senior fellow at CIGI, where he contributes expertise on intellectual property (IP) and innovation. He is an IP lawyer, patent agent and trademark agent with his firm Own Innovation. He has worked closely with the Council of Canadian Innovators on Canada’s innovation initiatives and national IP strategy. James is co-founder of the Innovation Asset Collective and a proud supporter of Canadian technology companies. He is also an assistant professor at Western University, where he teaches on the commercialization of innovation.

Mardi Witzel is an associate with NuEnergy.ai and is focused on environmental, social and corporate governance and artificial intelligence governance, and the special challenges facing high-growth firms. She serves on the board of PolyML, a private firm specializing in machine learning and advanced analytics, and has 20 years of experience in not-for-profit board governance, stakeholder engagement and strategic planning.

Joanna Wajda is a former research associate, global economy, at CIGI. She holds a B.A. from the Honours Arts and Business (Economics) Program at the University of Waterloo and an M.A. in economics from the University of Toronto.