Biography
Andrew Csinger sits on the advisory and governance boards of several high technology firms and non-profits, and provides a variety of business and technology consulting services. Dr. Csinger is Entrepreneur in Residence at the Engine Accelerator in the McGill University Faculty of Engineering, and Director of the knowledge mobilization network SERENE-RISC. Dr. Csinger was also Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of British Columbia, where he divided his attention between fostering entrepreneurialism and lecturing on the subject of Digital Trust. He is a graduate of the INSEAD International Corporate Governance Program (IDP-C 2017).
Andrew was co-founder and Managing Director at MineSense Technologies Ltd. (www.minesense.com) – a technology spinout from UBC that could play a significant role in transforming the mining industry, and was a member of CRC ORE’s Technical Advisory Panel delivering strategic advice and guidance on international mining research projects and technology transfer activities. Andrew is a member of the MITACS Research Committee. He holds several patents in internet security, biometrics, mining technology and related areas. Andrew currently serves on the IEEE P2863 Working Group: Organizational Governance of AI.
Earlier in his career, Andrew was Chief Information Officer at Group Telecom where he built the back office and IT infrastructure from two to over a hundred people, relocated the entire group from Vancouver to Toronto as part of the company’s head office move, and managed a yearly budget in the tens of millions of dollars. Also at GT, he operated the first PKI Certification Authority and Repository to be licensed under Washington State Digital Signature legislation. This seminal work influenced the later adoption of federal U.S. law (the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act of 2000, or “E-Sign Act”), and was an early model for the adoption by other states of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA). GT’s successful initial public offering took place in March 1999.
In 1996, he founded Xcert Software Inc., a technology leader in the emerging business of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), and was CEO until early 1998. PKI is a robust technical solution to the basic security problems associated with communications on open networks, providing a business and technology platform for the delivery of secure value added services including modern blockchain platforms. Xcert was acquired in 2001 by RSA Technologies Inc.
Andrew received his Ph.D. and M.Sc. Degrees in Computer Science from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from McGill University. His work on artificial intelligence techniques has been published in journals and conferences around the world. He was a visiting scholar at the German Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) in Saarbrücken and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Post-Doctoral Fellow at Simon Fraser University. His research interests continue in the area of user-modeling and identity management.
Andrew’s mission is to create value in a culture of respect. Though he respects the balance sheet, he strives to reach beyond the merely fiscal demands of corporate governance.