Dr. Ron Dembo - Founder & CEO

Dr. Ron Dembo is the Founder and CEO of Zerofootprint. Zerofootprint is a socially responsible enterprise whose mission is to apply technology, design and risk management to the massive reduction of our environmental footprint. Zerofootprint operates both in the for-profit and charitable domains through two entities, Zerofootprint Software and Zerofootprint Foundation using shared technology.

The Zerofootprint Foundation was founded in 2005 to engage communities everywhere in the battle against climate change. It pursues causes that uphold values of sustainable development, risk management, research, and advocacy. The Foundation initiatives involve government (Federal, Provincial and Municipal), educators (universities, elementary and middle schools) and other not-for-profit organizations. Geographical and societal barriers do not limit its vision. Zerofootprint came in first place and won Gold in the Climate Change category at the Canadian Environment Awards in 2008.

Prior to founding Zerofootprint, Dr. Dembo was the Founder, CEO, and President of Algorithmics Incorporated, growing it from a start-up to the largest enterprise risk-management software company in the world, with offices in fifteen countries and over 70% of the world’s top 100 banks as clients. Algorithmics was consistently voted as one of the top 50 best-managed companies in Canada.

Dr. Dembo has also had a distinguished ten-year academic career at Yale University, where he was cross-appointed between the Department of Computer Science and the School of Management. Dr. Dembo has published over sixty technical papers on finance and mathematical optimization, and holds a number of patents in computational finance. Dr. Dembo is the author of three books: Seeing Tomorrow: Rewriting the Rules of Risk, co-authored with Andrew Freedman, published in April 1998; Upside Downside: Simple Rules of Risk Management for the Smart Investor, co authored with Daniel Stoffman, published in March 2006; and Everything You Wanted to Know About Offsetting But Were Afraid to Ask (PDF), co-authored with Clive Davidson, and released in May 2007.

In May 2007, Dr. Dembo was made a lifetime Fields Institute Fellow. This fellowship is awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the Fields Institute, its programs, and to the Canadian mathematical community. In July 2007, Dr. Dembo was inducted as a charter member of the Risk Who’s Who. Dr. Dembo’s alma mater, the University of Waterloo, honoured Dr. Dembo with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. He is also a member of the University of Waterloo’s Deans Advisory Council in the Faculty of Environment, and a member of the Board of Advisors to the President at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. Dr. Dembo is also an advisor to the Board at Mount Sinai Hospital, and is a member of the Board of Governors of University of Toronto’s NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) program. In 2009, Dr. Dembo was appointed to the Steering Committee of the World Urban Campaign, coordinated by UN-Habitat.

He also recently received a Green Toronto Award from the City of Toronto for his work with Zerofootprint, as well as receiving a Certificate of Recognition (PDF), Champion of Green from the Government of Ontario.

Management Team

John Anzin - Chief Financial Officer

John joins Zerofootprint after holding senior financial roles at Fidelity Information Services and Oasis Technology, a privately held software concern. At Fidelity he had financial responsibility for the $100 million annual revenue international business unit and managed a number of acquisitions. He started his career at IBM Canada followed by Kraft Canada. John is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA), holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business (York University), a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University, and is currently completing his CPA (Delaware) designation.

Michael Glenn - Vice President, Chief Technology Officer

Michael has been a passionate user and developer of Internet applications for over 15 years. He holds a computer science degree from The University of Western Ontario and his career has spanned institutions in the areas of academia, private corporations, not-for profit organizations and start-ups. He co-founded the award winning web development firm Radiant Core Inc. and is proud to lead a very talented group of developers at Zerofootprint Software Inc.

Greg Ponesse - Vice President, Sales (on leave)

Greg brings over 10 years of enterprise sales and management experience to his position at Zerofootprint. Previously, Greg served as Director of Sales and Business Development at Jatheon Technologies, an email management and compliance software company. Prior to joining Jatheon Technologies, Greg spent seven years with Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters Company, where he served in various senior sales and marketing roles. Greg holds an MBA from Queens University, and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Dalhousie University.