Pitch Perfect 2025

Efosa Obano | Founder, Black Founders Network 

Efosa Obano started the Black Founders Network (BFN) and African Impact Initiative (AII), which support Black and African innovators with capital, community, and capacity building. He has experience with creating scalable economic impact for marginalized communities, using technology and capital. For this work, he has been recognized by the United Nations, the Ontario Minister’s Award of Excellence, MIPAD’s Most Influential People of African Descent, the University of Toronto’s Young Outstanding Alumni Award, and Globe and Mail’s Change Makers Award. 

Prior to these, he led a team that guided start-ups on their digital transformation with Dell Technologies Canada. He also led community outreach for Dell Canada’s Social Impact Team & Dell Canada’s Black Networking Alliance. For this work, he received Dell’s Corporate Social Responsibility Award. 

He is driven by a desire to help God solve problems & spread the love of Jesus through His life. 

Liam Kaufman | Executive VP, Partnerships and Strategic Projects, Cambridge Cognition 

Liam Kaufman is the EVP of partnerships and strategic projects at Cambridge cognition. Previously he was the cofounder and CEO of Winterlight Labs, which developed digital biomarkers to quantify cognitive impairment and mental health using speech and machine learning. Winterlight Labs was acquired by Cambridge Cognition in 2023. 

Liz Munro | President, Liz Munro Consulting Inc. 

Liz is a medical device development expert with 15+ years of experience in innovative medical technology business. Currently, she acts as a fractional executive and product development + regulatory advisor to a small number of MedTech startups, as well as a Principal Consultant at Avania and MedTech Growth Coach at Communitech.  

She previously served as Vice President of the Regulatory and Advisory Services practice at Avania, a leading med-tech focused global CRO, where she assisted clients with product development, regulatory and clinical strategy for novel medical products in diverse clinical application areas.  

Prior to her work at Avania, she was the Chief Operating Officer of Ironstone Product Development, Canada’s only full-service medical device consulting group (acquired by Avania in 2023). Liz was the co-founder of an imaging-based breast margin assessment company, Perimeter Medical Imaging AI (TSXV:PINK), where she built the medical device development program from the ground up, achieved FDA clearance of four products and Breakthrough Device Designation, and designed and oversaw clinical studies involving more than 400 patients. Liz played a key role in raising nearly $40M in dilutive and non-dilutive capital and achieved a $200M+ market cap following a reverse takeover to list the company on the TSX Venture exchange in 2020, enabling liquidity for early investors. Liz understands the trade-offs and considerations that early-stage companies need to make in order to succeed.  

She holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Physics from McGill University, a Masters of Applied Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and an MBA Essentials from the University of Toronto – Rotman School of Management. 

Dr. Yasaman Soudagar | Co-Founder and Former CEO of Neurescence (acquired by Bruker) 

Dr. Yasaman Soudagar completed her PhD in the field of experimental quantum optics at École Polytechnique of Montreal and the University of Toronto, under supervision of Dr. Aephraim Steinberg. She then worked at Attodyne (now Light Matter Interaction after a successful exit) as an industrial postdoc, designing the optical delivery of a surgical laser. In 2014 she had the idea for multi-region brain imaging for understanding the brain. She did a few months postdoc at a neuroscience lab and started her first company Neurescence. Neurescence went through a high profile acquisition by Bruker last November. Dr. Soudagar is now co-Founder and CEO of her second startup, currently in stealth mode. So stay tuned.