Ottawa, ON — August 27, 2026 — The Kanata North Business Association (KNBA) is pleased to welcome Alexandre Poulain, Associate Vice-President, Innovation, Partnerships and Entrepreneurship at the University of Ottawa, to its Board of Directors.
For Alexandre, innovation extends past the laboratory and into what happens next: finding the right partners, creating pathways to application, and ensuring promising research can become technology, companies and solutions with real-world impact.
That perspective has shaped his work at the University of Ottawa, where he leads the University’s innovation portfolio and oversees its research security file. His mandate connects researchers with industry, federal departments and laboratories, and community organizations, while advancing the systems that help move discoveries from the laboratory into the market and society.
“Alexandre has a rare understanding of the full innovation journey, from fundamental research through partnership, commercialization and application,” said Andy Thompson, Site Lead for Nokia’s Ottawa Campus and Chair of the KNBA Board of Directors. “Kanata North is built on highly sophisticated R&D, and ensuring that great ideas can move efficiently between academia and industry is essential to maintaining that strength. Alexandre brings first-hand experience creating those pathways, and that will add an important perspective to our Board.”
Alexandre previously served as the University of Ottawa Faculty of Science’s Vice-Dean, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships from 2021 to 2024 and Vice-Dean, Research and Infrastructure from 2024 to 2026. During that time, he helped develop the Faculty’s entrepreneurship ecosystem through initiatives including an entrepreneurs-in-residence program, the Graduate Entrepreneurship Experience Program and the Entrepreneurship Bridge Fund, several of which have since become models for broader institutional programming.
He also knows the commercialization process from the researcher’s side. A Full Professor of Biology, Alexandre remains active in environmental microbiology, investigating how microbes transform pollutants in ecosystems ranging from local environments to Canada’s high Arctic. His research has applications in environmental remediation, biosensing and clean technologies. He has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, holds two patents and has co-founded a start-up.
For KNBA, his appointment creates another direct link between Canada’s Largest Technology Park and one of the region’s leading research institutions — strengthening a relationship with significant potential for companies, researchers and emerging talent alike.
“Some of the most important opportunities for Kanata North exist at the intersections: where a researcher meets an industry partner, where a student gains exposure to a technology company, or where an idea finds the expertise and resources it needs to become something bigger,” said Kelly Daize, Executive Director of the Kanata North Business Association. “Alexandre has spent years making those connections possible. Having his perspective at the Board table will help us identify practical ways to bring our academic and technology communities even closer together.”
Educated in France and Québec and a former NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, Alexandre has built a career that spans scientific discovery, entrepreneurship and institutional leadership. He was a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars and currently sits on the strategic orientation council of the France-Canada Research Fund. He works in both of Canada’s official languages.
That breadth of experience gives him a particularly practical view of a challenge shared across Canada’s innovation economy: excellent research alone is not enough. Researchers need access to industry, companies need access to ideas and talent, and both need effective mechanisms for turning collaboration into outcomes.
“I’ve spent much of my career on both sides of the lab door. First as a researcher looking for partners who could help move an idea forward, and then helping build the structures that make those connections easier to create,” said Poulain. “Kanata North offers an extraordinary environment to do that work. The density of research-intensive companies, technical talent and entrepreneurial expertise here creates enormous potential for collaboration. I’m looking forward to working with KNBA and its members to turn more of those connections into tangible opportunities and impact.”
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About the Kanata North Business Association (KNBA)
The Kanata North Business Association (KNBA) is the voice and champion of Canada’s Largest Technology Park. Located in Ottawa, Ontario, Kanata North is home to more than 800 companies creating over 63,000 jobs nationally and generating approximately $18 billion in annual economic output to Canada. We possess global strengths in semiconductors, photonics, AI, cybersecurity, telecommunications, autonomous systems, defence, quantum, software, and advanced manufacturing. KNBA brings together industry, government, academia, investors, and community partners to attract companies, investment, and talent, accelerate innovation and commercialization, and help technology companies start, scale, and compete globally.
Media Contact:
Kanata North Business Association
Hannah Manierka
hannah.manierka@kanatanorthba.ca
(416) 460 0799
