The newly appointed board chair brings years of experience in the tech and innovation space.
Calgary – 29 November 2023 – MindFuel is pleased to announce that Dan Semmens, SVP, Data & Artificial Intelligence with ATB Financial, has been appointed chair of the board of directors. Dan began his career as a software developer and has over 20 years of experience in information technology. He is recognized as an innovator in design thinking, LEAN, and business transformation industries. Under his leadership he and his team are disrupting the banking industry by re-imagining processes and leading with the deployment of Robotics, Process Automation, and AI.
Dan’s extensive background in innovation and technology makes him a natural fit for the MindFuel Foundation, and a strong believer in its mission. Semmens says, “It is important for us to inspire and to arm our youth with the skills they need to solve a number of the world’s challenges. The more we can do to support an innovation culture in our youth, then the better positioned we are as a society to tackle some of our most pressing challenges, including economic diversification.”
MindFuel CEO Cassy Weber agrees, noting, “Having Dan on our board is a real coup for MindFuel. His area of expertise will serve MindFuel’s mission to make the innovation space more accessible across Canada, as we build out our next big youth innovation gateway to make the innovation space accessible to youth across Canada, by bringing thousands of stakeholders together.”
Semmens takes over from outgoing chair Shahauna Siddiqui, who held the post for five years. During her tenure, Siddiqui worked with the board and the leadership team to set out a bold 5-year strategic plan, managing the challenges during the COVID crisis, and building a highly competent board with deep skills and knowledge aligned to supporting MindFuel’s vision and mission. And she looks forward to continuing to serve, focusing on engaging and building out MindFuel’s national stakeholder relationships. Siddiqui comments, “I think investing into youth talent development is more important today than it’s ever been. Canada continues to have skills shortages in the innovation sector, and MindFuel is serving a critical role in developing this much needed talent. I’m so proud of the work that has been accomplished during my time as chair.”
To learn more about MindFuel’s board of directors visit their website.
-30-
About MindFuel
The MindFuel Foundation is a registered charitable organization committed to creating youth innovation talent. Since 1990, we have been developing and distributing captivating, high-quality, 21st century programs that ignite a passion for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) innovation in students of all ages. The programs are technology based and technology infused, developed to serve both in-class and extracurricular learning. To date, MindFuel has invested over $120M into Canada’s innovation ecosystem in over 1,600 communities. It serves underrepresented youth populations, including Indigenous students, females in STEM, economically disadvantaged youth, remote/rural students, racialized youth, and newcomers to Canada.
MindFuel also delivers eLearning programming through its wholly owned subsidiary, Wonderville Enterprises Ltd., which reaches hundreds of thousands of teachers, students, and parents each year in every province and territory, supporting over 600,000 learning sessions annually in Canada, and over 6,000,000 globally. Since inception, MindFuel has delivered over 147,000,000 learning sessions in over 190 countries with its online STEM programs.
For more information on programming, please visit mindfuel.ca.
Media contact:
Cassy Weber, CEO
The MindFuel Foundation
cweber@mindfuel.ca
403-220-0077
