Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, Profound Impact Corporation

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Sherry Shannon-Vanstone, the Founder, President & CEO of Profound Impact Corporation, will share the story behind her title with us on November 8, 2023.

Sherry is a purpose-driven, successful, serial tech entrepreneur who is known for building high-performing teams. As a trailblazing woman in information security and STEM, she is a strategic risk-taker who led start-ups to successful exits in Silicon Valley and Toronto-Waterloo Tech corridor with two IPOs and two acquisitions.

Sherry earned her MSc. in mathematics and worked as a cryptologic mathematician with the US Government. This experience provided the foundation for a career in information security in the private sector including VP Electronic Commerce at MasterCard International and executive positions with info security start-ups: Cylink , Certicom and TrustPoint Innovation.

At Certicom, Sherry was the catalyst in the commercialization of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC), which formed the foundation of the security system for Blackberry Rim. Today ECC is utilized to provide the highest level of security in every mobile device worldwide.

Currently, Sherry is the founder of Profound Impact and is known as a strategic risk-taker and leader who builds successful teams. She is a lifelong learner, who gets stuff done, is persistent, and perseveres against the odds.

In 2019, Sherry received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Western University. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Leadership 2020 Excellence Award in Entrepreneurship from Women in Communications and Technology (WCT) and in 2021 Sherry received the Rogers KW Oktoberfest Woman of the Year in Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math (STEAM). In 2015 She was named WOW – the World Waterloo Region’s Female Innovator of the Year.

Sherry currently serves as a board member for CANARIE, along with board and advisory positions with Protexxa, APMA Project Arrow, and others. She is also an angel investor as a Limited Partner with Phoenix Fire.