Frank Cotter Vice President, Certicom

Frank is the general manager of Certicom, he brings with him extensive experience in hi-tech arena. He has over 20 years experience in private and public companies, including as a Venture Partner at Mosaic Venture Partners, specializing in early stage technology company investments, where he assumed senior operating roles in investee companies. He was also Vice-President of Business Development at Bell Canada. Earlier, as President of Rogers High Speed Internet, he was the driving force behind cable high speed Internet. Frank has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Queens University.

Dr. Scott A. Vanstone Founder and Executive Vice President, Strategic Technology

One of the founders of Certicom, Dr. Vanstone is also a Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Vanstone devotes much of his research to the efficient implementation of the elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) for the provision of information security services in handheld computers, smart cards, wireless devices, and integrated circuits. He is the EVP Strategic Technology for Certicom and oversees all research, which has generated over 350 patents for the company. He also sits on the Board of Directors for Certicom.

Dr. Vanstone has published more than 250 research papers and a number of books on topics such as cryptography, coding theory, finite fields, finite geometry, and combinatorial designs. He is a co-author of the Handbook of Applied Cryptography and more recently, A Guide to Elliptic Curve Cryptography. Dr. Vanstone also holds the NSERC/Pitney Bowes Senior Chair of Cryptography at the University of Waterloo. In 1998, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Sciences. Scott Vanstone has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Waterloo and recently received the University’s prestigious award for Excellence in Research.

Ross Bennett Senior Director, Product Development

As Certicom Senior Director of Product Development, Ross Bennett is responsible for all product development activities for Certicom product lines. Bennett comes with 15 years of experience in the development and deployment of high assurance data communications solutions for the wireless industry. He has been a key member of the Certicom engineering organization for the past two years, and played an important role in the successful launch of several award-winning Certicom products. Prior to joining Certicom, he held a variety of management positions with high technology companies in Canada. He was a member of Excaliber Inc. an IT strategy and professional services organization engaged in the deployment of high end CRM solutions, where he lead highly functional project implementation teams. Previous to Excaliber, he held a wide variety of positions with Mobile Computing Corporation, a company that develops and implements wireless information management systems for the transportation industry.