Roundtable Luncheon with Robert Masse, Mark Schaan and Ivan Zhang.
C.D. Howe Institute events and webinars are open to members and their guests.
Please follow this link or contact events@cdhowe.org to register.
Robert Masse, Cybersecurity Lead, Accenture Canada
Rob Masse is a Cybersecurity Executive with over 35 years of experience leading security strategy, operations, and resilience for global organizations. As Accenture's Canadian Market Unit Leader for Cybersecurity, Rob leads Accenture's cyber business across Canada as a member of the executive team. Prior to Accenture, Rob served as SVP and Global CISO, where he drove enterprise-wide security transformation. He spent nearly a decade leading national practices across cyber defense, resilience, and cloud security. He also works with several Board of Directors across all industries. Rob is recognized as a pragmatic security executive and thought leader with deep expertise in incident response, crisis management, and advanced threat actors.
Mark Schaan, Associate Deputy Minister, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED)
Mark Schaan is the Associate Deputy Minister at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), confirmed in October 2025, which builds on the direction from the Prime Minister on July of 2025 that he act as the direct Deputy support to the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation. In these capacities, Mark supports Canada’s industrial AI and digital agenda, working to position the country as a global leader in the responsible development and use of these technologies.
Mark’s career has been highlighted by this cross-cutting policy and framework effort, including leading major consultations and reforms, including for telecommunications, investment review, intellectual property, bankruptcy and insolvency, privacy and AI. Mark’s public service career has included roles
across the policy spectrum, as well as leading on revitalizing the public service through innovative recruitment models.
Mark earned his BA (Honours) from the University of Waterloo, where he studied as a Loran Scholar. Mark earned his MPhil in Comparative Social Policy, conferred in 2004, and his DPhil in Social Policy, conferred in 2010 from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Mark is also
actively involved in his communities.
Ivan Zhang, Co-Founder, Cohere
Ivan Zhang is a Co-Founder of Cohere. He has been instrumental in shaping the company’s vision and strategy since co-founding it in September 2019 with Aidan Gomez and Nick Frosst. Under his leadership, Cohere has grown into a global leader in enterprise AI with offices in Toronto, San Francisco, London, New York, Paris, and Seoul.
As a co-founder, Ivan provides strategic guidance and leadership to Cohere’s executive team, playing a key role in setting the company’s mission and direction. He spearheaded enterprise-focused AI products that are now used by Fortune 500 companies across healthcare, finance, and government sectors, as well as by government agencies. Ivan has established significant partnerships with major organizations throughout his tenure.
Ivan’s expertise extends to national security and defense, where he has worked with government and security agencies, contributing his AI capabilities to important missions. Since April 2025, he has served as an Advisory Board Member for the National Research Council of Canada, advising on software and AI matters to inform research directions and investments.
Beyond Cohere, Ivan is an active angel investor in startups across AI, AI chips, and data labeling sectors, with many portfolio companies achieving successful exits or reaching significant valuations. He previously founded FOR.AI (now Cohere Labs) in 2017, where he collaborated with leading researchers including Nobel Prize and Turing award winner Geoffrey Hinton, and Transformer inventors Lukasz Kaiser and Aidan Gomez.
Ivan began his studies at the University of Toronto, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts & Science in Computer Science, though he left the university to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. His background includes software engineering experience in genomics, ad tech, and cloud computing at various early-stage startups and research projects.
