Dr. Gary Wang

CO-FOUNDER, CEO

Dr. Wang has more than 30 years of research and development experience in related areas and is recognized as one of the world leaders in engineering design and optimization.  He is the recipient of the 2005 National I. W. Smith award for creative engineering from the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering (CSME), as well as the 2006 Rh Award from University of Manitoba for outstanding research contribution. Being an ASME Fellow, Dr. Wang has been serving as an associate editor for field top journals, e.g., Engineering Optimization and ASME Transactions, Journal of Mechanical Design. Dr. Wang is the world most cited scholar in the field of Intelligent Optimization (Google “G. Gary Wang” for his scholar’s profile.)

dR. George Cheng

CO-FOUNDER

George Cheng is involved in research and development of simulation-based optimization methodologies as well as leading the product development of the flagship software tool OASIS.  George  was the Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS) winner and two-time recipient of the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA), and was the recipient of the Young Innovator Award from Surrey Board of Trade in 2015. 

Geoff Groos

CO-FOUNDER, CTO

As an SFU graduate and software wizard, Geoff Groos designed the main software architecture for OASIS and leads the development team. Before coming to Empower, Geoff worked for iQmetrix under an NSERC URSA grant. Geoff is a technology-polygot, leveraging technologies across many different stacks and domains, from Fortran to Kotlin, to aggressively develop the frontier of optimization and visual-analytics technology. You can find Geoff on Stack-Exchange, Github, and Kotlin Slack channel under the pseudonym "Groostav".

DR. Mike Sheh

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Mike brings over 30 years of global experience to EmpowerOps, having held roles ranging from technical leader to regional general manager with companies such as GM, Philips, Cray Research, Engineous Software, and Dassault Systems. For the past two decades, he has helped clients with data analytics, optimization, process integration, automation, and data management. Since joining EmpowerOps in 2020, Mike has played a key role in positioning the company as a leading AI technology partner for engineering software developers. He holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Cincinnati.

DR. Cenk Feridunoglu

DIRECTOR of ENGINEERING

Cenk has spent 20 years at various fields ranging from academic research, engineering design and software development. He was involved in manufacturing while managing a hot forging facility in Istanbul, Turkey. He has also worked in the international Oil & Gas industry implementing database systems to leverage engineering, health & safety, e-learning and ERP projects in Kazakhstan. He believes simulation driven engineering design coupled with state of the art AI based tools is the next curve.

John (Jack) I. Cofer, IV

INDUSTRIAL SOLUTIONS CONSULTANT

Jack brings decades of experience in the turbomachinery, power generation, and software industries to Empower Operations. His industrial career started at GE Power Generation as a steam turbine and compressor aerodynamics engineer and manager and later at Siemens Demag Delaval Turbomachinery as Manager of R&D. He then joined Engineous Software (later acquired by Dassault Systèmes SIMULIA), as an industrial solutions expert promoting iSIGHT applications for optimization in multiple industries, including turbomachinery, aerospace, industrial equipment, heavy mobile equipment, and marine and offshore.

INDUSTRIAL SOLUTIONS CONSULTANT

Richard has over 30 years of experience with the application of software technologies such as DEM and CFD to solve real-world manufacturing problems. He has worked with major companies worldwide in Chemicals, Consumer Products, Energy, Heavy Equipment (Agriculture, Construction & Mining), and Pharmaceuticals. Richard was the CEO/CTO for DEM Solutions, makers of the EDEM granular material modeling software, before it was acquired by Altair Engineering in 2019. He has held leadership positions at ANSYS/Fluent in business development, consulting, and academic program management. Richard also served as a fluid flow and mixing expert at DuPont and a chemical process engineer at Dow Chemical.

Dennis Corain

ADVISOR

Dennis Corain has close to 30 years of experience in industry software. He was the former director of alliances and partnerships in Dassault Systems and worked for Dell EMC, Quadran, and other renowned companies.

Oscar Meza

ADVISOR

Mr. Meza brought to the team close to 20 years of global sales experience in engineering equipment and software.  With a strong engineering background, Oscar was the executive vice president of Creaform Inc., leading which was once a Canadian start-up company to a world-leading company for 3-D scanner and software with 20 times the sales growth in 6 years.  Mr. Meza has rich experience in global sales and deep understanding of different countries and cultures.   He has built successful distribution and sales network worldwide.