For 17 years, Communitech had Iain Klugman at the helm. For more than a decade, the President of the University of Waterloo was Feridun Hamdullahpur. For 7 years, Paul Salvini has served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Accelerator Centre. Over the last few months, each of their storied tenures as chief executives of community-defining organizations in the Waterloo tech ecosystem have come to an end. A new era has begun with three new leaders. Here’s who they are:

Chris Albinson is the new Chief Executive Officer of Communitech.

He brings 30 years of experience working in tech, with a particular focus on strategy and venture investment, including a stint as the co-head of venture capital investments at J.P. Morgan. He has also founded three investment firms/funds and C100 – the non-profit member-driven organization that supports Canadian technology entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley. 

Jay Krishnan is the new Chief Executive Officer of the Accelerator Centre.

He brings wide experience in startups, multinational businesses, accelerators and venture capital. He has founded three companies, worked in product management/engineering roles at Cisco, Juniper and Cantata-Dialogic and served as the CEO of T-Hub – India’s top accelerator – for three years. Most recently, Krishnan was a General Partner at Mantra Capital, an early-stage US-domiciled VC firm.

Vivek Goel is the new President of the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Goel is a distinguished scholar with extensive achievements in research, teaching and leadership in the public and private sectors. In addition to being a globally-renowned public health researcher, he was the first President and CEO of Public Health Ontario and the Chief Academic Strategist with Coursera, a global platform that connects universities and learners with online courses.