Sylvain Charbonneau
President and CEO
On October 1, 2024, Sylvain Charbonneau became the sixth President and CEO of the CFI. He is a former researcher, entrepreneur and leader in research administration.
Before joining the CFI, he held the role of Vice-President, Research and Innovation at the University of Ottawa. During his tenure at the university, he promoted interdisciplinary research across Canada and helped create a dynamic environment that attracted outstanding researchers and partners from the academic, public, hospital and private sectors. Most recently, he led the academic team in securing the largest capital investment in the university’s history — the Advanced Medical Research Centre — which will catalyze discoveries in healthcare treatment and support their commercialization.
Sylvain Charbonneau holds an MSc in physics from the University of Ottawa and a PhD in photonics and semiconductor physics from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. Before joining the University of Ottawa in 2013 as Associate Vice-President, Research, he worked at the Institute for Microstructural Sciences at the National Research Council (NRC) for more than 20 years.
During his time at NRC, he was an adjunct professor at six Canadian universities, trained several graduate students, published more than 180 papers and filed numerous patents. Along with three colleagues, he also co-founded a spin-off company — Optenia Inc. — that focused on novel optical communications technology.
