Our Team

Ajay Agrawal is a co-founder of Sanctuary. He is founder of the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) and cofounder of NEXT Canada, both not-for-profit programs that support founders and builders. He is an economist and a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, specializing in the economics of artificial intelligence. He has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles and co-authored Prediction Machines (2018) and Power & Prediction (2022), and co-edited The Economics of Artificial Intelligence: An Agenda (2019), The Economics of Artificial Intelligence Health Care Challenges (2024), The Economics of Transformative AI (2026), and Bayesian Entrepreneurship (2026). He holds advisory and research roles with the National Bureau of Economic Research, Brookings Institution, McKinsey Technology Council, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford's Digital Economy Lab, and the Vector Institute.

Mark has worked with technology entrepreneurs for the last 25 years.

Marty Reed is a seasoned Bay Area executive and investor who relocated to Vancouver in 2015 to launch Evok Innovations, a corporate innovation firm that integrates Silicon Valley startup culture and venture capital into traditional R&D. As managing partner at Evok, he leads strategy, team building, and investments, and serves on multiple boards including Sanctuary AI, MineSense, DISA Technologies, Ekona Power, VEERUM, and was previously on the board of DarkVision (CVCA Deal of the Year). Prior to Evok, he was a Partner at The Roda Group, leading early-stage clean tech investments and serving on the boards of Svante, Axine, Gridtential, and Carbon Neutral Ag Sciences. Earlier in his career, he held senior roles at Cardstore.com, Game Ready, and Ask Jeeves. Marty holds an MBA from John F. Kennedy University, a BSc in Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University, and began his career as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy.

John Watson brings more than 26 years of experience at the executive officer level in large organizations. As Group President of Bell Business Markets, AI Fabric, Bell Cyber and Ateko, he leads Canada’s largest enterprise communications business and has created a $1B ARR AI start-up since 2023, targeting $2B ARR by 2028. The start-up has three focus areas: Aleko - enterprise digital and AI transformations, Bell Cyber – AI Autonomous SOC, Bell AI Fabric – the leading Canadian AI factory builder with an 800 MW portfolio. John also leads Bell’s Data Engineering and AI team. Prior to Bell, John held senior leadership roles in the management consulting, consumer packaged goods, and healthcare/pharma sectors with multinational organizations. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and MBA from the Schulich School of Business.