About Us

The Computer Research Institute of Montréal (CRIM) is a leading IT expertise centre that generates concrete results as well as a strategic partner in innovation for organizations.

CRIM creates socio-economic value from scientific and technological advances in digital technology through research, development and transfer. Through its applied research activities, CRIM appropriates scientific and technological advances and contributes to the advancement of science. With its customized experimental research and development projects, designed to meet the needs of organizations, CRIM enables them to reduce technological uncertainties and accelerate the commercialization of their products. By transferring cutting-edge knowledge and technologies to organisations, CRIM improves their competitiveness.

CRIM is a non-profit organization whose work is in line with the policies and strategies of its major financial partner, the ministère de l’Économie et de l’Innovation. CRIM has been serving Québec businesses and organizations for over 35 years and continues to play a key role in the economy by developing specialized tools, delivering structuring technologies to its clients and proactively disseminating best practices and the latest digital innovations.

CRIM's Purpose

CRIM's purpose is the creation of socio-economic value from scientific and technological advances

Our Values

Means acting without compromise in the interest of CRIM's purpose, its clients, its employees and the public, by consistently ensuring the irreproachable quality of its processes.

Is the foundation of our organization's success.

Spheres of intervention

CRIM’s activities are wide-ranging: support for businesses, partnerships with other key players in the tech industry, creation of networking opportunities amongst innovative Québec businesses through our membership system and event organization, contribution to scientific advancement, participation in training specialized IT research personnel through student and trainee recruitment, etc.

Strategic Plan 2021-2026 (available soon)

Your strategic partner
for innovation

  • Situated between academic research and industry
  • Maintains a neutral stance to propose the best solutions for each client and offer an objective point of view on your technological issues
  • Makes scientific innovations efficient in real life contexts
  • Transfers cutting-edge knowledge to industry to make businesses more competitive
  • Supports organizations in leveraging their data and turning it into a vector for growth
  • Creates concrete solutions adapted to the reality of small and medium-sized businesses
  • Contributes to the advancement of research in artificial intelligence

Quality management

CRIM is ISO 9001:2015 certified. This certification is awarded only to organizations that meet the highest quality standards, both in operations and client relations. CRIM is fully committed to the quality process and continually validates the excellence of its deliverables and services as well as the efficiency and relevance of its activities.

Team

Board of Directors

Guillaume Bazinet
CEO, FX Innovation - President of the Board of Directors
Hélène Chartier
Executive Director, Réseau QG100
Pierre Dumouchel
Functional Manager, École de technologie supérieure
Josée Lanoue
Chief Executive Officer, Praeneste Technologies
Julie Lévesque
Executive Vice President Technology, National Bank of Canada
Éric Bergeron
President and CEO, IXIASOFT - Vice President of the Board of Directors
Marie Côté
President, Côté Multimédia
Daniel Granger
President, ACJ Communication – Secrétaire du CA
Olivier Laquinte
President, Talsom

De facto observers

Françoys Labonté
CEO, CRIM
Denise Moranville
Directrice – Soutien aux organisations, Secteur de l'innovation, Ministère de l'Économie et de l'Innovation

Legal advisor on the Board of Directors

Me André Vautour
Partner, Lavery, De Billy Lawyers

Leadership team

Françoys Labonté, Eng., Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

See bio

Hans Bherer, Ph.D. D.

Senior Director, Research and Technology

See bio

See bio

France Lord

Senior Director, Administration and Finance

See bio

See bio

Houman Zolfaghari, Ph. D.

Director, Applied machine learning

See bio

See bio

Vincent Hénonin

Director, Technology

See bio

See bio

Lucy Lima, MBA

Director, Operations

See bio

See bio

Mathieu Barreau

Director, Partnerships and Business Development

See Bio

See bio

Scientific orientations

Scientists Advisory Board

Pierre Boulanger
Professor and CISCO Chair in Healthcare & Director of the Advanced Man-Machine Interface Laboratory of the Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta (Canada)
Stan Matwin
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Visual Text Analytics & Director of the Institute for Big Data Analytics Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University (Canada)
Christine Morin
Senior Scientist, INRIA (France)
Pierre Nugues
Computer Science Professor, Lund University (Sweden)
Suzanne Rivard
Professor in the Department of Information Technology, HEC Montréal (Canada)
Guy Vézina
Director General S&T Army / ADM(S&T), Defence Research and Development / National Defence / Government of Canada – President of the Scientists Advisory Board

Network

We work at the heart of Québec’s rich innovation ecosystem: a vast network of companies, researchers and professionals who want to place cutting-edge technologies at the core of their development strategy and take advantage of all the opportunities offered by the digital revolution.

Discover the CRIM network

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Françoys Labonté, ing., Ph. D.

Président-directeur général

Cumulant plus de 25 ans d’expérience en technologies de l’information, Françoys Labonté dirige le CRIM depuis 2015. Il possède une solide formation scientifique combinée à plusieurs années d’expérience en développement et commercialisation de technologies innovatrices dans le domaine des technologies de l’information. Après l’obtention de son doctorat de Polytechnique Montréal avec spécialisation en vision informatique et traitement d’images, son parcours professionnel dans plusieurs organismes à la fine pointe de l’innovation lui a permis de développer une expertise multidisciplinaire portant sur les principaux éléments de gestion d’entreprises de nature technologique, du développement de nouveaux produits jusqu’à leur mise en marché. En 2010, il s’est joint au CRIM en tant que directeur, développement des affaires, innovation et valorisation. En 2015, il devient directeur général. En 2020, ce poste est remplacé par celui de président-directeur général. M. Labonté est titulaire d’un doctorat et d’une maîtrise de Polytechnique Montréal et d’un baccalauréat en génie de l’Université McGill.

Hans Bherer, Ph. D.

Directeur principal, Recherche et Technologie

Hans s’est joint au CRIM en 2017. Il détient une maîtrise en mathématiques et un doctorat en informatique de l’Université Laval. Il a travaillé plus de 15 ans en industrie principalement comme chercheur, directeur scientifique ou encore gestionnaire de projet en intelligence artificielle. Il a à son actif plusieurs publications scientifiques et brevets. Il s’intéresse, entre autres, au traitement automatisé des langues naturelles, la reconnaissance vocale, l’analyse des données, l’aide à la décision, l’extraction/recherche d’information et l’apprentissage automatique.

France Lord

Directrice principale, Administration et Finances

France Lord dirige l’ensemble des services administratifs du CRIM : finances, ressources humaines, ressources matérielles, affaires corporatives. Forte d’une expérience de plusieurs années en gestion, elle est arrivée au CRIM en 1987. Elle travaille au Développement corporatif pendant cinq ans où elle participe à l’organisation de ce nouveau centre ainsi qu’au montage de projets. En 1992, elle joint l’équipe de recherche en reconnaissance automatique de la parole pour y gérer, entre autres, un important projet de recherche préconcurrentielle. En 1998, elle est appelée à mettre sur pied et à diriger le Bureau de projets qui a pour rôle de donner un support de gestion de projets aux équipes du CRIM, tout en développant les processus et l’expertise en gestion de projets, propres aux besoins de l’organisation et de ses clients. De plus, Mme Lord est Directrice, Gestion de la qualité, du Centre qui est accrédité ISO 9001:2015. À ce titre, elle est responsable de la mise en œuvre et du maintien de la conformité aux objectifs de qualité du CRIM, de l’observation rigoureuse des procédures et des politiques établies, du maintien et de la révision de toute la documentation qualité, ainsi que des audits internes, le tout en conformité avec les exigences de la norme. France Lord occupe maintenant le poste de Directrice principale, Administration et Finances.

Houman Zolfaghari, Ph. D.

Directeur, Apprentissage automatique appliqué

Houman s’est joint au CRIM en 2019 après plus de vingt ans d’expérience en intelligence artificielle dans l’industrie et dans le milieu de la recherche où il a œuvré en tant que développeur, chercheur et directeur. Titulaire d’un doctorat en mathématiques de l’Université de Montréal, il a consacré sa carrière aux divers aspects de l’intelligence artificielle, notamment l’apprentissage automatique, le traitement automatique des langues naturelles, l’acquisition et la modélisation des connaissances, toujours dans les perspectives combinées de la recherche et de son application dans l’industrie.

Vincent Hénonin

Directeur, Technologie

Vincent Hénonin cumule 22 années d’expérience dans le secteur des technologies de l’information. Grâce à son expérience professionnelle acquise tout au long de ses projets, tant en Amérique du Nord, qu’en Europe, Vincent a développé une expertise considérable dans la gouvernance des technologies et de la sécurité de l’information, la conception et l’analyse de systèmes d’information, le développement, l’opérationnel, la gestion de projets et la gestion des risques. Il a travaillé dans des domaines très diversifiés tels que l’aéronautique, l’automobile, l’armée, les assurances, bancaire, ferroviaire, gouvernemental, industriel, multimédia, pharmaceutique, scientifiques, sportif, télécommunications et télévisuels.

Lucy Lima, MBA

Directrice, Opérations

Professionnelle chevronnée possédant au-delà de 20 années d’expérience dans le domaine technologique auprès des grandes organisations, Lucy Lima est Directrice, Opérations au CRIM depuis 2020. Ses compétences sont variées, couvrant la direction d’équipes en TI, les méthodologies Agile, la planification stratégique, la gestion des ressources humaines, la réalisation de projets et l’implantation des meilleures pratiques. Axée sur les résultats et le travail d’équipe, le leadership de Lucy Lima permet aux experts du CRIM de maximiser l’efficacité et l’impact de chacun des projets réalisés.

Mathieu Barreau

Directeur, Partenariats et développement des affaires

Mathieu est passionné par les interrelations entre la technologie et l’être humain. Il possède plus de 15 ans d’expérience en développement stratégique des affaires, en gestion d’équipe et de projets. Ses solides connaissances du secteur de la technologie, de l’intelligence artificielle et de l’innovation lui ont permis d’avoir des expériences professionnelles variées ; conseiller en partenariat dans l’enseignement supérieur, gestionnaire de projet R-D pour une startup, ou encore directeur stratégie et partenariat pour une ONG.

Dans un monde en pleine mutation, Mathieu observe avec intérêt l’émergence de la diversité des intelligences en entreprise ; individuelles, artificielles et collectives. L’intérêt de Mathieu pour l’intelligence artificielle a débuté il y a 10 ans et il partage sa curiosité sur ce sujet avec ses invités issus du milieu lors de ses activités connexes. Mathieu est animateur radio et réalise des chroniques sur l’intelligence artificielle. Il est aussi le créateur et l’animateur d’un podcast pour le leader de l’information francophone sur l’intelligence artificielle.

C’est une personne dynamique, qui a de l’entregent et qui n’hésite pas à prendre des initiatives. Il est reconnu pour son tempérament entrepreneurial, pour son aisance à créer de solides relations et détient un important réseau dans le milieu des affaires, des technologies et de l’enseignement supérieur.

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Françoys Labonté, Eng., Ph.D.

Chief Executive Officer

With more than 25 years of experience in the IT sector, Françoys Labonté has been at the head of CRIM since 2015. He has a solid scientific background combined with several years of experience in the development and commercialization of innovative technologies in the field of information technology. After obtaining his Ph.D. from the Polytechnique Montréal with a specialization in computer vision and image processing, his experience working in several organizations at the cutting edge of innovation allowed him to develop a multidisciplinary expertise in technology-based business management, from the development of new products to their commercialization. In 2010, he joined CRIM as Director, Business Development, Innovation and Commercialization. In 2015 he was made Executive Director, a position that was replaced in 2020 by that of CEO. Mr. Labonté holds a Ph.D. and an M.A.Sc. from Polytechnique Montréal, and a B.Eng. from McGill University.

Hans Bherer, Ph. D.

Senior Director, Research and Technology

Hans joined CRIM in 2017. He holds a master’s degree in mathematics and a Ph.D. in computer science, both from Laval University. He has worked more than 15 years in industrial context where he conducted applied research and led scientific teams in artificial intelligence. He has authored or coauthored many scientific papers and his research has led to 4 patents in artificial intelligence. Beside leading scientific teams, his interests relate to natural language processing, speech recognition, data analytics, business intelligence, information extraction and retrieval, as well as machine learning.

France Lord

Senior Director, Administration and Finance

France Lord manages all of CRIM’s administrative services: finance, human resources, material resources and corporate affairs. With several years of management experience, she joined CRIM in 1987. She worked in Corporate Development for five years, where she helped organize this new center and put together projects. In 1992, she joined the Automatic Speech Recognition research team to manage, among other things, a major pre-competitive research project. In 1998, she was called upon to set up and manage the Project Office, whose role is to provide project management support to CRIM teams, while developing project management processes and expertise tailored to the needs of the organisation and its clients. In addition, she is CRIM’s Quality Management Director. CRIM is ISO 9001:2015-accredited. Ms. Lord is responsible for implementing and maintaining compliance with CRIM’s quality objectives, rigorously observing established procedures and policies, maintaining and reviewing all quality documentation, as well as conducting internal audits, all in accordance with the norm’s requirements.

Houman Zolfaghari, Ph. D.

Director, Applied machine learning

Houman joined CRIM in 2019 after more than 20 years of experience in artificial intelligence as a developer, researcher and director, both in industry and within the research community. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Université de Montréal and has devoted his career to various aspects of artificial intelligence, including machine learning, natural language processing, knowledge acquisition and modeling, always combining perspectives of research and applications in industry.

Vincent Hénonin

Director, Technology

With 22 years of experience in the information technology sector, Vincent Hénonin brings extensive experience to his work as Director, Technology. Throughout his many projects, both in North America and in Europe, Vincent has developed considerable expertise in IT governance and information security, information system design and analysis, development, operations, and project and risk management. He has worked in a wide variety of sectors such as aeronautics, automotive, military, insurance, banking, rail, government, industry, multimedia, pharmaceutics, science, sports, telecommunications and television.

Lucy Lima, MBA

Director, Operations

A seasoned professional with more than 20 years of experience in the technology field for large organizations, Lucy Lima has been Director, Operations at CRIM since 2020. She possesses a diverse skillset covering the management of IT teams, Agile methodologies, strategic planning, human resources management, project execution and the implementation of best practices. Focused on results and teamwork, Lucy Lima’s leadership enables CRIM experts to maximize the efficiency and impact of each project.

Mathieu Barreau

Director, Partnerships and Business Development

Mathieu is passionate about the relationship between people and technology. He has over 15 years of experience in strategic business development, team leadership and project management. His solid knowledge of the technology, artificial intelligence and innovation sectors has led him to varied and interesting professional experiences: partnership advisor in higher education, R&D project manager for a startup, or strategy and partnership director for an NGO.

In a rapidly changing world, Mathieu observes with interest the emergence of the diversity of intelligences in companies; individual, artificial and collective. Mathieu’s interest in artificial intelligence began 10 years ago, and he shares his curiosity on this subject with guests from the field during his related activities. Mathieu is a radio host and writes columns on artificial intelligence. He is also the creator and host of a podcast on artificial intelligence for a leading French-language news service.

He is a dynamic person, who has good interpersonal skills and does not hesitate to show initiative. He is known for his entrepreneurial nature, his ability to build strong relationships and has an extensive network in the business, technology and higher education communities.

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