Meet the Team

Senior Vice President, Quantum Technologies and Systems Products

Mark W Johnson has been involved in the development and commercialization of technology for nearly 25 years. Mark leads the R&D and quantum hardware programs. Mark joined D-Wave in 2005 as an experimental physicist and superconducting circuit design engineer to help develop, build, and deliver the world's first commercially available quantum computer. He continued to work with the D-Wave team to develop and release subsequent generations of quantum computers. Most recently, Mark led the development and delivery of the company’s 5th generation, and most powerful and connected commercial quantum system ever built, the Advantage system. Prior to joining D-Wave, Mark was a scientist with the Superconductive Electronics Organization at the Space Park facility of Northrop Grumman, formerly TRW, Inc., developing superconductive analog-to-digital converters and digital signal processors for communications applications. Mark holds a doctorate in physics from the University of Rochester.

Vice President, Software, Algorithms and Cloud Services

Trevor Lanting leads the software, algorithms and cloud services team at D-Wave and has over 15 years of experience in technology development. Previously Trevor served as director of science at the company, leading an interdisciplinary team of experimental physicists and superconducting circuit designers on quantum annealing and gate model processor development. He has helped drive five generations of quantum annealing systems and specializes in connecting fundamental research results and insights with real-world applications, focusing on harnessing quantum mechanics to produce fundamentally new computational capabilities.Trevor joined D-Wave in 2008 and has been involved with all aspects of the development of superconducting quantum computing technology. He received a BSc in physics and astronomy from the University of British Columbia and a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. His graduate work involved pioneering the development of superconducting technology for emerging astrophysics platforms.

Vice President, Growth

Irwan Owen leads D-Wave’s go-to-market function focused on delivering commercial quantum value for our customers. He is a technology industry veteran with 30 years of international experience in computing, web and mobile markets and has been instrumental in the commercialization of a number of ubiquitous technologies including the UNIX operating system and the Java platform. Prior to D-Wave, Irwan held sales leadership roles at Red Bend Software (now part of Samsung), Palm Inc., and Symbian Ltd. He also spent five years at Sun Microsystems, where he was a founding member of JavaSoft Europe. During this career, Irwan has held roles in engineering, pre-sales support, product marketing, sales and business development. He holds a BSc. (Hons) in Computation from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

 

Vice President, Corporate Marketing

Michelle Maggs is the Vice President of Corporate Marketing, leading D-Wave’s global communications, public relations, events and branding initiatives. She brings more than 20 years of communications experience in the technology sector, having worked with clients across a myriad of innovations including cloud-based services, aerospace solutions, e-commerce, enterprise software and connected entertainment products. Her expertise spans communications strategy, thought leadership, brand positioning and strategic storytelling. Prior to D-Wave, Maggs was Executive Vice President and Global Technology Practice lead at Current Global, a global PR firm that is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, and also worked at sister PR agency, Weber Shandwick, most recently serving as Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Seattle office.

General Counsel

Diane Nguyen joined D-Wave in 2018. She brings over 10 years of broad-based legal experience to D‑Wave, including experience in negotiating commercial agreements, corporate governance, business financing, intellectual property, and risk assessment.  

Currently the General Counsel, she plays a central role in the identification and resolution of legal issues related to all aspects of D-Wave’s day-to-day operations with a focus on customer and reseller agreements. She also works with the executive team on certain strategic business decisions, oversees the proper governance of the company and leads the Intellectual Property team in the development and protection of D-Wave’s world-class patent portfolio. 

Prior to joining D-Wave, Diane was an attorney and trademark agent for a mid-size law firm in Quebec where she has negotiated numerous corporate finance transactions ranging from $250,000 to $50,000,000 and complex commercial agreements in a wide variety of industries.

Diane is a member of the bars of British Columbia and Quebec and is a registered trademark agent. She also holds a Master’s degree in Business Law from the University of Montreal.

Co-Founder and Chief Scientist

Eric Ladizinsky is a senior scientific management executive with a strong background in physics, engineering, materials, manufacturing and team building. Eric leads D-Wave's technical effort to develop the superconducting integrated circuit fabrication process and is often called upon to evangelize on all aspects of quantum computing. At Northrop Grumman Space Technology (formerly TRW, Inc.), he ran a multi-million-dollar DARPA program in Quantum Computing using superconducting integrated circuit technology. Eric has a BSc. Physics and Mathematics degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and is an Adjunct Professor of Physics at Loyola Marymount University.

Chair of the Board, D‐Wave Quantum Inc. Managing Partner of Emerging Company Partners

Steven is a 30-year veteran of the information technology marketplace and currently the founder and a partner in Emerging Company Partners LLC, a technology consulting firm. Over the course of his career, he has held many executive positions, including president and CEO of Entera, an Internet content delivery firm (acquired by Blue Coat Systems, Inc.); CEO of Hitachi Data Systems; and Group Executive of EDS. Steven is a former board director at Cisco, where he served for 23 years, and Autodesk where he served for nine years. He also served on the boards of Delta-Q Technologies and Bycast Inc.

Chief Executive Officer, D‐Wave Quantum Inc.

Alan became the CEO of D-Wave in 2020. Previously, as Executive Vice President of R&D and Chief Product Officer, he drove the development, delivery, and support of all of D-Wave’s products, technologies, and applications. He has over 25 years of experience in product development and bringing new products to market at leading technology companies and software startups. As the first president of JavaSoft at Sun Microsystems, Alan oversaw the growth and adoption of the Java platform from its infancy to a robust platform supporting mission-critical applications in nearly 80 percent of Fortune 1000 companies. He has also held executive positions at Symphony, Avaya, Cisco, and IBM. Alan served as CEO and president of Versata, Zaplet, and NeoPath Networks, and as a managing director at Warburg Pincus LLC.

Senior Vice President and Corporate Treasurer, and Corporate Security of Cisco Systems Inc.

Roger holds over 20 years of experience driving financial management, strategy, organizational planning, and compliance across high-tech public and private companies. He has served as Senior Vice President and Treasurer of Cisco Systems since April 2017, where his responsibilities include corporate finance, investments, cash management, foreign exchange, risk transfer, safety, security and business resiliency. He has served on the board of directors of Wasabi Technologies since August 2021, including as a member of the audit committee and governance committee, and has held senior financial markets positions in the areas of fixed income, equity capital markets and foreign exchange with the Royal Bank of Canada, Banque Paribas and Lehman Brothers.

Chief Human Resources Officer and Real Estate Leader of Cohesity

Amy is an accomplished senior human resources professional, business transformer and executive coach with expertise ranging from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises. Her management roles span high-tech (Symantec, Silver Spring Networks, Cisco, Sun Microsystems), entertainment (The Walt Disney Company), and consumer goods (Frito-Lay). Since May 2022 she has served as Chief Human Resources Officer and Real Estate Leader of Cohesity. From January 2014 to February 2020, Amy was the Chief Human Resources Officer and Real Estate Leader for Symantec. She also serves on the board of Softchoice, a provider of technology solutions and managed services; Betterworks, a continuous performance management platform company; and Pivotal, a non-profit that focuses on foster youth education and employment.

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of DPCM Capital, Inc.

Emil is one of Silicon Valley’s most highly regarded executives having built three successful companies including Tellme Networks (sold to Microsoft in 2007), Klout (sold to Lithium Technologies in 2014) and Uber. Emil has extensive experience identifying high-growth, tech-enabled businesses with his investments spanning a range of companies including Brex, GoPuff, Revolut, SpaceX and Stripe. He has been the Chairman and CEO of M8 Enterprises LLC since January 2018. Prior to that, he served as Chief Business Officer of Uber, Chief Operating Officer of Klout, and as a White House Fellow working for the Secretary of Defense. Emil also was part of the founding team of Tellme Networks, a pioneer in speech recognition technology and systems, helping the company raise over $250 million in venture capital and leading it through an $800 million sale to Microsoft.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees, MITRE

Michael is a leader and adviser on emerging technologies, geopolitics, and cybersecurity. He currently serves on the board of trustees of MITRE Corporation, which he joined in August 2016, and served as vice chairman from November 2018 until he was elected as its Chairman in November 2021. In April 2021, Michael joined the Board of Directors of D-Wave Government Inc., a subsidiary providing D-Wave quantum computing systems, software, services and expertise to the U.S. government. He also currently serves on the board of IronNet Cybersecurity, Elite Detection K9, Contstella Intelligence, IAP Worldwide Services and IP3 Corporation. Michael represented Michigan’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001 to 2015. He also sat on the Energy and Commerce Committee and chaired the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Managing Director, PSP Investments USA

Ziv is a Managing Director in the Private Equity team in New York, heading Strategy and Active Management globally as well as overseeing various sponsor relationships. Ziv serves on the boards of several of Private Equity’s portfolio companies.

Ziv joined PSP Investments USA in August 2015 to develop Private Debt as a new asset class. His primary focus included business development, tax planning, building the team and overseeing operations, as well as leading commitments in over $5 billion of direct and fund investments. Ziv also served as a member of the firm’s global investment committee.

Prior to joining PSP Investments USA, Ziv was a Director in Leveraged Finance at Barclays, where he arranged leveraged loan and high-yield bond financings for sponsor and corporate clients. He had previously been a member of the Equity Capital Markets team at Lehman Brothers and then Barclays. Ziv started his career practicing law at the law firm of Fischer Behar Chen Well Orion & Co. He holds an LL.B. Bachelor of Laws and a BA in Economics from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from Wharton.

Managing Director, Public Sector Pension Investment Board

Adam Smalley is a Managing Director at the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments). He joined PSP Investments in May 2016 in the Credit Investments group and was responsible for originating and executing non-investment grade credit investment transactions for financial sponsor-backed companies, primarily in North America.

Since 2020, Adam has led the Complementary Portfolio within the Chief Investment Officer Group. The Complementary Portfolio focuses on investments that are outside of the mandate of existing PSP asset classes but are beneficial to the total fund. The Complementary Portfolio includes knowledge-driven, alternative risk premium and cross-asset class strategies.

Prior to joining PSP, Adam held various portfolio management and research roles at organizations that managed institutional and retail capital focused on the high yield and leveraged loan asset classes. Adam began his career in finance at Lehman Brothers in New York in 1999.

Adam holds a BS in Accounting from Bucknell University and an MBA in Finance and Economics from Columbia Business School.