Our Team
TechMind Innovators is led by professionals from some of Canada's top technology companies and most respected organizations. Each member brings deep industry expertise and a genuine commitment to making digital skills accessible to communities across Canada and Latin America.
Andres Lozano
Founder & Executive Director Senior Software Engineer, ConfluentAndres founded TechMind Innovators with a clear vision: make the technical knowledge that engineers take for granted accessible to everyone. A senior software engineer at Confluent specializing in platform and infrastructure, Andres previously spent over three years on Amazon's Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) team, where he was among the founding engineers of the managed Kubernetes offering for AWS Outpost environments. He brings deep expertise in cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, and CI/CD to TechMind, personally designing and facilitating the organization's flagship workshops on web development and digital tools.
Edison Peña
Director of Applied Research Software Engineer, Amazon Web ServicesEdison leads TechMind's applied research program, bringing a distinctive blend of computational science and software engineering. As a software engineer at Amazon Web Services, he builds cloud-native solutions and has developed generative AI tools using large language models and retrieval-augmented generation architectures. Prior to AWS, Edison conducted research at some of Canada's leading scientific institutions, including TRIUMF, where he engineered automation systems for particle accelerator diagnostics, and the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, where he developed nuclear material analysis software. His research background in machine learning, signal processing, and data analytics gives TechMind a rigorous, evidence-based foundation for its educational programs.
Melike Bilgin
Director of Research, Programs & Stakeholder EngagementMelike oversees the planning, coordination, and delivery of all TechMind research initiatives, programs, and stakeholder engagement efforts. She brings nearly four years of experience managing complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives at the BC Care Providers Association, where she led student recruitment, managed program budgets and grant funding, conducted research to inform program strategy, and built strong relationships with stakeholders across British Columbia. Her expertise in research coordination, program development, stakeholder relations, financial reporting, and community outreach ensures that every TechMind initiative runs smoothly and delivers measurable impact for the communities we serve.
George Alonge
Director of Technology & Infrastructure Staff Cloud Platform Engineer, SADAGeorge brings over a decade of experience in cloud engineering, site reliability, and infrastructure leadership. As a Staff Cloud Platform Engineer at SADA (An Insight company), he leads enterprise-scale implementations of infrastructure as code, Kubernetes deployments, and reliability engineering for major clients. George previously co-founded Liferithms, a lifestyle data analytics startup where he served as CTO, and held senior engineering roles at Fresh Prep, architecting cloud environments and CI/CD pipelines. His deep technical expertise in Terraform, Kubernetes, and scalable distributed systems strengthens TechMind's technology strategy and program delivery infrastructure.
Snezana Ristovski
Director of Strategy & Organizational DevelopmentSnezana brings over 20 years of leadership experience in organizational development, operations management, and strategic planning. As the founder of a social impact and workforce development initiative, she has built programs that activate multigenerational talent while also delivering revenue-generating consulting and training solutions. Her experience has strengthened her governance expertise, stakeholder engagement, and strategic oversight skills. She is a recognized speaker on leadership, succession planning, and workforce development, and her innovative program design has earned a CSAE Award of Excellence. Previously, she held senior roles overseeing programs, innovation, and operations, managing stakeholder relationships, and leading interprovincial and international teams. Snezana's combined expertise in governance, program design, and strategic execution positions her to drive growth, innovation, and organizational effectiveness.