Gateway to Canada and The World - Canada's International Trade

Mr. Rana Sarkar was appointed as Consul General of Canada in San Francisco | Silicon Valley in 2017, with accreditation for Northern California and Hawaii. He is also a member of Canadas NAFTA Advisory Council. Mr. Sarkar previously served as National Director for High Growth Markets at KPMG Canada, and co-chairman of the advisory board at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. From 2009 - 2013, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canada-India Business Council. In 2005, Mr. Sarkar co-founded Content Partners, a global content agency (sold in 2009), and, in 2001, the advisory firm Rawlings Atlantic Limited. He began his career as a consultant at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in London and Munich and helped establish Roland Berger in India. He also served as a visiting lecturer at the London School of Economics and the CASS Business School at the University of London. He attended the London School of Economics, Queen’s University at Kingston, Ontario, and the INSEAD Executive Program in France. He is a member of the advisory council of the Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, Canada2020, and The Literary Review of Canada and a Distinguished Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. Mr. Sarkar is married to lawyer and author Reva Seth. They live in San Francisco with their three children and oversized labradoodle.

Chris Albinson is a seasoned tech investor and longtime champion for Canadian innovators in Silicon Valley, is the CEO of Communitech. In Canadian circles, Albinson is best known for his role as a co-founder of C100, a nonprofit organization that supports Canadian technology entrepreneurship and investment. He brought Canadian talent and values to Silicon Valley during his nearly 20 years there. He has invested in 37 Canadian founders coast to coast including PixStream, ImagicTV, Abatis and Passwordbox, while also helping global brands like Pinterest, DocuSign and Turo to scale and issue IPOs. In recognition of his support for Canadian innovation, Albinson was honored with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

Suri is a serial entrepreneur with over three decades in IT which includes experience in building successful global businesses for not only his own ventures but also for companies he worked for. He takes pride in building relationships that are natural fallout of having worked in multiple organizations. He completed his degree in computer science from the University of Ottawa (Canada) in 1983. Being an entrepreneur at heart, he started his first venture, FocusFrame Inc. as a co-founder in 2001 with a successful exit in late 2006 to Hexaware Technologies. FocusFrame leveraged the concept of nearshore for the first time and Suri found it a great complement to onsite and offshore options. His last venture, Digital OnUS (DOU) was acquired by Tech Mahindra.