Biography
Valérie Pisano is the President and CEO of Mila. A prominent leader in Canada’s artificial intelligence landscape, she is recognized for her strategic vision and transformational leadership. With over 20 years of experience in growth management, she notably served as Chief Talent Officer at Cirque du Soleil and co-founded the Mobïus project on bias to accelerate the dialogue on female leadership in the corporate world.
Since 2018, she has led Mila, the world’s largest academic research center in deep learning, founded by Professor Yoshua Bengio, the world's most cited researcher and recipient of the AM Turing Award. Under her leadership, the Institute has experienced exponential growth, establishing itself as a pillar of the Canadian AI ecosystem with a reach that extends far beyond national borders. Today, Mila boasts a community of over 1,500 researchers and 150 industrial partners, and stands as a global benchmark for AI governance, notably through key collaborations with the OECD and the United Nations.
As a former consultant with McKinsey Canada, she focuses on how humans can adapt to and benefit from this technological revolution. She holds a degree in Finance and Economics from HEC Montréal and currently serves on the boards of directors of LawZero, Chartwell, and Énergir.