Sherry Shannon-Vanstone

Sherry Shannon-Vanstone has made a significant contribution to the spectrum of digital industries from cryptography to telecommunications to electronic commerce, while also making a major contribution to the advancement of all women.

Sherry has been involved in three start-up ventures with successful exits — Cylink, Certicom, and TrustPoint Innovation— and in 2018 launched Profound Impact.

Sherry was recently named Rogers Woman of the Year in STEAM for the Waterloo Region and in 2020 was the recipient of the prestigious Leadership Excellence Award in Entrepreneurship from Women in Communications and Technology. In June 2019, Sherry received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws (LLD) from Western University and in 2015, she was named the Waterloo Region’s Female Innovator of the Year.

She is also the co-chair of the Emmy Noether Council at Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics.

Sherry holds a Master of Science degree in mathematics from the University of Tennessee and was a cryptologic mathematician with the US Government.