Ron Dembo

Founder and CEO, Riskthinking.ai

Dr. Ron Dembo is a distinguished academic, entrepreneur and consultant to some of the world’s largest corporations and financial institutions. With an impressive academic background, he served as a former professor of operations research and computer science at Yale University and held a visiting professorship at MIT. He is most renowned as the founder and CEO of Algorithmics Incorporated, growing the company from a startup into the world’s largest enterprise risk-management software provider. Under Ron’s leadership, Algorithmics expanded its footprint to over 15 countries, serving more than 70% of the world’s top 100 banks. The company consistently earned recognition as one of Canada’s 50 best-managed enterprises, culminating in its acquisition by Fitch in 2005, followed by IBM in 2012. In 2005, Ron founded Zerofootprint, an innovative technology company focused on addressing climate change. During his tenure, Zerofootprint facilitated carbon reduction programs in over 250 companies worldwide and developed effective solutions for carbon reduction. In 2018, Zerofootprint joined forces with CARBONx, a blockchain company, to develop innovative investment products targeting carbon reduction. Ron’s contributions to mathematics are equally notable, as evidenced by his Lifetime Fellow of the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences for his contribution to Canadian Mathematics. In October 2007, he was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Medal from the University of Waterloo for his exemplary leadership in risk management and environmental protection. He has also received numerous awards for his work in mathematical optimization, finance, and climate change. In addition to four books, Ron has authored over 60 refereed technical papers on finance and mathematical optimization, and holds many patents in computational finance and climate change software. Particularly noteworthy is his fourth book, “Risk Thinking in an Uncertain World,” Archway Publications, June 2021. In his newest venture as founder and CEO of riskthinking.AI, Ron has applied his patented multi-factor scenario modelling expertise to create a data platform and analytics engine for measuring and managing climate enterprise financial risk.