When Mark Boots and Louis Dorval met as Engineers Without Borders Canada alumni in Ghana, they shared one question: How can we use tech to meet the needs of people who are digitally disconnected?
Their answer was founding VOTO Mobile – now Viamo – which is now helping aid organizations and emerging market governments meet the needs of people who aren’t being reached using ubiquitous simple mobile phones.
Their system creates new feedback loops at scale and empowers millions of people with new access to vital information. They have since grown the company to 33 countries and reached over 30 million people with hundreds of diverse services.
Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 is an annual leadership award that recognizes exceptional achievement by 40 outstanding Canadians who are under the age of 40. The program is supported by several prominent organizations, all enthusiastically committed to Top 40’s success, including Caldwell, PwC Canada, and BNN Bloomberg.
Mark and Louis are social entrepreneurs with more than 20 years each of using mobile technology and design thinking to tackle the needs of people living in developing countries worldwide.
Louis has an MBA from the University of Oxford as a Skoll Scholar.
Mark holds a Ph.D. in Physics and a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Saskatchewan. He was recognized as the university’s Alumni of Achievement, the Engineers Without Borders Volunteer of the Year, and the Finalist for the Unilever/University of Cambridge’s Sustainable Entrepreneurship Award.
