Volunteer-led community

Volunteer Organizers

TrueNorthCTO is sustained by volunteers who help convene senior technology leaders, support regional gatherings, and preserve the trust that makes the community useful.

Founder and lead organizer

Bohdan Zabawskyj is the founder and lead organizer of TrueNorthCTO, helping steward the community's volunteer-led, curated approach to senior technology leadership across Canada.

Bohdan has held senior CTO and CTPO roles guiding high-growth companies through transformation and successful exits, including RLDatix, Quandl, Rypple, Audiobooks, and Redknee. In his first senior technology leadership role, he saw the need for a psychologically safe space where technology leaders could openly share challenges, compare operating insights, and learn from peers facing similar pressures. That insight helped shape the foundation for TrueNorthCTO. He is also a co-founder of Fortay.ai, a named inventor on 20+ patents, and an advisor to scaleups across several domains.

What volunteer organizers do

Organizers help shape the conditions for high-signal peer exchange. They support regional events, identify relevant topics, welcome qualified leaders, and protect the community from becoming a sales channel or generic networking list.

Regional convening

Helping local members gather for dinners, roundtables, meetups, and invite-only leadership conversations.

Community stewardship

Keeping the tone practical, respectful, confidential, and useful for senior technology leaders.

Member context

Helping review fit, nominations, and referrals through the lens of strategic technology leadership.

Topic signal

Surfacing timely issues across AI, product, security, architecture, operating models, hiring, and governance.

Volunteer principles

TrueNorthCTO organizers are peers first. They contribute because a trusted senior technology community is valuable to Canada's technology ecosystem. Organizer activity should reinforce the community's curated, not-for-profit, non-solicitation, and senior-leadership orientation.

Regional organizers

Regional organizers may support city-based activity in places such as Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Victoria, Ottawa, Quebec City, Edmonton, and other Canadian technology hubs as the community grows.

Interested in helping?

Senior technology leaders who want to support a regional gathering, suggest a discussion topic, or help steward the community can send a note through the .