Leadership

Apera AI's management team has considerable experience in high-growth technology companies and the robotics / automation space. Collectively, they have more than U.S.$1.5 billion in successful exits.

Sina Afrooze

Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder

Sina is a technical entrepreneur in artificial intelligence, machine learning and systems engineering, with more than 20 years of experience. He was a founding engineer at Avigilon, an innovator in the surveillance market acquired by Motorola for U.S.$1.2 billion. He was then a major contributor to the SageMaker Reinforcement Learning service used to train AI for robotic simulation at Amazon Web Services (AWS). He holds 10 patents in the fields of AI, digital imaging, image processing, and media streaming. Sina holds a Bachelor of Systems Engineering from Simon Fraser University.

Joseph Lee, CA

Chief Financial Officer

Joseph Lee is a seasoned financial executive with over 25 years of experience in financial management, corporate strategy, and business leadership and investor relations. He specializes in high growth, startup environments, excelling under uncertainty and driving companies toward profitability and growth. With a strong track record as a CFO, he is known as a go-to CFO for growth-stage companies, guiding companies through aggressive scaling, managing functions like finance, operations, investor relations, and audits. Joseph is known for his hands-on, results-driven approach and has worked with both Canadian and U.S. public companies. Joe’s experiences include Coastal/Clearly Contacts where he joined the Company at start up, saw revenue grow from $3M – $250+M and where he took the Company public. Other experiences include taking Dietary Supplement Company from idea to $120M+; Terramera, a cleantech company, and Flair Airlines which had revenue growth from $30M to $500M+

Peter Brouwer

Senior Vice President, Global Sales & Marketing

Peter Brouwer is Senior Vice President of Global Sales & Marketing at Apera AI, where he leads commercial strategy and global expansion for the company’s industry-leading 4D Vision technology. With over 25 years of experience in industrial automation, Peter previously held senior leadership roles at Omron Automation and Honeywell, where he scaled sales teams, drove multi-region growth, and led robotics and AI-driven transformation strategies across North America. Known for his customer-first approach and deep expertise in manufacturing innovation, Peter brings a proven track record of building high-performing teams and delivering results across the automotive, life sciences, and industrial sectors.

Jamie Westell

Vice President, R&D

Jamie serves as the Vice President of Research and Development at Apera AI, bringing a wealth of experience in software development and engineering management. With a career spanning 15 years in the field of imaging devices and computer vision, Jamie has played a pivotal role in driving technological advancements and overseeing large-scale development teams. His notable leadership experience includes managing a team of over 60 engineering professionals at Motorola Solutions, where he was responsible for the successful delivery of multiple product lines. Jamie holds a Masters of Applied Science with a focus on Computer Vision, and a Bachelor of Systems Engineering, both from Simon Fraser University. Jamie was born and raised in Vancouver, BC and enjoys cycling, hiking, and skiing on the local mountains.

Sean Helgason

Director, Operations & Customer Success

Sean Helgason is Director, Operations & Customer Success at Apera AI, leading Application Engineering, Training, People Operations, and Customer Success. Sean brings more than a decade of experience building teams and operations at technology startups, helping scale companies through Series B and C rounds totaling more than $100M. He joined Apera in 2025. His Field Application Engineers work alongside integrators and plant teams globally to take vision-guided robotic cells from commissioning to full production rate.

Aleksey Senior ML Applied Scientist Apera AI

Aleksey Nozdryn-Plotnicki

Principal Applied Scientist

Aleksey is a specialist in machine learning for computer vision and applied mathematics, with over 8 years of hands-on experience in similar roles within the technology startup landscape. His professional journey also encompasses a solid foundation in operations research and business analytics. Aleksey holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Master of Management in Operations Research, from University of British Columbia. Aleksey has travelled to over 50 countries, but these days skis about 50 days a year.

Ralph Johns

Principal Software Development Engineer

Ralph is a founding engineer at Apera AI and an innovator with 20 years of engineering experience crossing software engineering, electronics/electro-mechanics, robotics, computer vision and graphics, and machine learning. He holds patents for electro-mechanical control systems, and at Avigilon he led the technical development of multiple products, including their flagship surveillance camera platform prior to their $1.2 billion acquisition. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics from the University of Alberta, and a Master of Science in Engineering from ECE Paris.