Ritesh Kotak

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT RITESH KOTAK

I have dedicated my personal and professional career to assisting organizations in effectively leveraging technology to transform operations. Growing up in a family business, you do not have big budgets and access to resources. This created the perfect environment to learn different practical skills and develop cost-effective innovative solutions to address unique challenges. I started my career with a major police service in Canada where I spent the majority of my career working on tech and cyber-related (cyber-security/cyber-crime/research/training) initiatives. I left policing to pursue an MBA. Post-MBA, I worked on major global tech projects with Microsoft’s Global Center of Innovation and was selected by Harvard University for their Emerging Leaders Program.In 2019, I decided to return to school to commence my Juris Doctor. I felt that better understanding of the legal profession would allow me to work on projects that promoted access to justice by leveraging technology. While completing my JD, I had the opportunity to participate in a Technoship, be a Research Assistant to three Professors focusing on legal tech projects and intern at the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. At the beginning of the pandemic, I was selected to be a ‘Dean’s Tech Fellow’ where I worked with staff to digitize all aspects of the faculty. This project won ‘Most Innovative Project’ from the University of Ottawa. In addition, while completing my law degree, I participated in two hackathons. The first was in the summer of 2020, where myself and three colleagues entered an international tech law competition and developed an automated workflow to generate refund claims to airlines for COVID-related cancellations. This project placed second place in the world. The second hackathon was a Pan-Canada competition where myself and two colleagues developed a free automated privacy breach reporting tool kit for small businesses. The toolkit placed first in the competition and we decided to pursue the project and launched jusTech to assist the small business community. The project has now received funding, featured in the media and is expanding to include additional features to further assist businesses.I have had the privilege of working and presenting around the world including the World Internet Conference, the Major City Chiefs/FBI National Executive Institute Conference, NATO-sponsored Cybersecurity Conference and several other events around the world. I frequently provide interviews to mainstream media on cyber and tech-related stories.