SUSTAINABLE FINANCE

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF I’ m Charles Assaf, Co-Founder and CEO of Novisto – a Montréal-based software company helping enterprises elevate the quality, integrity and value of their sustainability data. We believe sustainability information should be managed with the same rigour and quality as financial data and we’ ve built the platform to make that possible.

I was born and raised in Lebanon and came to Canada as an international student at McGill University. After completing my undergraduate studies, I pursued a Master’ s at MIT, where I focused on the early predecessors of SaaS – then known as application service providers. That experience sparked my interest in how businesses consume software online, a theme that has shaped much of my career.

CHARLES ASSAF, CO-FOUNDER & CEO, NOVISTO

I’ ve worked largely in enterprise software: building, scaling and leading organisations in this space. I began my professional journey across the US and Europe before returning to Canada, which I now proudly call home. Novisto was founded here, shaped by the strength of Montréal’ s innovation ecosystem and a shared ambition to build globally relevant solutions from Canada.

My path into sustainability wasn’ t conventional, but when a venture studio brought forward an idea to tackle the data challenges of ESG reporting, it immediately resonated. I saw a real opportunity to apply modern technology and data discipline to a space that was becoming critical for businesses and rapidly evolving. I partnered with my Co-Founder, an ESG practitioner who remains an active advisor, whose domain expertise complemented my technical and entrepreneurial experience. Together, we saw a chance to bring digital transformation to the sustainability function and that vision is what built Novisto.

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