Neel Dayal

Worth knowing

He is the rare telecom insider who is buyer, operator and investor at once, and he holds the Rogers relationships with the University of British Columbia and the University of Waterloo that bring research out of the lab and onto a live network. He has run demonstrations in mining, healthcare, robotics, wildfire response and public safety.

Story

Neel started in consulting at Capgemini and as Chief Operating Officer at Tayside Industries before moving into Canadian telecom, where he was a program manager at Virgin Mobile Canada working on Smart Cities and then a product manager and senior project manager at Bell. He joined Rogers in October 2012 with the Digital organization, led digital channels, and in 2016 moved into the innovation side of the business. Since 2018 he has led partnerships and innovation for Rogers' technology group, taking Canadian 5G work to the stage at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2024 and 2025 and convening Rogers' Mid Year Innovation Summit for an audience of more than a thousand.

In Neel's words

Born and Raised in Canada and have worked for 20+ in telecommunications and the Innovation Ecosystem as a buyer, implementer, operator and investor.

Highlights

• Senior Director, Partnerships & Innovation, Rogers Communications (2018-present)
• Leads Rogers partnerships with UBC and the University of Waterloo
• Rogers 5G at the NORCAT Underground Centre for mine rescue technology
• Rogers 5G collaboration with Ontario's Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (2021)
• MBAs, McGill and Esade; HBA, Ivey Business School