Our mission

Give people the power to digitally connect and interact on their own terms.

Our principles

We tackle today's digital challenges guided by the beliefs that technologies should be aligned with people's choices and values, be used to bring communities closer together and make societies more open, while supporting business growth.

Protect People's Privacy

In today's hyper-connected and polarized world, privacy is essential to keeping people safe and enabling freedom of expression.This is the reason for which privacy is the foundation of our technologies.

Connect Communities

Through our technologies, we help people build connections within and across communities and societies so they can share their opinions and have a better understanding of each other' s differences.

Promote People's Identities

We build technologies that allow individuals in communities and societies to freely express their choices and identity values while respecting others'.

Ensure Media Diversity

Our tools help media organizations power profitable business models and ensure their independence to continue shaping healthy communities and societies.

Our history

2010. Virtual Artifacts founded after acquiring Shopmedia, Inc. through a reverse takeover.

2011. Beta release of the Hibe platform. Heralded as one of top next-gen privacy technologies.

2012. Showcasing of the Hibe technology at SXSW (Austin, TX), Advertising Week (NYC, NY).

2016. Introduction of Hibe MAN , social network for mobile apps, powered by Hibe.

2018. The Hibe MAN platform is launched in collaboration with Oracle Corporation.

2019. Amazon and IBM support the Hibe Xcloud initiative through dedicated programs.

2020. Google supports the Hibe Xcloud initiative. Hibe Media and Hibe AdAura are launched.

2022. The Hibe platform is available online and used by digital medias.

Jean Dobey
Founder, Chairman & CEO

As an entrepreneur and Internet technology innovator with 25 years of experience, Jean always believed that the Internet — if it was used in the right way — would positively impact billions of lives around the globe. Recognizing the potential of this amazing medium in 1995, Jean immersed himself in the world of programming to gain the tools he needed to turn his ideas into reality. With his extensive knowledge of e-commerce, social media, digital advertising, online privacy, digital identities, and digital transformation, Jean has become a source for thought leadership on these topics and has provided dozens of articles and conducted numerous interviews with major media outlets, including The Guardian, Investors.com, The Huffington Post, Forrester, CEO.com, SocialTimes.com, Business News Daily and Fast Company. Jean is a former member of the Technical Advisory Board for Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL).

Sylvain Roy

Chief Operating Officer

Richard Desrochers

Chief Technology Officer

Frédérique Fenneteau

Chief Product Officer

Alexandre Hénault-Couturier

Chief Revenue Officer

Management team bios

Sylvain Roy is chief operating officer at Virtual Artifacts (VA). Sylvain is a business lawyer with 25 years of IP, valuation and transactions experience applied to growing, operating and monetizing tech companies. Distinctive features of Sylvain's practice include mastery of technology and media industries, the ability to assess risk factors associated with product development, go-to-market and scale-up, and the incorporation of risk/benefit analyses into business strategy and operational planning. In total, Sylvain valued or provided due diligence on over hundreds of technology projects. Prior to joining Virtual Artifacts, Sylvain founded and operated several firms in the software and technology, media, and telecom (TMT) spaces where he played a key part as COO, CEO or general counsel roles.

Richard Desrochers is chief technology officer at Virtual Artifacts (VA). Richard is an enterprise architect with 30 years experience in IT, R&D, systems development, design of large-scale distributed data processing architecture, and data warehouses. Prior to joining VA, Richard worked as an IT consultant with multidisciplinary teams over 25 years for different government ministries on innovative technology projects valued over $100 million, some prized by the industry. Richard graduated in software development and artificial intelligence and he holds a security clearance from the government of Canada.

Frédérique Fenneteau is chief product officer at Virtual Artifacts (VA). Frédérique leads its family of products built atop its flagship technology, Hibe. For a decade, she has been actively involved in the conception, management, communication strategies, market validation of the Hibe products, and has acquired a deep knowledge of the Hibe technology. Frédérique participated to key events across North America to showcase and demonstrate the benefits of the Hibe technology in many fields, including advertising, education, and health. Previously to her career in technology, Frédérique has worked as an associate scientist at a pharmaceutical consulting firm. Frédérique graduated in engineering (B. Eng and M.Sc.A), and holds a Ph.D. degree with honors in pharmaceutical sciences.

Alexandre Hénault-Couturiers is chief revenue officer at Virtual Artifacts (VA). With 25 years of experience in the digital advertising and media industry, Alexandre has built his professional journey through a series of significant achievements in the digital domain. At VA, Alexandre oversees revenue channel development, implements innovative business strategies, and establishes strategic partnerships to ensure sustainable and consistent growth. Alexandre has designed and implemented several innovative business plans for online advertising management, Martech tool creation, and programmatic media buying and selling, driving significant revenue growth for various Canadian media organizations. His expertise and ability to quickly identify and understand the nature of business challenges associated with the digital era have allowed him to solve complex problems with creative,innovative, and pragmatic solutions, yielding tangible results while respecting the adaptability of individuals involved in the digital transformation process. He has extensive experience as a speaker and trainer on future strategies, challenges, and solutions for advertising media.

Our culture

At Virtual Artifacts, as we take on real problems impacting our digital societies, we foster diversity and inclusion to fuel our innovations, make better decisions and build unique technologies.

Contact Us

203-417 St-Pierre
Montreal (Quebec)
Canada H2Y 2M4

info AT virtualartifacts DOT com