If D-Wave Systems’ new chief financial officer has any problems calculating numbers on the job, it’s likely he’ll have ample assistance from the Burnaby company’s own hardware.
The quantum computer firm announced Thursday (February 4) it’s hired Dan Cohrs to take over the vacated CFO role.
He previously served as CFO of L.A.-based Rentech, Inc. and Rentech Nitrogen Partners, where he led an initial public offering.
D-Wave, meanwhile, remains a privately held company.
Prior to Cohrs’ appointment, chief operating officer Warren Wall oversaw financials at D-Wave, which bills itself as responsible for the world’s first commercially viable quantum computers.
“I’m really impressed and excited about the work they’re doing. This whole area of quantum computing is a big breakthrough for the future,” Cohrs told Business In Vancouver.
“D-Wave is picking up momentum commercially as well.”
D-Wave landed a deal in November to supply U.S. defence contractor Lockheed Martin with a new computer system that doubles the processing capacity of its previous model.
It also sold systems last fall to Los Alamos National Laboratory to help it further its research into high-performance computing, and an artificial intelligence lab operated by Google, NASA and the Universities Space Research Association.
Regular computers use two bits – ones and zeroes – to make calculations, while quantum computers rely on qubits.
Qubits possess a “superposition” that allow it to be one and zero at the same time, meaning it can calculate all possible values in a single operation.
Although D-Wave has an office in California, Cohrs said he would be based out of the company’s headquarters in Burnaby.
