Canada’s Entrepreneur

Wayne Wachell is the CEO & Chief Investment Officer (Founding Partner), Genus Capital. Wayne co-founded Genus Capital in 1989 and is the architect of the firm’s investment process. Genus Capital is a pioneer in Canada’s divest-invest movement and is home to Canada’s first fossil-free mutual fund family.

Lauren Dary is founder of Gus Sloan in Edmonton.

John Datseris has worked in the digital world since 1998. His knowledge of technology and marketing helps companies better understand the digital space – how it is changing, how to leverage it, how to measure it and how to integrate it into their business. John is an expert in digital and new media and in developing and building actionable strategies and properties that are results focused. He has successfully led digital transformation programs for traditional marketing and media companies and is known for designing business and marketing solutions that develop social and financial capital for enterprises. Six years ago he co-founded GNR8R Marketing Group – which generates strategies and solutions for the connected consumer. At GNR8R John and his team work with clients, agencies, technology companies and strategic service groups to build higher value marketing solutions.

Derick Hsieh is the Product Manager of Liv.Rent. A serial entrepreneur, he had several start up engagements under his belt prior to this, performing a variety of roles including consulting on agile development and building biomedical solutions. He specialized in human computer interaction for biomedical applications - technologies that facilitate touchless interactions with medical imaging technology in surgical settings - think Minority Report. A curious software engineer at heart, Derick's interest in emerging technologies and innovative user experiences lead him to join Liv, build a team, create and oversee the product from inception to launch this summer.

Jacqueline Jacek is Cocoanista at JACEK Chocolate Couture in Edmonton.

Leslee Montgomery is the mother of 3 teenage girls and founder of Kyote Fitness & Counselling, a Burnaby based personal training facility that is tackling the mental health ripple effects of bullying. After 10 years working Health and Safety in the construction industry Leslee realized that everyone wants to be heard and listened to and that mental health was an area she wanted to get more involved with. Physical fitness has always grounded Leslee and then one day it came to her, what if you could provide the customer with a complete experience, providing a safe place to tackle mental health and physical fitness at the same time.

Catherine Vu is Chief Uptime Officer of Pro-Active IT Management.

Corey Croft is an accidental entrepreneur and Founder of Fly Pelican Press, an independent book publishing company operating out of Vancouver British Columbia. Focusing on delivering non-commercial works of fiction in electronic and hard copy formats, and creating open-ended discourse through official publications and blogs, the company has a hard-to-forget slogan which you’ll hear in Corey’s Canada Podcast and view on his website – that is also his guiding principle for both content and delivery. Corey Croft is from Surrey British Columbia, Canada. Self-described as a user of gallows humor to help to him stumble gracefully in a meaningless world. He avoids eye contact with strangers and doesn’t understand most kinds of science. As a child he was taken to church every Sunday and worried that every time it rained it would rain, biblically. As an adult, the rain is pretty good for writing and sleeping.

Joey Pomerleau is founder and CEO of Wednesday Co. which is an online subscription condom company.

Priscilla Stanbury, was born in England but grew up in Vancouver. She taught students with learning disabilities in the post-secondary education sector in England and Vancouver. Following her second kidney failure, she is a first time author of a best-selling, award nominated book, Warriors and Heroes of a Different Kind: Battling Kidney Failure.

Glain Roberts-McCabe is the founder and President of The Roundtable, a company where leaders cultivate their leadership, together. The Roundtable is best known for their group and team-based coaching and mentoring systems that help organizations break down silos, increase collaboration and accelerate business all while building leadership capability. In 2014, The Roundtable was awarded a Gold Award by the Canadian Awards for Training Excellence in partnership with PepsiCo Foods Canada for their Roundtable for Leaders peer coaching and mentoring program and in 2016 they were named Best External Consulting Advisory in Canada at the Canadian HR Awards. In 2018, Glain was named one of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurs of the Year. All experiences were kind of like winning an Oscar but without having to wear sequins. Glain is the author of the Amazon best-selling book ‘Did I REALLY Sign Up for This?!’ and believes that leadership is a privilege. Her personal mission to inspire ambitious leaders to connect to their bigger purpose and passion so that work can be more fun and life can be more fulfilling.

In 2011 Melissa Orozco founded Yulu PR, a communications and impact consulting agency mandated to champion socially innovative organizations that are making positive social and environmental impact. Since then, Melissa was awarded a top 30-under 30 marketing professional award, was Chair of Communications for the Urban Land Institute of BC, played a key role in the ‘Fuck Cancer’ campaign earning her agency at International Stevie Award for Best Social Good Campaign, and became Canada’s first PR agency to become a certified B Corporation. With the belief that stories have the power to drive behavior and social change, Melissa and her team embarked on an evolution of public relations. Enter Impact Relations, an organization dedicated to promoting the widespread practice of PR & communications for positive impact that works with emergent change makers across North America.

Dan Berezan is founder of CultivatR.ca which is an only farmer's market - bringing fresh food straight from producers to your home table.

Jigme Love (jigmelove.com) is the Founder of the luxury resale store Mine & Yours. She has operated retails stores and pop-up shops on Hornby Street, on South Granville, Robson Street, 4th Avenue in Kitsilano, and in Yorkville in Toronto, and Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. She specializes in creating sophisticated retail shopping experiences and building long-standing community relationships. She is a passionate entrepreneur. As the Founder of the Dream Factory Mastermind, she creates community, inspirational experiences, and leads and facilitates business growth and strategic collaborations among entrepreneurs. She holds an MBA from the International University of Monaco.

Monica Kretschmer is founder and CEO of Canadian Business Chicks and the creator of the Women of Inspiration Awards.

Alexandra Nestertchouk is a serial entrepreneur with over ten years of experience in business management and technology. She has a Business Management Degree and background in Computer Science. Originally from Minsk, Belarus, she moved to Canada 11 years ago. Over the years leading to establishing HopKidz. Alexandra was in a sr. management position for a vibrant Boutique IT Consulting firm in Toronto. However she always knew she will not continue as "9-5 employee". Alexandra has started and ran few little things as a side-hustle while she was searching for the Big idea. Alexandra is a mother to a now 2.5 year boy, Cosmos. Once her maternity leave came to an end, becoming the founder and CEO of a tech startup was a natural step. Fun fact: Alexandra comes from a family of strong women with entrepreneurship running in their blood - every woman in her family is now a business owner, including her 81yo grandmother.

Colin Szopa is CEO and co-founder of Plankk, a fitness and technology company in Calgary.

Alexandre Champoux is a business entrepreneur who formerly owned and managed Alliance Pavage from 2009 to 2018. This business specialized in asphalt paving and concrete work for commercial, institutional, civil and residential jobs. This leader grew the company by tackling over 800 contracts around the island of Montreal which includes their most notorious feat "The Bonaventure Project". With over a decade of experience and observations, Alexandre lived the troublesome and outdated management techniques in the construction industry. Most notably the scaling margins of error that had to be factored into each of venture. His experience combined with his excellent orator and interpersonal skills and makes this CEO an indispensable individual of Civalgo.

Jeremy Lundy has spent over a decade working in the government and telecom sectors doing implementation consulting and product development. He has participated in all phases of the software development lifecycle from design, development and testing to pre-sales support and client implementation. He has managed large teams through DevOps and Agile transformations and co-founded Techorrect Inc. Jeremy enjoys playing basketball and watching rugby.

Pete Nguyen is an Art Director at Berlin Communications, partner of Sea Change Brewing Co., and an active illustrator, muralist, designer and musician.

Je m'appelle Jeff Soucy. Au travers mon entreprise RevFocus Marketing, je joins mes 2 plus grandes passions qui sont la santé/mieux-être et le marketing. J'ai toujours été dans le milieu du sport et après mon séjour comme athlète universitaire aux États-Unis, je cherchais une façon de rester dans le domaine. J'ai alors commencé à suivre plusieurs formations sur le marketing web et j'ai appris comment aider les entreprises à acquérir des clients et augmenter leur chiffre d'affaire. J'aide principalement les entreprises et les experts dans le milieu du mieux-être, que ce soit de la PNL, nutrition, suppléments et tout ce qui touche à la santé et au mindset. Quand j'ai commencé, tout ce que je voulais était d'aider les entrepreneurs à aimer la business qu'ils avaient travailler fort à batir, mais je me suis vite rendu compte qu'en travaillant avec eux, que j'avais leur business à coeur autant qu'eux.

Dr. Rebecca Sutherns is an insightful and high energy collaborative strategist and world class facilitator who has served as a trusted advisor to hundreds of mission-driven organizations in Canada and internationally. Rebecca brings intellect, enthusiasm and varied experience in strategy development and collaborative leadership when speaking, writing and mentoring. She is a skilled communicator, with a particular gift for helping leaders make wiser decisions faster. As the founder and Principal of Sage Solutions, a consulting firm based in Guelph, Ontario, Rebecca has facilitated customized strategic processes for community benefit organizations for more than 20 years. She provides strategic coaching and planning services, with an emphasis on professional facilitation, stakeholder engagement and evidence-based decision-making.

Yuri Fulmer has been building businesses since his early twenties. Having arrived from Australia a few years earlier, it all began when he was faced with the unexpected opportunity to buy a local franchise while working for A&W. Since then, Yuri has grown that single A&W franchise into dozens, doggedly building a $60 million business portfolio by the time he was 30. In 2010, Yuri founded Fulmer Capital Partners (now Fulmer & Company) to continue doing what he does best — helping businesses grow. Currently, Fulmer & Company owns and invests in a collection of companies in the hospitality, business-to-business, manufacturing, construction, digital technology and consumer service industries. Right from the start, serving the local community has also been an important part Yuri’s work. Over the years, he’s been actively involved in local non-profit, educational and arts organizations, and serves as an accredited Director a number corporate and civic boards. In 2019, Yuri established The Fulmer Foundation to take Fulmer & Company’s community investment to the next level. One of the foundation’s biggest undertakings is the management and support of Goodly Foods Society — a social enterprise working to repurpose surplus produce from local suppliers, while creating employment opportunities for people in need. Yuri feels truly honoured to have been acknowledged for his contributions to others, including recognition by: Canada’s Top Forty Under 40 (2008), The BC Community Achievement Award (2010), The Spirit of Vancouver Award (2011), The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) and The Order of British Columbia (2010), our Province’s highest honour, for Yuri’s "dynamic entrepreneurship and committed volunteerism". Away from the office, you can often find Yuri enjoying the great outdoors near and far, fishing, diving, canoeing, kayaking, climbing and exploring. Or, you know, not find him.

Edmonton’s own Kelley Keehn (kelleykeehn.com) is an award-winning and best-selling author of nine books (and counting!) on personal finance and fraud protection. She is also a personal finance educator and the consumer advocate for FP Canada. Money is her second language and it’s her mission to make Canadians feel good about their money.

Laura Beauparlant is an award-winning international keynote speaker, an expert on branding and design and the author of Brand Chemistry. As the founder and creative director of Lab Creative, her mission is to help ambitious entrepreneurs create strong, memorable brands that consistently attract their ideal clients. For over 15 years, Laura has helped countless small business owners and entrepreneurs gain confidence and grow their businesses through unforgettable branding.

Winston Kam is a lawyer practicing at and the founder of Winright Law. Winright Law is a law firm that focuses on real estate, business and wealth preservation. Their practice is devoted to helping companies, investors, as well as individuals, with their legal issues and protecting them from legal liability. Their clients range from individuals and investors to realtors, real estate developers, entrepreneurs, small to medium enterprises. At Winright Law, Winston primarily practices in business and real estate law, dealing with both the solicitor's side as well as the litigation side of law. With what remaining time is left, Winston has the larger goal of changing the delivery of legal services through an innovative approach to legal systems and processes, streamlining services with new technology and making the customer experience a top priority. After being a member of the Pacific Club, a non-profit society founded in 1991, for the last four years, Winston now serves as the President. The Pacific Club's mission is to connect entrepreneurs and professionals with Vancouver’s business community, something that is very important to both Winston and Winright Law.

Doug Lacombe, MBA is president and founder of Communicatto Inc., a digital marketing agency. Drawing on almost 30 years of experience in media, web publishing and technology; Doug and his team work with businesses and associations to integrate traditional and digital communications, with a focus on content marketing, advertising, and social media.

Brit Garon grew up in rural Ontario. He attended Western University in London Ontario, where he received a degree in Finance & Economics. Immediately after University, Brit moved to the GTA and began work at CAA, where he helped launch the travel insurance company Orion Travel Insurance. He was lured away by the Danish insurance company software that CAA had helped develop, where he helped run operations on this side of the Atlantic. While working there, Brit and his roommate developed the idea for what would become ScholarTree. ScholarTree began life 2 years ago and officially launched in 2017. ScholarTree helps match students with scholarships, so that they can afford to pursue the career of their dreams.

Dan Belostotsky is founder of HonestDoor which is an online tool for real estate information. He's also founder of Otto Capital, his private investment company.

Tony McGrath is CEO of The GRAND Theatre.

Six years ago, Mehrnaz Bassiri made the riskiest and most rewarding decision of her professional life: she traded a career in Biotech for K-12 educational development. Now she’s an award-winning entrepreneur, a writer, speaker, progress specialist, and the founder of MyGradeBooster. She has been featured at TEDxChilliwack, on Global News radio, and in the Huffington Post.

Karen Barry is President of Barry Commercial Real Estate and founder of Beltline Cannabis Calgary.

Nicholas Raymond-Giasson est propriétaire de Cleanergy Inc. Nicholas est un préparateur physique et il effectue également des consultations en nutrition. Il possède son propre studio d’entrainement à St-Jean-sur-Richelieu nommé le Cleanergym Underground. Il a de nombreuses formations académiques : études collégiales en travail social, études universitaires en Éducation Physique et à la santé à Sherbrooke, Somatraining avec Guy Voyez à l’institut Somatraining, Kinésiologie Appliqué avec Bob Rakowski au Minnesota, Posturologie avec Annette Verpillot, Nutrition Appliqué avec Precision Nutrition (en ligne) et Bob Rakowski à Houston au Texas, etc. Son but est de pouvoir aidez un maximum de personnes à retrouver une santé optimale en identifiant les outils qu'ils seront en mesure d'intégrer dans leur quotidien.

Miranda Zechel, along with sisters Kate and Robyn, founded the retail outlet Cloud Nine Pajamas. There are four stores in Edmonton and one recently opened in the CrossIron Mills shopping centre in the Calgary area.

Kenny Wong, self proclaimed friendliest builder in the Lower Mainland, is the Co-Director of PHW Homes Inc., a family run business focusing on designing and building residential custom homes. Following his client focused experience while working at eBay, he joined the family business 10 years ago inspired to learn and with the desire to change the common perceptions of contractors within the home building industry. Since that time, PHW Homes has grown substantially and has been featured in Globe & Mail and Global News. The company prides themselves on the client experience and has been awarded Best of Houzz – Client Satisfaction from 2016-2018, and is one of Google’s top 3 rated home building contractors in Burnaby. Additionally, as a newly discovered health and fitness buff, he now is also one of the owners of Oxygen Yoga & Fitness in Yaletown.

François Lanthier Nadeau est un bâtisseur et éternel étudiant basé à Québec. Il mentore les startups du programme Apollo13 — une initiative de Spektrum Média aidant les startups à devenir profitables. Il est aussi responsable du marketing chez Snipcart, une solution de e-commerce pour développeurs, depuis plus de 5 ans. Durant cette période, l’entreprise a lentement mais sûrement grandi sa base d’utilisateurs et ses revenus grâce au contenu marketing et SEO. Maintenant stable et profitable, l’équipe expérimente avec d’autres canaux, comme la publicité FB, le vidéo, et le UX du parcours utilisateur complet. On peut le lire sur Indie Hackers, The Startup, freeCodeCamp, Baremetrics, Wishpond, GrowthHub, et d’autres publications. François a donné des présentations sur les startups dans plus de 13 événements à travers le monde (Canada, USA, France, Irlande). Il a travaillé à distance dans une demi-douzaine de pays différents.

Tenacious, vibrant and bold; Amanda Hamilton and her eponymous studio offer more than just Interior Design services. As an accomplished creative entrepreneur with an adventurous spirt, Amanda continuously strives to carve out an aspirational and unorthodox path in the industry, making her one of Canada’s most influential cultural personalities.

Linda Southern-Heathcott is President and CEO of Spruce Meadows, the sprawling equestrian facility in Calgary's deep south.

Je m'appelle Fallone Jean. Entrepreneure depuis l’âge de 19 ans, je suis une passionnée : propriétaire de 3 gyms pour femmes C30M-kickboxing, Leader en puissance et coach PNL. J’ai donné plusieurs conférences sur la puissance féminine en plus d’animer plusieurs groupes de coaching en ligne pour les entrepreneures. Je suis aussi entraineure de zumba et de kickboxing depuis plus de 10 ans! J’enseigne principalement à Sorel-Tracy et à Varennes. Avec le coaching j’offre à mes clientes plusieurs outils de PNL afin de leur permettre de reprendre le contrôle de leurs émotions, de leur style de vie et de leur bien-être. Je les guide vers une meilleure version d’elle-même afin qu’elles puissent enfin s’épanouir et vivre LEUR vie de rêves en ayant une entreprise au service de leur vie... et non d’être une femme au service de leur entreprise! Être soi-même, s’affirmer, s’aimer, se respecter et être alignée avec ses vraies valeurs c’est la base d’une vie de rêve! Ma mission : permettre à toutes les femmes de se reconnecter à leur flamme intérieure, celle qui brûle d’envie de briller à plein feu et en toute puissance!

Patricia (Tish) Conlin heads up the Global Consulting Group Inc. (GCG), a leading talent solutions company with over 25 years finding leaders for our clients in IT, Engineering, Real Estate, Finance and Healthcare companies. GCG has end to end solutions for talent acquisition, Executive coaching, wellness and transition along with Retirement transition solutions. As well as building GCG Tish is passionate about wellness. As a Registered Holistic Nutritionist, Certified Emotional and Social Intelligence Trainer and Black Belt Martial Artist, Tish has seen the difference coaching makes to improves lives and performance. Tish is a well know speaker and her first "ABCs of Food: Boost your Energy, Confidence and Success" is now available and she is writing her second book on building inner resilience.

Alex Putici (putici.com) is an entrepreneur and community builder. He is the founder of Alberta’s largest coworking community called Work Nicer, with offices in Calgary and Edmonton. He has an impressive track record of starting a number of different companies and also spends his time to make the Calgary community a better place. Alex is the founder of 100 Men Who Give A Damn in Calgary, GenYYC, and the Calgary Coworking Alliance. He is also a proud mentor with ATB X and Startup Calgary.

Christianne Hayward has been educating children and adults for over forty years. She established her unique parent and youth bookclubs in 1996, and founded the Lyceum in 2007 where she now facilitates 11 bookclubs, 7 writers’ workshops and literature and art classes for young children at the Lyceum, with her talented staff. She also teaches at post-secondary institutions, works as a teacher consultant, facilitates parent groups in the ANCHOR Program at the Vancouver Child Study Centre, and is mother of two sons. She is committed to building community and inspiring a sense of social responsibility in those that she engages with Her Ph.D studies in education (UBC, 2000) focused on using select children’s literature to develop socially relevant curriculum in early childhood settings through to high school. Christianne’s M.Ed studies (Bristol, 1982) centered around the use of literary theming in nursery schools and its effect on children’s attitudes toward reading. Christianne completed her B.Ed (U of A, 1978) in Special Education and received her Diploma in Early Childhood Education in the same year. Her first year of study at the U of A was dedicated to Fine Arts which fuelled a life-long love of the arts.

With more than 25 years of sales experience, Lee Mainman has been responsible for the direct management of sales teams and client relationships for major accounts across every industry vertical. Lee gained significant management and consulting experience from working at companies like TELUS, Robert Half Technology and VCIO. Today, he is a partner at Bits in Glass, an award-winning technology consulting firm based in Edmonton.

Ryan Gill is one of the city's best-known entrepreneurs. He is CEO and Co-founder of Communo, a vetted network of marketing professionals. He's also President and Partner of Cult Collective, an agency specializing in marketing and branding.

For the past decade, Taylan Pince has been leading the talented product team at Hipo Labs and helping brilliant startups go from "a small team with a good idea" to multi billion-dollar companies. He is both artist, engineer and innovator – a startling collection of talents. Hipo is a brilliant example of a company that has grown through its own self-sustaining investment and discipline. Hipo, specializes in providing startups with two critical things: flexibility and quality. They build maintainable and scalable product solutions very quickly and efficiently, so founders can focus on growth and sales. Taylan has worked with startups like Robinhood, Moment, Keen and Fieldguide.

Anthony Giuffre is founder and CEO of Avenue Living Asset Management which has assets of more than $1 billion including more than 8000 residential rental units across Western Canada.

Robert Phelps, President of Canadian operations with SilverChef, who has teams established across Canada responsible for supporting Dealer Partners and Industry Bodies to deliver business value with flexible equipment rental and finance lease funding solutions across the hospitality sector. Focused on supporting customers and industry including Restaurants, Cafes, Motels, Hotels, Clubs, Coffee Roasters, Butchers, Bakers and Franchises. To date, Silver Chef has partnered with over 2,500 Canadian hospitality businesses.

Filomena May has her own branch of Raymond James Ltd. in Calgary and her company is named Filo Financial Solutions.

Jeff Lydell is the founder of Gasket Games, a native of Vancouver, and has a 14 year production and biz-dev background at Blackbird Interactive, Bigpoint, and Relic Entertainment. His shipped titles include Company of Heroes, Dawn of War II and expansions, and Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak.

Rob Hunter has been an entrepreneur ever since he was a kid. He had an eBay account by the time he was 12 years old, and sold Japanese professional wrestling VHS tapes and DVD's (yep!) to pay his way through university at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. He did so well, he was able to establish a mini student real estate empire. After graduation, he sold my properties and got into the ice cream business, opening 7 Marble Slab ice cream stores by the time he was 25. Rob has had lots of tremendous high's and low's as a multi-unit franchisee, and learned a lot of lessons along the way. In 2012, he got offered a great scholarship to do his MBA at the #1 school in the world for entrepreneurship, Babson College. In Boston he met a co-founder, a wife, and immersed himself in the technology startup culture of the city. Right now he’s back in Toronto and focused on growing HigherMe - a way for retail and hourly employers to find, screen, and hire better employees faster.