Canada’s Entrepreneur

Jim Button is co-founder of Village Brewery, a strategist with Evans Hunt and a member of the board of directors of Beer Canada. Jim has been on a sabbatical for a year while he deals with terminal cancer.

Introducing Isabelle Mercier-Turcotte, brand performance catalyst (a.k.a jet fuel) at LeapZone Strategies. As a brand builder, business performance catalyst, TEDx speaker with more than 2 Million views, and one of the best selling authors of the business and marketing book titled, The Next Big Thing: Top Trends From Today's Leading Experts to Help You Dominate the New Economy; Isabelle's sole purpose is to empower change and growth. "Momentum Generator" is her middle name and she has a relentless passion for helping entrepreneurs and small business owners raise the bar and expand their comfort zone to create outstanding brand experiences. Isabelle's biggest strength is her no BS approach and ability to tell it like it is. She has the "Simon Cowell" edge and is not afraid to tell people what to do and how to do it. She is an inspirational speaker, a captivating storyteller, and has an unquenchable enthusiasm for life. She is consistently leading-edge in facilitating change, and her undeniable track record and authentic connection with people, has gained her worldwide influence and recognition.

Jennifer Carlson is founder and president of Thirsty Naturals. She's also co-founder of Baby Gourmet and Chair of Innovation and New Ventures at SAIT.

Sandra Nomoto is a writer and aspiring world traveller. After earning her University degree and working in public relations, at the age of 25 she launched Conscious Public Relations Inc., a virtual communications firm. Over the 10 years in business, Nomoto was awarded the 2009 Volunteer of the Year by Women In Film & Television Vancouver, earned B Corporation® certification, and contributed to eWomenNetwork Vancouver earning the Best Social Media and Community Engagement Award in 2016. She also founded and grew the Vancouver Short Film Festival from 2005 to 2015. Nomoto is also the author of newly-published book, The Only Public Relations Guide You’ll Ever Need, blogs at SandraNomoto.com and for Cold Tea Collective, and serves on the board of the Vancouver Mural Festival. She practices Transcendental Meditation daily, sells a line of bold journals, and has been eating vegan since 2018.

Robin Smith Co-Owner and Co-Founder of VL OMNI – which he has built over the past twenty-five years. He is also founder of genealogyman.com. VL OMNI provides a platform for agile and scalable iPaaS ecommerce integration. It is used by global multichannel to move data seamlessly through their infrastructure as they grow, expand, and accelerate their business. VL OMNI is headquartered in Oakville and has offices in the UK as well.

PJ L'Heureux is a well-known Calgary businessman who owns and operates several bars and restaurants in the city including CRAFT Beer Market, Trolley 5, St. James Corner, Home & Away and Rodney's Oyster House.

Greg Hadubiak is an executive coach, consultant, facilitator, speaker and author who believes that the impossible is possible if human potential is unleashed. He brings extensive, broad-ranging, senior level experience and insight to leaders, especially those involved in significant change management initiatives. Greg’s client list is extensive and encompasses both public sector and private sector organizations and leaders. Greg's company, Breakpoint Solutions, is headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta.

Clive Goodinson, aka The Jokester, is the mastermind behind Pixton. It all started when he imagined a website where people could share and collaborate on ideas and stories. Combining his love of comics like Tintin, The Far Side, and Calvin & Hobbes, with his skills in computer programming, Clive struck upon the idea of a new kind of comic, where anyone could be its author. An expert in the full spectrum of interactive technologies, Clive has a M.Sc. degree from the University of British Columbia and over a decade's experience building interactive content for some of Canada's leading brands and design agencies. Originally from England, Clive loves listening to and playing music, word games, and the right brand of chocolate-mint ice cream. Clive’s family moved to Canada from England when he was small and moved to Ontario. From Ontario, Clive moved to Vancouver for 14 years, and ultimately moved from an interurban 600 square foot apartment downtown Vancouver to Vancouver Island nine years ago, and fell in love with the space of Vancouver Island – being close to nature and out of the noisy city. Above all, Clive believes in nurturing the creative spirit, that we have the unique ability to imagine something and then make it a physical reality

Nicola Kozmyk Jones is the owner and executive director of Pure Motion Dance Company, a company she started in 2008 at the age of 21 that quickly grew into one of Calgary’s largest and most successful commercial dance companies. Pure Motion provides Nicola with the opportunity to work with some of Calgary’s top dance professionals and share her love of dance with young children. She has a bachelors degree in sport and recreation management from Mount Royal University. She is an MRU Distinguished Alumna, winning the university’s prestigious Horizon Award which is presented annually to a recent graduate for outstanding achievement early in their career.Both Nicola and Pure Motion have been nominated for and have won a number of awards including the Calgary Chamber of Commerce’s Customer Service Award in 2017. In addition to Pure Motion Dance company, Nicola works as a business coach helping dance industry professionals throughout North America achieve their full business potential. Nicola’s personal motto, which she shares with everyone she meets, is "You are PURE potential".

Emilee-Mae Feely, 26, began teaching piano in Waterloo four years ago to earn cash on the side. She went on to develop a web-based business called Feely Piano School that lets you book a piano teacher to come to your home. In 2014 Emilee-Mae founded Feely Music, which has been called the "Uber of Music Lessons." Since then, it has grown from a small startup to a three-province, 10-city enterprise. Currently, Feely, a "self-taught entrepreneur," is associated with three incubators at the University of Toronto Mississauga, Sheridan College, and Carleton University, which are helping support her journey. Lately, she has been focusing on the business side of the company and is no longer teaching. Over 10 cities in Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia are served by Feely Piano School.

Justus Parmar is the Founder and Managing Director of Fortuna Investments, a Vancouver-based private capital firm specializing in venture capital investments. It has raised more than $300 million for 125 early stage companies and facilitated the IPO of 24 companies in areas including: Blockchain, Renewable energy, and Lithium exploration. A strong believer in giving back, Justus is an active board member and fundraiser for Face of Today, and Youth Education Farms and The Justus Parmar Group Scholarship Foundation.

Lesley-Anne Scorgie is founder of MeVest, Canada’s leading edge money school offering unbiased one-on-one money coaching and workplace financial education. She is a best-selling personal finance author, corporate communications strategist and sought after often by the media for comment. Originally from Calgary, Lesley-Anne is now based in Toronto.

Saher Ghattas immigrated to Canada in 2005 from Cario, Egypt. He is a natural entrepreneur being involved in two startups since 2012 prior to founding Flawless Inbound. His organization is now one of the fastest growing companies in Alberta which has helped over 70 B2B companies with sales and marketing enablement across North America. Saher is also an in-demand speaker and in 2018, published his book on Amazon "Journey to the Summit" that speaks to CEO/Founders on how Marketing should work for growing their B2B organizations.

Christian Mena is a well-known restaurateur and former lead singer of 90's latin pop funk band MARACUJAH. He also starred on Broadway touring as Roger in RENT alongside Neil Patrick Harris. He’s partner in SABOR, BODEGA Tapas and Wine Bars and Urbano Pizza Co.

Michael Koral leads customer acquisition and operations at Needls. He is a sales and marketing expert who has excelled both as an employee and an entrepreneur. As an Account Executive with Xerox, Michael gained valuable skills that helped him close deals with small business owners and C-level executives alike. Michael parlayed his experience at Xerox to establish and lead the sales team at online advertising startup Menu Palace. In his own words on Twitter he likes long walks on the beach, a glass of champagne... but he fronts that by being an analytics junkie that loves data!

Since fleeing the traffic & expense of Vancouver in 2007, John Cooper has worked to build one of the Island’s best-known real estate brands, the John Cooper Group. Centered around technological innovation and providing help not hype, John’s core purpose is to celebrate & share the rare kind of lifestyle he found on the Island, one that is affordable, community-minded and close to spectacular natural beauty.

Kathy Yuen is president of Phase One Design with offices in Calgary and Vancouver. It’s a residential design firm specializing in custom luxury homes for acreage estates, inner-city developments and large-scale renovations.

Ken Vinge is the President and Co-founder of Equation Staffing Employment Solutions, a Calgary-based firm offering staffing and recruitment services and connecting candidates with temporary, contract, project and permanent employment opportunities. Ken has a 32+ year career in the Alberta staffing industry, having worked in both Edmonton and Calgary.

Tony Spoletini is a co-founder and co-owner of Spolumbo's - a very popular Italian restaurant and deli. He's also a former Canadian Football League player.

Justin Hartzman is a born entrepreneur, motivated, hard working, ambitious and high level thinker are a few words that describe Justin and his passion for business. Justin is a graduate from one of Canada’s premier business and economic program at the University of Western Ontario. Coming from a long line of entrepreneurs and investors, from an early age Justin worked retail in his family’s businesses, rising to managerial and buying positions. Understanding sales, forecasting, team management, and learning from others are what continue to drive him. Justin is an avid traveler, investor, knowledge seeker and a family man. He is also a Scotch enthusiast. Justin with his team owns and manages a large portfolio of websites and businesses. These fall into the B2B, B2C, and consumer content spaces. With his extreme knowledge of everything internet and past experience in start-ups to exits, Justin's current focus as his mature business flourish is taking the leap back into start up culture with Needls.com.

Kaitlyn Gottlieb has been a successful realtor in Calgary for a number of years but recently she moved to Edmonton to set up her Exclusive Real Estate team.

Braden Parker is co-founder of Casca Footwear, an innovative startup, developing all-day performance shoes for future builders. In the past year, Braden has moved from real-estate asset manager to co-founder of a bootstrapped venture looking to challenge the global footwear giants.

Gavin Harrison is a lifelong entrepreneur, Facilitator of Compello and the creator of ALTAS, a five-stage framework for highly-effective strategic planning. A born-and-raised Calgarian, he works with entrepreneurs and leadership teams as a facilitator of the ATLAS program.

Mike Morrison is the founder of Mike's Bloggity Blog, a blog which this year celebrates its 13th anniversary. The blog covers all things pop culture here in Calgary and across Canada. Morrison also runs a series of digital marketing events including SocialEast in Halifax, Next Big Thing and SocialWest, which is now the largest digital marketing conference in Western Canada.

Gifty Serbeh-Dunn founded Shea Butter Market in 2003 to create an all-natural beauty product while supporting widows and their families in Ghana to climb out of poverty. Gifty believes that her business is a force for "good" and by doing business right means that everyone benefits; from the widows in Ghana who make the Shea Butter for a premium price, to the consumers who buy her high-quality products.

Jacqueline Kitzan is owner of Somewear Mobile Boutique Consignment - retrofitting a 1977 Airstream Globetrotter into Edmonton's first mobile consignment boutique - a high-end and luxury consignment retailer. She is also a communications specialist with Melcor Developments.

Tanya Eklund is a realtor in Calgary and considered to be an industry expert. She is often quoted as a source on real estate stories by the media. Tanya is with RE/MAX Real Estate (Central) and owns The Tanya Eklund Group.

Mark Evans spent 10+ years as a technology reporter with two of Canada's largest newspapers and has four startups under his belt. Mark brings his unique brand storytelling approach to high growth emerging companies that need to create a leadership position. Mark provides strategic and tactical guidance to develop effective content marketing and regularly speaks and workshops in various locations. In this podcast Mark talks about marketing that resonates with prospects, customers, partners, and investors - everything from Websites, videos, and infographics to eBooks, blog posts, and pitch decks.

Sharon Hapton is the founder and CEO of Soup Sisters, a charity dedicated to ‘creating a stir’ in communities across North America. Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers have delivered nearly 2 million ‘Hugs in a Bowl’ of nourishing and nurturing soup nationwide to women's shelters and youth crisis centers. In addition to being a social entrepreneur, Sharon is a best-selling author of the Soup Sisters cookbook series.

Matias Marquez founded Buyatab in 2008. He has since received numerous awards and recognition for his entrepreneurial success, including: being named a BC Business Top 30 Under 30 recipient in 2016; winner of the 2016 EY Entrepreneur of The Year award; and being named to Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2017. A digital gift card industry pioneer, Matias has been instrumental in driving Buyatab’s growth and customer-focused success. He is also an active advisor to early-stage technology companies. Matias holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Simon Fraser University and the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Emily Salsbury-Deveaux is an entrepreneur and a retailer. She first opened her fashion store EMMYDEVEAUX as a pop-up location in the West Edmonton Mall in February 2018. The store opened a permanent location in the fall of 2018 on Calgary Trail. She is former executive director of the School of Retailing at the University of Alberta.

Since 2013, Ron Spreeuwenberg has been the Co-Founder & CEO of HiMama based in Toronto, where he leads all aspects of a business that facilitates information sharing between child care programs and parents. The HiMama application aims to save child care and early learning programs time and money, while significantly enhancing family engagement through real-time sharing of digital media. Ron has an MBA from Harvard specializing in International Business and Entrepreneurship and a degree in Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Manjit Minhas is one of Canada’s best known entrepreneurs. She is a co-founder and owner of Minhas Brewery in Calgary and one of the dragons on the popular CBC television show Dragons’ Den.

Teresa Spinelli is owner of the Italian Centre grocery and deli store chain with stores in Edmonton and Calgary. The store has been a fixture in the Edmonton market for decades and expanded to Calgary just a few years ago.

Pierre Séguin is a dynamic technology leader, innovator and product manager with almost two decades of experience creating, developing and implementing solutions for customers ranging from the biggest of multinationals to the smallest of children. He currently is working on a number of projects including being Expert in Residence for the Semaphore Research Cluster at University of Toronto. Semaphore is a research cluster at the iSchool, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, dedicated to inclusive design in the area of mobile and pervasive computing. When I first met Pierre, he was /and still is founder of Brili, an application that relieves families of stress by helping kids succeed in their daily routines. With Brilli, parents set up the activities their kids need to do when getting ready for school, after school or bedtime. These then come to life as a game on a mobile device. Parents can monitor in real-time from their own device while kids stay on task and earn rewards. Brili builds on the proven practice of using visual schedules to give kids structure and consistency, while making them more fun and easier to use.

Mallory McKewen founded and currently serves as President & CEO of BridesMade.ca, an e-commerce business focused on improving the bridesmaid dress shopping experience. BridesMade was born as an idea early in 2016 and has now serviced over 1000 bridesmaids Canada-wide, employing a team of 10. Before diving into entrepreneurship, Mallory completed both a BBA and MBA degree at Laurier and had worked in Sales & Corporate Finance.

Michael Kehoe is an Alberta-based retail real estate specialist. He is often quoted in the national media as an expert on retail stories. Michael is broker/owner of Fairfield Commercial Real Estate in Calgary.

Reema Duggal is a strategic IT professional and technology entrepreneur with significant experience in the global IT industry where she helps companies build revenues and profitability via expansion of their digital business channels. Reema is a seasoned tech leader with a strong blend of revenue generation experience - Strategy, Marketing, Portfolio Management, and Delivery Management experience - Practice Leadership as well as Program and Project Management. She is the President of the Sitaran Group, helping manufacturers, distributors, and tech companies build digital online sales channels. She is also a co-founder of Silicon Halton which started up nine years ago -and is where I met Reema. Now with over 1500 members Silicon Halton is a real hub of technology entrepreneurs in Halton – which includes Burlington, Oakville and Milton – a population base of 1 million plus and a real entrepreneurial hub in the GTHA economy.

Andrew Novak is an Entrepreneur from Hamilton. Andrew founded his own digital marketing company after a career in the Financial Services industry. Andrew is a passionate innovator, digital marketer, entrepreneur, and expert in search engine optimization. He is President of Thinkr Digital the new digital division of Hamilton Ontario's largest full-service marketing agency, Thinkr Marketing. Thinkr Digital focuses on high-performing digital marketing campaigns that are fully integrated into the larger marketing plans of medium to large size companies across North America. Prior to this he was Founder of Nova Digital Marketing which specialized in Search Engine Optimization - Search Engine Marketing - Display & Video Marketing - Social Media Marketing - Email Marketing (CASL Compliant) - Mobile App Marketing - Content Creation.

Phil Hemmings is the Sales Manager at Ross Chocolates in Port Coquitlam. His experience stems from starting and running two food related companies as well overseeing sales for other natural food companies. Phil will be in charge of spear heading the product launch in the US and to work closely with his team at Ross Chocolates to ensure all areas of the company are ready for launch in late May. Ross Chocolates have been making Canadians No Sugar Added Chocolates for over 20 years.

Pavel Bains is the CEO of Bluzelle - the decentralized database for the new internet. He is an expert in digital media having worked with Disney, Microsoft, Warners Bros, and DreamWorks. Pavel is also a frequent contributor to Forbes, Huffington Post and Fast Company, writing articles in the areas of finance and digital media. In less than one year he led Bluzelle to doing projects with the world’s biggest banks to being named Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum to becoming one of the most influential blockchain projects in the world.

Zeeshan Hayat is the CEO and Co-founder of Prizm Media Inc., a digital health agency that services some of the fastest growing mail-order pharmacies and durable medical equipment providers in North America. His new start-up, Kudo Technologies, is developing mobile applications that integrate both healthcare product delivery and IT tools for patients to manage and transform their chronic conditions. Amongst all things, Zeeshan is equally passionate about being a family-man and giving back to the community in Vancouver.

Troy Assoignon has been an entrepreneur for 10 years, starting off as an interior contractor in Winnipeg to working in the technology scene in Vancouver. Now he is a full time strategic marketing and business advisor for business owners & corporations alike. Last year him and his girlfriend spent 8 months in Bali, and this year they are living full time in Thailand. Troy's satisfaction comes from seeing a change and a shift inside people, and that's what wakes him up every single day.

Spencer Sheinin, a CPA, CA, has a unique background with over 15 years as an Entrepreneur combined with extensive financial experience as an investment banker. He is the Founder and CEO of Shift Financial Insights, providing ridiculously simple accounting and financial insights for businesses on the rise. Spencer has previously owned businesses in manufacturing, construction, cold storage and Real Estate. He has also been recognized as winner of the Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40 awards and finalist for the Surrey Business Excellence Awards.

Steve Beatty is the founder of cultureONE which in In May 2015 merged with Front Row Insurance Brokers and created Canada’s largest insurance brokerage specializing in entertainment & media, arts & culture having offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and Los Angeles, Steve has over 25 years of experience in arts and entertainment and insurance - everything from the performance arts to tv and film. As a theatre manager himself for many years and then an insurance “entrepreneur”, Steve’s heart is in the arts and he is a valued supporter of many cultural initiatives. Steve knows what it takes to bring an artistic vision to completion as well as make sure the risk factors get covered on the way.

Anthony DeCristofaro is currently President and CEO of Qnext Corp. and has over 25 years of computer industry experience. In his entrepreneurial career he has driven three M&A transactions valued at more than $600 Million. Previously he was President and CEO of iseemedia Inc. which merged with Synchronica in 2010. Anthony was also Founder and CEO of MGI Software Corp. He brought Intel in as an investor into this venture which he co-founded in 1996 and was sold to Roxio in 2002. Prior to MGI, Anthony was a founding board member of Delrina, a VP/GM of AST Computer Canada and NEC Canada. I have known Anthony and worked as an advisor to him throughout many of these ventures and I am excited to have this fantastic entrepreneur and leader here today.

Izzie Egan is the founder of BLANKSLATE Partners. In 2015 Izzie started her company to allow SMBs and scaleups access to enterprise-level management HR services - supporting growing companies with a unique blend of HR, training, recruitment, and immigration expertise. She has extensive experience building fast-paced, high-yield management teams, paying particular attention to the strategic needs of the company. She’s committed to bringing purpose-fuelled employees into businesses that are aligned from both a values and a strategic, bottom-line perspective.

Aliya Amershi is the CEO and Founder of AskaTechie.com, a tech talent 2.0 marketplace that intelligently matches companies with a supply of vetted technical contractors specializing in Web 3.0 and advanced technologies, such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and complex App Development. Since they launched in 2017, AskaTechie has bootstrapped their way to six figures in sales, which only the top 10% of female founders have been able to achieve. They were also selected to participate in the Canadian Technology Accelerator in Silicon Valley and was a finalist for NextAI Canada. In addition, Aliya recently served as a Director at the Founder Institute in Vancouver and is currently a contributing member to YEC Next - which is part of the Forbes Business Council. Aliya is also launching soon a couple of new ventures, first is the Techie Concierge, an online tool that helps tech startups easily create better technical job descriptions. The second is Stiletto Startup, which supports female founders by empowering them with the necessary technology business basics via their customized online tech startup workshops. Aliya has over 20 years of technology experience and 10 years of international enterprise experience working on award-winning products at Viacom Networks, Codemasters and Electronic Arts as a Software Engineer, IT Manager and Technical Lead.

At 35, Karen Magill was forced onto disability due to MS. Taking a 30% cut in pay, caused her to file for bankruptcy. Karen is disabled by MS but every day she sees people diabling themselves with debt. Now she tackles that issue with the 90 Day Turnaround, 90 Days To Financial Stability coaching program.

Jesse Barruch is the founder of Avanta Consulting in Vancouver. The company partners with companies to find the right people for high-performance cultures, by focusing on creating access to candidates not looking for work, in a market where job boards fail to deliver top quality candidates. Born and raised in Toronto Jesse moved to Vancouver back in 2006 and can be found hanging with his family (Wife Leanne and 3 kids - Ethan, Logan, and Siena) or hiking the Grouse Grind almost every morning!