Entrepreneurship Finance Conference 2024 Speakers
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John Myers – Chief Executive Officer, Edsby
John Myers is a co-founder and the CEO of Edsby - an education software solution serving private schools, school districts, and ministries of education around the world. Prior to that John was the CEO of Centrinity, a company listed on the TSX, and then served as the General Manager of the business once it was sold to Open Text. John started his tech career with Nortel Networks after graduating from the University of Toronto with an Honours degree in Computer Science.
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Mélisse Craig - NRC-IRAP Advisor, National Research Council Canada
Mélisse works with technical entrepreneurs on a daily basis. Her initial goal is to understand a firm’s needs and abilities in order to better assess their suitability for IRAP programming. Mélisse understands the range of government innovation programs and services available and can typically recommend stepping stone programs as needed.
With a technical background in Mechanical Engineering, augmented with a Master’s in Business, Mélisse seeks to quickly understand both the technical and business aspects of an organization in order to provide relevant guidance on growth strategies. Having spent many years in the venture capital industry evaluating early stage startups on investment readiness, she understands the myriad of challenges facing innovative entrepreneurs in building their businesses.
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Kusala Jayasuriya - Senior Innovation Advisor, Innovator's Experience Branch, Innovation Canada, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Government of Canada
 Kusala began her career as a biomedical researcher and prior to joining the federal government, Kusala spent over 15 years in the life science sector in senior management roles in business development, export markets, and operations with several medical devices and health technology SMEs in Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Ontario. She is passionate about supporting early-stage businesses reach their full potential.
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Amit Jethani, Co-Founder, Operations, Mantle
At Mantle, Amit oversees Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Finance, and Office Operations. Amit’s current focus is on our go-to-market for channel partners across North America and on scaling our customer operations as we navigate our next growth stage.
Previously, Amit served as the Director of the Core Services vertical at Autonomic, where he focused on developing a connected vehicle platform for Ford Motor Company. Before this, he was the Product Manager for the Inventory Team, creating highly scalable and efficient APIs that that facilitated seamless onboarding of connectivity devices and vehicles. Autonomic was acquired by Ford Motor Company in 2018.
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Jason Lee – Director, Strategic Programs, Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI)
Jason Lee currently leads the Critical Industrial Technologies program, aimed at supporting SMEs in Ontario's strategic sectors, including advanced manufacturing, agri-food, construction, and mining to adopt critical technologies (5G, AI, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, Quantum, Robotics).
Previously, Jason held various roles at MaRS Discovery District, where he supported early to later stage Canadian-based startups/scaleups. At MaRS, he helped deliver the ENCQOR 5G and NGNP programs, initiatives providing SMEs with pre-commercial access to 5G and cloud infrastructure.
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Zahra Qureshi – Yspace Mentor, CPA, Principal Consultant and Coach - Finance & Social Impact, Optinum Professional Corporation
Zahra brings 12+ years of experience in the field of finance to help non-profits, social enterprises and small businesses to build confidence and strategic clarity for achieving financial sustainability, powerful growth, and positive social change. In 2019, Zahra launched Optinum Professional Corporation, a niche accounting and consulting firm with services including outsourced accounting services, fractional CFO roles, creating and managing a social impact blueprint ,strategic coaching for growth-oriented organizations, and raising investment. Zahra is also founder of Social Venture Circuit, a not-for-profit community where social enterprises can grow and learn together through networking and coaching programs. She is a coach for their innovative Start with Impact program, designed to address the unique, complex challenges faced by social entrepreneurs.
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Fazley Shabab Chowdhury – Vice President, Credit Advisory, RBCx
Shabab Chowdhury has a background in finance, venture capital and entrepreneurship. Currently, he provides credit solutions to venture capital backed companies in Canada. Previously, he has helped startups from pre-seed to Series A raise venture capital and grants while working with the Accelerator Centre as a Senior Associate, Investment Advisory. Prior to that he spent time working with startups at the Toronto Business Development Centre. He also had a spell in lower middle market private equity at Alnes Capital while he was completing an MBA from the University of New Brunswick.
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Daniela Tixi – Vice President – Entrepreneur Relations, Kieretsu Forum Canada
Daniela is a strategic, dynamic and engaging global connector, intrapreneur, entrepreneur, and angel investor specialized in scaling up businesses. Passionate about innovation and ideas in every field. A visionary culture champion who inspires employees to live the mission, vision and values of the brand and the company. Track record in the creation and execution of business growth, operational strategies and organizational transformation. A change agent who instills a deep sense of purpose in organizational culture that drives collaboration, performance, profitability and morale by creating a positive environment with a sense of purpose and builds relations across all departments and functions creating a collegiality and highly productive environment. Her approach in is not the 'norm'.
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Dejana Dua – Venture Partner, Anexa Capital and Advisor, ventureLAB
Dejana is an early-stage investor and advisor to technology startups in AI/ML/IoT, cybersecurity, biotech, clean tech, life science, fintech, education, and others. She partners with exceptional, passionate founders with extraordinary vision, set out to define and tackle the biggest challenges across industries. As a mentor with a dynamic communication style, Dejana continually develops practices and processes to inspire, innovate, and harness new ways of thinking. With over 25 years of experience in technology and innovation in the US and Canada, Dejana is an angel investor and advisor at several angel groups and accelerators, member of the Board of Advisors at the George Washington University School of Business, mentor, speaker, guest lecturer, panelist, and a life-long champion for girls and women in STEM.
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Yuri Navarro – Managing Partner, Kanata Ventures and Advisor, ventureLAB
Yuri brings his unique mixture of public and private sector experience to help expand investment options for promising startups in some of the world’s most rapidly developing markets. By supporting a global community of founders and their investors Yuri is on a mission connect tech ecosystems and fund the world’s best startups. In addition to his work at Kanata Ventures, Yuri also acts as the country investment lead for the Corporate Venture Capital Fund of a Fortune 500 Company.
Previous to his role at Kanata Ventures, Yuri was a Co-Founder at Panache Ventures, one of Canada’s most active seed stage venture capital firms, and worked as CEO to the National Angel Capital Organization, representing Canadian Angel Investors with industry and government.
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Mallory Maynard – Founder, Gibbly
Mallory Maynard is the Founder and CEO of Gibbly, a global e-learning platform that helps teachers save hours each week on lesson prep with AI powered teaching tools. Gibbly enables educators to quickly create high-quality, engaging, gamified quizzes and interactive lessons in a fraction of the time. Over the past year, Gibbly has expanded to support 16,000 K-12 and post-secondary educators worldwide. Gibbly participated in the City of Richmond Hill’s CLIC and Starter Company Plus Programs, was recognized as one of the top five startups in the 2024 YSpace Technology Accelerator, and was selected as one of only seven EdTechs for the 2024 Canadian EdTech Accelerator, run by the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service.
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Alex McKercher – Career Coach, Career Pursuit
Alex understands the challenges facing new graduates and young adults in today's competitive job market. Over the past three years, he has been empowering his clients with the skills and strategies needed to effectively market themselves and secure their dream positions. As the founder of Career Pursuit, Alex works closely with individuals on a personalized, 1-on-1 basis, guiding them towards meaningful employment opportunities that align with their aspirations. Through his tailored approach, Alex has helped numerous clients achieve fulfilling careers and unlock their full potential in the workforce.
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