Advisory Board

John Albright
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Relay Ventures
John is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Relay Ventures, an early stage venture fund exclusively focused on mobile connectivity. 

During his tenure in the venture capital business, John has gained extensive experience assisting entrepreneurs shape their vision and capital plans into...
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John Ruffolo
CEO
OMERS Ventures
Mr. Ruffolo is the Chief Executive Officer of OMERS Ventures, the venture arm of OMERS. OMERS Ventures invests in early or later stage companies in the Technology, Media, Telecommunications, Clean Tech or Life Sciences sectors. In addition, he is also the Senior Vice President & Head of Knowledge In...
[ Extended Bio / Survey ]

Boris Wertz

Version One Ventures
Dr. Boris Wertz is an Internet entrepreneur and investor and the founder of W Media Ventures, a Vancouver-based angel fund that has made over 20 investments in early-stage Consumer internet companies in the Pacific Northwest and across North-America. He is also a venture partner with Acton Capital, ...
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Paul Kedrosky
Senior Fellow
The Kauffman Foundation
Paul Kedrosky, a senior fellow at the Kauffman Foundation, is an investor, essayist, technology analyst, and entrepreneur. A San Diego resident, Kedrosky assists the Kansas City-based foundation on issues related to entrepreneurship, innovation and capital markets. Previously, he was the executive d...
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Salvatore Tirabassi
Partner
M/C Partners
Mr. Tirabassi joined M/C in 2007 and focuses on media and communications industry segments, including digital media, broadband services, wireless services and technology-related services. From 2000 to early 2007, he was a Partner at Dolphin Equity Partners where he led investments in and served on t...
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Claudia Munce
Managing Director
Venture Capital Group IBM
Ms. Claudia Fan Munce is the Managing Director at IBM Venture Capital Group. She has held this position since March 2004 and is based at the firm's California office. She is involved primarily in marketing and conference duties. Ms. Munce is also Vice President at IBM Corporate Strategy. She joined ...
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V. Paul Lee

Vanedge Capital Partners Ltd
V. Paul Lee is the Managing General Partner of Vanedge Capital Partners Ltd., a venture capital fund established to focus on opportunities in the interactive digital media space. The market for interactive and digital entertainment and media is massive, growing, and changing at an extremely rapid pa...
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Jacques Bernier
Managing Partner
Teralys Capital
Since July 1st 2009, Mr. Bernier is Managing Partner and Founder of Teralys Capital, a fund of funds whose limited partners are Quebec Governement, Caisse de Depott et de Placement and Solidarity Fund QFL. With the Solidarity Fund QFL since 2004, Jacques Bernier has been Senior Vice-President, Infor...
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Charley Lax
Managing General Partner
GrandBanks Capital
Charley Lax is the co-founder and Managing General Partner of GrandBanks Capital (GBC) of Wellesley, Massachusetts. Mr. Lax focuses on early-stage investment activities (Series A and B) in the areas of Internet infrastructure, software and software services, security and storage applications, media ...
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Chris Arsenault
Managing Partner
iNovia Capital
Chris Arsenault is Managing Partner at iNovia Capital and has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for 17 years. Chris currently serves on the board of directors of Airborne Technology Ventures, DFT Microsystems, Fixmo, Plastic knowledge, Reflex Photonics, and Woozworld. Chris is an active ...
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Howard Gwin
Managing Director
OMERS Ventures
In his role as Managing Director of OMERS Ventures, Howard Gwin is responsible for leading investment activities in the North America market focusing on high-growth companies in the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors. He has experience in every major software industry segment.
...
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Jordan Banks
Managing Director
Facebook Canada
Jordan Banks is the managing director of Facebook Canada, responsible for leading and managing all commercial operations at the Facebook Canada office based in Toronto, Ontario. Previously, Jordan was the managing partner at Thunder Road Capital, which he founded in 2008 to provide investment and ad...
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Amar Varma
Founder
Xtreme Labs
Amar is one of North America's foremost experts in mobile and spends time educating enterprises and academia about the mobile ecosystem. Amar channeled his passion for entrepreneurship and new technologies by co-founding Xtreme Labs with Sundeep Madra to capitalize on the emerging mobile ecosystem i...
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Steven Hnatiuk

Steve is a founder of Yaletown Venture Partners and has more than 18 years experience financing and working with entrepreneurial technology teams. Yaletown focuses on early-stage IT and cleantech investments in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest, and is backed by leading US and Canadian instit...
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Rubsun Ho

Cognition LLP
Rubsun Ho co-founded Cognition LLP on recognizing that the existing legal marketplace did not service growth businesses well. Prior to Cognition, Rubsun acted in various capacities with Wysdom Inc., a wireless Internet startup. While at Wysdom, Rubsun acted as VP Business Development and as General ...
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Scott Pelton
Partner
Round 13 Capital
Scott Pelton (aka @spelton) has been a Canadian-based venture capitalist since July 2000. It was an interesting time to start a career in technology investing and Scott can confirm that both astronauts and VCs are expensive to train.

Scott joined Round13 Capital in February 2012 after...
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Clairmont Capital
David Unsworth is focused on management of the RBC Venture Partners portfolio. David has ten years of venture capital investment experience and has invested in a broad range of information technology companies.

David currently serves on the board of directors of Verafin Inc. and is an...
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Chris Chapman

KPMG
Christopher has 20 years of technology industry experience in various leadership, entrepreneurial, advisory and board positions in high growth environments. Chris has a Bachelor of Business Management, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University.

As National Leader for growth ...
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Mark MacLeod
Partner
realventures.com
One of Canada's leading startup finance experts, Mark is a General Partner with Real Ventures, Canada's largest seed venture fund. At Real, Mark focuses on SaaS, freemium and e-commerce investments. Mark was also CFO at Tungle, which was recently acquired by RIM and advises some of Canada's most exc...
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Mauro Spagnolo
Managing Director & Principal Officer
Fifth Third Bank, Canadian Branch
Mauro Spagnolo is currently Managing Director and Principal Officer for the Canadian Branch office of Fifth Third Bank. He is responsible for leading Fifth Third's operations in Canada, supporting the cross border needs of the banks domestic and international clients. Fifth Third Bancorp is among t...
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Dominique-Sebastien Forest
Vice President, National Digital Solutions
Trancontinental Media
As Vice-President, National Digital Solutions, Dominique-Sébastien Forest is responsible for Transcontinental Media digital media strategy, including the diversification of their product offering and the acceleration of the growth of the New Media and Digital Solutions Group. His mi...
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Robert Montgomery
CEO
Achilles Media Ltd.
Robert Montgomery is a Toronto-based entrepreneur, investor and adviser focused on the digital media and information technology industries. Robert is CEO of business-to-business media and facilitation company Achilles Media Ltd as well as investment company First Maximilian Associates. Robert's prio...
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Michael Hyatt
CEO / Co-Founder
BlueCat Networks
Michael Hyatt is CEO and Co-Founder of BlueCat Networks. He is a recipient of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, and was a finalist in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Michael is a weekly business commentator on CBC Newsworld and has been featured on the cover of Canadian Busin...
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Rick Nathan
Managing Director
Kensington Capital Partners
Rick Nathan is Managing Director of Kensington Capital Partners Limited, a leading Canadian private equity investor. Kensington invests across the private markets in buyout, venture capital, growth and infrastructure assets through both direct investment and fund investment programs. Rick currently ...
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Selma Lussenburg
Chair
Ontario Capital Growth Corporation
Selma M. Lussenburg is Chair of the Ontario Capital Growth Corporation (OCGC) which manages the Government of Ontario's interest in the $205 million Ontario Venture Capital Fund LP (OVCF) launched in 2008 and it manages and operates the $250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund (OETF) launched...
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Daryl Johnston

Technology, Media, Telecom & GreenTech Deloitte
Daryl Johnston is a Director Market Development in Deloitte's Technology, Media and Telecommunications and CleanTech (TMT) industry group in the GTA. Daryl is well connected in the TMT space with over 18 years experience working with high growth TMT clients across a broad range of industry sub-secto...
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Bruce Chin

Deloitte
Bruce Chin is the Greater Toronto Area Leader for Deloitte's TMT industry group
and a partner in Deloitte's audit practice.

Bruce has over 14 years experience working with TMT companies across a broad range
of industry sub-sectors, including telecom, software, high-tech ...
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David Henderson
Managing Director
XPV Capital Corporation
David is the founder and Managing Director of XPV Capital Corporation, a leading investment firm that invests in high growth water companies. David identifies and invests in companies capitalizing on the opportunities created by the 'new water economy' - a concept he developed. He is a respected spe...
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Roger Wilson
Partner
BDC IT Venture Fund
Roger has been in the venture capital business for over 16 years. Leveraging his prior entrepreneurial experience, he has assisted many technology growth companies over the years, managing investments in software, IT services, electronics manufacturing and life sciences. He's played an active role o...
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Marc Elrick
Principal
Critical Path Group
As the founding principal of Critical Path Group, Marc has positioned his firm at the intersection of high growth companies and the private equity community.

A graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada, Marc was an operational naval officer for eight years, serving in Halifax C...
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Justin LaFayette
Managing Director
Georgian Partners
Justin LaFayette is a managing director of Georgian Partners, which he co-founded in 2008.

Prior to Georgian Partners, Mr. LaFayette was Vice President of Strategy for Information Platform and Solutions with IBM Software Group.

Prior to IBM, Mr. LaFayette was a co-found...
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Patrick Eggen
Senior Investment Manager
Qualcomm Ventures
Patrick is a Senior Investment Manager at Qualcomm Ventures. He serves as the group lead for investment opportunities in the mobile software and services sector. Prior to joining Qualcomm, he worked for Citigroup's Investment Banking unit in their Chicago, London and Hong Kong offices. He was a memb...
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John Eckert
Managing Partner
McLean Watson Capital
Mr. Eckert is a Managing Partner of McLean Watson Capital Inc, a Toronto-based venture capital and private equity firm that invests in, and advises, knowledge-based technology companies including software, hardware, telecommunications, and energy and health sciences. Investors include many of the le...
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Duncan Stewart
Director
Deloitte Canada (TMT)
Duncan Stewart is the Director of Deloitte Canada Research in the areas of Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT). He is a member of Deloitte's national TMT executive team and is a co-author of Deloitte Research's annual Predictions report on trends in TMT. Duncan has almost two decades of exp...
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Ilse Treurnicht
CEO
MaRS Discovery District
Ilse Treurnict is the CEO of MaRS Discovery District, a leading innovation centre located in Toronto. She oversees both the development and operations of the MaRS Centre and its board suite of entrepreneurship and innovation programs.

MaRS offers advisory services, market intelligence...
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Mark Usher
Partner
Wellington Financial
Mark's career began in 1988 at Royal Bank and worked in a number of commercial banking roles. Mark then was recruited by Cisco Systems in 2000 to join Cisco Capital's structured finance team in Toronto where he financed the sales of Cisco equipment and services to sub-investment grade customers in C...
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Andrew Wilkes
Past chair
National Angel Capital

Geoff Taber
Partner
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
Geoff is a partner with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP (based in Toronto) and concentrates on private and public financings, M&A transactions and strategic commercial matters. He advises a broad spectrum of life sciences and technology companies, including privately held high-growth companies, new bus...
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Suzanne Dingwall Williams
Founding Partner
Venture Law Associates LLP
Suzie is a founding partner with Venture Law Associates LLP, a leading Canadian law firm representing public and private companies, entrepreneurs and investors in corporate, commercial and technology law matters. She regularly advises clients on new business models, raising capital, music and conten...
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Sanjiv Samant
Managing Director, Head of Technology, Media & Telecom Investment Banking
Canaccord Genuity
Mr. Samant is a Managing Director and Head of the Canadian Technology Investment Banking practice at Canaccord Genuity. He has extensive experience providing financial and capital markets advisory services to a wide range of growth companies including Workbrain Corporation, Miranda Technologies, Rug...
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John Varghese
President & CEO
JV Venture Partners
Mr. Varghese is President and CEO of JV Venture Partners. Currently, he is also Chairman of Sprott Power Corp, (“SPZ.TO”), Chairman of Direct Media Technologies Inc., as well as a board member of Ecosynthetix Inc. (“ECO.TO”). He is on both the Executive Committee and the Boar...
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Joe Catalfamo
Managing Partner
Summerhill Venture Partners
Joe brings over 19 years of venture capital investing and a wealth of experience in the areas of business planning, financings, negotiations, IPOs and acquisitions.

His diverse and extensive experience allows him to play an integral role in the structure, strategic direction, overall ...
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David Shore
Managing Director
Terracap Ventures
As the Managing Director of Terracap Ventures, David's responsibilities include developing the firm's overall corporate strategy, managing our relationships with other VC's, angel and high net worth investors, bankers and strategic investors, and developing relationships with potential investee comp...
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Sunil Sharma
Managing Director
Extreme Startups
Sunil Sharma is Managing Director and "Chief Connector" for Extreme Startups, a world-class venture-backed tech accelerator based in the heart of downtown Toronto. Backed by 5 of Canada's premier VC funds (OMERS Ventures, Relay Ventures, BDC Venture Capital, Rho Ventures and Extreme Venture Partners...
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Richard Remillard
Executive Director
CVCA
Richard Remillard is Executive-Director of Canada's Venture Capital and Private Equity Association(CVCA), a post he has held since November 2003. He has also been President of R C G, a management consulting firm active in the financial services industry,a Vice-President with the Canadian Bankers Ass...
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Barry Gekiere
Managing Director
MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund

Leonard Brody
President
Clarity Digital Group

Roger Chabra
General Partner
Rho Canada Ventures
Roger Chabra is a General Partner at Rho Canada Ventures, a division of Rho Capital Partners focused on early-stage investing in Canada's most innovative technology companies. With more than 15 years of venture capital, operating and entrepreneurial experience, he seeks to partner with passionate, e...
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David Crow

StartupNorth
David Crow is an entrepreneur and community animator. David recently cofounded Influitive, a platform for automating referral marketing processes. Prior to Influitive, David has held senior product marketing and user experience roles at Microsoft Canada, Radiant Core, Ambient Vector, Reactivity and ...
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Kevin Talbot
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Relay Ventures
Kevin is Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner of the BlackBerry Partners Fund a leading independent venture capital firm focused exclusively on mobile computing in collaboration with Research In Motion. Kevin has been an entrepreneur, operator and investor in both Canada and the USA for over 20 years....
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Sara Diamond
President and Vice-Chancellor
OCAD University
Dr. Sara Diamond is the President of OCAD University, Canada's "university of the imagination". She holds a PhD in Computer Science and degrees in new media theory and practice, social history and communications. She is an appointee of the Order of Ontario and the Royal Canadian Society of Artists. ...
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Stephen Hurwitz
Partner
Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP
Stephen A. Hurwitz is a member of the Business and Technology Practice Group at Choate Hall and Stewart, a Boston-based law firm with a specialty in Canada-US cross-border transactions.

Mr. Hurwitz has served as counsel to public and privately-held companies. He has represented compan...
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Iain Klugman
President & CEO
Communitech
A Nortel veteran as Director of Branding and Advertising, Executive Director of Communications with CBC, and CEO of Ontario Tourism. Federal stints with the Privy Council Office and Industry Canada. Overall, a 20-year background in marketing with a unique mix of technology and management experience....
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Mike Middleton
Managing Director
Q1 Capital Partners
Mike Middleton, MBA, CFA, is the founding partner of Q1 Capital and a recognized leader in investment banking to private Canadian technology companies. Prior to entering the field, Mike worked in the financial services industry and was the Founder and President of a niche Canadian consumer products ...
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Don Duval
CEO
NORCAT

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