Canada’s Entrepreneur

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, GenYY...

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 consul...

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 cons...

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, spec...

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 R...

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...

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...

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 eW...

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 an...

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...

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...

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 bachelo...

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 enterpris...

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 boar...

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...

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 onlin...