Speaker Bios

DeAnna Adams Interim Incubator Professional Hartsfield, Mississippi

The ultimate business incubation professional who can step in at a moments notice and fill your vacant position. Experience in oversight of construction of two facilities, director positions, implementing programs and operations. The ideal solution to a short term vacancy when you need someone immediately to take over the operations until a permanent employee can be hired. Will work interim for three to six months in any incubator environment within the United States.

Alex Arifuzzaman InterStratics Consultants Inc. Toronto, ON

Alex Arifuzzaman, is the founder of Toronto based InterStratics Consultants Inc. He has spent over two decades conducting strategic analyses for retailers and shopping centres in North America and globally. Alex specializes in developing innovative analytics and mapping methods by synthesizing wide ranging data sources. He has led portfolio-wide projects for many of the largest shopping center owners and retailers in the US and Canada with a focus on in linking market analysis with financial decision-making. He also has extensive international experience having worked on landmark shopping center developments in Europe, Singapore, India, Korea and Dubai. Alex holds an MBA from the Rotman School of Management, an EMBA from the University of St Gallen in Switzerland and a BA in Geographic Analysis from Ryerson University. He also teaches Retail Analytics to MBA students at the Schulich School of Business in Toronto.

Chris Bown Gowlings Ottawa, ON CABI Conference Co-Chair

Dr. Christopher Bown is a patent agent in Gowlings' Ottawa office, practising in Intellectual Property. He prepares and prosecutes patent applications in all areas of the life sciences and chemical fields, especially those involving biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, bioprocessing, and medical devices. He also provides litigation support for cases involving these types of technologies. He is a registered patent agent in both Canada and the United States. Dr. Bown obtained his PhD from the Department of Medical Sciences at McMaster University and his BSc (Hons. Genetics) from the University of Western Ontario. His postdoctoral research at the Neuroscience Research Institute in Ottawa focused on the transcriptional regulation of the genes encoding proteins involved in neurotransmission and the development of a diagnostic test to detect SNPs associated with major depressive disorder. Dr. Bown assists entrepreneurs and SMEs, as well as multinational corporations, in the protection and management of their IP assets. In addition to Dr. Bown's main practice areas, he has experience in a wide variety of different disciplines, including deep mining technologies, viniculture, radio transmission technologies, cosmetic chemistry, and inventions related to aerospace and defence.

Gary Brownstone Co-Founder of LucraTech Winnipeg, Manitoba

Gary’s career as an entrepreneur began in high school and he’s been starting, buying, growing and exiting since. He has been doing this in fields as diverse as foodservice and hospitality, clothing manufacturing and importing, and retail. Since the early nineties, Gary’s focus has been exclusively on the commercialization of technology and intellectual property. He has owned and operated tech companies in the US and Canada – both private and publicly traded. Gary has specialized in managing and financing companies through early rapid growth periods and understands firsthand how to overcome the cultural, operational and financial challenges that companies are faced with.

In 2007, Gary became the founding president of The Eureka Project, one of Western Canada’s most successful technology incubators. Since that time, Gary has advised and supported over 30 companies in ICT, clean technology, life science, and agriculture and food science. Gary has a B.A. from the University of Manitoba and an MBA from the Richard Ivy School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Sylvain Carle RealVentures Montreal, QC

Alan Sylvain Carle lives and breathes emerging technologies. For the last 20 years, he has thrived with marvel and fun at the confluence of media, technology and networks. Entrepreneurship, web software architecture, APIs, digital and social media as well as open-source software and open standards are all at the core of his competence and passion. He has been on many community technology group boards (Ile-Sans-Fil, Alliance Numérique and OSMO) and a serial entrepreneur, CTO and co-founder since 2000 (Messagia, Interstructure, Praized, Needium). Most recently he was Senior Developer Advocate at Twitter in San Francisco, helping strategic partners get the most of the blue bird’s APIs and technology products. Socialist, idealist and pragmatic, he is convinced that technology will change the world in this era of the networked society.

Alan Caslin Niagara Regional Chair Niagara Falls, ON

Alan Caslin was elected Regional Chair on December 11, 2014. He previously served as a Regional Councillor for the City of St. Catharines from 2010-2014. Regional Chair Caslin was employed with General Motors of Canada Ltd. for 20 years in several capacities and was most recently Facilities Manager in St. Catharines. Before GM, he worked as a Project Manager for a large consulting firm, Acres International, for 15 years.

Regional Chair Caslin has served as a member of the Business Liaison Committee, a committee of St. Catharines City Council. Regional Chair Caslin has been actively involved in youth sports as a volunteer and coach for more than 15 years. Some of the organizations that he has volunteered with include Port Dalhousie Softball, CYO Basketball and Jets Soccer. He is a past member of several community boards including the YMCA of Niagara, United Way of St. Catharines and District and the St. Catharines Jets Soccer Club. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of Meridian Credit Union. Regional Chair Caslin's family includes wife Anita, son Kevin and daughter Kelly.

Kirstie Chadwick President and CEO INBIA Orlando, Florida

Kirstie is the President & CEO of the International Business Innovation Association, a global non-profit that serves over 2,100 small business incubators, technology accelerators and economic development agencies across 60 countries. Kirstie has over 25 years of experience at innovative technology companies including Sun Microsystems, Mentor Graphics and Lockheed Martin. She has also held executive roles at five venture-backed technology startups. She was the CEO and Co-founder of DigitalOwl, an Orlando-based educational software company, where she raised over $13M in venture capital and successfully navigated the company through the dot-com market crash. In 2004, Kirstie joined UCF as the Director of the Venture Lab where she facilitated the spin-out of three startup companies based on faculty inventions, and mentored hundreds of local entrepreneurs in business strategy and financing. In 2007, Kirstie was tapped to become the Executive Director of the Winter Park Angels, a 50+ member angel investment group. Kirstie also led the financing and management of Florida’s Igniting Innovation Accelerator program, which directly resulted in $43 million in follow-on capital by participating companies.

Rajiv Chatterjee Founder Readyportal Toronto, ON

Rajiv founded Debut Logic Inc. (Debut Logic) in 2006 as a software consulting company. Through his vision and leadership, Debut Logic built Readyportal, an Enterprise collaboration platform serving the needs of a broad range of companies ranging from the Fortune 500 to Non-Profits and Trade Associations. Prior to Readyportal, Rajiv acquired the know-how to helm a multi-national technology company through his work for several startups in San Francisco. Rajiv led the professional services and account management teams as Director of Services at Wego Systems (acquired by Lightspeed Inc.), resolved strategy and operational issues with a host of shareholders at CyberAd Global Consulting, and excelled as a Divisional Manager for Indonesia-based PT. Ames Indah Internation, a leading commodities trading company in Southeast Asia. Rajiv holds a B.A. in economics from the National Defense Academy of India and a B.S. in liberal arts (cum laude) from the University of Houston.

Jeff Chesebrough CEO of Innovate Niagara St Catharines, Ontario

As the CEO of Innovate Niagara, Jeff lives at the intersection of public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Known for his ability to build relationships and foster collaboration amongst stakeholders, Jeff has led the evolution of Innovate Niagara, a one-stop resource for entrepreneurs in high growth sectors that includes a network of business incubators and service providers. Innovate Niagara evolved from nGen - Niagara Interactive Media Generator and

now includes the Generator at one, Brock University’s BioLinc and the District School Board of Niagara’s iHub incubators as well as a Regional Innovation Centre. His previous work experience includes VP Operations/Partner at Innivity Marketing group which was named as one of the HOT 50 Emerging Growth Companies in Canada by PROFIT magazine during his time there. After years of running a business outside the region, Jeff made a conscious decision to return to his roots and has become entrenched in the Niagara community. Jeff currently serves on the Niagara Economic Development Advisory Committee, is Vice-Chair CAA Niagara Board of Directors and a Director on the Meridian Credit Union Board of Directors. Winner of several business achievement and volunteer recognition awards, Jeff is particularly proud of being named as a Senator with the Jaycee International organization, the highest honour bestowed by JCI, and his Brock University Alumni of Distinction Award.

Kaushal Chokshi President Scaale San Francisco, California

Serial entrepreneur, investor and business man. Over the last three decades, Kaushal has founded over 20 ventures across the USA, Europe and Asia with 3 successful exits and an IPO in 1987. Kaushal’s passion to understand the global context has brought him to do over 15 around the world trips and to build teams across the globe. In this context, back in 2006, Kaushal sold all his companies to focus on his big project, Scaale Group, dedicated to help companies to grow by applying global context through innovation, capital, sales and talent. Today, Scaale Group is comprised of 8 companies and 300+ employees spread over 12 countries. Scaale’s local and global presence provide Kaushal with real time knowledge on trends, opportunities and new ways of doing business across the globe, developing his strong thought leadership on the concepts of City-Estate and global context. In all these years, Kaushal has navigated in a number of industries, from traditional businesses in manufacture and energy, to the Internet and into new business models. In 2000, Kaushal started a number of Internet ventures, launching dozens of website applications and software as a service solutions. Kaushal was born and raised in India, where he studied Electrical Engineering and Management. After that he moved to the UK, Germany and today he lives in the USA where he has been a resident for the last 25 years. San Francisco is the place he calls home, although he travels 2 weeks every month to visit the Scaale teams around the world.

Bob Cohen CEO Braintree Business Development Center Mansfield, Ohio

Bob Cohen is the CEO of the Braintree Business Development Center in Mansfield, Ohio. Braintree is a full service incubation and entrepreneurial center that is part of Ohio’s statewide incubation initiative, as well as the regional JumpStart Entrepreneurial Network. It also operates the Appleseed Microfinance loan program and the Tech Sprout grant program. Bob previously served on the faculty of The Ohio State University, and as a director of an international development program. Bob is a Certified Business Advisor (CBA®), and a Certified Global Business Professional. He received his M.A. from The Ohio State University and his Ph.D. from Ohio University. He is a member of the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada and is a founding board member of the Crowdfunding Professional Association. He has given presentations about crowdfunding, cooperatives, entrepreneurship, communication, and other business-related issues in thirty U.S. states and eight countries, including, of course, Canada where he is now attending his fifth CABI Conference.

Mélisse Craig Innovation Advisor Concierge, Government of Canada Ottawa, Ontario

With a technical background as a Mechanical Engineer, Mélisse’s earliest career pursuits were with IBM manufacturing and then telecommunications with Nortel and Motorola where she was the lead engineer, deploying wireless networks with international countries as her clients. Wanting to get more involved with the businesses she touched, she sought an MBA focusing on finance as well as technology marketing, completing a portion of her studies in Australia where she remained to pursue an opportunity in early stage venture capital with Technology Venture Partners.

With over 25 years of experience both locally and internationally, Mélisse prides herself on a quick ‘needs-assessment’ approach in dealing with her entrepreneurial clients; a base level understanding of the underlying innovation and moving quickly to how government programs might help to move the venture forward.

Marcus Daniels Founder, Highline Board Chair, CABI Vancouver, BC

Marcus Daniels is a digital product entrepreneur, seed capital investor and corporate innovation architect that helps startups accelerate growth. Founder & CEO of HIGHLINE, a pre-seed fund & accelerator provider that helps digital startups get VC follow-on capital. Backed by leading VCs with offices in Vancouver & Toronto, HIGHLINE has 39 active companies, $88 million of follow-on capital and 6 meaningful exits. Founder/Chairman of MeshSquared Ventures that makes angel investments into digital startups & funds. Prior to HIGHLINE Marcuswas the Managing Director of Extreme Startups, a VC-backed startup accelerator where he did 9 investments and significantly evolved its model. Former COO at TrendHunter.com, the world's #1 Trendspotting website with over 2 billion views & an innovation partner to Fortune 500 brands. Past VP Operations & Product at Frameworks, a leading retail QSR business intelligence software & eLearning company. Started the eLearning division at AME Learning, a global financial education company. A digital native that started tech ventures in 1989 that led to co-founding Fluid eNovations, an award winning web marketing agency & software development company. Received the 2014 Notable award for Entrepreneurship and has significant board of director experience. He's the chair of the Canadian Association Business Incubation (CABI), on the Board of Advisors for Venture for Canada, the Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX) and the Queen's Master in Entrepreneurship & Innovation. A frequent writer and speaker on growing digital startups, seed investing/VC and accelerators.

Valerie Fox Founder The Pivotal Point Toronto, Ontario

Valerie Fox, cofounded the DMZ at Ryerson University which has grown to become Canada’s number one university business incubator and number 5 in the world (UBI 2014).

She is now venturing out with a new company called the Pivotal Point, to help build successful incubation models with corporations, academic institutions and regions, that bring communities of diverse skills together to collaborate, design and deliver impactful innovation. With more than 30 years of experience in the creative digital industry, her roles have ranged from business development to creative direction and user experience for various digital technologies. In May 2012 Valerie was presented with the prestigious Canadian Women in Technology (CanWIT) Sara Kirke Award for Entrepreneurship and innovation.

She has also been awarded a number of patents, including the Universal Shopping Cart for the Web, while she was at IBM.

Rory Francis Executive Director PEI BioAlliance Charlottetown, PEI

Rory Francis has 30 years experience in professional, management and leadership roles in the public and private sectors. As an experienced senior executive, Mr. Francis has led transformative change in several public sector organizations encompassing economic and social policy, programs and services. Mr. Francis is a native of Prince Edward Island. He earned a BSc in geology and chemistry from Mount Allison University and an MSc in Hydrogeology from the University of Waterloo. Since 2004 he has been Executive Director of the Prince Edward Island BioAlliance, a not-for-profit network of bioscience businesses, academic and research organizations, and government agencies. The role of the BioAlliance is to facilitate the growth and development of the province’s fast-growing bioscience cluster, working with industry, researchers, and government partners to establish the next generation of the Prince Edward Island economy. From 1991 to 2003 Mr. Francis held Deputy Minister positions in several provincial government departments, including Environment; Agriculture and Forestry; Fisheries and Aquaculture; and Health and Social Services. Mr. Francis is a member of the Canadian BioAccord and serves as a Board member with the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute, the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce, the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce, the Food Island Partnership, the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, and is President of the Eastern Canada Oilseeds Development Alliance. He is an Executive Committee member with the Industrial Bioproducts Round Table and chairs the Advisory Board for the Culinary Institute of Canada’s Technology Access Centre at Holland College. In 2008-09 he co-chaired The Commission on the Future of Agriculture and AgriFood in Prince Edward Island.

Joani Gerber VP, Operations Accelerator Centre Waterloo, Ontario

Joani Gerber is VP, Operations at the Accelerator Centre, responsible for all internal, financial and facility-related departments for all locations in Stratford at the University of Waterloo, and those in the Kitchener-Waterloo Region. Joani joined the AC in early 2013, arriving with 10-years progressive leadership experience gained through a series of Management roles in the Entrepreneurship Support sector. Her career progressed through a series of strategic positions in partnerships & Government Relations with the Small Business Enterprise Centre & Community Futures Development Corporation, culminating in her final role as Senior Business Advisor & Manager, Lending. Reporting to the Province of Ontario and FedDev Ontario Joani was responsible for starting & building the SBEC in Stratford & Area and growing the community loan portfolio to support more than 100 local companies. Joani earned an undergraduate degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario and subsequent specializations in accounting and human resources. As an active volunteer she is the Chair of the Stratford & District Chamber of Commerce, is a Campaign Cabinet Member of the United-Way, Perth-Huron, works with female entrepreneurs in a Women’s Mentorship Group and is a Committee Member on the Stratford-Perth Community Foundation.

Paul Girodo Director Empowered Startups Vancouver, BC

Paul Girodo, MBA is passionate about entrepreneurship, business coaching, intercultural communication and immigration. He is a Director with the incubator Empowered Startups Ltd. in Whistler and Vancouver. His industry interests range from combating human trafficking with his father (Team Leader for INTERPOL Group of Experts on Corruption and former chief human factors consultant in specialized drug and money laundering investigations with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) to aerial drones, IoT, digital finance, and clean tech.

Paul is shareholder and director of a number of Vancouver and Whistler based companies in which he led the incubation process, and continues to advise other Vancouver based companies for which he provided support in their inception days.

Dan Graham Director of Operations Agrivalue Processing Business Incubator Leduc, Alberta

Dan Graham is the Director, Operations, Agrivalue Processing Business Incubator (APBI) and Food Processing Development Centre (FPDC) at Alberta Agriculture and Forestry (AF) in Leduc, Alberta. The APBI and FPDC facility is the hub of activity for and operate under the broader mandate of the Food Processing Division (FPD) which is to develop programs and services to encourage the growth, diversification and competitiveness of the agricultural, food and feed processing industry. The FPDC provides product and process development support to the food processing industry. The APBI offers 8 individual food processing suites for medium term lease where food processing companies can further develop and grow their business in a federally inspected environment. Dan grew up in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley which is known for agricultural outputs of orchard fruits, berries and vegetable crops. Before joining Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, he held a number of progressive positions at Maple Leaf Foods, TDS logistics and Lilydale Inc. Dan’s experiences include executive, general, operations and financial management in food processing and automotive logistics. He has had responsibility for multiple facilities operating in several provinces and had been active in supply managed industry for most of his career. Dan holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) from Dalhousie University in Halifax and holds a CPA, CMA designation originating in Winnipeg.

Sara Hand Founder Spark Growth Bradenton, Florida

Founder of Spark Growth LLC and the consulting company S-Hand Group, iNBIA recognized entrepreneur Sara Hand is also known for co-founding the community enterprise ‘DaVinci’s Faire and BarCamp Sarasota-Bradenton.’ With her self-dubbed “cool people collections,” she facilitates collaborative efforts between community-based initiatives and traditional organizations using the Purdue Center for Regional Development (PCRD) protocol of Strategic Doing. Spark Growth is designated as PCRD’s representative in the state of Florida, and drives action-focused agendas with a variety of organizations statewide.

Sara is also the founder of the 3.0 Leaders Conference. This initiative has provided a worldwide platform for thought leaders to convene and develop calls-to-action for transformative change. Using her strengths to leverage unique value propositions and create synergistic partnerships among those “cool” connections” is what has enabled her to become a uniquely valuable visionary leader and asset to her community. Her motto is, “Think Big. Keep it Simple. Make it Happen.” With this philosophy, she has become widely recognized for consistently achieving her goals with grace and confident skill.

A diverse business development background across public and private sector enterprises, coupled with her experiences as President of the Sarasota Chapter of the Gulf Coast Venture Forum, the cowork to incubation project Station 2 Innovation, and a variety Strategic Doing projects have presented opportunities for involvement with the State Department’s Friends of GEW program, the United Nation’s launch of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, as well as spearheading a redefinition of soft landing programs within the worldwide incubator and accelerator networks.

Kamal Hassan CEO, IncMind Director, Founder Institute Toronto, Ontario

Kamal Hassan is the CEO of Incmind, an incubator reporting and diligence platform. He is also co-founder of the Toronto chapter of Founder Institute, the world's largest idea-stage incubator with operations in 100 cities around the world. He previously acted as CEO of Skymeter, COO of Zeno Global, and CEO of In Your Pocket. Kamal has made ten angel investments, guest lectured on entrepreneurship at four universities and traveled to 100 countries. He holds an MBA from INSEAD, and worked as a consultant at Bain & Co before starting his entrepreneurial career.

Tracy Kitts CEO Mancuso Business Development Group Batavia, NY

Tracy is the CAO at International Economic Development Council responsible for organizational development, business development and human resource management at IEDC. IEDC is the world's largest membership organization serving the economic development profession. From public to private, rural to urban, and local to international, our members represent the entire range of economic development experience. Tracy also consults with early stage investment groups, state and federal government, educational institutions and others interested in creating ecosystems that support the growth of entrepreneurial ventures. He has over 20 years of experience working in the business incubation industry and has contributed to the creation of numerous tools and information resources related to best practices. Tracy also has a strong background in information technology and still gets his hands dirty writing code and creating applications for the Web and mobile devices.

David Madié Creator of GrowthWheel / Founder Startup Company Copenhagen, Denmark

David Madié is the creator of GrowthWheel and the founder of Startup Company. As a serial entrepreneur since the age of 15, he never wrote a business plan for any of the businesses he started and grew in Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia. His pioneer work in creating sustainable IT businesses and transfer of know-how in developing countries earned him in 2002 an inclusion among the top 100 Global Leaders of Tomorrow selected by the World Economic Forum. Since the launch of Startup Company in 2005, he has advised thousands of entrepreneurs, start-ups and growth businesses, taught 300+ workshops and seminars, trained and certified over 500 business advisors, professors, and incubator managers, and written 30+ articles in select entrepreneurial magazines. He is a regular keynote speaker at entrepreneurship conferences and colleges, where he promotes the only way great entrepreneurs start or grow a business: by making decisions and taking action.

Tom Mancuso CEO Mancuso Business Development Group Batavia, NY

In 1959, Mancuso Business Development Group introduced the business incubator movement to the world. Now, as the oldest business incubator in North America, it continues to connect people with business spaces where they can prosper and grow, creating economic successes for people and communities. Tom Mancuso has lived his entire life in and around industrial and commercial incubator buildings. His experience in all facets of their existence is evident in his ability to understand the complex factors affecting their success. Clients have come to expect strategic solutions focused on their objectives and based on research and analysis.

Shane Pegg VP, Strategic Initiatives Accelerator Centre Waterloo, Ontario

As VP, Strategic Initiatives, Shane leads the business development and marketing efforts of the Accelerator Centre. His responsibilities include partner relations, brand development, government funding, and licensing the Accelerator Centre programming internationally. Shane brings 15 years of leadership experience within the technology sector through various sales, marketing, business development, and strategic alliances roles. He holds an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and lives in Waterloo with his wife and three children.

Richard “Ric” Phillips Program Advisor and Seminar Facilitator YEDInstitute North York, Ontario

Richard "Ric" Phillips is an executive Communication Coach and corporate trainer. He founded his company 3V Communications in 2007, which uses a holistic approach for business communication skills development to help business leaders, entrepreneurs, consultants, managers and their teams. He has clients in both for-profit and non-profit organizations, government and educational institutions, and has trained communication skills in China and Russia. Ric is also a Program Advisor and Seminar Facilitator with YEDI – the York Entrepreneurship Development Institute, and a speaker at conferences. Ric writes various blogs, articles and ebooks, and is often quoted in the media, giving his expert analysis of public speaking, body language and other communication techniques of professionals, politicians and celebrities.

Tristan Pollack Entrepreneur in Residence and Venture Partner 500 Startups San Francisco, CA

Tristan Pollock - Entrepreneur in Residence and Venture Partner at San Francisco's 500 Startups, the world's most active seed fund and startup accelerator. Tristan is empowering the most creative people in the world as co- founder of Storefront. Called 'Airbnb for Retail' by The New York Times, Storefront helped open over 1,000 stores in 2014. His last startup, SocialEarth, the Huffington Post for social entrepreneurship, had over 200 contributors in 25 countries, and won multiple awards for impact journalism. SocialEarth was acquired by 3BL Media in 2012. Tristan has also been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2015, been interviewed by NBC, Fox, and The Atlantic, and led national marketing campaigns at Best Buy, including crafting the most read email of all time reaching over 23 million customers.

Kathleen Rayworth CEO Entrepreneurs3.0 Halifax, NS

Kathleen Rayworth joined Entrepreneurs3.0 as a staff member in 2007 after more than a decade of operational and management experience. Throughout her career as a serial entrepreneur, Kathleen has developed a unique blend of executive acumen and a sharp eye for how businesses can be retooled for a sleeker, smoother, strategically focused organization. As an entrepreneur who quickly built her own successful businesses, Kathleen is now truly dedicated to working with other business owners to take their own challenges and turn them into opportunities.

Kathleen is a high energy, fiscally conscious, and goal-driven executive who approaches each new business challenge with her intrinsic flair for innovation, creative problem-solving and measured risk-taking to drive consistent bottom-line improvements and shareholder returns.

Stan Schultes Co-Founder Spark Growth Bradenton, Florida

Stan Schultes is a co-founder of Spark Growth and has led teams from Fortune 200 companies to startups. As Director of Operations at Station 2 Innovation, a hybrid cowork-to-incubation program located in downtown Bradenton, FL, Stan works to create community between entrepreneurs, investors, and educational resources, to help grow businesses. Stan is certified by iNBIA in Business Incubator Management. Stan has a broad range of software and systems architecture experience and enjoys working with cutting-edge technology and blazing new trails with software R&D. With a gift for teaching complex technology in easy to understand language, he has mentored dozens of software engineers on designing and implementing intelligent systems and building with open source software. Stan speaks and writes about technology, is a book author, and a former tech magazine columnist and contributing editor. As an internationally recognized expert in Microsoft technologies, he has earned the Microsoft MVP award 12 years running. Stan has experience working internationally, collaborating on systems development and transferring manufacturing systems technology to partners worldwide. In 30+ years of software architecture and development, he pushes the limits of technology, enabling projects to be disruptive in their industries. The number of tools available today and the challenges/opportunities associated with these, make this one of the most exciting seasons of his life’s work. Stan is an expert in Purdue Center for Regional Development's Strategic Doing, an agile and action-centric protocol for rapid development and implementation of strategies across organizations and sectors.

Abdullah Snobar Executive Director The DMZ at Ryerson University Toronto, Ontario

Abdullah Snobar is the Executive Director of the DMZ at Ryerson University, responsible for the strategic direction and continued growth of the DMZ. Abdullah joined the DMZ in 2014 as the Director of Community and Business Development. In that role, he established and led the team responsible for increasing and strengthening connections with industry and corporate leaders, with a dual focus on local and international outreach, resulting in new partnerships for the DMZ and exceptional business opportunities for DMZ startups. Under Abdullah’s direction, the DMZ also grew its Entrepreneur-in-Residence portfolio and enhanced its advisor program to ensure DMZ startups have timely access to first-class experts across every sector and vertical. At the same time, Abdullah fostered closer engagement with students and stakeholders across faculties, resulting in new collaborations, events and initiatives. Prior to joining the DMZ, Abdullah served the Office of the Dean at the Ted Rogers School of Management as the Manager of Undergraduate Student Relations and Development. As a campus leader and widely respected role model, Abdullah amplified the culture and empowered the student community of the business school, through the introduction of new local and international experiential programs for students, leadership training for student executives, and unprecedented opportunities for student involvement.

Ethan Sun Founder and CEO Istuary Innovation Group Vancouver, BC

A solid business foundation was laid by many years of experiences in technology management and overseas project management. Ethan Sun was able to develop unique innovative thinking through valuable practical experiences, as well as disciplined investment approach and unique investment style through long-term Angel Investment experiences. Long-term practical experiences and cooperation with both domestic and overseas teams helped to establish unique communication skills and a positive attitude. Successful established Istuary Innovation Group. Combined and applied "Deep Partnership", "Subversive Technology Innovation" and "Globalized Vision" to build a comprehensive new industrial group with an unique innovative industry model and cutting-edge business philosophy, committed to effectively integrating talent, technology, market and capital to cultivate high-tech innovation. Relied on years of accumulated domestic and overseas business experiences to create a brand new group structure. With "Innovative Research Institute" as the core development engine, "Investment Management Company" and "Consulting Firm” as the two wings, Istuary Innovation Group was shaped into an international “Full Life Cycle Science and Innovation Incubation Platform.”

Edward Thomas Assistant Director, Industry Partnerships Queens University Kingston, Ontario

Edward Thomas is Assistant Director of Industry Partnerships at Queen’s University. He’s worked from several facets of Canadian innovation thinking, as a business journalist, engineering researcher, technical consultant, grants guru, business-development officer and entrepreneur. Working from Innovation Park at Queen’s, his professional services to regional innovators include startup coaching, R&D development and extensive B2B and B2-Academia partnership assistance to investigators, founders, investors/funders, suppliers and customers.

Mr. Lin, Weichang Vice Governor Director – The CPC Committee of Panyu District, Guangzhou, China Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center Management Committee

Patrick Whalen COO Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) Buffalo, NY

Patrick Whalen joined the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. (BNMC) as Chief Operating Officer in March of 2008. In addition to managing the BNMC day-to-day operations, Pat is the BNMC’s unofficial “entrepreneur–in- residence.” As such, Pat works to foster collaboration and job creation on campus and throughout the bi- national region. Pat also works to attract dynamic companies and people from around the world to the BNMC,

especially to the Thomas R Beecher Jr. Innovation Center (TRBIC). Pat makes his expertise available to TRBIC tenant companies as well as other early stage companies. With a passion for developing people and the local economy, Pat balances day to day demands of growth of the Medical Campus with a strategic approach to mentoring companies and helping the campus at large to reach its potential. As his business card confidently states, Pat is an “expert-idea generator” and he excels at connecting entrepreneurs, leaders, funders, and thinkers together to make growth happen on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. A serial entrepreneur, Pat has started over 20 businesses including Fulfillment Systems International (FSI), a logistics services provider offering marketing support, warehousing, distribution, freight forwarding, and transportation service to firms operating in the US, Canada, and Europe. FSI grew from a start up to a firm with annual sales of $20 million and over one hundred employees in five locations in North America and Europe before being sold to a fortune-50 company: UPS in 2000. It is now part of UPS Supply Chain Services. Patrick is a member of the Board of Directors for the World Trade Center Buffalo Niagara, Canadian American Border Trade Alliance, and Continental 1. He was the secretary of the Direct Marketing Industry Working Group in Washington, D.C., and has served on the boards of the Rotary Club of Buffalo (twice), the Buffalo and Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority; American Red Cross Greater Buffalo Chapter, Bi-National Tourism Alliance, the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Alumni Association (twice) and Buffalo Niagara WorldConnect. He was the co- chair of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership’s Logistics Council and conceptualized and co-founded Come-to-America which seeks to utilize the Buffalo Niagara region’s logistics assets to attract international companies. A Rotarian since 1986, he is currently a board member of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Club.

Patrick White Director of Operations L Spark Ottawa, Ontario

Patrick White is a seasoned executive in the high tech sector with significant experience in startups, entrepreneurship, and business development. Patrick comes from a long history with Wesley Clover International, acting as the point man on several projects aimed at enhancing research and innovation in the Ottawa region.

Patrick also actively represented the company at key industry events and consultations, and was responsible for media funding applications. An entrepreneur himself, Patrick founded Brookstreet Pictures, whereby he managed all the financial and staffing aspects of the business, as well as coordinated all sales and distribution channels. As Director of Operations, Patrick will ensure all services are delivered at a high standard, and will actively support the overall achievement of the business objectives of L-SPARK and its affiliated startups.

Josh Wright Co-Founder Blitzen Kitchener, Ontario

Josh Wright is one of the Founders of Blitzen (formerly Decision.io). Blitzen is based in Waterloo, Ontario and they are focused on building a smart hub to manage your customer data. They give you ways to collect data through awesome online forms and surveys, review this data with your teams, and sync this data with other line tools like your CRM.

Josh worked previously at the Waterloo Accelerator Centre as the Director, Strategic Initiatives and he has a Masters in Business, Entrepreneurship, and Technology from the University of Waterloo.

Ben Zlotnick Founder and CEO InCubes Toronto, Ontario

With a business degree from York University, Ben built one of Toronto's most successful Landscape Design & Construction Companies.

Having launched several startups, he's made the prestigious Profit100 Guide for five consecutive years. As both a startup founder & angel investor, Ben brings connections to both investors and startups through the INcubes technology accelerator that he founded in 2011.

Most recently, he launched one of the largest International Exchange Programs between technology hubs from around the globe. He continues to expand his network by creating partnerships with Fortune 500 companies.