Colin Mason

Colin Mason is Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, Scotland. He has held visiting positions at various universities around the world, including a Visiting Chair in the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. His research and teaching are in the area of entrepreneurship and regional development. His specific research interest is in entrepreneurial finance. He has worked with Canada’s National Angel Capital Association as the lead author of the majority of its Investment Activity reports. He is currently involved in researching Atlantic Canada’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Michelle Simms

Michelle joined the Genesis Centre in 2002 as a business analyst and was promoted to vice president in 2015. She assumed the role of President and CEO in August of 2016. Michelle is passionate about growing, strengthening and diversifying the technology sector of Newfoundland and Labrador.

JF Gauthier

JF Gauthier is a Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of Startup Genome. He is the world’s leading expert in innovation ecosystem development, having advised—and learned from—more than 100 governments and private-public partnerships across 40 countries. He is an angel investor and has founded five businesses across two continents and three sectors (Tech, Life Sciences and Cleantech), with two exits and one growing at scaleup stage. He previously worked in corporate innovation advising some of the largest Tech and Life Sciences corporations alongside Clayton Christensen and other thought leaders. JF holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Marianne Hudson

Marianne Hudson founded and led the Angel Capital Association (ACA), the world’s leading professional and trade association of angel investors, for 15 years before retiring in June 2019. ACA offers education, smart practices, data analysis, public policy advocacy, and significant benefits and resources to its membership of more than 14,000 accredited investors across North America, who invest individually or through its 260 angel groups, accredited platforms, and family offices. As an angel investor, Marianne makes her investments through three angel groups and two online platforms for accredited investors. She also sits on the board of the National Angel Capital Organization.

Nicole LeBlanc

Nicole is an Urbantech & Sustainability focused Venture Capitalist. Previously, Nicole worked for Sidewalk Labs in Toronto as their Director of Investments & Partnerships. Nicole’s prior tenure was at BDC where she was a force behind BDC’s investment in several Atlantic Canadian companies, including Swept, Eigen Innovations and HeyOrca. In 2017, she became director of Director of Strategic Investments and Women in Tech. Nicole has served on the board of Propel ICT and previously worked for the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and First Angel Network.

Gordon Pitts

Gordon Pitts is a business journalist and author, and the business writer in residence at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University. Pitts has been a writer and editor for Canadian newspapers for four decades, in addition to writing eight books on Canadian business. They include his recently published Unicorn in the Woods, How East Coast Geeks and Dreamers Are Changing the Game, as well as Fire in the Belly, the biography of Purdy Crawford, the Nova Scotia-born business leader.

Malcolm Fraser

Malcolm Fraser is president and CEO of Innovacorp, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In this role, Malcolm oversees Innovacorp’s work to find, fund and foster innovative Nova Scotia start-ups that strive to change the world. Malcolm joined Innovacorp in October 2017. He was a leader in Canada’s digital sector for the previous 20 years, earning recognition and awards for innovation, management and community leadership.

Amber Mac

Originally hailing from Charlottetown, Amber Mac, is a Canadian television personality, bestselling author of two books, and keynote speaker. As the former co-host of BNN’s App Central and Bloomberg Brink, Amber will lead in-depth discussions on the opportunities ahead with angel investors, entrepreneurs, and active participants throughout the Atlantic Canada innovation ecosystem.

Peter Moreira

Peter operates Entrevestor, which provides news and data on Atlantic Canadian startups. He is also the author of The Haight series of crime novels, which are murder mysteries set in San Francisco in the 1960s.

Alex MacBeath

Alex has over 40 years of experience with entrepreneurial companies. Alex was with Grant Thornton LLP for 35 years, 26 of those as partner. He was CEO and Executive Partner of Grant Thornton LLP from 2001 – 2008. From 2008 until his retirement in 2012, he was ‘Global Leader, Markets’ and ‘Regional Leader, Asia Pacific’ at Grant Thornton International based in London, UK. Alex received his B.Sc. from UPEI and his MBA from Dalhousie University. A member of the Canadian, Ontario and Prince Edward Island Institutes of Chartered Accountants, he received his C.A. designation in 1979 and was awarded his FCA in 2003. He is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors and holds his ICD.D designation through the Rotman School of Management.

Graeme Millen

Graeme Millen is a director of technology banking at Silicon Valley Bank in Toronto, where he leads the energy and resource innovation efforts for the bank across Canada. Graeme is responsible for the development of new business relationships as well as the strategy and oversight of the current portfolio. SVB’s extensive experience across this sector globally allows his team to create the right financing solutions for companies designing innovative solutions in energy, new transportation, agriculture, food, and industrial sectors. Graeme strives to enhance the bank’s recently established presence in this particular niche and region.

Robert Antoniades

Robert Antoniades co-founded Information Venture Partners in 2014 with Dave Unsworth to work with startups in the field he knows best: financial services. Robert is interested in finding the disruptive ideas and entrepreneurs that believe new or better information is foundational to businesses. He believes that financial institutions need technology to service their customers, reduce cost and compete. Some of his main areas of interest include SaaS, next generation analytics including artificial intelligence and machine learning, capital markets, banking, wealth management and insurance technology.

Pieter Dorsman

Through his consulting firm Redpeaks, Pietre advises both early and later-stage technology companies on finance, growth strategies and mergers & acquisitions. In the recent past, Pietre has co-founded, invested in, managed, advised and exited from a number of successful Vancouver-based technology companies. Since 2011 active as director/CFO of an angel fund that invests primarily in early-stage British Columbia based technology companies. As of 2015 Pietre also run two workshops for Canada’s National Angel Capital Organization, NACO: “Deal Structuring & Term Sheets” and “The Art of Valuation.”

Melody Pardoe

Melody Pardoe is the Chief Engagement Officer at Canada’s Ocean Supercluster. Formerly, Melody was the Chief Operating Officer of Volta, Canada’s East Coast Innovation Hub.

Jeff White

Jeff White is the lead visionary at NBIF. He’s a technology industry veteran, and a seasoned corporate financing expert. He has worked with some of our region’s biggest start-ups: Radian6, Q1 Labs, and Genesys Laboratories Canada and was co-founder and COO of East Valley Ventures. That experience gives Jeff a unique perspective to see and understand the growth potential in New Brunswick’s start-up and research innovation sectors. As a bonus, he’s very passionate about it too!

Stephen Nicolle

After many years of experience leading venture-backed technology companies as a CEO, Steve is now in pseudo-retirement and happily investing his time advising young entrepreneurs and the companies they lead. He is also a founding partner of a micro venture fund in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. Steve’s international executive experience spans telecoms, video surveillance, wireless convergence, and healthcare IT. The companies he has led have delivered innovative customer value, returned over $300M to their investors, and provided employment to thousands of truly great people. Steve is a dual US-Canadian citizen and splits his year between PEI and Atlanta.

Charlotte Murray

After leaving her corporate career at Procter & Gamble in Switzerland and New York, Charlotte returned to Canada and launched a scuba dive expedition to mobilize local communities to clean up the underwater environment. Following this purpose-driven project across Canada, she co-founded her startup, PACTA in Halifax, which is where her startup journey began. Today, Charlotte is Propel’s Chief Coaching Officer.

Senator Colin Deacon

The Honourable Colin Deacon’s entrepreneurial background brings a unique perspective to Canada’s Upper Chamber. Before his June 2018 appointment to the Senate as an Independent Senator representing Nova Scotia, Senator Deacon spent much of his career turning ideas into organizations, products and services that improve lives.

Claudio Rojas

Claudio is the CEO of NACO and has held the roles of managing director, founder, board member and advisor of several prominent organizations, including the Canadian Dream Summit – a world-class conference with the mission of transforming Canada into the world’s leading innovation economy. He brings an exceptionally long-term entrepreneurial mindset to investments and is a thought leader on founder-run companies.

Cathy Simpson

Cathy Simpson is an Atlantic Canadian IT leader who has dedicated her career to building the region’s tech capacity. Most recently, she was the Vice President, People and Culture with T4G Limited, one of the largest privately held IT firms in the region with clients throughout North America. Cathy is a leader in the movement to use technology and innovation to drive economic growth, create thriving communities and engage citizens.

Sarah Young

Sarah Young became a partner in NATIONAL in December 2012 when the Firm acquired a majority interest in MT&L Public Relations, a firm she and her partners owned for more than a decade. Sarah currently serves as a board member for the Nova Scotia Community College, Phoenix House, and on the Mount Allison University Board of Regents. A recipient of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 and an alumnus of the Governor General’s Leadership Conference, Sarah is certified by the U.S.-based Institute for Crisis Management and by IAP2 for Public Participation.

Geneviève Morin

Geneviève Morin is the CEO of Fondaction, a $2 billion labour-sponsored fund focused on sustainable development. Geneviève joined Fondaction when it started up in 1996, first as Administration and Finance Coordinator, then as Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Development Officer. Geneviève was the former CEO of Anges Québec Capital.

Mary Long-Irwin

Mary is currently the Executive Director of Northern Ontario Angels, an organization that matches Entrepreneurs with Angel Investors across Northern Ontario. Under her guidance, Northern Ontario Angels was awarded for being the top-performing Angel Group across North America with approximately 300 deals with over $130M in private investments.

Mary also received the NACO’s Lifetime Achievement Award this past year in Calgary at the 2019 World Angel Investment Summit.