Andrea, as CEO of ShiftGrit Inc., is actively evolving the traditional therapy experience. In 2013, as a newly registered psychologist, Andrea opened Shift and cultivated a unique protocol, making way for consistently measurable, quality assured and technology enabled therapy through its in-house developed mobile applications. Today, Shift grows at an exponential rate, transforming the realities of thousands across Western Canada. ShiftGrit has the vision of delivering a destigmatized, demystified, and exceptionally innovative way for people across North America to transcend their limits and unleash their potential.

Andrea is a member of the Entrepreneurs Organization, the Psychologists Association of Alberta and maintains active registration with The College of Alberta Psychologists. The publication of her first book, How to Human Better, is anticipated in 2022. She is an engaged advocate for at-risk youth. She regularly appears in The Shift Show podcast, with a goal of creating accessibility to psychoeducation.

Andrea and her husband Mike enjoy foodie tourism, exploring the outdoors and spending time with their two beloved parrots.

President and Founder of the Prime Capital Group of companies. Prime Capital Group is a commercial equipment lender working with entrepreneurs and enterprise clients across Canada. By combining Prime’s lending expertise with digital-first innovation tools, Prime’s clients can more easily access capital to scale, grow, improve capacity and productivity, driving better profitability to their bottom lines.
Angela is the National Board Chair for the Canadian Finance & Leasing Association; past board chair Women Building Futures, Advisory Council member for Mawji Entrepreneurship Centre, Norquest 1000 Women Advisory Council member. She is a founding member of angel investor TNT Startup, and sits on the board of the for-profit AHLA Services Corp. Married to Dan for 26 years and mom to two wonderful young adult daughters, she is an entrepreneur, mentor, community advocate and volunteer and curious, people-centric leader.

An Investment Manager with Yaletown Partners based in Edmonton, Arden invests in Alberta-based companies as the Manager of Accelerate Funds II and III. An accomplished investment professional with more than 15 years of private and public sector experience, he works with portfolio company teams to support their performance and is highly active in the Alberta technology startup community.

With a strong background in commercial real estate and public equities, Arden’s career as a professional investor in multiple asset classes gives him a broad perspective on capital markets and various ways to look for value. He brings this experience and a love for business to early-stage venture capital investing and enjoys the up close and personal aspect of being able to work directly with entrepreneurs. As a trained Executive Coach and former business owner, Arden helps founders understand how their business and capital raising strategies align.

Before joining the Accelerate Fund team, Arden oversaw entrepreneurship development as manager of the University of Alberta’s Venture Mentoring Service. He holds an MBA in finance from the University of Alberta and is a graduate of Royal Roads University’s Certified Executive Coaching program.

Ashif Mawji is a serial entrepreneur, philanthropist, venture capitalist, mentor and community builder. He chairs the Edmonton Police Foundation and serves on numerous private and nonprofit boards, including the Sarah McLachlan School of Music, Hockey Canada Foundation, CN Community Foundation and others.

He received the EY Prairies Entrepreneur of the Year award, named one of Canada’s Top 40 under 40 and received Canada’s 50 Best Managed companies award three years in a row.

Ashif received NAIT's Alumni of Distinction Award and named one of the Top 50 Graduates in 50 years and received an Honorary Degree in Bachelor of Business Administration. Ashif is an Honorary Colonel in the Canadian Army and received the Queen’s Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals and the Alberta Centennial Medal.

Bruce Alton is the founder of A-Partners Ventures Inc. an advisor to and investor in growth-oriented businesses. At A-Partners, Bruce is an angel investor and building a portfolio of equity stakes in early-stage growth companies. He has a particular focus on opportunities that use artificial intelligence and machine learning as a competitive business advantage. Bruce also undertakes strategic advisory projects with an emphasis on helping companies grow and spin out new products that are not core to their current business operations.

His advisory work led to the creation of Product Opportunity Mapping (www.product-mapping.com) which is a framework used by CEO’s and senior leadership teams to identify, evaluate and compare new product opportunities.

Over his thirty-year career, Bruce has been a company founder, senior operating executive and investor and his roles have spanned software development, real estate, advanced MEMS manufacturing, venture capital and the energy sector. He has also been a corporate and angel investor, board director and has assessed hundreds of investment opportunities.

Bruce has been an invited speaker at entrepreneurship and technology conferences around the world and was previously named as one of Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People by Alberta Venture Magazine. He has also been recognized for his work with several industry organizations and Alberta community groups such as the A100 - Alberta Technology Entrepreneurs Organization; the Kids With Cancer Society; the Alberta Economic Development Authority and the University of Alberta School of Business.

He is based in Edmonton, Alberta and works with clients in Canada, the United States and Asia.

Christopher presently serves as President & CEO of both Fedora Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Brass Dome Ventures Ltd. Fedora Pharmaceuticals Inc. is an anti-infective drug discovery company founded in 2011. In 2014, Fedora signed the at-the-time largest licensing deal ever signed in Canadian biotech history, licensing their beta-lactamase inhibitor to Hoffman J La Roche for US$750 million in addition to royalties. Fedora continues the pursuit of developing new drugs that save lives. Brass Dome Ventures Ltd. was founded in 2016 and employs a multi-disciplinary team of business experts.

He has received numerous prestigious awards, including: Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, BioAlberta Company of the Year Award, and Astech Commercial Achievement Award.

Seeking perfection through incremental improvements has been one of my underlying principles since deciding at a young age I was going to be an entrepreneur. Founder & CEO of the RAPTOR group of companies, Craig E. Harder knows the importance of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship in the workplace. Founded in 2004, Raptor Mining is a global leader in engineering, service supply and robotic manufacturing of parts for the mining and construction industries. Head quartered in Edmonton, Alberta with CISC’s (Continuous Improvement Service Centers) in Barrie, Ontario, Miami, Florida, Salt Lake City, Utah, Arequipa, Peru, and Wuxi, China, servicing local mining and construction customers.

Craig, his wife Vikki, and their two daughters Rachel and Elise live in Edmonton however spend a lot of time enjoying the great outdoors at their farm in western Alberta.

Daryl Cuthill started his journey as an entrepreneur at the age of 19. An opportunity presented itself to work with his uncle at Lionhead Engineering, capping abandoned wells and pipelines in the Alberta oilfield. Daryl sold all of his possessions, formed a limited company and built a portable welding truck, working and learning business while putting himself through school during the spring thaw to complete his Journeyman and Pressure Welder Certification.

Daryl soon partnered with his uncle and cousins at Lionhead Engineering and together, they formed a sister company Normcan dealing with NORM (natural occurring radioactive material). Both Normcan and Lionhead Engineering were acquired by the same larger corporation for which Daryl stayed on as an employee for a short time; however, he found his entrepreneurial spirit was calling.

In the summer of 2010, Daryl stepped away from the larger corporation and founded Profoxx Energy Services. Once again, Daryl found himself starting over from scratch. Since then, Profoxx has grown into a small group of companies including real estate, equipment rentals, fabrication and maintenance, as well as oilfield site and pipeline abandonments.

Daryl is not only a serial entrepreneur, but an avid outdoorsman and dedicated family man.

Derek Hudson is the founder and principal of Unconstrained, a consultancy dedicated to guiding leaders through complex business challenges and opportunities. Derek is the creator of Essential Dynamics, a systems thinking approach about which writes, podcasts, and rarely stops pondering.

Derek has served as CEO and COO of Edmonton Economic Development Corporation and CFO of Micralyne Inc. As an executive, he has had responsibility for finance, human resources, information technology, sales, marketing, operations, and engineering. He has worked in advanced technology, economic development, and professional services.

Derek is a former member of the Edmonton Police Commission and has served on the boards of TEC Edmonton and the Alberta Association of Police Governance. He is a graduate of the University of Alberta School of Business and is a CA, CPA, and Certified Management Consultant.

Derek serves with the University of Alberta ThresholdImpact Venture Mentoring Service. He has extensive volunteer experience working with youth, and leaders of youth, through church and Scouts Canada. His happy places include the backcountry of the Canadian Rockies, the bike paths of Edmonton’s river valley, and anywhere his growing family gathers.

Erin Holowach is a serial entrepreneur, starting her first business in 2002 with her husband Travis at the age of 22. Together they built ComFree Commission Free Realty, evoking the beginning of change in an age-old industry. In 2009, ComFree was sold to a subsidiary of Power Corporation, a Canadian public company.

Following the sale of ComFree, Erin and Travis continue to expand their real estate portfolio of both commercial & residential properties. Over the next 5 years, they started and grew 5 Pandora franchise locations in Edmonton, Calgary & Winnipeg, started R3 Deconstruction with an operating partner, invested in Flo-Back Equipment Rentals and built a private lending business.

Following the sale of ComFree, Erin and Travis continue to expand their real estate portfolio of both commercial & residential properties. Over the next 5 years, they started and grew 5 Pandora franchise locations in Edmonton, Calgary & Winnipeg, started R3 Deconstruction with an operating partner, invested in Flo-Back Equipment Rentals and built a private lending business.

Erin & Travis' passion is travel, fitting it in on any spare days available as well as lake life in summer & mountain sports in winter.

Jason is currently the Chief Executive Officer of DynaLIFE Medical Labs, one of Alberta’s largest private healthcare organizations. At over 1100 employees DynaLIFE is Canada’s most regarded multidisciplinary clinical laboratory organization and is recognized as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies. DynaLIFE provides clinical diagnostics to support physicians, patients, hospitals and other health providers from central Alberta through the Territories. DynaLIFE is internationally accredited for quality and is routinely listed as one of Albert’s Top Employers. Dedication to the communities it serves, DynaLIFE offers support through sponsorships and fundraising for local charities plus paid days off for all employees to participate in community/charity events.

Jason is a Certified Management Accountant, a graduate of the Queens Executive Program and a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors. Jason works with an ownership board, including OMERS and Laboratory Corporation of America (publicly traded) as well as a board of senior policy advisors. With a decade of experience at the executive level his background includes roles such Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Business Development/Government Relations. Although his professional background is financial, he is regarded for his transparent and accountable leadership style, as a creator and driver of innovation and strategy, and a trusted and supportive partner to both government and industry. Jason participates in various bio‐tech related industry groups, works with Economic Development and participates on various community committees and boards including Little Warriors and the Bissell Centre.

On a personal level, Jason lives in St. Albert with his family that includes six energetic children. Jason is an active outdoorsman with passions from sailing to skiing, motorbikes to mountains; and he appreciates spending time with his family enjoying activities in nature.

Jehangir is interested in the intersection where Finance, Digital Technology, Medicine, Business & Impact come together. He is the founding partner of AIoTHealth, a rolling Venture Capital fund investing in early stage companies applying machine learning and digital technologies to improve healthcare quality by driving personalized medicine. Jehangir leverages his deep expertise at the front lines of healthcare along with 2 decades of experience with value investing to help companies match the algorithm with the right clinical problem.

He serves as a mentor with Creative Destruction Labs, an Expert Advisor for the Life Sciences Innovation Hub at Innovate Calgary, Senior Fellow for the Fraser Institute, Research Associate Professor at the U of Calgary and on the Editorial Board for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

Jehangir’s career has been marked as a medical leader focused on innovation to drive health care improvement. After completing his Cardiac Surgery residency at the University of Alberta he completed 2 fellowships: the first in Advanced Cardiovascular surgery at the Royal Brompton Hospital, Imperial College in London, England, and the second in Thoracic Aortic Surgery, Endovascular Aortic Surgery and Heart Failure Surgery from The University of Pennsylvania. As a clinical associate professor of Cardiac surgery at U of Calgary, he helped establish the Artificial Heart Program and performed southern Alberta's first artificial heart device implant. He founded the Calgary Thoracic Aortic Program and directing it until 2019, leading it to international reputation clinically and academically.

Dr. Leeds is responsible for identifying new technology from organizations in the western US and across Canada for potential partnering with Novartis, as well as out-licensing assets to external partners. Jennifer joined Novartis in 2003, where she co-invented and co-led the project team for the novel antibacterial LFF571 through Ph2, among other projects, before becoming Head of Antibacterial Discovery in 2010. In 2018, Jennifer joined Novartis BD&L, supporting out-licensing of anti-infective programs to Boston Pharmaceuticals, Gilead, and Amplyx Pharmaceuticals and in-licensing deal flow across all Novartis disease areas. Jennifer is a member of the Novo Holdings REPAIR Impact Fund SSB, an Expert Reviewer for Innosuisse, a mentor for California Life Sciences Institute start-ups and a mentor for Nex Cubed, Y Combinator, and IndieBio portfolio companies.

Jennifer did her postdoc in bacterial genetics and membrane protein structure and assembly at Harvard Medical School with Jon Beckwith, received her BSc (Microbiology) from Cornell University and her PhD (Medical Microbiology and Immunology) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Northern California (SF Bay Area) with her husband, who is a patent attorney and angel investor, and is mom to two grown sons.

As Co-founder of The51 (financial feminism platform / venture fund), Judy is a trailblazer, business leader and community builder. She has over 30 years of diverse executive experience in business innovation, digital, venture capital, strategy, ESG, operations, technology commercialization and public policy. Her wealth of career experience includes roles as Chief Digital Officer, EVP Business Innovation, and Board Chair of Alberta Innovates. Judy is a pioneer in corporate innovation, including co-founding a $100 million cleantech/digital venture fund and multi-company environmental innovation alliances.

Judy sits on corporate, tech and economic development boards, including: Petronas Canada, MEG Energy Inc., VEERUM Inc., Calgary Economic Development and the Business Council of Alberta.

Judy holds an MSc degree (Chemical Engineering), an MBA and Institute of Corporate Directors designation. She is an award-winning Creative Destruction Lab mentor, 2013 Clean 16 award winner, and recipient of the 2020 Calgary Influential Women in Business Lifetime Achievement Award.

Keith may be the most unlikely person to ever be considered as a farmer. From insects to aquaculture, Keith spends his time focused on the more obscure and emerging areas of agriculture. Through his family office, Propel Ventures (formerly Driver Projects), Keith is working and investing in non-conventional, indoor and innovative agriculture with a belief that they form a healthy part of the solution for meeting the demands to feed a growing population.

Keith Driver is a serial entrepreneur in the clean-tech and ag-techs spaces, with experience across North America. He has served in leadership positions in several technology companies over the past 20 years. His experience includes founding, senior marketing, technical and management roles, focused on emerging products and technologies. This has included fish farms, carbon trading, used oil re-refining, cryptocurrency mining, animal feed production, insect larvae for protein production and organic fertilizer production.

Currently, Keith serves as the CEO for EarthRenew, Inc., as well as leading a number of other ag-related ventures. EarthRenew is a producer of high-value organic fertilizers produced by upcycling livestock manures. Other ventures include Rocky Mountain Shrimp Farm and AeroFodder.

Keith holds two degrees in engineering and an MBA, and has served as a sessional instructor at both of his Alma Mater’s, the University of Calgary and University of Guelph.

Mark Speaker is the Industry Executive for Microsoft Canada responsible for Energy. Mark brings over 20 years of experience in the energy sector working with industry leaders in both technology and energy to advance their thinking around emerging technologies and innovative concepts.

He started his career with TELUS and was elected the youngest member of a Pension Board with over $2 billion in assets at age 26. He then co-founded a start-up which took him from Alberta to Indiana to Texas, leading an online service and support organization as the Chief Technology Officer of Attenza with customers such as Dell and Mary Kay.

He returned to Calgary to spend the last 19 years working with a host of oil and gas companies as an enterprise architect and strategic advisor, including TC Energy, Teck Resources, Husky Energy and Gibson Energy.

Mark was recently central to bringing Unity Software Inc. to Calgary in partnership with the City of Calgary.

He also recently led a 20-person team at the company’s internal hackathon, winning the Best Technology category for Microsoft’s knowledge hack, with team members from Canada, India, China, and the United States.

Marvin J. Schmidt is recognized as a top wealth strategist and leader in the investment industry in Canada. In 2020, he was awarded the distinction of The Canadian Advisor of the Year in the national Wealth Professional Awards.

As the founder and team principal of The Schmidt Investment Group, Marvin provides the strategic direction of the business. He also leads the Investment and Wealth Strategy Team at The Schmidt Investment Group which is a leading family office and wealth management practice in Canada.

In 2015, Marvin founded the only national public foundation of its kind in Canada, Expand Hope. Working tirelessly to eradicate poverty in some of the most vulnerable communities in the world, Expand Hope is a unique social impact organization connected to the social enterprise and wealth management practice of The Schmidt Investment Group. In 2006 Marvin sold his technology company to one of the big 5 Canadian banks. Marvin has also founded and operated a national consulting practice for the financial industry during the 2000s.

Marvin has always been active in his community, locally, nationally and internationally. He has served as the Vice Chair of the International Board of Directors for The Canadian Hunger Foundation, is a past board member of The Luxus Group and is the Chair of the Expand Hope Board of Directors.

Paul Verhesen, P.Eng., is the past President & CEO of the Clark Builders Group of Companies - a commercial, industrial and institutional builder operating throughout Western and Northern Canada. Paul’s respect for his colleagues, visionary leadership and industry knowledge combine to provide clients, trades, and employees the foundation for sharing in a great experience.

Believing strongly that businesses make a positive impact on the communities where we work live and play, Paul oversaw the establishment of the Clark Builders Community Foundation (CBCF) in 2016 to honor the legacy of Clark Builders’ founders. He is a graduate of the University of Alberta in Civil Engineering (BSc.) with a minor in Construction Engineering.

Presently, Paul is participating on a number of Advisory Board’s bring his experiences and market knowledge to these private companies. He is also spending more time with the Verhesen Family office (Seer Developments Ltd) which is led by his son, investing in real estate, private asset lending and investment in technology companies as a Venture Partner with Builders VC (Venture Capital firm located in Silicon Valley).

He has always been a community builder by being an active member of a number of non-profit organization in Edmonton and area. He is currently on the NAIT Board of Governors and the University Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees.

Mr. Caron founded the venture/private equity capital company, First Canada Capital Corp. in 1989. This company morphed into Western America Capital, based out of Edmonton and managed a group of fund companies, including the Western America Technology Fund, The Western America Resource Fund and the Western America Manufacturing Fund. For over 20 years the company invested, managed, acquired and divested into a group of products and companies throughout Canada, USA and Europe.

During that time the group had many transactions related to university research, technology commercialization, including taking university driven concepts to the public markets. After a successful term the majority of funds and companies were divested, providing significant returns to its investors and employees. The balance of holdings and new investments are now managed thruough the Norac Capital Group of Companies.