2013 Speakers

Lyndon Cormack
Co-Founded and CEO, Herschel Supply Co.

Dylan Brown
Creative Director, PIXAR Canada

Foundation: The Essentials of Entrepreneurship

Kevin is the President and CEO of Wesbild Holdings Ltd. Prior to Wesbild, Kevin was the President of Future Shop when it was purchased from Wesbild’s parent company, Persis Holdings (formerly Inwest Investments), by Best Buy Co. Inc. in 2001. He remained in his post as President after the closing and was responsible for the integration with Best Buy. He led the team responsible for building out the Best Buy banner across Canada using the standalone infrastructure of Future Shop while simultaneously growing the Future Shop banner. This strategy became known as the “dual brand strategy” and was the subject of many doubters of the plan.

After achieving the success of Future Shop and Best Buy and exceeding all expectations as separate banners, with distinct looks and shopping experiences, the dual brand strategy has now become the model for which Best Buy has chosen to expand internationally. The model is now being deployed in other countries, such as China and Europe.

Kevin went on to become the COO of Best Buy International with responsibility of expanding Best Buy in Canada, Mexico, England, Turkey & China before leaving to join Wesbild.

Kevin was also the chairman of Retail Council of Canada and served on the board for 8 years. He was on the Lower Mainland’s 2008 United Way Campaign Cabinet for the Retail and Services Group and Co-Chaired the 2010 United Way Campaign Cabinet. He currently serves on two Boards – the Urban Development Institute and Golftown.

Glowbal: The Path of an Entrepreneur

Emad Yacoub is no stranger to the kitchen. He spent the early years of his career honing his craft as Executive Chef in several celebrated Toronto restaurants. Later, he was the driving force behind the re-invigoration of Vancouver’s Joe Fortes. After spending several years in B.C.’s restaurant industry, Emad and his wife Shannon decided it was time to make their own move – to realize their own vision of what a restaurant could be. When they returned to Vancouver, nearly ten years ago, they opened their first restaurant, glowbal grill & satay bar. They wanted to create a gathering place for friends and family, with worldly cuisine spun from the freshest West Coast ingredients. But what they created was a sensation, and the start of one of the biggest success stories in the Vancouver restaurant world. The rest is history.

Currently, the GLOWBAL COLLECTION is comprised of seven restaurants: glowbal grill steaks & satay, COAST Restaurant, The Fish Shack, Italian Kitchen, Trattoria Italian Kitchen, SOCIETY Dining Lounge and Black+Blue.

Strategy: Cutting Through the Idea Clutter

Dawn McCooey MA, has worked in the adult training and development field for over 20 years. She completed a Master of Arts degree in Leadership and Training at Royal Roads University, and has worked with individuals, corporations and government in life skills coaching, program design, workshop facilitation, and organizational development. She recently attained her Certified Management Consultant (CMC) designation and brings a professional and dynamic and engaging energy to everything she undertakes. As owner of a career consulting company for over 18 years, Dawn managed up to 32 employees in three offices in Victoria and was voted “Best boss in Victoria”. Currently, Dawn is the Skills Development Manager at Women s Enterprise Centre, and is based in our Victoria office.

The Women’s Enterprise Centre is British Columbia’s leading resource for women entrepreneurs. They offer skills for development, business loans, as well as guidance and mentoring through their program.

Marketing: Pose Your Brand

The lululemon lab is a conceptual design and retail space. It is a hub for innovation and functional fashion in Vancouver. The lab designs, produces and sells its own exclusive line of clothing. The line is created by our in-house design team and is rooted in the inspirations of both local and international trends. The lab is committed to supporting and designing for our local community. By hosting design meetings, collecting feedback from our walk-in guests and collaberating on capsule collections, we create designs that are versatile, functional and unique to our space.

The lab at Lululemon is dedicated to elevating the talent of forward thinking minds. Always looking for new ways to push boundaries, innovate and continually think and act. They are paving the way for progressive ideas and design in Vancouver. The lab mission is collaborating to create components that innovate functional design.

Technology: Incorporating Tech

HootSuite is a social media management system for businesses and organizations to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social networks from one secure, web-based dashboard. Launch marketing campaigns, identify and grow audiences, and distribute targeted messages using HootSuite’s unique social media dashboard. Streamline team workflow with scheduling and assignment tools and reach audiences with geo-targeting functionality. Invite multiple collaborators to manage social profiles securely, plus provide custom reports using the comprehensive social analytics tools for measurement.

Gregory Gunn launched the HootSuite Enterprise Sales team and currently heads up partnerships, integrations and international expansion for the social media dashboard leader. His passion for people, technology and data has driven his career towards developing successful SaaS business solutions where the three intersect. Greg earned both a BCOM from the University of Victoria and an MBA at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. Combining practical experience with comprehensive research, Greg was the lead on projects focused around digital strategy, online commerce and hybrid business models. Outside of his professional endeavors Greg can be found enjoying basketball, photography and is a “semi-professional” wedding MC.

Warren Wong is a strategic human capital and business leader whose passion is to transform, enable and inspire organizations. Warren has more than a quarter century of experience and success in influencing hyper growth and emerging organizations ranging from local start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, including eBay, with operations in North America, Europe and Asia.  Presently, as the Vice President of Talent & Culture at Appnovation Technologies, Warren is responsible for talent acquisition, retention and development strategies in support of the company’s global expansion as a world leader in open source development.  www.appnovation.com

A lifelong Vancouverite, Warren holds a Bachelor’s Degree majoring in Communication from Simon Fraser University.  He has generously given his time to a variety of community and civic events including the 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2011 Grey Cup Festival and the City of the 2011 Vancouver civic election.  Warren is presently a board director with the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society and is an advisory board member at Hootsuite and Vertical Bridge Corporate Consulting.

Warren is also an avid cyclist having cycled on two Ride to Conquer Cancer rides and two GranFondo Whistler rides and is a member of the Glotman*Simpson Cycling Club riding to raise awareness and funds for pancreatic cancer research.  For more information about Warren visit his Linkedin profile at http://ca.linkedin.com/in/warrenwong

Cybele Negris is a founding partner and President of Webnames.ca. Cybele has diverse experience in both management and operations, including prior directorships and officer positions in several public and private companies.

Before Webnames.ca, Cybele ran her own management consultancy, working closely with crown corporations and private companies. Cybele has been a recipient of numerous awards: Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women (2011), Business in Vancouver’s Influential Women in Business Award (2010), PROFIT W100 – Canada’s Top Women Entrepreneurs, (2004 to 2011), Finalist, YWCA Women of Distinction (2006), Finalist, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Pacific (2005); and Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40 (2003). Cybele is Vice-Chair of the Board of Small Business BC (www.smallbusinessbc.ca). She also serves on the Board of the Small Business Roundtable of British Columbia chaired by Pat Bell, Minister of Jobs Tourism and Innovation (www.smallbusinessroundtable.ca). She is also on the Board of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (www.fwe.ca), and served as Chair of the FWE e-series Program (entrepreneurial training for high growth businesses) for the past few years

 

 

Finance: An Investment in Knowledge Pays the Best Interest

Yaletown Venture Partners leads early-stage venture capital investments in cleantech and IT companies in Western Canada and cleantech investments in the Pacific Northwest and the rest of Canada.

Mike Satterfield brings over 25 years of entrepreneurial and senior operating experience in the software industry to the Yaletown team. He serves on the boards of Yaletown’s portfolio companies Indicee and Partnerpedia and manages Yaletown’s investment in GrowLab, Foodee and Wantering. Mike has built product development and management teams in Canada and the US, devised and executed business plans, established strategic partnerships, raised venture capital from US and Canadian investors, and participated in the sale of two companies he founded.

Prior to co-founding Yaletown, Mike was CEO of Simba Technologies (acquired by Pivotal). Prior to that he co-founded Paradigm Development, a Vancouver-based contract software development firm whose client roster included Microsoft, Adobe and Symantec.

Business Law: Useful Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

For the past thirty-four years, Peter Mogan has been active as a lawyer, businessman and mediator in BC and Ontario. He has worked closely with his business clients in a wide variety of tasks from business formation through financings, mergers and acquisitions, contract negotiations, international trade, dealings with government, tax planning and securities compliance. Peter’s clients range from smaller independent businesses to publicly listed companies. He has been involved in numerous prospectus exempt offerings and other financings.

Peter’s experience as an entrepreneur has led to an approach that is practical: finding legal solutions that make business sense. This practical, entrepreneurial approach, combined with a very relational style, is brought to business negotiations. He currently serves as a director on or corporate secretary to the boards of several BC companies as well as a number of charities. He is also actively involved with Global Mothers, a new social enterprise targeting poverty alleviation in the Developing World through trade. Skiing, cycling, movies and reading round out Peter’s primary interests.

Areas of Practice:

• M&A and Private Equity Transactions
• Business Law, including corporate and commercial law matters
• Debt and equity financing
• Employee share options and ownership plans
• Mediation and Facilitation (including leadership development and strategic planning)