Speakers – Inspiration
Andrea Scott
Co-Founder and Co-Owner, Skoah
Andrea is the co-owner of Skoah and Chiiki Munki. She is also an active consultant in the areas of PR and marketing communications, working with some well-known Vancouver companies including Lululemon Athletica, Grouse Mountain Resorts, and the advertising agency Grip Limited.
Andrea grew up on Vancouver’s North Shore and attended the University of Victoria to complete an Art History degree, followed by a Bachelor of Education from the University of British Columbia. Her experience as a teacher has been instrumental in developing the training program for Skoah employees, and in ensuring Skoah customers understand their skincare program. Andrea is also the founder of the Hopeful Hand, a charity created through Skoah to benefit the parents of ill and terminally ill children at BC Children’s Hospital and the Alberta Children’s Hospital.
Chris Scott
Co-Founder and Co-Owner, Skoah
After spending about seven years in real estate and marketing, Chris Scott founded Skoah. Following inspirational journeys to cities like New York where he visited dozens of spas and salons, Chris Scott decided to turn Vancouver’s existing spa concept into something unexpected. With an original tag line of ‘No whale music, no bubbling cherubs, no pretentious attitude’, Skoah quickly led spa-going rookies and veterans alike towards a new way of approaching the beauty industry. Within a year of starting the company, Chris was joined by his now wife Andrea, creating a unique partnership that allowed both to focus on their strengths.
Skoah now specializes exclusively on skincare, having developed a full face, body and hair care line, expanded to three locations, and begun operations of its wholesale and hotel amenities division. The company goal is to be Canada’s leading skincare brand in by 2015.
Douglas Tronsgard
Co-Founder and CEO, Next Level Games Inc.
Douglas is the CEO and Co-Founder of Next Level Games Inc. (NLG), a Vancouver video game third-party development company with over 100 employees. Originally hailing from the financial sector, Douglas translated his passion for gaming into a career by starting NLG in 2002. The company has released seven titles and is best known for being one of the first studios outside of Japan to be trusted with Nintendo’s Mario franchise (“Mario Strikers”). NGL’s recently released game, “PunchOut!”, has won numerous editor’s choice awards and is one of the ‘Top 10’ highest rated games on the Wii in 2009.
Next Level Games has been honored with several awards over the years, including the Best Company to Work For in British Columbia across all industries, Canada’s Top 100 Employers, and Excellence and Innovation from WorkLife BC. Douglas has also been a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award twice and named one of British Columbia’s Top 40 Under 40 by Business in Vancouver. Douglas holds an MBA from the University of British Columbia and a Specialized Honors degree in Economics from York University.
Matt Snyder
Founder and CEO, ADObjects Inc.
Matthew a 25-year veteran in the mobile and consumer service space, founded ADObjects in December 2007, deriving the company concept from his latest business passions around mobile cross-media convergence, where the separate industries of TV, Radio, Print, Online all converge with the mobile as an audience engagement model. The firm has partnered with leading organizations such as Bing, CBS, CanWest, and CanadianMusicWeek, WebMediaBrands. Matthew has collaborated in many mobile industry efforts through organizations like Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), and Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF). He is a frequent advisor, chair, keynote speaker and moderator at global industry events such as OMMA Mobile, ThinkMobile and EADP Congress.
Previously, Matthew was Head of Strategy and Business Development in Nokia’s Multimedia Business Group and responsible for some of the emerging strategies in Mobile Advertising, Mobile Music, Mobile Search, and Mobile Games Operations. Matthew was the seed investor and co-founder of MOBIFY (however no longer active), and an Angel Investor in several start-ups in the Vancouver community.
Milun Tesovic
Co-Founder and CTO, MetroLeap Media Inc.
Milun started MetroLeap Media at 15, following an early passion for technology that led him to create MetroLyrics.com, the most popular online lyrics property in the world. Today, he is an award-winning, 24-year-old business student and CTO of MetroLeap Media.
Milun began his entrepreneurial career in high school with an Internet hosting business. By following market trends, he quickly learned that song lyrics were one of the most popular search terms on the Internet, but not well represented for consumers. He then developed a script to create a powerful and comprehensive database of song lyrics. He then sold his hosting business and began focusing his technical skills on MetroLeap Media and MetroLyrics.com.
Today, Milun combines his role as CTO of MetroLeap Media while studying at Simon Fraser University. He was named the 2009 National Student Entrepreneur Champion by Advancing Canadian Entrepreneurship (ACE) Canada, and received the Simon Fraser University Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2008. MetroLeap Media has been recognized as a Red Herring Canada Top 50 company.