Canada’s Entrepreneur

Alex Ogbongbemiga is a former CFL player whose transition from professional sports to entrepreneurship has inspired countless individuals. As the founder of SMART PERFORMANCE Training Centre & Clinic in Calgary, Alex is shaping the future of athletes, teams, and businesses through his expertise and vision.

Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Alex’s journey to success is one of perseverance and purpose. Moving to North America with his family, Alex embraced the challenges of adapting to a new environment while excelling in football. This path eventually led him to the CFL, where he played for teams such as the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Eskimos. But for Alex, success wasn’t just about personal achievements; it was about creating opportunities for others to thrive.

After retiring from professional football, Alex founded SMART Performance Training Centre & Clinic to empower people to reach their highest potential, whether on the field, in the gym, or in the workplace. His business offers elite training and clinical services for young athletes, everyday adults, and corporate wellness initiatives that promote teamwork, discipline, and growth. Under Alex’s leadership, SMART Performance has become a cornerstone for athletic and clinical services in Calgary.

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Harman Wander is a founder whose journey runs against the usual grain. He didn't start in a software lab; he started with his hands, in the construction trades, trained at BCIT in British Columbia. From there he climbed the value chain into business consulting and real estate — and then, with his wife Mankiran, built Wander Wagon Immigration, a firm that's now helped more than a thousand families progress their Canadian dream, with offices from Surrey to Calgary to Faridkot in Punjab.

But here's what makes Harman worth a listen/view: his newest venture, My Autobiography, is an AI platform built to preserve people's life stories — their wisdom, their traditions, the chapters that would otherwise be lost. All this from is a man who spent his early career building things that last, then spent the next chapter helping people start new lives — and now wants to make sure that old lives are never forgotten. This conversation is about that journey: the trades-to-tech arc, building a company with your spouse, owning and building numerous venture and a genuinely human thesis on what AI should actually be for.

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Gordon Martin, is the Founder and CEO of Eber Technologies — an early-stage company in the Greater Toronto Area, out of Brampton. Gordon is building something with a very grounded idea behind it: that a small business shouldn't have to slow down just because the owner is busy. Every business owner knows the feeling — the calls that go unanswered, the website enquiry sitting overnight, the follow-up that never went out, and the customer who quietly moved on.

What I like about Gordon's take is that it runs against the AI hype. He is all about making AI practical for everyday business. He's not selling small-business owners a moonshot. His pitch is closer to hiring a dependable team member who's always there — AI that answers the phone, replies across text and chat, books the appointment and chases the follow-up, 24/7 — while the owner keeps the human relationships that actually win the business. And he's doing this the honest way: building it from the ground up, testing it against real business use cases, and learning first-hand what small-business owners actually need. So this conversation is about that — the practical case for AI in the everyday business, what should stay human, and what it's really like to build an AI company from zero.

Gordon has an interesting story, beginning in India and now building this new venture in Canada.

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Aaren Terrett, President Spraggs Group, CEO Vistera Technologies, spent his career inside the machinery of professional services: nearly eight years leading customer success at Traction on Demand, then global professional services strategy at Salesforce. He watched the model work for the enterprise and fail the little guy. Vistera is the fix he decided to lead.

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Ellen Parker is the Founder and CEO of PARKER PR and PARKER Media. She is a multi award-winning entrepreneur, keynote speaker and active community leader with 25 years of professional experience in communications.

Recognized with the Top 40 Under 40, the Lieutenant Governor's Platinum Jubilee Medal, the Mayor's Excellence Award and MRU’s Alumni of the Year Award, Ellen brings over two decades of experience and accolades to the profession and to her team. Her career spans work in Manhattan with celebrities, businesses, hotels and restaurants, as well as with the Alberta Government, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra the Calgary Food Bank and more.

Ellen is the Chair of the Queen Elizabeth School Board, past Chair of the Hillhurst School Board, Director on the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra Foundation Board, Committee member on Mount Royal University’s PR Advisory Committee and member of the YW's annual fundraising committee, Rose and Croquet. She is a guest lecturer at MRU and SAIT.

Above all, Ellen is proud of her family — her parents, her husband, two sons, Oliver and Henry and her team at PARKER PR.

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Trena Laine is an author, speaker and leadership advocate who helps individuals, leaders and organizations navigate change, build resilience and create sustainable success. With more than 20 years of experience in transformation and personal development, her work challenges hustle culture and encourages values-driven leadership rooted in wellbeing, purpose and impact.

Through keynotes, workshops and strategic mentorship, Trena combines powerful storytelling with practical insights to help audiences lead through adversity, strengthen workplace culture and achieve meaningful growth.

She is the founder of The Elevate Collective and author of Dear Aaron, a memoir exploring grief, resilience and the hidden costs of hustle culture.

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Stacey Berger is a transformational speaker, coach, and founder of EverExpanding Coaching, passionate about helping people break through limitations and step into their fullest potential.

Through her powerful coaching, live events, and inspiring message, Stacey empowers individuals to overcome self-doubt, shift limiting beliefs, and create meaningful, lasting transformation in their lives.

Known for her authentic, high-energy approach, Stacey combines mindset mastery, personal development, and practical strategy to help people gain clarity, confidence, and purpose. She has guided countless entrepreneurs, leaders, and growth-minded individuals toward greater fulfillment, stronger relationships, and aligned success.

As the visionary behind Passion To Purpose LIVE, Stacey creates impactful experiences that inspire audiences to stop playing small and start living with intention. Her heartfelt and empowering message leaves people feeling motivated, equipped, and ready to take courageous action toward the life they truly want.

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Vivek Gharten is founder and CEO of DataCove, where he's building DefenseNet, a patented on-device AI platform designed to stop phishing, scams, and digital fraud before someone becomes a victim. DefenseNet has been selected by the Rogers Cybersecure catalyst, and is already working with enterprise customers and MSP partners. What I love about Vivek's story is that three things rarely sit in one founder. Immigrant, educator, and cybersecurity builder. And all three are shaping how he's trying to protect Canadians from one of the fastest-growing threats we face.

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Daniel Moll's EarthSuds journey started on a family vacation. He wandered onto a beach expecting pristine white sand and instead found it littered with plastic - mostly shampoo and amenity bottles. He discovered over 5.7 billion plastic toiletry bottles end up in landfills every year. He had zero background in cosmetic chemistry but couldn't shake the idea that there had to be a better way. On a walk one day, it hit him: what if shampoo could exist as a solid, dissolvable tablet instead of a liquid in a bottle? He started by buying dissolvable strips of paper, painting liquid shampoo onto them, and baking them in my dorm room. The results were, frankly, terrible. But a few hundred iterations later, my classmates and I invented the world's first dissolvable shampoo tablets.

What makes EarthSuds' story a little unusual is that he wasn't a chemist, a formulator, or even someone with a personal care industry background. I was a student moved by an issue who wanted to do better for our environment. I think that's a key lesson for entrepreneurs: you don't need domain expertise to start solving a problem, you need to be willing to become a beginner in public. I surrounded myself with PhD cosmetic chemists and learned the science as I went.

This is a great journey story and shows how smart determination can get results.

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Being a solopreneur it's not enough to just stay in your in your lane and be good at one thing anymore. Brydon McMillen is digital marketing specialist, He graduated from the University of Waterloo with a Bachelor of Applied Science - BASc, Chemical Engineering – but chose a different route to apply his technical acumen. After beginning his career in engineering Brydon pivoted his career and moved to marketing. For the past 7 years paid search has been his focus. He has managed 8-figures in annual ad spend across 150+ brands. Brydon has worked with brands who live in the rare air of the - Forbes AI 50 = Forbes Fintech 50 and - Forbes Global 2000Brydon specializes in solving problems when the problem isn't usually the budget, it's the strategy and the data interpretation behind it. His engineering background helps him see patterns in campaign data that most marketers miss.So Brydon is here because he stepped out of corporate life and is currently building Plateau PPC, a specialist paid search agency for Insurtech, Fintech and AI brands.

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