Canada’s Entrepreneur

Desirée Amanda Bombenon has over 30 years of business operational experience, and strategic leadership. Awarded Ernst & Young 2019 Entrepreneur of the year for the Prairies in Communication Technology, she is a bold innovator, futurist, and purpose driven leader. Her portfolio includes business strategy, social enterprise, and culture building. Desirée is an active member of a number of organizations including YPO (formally Young President’s Organization) and International Women’s Forum, and has chaired several industry boards and focus groups. She is a past director of the National Music Centre, is a past Chair of YPO Alberta Chapter, and a past Chair of YPO Canada Region. Desirée currently serves as Chair of the Governance & HR committee for the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Chair of Governance, HR & Nominating committee for Children First Canada, and Vice Chair with CAMX, the Canadian Call Management Association. She also currently Chairs the YPO International Wine Network and is an Executive Committee member of the YPO Sustainable Business Network. She is a cohort for Singularity University and a Harvard Alumni for the Advanced Leadership Initiative 2017 Cohort. She is involved in mentorship programs in her community and through Women’s Executive Network. Desirée has earned her B Admin, CIAC Certification as a Strategic Leader, and is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and is currently enrolled in Queen’s University EMBA program through Smith School of Business.

Under Desirée's leadership SureCall has been recognized for numerous industry awards for service excellence, ethics, and integrity. The Centre for Economic and Leadership Development, in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, recognized Desirée as a transformational leader naming her "Champion of Sustainable Development" and honouring her with the ‘Enabler of Vision’ award at the 2017 UN Summit in New York.

Desirée has pivoted her company into a social enterprise and through the "GoodCall" program has established SureCall as a "purpose driven" organization. SureCall became a Certified Benefits corporation (B Corp) in April of 2019 and was named a ‘Best For the World’ Honouree in 2019, rounding out Desirée's vision of utilizing business as a Force for Good.

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Matthew Boswell was appointed Commissioner of Competition on March 5, 2019, for a five-year term. He first joined the Competition Bureau in January 2011 and served in various senior management positions throughout the organization, leading merger reviews and directing major investigations targeting criminal cartels, abuse of dominance and deceptive marketing practices.

Before joining the Bureau, Mr. Boswell worked in a private practice in Toronto, served as Assistant Crown Attorney with the Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario, and was a Senior Litigation Counsel at the Ontario Securities Commission, where he primarily prosecuted securities fraud and related matters.

Hear about competition and marketing rules every business should know.

To learn more about creating an effective compliance program, visit http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/h_04456.html

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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James Rockwood is the Co-Founder and CEO of CapIntel, a financial technology company that supports financial advisors in their day-to-day workflow to deliver top-tier client service. In building CapIntel, James has been a part of two leading Canadian accelerator programs: Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) and Next Founder. The CapIntel platform now serves over 10,000 financial advisors across the country through partnerships with established financial service firms such as IG Wealth Management, Canada Life, and Equitable Life.

Stay subscribed and hit the bell icon to be notified of our upcoming podcast with Commissioner Matthew Boswell of the Competition Bureau.

Hear about competition and marketing rules every business should know.

Click here to learn more about creating an effective compliance program.

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Justin Hartzman is returning to Canada's Podcast to give us an interesting update on his entrepreneurial journey. And seeing as he snow now running CoinSmart a public company in the cryptocurrency sector -- he is going to give us insights on the crypto market as well.

Justin Hartzman is the CEO and Co-founder of CoinSmart, a crypto asset trading platform exchange based in Toronto that simplifies cryptocurrency investing for participants of all experience levels through a simple interface, education and customer support. Justin founded CoinSmart on the basis of making cryptocurrency accessible to all. Justin strongly believes in the promising future cryptocurrency has to offer and the importance of it being a part of any well balanced portfolio of investments. As a seasoned business leader and entrepreneur, Justin has led numerous companies from start-up to successful exit. His proven track record of entrepreneurial success includes founding the first website brokerage exclusively serving online businesses, pioneering the industry and achieving over $100M in transactions to Fortune 1000 companies, PE firms, family offices, and venture funds.

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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L’histoire de Marc-André Campagna (alias Marc), est plutôt normale, enfin, jusqu’à ce qu’on arrive à la partie oxio.

D’abord, les bases. Marc est né à Baie-Comeau (si vous ne savez pas où c’est, c’est au nord-est de la ville de Québec —environ 420 km au nord-est), un petit village de 21 000 habitants, et a grandi à Québec. Il a étudié le droit à l’Université Laval, a abandonné ses études et a fondé Accès Télécom avec Francis Careau. Ensemble, ils ont transformé Accès Télécom en oxio.

Aujourd’hui, Marc passe son temps entre Québec, Montréal et San Francisco. Lorsqu’il ne travaille pas, il est probablement en train de courir (au sens propre et figuré) dans un endroit aussi éloigné que possible de la ville.

Marc mange régulièrement du houmous et donne l’exemple lorsqu’il s’agit de rester fidèle à soi-même. Pour Marc, il n’y a pas de « moi au travail » et de « moi à la maison », il en a d’ailleurs assez de cette façon de penser. Le travail est juste une autre partie de la vie. C’est pourquoi la culture d’oxio est axée sur l’intégration de la vie professionnelle et de la vie privée : il s’agit de faire preuve d’empathie envers les autres parties de notre être et de créer des moyens de les soutenir.

L’ambiance décontractée de Marc vous met à l’aise. Il veut apprendre à connaître les gens qui l’entourent et fait de son mieux pour que vous puissiez facilement entrer en contact avec lui. Résolveur de problèmes, Marc lit beaucoup et vit pour le débat honnête et intelligent — tout ce qui permet d’améliorer les choses.

En d’autres termes, ne soyez pas timide avec ce type, soyez simplement ouvert, franc et réceptif à des commentaires honnêtes.

Restez abonné et cliquez sur l'icône de la cloche pour être avisé de notre prochain podcast avec le sous-commissaire Anthony Durocher du Bureau de la concurrence Canada.

Découvrez les règles de la concurrence et du marketing que toutes les entreprises devraient connaître.

Apprenez-en plus à http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/fra/h_04456.html

Les entrepreneurs sont l’épine dorsale de l’économie canadienne.

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After years working in cultures where stress and burnout were seemingly the only way to success, Trish Tutton suffered a shocking loss and things became clear: stress is unavoidable, but it doesn’t have to dictate our lives. As a speaker and mindfulness teacher, Trish has taught the skills to live and work happier to thousands of professionals and has created positive change for her clients to become happier, more productive, effective and successful without the busy badge of honour.

You can find her as a teacher on the #1 free meditation app in the world, Insight Timer, and she is the author of the Mindful Mornings Journal.

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Yuri Elkaim is the founder and CEO of Healthpreneur®️️️. He is a husband, father of 4 boys, a New York Times bestselling nutrition author, former professional soccer player, and a trusted health expert. I’m a proud Canadian with a passion for travel and experiencing life to the fullest. Over the past 15 years, he's built 2 multiple 7-figure health businesses that have helped more than 500,000 men and women reach their goals.

Stay subscribed and hit the bell icon to be notified of our upcoming podcast with Commissioner Matthew Boswell of the Competition Bureau.

Hear about competition and marketing rules every business should know.

Click here to learn more about creating an effective compliance program.

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Born on the Ides of March 1966 in Wolfville Nova Scotia, Ross Parks attended High School in the Valley then Loyalist College in Belleville Ontario where he completed his Broadcasting Diploma in 1987.

Ross spent 28 years in the broadcast/media field in various positions with Radio, TV, Billboard, Jingle Production, Publications and Transit advertising.

His passion since his parents bought his first small diecast ‘Datsun’ in 1969 was always automotive. Ross collected ‘diecast miniatures’ all along, but it wasn’t until he picked up a 1990 Brochure for the all-new Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo, that he thought "I want to purchase a real one next time."

Next up Ross met an individual in Harrisburg Pennsylvania in 1993 that he worked with thru his Radio Station Jingle Venture, Todd Matthews, who was a real AMC collector. He had restored and kept 5 real cars! Five years later on his birthday (1998) and 8 years of saving, Ross bought his first Z from a car dealer in Vancouver. That black 1992 Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo! On September 14th, 2003 he decided to have a party at his home in Halifax for anyone that had a Z car. 22 cars showed up.

In April 2004 Ross and two other members incorporated the Atlantic Z Car club Society, a nonprofit which is now comprised of over 600 owners in Atlantic Canada.

One of those original house party individuals came to him in the fall of 2006 and said ‘I just got laid off, and we know of many folks in Atlantic Canada with jack stand cars(cars that are in the midst of restoration but likely will never make it to the end) we should start an import company".

On January 1st, 2007 ZSportCanada was formed. As per the website, their main goal was to bring in rust-free cars that were complete, assist with shipping, organizing and negotiating with US sellers to make it a very pleasant experience for customers. Since then they have become Canada’s largest importer of Datsun vehicles to Canada, with over 439 completed transactions. In the summer of 2020 Ross became sole owner of the Datsun North properties.

Almost immediately Ross formed partnerships with a variety of individuals with different skill sets. A fabricator. A mechanic. A body man. A painter. A machinist. An engineer. With these folks, Ross and his team started a restoration of Datsun business across Canada as well. This business is now in full motion with work available for 20 years or more.

In 2006 Parks connected with another Z enthusiast who was interested in partnering up on buying a set of buildings near Kentville NS. They purchased an old ‘chicken farm’ in North Alton in March of 2012 to store their own vehicles, of which they had 50 between the two of them. However, they had 190 empty spaces, so they completely renovated and turned it into Canada’s first ‘Car Farm’ called ‘Datsun North’. Since then they have been sold out every year for winter storage space.

Ross’ plans for 2022 are to work on his own cars and get out of the importing and restoration business and continue to expand and improve the winter storage business.

It's quite a journey in a niche market driving great business lessons.

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s econohis. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Steven Salz is the co-founder of Rivalry Corp, an internationally-regulated sports betting and media company that was recently listed on the Toronto Venture Stock Exchange. Prior to starting Rivalry, Steven worked in the finance industry; both as an analyst at a boutique investment firm, and in asset management at Scotiabank. Steven also had a brief stint in the defence industry and graduated from the University of Waterloo. A passionate gamer, he competed in his first esports tournament over a decade ago and is excited to bring his visions to life at Rivalry.

Stay subscribed and hit the bell icon to be notified of our upcoming podcast with Commissioner Matthew Boswell of the Competition Bureau.

Hear about competition and marketing rules every business should know.

Click here to learn more about creating an effective compliance program.

Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada’s economy. To support Canada’s businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter

Marie-Pier Béland travaille depuis 14 ans en milieu scolaire avec des jeunes du primaire. Ayant œuvré longtemps auprès d’élèves du régulier, elle travaille depuis 5 ans auprès de jeunes ayant un trouble du spectre de l’autisme.

Marie-Pier a une bonne capacité d’adaptation aux changements ainsi qu’une approche humaine et empathique. Elle est capable de créer un lien de confiance et d’écoute avec les enfants et leurs parents. Ceci constitue une grande force chez elle. Son côté créatif, sa pro activité et sa vision globale sont de bonnes aptitudes pour l’entreprise. Marie-Pier est maman de 3 jeunes enfants. Par souci de bien alimenter sa famille, elle a développé une curiosité à s’informer sur l’alimentation saine, sur le zéro déchet et sur la création de produits ménagers utilisés au quotidien. Elle souhaite donc trouver des façons de faire pour réduire son impact négatif sur la planète afin de transmettre ces valeurs à ses enfants. De là est venu l’idée d’ouvrir une épicerie écologique en vrac pour faciliter l’accessibilité à d’autres familles de faire le pas vers une consommation consciente ainsi que de réduire les déchets, le suremballage et le gaspillage.

Restez abonné et cliquez sur l'icône de la cloche pour être avisé de notre prochain podcast avec le sous-commissaire Anthony Durocher du Bureau de la concurrence Canada.

Découvrez les règles de la concurrence et du marketing que toutes les entreprises devraient connaître.

Apprenez-en plus à http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/fra/h_04456.html

Les entrepreneurs sont l’épine dorsale de l’économie canadienne.

Pour soutenir les entreprises canadiennes, abonnez-vous à notre chaîne YouTube et suivez-nous sur Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn et Twitter.

Vous voulez rester au courant des derniers podcasts et actualités #entrepreneur? Abonnez-vous à notre newsletter bimensuelle.