DISRUPT with Ravi Ravindran

Hamza Khan is a multi-award winning marketer, best-selling author, and global keynote speaker. He is a top-rated educator, serial entrepreneur, and respected thought leader whose insights have been featured by notable media outlets such as VICE, Business Insider, and The Globe and Mail. Hamza dedicatedly supports youth and early talent through his work as Managing Director of Student Life Network, Canada’s largest and most comprehensive educational resource hub, which currently serves over 2.7 million students. From TEDx stages and international conferences to MBA classrooms and Fortune 500 boardrooms, Hamza gets invited regularly to deliver keynotes and workshops around the world. In 2017, he self-published his first book, The Burnout Gamble, which instantly became a bestseller.

Dushan is a VP at Knowledgehook, a fast growing Ed Tech out of Toronto. He is also a Board Member with Aravanai, a not-for-profit focused on the empowerment of Sri Lankans by encouraging and enabling entrepreneurship and education in technology fluency.

In 2019, I started Bala Group Inc. as an incubator for early-stage startups led by new immigrants, minorities and females entrepreneurs. I wanted to build an inspiring space that offered growth support to help beat the odds.I have been on the speakers' path for the past 2 years and I enjoy speaking on topics including, entrepreneurship, scaling companies, building innovation, finding motivation and mental health for entrepreneurs.

Karen Wong is a business strategist and thought-leader on marketing, operations innovation and multi-channel growth. An avid entrepreneur, Karen has 14+ years of experience running ventures in Canada and East Asia. As a founder of both ACE POS Solutions Ltd. and TakuLabs Ltd., her passion is developing technology to drive retail growth. Her companies currently work with more than 6,000 retailers in North America and are building out next generation POS solutions to allow merchants to truly leverage data from every channel to grow their businesses.

Shawn Finder has always been an entrepreneur at heart. At age 24, Shawn entered the entrepreneurial world after competing as one of Canada's top-ranked tennis players. He started out importing packaging from the Orient and selling to top retailers in North America. However, knowing he always loved selling and list building, he founded ExchangeLeads in 2013 which helps his company build quality lists for outreaching new prospects. This was followed by his new venture Autoklose in 2017 that combines both sales engagement and list building all-in-one platform.

Nafis Ahmed is the Startup Experience Coordinator at the Legal Innovation Zone at Ryerson University. Nafis graduated from Ryerson’s Ted Rogers School of Management, where he majored in Business Technology Management and minored in Human Resources Management. Nafis facilitates Legal Innovation Zone’s community of startups in various stages of their development. Additionally, he oversees the daily internal operations and special projects at the LIZ. He is deeply involved in entrepreneurship and social innovation initiatives through his volunteer activities in the city, and is passionate about supporting individuals pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations.

In 2006, Dr. Mohamad Fakih, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist, purchased a nearly bankrupt restaurant and transformed it into, what is now known as the fastest growing Middle Eastern Halal restaurant chain in North America – Paramount Fine Foods. Mohamad’s determination to change perceptions surrounding Middle Eastern food has driven Paramount’s brand success across Canada and Internationally as well as advancing the global Middle Eastern food trend.  

A community leader, Dr. Fakih regularly participates in fundraisers and community events, supporting multiple causes and organizations including the Canadian Cancer Society, Islamic Relief worldwide, Sick Kids Hospital, the Make a Wish Foundation in Toronto and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency in Canada. Both Paramount and Mohamad have donated generously to these charities and other non-profit organizations. Across his restaurants Mohamad offers discounts to all Emergency Service Workers in uniform to show appreciation for their service in our communities.

One part geek and the other part chic, Amanda Cosco is a leading voice at the intersection of fashion and technology.   

Amanda’s reporting on digital culture, wearable technology, smart fashion, and spatial computing has been published by WWD, the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, AdWeek, and more. She has also made several TV and radio appearances, including on CBC’s Radio Canada and TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin.   

Amanda is host and producer of the Electric Runway podcast, a podcast series in which she interviews the makers and shakers transforming apparel, retail, and manufacturing. The podcast was featured in Apple’s “New & Noteworthy” section on iTunes and has since been recognized by Elle Magazine as a top fashion podcast.

Mohan Markandaier is a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits. He co-founded his first company Pulse Voice in the Telecom space in1996 which was later acquired by a publicly traded company in 2009.  

Currently, as the Managing Partner at Good News Ventures, Mohan is actively involved in providing capital and mentorship to early stage companies in the high growth technology space. He also serves on the Board of Directors for York Angel Investors. Mohan graduated from University of Toronto with a degree in Engineering.

This 22-year old was the first hire at the fast-moving Toronto start-up, Trufan. Titled Business Development Manager, Cameron Russelle is a key player within the company with his hand on a bit of everything. From their online marketing to customer success for enterprise companies like Netflix, VaynerMedia, PUMA, and Samsung US. Prior to joining Trufan, Cam took to entrepreneurship early on by generating multiple 6-figures in revenue by selling his services door-to-door, From running a painting business in his hometown Peterborough to selling pest control out in Vancouver. Through this, Cam has always prioritized his health and fitness which he's translated into his side hustle, Leveraged Living. A health performance company helping entrepreneurs overcome burnout and take their business to new levels by mastering their health, sleep, and environment. He's credited much of his early success and experience to moving quickly, being open-minded, and not listening to outside judgement.