Shift by Alberta Innovates

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Nestled in central Alberta, Red Deer Polytechnic is a post secondary institution with major aspirations--and some serious clout. With lots of connections through the regional innovation networks across the province and the Technology Access Centres in Alberta and across the country, they're built to support students AND entrepreneurs.

In this discussion with Tonya Wolfe, the director of RDP's two centres of innovation, we learn about how the school gets power, touch base on what the tech access centres are, learn about their role with the Regional Innovation Networks, and generally plumb the depths of what she oversees and how the school supports innovation in Alberta.

Welcome to Shift!

Bio

Tonya Wolfe, PhD P.Eng, Director, Centres for Manufacturing and Energy Innovation at Red Deer Polytechnic, and adjunct professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta.

Tonya is a recognized leader in Alberta’s innovation space, Tonya is never satisfied with the status quo. Her areas of expertise include metallurgy, materials design, additive manufacturing, welding, wear resistant materials, steelmaking, biomedical engineering, and process modeling, and she enjoys sharing her knowledge in order to facilitate the growth of innovation for SMEs.

Tonya has a professional engineering designation, a Bachelor of Applied Science from Queen’s University, and graduate degrees from the University of Alberta. Her MSc investigated the use of biomaterials for prosthetic applications and her PhD studied composite overlays deposited by plasma-transferred arc welding.

Prior to arriving at Red Deer Polytechnic in 2020 as the CIM-TAC Manager, Tonya spent more than two decades building connections and working to advance technologies and innovation with Alberta’s manufacturers. 

She is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (www.apega.ca), the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society, and a founding member of the Alberta Additive Manufacturing Network. 

In her spare time, Tonya competes as a Masters Synchronized Swimmer and is a leader with the Girl Guides of Canada, an organization she has been a member of for over 40 years.

Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.

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There's no one playbook that defines the path to startup success. For Chris Heivly, it's a mindset.

My conversation with Chris touches on his new book, Building the Fort, what people can expect to take away from his talk at Inventures, and he gives listeners some great insight how to pitch.

Welcome to Shift!

Inventures sessions

Startup Pitch Event – The Metaverse – June 01, 9:15 am
Why Building Great Ecosystems Is Even More Important Today – June 02, 10:15 am


Bio
Chris Heivly,  Managing Director, Build The Fort

Chris is one of the nation’s leading experts on launching startups. He co-founded MapQuest, is an investor (angel, corporate VC, 2 micro funds ~ directed over $75M) and was SVP Innovation with Techstars. Today he is focused on startup community building enabling city leaders to create the right environment for entrepreneurs.

Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.

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On this episode we're teasing another of our Inventures speakers: Lia Garvin. Lia is engaging, insightful and an absolute pleasurer to talk with. She takes years of experience working for some big companies and distils her learnings into useable knowledge that entrepreneurs can easily deploy in the startups. 

Lia is a master business consultant that will describe how to reframe the workplace and do more with less, and how to become unstuck from business ruts many of us get stuck in.

Welcome to Shift!

Bio

Lia Garvin

Lia is the best selling author of Unstuck, TEDx speaker, and organizational effectiveness consultant and coach with experience leading team operations across Google, Microsoft, Apple and Bank of America. She uses the lens of “disruption without destruction” to equip innovative organizations of any size and industry with the tools to cultivate inclusive, motivated, high performing teams. She is a sought after expert in the media, featured in Inc, FastCompany, ABC News, CNN Business, US News & World Report, HBR, Yahoo and TV News.

She'll be joining us at Inventures to present her talk "Doing More With A Smaller Team" on June 01, 10:15 am

Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.

Send us a text

Welcome to the second in our series of Inventures teaser episodes leading up to our event starting on May 31.

My guest this episode is Erik Severinghaus. Erik joins me for brief discussion to set the stage for his talk entitled "Everest to Entrepreneurship: How to Scale YOUR Everest" on May 31 at 10:15 am.

Resilience isn't taught in class. It's lived experience, but Erik will inspire you to think differently about it and he'll work to give some tools and means to conquer the challenges you may be face as an entrepreneur.

Join me for this great, and candid, conversation about how Erik faced obstacles, suffered defeats, but persisted and built his resilience to achieve satisfying personal and business successes.

BIO

Erik Severinghaus, Co-Founder / Co-CEO, Bloomfilter

Erik Severinghaus has summited the highest peaks of both the business world – selling four companies for hundreds of millions of dollars – and the physical world – successfully climbing Mt. Everest in 2018. He is proudest not of the trophies on his wall memorializing these accomplishments, but of the scars he has accumulated overcoming both the external obstacles and internal trap of self-doubt along the way. Erik released his first book in 2021, Scale Your Everest, a guidebook for mental health, resilience and entrepreneurship. Erik has an MBA from Kellogg School of Business and an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina. He lives with his wife and daughter in Chicago.

He'll be joining us at Inventures to present his talk "Everest to Entrepreneurship: How to Scale YOUR Everest " on May 31, 10:15 am

Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.

Send us a text

Welcome to the first in our series of Inventures teaser episodes leading up to our event on May 31.

My guests on this initial episode are Christine Maligec from Marsh Canada and Ron Markowski from the NAIT School of Business . Representing the industry and academic perspectives, respectively, they join me for a brief look at their panel topic on critical thinking entitled "Critical thinking to mitigate risk in a chaotic information economy."

Really it could have been called "Get ready to learn critical thinking skills to help you avoid analysis by paralysis."

Ron and Christine are engaging, knowledgeable and great speakers. This episode only gives you a shallow look (a teaser!) at what their panel on May 31 at 10am will be all about, but I think it gives enough to whet your appetite!

I hope you'll enjoy this episode as much as I did. AND I can't wait for their panel!

I hope to see you at Inventures and welcome to Shift!

Bios

Christine Maligec, Vice President of Enterprise Risk Service, Marsh Canada 

Christine has 20 years of combined insurance as well as 15 years of risk management experience. She has a diverse background of experience in the public sector including education, health and municipalities as well in the private sector. 

Christine also gives back by contributing time to her local Risk & Insurance Management Society Chapter and is a Public Member for the Alberta College of Pharmacy.

Dr. Ron Markowski, Program Coordinator/instructor, Critical Thinking, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, School of Business

Ron is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and international keynote speaker. 

He's worked extensively with public and private sector organizations, and has helped entities ranging from start-ups, to large multinationals. In addition, his extensive research has demystified Critical Thinking into a simple four-quadrant model that can be easily understand and quickly applied by individual, teams, and organizations alike.  This model has proven to be particularly effective in data-driven environments that require diagnostic and analytical thinking to quickly identify and respond to emerging threats or opportunities.  

Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.

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Calgary-based Qualisure Diagnostics is making some serious inroads with the introduction of their flagship cancer diagnostic tool Thyroid Guide Px.

The company uses machine intelligence to create molecular tests that enhance cancer care by identifying features that help oncologists personalize treatment. By knowing  which cancers are most aggressive, and which ones are more likely to respond to certain treatments oncologists can more effectively create a personalized treatment strategy for patients.

Sit back and settle in as I talk with Dr. Oliver Bathe not only about his company's innovation but the work he's done to transition from being a medical practitioner to a full-time entrepreneur.


Bio

Oliver Bathe, Chief Executive Officer

Oliver is a surgical oncologist with over 25 years of clinical experience. He has an excellent understanding of the challenges that patients and clinicians face during their cancer journey. His research has mostly been translational in nature, applying cutting edge technological solutions to real clinical problems. 

In 2004, he founded a large tumor bank that currently houses over 23,000 samples from over 4,000 patients. His involvement in The Cancer Genome Atlas Project and his leadership in the Clinical Proteomic Analysis Consortium have spurred his interest in systems biology and bioinformatics. 

He also has experience in clinical trials, serving in leadership positions on several national and international clinical trial groups. He has directed a research program, attracting over $2 million to research related to several technologies, the majority of which have been transferred to Qualisure.

Adapted from company bio.

Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.

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Since the inception of line arrays (the big speakers you see stage left and right at major events) there hasn't been much innovation in the realm of sound reinforcement. Until PK Sound came along, and introduced their Trinity speaker systems, the industry’s first robotically controlled line source.

James Oliver sat down with me to discuss how their innovation is changing the industry and creating a line array that is multi-faceted, and constantly adaptable. Gone are the days where speakers are hung and sound people hope for the best.

Grab a coffee, settle in and get ready to learn about the people who make the shows we go to sound good!


Bio

James Oliver

James is the Chief Strategy Officer with PK Sound, the robotic line array company. James joined PK in April 2020 following a 10-year stint with Adamson Systems Engineering where, as Director of Sales and Marketing, he oversaw a period of 400% growth and the establishment of 45 international distributors. He has been instrumental in building out PK Sound’s 5-year product roadmap, go-to-market strategy, and marketing plan.

Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.

Send us a text

Charles Buchanan is a man on a mission to build community and help end technology poverty for non-profit social entreprises. Through his company Technology Helps, Charles and his team take a unique approach to assessing the technology needs of a social enterprise. They always start with asking why. Why does the enterprise exist, what are its goals and how can technology help them to achieve their goals?

Arguably a non-traditional IT approach, but isn't that how it is with innovation? It's not status quo.

Sit back and settle in. Learn more about Charles, his company, his mentorship of aspiring black entrepreneurs and support for black-run charity and the paths he's taken to get to where he is.

Welcome to Shift!


Bio

Charles Buchanan

Charles is the Founder and CEO of Technology Helps. As an innovator and visionary, he has a distinguished history in corporate technology leadership (including Suncor Energy, Deloitte, Oracle, MNP, and Royal LePage), management consulting, and entrepreneurship. Charles has a has founded and worked with numerous technology companies in diverse areas such as online gaming, fintech, environmental protection, and more. He continues to be an authority in the tech space and has provided expert advice and implemented large-scale technology solutions for enterprise clients.

He's a passionate contributor to the community and has served on various non-profit boards for the past 20 years, including his role as Board Chair at Centre for Newcomers. He currently serves on several boards: Calgary Black Chambers (co-founder); The Common Approach to Impact Measurement; Momentum (finance committee); Black Business and Professional Association. He also serves on the grant committee at Calgary Foundation and an entrepreneur mentor at Venture Mentors Service of Alberta (VMSA). Charles is a founder and advisory board member of UpRising Academy helping talented at-risk youth in Jamaica in STEM and sports.
 
 He holds an MBA from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University and a B.Sc. (Hons) in electrical and computer engineering. When recharging, Charles can be found on the golf course or hiking in the beautiful mountains near his home in Calgary and spending meaningful time with his family.

Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.

Send us a text

Summit Nanotech has been on fire for the last little while. Company founder and CEO Amanda Hall was the $1 Million grand prize winner of the Women in Cleantech Challenge in 2021. They took first place in the smart cities, vibrant communities category at Inventure$ 2020. They were named one of the 50 most investable clean teach companies at the of 2022, and they started 2023 by raising CDN $67 MIllion for lithium extraction technology to support the energy transition to net zero.

We sat down with the company's Vice President of Technology & Innovation and technology co-developer, Dr. Kelly Krahulic to learn a little more about Summit Nanotech, where the ideas came from, where the company's headed and a whole lot more!

Welcome to Shift.

Bio

Kelly Krahulic, Vice President, Technology & Innovation, Summit Nanotech 

Kelly is a PhD chemist (University of Calgary) with broad expertise in catalyst design, air-sensitive synthetic chemistry, and technical communication. In addition to her deep technical knowledge, she has experience facilitating the smart growth of start-ups through technology development, grant discovery, strategic business development planning, marketing, and management.  

Since 2018, Kelly has been the leader of technology development at Summit Nanotech, working to develop a direct method of lithium extraction with a focus on improving speed of extraction, reducing environmental impact, and unlocking the lithium supply required to expedite the electromobility transition.

Kelly is passionate about the potential of green technology to provide economic and environmental sustainability for current and future generations. In her spare time, you can find her with her kids, most likely in the mountains.

Summit Nanotech 

Summit Nanotech is a cleantech organization transforming how the world accesses lithium for the global energy transition. Through their patented and sustainable direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology, Summit Nanotech is conserving natural resources and optimizing operations for lithium producers in Chile and Argentina. Established in 2018 and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Summit Nanotech has been awarded to the 2022 Future 50 for fastest growing sustainability companies in Canada, the Foresight 50 for most investable cleantech venture, and the Solar Impulse Foundation's Efficient Solutions Label. Learn more at summitnanotech.com

Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.

Send us a text

Welcome to the third and final installment of our Edmonton Startup Week podcast series.

On today's episode I sat down with the mind-expanding Andrew Goldner from GrowthX to learn about the work he and his partners are doing to help build innovation and venture capital opportunities in Alberta and beyond. (You'll learn more about the Alberta Innovates Revenue Accelerator in our interview.)

GrowthX is an early-stage venture capital fund, but they do things differently.

They've sequenced the path to product-market fit to help founders reduce the time it takes to get investment-ready.  By working with founders, GrowthX then generates reliable insights that earns them the opportunity to invest.

A few of our many stops along the way include a discussion around what Andrew calls the signal to noise ratio and how founders need to protect their time, the importance of humility and the need to learn from our mistakes, and his mantra that everything communicates.

Welcome to Shift!

Bio   
 
Andrew Goldner is a Founding Partner of GrowthX, an pre-Series A venture fund that he started in Silicon Valley with three other go-to-market experts.

Andrew has been in the technology sector since 1998, based in New York City, Hong Kong, Singapore, Palo Alto and Nashville.

Andrew began his career in technology as a lawyer for the early Internet pioneers in Search (Alta Vista and Yahoo), AdTech (DoubleClick), SaaS (Salesforce) and others while practicing law. He left private practice at Skadden Arps to join DoubleClick leading up to the Google acquisition and then co-founded a financial news business at Thomson Financial leading to the Reuters acquisition. He then served as Publisher of Reuters News and then Co-Founder and Managing Director of the company’s legal media business in Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

In Silicon Valley, Andrew was early at Guidespark, an employee communication SaaS startup, and BrightTalk, a content marketing SaaS startup. He then co-founded GoodMoney to democratize high-performance, values-based investing. During that “wonderful learning opportunity,” Andrew met his current partners and co-founded GrowthX.

Andrew is a Kauffman Fellow, Regional Board Member of Venture for America, and a Mentor at Endeavor, Alchemist Accelerator and Galvanize. Andrew is a visiting lecturer at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management where he teaches two popular multi-day seminars: Entreprenurial Sales and Venture Capital. Andrew received his undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati and his law degree from Georgetown University.

Shift by Alberta Innovates focuses on the people, businesses and organizations that are contributing to Alberta's strong tech ecosystem.