As the technology columnist for CBC's Metro Morning (Toronto‘s #1 morning radio show) she breaks down the world's top business and tech news for listeners. Additionally, she also hosts and produces the Globe and Mail podcast I'll Go First, which in 2018 was rated the #1 technology podcast in Canada by Apple Canada.
As a technology leader in the city's growing ecosystem she is also the founder and executive director of VentureKids Canada, a Toronto-based nonprofit that provides free coding classes and startup workshops to youth living in underserved communities.
Over the years, her work has appeared in numerous Canadian and international outlets, which include the Fortune magazine, BBC, Toronto Star, Chatelaine, Refinery29, Flare magazine, Mic, and more. She has also received several accolades including CSPN: Young Entrepreneur of the Year (2019) and L'Oreal Canada: Top 5 Women-led Startups (2019).
For Jackie Poriadjian-Asch, it’s all about connection: connecting with audiences, connecting with her team, and connecting with a purpose. That stems from being a self-proclaimed “fan of fans”, an identity she embraced during her time as Senior VP, Global Brand Marketing at UFC. Getting to know an audience and finding out what makes them tick is how she works. It’s a near-obsessive focus for Jackie, one that guided her vision as previous CMO of Canada Goose. Success is one thing, but being significant and doing significant things is her north star. That’s why she came to ecobee, to do things that matter. That aspiration for connection lives on outside the 9-to-5, too—in fact, it starts with her family and spending time with her husband and daughter. For this Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Revenue Officer, it’s about having purpose, and being driven by it, all the time.
Damon Sloane has over 15 years of experience in ecommerce, omnichannel retail, digital marketing and mobile technology. Damon recently became the Vice President of Ecommerce at DAVIDsTEA and has worked with several global brands, most notably serving as the General of Ecommerce & Digital at Michael Kors. Damon is also the Co-Founder of Énamour, a company specializing in natural skin care products for families, based in Montreal.
Victoria Lennox is the Co-Founder, President and former CEO of Startup Canada, and responsible for giving a voice to Canada’s 3.5 million entrepreneurs. She is an innovation policy and program architect, ecosystem diplomat, and an angel investor passionate about fostering equality, hope, peace, and prosperity through entrepreneurship.
Victoria is recognized by the United Nations Development Programme and the European Union as one of the foremost experts in entrepreneurship education and in fueling movements and awareness campaigns to ensure that the right policies, programs, and enabling frameworks are in place to compete and thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
As the co-founder for the US-based Startup Nations and as the founder of a UK-based charity supporting young entrepreneurs, Victoria supports the development of enterprise and social
innovation organizations in more than 20 countries. Victoria was a UK Top 30 Under 30 and the recipient of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion and a recipient of Canada’s Volunteer Awards among many other accolades, awards, and prizes received for her leadership.
Xenia Chen is the Founder of Threads, a direct-to-consumer subscription tights company. In her previous life as an investment banker, tights were a regular part of the work wardrobe, yet she struggled with the lack of good quality options that didn't break the bank.
After discovering this was a pain point so many other women felt, Threads was born in 2018. Thread strives to make buying tights easy, convenient and affordable. By going directly to the factory, Threads shrinks the traditional supply chain and is able to bring a better pair of tights to women at a fraction of the price they're used to paying, delivered straight to their doorstep.
Xenia grew up in Toronto and studied at the Smith School of Business at Queen's University. Previously, she held roles in investment banking and private equity in Toronto and New York.
As Country Manager for Salesforce Canada, Margaret Stuart is responsible for leading the growth strategy and business operations to deliver customer success and digital transformations.
Margaret was previously the Senior Vice President of Sales and Operations at Blackberry where she was responsible for BlackBerry’s enterprise software go-to-market, global Inside Sales and the BlackBerry Workspaces solution. Prior to this, Margaret was Vice President, North American Business Development at SAP.
Margaret has more than 20 years of experience in sales, go-to-market and product management with technology companies including Longview Solutions and Siemens Healthcare (now Cerner).
She’s a board member at the MacKenzie Innovation Institute and has a B.A. in Computer Science from Trinity College Dublin. She is also a graduate of The Judy Project, a Rotman School leadership forum.