Mark Freed is the President and CEO of Genumark Promotional Merchandise Inc.. He has been the Chief Executive Officer of Genumark and its predecessor corporation for over 20 years. The pride of Windsor, Ontario, Mark’s earliest merchandising experiences were as a teenager working at his family’s department store, Freeds of Windsor. He is a graduate of University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School and practiced law in Toronto for 10 years prior to returning to his merchandising roots. Under his leadership, Genumark has grown to become a leader in the branded corporate merchandise industry culminating with Genumark becoming the first branded distributor to be named as a Platinum member of one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies since 2011. Mark works diligently to instill Genumark’s customer first corporate culture and commitment to our community and charitable initiatives. The ASI (Advertising Specialties Institute of North America) named Mark as the 2010 Humanitarian of the Year and, in 2012, he was named Humanitarian of the Year by PPPC (Promotional Product Professionals of Canada). Most recently, Mark was recognized as one of the “Power 50” in a survey of the most influential leaders of the North American Promotional Products Industry in 2020.

Dr. Richard Reiner is a serial entrepreneur and company builder who is active as an executive, investor, advisor, and Board member. He is currently Executive Chair of dfuse Platform, a leading blockchain company; Executive Chair of Fluent.ai, a speech AI company; and Chair of Cybeats, an IoT security company. He was previously Chief Technology Officer – Safe Identity, in Intel’s Security Group. He was President of PasswordBox, the leading digital identity company, leading up to the company’s acquisition by Intel. He was Chairman & CEO of Enomaly, a global leader in cloud computing, until Enomaly’s acquisition in 2011; and was the founder, CEO, and CTO of Assurent, a leading cybersecurity company, up to its acquisition in 2006.

He has served on the Boards and Advisory Boards of many leading cybersecurity, cloud, andmobile companies such as Immunio, Elliptic Technologies, Virima, CloudeAssurance, Veracode, NetClarity, Virima, and Fonolo. He is often quoted by the press, in media such as the New York Times, CBS, NBC, USAToday, TechCrunch, etc.. He holds a Ph.D. and numerous patents in cybersecurity.

Nuha is the CEO & co-founder of Canadian based green-tech start-up EcoPackers Inc. EcoPackers Inc. transforms agricultural by-products into 100% plant based alternatives to traditional plastic inputs. Nuha founded the company while still completing her degree at the University of Toronto Rotman Commerce program where she specialized in Business & Environmental Economics. After graduation, Nuha pursued EcoPackers full-time, and scaled up her team & venture with Toronto based accelerators, raised over $7.1 Million within a year and launched global manufacturing pilots to help tackle the issue worldwide.

Zaid Atto is an accomplished University of Toronto biomedical engineering graduate, Hatchery 2017 alum and inventor with medical research and device development experience. Having observed numerous surgical operations and having received training from accomplished medtech entrepreneurs and executives, he launched Xpan after extensive R&D and need validation from surgeons. Xpan is a surgical device startup/spinoff from UofT that is developing less invasive yet expandable surgical access ports that aim to increase the safety and efficiency of minimally invasive surgical procedures.

Carol Leaman is the CEO of Axonify Inc., a disruptor in the corporate learning space and innovator behind the world’s most modern Frontline Learning and Communications Platform.  Axonify delivers a unique 3-minute a day learning experience that combines brain science, adaptive microlearning, gamification and predictive analytics to increase employee knowledge and the performance necessary for achieving targeted business results. Prior to Axonify, Carol was the CEO of PostRank Inc., a social engagement analytics company that she sold to Google in June 2011. Previously, Carol held CEO positions at several other technology firms, including RSS Solutions and Fakespace Systems, both of which she sold to strategic acquirers. Carol is a frequent speaker, a regular contributor to Fortune magazine and a well-respected thought leader, whose articles appear in various learning, business and technology publications.  She brings her experience and insight to numerous not-for-profit and for-profit boards and has won multiple awards, including the Waterloo Region Entrepreneur Hall of Fame Intrepid Award (2011) and the Sarah Kirke Award (2010) for Canada’s leading female entrepreneur.

Steven Hennig is Senior Counsel with Shopify’s Commercial Group. This group of lawyers provides guidance and support to internal clients across most of Shopify’s global service and product lines. Throughout his career, Steven’s professional focus has been the intersection of technology and the law. Steven started his legal career in-house at a Canadian software company, and moved on to work as an associate in McCarthy Tétrault’s Technology and Outsourcing Group.

Women in Entrepreneurship

CAROLYN HICKS, CFO/COO, Brill Power

Carolyn Hicks is co-founder and CFO/COO of Brill Power – a battery technology start-up from Oxford University. She is a Professional Engineer with degrees in engineering (BASc, MASc; U of T) and business (MBA; University of Oxford). Prior to being an entrepreneur, Carolyn worked in engineering, transportation economics and infrastructure finance in Canada and the UK.  Outside of Brill Power, Carolyn is a Director for Oxford Mutual Aid and is a 2x Ironman finisher.

Y Combinator

About Katya Shteyn: Katya Shteyn is the Co-Founder and CTO of Biorender, a software platform that powers scientific illustrations. Before Biorender Katya worked at Dropbox and graduated from University of Toronto with a BA in Computer Science.

Women in Entrepreneurship

Priya has over 15 years of experience creating and implementing global product strategy in Fortune 100, mid-cap and start-ups. She has successfully built and commercialized highly technical hardware and software product solutions through direct sales & channel partners.  Priya was the VP of Product & Marketing at two IoT start-ups, Cloudleaf & AeroScout Industrial (acquired by Stanley Black & Decker).  Priya has also held multiple product and engineering leadership roles at GE Energy & Pratt & Whitney.  She has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto and lives in San Francisco, CA.