Applied Research Day 13.0 – Forum Speakers
Posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2015
Mark Hoddenbagh
As the Executive Director, Partnerships and Applied Research Mark is responsible for engaging industry, government and community organizations in the activities of the College. Since 2007 when he joined Algonquin College he has accomplished this by developing strong internal and external networks with creative, driven and passionate people; leveraging the expertise of faculty and staff; engaging students in addressing real-world problems and opportunities; and collaborating closely with industry, government and community organizations. Mark has a Ph.D. in Chemistry and worked in pulp and paper and biotechnology in technical and management roles for 15 years prior to joining Algonquin.
Victoria Lennox
A 30-year-old Canadian social entrepreneur, commentator, program architect and policy advisor who has a track record of creating meaningful political and policy inroads to advance entrepreneurship.
As the co-founder and CEO of grassroots non-profit Startup Canada and the founder and President Emeritus of UK-based Charity NACUE, Victoria is recognized by the United Nations Development Programme and the European Union as one of the foremost experts in entrepreneurship education; ecosystem and program architecture, governance, development and implementation; and, in fuelling entrepreneurship movements and awareness campaigns. Victoria contributes actively on the global stage as the founder of Startup Generations; a catalyst of the Startup Nations; through speaking at global forums; as an advisor to more than 20 youth enterprise organizations; and, by supporting colleges and universities in countries across the world in enhancing student entrepreneurship.
Denise Amyot
Denise Amyot is currently the Chair of the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics to which she brings a wealth of experience sitting on different boards or playing a leadership role as Chair or as head of committees. She also has her designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors which provides excellence and best practices in board management.
In her day job, Denise Amyot is the President and CEO of Colleges and Institutes Canada (formerly ACCC). The association is the national and international voice of Canada’s publicly supported colleges, institutes and polytechnics. It works with industry and social sectors to train 1.5 million learners of all ages and backgrounds at campuses serving over 3,000 urban, rural and remote communities in Canada.
Jennifer Francis
Jennifer Francis is co-chair of Capital Angel Network and Principal of Cafe Noir Consulting. She is an advisor with Lead to Win and L-Spark, organizations that help Ottawa area startups get established and grow. She has 30 years of experience in the high technology industry working in a variety of areas including software development, marketing, product management, business development and executive management. At IBM, she was the Vice President of the Financial Analytics business. Prior to that she was the Vice President of Business Development at Cognos, managing their mergers and acquisitions and technology partnerships, and Vice President of the BI Business. Jennifer also has startup experience as Sr Vice President of Products at Watchfire. She is also a board member at Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health and Women Powering Technology Ottawa chapter. Jennifer also holds a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.
Debbie Weinstein
Debbie has over 30 years of broad-based experience acting on behalf of emerging growth companies, established public and private technology businesses, venture capital funds, and investment bankers. She has represented innovative, knowledge-based issuers and underwriters in numerous Canadian and U.S. public offerings including Calian Technologies, Tweed Inc., JDS Fitel Inc. (now JDS Uniphase Corporation), GSI Lumonics Inc., JetForm Corporation and MOSAID Technologies Limited (now Conversant). She also has substantial experience in venture capital and other private financing transactions. Debbie is particularly focused on mergers and acquisitions and has taken the lead role in well over 170 M&A’s, including the sale of companies to Cisco, Ericsson, Microsoft, RIM, Salesforce.com, PMC-Sierra, and Alcatel Lucent
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