Business

Justin Hartzman

Justin Hartzman is a born entrepreneur, motivated, hard working, ambitious and high level thinker are a few words that describe Justin and his passion for business.

Justin is a graduate from one of Canada’s premier business and economic program at the University of Western Ontario. Coming from a long line of entrepreneurs and investors, from an early age Justin worked retail in his family’s businesses, rising to managerial and buying positions. Understanding sales, forecasting, team management, and learning from others are what continue to drive him. Justin is an avid traveler, investor, knowledge seeker and a family man. He is also a Scotch enthusiast.

Justin with his team owns and manages a large portfolio of websites and businesses. These fall into the B2B, B2C, and consumer content spaces.

With his extreme knowledge of everything internet and past experience in start-ups to exits, Justin’s current focus as his mature business flourish is taking the leap back into start up culture with Needls.com.

Kaitlyn Gottlieb

Kaitlyn Gottlieb has been a successful realtor in Calgary for a number of years but recently she moved to Edmonton to set up her Exclusive Real Estate team.

Braden Parker

Braden Parker is co-founder of Casca Footwear, an innovative startup, developing all-day performance shoes for future builders. In the past year, Braden has moved from real-estate asset manager to co-founder of a bootstrapped venture looking to challenge the global footwear giants.

Michael Kehoe

Michael Kehoe is an Alberta-based retail real estate specialist. He is often quoted in the national media as an expert on retail stories. Michael is broker/owner of Fairfield Commercial Real Estate in Calgary.

Mike Morrison

Mike Morrison is the founder of Mike’s Bloggity Blog, a blog which this year celebrates its 13th anniversary. The blog covers all things pop culture here in Calgary and across Canada. Morrison also runs a series of digital marketing events including SocialEast in Halifax, Next Big Thing and SocialWest, which is now the largest digital marketing conference in Western Canada.

Gifty Serbeh-Dunn

Gifty Serbeh-Dunn founded Shea Butter Market in 2003 to create an all-natural beauty product while supporting widows and their families in Ghana to climb out of poverty. Gifty believes that her business is a force for “good” and by doing business right means that everyone benefits; from the widows in Ghana who make the Shea Butter for a premium price, to the consumers who buy her high-quality products.

Jacqueline Kitzan

Jacqueline Kitzan is owner of Somewear Mobile Boutique Consignment – retrofitting a 1977 Airstream Globetrotter into Edmonton’s first mobile consignment boutique – a high-end and luxury consignment retailer. She is also a communications specialist with Melcor Developments.

Tanya Eklund

Tanya Eklund is a realtor in Calgary and considered to be an industry expert. She is often quoted as a source on real estate stories by the media. Tanya is with RE/MAX Real Estate (Central) and owns The Tanya Eklund Group.

Mark Evans

Mark Evans spent 10+ years as a technology reporter with two of Canada’s largest newspapers and has four startups under his belt. Mark brings his unique brand storytelling approach to high growth emerging companies that need to create a leadership position.

Mark provides strategic and tactical guidance to develop effective content marketing and regularly speaks and workshops in various locations. In this podcast Mark talks about marketing that resonates with prospects, customers, partners, and investors – everything from Websites, videos, and infographics to eBooks, blog posts, and pitch decks.

Sharon Hapton

Sharon Hapton is the founder and CEO of Soup Sisters, a charity dedicated to ‘creating a stir’ in communities across North America. Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers have delivered nearly 2 million ‘Hugs in a Bowl’ of nourishing and nurturing soup nationwide to women’s shelters and youth crisis centers. In addition to being a social entrepreneur, Sharon is a best-selling author of the Soup Sisters cookbook series.