Education

Andrew Gordon Discusses the Cannabis Industry and His Retail Cannabis Chain Kiaro

Andrew Gordon is a shareholder of Kiaro, which is a cannabis retail brand, and derives from the Italian “Chiaroscuro”, meaning to emerge from darkness into the light. He currently serves as Senior Vice President of Retail Operations and Community. He specializes in organizational development, public affairs, community partnerships and industry performance. Andrew has a degree in Political Science from UVIC, and is a graduate of BCIT’s Non-Profit Management Program. Andrew has successfully led the community integration efforts for a number of private retailers across Canada, and has worked with a diverse array of patients, consumers and regulators to build accountable, community-responsive and financially sustainable cannabis retail models. Galvanized by the prospects of cannabis legalization in Canada, Andrew is passionate about working with community stakeholders across the country to help reduce social stigma, and abate pharmaceutical drug dependence within communities.

Annee Ngo

Annee Ngo is the co-founder and CEO of Startup League, an educational gaming platform for students to learn creative problem-solving through competition and play. She is a serial entrepreneur whom scaled global ed-tech company into more than 30 cities across 12 countries in under 3 years with clients like Adobe and Stanford. She exited her first startup in 2016, returning 3x to her investors. Annee is also the proud recipient of Women Tech Founders’ Award for Gaming/AR/VR and BC Business’ 30 Under 30.

Cam Armitage

Cam Armitage is a professional firefighter and side-hustle CEO of CamArmitage.com. Author, speaker, entertainer, motivator. Cam’s “work” is sharing the message that you can be a “bad-ass” while doing good work, with primary audience of 13-18 year olds who are at a critical pivot point of life choices.

Steve Mesler

Steve Mesler is CEO and Founder of Classroom Champions, a non-profit that brings together children and the world’s best to mentors to teach kids the skills they need to succeed in and out of the classroom. After winning an Olympic Gold Medal in bobsled at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, Steve was inspired to bring the values, lessons, and experiences he and his fellow Olympic and Paralympic athletes had gained through sport into classrooms. Since creating Classroom Champions, over 180 athletes have taught more than 1 million students about goal setting, perseverance, and teamwork to support their mental health, wellness, and academic achievement. Listen in as we chat with Steve about being a social entrepreneur!

Francis Gagnon

Francis Gagnon est le fondateur de Pratico Plastique, une entreprise dédiée à l’éducation des masses sur la réutilisation et le recyclage du plastique pour une grande variété de produits. Il est du type “”Idéateur””, “”Inventif””, “”Puriste”” et “”Rassembleur””. Il démarre toujours d’un enjeu ou d’une problématique et il prends le chapeau de l’architecte de solutions. Il va trouver 1000 solutions à un problème avant de réduire ce nombre et trouver la solution la plus viable. Il n’est pas un architecte, un ingénieur, un médecin ou un biologiste, mais il comprend beaucoup de choses, mais surtout il sait s’entourer des gens de qualité assurant la réussite d’un projet grâce à la co-création.

Il aborde les modèles de coopérative, d’entrepreneuriat social, d’économie solidaire, d’inclusivité et d’économie locale avec grande affection.

De toute façons, à quoi sert l’argent ou une entreprise si nous ne pouvons pas faire rayonner la communauté et les personnes qui composent les lieux où nous opérons ?

Priscilla Stanbury

Priscilla Stanbury, was born in England but grew up in Vancouver. She taught students with learning disabilities in the post-secondary education sector in England and Vancouver. Following her second kidney failure, she is a first time author of a best-selling, award nominated book, Warriors and Heroes of a Different Kind: Battling Kidney Failure.

Brit Garon

Brit Garon grew up in rural Ontario. He attended Western University in London Ontario, where he received a degree in Finance & Economics.

Immediately after University, Brit moved to the GTA and began work at CAA, where he helped launch the travel insurance company Orion Travel Insurance. He was lured away by the Danish insurance company software that CAA had helped develop, where he helped run operations on this side of the Atlantic. While working there, Brit and his roommate developed the idea for what would become ScholarTree.

ScholarTree began life 2 years ago and officially launched in 2017. ScholarTree helps match students with scholarships, so that they can afford to pursue the career of their dreams.

Mehrnaz Bassiri

Six years ago, Mehrnaz Bassiri made the riskiest and most rewarding decision of her professional life: she traded a career in Biotech for K-12 educational development. Now she’s an award-winning entrepreneur, a writer, speaker, progress specialist, and the founder of MyGradeBooster. She has been featured at TEDxChilliwack, on Global News radio, and in the Huffington Post.

Nicholas Raymond-Giasson

Nicholas Raymond-Giasson est propriétaire de Cleanergy Inc. Nicholas est un préparateur physique et il effectue également des consultations en nutrition. Il possède son propre studio d’entrainement à St-Jean-sur-Richelieu nommé le Cleanergym Underground. Il a de nombreuses formations académiques : études collégiales en travail social, études universitaires en Éducation Physique et à la santé à Sherbrooke, Somatraining avec Guy Voyez à l’institut Somatraining, Kinésiologie Appliqué avec Bob Rakowski au Minnesota, Posturologie avec Annette Verpillot, Nutrition Appliqué avec Precision Nutrition (en ligne) et Bob Rakowski à Houston au Texas, etc. Son but est de pouvoir aidez un maximum de personnes à retrouver une santé optimale en identifiant les outils qu’ils seront en mesure d’intégrer dans leur quotidien.

Christianne Hayward

Christianne Hayward has been educating children and adults for over forty years. She established her unique parent and youth bookclubs in 1996, and founded the Lyceum in 2007 where she now facilitates 11 bookclubs, 7 writers’ workshops and literature and art classes for young children at the Lyceum, with her talented staff. She also teaches at post-secondary institutions, works as a teacher consultant, facilitates parent groups in the ANCHOR Program at the Vancouver Child Study Centre, and is mother of two sons. She is committed to building community and inspiring a sense of social responsibility in those that she engages with Her Ph.D studies in education (UBC, 2000) focused on using select children’s literature to develop socially relevant curriculum in early childhood settings through to high school. Christianne’s M.Ed studies (Bristol, 1982) centered around the use of literary theming in nursery schools and its effect on children’s attitudes toward reading. Christianne completed her B.Ed (U of A, 1978) in Special Education and received her Diploma in Early Childhood Education in the same year. Her first year of study at the U of A was dedicated to Fine Arts which fuelled a life-long love of the arts.