Food & Drink

Robert Phelps

Robert Phelps, President of Canadian operations with SilverChef, who has teams established across Canada responsible for supporting Dealer Partners and Industry Bodies to deliver business value with flexible equipment rental and finance lease funding solutions across the hospitality sector. Focused on supporting customers and industry including Restaurants, Cafes, Motels, Hotels, Clubs, Coffee Roasters, Butchers, Bakers and Franchises. To date, Silver Chef has partnered with over 2,500 Canadian hospitality businesses.

Jim Button

Jim Button is co-founder of Village Brewery, a strategist with Evans Hunt and a member of the board of directors of Beer Canada. Jim has been on a sabbatical for a year while he deals with terminal cancer.

Jennifer Carlson

Jennifer Carlson is founder and president of Thirsty Naturals. She’s also co-founder of Baby Gourmet and Chair of Innovation and New Ventures at SAIT.

PJ L’Heureux

PJ L’Heureux is a well-known Calgary businessman who owns and operates several bars and restaurants in the city including CRAFT Beer MarketTrolley 5St. James CornerHome & Away and Rodney’s Oyster House.

Christian Mena

Christian Mena is a well-known restaurateur and former lead singer of 90’s latin pop funk band MARACUJAH. He also starred on Broadway touring as Roger in RENT alongside Neil Patrick Harris. He’s partner in SABOR, BODEGA Tapas and Wine Bars and Urbano Pizza Co.

Tony Spoletini

Tony Spoletini is a co-founder and co-owner of Spolumbo’s – a very popular Italian restaurant and deli. He’s also a former Canadian Football League player.

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.

Manjit Minhas

Manjit Minhas is one of Canada’s best known entrepreneurs. She is a co-founder and owner of Minhas Brewery in Calgary and one of the dragons on the popular CBC television show Dragons’ Den.

Teresa Spinelli

Teresa Spinelli is owner of the Italian Centre grocery and deli store chain with stores in Edmonton and Calgary. The store has been a fixture in the Edmonton market for decades and expanded to Calgary just a few years ago.