Tech

Anthony DeCristofaro

Anthony DeCristofaro is currently President and CEO of Qnext Corp. and has over 25 years of computer industry experience. In his entrepreneurial career he has driven three M&A transactions valued at more than $600 Million. Previously he was President and CEO of iseemedia Inc. which merged with Synchronica in 2010. Anthony was also Founder and CEO of MGI Software Corp. He brought Intel in as an investor into this venture which he co-founded in 1996 and was sold to Roxio in 2002. Prior to MGI, Anthony was a founding board member of Delrina, a VP/GM of AST Computer Canada and NEC Canada. I have known Anthony and worked as an advisor to him throughout many of these ventures and I am excited to have this fantastic entrepreneur and leader here today.

Aliya Amershi

Aliya Amershi is the CEO and Founder of AskaTechie.com, a tech talent 2.0 marketplace that intelligently matches companies with a supply of vetted technical contractors specializing in Web 3.0 and advanced technologies, such as Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and complex App Development. Since they launched in 2017, AskaTechie has bootstrapped their way to six figures in sales, which only the top 10% of female founders have been able to achieve. They were also selected to participate in the Canadian Technology Accelerator in Silicon Valley and was a finalist for NextAI Canada. In addition, Aliya recently served as a Director at the Founder Institute in Vancouver and is currently a contributing member to YEC Next – which is part of the Forbes Business Council.

Aliya is also launching soon a couple of new ventures, first is the Techie Concierge, an online tool that helps tech startups easily create better technical job descriptions. The second is Stiletto Startup, which supports female founders by empowering them with the necessary technology business basics via their customized online tech startup workshops.

Aliya has over 20 years of technology experience and 10 years of international enterprise experience working on award-winning products at Viacom Networks, Codemasters and Electronic Arts as a Software Engineer, IT Manager and Technical Lead.

Kris Hartvigsen

Kris Hartvigsen is the CEO & Co-Founder of Dooly and a leader in the tech industry with over twenty years of experience. Before founding Dooly, he held senior consulting and management positions in sales for companies like Mobify and led Vision Critical as their EVP Sales from its early startup days to revenues in excess of $100 million.

Justin Vaillancourt

Justin Vaillancourt is a force to be reckoned with—he started teaching himself how to code at the age of 8 and was working as a Software Developer by the age of 14. As the Co-Founder and CTO of Dooly, Justin previously held Lead Engineer positions at several emerging tech startups.

Merideth Schutter

Merideth Schutter is an entrepreneur and mother of three from Vancouver. She is the Founder of PROtect…Smart Personal Safety. The development of PROtect came together organically. She had one too many close encounters in her professional life where she was alone with a stranger and feeling vulnerable. Born out of a need to unite mobile technology with the reassurance of personal safety, the application allows users to connect with their closest contacts and alert them when they find themselves in unfamiliar or emergency scenarios.

Brad Rudover

Brad Radover is founder of Country Club X, which is an online community exclusively for country club members. it connects club members across clubs letting them independently arrange rounds of golf at a variety of clubs.

Diana Pederson

Diana Pederson is the Founder and CEO of Dragonfly MedTech, an early stage startup company in Vancouver who is building clinic software to enable medical doctors to provide a treatment solution for concussions. She is originally from Seattle where she worked for Microsoft for 13 years. She moved to Vancouver in 2001 to work for the doctor who developed this medical approach.

Fergus Parkinson

Fergus Parkinson leads acquisitions and strategic partnerships at Glance Technologies. He has a background in strategic advising and management consulting for startups in Toronto, Vancouver and Silicon Valley. He holds a Master of Finance from the Rotman School of Management at U of T.

Bruce Sharpe

Bruce Sharpe got his Ph.D. in Mathematics from UBC in 1984. Bruce started his first company while finishing his thesis and was soon acquired into another startup which was doing AI for business applications. His most successful startup was Singular Software, which created the product PluralEyes for video production. Bruce is currently in the early stages of a new startup that is looking at applications of Deep Learning to audio processing and to making a better hearing aid.

Gregg Peacock

Gregg Peacock is a Blockchain Solution Expert at Vanbex Ventures. A 2x entrepreneur, Gregg has been working with technology startups since 2002 and blockchain since 2015 as an investor, trader and educator. He has extensive experience advising early-stage blockchain startups on product strategy and crypto economics.