At Best Startup Canada we track over 100,000 Canadian startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top British Columbia based VP’ operating in the Internet space. If you think a VP’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.ca.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Katie Wilde
VP of Engineering of Buffer
Katie is the VP of Engineering at Buffer, which is a globally distributed team with no offices. She’s co-authored “The Holloway Guide to Remote Work”, available now at Holloway.com. She’s also co-authored “97 Things Every Engineering Manager Should Know” and “Atomic Migration Strategy for Web Teams”, both with O’Reilly. Katie champions remote work and personal flourishing.
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About Ambassador Labs, Buffer: Social Media Management Software for Growing Brands
Mathew George
Head & Founder of TELUS Ventures + Vice President of TELUS
Mathew heads TELUS Ventures, the venture capital arm of TELUS Corporation. He is currently a Board director of Vision Critical and Checkwell Solutions and a Board Observer of Clairmail and Teradici. Prior Board roles include Widevine (acquired by Google), Hostopia (acquired by Deluxe), Digit Wireless (acquired by Nuance), Critical Telecom (acquired by BATM), Atreus Systems (acquired by Sonus Networks), Apparent Networks (now AppNeta) and the Arts Club Theatre Company (owner of the Stanley and Granville Island stages). Before founding TELUS Ventures in 2001, Mathew managed the global co-investment and direct private equity investment activities of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund. Mathew started his career with the Paribas Asset Management in Paris, followed by roles in investment banking with Barclays de Zoete Wedd and Warburgs in London and New York. Mathew holds a Master of Business Management degree from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commericiales (HEC) in Paris, with specialization in Analytical Finance from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. His Bachelor of Technology degree is in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the Regional Engineering College, Calicut. Mathew is a member of the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute, the Vancouver Society of Financial Analysts and the IEEE.
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About TELUS: Second largest Canadian telecommunications company. Provides wireless phone service, high speed Internet, IPTV, home phone, long distance,
Michel Belec
SVP, Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary of TELUS
Michel E. Belec is Senior Vice President, Legal Services with TELUS where he leads an international team of legal professionals dedicated to providing value-added strategic support on a broad range of corporate, commercial and investment transactions. His mandate includes providing tactical advice to TELUS’ domestic and international business units in support of corporate priorities and to create outstanding customer outcomes in the business market segment. Michel also supports TELUS’ Corporate Secretariat office, is a trustee of TELUS’ co-managed pension plan and a director on various TELUS pension related boards and committees. His focus in these roles is on compliance, governance and investment performance as well as supporting effective decision making in a diverse environment. Throughout his career, Michel has been a strong supporter of his community through pro-bono legal work, volunteering and serving on the executives of local charities. He is a current director of the TELUS Fund, an independent production fund that aims to enlighten health choices and a regular participant in the delivery of TELUS’ induction and learning programs as well as a mentor to various team members. Michel holds a BA from Simon Fraser University and an LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School. He is authorized to practice law in the Provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario and completed senior leadership training with INSEAD, the Rotman School of Management and the Schulich School of Business.
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About TELUS: Second largest Canadian telecommunications company. Provides wireless phone service, high speed Internet, IPTV, home phone, long distance,
Lawrence Chee
Chief Technology Officer, VP of Engineering of LifeBooster
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About LifeBooster: Leading connected worker and risk analytics platform for industrial health and safety – ensuring every worker gets home safe every day.
Ryan Wilk
Vice President of Customer Success of NuData Security a Mastercard company
Ryan is the Vice President of Customer Success at NuData Security where he is responsible for ensuring the success of every NuData customer during the lifetime of the partnership. In his previous role, Ryan was the Manager, Trust and Safety at StubHub, an ebay company. Prior to joining StubHub, Ryan spent 8 years with Universal Parks & Resorts where he established and implemented the eCommerce Loss Prevention teams at both Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood.
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About NuData Security a Mastercard company: NuData Security positively verifies users online through real-time passive biometrics and behavioral analytics.
Bjorn Hougaard
SVP, Sales & Media Strategy of GlobalWide Media
Bjorn Hougaard oversees the sales and business development across the international offices, and the further growth in strategic partnerships in domestic and international markets. Prior to joining the executive team at GlobalWide Media, he led the expansion of Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) into Europe and Middle East. In 2002 he was part of the leadership team that built the world’s first commercial 3G mobile operator, ‘3’ owned by Hong Kong based Hutchison Whampoa (0013:HK). At the age of 27, Mr. Hougaard was appointed the general manager for the Danish ISP, EuroConnect and led it through a successful acquisition by TDC (OMX:TDC). A native of Denmark, Mr. Hougaard has through the last 20 years lived and worked in Europe, Asia pacific and North America.
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About GlobalWide Media: GlobalWide Media is a data driven digital marketing leader, providing premium media solutions for the world’s leading brands and agencies.
Spencer Cox
VP – Engineering of SensorUp
Spencer Cox is the director of IoT solutions at SensorUp.
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About SensorUp: GeoAI and IoT Platform for Connected Workers
Ian Treleaven
Vice President, Software of Bravatek
Ian has over 20 years of professional software development experience creating Enterprise-class software for some of the world’s largest companies, including Microsoft, Crystal Decisions, Business Objects and SAP. Most recently a Senior Product Owner in SAP’s Business Intelligence Portfolio, Ian was responsible for product performance and reliability (P&R), driving P&R improvements with multi-release strategies, sizing for traditional and SAP HANA-based BI solutions as well as developing product deployment methodologies scalable to SAP’s largest customer (e.g.: 250,000 users). Previously to that role, Ian was a Senior Software Developer for the Business Intelligence product suite at the company. Before its acquisition by Business Objects, and consequently SAP, Ian held similar roles at Crystal Decisions and Seagate Software. There he was responsible for the design, development, then the delivery of the company’s enterprise-class software, such as Crystal Reports. His earlier career includes various software development positions, most notably Engineer and Technical Lead at Microsoft. There Ian was focused on email server software development and was part of the team leading to the development of Microsoft Exchange.
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About Absolute Software, Bravatek: Bravatek Solutions, Inc. is a high technology security solutions portfolio provider.
Grant Jurgeneit
VP Business Development, Co-Founder of Checkfront
Founder of Checkfront.
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About Checkfront: Checkfront offers online booking services for tours and activities, rentals, and accommodations.
Cédric Vincent
VP of Technology of Witekio
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About Witekio: Witekio is an embedded software expert with a system level approach, engineering and integrating intelligent systems software.
Chris Gielnik
VP of business development of Diveling
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About : diveling offers technology that streamlines the web into a popup book of contextualized and personalized information for its users.
Kurt Pichler
VP Finance and Corporate Development of Viewpoint AI
An entrepreneur at heart, accomplished fundraiser and business strategist, he has 15 years of putting deals together, creating opportunities and getting them funded. He graduated in 2001 in international trade and business with an emphasis in logistics. Since then he used his contacts in Asia to source products for other companies or for his own projects. Then he was drawn to Fort McMurray during the time of the housing boom where he put together and raised $10M for a 26 house project. Then he got more involved with financing for both private and public companies. He has been a financial consultant to Chinese companies as those companies transition towards the stock market. After China, Kurt focused more on North American emerging technologies in primarily in the medical, pharmatech, digital media and fintech areas. He is always exploring new technologies and new market opportunities as they emerge. He is currently a cofounder and VP Corporate Development for Viewpoint AI Inc., an A.I. powered decision software company that combines the best of human and machine intelligence, amplifying human skill levels.
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About Viewpoint AI: Viewpoint is an AI powered decision software company that combines the best of human and machine intelligence amplifying human skill levels.
Adi Kabazo
VP, Marketing & Alliances of Plasmatic Technologies Inc.
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About Plasmatic Technologies Inc.: Empowering service providers and their customers to benefit from the Connected Home through whole-home insights and mobile experiences.
Adi Kabazo
VP, Marketing & Alliances of Plasmatic Technologies Inc.
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About Plasmatic Technologies Inc.: Empowering service providers and their customers to benefit from the Connected Home through whole-home insights and mobile experiences.
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