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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 President operating in the Art space. If you think a President 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.
Shahram Tafazoli
Founder, President & CEO of Motion Metrics
Shahram Tafazoli is the Founding CEO of Motion Metrics Int’l, a private Canadian corporation dedicated to improving safety and efficiency of terrestrial mining using AI, rugged embedded vision, and cloud computing. Motion Metrics has deployed its innovative solutions in more than 60 large mining operations around the globe, digging copper, iron, gold, diamond, coal, and nickel. Shahram holds bachelor and master’s degrees from Sharif University of Technology in Iran and a PhD from the University of British Columbia (UBC), all in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) with a focus on robotics and machine vision. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia’s ECE department and has offered various graduate-level courses. He has a passion for technology and has invested in a number of technology startups, including several ventures from Creative Destruction Lab. He is co-inventor of international patents with other engineers from Motion Metrics and recently received the UBC Applied Science Dean’s Medal of Distinction. Shahram has a passion for space technologies and is keen on applying them to terrestrial applications.
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About Motion Metrics: Motion Metrics is a Canadian mining technology company that uses artificial intelligence to improve mine safety and energy efficiency.
Bryant Pike
Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President of Corporate Development of Rainmaker Entertainment
Bryant Pike is charged with oversight of the company’s financial operations and regulatory reporting as a publicly traded company and shares responsibility for business development. Identifying strategic opportunities that support the company’s new business model are all part of his purview. Bryant began his career as a chartered accountant specializing in the financial services and entertainment industries with Ernst & Young, becoming Senior Manager and working with independent producers, distributors, and a majority of major US-based film studios operating in Canada. He also served as CFO for Insight Films, a private live action film studio in Vancouver. Bryant has hands on production experience, producing the independently packaged and financed original science fiction movie Chupacabra vs The Alamo for the Syfy channel. Recently named to the Board of the Whistler Film Festival, Bryant also holds the distinction of being named to Business in Vancouver’s list of “40 Under 40” before entering his 30s.
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About Rainmaker Entertainment: Rainmaker Entertainment is a CG animation studio creating unique CG animation styles using artist friendly tools.
Kim Wilder
Senior Vice President of Production & Operations of Rainmaker Entertainment
Kim Dent Wilder nurtures the creative artistry of the studio’s productions while overseeing and managing its growing film and television operations. She is also involved in identifying and developing new business opportunities, including the creation of new intellectual properties and partnering with rights holders of established branded properties, as well as ensuring efficiencies across all creative and technological production processes. Instrumental in bringing the company’s first feature film, Escape from Planet Earth, to fruition in 2013, Kim is currently engaged in the production of Ratchet & Clank and the development of Sly Cooper, hugely successful video game franchises for Sony PlayStation. Kim first came to the original Mainframe Entertainment in 1997 as a production manager, and went on to become producer of the Hasbro television series Beast Wars, among other numerous television series and direct-to-video titles. In 2005, she joined Nexon Publishing North America (NPNA), a Vancouver-based global online entertainment company where she managed the company’s global creative and production infrastructure. Kim returned to Rainmaker in 2009 in her current role. Over the past nearly 20 years, Kim’s production credits encompass many high-profile animation series including Hot Wheels (Mattel), Max Steel (Mattel), Weird-ohs, Inspector Gadget (DIC Entertainment), Stuart Little 3 (Sony), Popeye’s Voyage–The Quest for Pappy (King Features), The Spider-Man Animated Series (Sony and MTV), and more than twenty DVD features in the direct-to-DVD Barbie series (Mattel).
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About Rainmaker Entertainment: Rainmaker Entertainment is a CG animation studio creating unique CG animation styles using artist friendly tools.
Michael Hefferon
President & Chief Creative Officer of Rainmaker Entertainment
Throughout his 25-year entertainment industry career, Michael Hefferon has catapulted the growth of established business operations around the globe, strategically conceiving how best to attract the talent, projects and clients that can grow revenues. His business development skills combine with a solid reputation for creative excellence, with vast experience across creative development, production, distribution and acquisition of children’s television and feature film properties. Michael joined Rainmaker from Canada’s Bardel Entertainment, where he oversaw numerous productions and associations with broadcasters worldwide. Michael’s first company Phoenix Animation quickly built a strong reputation as a source for high-quality productions, working on five theatrical feature films, including Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest, as well as a number of international series and specials, including The Magic Adventures of Mumfie. After selling his studio, Michael went on to hold executive level positions with a number of leading entertainment companies including Catalyst Entertainment (now CCI Entertainment); the Britt Allcroft Company (now known as HiT Entertainment); Gullane Entertainment (formerly known as Britt Allcroft Group); BFC Berliner Film Companie GmbH (Berlin); and EM Entertainment’s Australian studio Flying Bark Productions.
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About Rainmaker Entertainment: Rainmaker Entertainment is a CG animation studio creating unique CG animation styles using artist friendly tools.
Tara Kemes
Vice President of Culture & Talent of Rainmaker Entertainment
Tara Kemes is passionate about nurturing talent and encouraging people to follow their dreams. Charged with developing and implementing the studio’s overall recruiting strategy while also advising studio talent on career growth opportunities, Tara is often seen at industry job fairs and on school campuses, evangelizing the benefits of working in the unique culture that has come to define Rainmaker. Originally joining Mainframe Entertainment in 2002, Tara joined Relic Entertainment in 2006 as recruitment manager. She rejoined the new Rainmaker Entertainment as Manager of Talent Development in 2009, helping the company hire the crew for its first animated feature film, Escape from Planet Earth. A graduate of the University of British Columbia with a BA in Asian Studies and Japanese, Kemes moonlights as an instructor at the Vancouver Film School.
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About Rainmaker Entertainment: Rainmaker Entertainment is a CG animation studio creating unique CG animation styles using artist friendly tools.
Peter Koning
Vice President of Sales and Business Development of Simularity
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About Canada Leads, Entra Marketing, Simularity, Typo Assassin: Simularity provides AI-driven geospatial intelligence
John Almond
Co-Founder & Vice President of Warranty Life
Communications and business experience – I have been involved in using technology for business communications for over 30 years. Began programming A/V presentations using first PC’s in school; joined first computer graphics design company in Canada after University; founded Alpha Visuals Inc. a computer graphic design company in Toronto 1985; was purchased by Genigraphics Corporation (division of GE) in 1987; Executive Producer, Genigraphics Corporation (Toronto – New York); Partner Vision Presentations Inc. – 1990 (Vancouver); founded Emerge Online one of Vancouver’s first web design firms in 1995; Principal, Ionysys Technology Corporation & President, New Media Consulting – 1999; Radiant Communications 2000; Graphically Speaking 2006. Specialties Internet Strategy; Usability testing; Information architecture; Ecommerce planning; Website development; Search engine optimization; Online marketing; Web analytics
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About Graphically Speaking, Warranty Life: Providing Usage-Based Mobile Device Insurance
Yanqing Wang
President and Founder of ScopeMedia
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About ScopeMedia: ScopeMedia built an advanced video and image recognition artificial intelligence platform for image data visualization and applications
Dave Hawkins
President and Chief Technology Officer of Viewpoint AI
Dave Hawkins is the President and Chief Technology Officer of Viewpoint.AI.
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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.
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