Taylor, Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Nudestix, embodies the easy-going ideals of the millennial generation that are after a no-fuss, natural look — think three products in three minutes so you can easily hop from a business meeting to happy hour with your girls.

Paramount Fine Foods, led by Mohamad Fakih, is one of North America’s fastest growing Middle Eastern Halal food chains, due to his turnaround leadership. Mohamad is equally renowned as a respected philanthropist as he is an award-winning entrepreneur. As the face and voice of UN Refugee Agency Canada, he’s an unwavering advocate for refugees, diversity, and anti-hate movements. Mohamad inspires audiences to grow their businesses and provides them with sustainable ways to give back to their communities and change the world.

Matthew has spent his career at the intersection of the private and public sector, living and working in Rome, London, and Toronto to design and deliver business solutions that drive social impact. He is the Managing Director of OneEleven, a post-seed tech accelerator in Toronto. Prior to leading OneEleven, Matthew co-founded the not-for-profit marketplace GroceryHero, and has previously worked for the United Nations, and in management consulting at Deloitte. He is an advisor and mentor with multiple venture funds, and a frequent contributor to the Globe & Mail Report on Business, Financial Post, and Toronto Star on macroeconomics, global affairs, and public policy.

Sam Gharegozlou is the President & Co-Founder of Axiom Zen as well as a Board Member of Dapper Labs, the company that was spun out of Axiom Zen in 2018 and went on to build products to deliver blockchain-based experiences and digital collectibles ready for the real world including NBA Top Shot, CryptoKitties, and Dapper Wallet. As President of Axiom Zen, S. Gharegozlou oversees all operations that steer the Axiom Zen portfolio and is at the center of commercial and community activity for the business. S. Gharegozlou holds a B.A. in International Politics and History from The University of Western Ontario.

David Segal is the co-founder of Firebelly Tea & Mad Radish. He’s also known for being the co-founder of DAVIDsTEA, and a retail thought-leader and speaker. During his time at DAVIDsTEA, Segal grew the company from a single store on Toronto’s Queen Street West to a $200 million retail giant. In June 2015, DAVIDsTEA became a publically-traded company on the NASDAQ, and since launch, the brand has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Women’s Wear Daily, The Globe and Mail, and Fast Company. Segal left DAVIDsTEA in 2016 and started Mad Radish - a quick service restaurant concept. Mad Radish is all about providing healthy, gourmet fast foods. In 2017, David was named one of Canada's Top 40 under 40. In 2021, Segal started Firebelly tea to create exceptional loose leaf teas tailored to modern living, and gorgeous tea accessories to shake up the category.

Marie Chevrier, is the Founder and CEO of Sampler, the leading platform helping brands like L'oréal and Nestlé deliver samples online and gather the insights they need to build one-to-one relationships with their customers. Sampler has worked with over 400 brands reaching over 59M consumers in 24 different countries and its most notable clients include CPG industry giants Unilever, Pepsi, Henkel, and Kimberly Clark. Marie is also a dedicated advisor to Technology and CPG startups including ScoutCanning, a member of the RetailTomorrow advisory board, and mentor at DMZ, NEXT 26 and Startup Boost.

Shadi is the CEO of Ownr, a platform that helps entrepreneurs start, manage and grow their business. Under her leadership, more than 50,000 businesses have been launched on Ownr, and it’s quickly become one of the fastest growing ventures within RBC Ventures. Prior to joining RBC Ventures in 2017, Shadi worked as the Director of Digital Transformation with RBC’s Personal & Commercial Banking team where she was responsible for the strategy development of a transformation project to engage clients and prospects through data insights. Shadi began her career at IBM, is a graduate of Western University, earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, and has completed the Angel Academy program through Female Funders.

Philip Cutler is a teacher turned entrepreneur. As a teacher, Phil saw how the many inequities present in the education system created lifelong learning gaps for students. Determined to democratize education, he helped found Paper, a 24/7 online tutoring platform that partners with school districts to level the playing field for all students.In the past, Phil’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to founding successful endeavors such as the tutoring service, Laurus Educational Services, as well as Laurus Summer Camp. His shrewd business acumen is now shepherding Paper through exponential growth as it works to achieve true educational equity.

Ibiyemi Balogun is a Manager, Corporate Partnerships at Ryerson University. She supports companies in the Technology, Telecommunication and Startup industry with hiring student talent through co-op/internship and new grad opportunities. She has a background in Diversity Recruitment, Talent management and Career Consulting and can speak on trends with the student talent market.

Sid leads a highly specialized team that supports technology and innovation companies with industry-tailored advice, solutions and capital financing. Before coming to RBC, he was a managing partner at OMERS Ventures where he led several multi-stage investments and was responsible for 360insights, Alida, Hootsuite, InteraXon, Klue, League, Smile.io, Vidyard and Xanadu.

Tyler is the problem-solving, outcome-focused partner at RBCx. He is responsible for structuring and monitoring all platform financing relationships, interacting with internal and external partners to provide financing solutions that meet clients’ individual business growth needs. Perhaps that’s why he also loves a good underdog story.

Driven by curiosity and a deep sense of awe for entrepreneurship and innovation, Eamonn co-leads the RBCx relationship management team in the GTA. The team functions as strategic partners for scaling tech and lifesciences companies with access to innovative products, financial services, and operational expertise. In his spare time, he is a strong supporter of coaching, mentorship and lifelong learning...and has listened to EVERY history podcast there is.

Rachel Zimmer is a leader in the Toronto tech community and is incredibly passionate about accelerating entrepreneurship in the Canadian ecosystem. Rachel co-founded, scaled and exited her company – 5Crowd – in under 3 years. Since then, Rachel has worked in the ecosystem enabling other entrepreneurs as an Entrepreneur In Residence at the DMZ and now as the General Manager of EF Toronto. Rachel has been named Top 30 Under 30 by Marketing Magazine, Young Entrepreneur of the Year by Desjardins Bank and Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year by the Toronto Board of Trade. She has also been featured as a Subject Matter Expert in popular industry publications and groups such as Fast Company, Ad Age, The Entrepreneurship Society and Crowdsourcing Week, to name a few.

As Head of Public Policy and Communications for Uber Canada, Laura Miller leads a team supporting the company’s rideshare, delivery, and freight platforms, including its social impact work, from coast-to-coast. Prior to joining Uber, Laura directed marketing and communications at Elevate, an organization focussed on uniting Canada's innovators to solve society’s greatest challenges, and at a property technology firm based in British Columbia. She started her career in politics and government, having the honour of supporting two Premiers and a Prime Minister. Laura holds a Bachelor of Arts from Western University.

Rachel Wong is the co-founder of Monday Girl, an all-in-one career platform that helps professional women get started in their careers. With 4000+ members, Monday Girl has partnered with brands including Google, Microsoft, and Scotiabank. Rachel also joined Uber in its early days to help launch the Uber Eats platform in key Canadian markets.

Parag is the CEO of Clik.ai, an AI-based software platform for real estate investments and underwriting. Clik.ai is used by top 10 US-based mortgage banks and institutional investors like JP Morgan, Newmark that uses the platform to automate real estate investment analysis and underwriting workflows. He has over 10 years of experience in real estate technology and commercial real estate services. Prior to starting Clik.ai, he co-founded Integrand Analytics, a 40 employee Knowledge Processing Outsourcing business which focused on commercial mortgage, due-diligence and risk analysis of mortgage backed securities. He is a computer engineering graduate from IIT in India, holds a Masters degree in quantitative finance and is based out of Clik.AI’s Toronto office. Clik.ai is 25+ employees strong with offices in Toronto and India.

Arnab is the co-founder and CEO of SoulRooms, a cloud based platform that improves rental efficiencies for landlords and property managers. He has spent over a decade in real estate technology and asset management space and a big supporter of digitisation of the space for better access and/or affordability.

Kasia brings over 10 years of diverse financial leadership experience working in start-up and high-growth environments. Currently, she is the CFO of Next Hydrogen Solutions and Green Circle Salons, both pioneers in the fast-growing sustainability space. Previously, she was also CFO of Titanium Transportation Group, which she took public and grew $40 million to $200 million in revenue. Kasia has her CPA, Chartered Accountant designation and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the state of Illinois. She holds a Masters of Accounting and an Honours Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.

Joe helps scaling companies make better hiring decisions and builds finance teams to fuel break-out growth. He has shaped finance and technology teams at some of the fastest-growing companies in Canada for more than 20 years. Joe founded Clarity Recruitment in 2012 to transform the recruiting landscape and believes that the right hire can change the trajectory of a company, and change lives in the process. Earlier in his career, a candidate and friend described Joe as helping her “find clarity” through his career advice and coaching. The name stuck and Clarity Recruitment was born. Joe has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a Bachelor of Education from the University of Windsor and a Bachelor of Arts in History from McMaster University.