As Chairman of Mariner, Gerry brings over 40 years of in-depth experience in the information and communications technology industry and is the driving force behind the formation of Mariner. Having been the President of Aliant Telecom and CEO of NBTel during a period of significant deregulation in the Canadian industry, Gerry continues to demonstrate his ability to successfully restructure companies, while delivering revenue growth and strong operating results. Gerry has also proven to be an innovator with such start-up IT companies as Q1 Labs, iMagicTV, Brovada Technologies and Radian6.

In addition to a wealth of knowledge regarding partnerships with government for the purpose of using infrastructure as an economic development tool, Gerry continues to prove himself as an experienced leader in change management, labour relations, complex post-merger integration, and strategic partnerships.

As Director of NSBI Venture Capital since inception in 2001, Peter brings more than 28 years of expertise in financing business and, more specifically, 10 years of venture capital experience. He is also a member of Canada’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Association and serves as a board member and observer on a number of investee companies.

Born and raised in Nova Scotia, Peter holds a Commerce degree from Saint Mary’s University (Halifax, Nova Scotia) and is a graduate of the Venture Capital Institute in the U.S. He also holds certificates in various industry training courses. In his spare time, Peter can be found on the green enjoying a round of golf or at the rink coaching competitive curling.

As founder and President of Unique Solutions Design Ltd., Tanya Shaw has spent her career providing strategic solutions to many aspects of "individuality" and "fit". Her technically savvy nature, tenacity and sharp business acumen have resulted in the development of numerous products and applications that provide both resolutions and revolutions, related to shopping, body measurement and body data. Through her leadership, passion and vision, Unique has garnered international attention having been featured prominently in publications such as the New York Times and People Magazine and on Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNN's Anderson Cooper 360°, The Gail King Show and numerous other television shows, print and online publications. 

Tanya is considered an inspiring and leading technology entrepreneur having won numerous awards throughout her career including:

·        Junior Chamber International Outstanding Young Canadian of the Year Award

·         CATA Alliance Sarah Kirke Award - Top Canadian Woman in Hi-Tech

·         Top 40 Under 40 Award

·         Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Of The Year, Atlantic/Emerging Category 

Tanya has served as an active Director on several Boards throughout the years and is currently on the Board of the Diocesan Franciscan Society as well as the Faculty of Management Advisory Board at Dalhousie University. Tanya attended Dalhousie University's internationally recognized Costume Studies Design Program, graduating in 1991.  She also attended Saint Mary's University, studying Commerce.  Tanya is honored to be a member of the 2010 class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute. 

Denis Lanteigne is an experienced finance professional. A Chartered Accountant, he has been an auditor, chief accountant, VP-Finance and Senior Manager, Corporate Finance with Deloitte. Denis managed Accès Capital Acadie, part of CDP Capital, completing private equity investments.

Joining ACOA in 2002, he first worked on the Atlantic Innovation Fund, then helped establish GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund and the First Angel Network Association. In 2009, he incorporated Azura Ventures Ltd., a Capital Pool Corporation listed on TSX Venture Exchange.

Denis earned the “CF” (Corporate Finance) designation.

Stephen Hartlen is the assistant vice president of industry relations and executive director of the office of Industry Liaison and Innovation at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Dalhousie’s Industry Liaison and Innovation Office commercializes research at the university, manages and facilitates collaborations between companies and university researchers and assists in the creation of spin-off ventures.

Prior to Joining Dalhousie in 2011 Stephen spent the last eight years at Innovacorp, Nova Scotia's crown corporation for the commercialization of early stage research, serving as vice president of mentoring and most recently, interim president and CEO. Innovacorp’s internationally recognized business model, High Performance Incubation, is designed to enable early stage Nova Scotia companies to accelerate commercialization of their technologies and increase competitiveness in export markets.

Prior to Innovacorp Stephen spent more than 14 years in the private sector with experience in business development, sales, and go-to-market strategy development in both the corporate financial services and the information technology sectors.

Stephen is a graduate of Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and Saint Mary's University with a Master of Business Administration in Finance. He is an advisory board member to the Dalhousie CRMBA program and a board member of EastMed Inc. and Thorasys Inc.. Stephen is also pursuing the Chartered Director designation through the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University and the Conference Board of Canada.

Nick is a lawyer, patent agent and Partner in the firm’s St. John’s office. As a corporate and business lawyer, Nick helps clients with mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property and technology law issues, and regulatory compliance. As a patent agent (Canada and the United States) and a professional engineer (Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador), nick drafts and prosecutes originating patent applications for electrical, mechanical and software related inventions.

Nick obtained his law degree from McGill University in 2011, and is licensed to practice law in Ontario and New York State, in addition to Newfoundland and Labrador. Prior to studying law, Nick obtained his undergraduate and master’s degrees in mathematics and electrical engineering (control and communications) from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Prior to joining McInnes Cooper, Nick was an Associate in the corporate mergers and acquisitions and technology law groups of a top tier Canadian law firm. Nick also worked at a boutique intellectual property and technology law firm in Toronto, from which he was seconded for over a year to a major telecommunications company.

Nick also remains active outside of the practice as a member of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada and Director and Corporate Secretary for the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy (Canada).

Brian Keefe is the Director of Business Development for Innovation PEI, the lead economic development agency for the Province of Prince Edward Island. Brian has 25 years of experience in community and business development with government and 12 years experience working in the private sector as a manager of retail chain stores.

During his time with government he has worked with small communities seeking to improve their local economy and more recently worked with people wishing to start or expand their small businesses, as well as being responsible for Trade and Market Development for the Province.

Brian is a graduate of Business Administration at the University of Prince Edward Island and has continued his education through various courses in Project Management, Finance, Counseling and Business Development.

Together with Shawn Carver, Toon runs THENEXTPHASE, a consultancy company that is fully dedicated to prepare teams and companies for growth and financing.

Daryl Genge is the Director of the Atlantic Canada Venture Gateway (Gateway), an initiative of Memorial University that prepares high-growth technology firms to attract financing from national and international angel investors, venture capital firms, and private equity firms. Since assuming this role, Daryl has led Gateway’s expansion throughout Atlantic Canada. He also led the organization’s expansion into the United Arab Emirates where Gateway developed its first international network of investment partners. To date, Gateway has provided investment readiness and investor partnering support to over thirty Atlantic Canadian clients. 

Mr. Genge started his career with a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin where he worked for several Canadian oil and gas clients. He later played a key role in the start up of several advanced technology ventures, and held executive positions with technology industry development corporations including Operation ONLINE and the Enterprise Network. Prior to establishing Gateway, Daryl operated his own consulting firm where he advised university, government and industry clients on commercialization, investment attraction and international business development.

Todd is the listener, facilitator, and motivator needed to consider the needs of MedRunner’s users, motivate his team toward excellence and sensitive design, and build trust in the growth of the company. Todd’s energy, leadership, strategic vision, enthusiasim and work ethic are the reasons MedRunner has been able to get the support of national pharmacy chains, physicians, government, and respected private companies.

Todd enjoys playing hockey, golf, sports enthusiast, travelling, and supporting/mentoring new start-ups. Todd is proud to be a member of the 2010 Wallace McCain Entrepreneurial Leaders program.

Todd earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Saint Mary’s University and an MBA from the University of New Brunswick.

John L. Rowe is President of Island Abbey Foods Ltd. (better known as Honibe – “Honey Bee”) and also the Timeless Group of Companies. Island Abbey Foods Ltd. is a family owned (John and Susan Rowe) and operated business. The company’s first product, the Honibe - Honey Drop™ is John’s brainchild, and he has lead its research and development since he first conceived the idea in the late 1990’s while on a camping trip in Whistler. Visit: www.Honibe.com for more details. 

The Timeless Group of Companies (Timeless Technologies, Timeless Medical System and Timeless Professional Services), has been developing software products and IT systems on PEI since 1994. John is responsible for overseeing the management of the companies, all product development as well as the many custom engineering projects that the company works on. Visit: www.TimelessTech.com and www.TimelessMedical.com for more details.

John Rowe has considerable experience in launching new products: over 15 years of engineering experience in product design, development and successful market rollout including 25 innovations and 500+ licensees around the world. The key to John’s success has always been the team he has surrounded himself with. The Timeless Group counts 28 full time team members. The Honibe team stands at 30 full time and part time staff. These teams, under John’s direction, are responsible for our market successes to date.

Some key milestones that John and his team have achieved: numerous national and international awards, prolonged media coverage in major national and international publications (Bon Appetit, Health Magazine, Canadian Living, Fancy Food, to name a few); and achieving national distribution across Canada and the USA into major and minor grocery retail within year one of launch.

Some other notable personal milestones in John’s career: enabling the phenomena of Internet streaming (John worked on the team that created Apple QuickTime’s audio CODEC and also MP3); achieving 150 million downloads of QuickTime in 3 years (mid 1990’s; at the time the quickest proliferation of a software product in history); and creating the world’s first method of ensuring a mother’s breast milk is fed only to her child in a hospital nursery using bar-coding technology (‘mix-ups’ occur 20-25% of the time due to human error).

John was named a Top Ten Innovator by Food In Canada in 2008, a Top Ten Worldwide Innovator in 2008 and 2009 by Springwise, and a Planet Eureka! Hot 100 Innovators in 2009. John is a recipient of the Innovation PEI Pilot Fund 2009, the Innovation PEI Discovery and Development Fund 2009, ACOA’s Atlantic Innovation Fund 2010, the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce Emerging Business Award Winner 2010, and the Premier’s Medal of Innovation 2010. John was also a 2010 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Manning Awards Nominee and is a 2011 Manning Awards Nominee.

Recently, John and the Honibe team won two Gold medals from SIAL, the world’s largest food show held bi-annually in Paris, for the Honey Drop product. The Honibe Honey Drop won a SIAL d’Or for Best New Product from Canada of 2010 and Best of the Sweet Grocery Category 2010. The Honibe Honey Drop was then announced as the grand prize winner of the Global Sial d’Or for the best new innovative food product, in the world, to come to market in the last two years.

John is very active in his community and local industry groups. A frequent volunteer and motivational speaker, John has presented for such groups as Rotary, the Young Farmers of PEI, UPEI’s School of Business, VetHealth, Farm Credit Canada’s Innovation Forum, the AGM of the Canadian Institute of Food Scientists, Health from the Land & Sea UK, Entrepreneur’s Forum, and Agriculture Canada’s Venture Capital Forum, among many others. John sits on several local industry boards and is VP of the Information Technology Association of PEI, Secretary of the Prince Edward Island Agri-Alliance, an Executive member of the Charlottetown Chamber of Commerce Business Under 40 and an Advisory Board member for UPEI’s Centre for Health and BioTech Management Research.

Anne has been employed with the Canadian federal government for over 18 years. She has held several positions within various branches of Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC). PWGSC is the common service agency for the Government of Canada, providing, among other services, procurement, accommodation, and information technology to various federal departments and agencies. Anne has been part of the OSME since it was created in the region in 2006. The objective of the OSME is to increase opportunities for small and medium enterprises to compete for government business. OSME is currently managing the Canadian Innovation and Commercialization Program (CICP) which helps kickstart businesses and get their innovative products and services from the lab to the marketplace.

Barrie is currently a member of several Boards and is the recipient of the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal, awarded in recognition of significant contributions made to Canada, to the community and to fellow Canadians. 

Barrie holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from Dalhousie University as well as a Master of Laws Degree from the University of London.

Rita Malone was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister, Regional Operations, Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development in August/2004. Ms. Malone joined the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1985 after an eight year career in Branch Management with a major commercial bank serving in branches in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Since joining government, she has held a number of progressively responsible positions throughout government including management positions with the Department of Transportation and Communications and Public Service Commission with responsibility for Western Newfoundland and Labrador regions. She has been involved in economic and community development in senior management positions with Newfoundland and Labrador Development Corporation, Department of Development and Rural Renewal and Department of Industry, Trade and Rural Development. Ms. Malone has been involved in a number of volunteer leadership positions at provincial and national level  including Chamber of Commerce, 1999 Canada Winter Games Board of Governors, Chair of Apparel Industry Development Conferences for Atlantic Canada, and Bid Chair for national and international sporting events including International Commonwealth Judo, Alpine Canada Ski Bid and Chair of Western Memorial Hospital Foundation as well as held other executive positions for charitable organizations including the Diabetes’s Association. She holds an undergraduate degree in Business Administration, completed fourth level CMA Program and the Executive Development Program, Memorial University. 

Prior to joining Innovacorp, Thomas worked in international trade and clean technology development for seven years with Jacques Whitford (Stantec) and the Province of Nova Scotia. Internationally, he has experience developing business in Northern Europe, the Arabian Gulf, the Caribbean, the US and Mexico.

Thomas has an MBA from Dalhousie University and a Certified Management Accountant accreditation from CMA Canada.

Giles Crouch is co-founder and CEO of MediaBadger, a digital research, analytics and intelligence firm in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has had a diverse, 20-year career in international business, government relations, and entrepreneurism. He is co-creator/founder of the Ice Awards creative advertising awards for Atlantic Canada and a l0 year advisor to the Entrepreneurs’ Forum.

Most recently Giles was co-chair of the Halifax branch of the Canadian International Council (CIC) where he served for five years. He has lectured on social technologies and international communications at Saint Mary’s University, Mount Saint Vincent University, Witwatersrand University (South Africa), and Kings College School of Journalism. Giles is a frequent guest speaker on News 95.7 FM on social media and has written articles for the Mark News, Lawyers Weekly and The Philanthropist magazine as well as regular appearances on Global News in Atlantic Canada.

Allan Gates is a Principal with New Brunswick-based REDGATE Communications. He works at the intersection of advertising, PR and social media. An agency veteran, he has held progressively senior roles with the agencies Colour and Extreme Group in Halifax, SHIFT Communications in Boston and Revolution Strategy in Saint John.

Saeed El-Darahali is the president and CEO of SimplyCast, a leading provider of self-service multi-channel marketing services empowering small businesses to create, manage and track their own online and offline marketing campaigns. 

He is the driving force behind SimplyCast's all-in-one marketing solution that has been built from the ground up and today has clients in over 175 countries. Saeed has participated as a speaker at many conferences, including NAWeb, CABI, the 7th World Congress of e-Business, Enterprize Atlantic and ARCN. A part-time lecturer at Saint Mary’s University, he has taught a senior level computer information systems course, System Analysis and Design. 

Saeed brings over seven years of management experience in the IT industry, with an interest in strategic partnering, corporate financing, strategic growth, operations, and sales and marketing management. Saeed most recently served as Acting CEO for the organization since January 2009 and mentor since January 2006. 

In his spare time, Saeed enjoys spending time with his family, fishing, running, playing computer games and web development. 

Saeed holds a Masters of Business Administration, a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, a Certificate of Human Resource Management and Minor in Economics, all from Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He enjoys sharing his experiences with start-up companies, offering insights into growing a business and becoming successful.

Peter Hogan is the Vice-President for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) in Nova Scotia.

He joined the Agency in 1993 as an Account Manager and, in 1994, became Acting Senior Account Manager with responsibility for various sectors, including information technology, biotechnology and life sciences. In 1999, Peter was appointed Director, Policy and Research. He became Director, Community Development in 2003 and, subsequently, assumed the position of Director General, Policy, Advocacy and Coordination in 2007. Prior to assuming the Vice-President role, Peter was Director General, Regional Operations and the “2IC” (second-in-command) for ACOA in Nova Scotia.

Peter holds a Bachelor of Science from Mount Allison University. He has also completed a Master of Business Administration from Queen’s University and a Master of Public Administration from Dalhousie University. Prior to joining the Government of Canada, Peter was a Senior Consultant with Grant Thornton Management Consultants in Halifax and before that held positions with the Prince Edward Island Development Agency and the Government of Prince Edward Island.

Permjot Valia, who is based in London, UK, is the founder and CEO of Help with Sales Ltd. He has been an active business angel for the last few years and has made to date over 28 investments in start ups (including five in Canada). He writes about his experience of Angel Investing on his blog www.businessangelblog.com

Permjot was the lead private investor and chair of one UK based company which he helped sell to a listed Swedish business. In 2010, Permjot was nominated by Techcrunch as one of the top Start up mentors in Europe. He regularly mentors companies in the UK, South Africa and Canada.

In 2007, Permjot co-founded Flight & Partners, a fund management business which buys and helps to turn around distressed businesses. The firm currently manages around $20m of assets.

Prior to launching his business, Permjot was involved in a sales career and his last employed position was as Sales & Marketing Director of Ernst & Young, Entrepreneurial Services, London.

Permjot holds the Investment Management Certificate and is approved by the Financial Services Authority in the UK to carry out investment business. He also holds an MBA from the Open University and has an Honours degree in Economics from the University of Leeds.  Permjot currently lives between London and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

After completing his academic studies at College of William and Mary, in America, Michael cut his teeth at J Sainsbury plc where he played an important role in the creation of the “Sainsbury’s To You” internet shopping offering and in other significant IT projects within J Sainsbury.

At the same time he became involved with a number of residential investments which introduced him to Angel investing. In January 2000 his brother Simon and he set up Avonmore Developments Ltd to specifically look at Angel investment opportunities into pre-revenue/ early stage businesses. He actively supports his investee companies from fundraising to strategy.To date, they’ve made over 19 investments across a range of sectors (but with a bias towards technology) and have achieved several notable exits. The latest being the sale of Commerce Decisons Ltd, (where they were the initial lead investor) to Qinetic in Q4 2008.

Current investments include Bybox Ltd (1st place in the Deloitte Fast 50 in 2007), Virtual IT (3rd place in the Deloitte Fast 50), Specle, Tagman, Language Lab and Groupspaces.

Nancy Mathis, Ph.D., P.Eng. FCAE, is the founding Executive Director of the Wallace McCain Institute at the University of New Brunswick. This role combines her experiences as the co-founder and innovative force behind Mathis Instruments with her teaching background at UNB. 

Prior to joining the Institute, Nancy spent 12 years as CEO of Mathis Instruments, a company established as a receptor to commercialize her Ph.D. research in Chemical Engineering.   The company raised 15M in venture capital and government funding to support the product development. Through several distribution methods, the resulting instruments, which measured a materials ability to transfer heat, were exported to 17 countries. The customer base included GE, Exxon Mobil, HP, IBM, Intel, Lucent, Proctor and Gamble, Whirlpool and Dow. The instruments were modified to operate wirelessly, thus opening up a market for real time monitoring during powder processing. At the time the company intellectual property was sold in 2007, the company had 18 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies as clients. 

Nancy has been recognized on a national scale with awards in innovation, entrepreneurship and engineering - as well as for supporting others in those fields. The most notable among these awards was the Manning Principle Award ($100,000) for the top innovation in Canada in 2003. She now serves on numerous boards in those areas of interest. Her passion is centered on creating an environment where entrepreneurs have a better chance of success.

Nancy can be reached at nancy.mathis@wallacemccaininstitute.com

Her LinkedIn profile is at http://www.linkedin.com/in/nancymathis

Matt’s focus is on the overall vision and strategy of Lymbix, including partnership development and sales, raising capital and talent acquisition. Born in Windsor, Nova Scotia and raised in Vancouver, B.C., Matt is a results driven leader and obsessed with creating value-based products and services that appeal to the mass market. His service motto is to take a customer-centric approach to business: listen, learn, and build products that your customers want. 

Matt is a serial, life long entrepreneur widely known for his track record having sold more than 100 franchises over a 30-month period across Canada as Partner and Director of Franchising at PropertyGuys.com.   

Jevon MacDonald is the CEO of GoInstant.com and he has spent the last decade building high technology businesses. Before co-founding GoInstant he was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Innovacorp, and he was senior partner at Dachis Group, an Austin, Texas-based start-up providing Social Business Design services and technology. He developed strategic alliances with companies such as IBM and Jive Software and helped the company grow from four employees to more than 100. Mr. MacDonald joined the Dachis Group through the acquisition of his previous start-up, Firestoker.com.

Mr. MacDonald is also the co-founder of, and a regular writer for, Startupnorth.ca, the leading voice of the start-up community in Canada. Startupnorth.ca hosts regular events such a StartupEmpire, Canada's largest start-up conference, and Founders and Funders, one of the premier start-up financing events in Canada.

Mr. MacDonald is also the co-founder of StartupIndex.ca, a database of Canadian start-ups and funders.

Milan has been active in the technology community for many years. His interests are varied, and include technology, business, and art. Winner of 2011 SIB Entrepreneur of the year award, Milan was involved in several startups on the west coast before he moved to Halifax to start a document security company TitanFile.

Ed Clarke is an experienced and successful entrepreneur with specific expertise in forming global networks and commercialization of technology. In 2001, Clarke founded inewsnetwork, the world’s only global news monitoring network, which now carries media data from over 84 countries on a single, common database. In July 2006, Clarke sold the balance of inewsnetwork shares to an early stage investor. Clarke then founded adfinitum, the world's largest advertising creative database which serves large global advertisers and advertising agencies. The adfinitum database offers advertisements from over 50 countries and is currently localized for use by Japanese, Mandarin, French, Spanish and German clients. Prior to his start up experience, Clarke attained an MBA (International) from the University of Ottawa. 

Dominique Bélanger joined the BDC in 2010. As such, he is responsible for the operationalization of the venture capital strategy, internal and external communications, market intelligence as well as any other strategic initiatives for the BDC Venture Capital group.

Before joining the BDC, Dominique was co-founder & President of Gamerizon Studio, Inc. Previously, he held the position of Chief Financial Officer of the venture-backed Quazal Technologies, Inc. He also advised various technology companies and private investors on investments, financing, start-ups and re-starts. Dominique started his professional career as a communications officer for the Canadian Armed Forces in 1994. Then, he delivered multiple IT Strategy operationalization mandates across multiple industries for Deloitte Consulting in Houston (Texas). In 2003, Dominique came back to Montreal to join the VC firm Innovatech Montreal as Investment Manager, IT & Telecom. Following the privatization of Innovatech’s portfolio by the Quebec Government, he joined the Multiple Capital team to manage the portfolio for Coller Capital.

Dominique holds an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the Royal Military College of Canada as well as a MBA from the University of Montreal business school, HEC Montreal. He is the father of 2 sons and resides in Montreal.