David brings 20 years of telecommunications and technology experience with innovation and industry leaders like NBTel, MT&T, iMagicTV and Alcatel. David’s product development and commercialization firsts include MT&T's MPoweredPC, Canada's first consumer DSL service with on-demand software store, and the world class iMagicTV and Alcatel IPTV platforms and applications for telecom digital TV.

As the VP of Innovation at T4G, David fosters a culture of creating customer value through innovation collisions inside and outside of T4G.

Tapajyoti Das is the co-founder and CEO of LeadSift, where he is the hustler, hacker and dreamer. Prior to LeadSift he was the Lead Programmer at WebActionHero and a Research Engineer at Genieknows. He is currently completing his Masters in computer science from Dalhousie University.

Dan Martell is the co-founder of Clarity a service that lets you get advice from the worlds best entrepreneurs over the phone. Previously he co-founded Flowtown a social marketing platform for small businesses, which was acquired by DemandForce.com in October 2011.

Frank McKinnon is a vice president of customer experience with 2nd Act Innovations - a Halifax-based firm that has developed Oris4, an innovative cloud-based solution focused upon enterprise content management and collaboration.  Frank, a former Associate Partner with the Barrington Consulting Group, has over 13 years experience in the business and IT consulting services industry serving clients throughout North America. Frank’s focus has been business solution delivery with expertise in technical project management and internet/mobile application design and delivery.   Frank has a Commerce degree from Dalhousie University, an Applied Information Technology (AIT) diploma from the Information Technology Institute (ITI) and is a Project Management Professional (PMP).

Nimeshh Patel has over 13 years of experience in the Investment Banking, Telecoms, Media and Internet sectors. His expertise lies in building strategies for profitability improvement through restructuring, operational excellence, and investment or partnership development.

He is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Accelerate Worldwide Limited, a commercial management firm focused on creating commercial advantage, brand value and in delivering results that ultimately maximise a company’s potential. They provide advisory (Turnaround, Revenue Enhancement) and transaction (Commercial Development, M&A, Capital raising)services to companies operating across the Internet, Media and Retail sectors.

Cheryl L. Paynter

Actively involved in community, Cheryl is a board member and Co-Chairs the Prince Edward Island Marathon and also sits on the Board of Governor's of the Atlantic Canada Economic Council.

Gerry Pond has over 45 years of experience in the ICT sector. He is currently the Chairman of Mariner, a company he co-founded in 2003. Mariner is one of the largest independently owned IT companies in Atlantic Canada, and is a leading provider of Video Service Oriented Monitoring^TM (vSOM) and management platforms for multiscreen networks. The Mariner Innovations division has expertise in application development, modernization and support/maintenance services. Mariner has a reputation for innovation; it supports new start-up IT businesses by providing financial support and access to both management and technical expertise.

Headquartered in Saint John, N.B., the company employs a staff of over 150 professionals with offices located across Canada, and has a growing customer base throughout North America, the Pacific Rim, EMEA and the Caribbean.

As the former CEO of NBTel (now Bell Aliant) and the former CEO of software start-up iMagicTV Inc., (acquired by Alcatel in 2003) Gerry is a passionate advocate of innovation. Over the past 10 years, he has co-founded 10 technology start-up companies. He is a Co-Founder of East Valley Ventures, a company dedicated to accelerating the growth of ICT companies in Atlantic Canada. He was a Co-Founder and Past Chairman of Radian6 (acquired by Salesforce.com in 2011) and Past Chairman of Q1 Labs (acquired by IBM in 2011).

In recognition of his achievements in innovation, Gerry was named “Innovator of the Year” in 1997 and inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Canadian Information Productivity Association. In 2011, Gerry was awarded “Canadian Angel of the Year” by Techvibes presented by KPMG.

A graduate of UNB (BA’66), Gerry received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University in 2005. In 2011, he co-founded the Pond-Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UNB, devoted to both social and economic enterprises.

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.

Garnett is Co-founder and CEO of Afinin Labs Inc., Adjunct Assistant Professor at Dalhousie University, and Member of the Order of Wallace McCain. Garnett received his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Dalhousie Univeristy in 2007. He specializes in the use of machine learning for financial analysis and algorithmic trading.