Volunteers

Our Community

Volunteers

Our volunteers create innovative roadmaps for social change by prioritizing alignment, positionality, communication, shared values, and cross-sector coordination. Our Board of Directors, the Alumni Council, and Employer Advisory Council are examples of cross-sector advisors driving change and impact.

We deeply value the time of the individuals in each group:

Board of directors

100% of our board donates to support the Scholarships that make Fellowship program possible
And with additional volunteer support, they helped Venture for Canada break down barriers to entrepreneurship by raising over $90,000 in scholarship funding for our 2023 Fellows
Our board members are representatives from coast to coast and help ensure we have a national perspective of the entrepreneurial ecosystem

Parm Gill

Board Chair

Managing Partner, Gill Group

Vanessa Paesani

Vice-Chair, Chair of Governance & HR Committee

Principal & Executive Coach, The Folding Chair Group Ltd.

Stewart Beck

Chair of Finance & Risk Committee

Canada-Asia Foreign and Trade Policy Expert, Former Canadian High Commissioner to India

Josh MacIntyre

Head of Revenue Operations, Grammarly

Laura Buhler

Former Executive Director, C100

Thomas Parker

Co-founder & Lead Partner, BDC Deep Tech Fund

Narinder Dhami

Managing Partner at Marigold Capital

Bruce Sellery

CEO, Credit Canada Debt Solutions

Irfhan Rawji

Founder & CEO MobSquad

Alumni Council

24 Alumni gave workshops or spoke on panels as relatable experts 2022.
34 selected incoming Fellows as Selection Event Judges
22 donated to support the Scholarships that make Fellowship accessible.
And 5 jumped to the other side of the screen, representing VFC's work in asking our community for those donations.
And 16 gave time, energy, and commitment to shaping the the future of Alumni Programming at VFC as Directors on the Alumni Council.
And overall, in 2022, the Alumni Community grew to 450.

Alex Baccellieri

Alumni Council Chair

Sam Daviau

Alumni Council Chair

Connor Frankenberger

Online Community Director

Katheleen Eva

Alumni Strategy Director

Christoph Fischer

Alumni Summit Co-Director

David Oladejo

Regional Events Director - Ontario

Ryan Threndyle

Regional Events Director - Atlantic Canada

Diego Garcia Awad

Regional Events Director - Quebec

Fareeha Salahuddin

Regional Events Director - Western Canada

Calla McLachlan

Programming Director and Alumni Summit Co-Director

Alexandra Erb

Programming Director

Andy Kim

Programming Director

Oluwamayowa Oduwole

DEI Director

Annika Lui

DEI Director

Martina Montero

Alumni Summit Co-Director

Employer advisory council

We launched our 2nd Employer Advisory Council (EAC) in 2022.

The council consists of 13 employers across nine provinces, including two Indigenous organizations, as well as organizations focused on supporting People of Colour in the entrepreneurial community.
The EAC is committed to innovation and helps VFC to evaluate our ideas, such as new program launches and revenue initiatives.
This past year, they've helped us with many of our projects, such as ideating for our All Things People Conference, assisting us in evaluating our programs' impact, and helping us think about what the Council should look like moving forward.
This strategic initiative responds to VFC’s commitment to cross-sector collaboration, user-centric program design, and diverse representation.
4 EAC members gave workshops or spoke on panels as relatable experts 2022.