EiRs

Todd Dunlop was born an entrepreneur. It all started as a kid in the Toronto suburbs, pushing a lawn mower and turning a profit running his own neighborhood lawn service. A few years later, Todd made his way over to the west coast and graduated from Royal Road’s Entrepreneurship Program.

Shortly after graduation Todd founded Neverblue, a Victoria based performance marketing company. Within five short years, Neverblue experienced year over year revenue growth and employed seventy people. Todd sold Neverblue in early 2008 and went on to found Beta Street, a Victoria-based tech company incubator & angel fund.

Todd has launched or funded ten different Victoria-based companies through Beta Street. Some of these companies include Tap for Tap, Mobile17.com and RingPartner. Today, he is an active partner & advisor for Beta Street and the President & Founder of RingPartner. His days are busy but he wouldn’t have it any other way. He is a huge proponent of the 5am Miracle Morning and powers up with cricket protein bars (he is always willing to share this tasty snack).

Todd has been honored with a number of awards including the Business Development Bank of Canada’s Young Entrepreneur Award. As VIATeC’s Entrepreneur in Residence he is excited to connect with Victoria’s up and coming tech start-ups.

In his free time Todd can be found hanging out with his wife and three awesome kids, cycling and running.

As an Executive in Residence for VIATEC, David is thrilled to bring his experience and coaching credentials to help entrepreneurs accelerate the profitable growth of their company. 
David brings 30 years of leadership experience in the high tech industry with both large global companies (Nortel Networks & Oracle Software ) & smaller companies (Radiant Networks & Bel Air Networks)   David is also a Certified Executive Coach from the Royal Roads University Program. 

As CEO of Radiant David is keenly aware of “the iceberg principle” ….it is always 10x worse than on paper and usually the dangers are “under water”   He led their financial turnaround, strategic vision, operating plan & cultural transformation.  Under David’s leadership Radiant’s revenues grew from $17M to $33M and turned a substantial loss into a profitable company.  The strategic planning process resulting with the company re-inventing itself introducing new products all with higher margin contribution.  These two new products generated $3.2M annualized revenue in their first 14 months.   

David also brings international experience as President of Nortel’s Wireline division for Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) HQ’ed in London, England accountable for $655M in revenue and managing 165 staff across 15 countries.  He can relate to the mandate of the United Nations!   He also lived and led account teams in the “deep south” of the United States but never acquired a taste for “grits”   David has negotiated complex global business agreements and partnerships in over 35 countries.

A graduate of the Universities of Guelph & Waterloo he is a lifelong learner having applied learnings from Dalhousie University’s MBA program, Queens University Executive Program, Harvard’s Kennedy School on Negotiation, MIT & the Center for Creative Leadership course & Royal Roads University’s masters’ certificate in executive coaching. David’s Board experience includes Radiant Networks, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT Polytechnic), Alberta Microelectronics Centre, Calgary Research & Development Authority, and the New Media Centre of British Columbia.
What turns David’s crank has always been helping and watching talented people realize their potential growing and succeeding  professionally and in business. 
Outside of business David can be found kayaking the west coast or skiing & snowboarding  some local slopes.

As an Executive in Residence for VIATEC, Mark is excited about helping Victoria’s entrepreneurs accelerate the profitable growth of their promising start-ups.

Prior to becoming an Executive in Residence, Mark was the president and CEO of Contech Enterprises Inc., a technology based company that provided green pest management products for consumers. While at Contech, revenues grew by more than five times by expanding distribution networks, driving world leading science and adding complementary acquisitions. Contech was sold to The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company in 2015, the world's largest marketer of branded consumer lawn and garden products.

Prior to Contech, Mark was the vice president and general manager for JM Huber Corporation, one of the largest family owned, privately held companies in the US. While at Huber, he led the turnaround of a $170m specialty chemical business that resulted in EBIT growing from $5m to 18m in two years. Previously, Mark had a number of different roles in development, marketing, production and strategy with Mercedes-Benz while based in in Germany with projects in South Africa, Latin America and the US.

Mark has an MBA from IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland and an engineering degree from the University of Victoria, Canada.

Outside of business, Mark enjoys spending time with his wife and two kids and can commonly be found coaching at the rink or ballpark or sailing around BC’s south coast.

Scott Lake
Partner Hello Ventures

Scott Lake is a startup entrepreneur, tech investor and philanthropist.  He is best known as the co-founder of Shopify (NYSE: SHOP), then later as founder of Source Metrics.

Currently, Scott is a General Partner at Hello Ventures where he leverages all the learning from his entrepreneurial journeys to invest in and advise early stage tech companies.

Scott also plays an active role with his wife Jess as philanthropic funders of diverse social and public health causes. 

In his past lives, he's has been a bike messenger, a university lecturer, a driver at NATO and holds a PhD in Political Science.

For most of his career Geoff has been an IT Management Consultant and Project Manager, with over 35 years experience working for major consulting firms, and as an independent consultant. He developed wide-ranging skills as a project manager, business developer, problem solver, creator of teams, manager of change, and spotter/recruiter of talent.  Geoff has demonstrated the ability to work with or within both the public and private sectors.

In 2007 Geoff, together with his wife Leanne started a charity supporting vulnerable children in Uganda.  The Canadian charity supports an Indigenous Ugandan NGO that provides the support to the children. Leanne and Geoff frequently travel to Uganda to meet with the children and staff and audit the projects that their charity funds.

Shelley has spent her career bringing innovative digital products and services to market for consumer brands and start-ups alike. Brands like Nokia whose first mobile gaming platform she helped bring to life, and Vivendi Universal/Sierra On-line whom she assisted with their first foray into massively multiplayer games.

Shelley creates brands and experiences that resonate--helping companies differentiate themselves in increasingly competitive markets. She’s worked with numerous start-ups to find to find their niche and first revenue agreements like leading VR gaming company Cloudhead Games, Branium--an award-winning online curriculum product which she brought to North American schools--and a host of others.  She even founded her own start-up, Zuzee, an award-winning web/mobile app for tweens.

She’s a sales and marketing maven, applying both traditional and digital tactics that generate long-term revenue. Shelley loves validating market opportunities and defining go-to-market plans that help companies find their best path to success.