Entrepreneurs Debate Series: Arlene Dickinson, Nitin Kawale, Greg Taylor, and moderator John Stackhouse
Breaking Through The Barriers: How Do We Create Successful Entrepreneurs in Canada?
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The Entrepreneurs Debate Series brings together industry veterans, public sector leaders, and the entrepreneur community to discuss key issues related to entrepreneurship in Canada. The expert panel discussed the main barriers to growth for entrepreneurs. Is the issue limited talent and knowledge of how to run a business by entrepreneurs, or are the challenges primarily external, with an unsupportive entrepreneurial culture in Canada?
Arlene Dickinson is one of Canada’s most renowned independent marketing communications entrepreneurs. As CEO of Venture Communications, her creative and strategic approach has turned the company into a powerhouse with a blue chip client list. She is also the CEO of YouInc.com, a company she founded in 2012 that is dedicated to serving and investing in entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial lifestyle.
Dickinson is best known to Canadians as one of the venture capitalists on the award-winning CBC series Dragons’ Den, The Big Decision and marketing expert on Recipe to Riches. She is the author of two books, the number one best-selling book, Persuasion and her most recent best-selling release, All In.
Her success and leadership has been recognized with multiple honours and awards including: Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100, the Pinnacle Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence, RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award Winner, as well as PROFIT and Chatelaine’s TOP 100 Women Business Owners.
A generous philanthropist, supporter of many important causes and mother of four and grandmother of five, Dickinson is proud to be the national spokesperson for The Breakfast Clubs of Canada since 2010.
Dickinson is an Honorary Captain of the Royal Canadian Navy and is the recipient of honorary degrees from Mount Saint Vincent University, Saint Mary’s University and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. She sits on the Leadership Council of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and is the proud recipient of The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Nitin Kawale joined Rogers as President, Enterprise Business Unit on December 1, 2014. Nitin will be responsible for the delivery of the company’s Enterprise business strategy and commercial plan covering Small and Medium Business, Enterprise and Public Sector customers. Kawale reports to CEO Guy Laurence and be a member of the Executive team.
Kawale joins Rogers from Cisco Systems Canada Co where he held the position of President since 2008 with responsibility for all aspects of the Canadian operation including sales, marketing, finance, distribution and services. He’s been with Cisco since 1995 serving a variety of domestic and international roles including: Worldwide Strategy and Worldwide Mobility as well as Cisco Canada executive roles in Enterprise, Small and Medium Business, and Public Sector businesses. Under his leadership, Cisco Canada doubled in size becoming the third largest revenue producing country for Cisco globally.
Nitin holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree from the University of Toronto.
Greg Taylor began working in the craft brewing industry in 1989, working at several Ontario microbreweries in senior executive positions. In 1999 he co-founded Steam Whistle Brewing and has helped to shape its unique marketing strategies and renowned workplace culture. The brewery has gone on to win many accolades including a 2012 Gold Medal at the Canadian Brewing Awards, being named one of Canada’s Greenest Employers and a seven-time winner as one of “Canada’s Best Managed Companies”. Taylor himself has been recognized as an “Entrepreneur of the Year” in Ernst and Young’s annual competition to recognize the outstanding business success of Canada’s Entrepreneurs.
As Senior Vice-President in the Office of the CEO at Royal Bank of Canada, John Stackhouse is adviser to the executive leadership team and board of directors on economic, political and social affairs, and a champion for the bank on public policy. Before joining RBC in January 2015, Stackhouse was editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail, and led the news organization through the launch of a paid website, mobile apps and a historic redesign of the newspaper. He was previously the Globe’s business editor, foreign editor and, for seven years, a foreign correspondent based in New Delhi, India. His reporting won five National Newspaper Awards. Stackhouse has interviewed a host of world leaders, including Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush, the Aga Khan, Aung San Suu Kyi and Benazir Bhutto. He has also written two books, Out of Poverty and Timbit Nation, and is due to publish a third, Mass Disruption: How the Digital Revolution is Changing What You Read, in Fall 2015. He is a senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, and the C.D. Howe Institute, and serves on the boards of Saint Elizabeth Health Care and World Literacy Canada. RBC is Canada’s largest publicly traded company, and the world’s 12th largest bank, with approximately 78,000 employees and $940.6 billion in assets.
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