Meredith Powell

Founder, The Next Big Thing

Meredith comes from a long line of pioneers & entrepreneurs.   She co-founded her first apparel distribution company at 26, then took another leap of faith and went out on her own to found sister international brand & business management agencies in the fashion industry. She stepped away from a coveted six figure job to do it, took out a small business loan and launched from her apartment in Vancouver, BC.

Seven years later, Meredith had earned platinum frequent flyer status working with top clients around the world including H&M, Saks and Urban Outfitters, sat front row at New York Fashion Week, dressed the likes of Sarah Jessica Parker & Julia Roberts and garnered editorial in the NY Times, Nylon & Vogue.

With deep experience leading trends and scaling brands rapidly from zero to millions of dollars in revenue, she's built her career on amplifying ideas & knowing 'The Next Big Thing' when she sees it.

Amy Rae

Principal, Vanedge Capital

Amy Rae is a Principal at Vanedge Capital. She is the former Vice President & General Manager of Mobile and Social Commerce with Ziplocal (USA) where she was responsible for the development of their local search apps and new digital product rollout. Prior to that she held the position of Director of Business Development at Canpages after they acquired Ziplocal Canada. 

In this capacity at both companies, she leveraged her deal-making and relationship building skills to attract and broker new partnerships to enhance their online local search businesses.

Amy’s previous venture capital experience was as an Associate with JLA Venture Partners (co-managing partner of the Blackberry Partners Fund) where she provided due diligence and investment candidate screening that eventually let to the financing deal that saw the formation of ZipLocal in August 2006. Prior to joining JLA, she was an Analyst with Latitude Partners, a private equity and strategic advisory firm focused on the technology sector.

Amy holds a BComm with a finance specialization.

Amielle Lake

Founder, Tagga

Amielle is the Founder and CRO of Tagga, easy to use software that helps brands run cross-channel campaigns.

Prior to founding Tagga, Amielle held a range of executive marketing and corporate development roles across the software, financial services and mining market sectors. Amielle founded Tagga in 2008 and lead the development of Tagga until 2012. 

She currently sits on the board for MMA Canada, the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, NextMedia, and DigiBC. Amielle was selected by Business in Vancouver for their Top 40 under 40 list in 2012, and by Mobilemarketer.com for their global Top 50 Women in Mobile list in 2010. She is also a nominee for the YMCA Young Women of Distinction award in 2012.

Amielle holds an MBA, a BA, and is a published author. Published by Macmillan, the book entitled, The Elephant Hunters: Chronicles of the Moneymen, is about how social interactions determine outcomes in the financial world.

Bonnie Foley Wong

Founder, Pique Ventures

Bonnie has over 15 years experience working in finance and investment fields.  Her expertise spans financial analysis, structured finance, investment decision-making, business models, and complex systems.

She has worked closely with entrepreneurs and senior decision-makers in small to large businesses, professional services firms, financial institutions, large investment funds, not-for-profits, and social purpose businesses.

For the last three years, Bonnie has been improving access to social finance and impact capital for entrepreneurial organizations and businesses through her compnay Pique Ventures.  At Pique Bonnie works with people who are committed to investing in an integrated way, by making and supporting investment decisions that integrate emotion, intuition, and body alongside analysis.