Panel to explore Atlantic Canada start-up success stories
Author: UNB Newsroom
Posted on Oct 17, 2022
Category: UNB Fredericton , UNB Saint John
An impressive line-up of leaders in the entrepreneurship ecosystem will gather this week for a panel discussion sponsored by the University of New Brunswick (UNB).
Billed as the best opportunity to hear how to build a successful company in Atlantic Canada, Entrevestor Live is an event dedicated to showcasing success stories among Atlantic Canadian start-ups.
During this half-day hybrid offering on Oct. 20, UNB will host a fireside chat with Sandy Bird, Co-Founder and CTO of Sonrai Security and Jeff White, CEO of New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. Moderated by Sally Ng, new CEO of Wallace McCain Institute, the panel begins at 2:35 p.m.
The event takes place at Volta in Halifax and will also be live-streamed. Get tickets.
Meet the panel
Sandy Bird was a co-founder and CTO of Fredericton’s Q1 Labs, a cybersecurity company that was purchased by IBM for a reported price of more than $600 million. He went on to become the CTO of IBM Security, Big Blue’s cybersecurity R&D arm. Now he is CTO of Fredericton- and New York-based Sonrai Security, which provides security for enterprise clients using the cloud. The company has raised approximately C$100 million and was the subject of Gordon Pitts' book Unicorn in the Woods.
Appearing with Bird is Jeff White, CEO of New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. White has been a trailblazer among finance teams in the Atlantic Canadian start-up community, serving as the CFO of both Radian6 and Q1 Labs. He is a technology industry veteran and a founding member of the East Valley Ventures investment group. White's experience gives him a unique perspective in his role as CEO of NBIF, a not-for-profit organization that supports innovation in New Brunswick through applied research grants and venture capital investment.
The event will be moderated by Sally Ng, CEO of the Wallace McCain Institute. Ng has held several leadership positions in start-up ecosystems in Atlantic Canada and elsewhere. In addition to having facilitated TechStars’ Startup Weekends around the world, she was the founding executive director for Planet Hatch and has consulted with such groups as the Joint Economic Development Initiative and Startup Zone.