The Why, When & How of Boards for “Startups”

Aroon Sequeira

FCA, FCBV, ICD.D

Aroon Sequeira is a seasoned corporate finance professional, entrepreneur and board director. His career has included mergers, acquisitions, capital raising and business valuation advisory services for private and public companies across a broad spectrum of industries. Aroon is the founder of Sequeira Partners and prior to that, the managing partner of the Edmonton office of a Big 4 accounting firm. 
 
Over his career, Aroon has been involved with 12 startups/early-stage organizations with outcomes ranging from tremendously successful to one dismal failure and everything in between. His current board involvement includes the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation, First Industries Corporation, RAM Elevators & Lifts Inc., Black Owl Systems Inc., Laker Coffee Inc., the New Buffalo Education Institute and the Business Council of Alberta. Aroon is also on the Stewardship Roundtable of End Poverty Edmonton and the CPA Alberta Anti-Racism Advisory Group, and is a member of the Edmonton Chapter Executive Committee of the Institute of Corporate Directors. This current roster includes four early-stage organizations.
 
Aroon earned a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Alberta School of Business and holds the FCPA, FCBV and ICD.D designations.

Hon. Doug Schweitzer

Opening Comments

Minister Schweitzer was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta on April 16, 2019, as the MLA for Calgary-Elbow.
 
A dedicated husband, father of two young girls and a long-serving community volunteer, Schweitzer has a strong record of public service, including previously raising funds for military families and serving as Vice Chair of the Calgary Drug Treatment Court. He is passionate about restoring Alberta's promise – an Alberta in which, no matter where you came from, if you worked hard, you could succeed.
 
Schweitzer was a partner at a leading Alberta law firm as a restructuring and bankruptcy lawyer. This experience gave him a first-hand view of the staggering impacts of failed policies that have led to job losses, economic stagnation and a loss of hope.
Schweitzer was appointed as Alberta’s Minister of Jobs, Economy and Innovation on August 25, 2020. Schweitzer will oversee the implementation of Alberta’s Recovery Plan, its sector strategies and Alberta’s growth agenda.
 
Schweitzer previously held the position of Alberta’s Minister of Justice and Solicitor General where he made important progress tackling rural crime, advancing aspects of the fair deal panel report recommendations, and creating a faster, fairer and more responsible justice system.

Dr. Mina Zarabian

Dr. Mina Zarabian is the Co-founder and CEO of Carbonova Corp. Her decade of research experience in chemistry, catalysis and materials engineering coupled with a passion to diversify the economy through clean technologies guided her towards co-founding Carbonova.
 
Carbonova's vision is to develop a circular economy model that looks at waste and pollution as our new untapped natural resources. Carbonova’s technology is being scaled up and commercialized to produce carbon nanofibers for a wide range of applications including plastics, rubbers, tires and batteries. It is a technology that reduces GHG emissions and contributes to economic growth.
 
Mina has a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Chemical Engineering from the University of Calgary; a master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the Sharif University of Technology; and a bachelor’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the Iran University of Science and Technology.

Shawn Abbott

Shawn Abbott co-founded Inovia Capital in 2007 alongside Chris Arsenault, after spending more than 25 years as a successful founder and executive. He serves as a director on the boards of several Inovia portfolio companies (Top Hat, WorkFusion, Bench and Olameter), and is an active coach and mentor to several entrepreneurs in the tech ecosystem. Shawn was also founding Chair of the Alberta 100 Tech Entrepreneurs and played an important role in relaunching the VCAA.
 
Prior to Inovia, Shawn was the President of publicly-traded security powerhouse Rainbow Technologies. He holds the first patent as an inventor of the USB key, and multiple other patents in online banking and security.
 
Shawn has a degree in physics from the University of Alberta, and performed post-graduate studies at the University of Calgary and Stanford. He is an outdoor enthusiast, and an active airplane and helicopter pilot.

Nicole Janssen

Nicole Janssen is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of AltaML, a Canadian artificial intelligence scaleup that designs and implements applied AI solutions for businesses. In her role, Nicole is responsible for overseeing the growth of AltaML’s business, which spans multiple sectors including agriculture, financial services, health and energy.
 
Nicole is actively involved in helping Canadian business leaders understand the importance of ethical AI, and has been recognized by AI Global for this work. Prior to AltaML, Nicole co-founded Janalta Interactive Inc., an online media company, as well as Stratus Holdings Inc., a private real estate investment firm. Nicole is active in her local community and currently serves as a Director at Innovate Edmonton as well as Mitacs. Nicole holds a B.Comm. in international business from the University of Alberta.