John Pickard
ENTREPRENEUR IN RESIDENCE, MARKET READINESS PROGRAM
Bioenterprise, GuelphJohn Pickard brings over 25 years as a seasoned sales and marketing strategist. He has held senior management positions in the consumer packaged goods, publishing and telecom industries. John began his sales and marketing management career with Bristol-Myers, and then the Adams Brands division of Warner-Lambert. John later joined Telemedia Publishing, then Canada’s largest consumer magazine publisher, transforming his division from a distributor to a profitable sales and marketing entity. John entered the entrepreneurial ranks in 1997 when he joined start-up Cardinal VoiceCard, turning the company into Canada’s most successful prepaid telephony service company. John’s major chain store experience resulted in Cardinal acquiring exclusive contracts with Wal-Mart, Shoppers Drug Mart, Petro-Canada, Couche-Tard and other national retailers. He steered the company through three acquisitions in the course of five years, which ultimately led to the sale of the company to AT&T. Following this, John founded Accolade Innovations in 2002 to develop Canada’s first Mobile Virtual Network. John holds a degree in Economics from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.