Mei Burgin

Lead Executive, Knowledge and Insights

Mei is a serial innovator. Among her many passions, she loves to ask questions, foster new ideas, and fuel values-based leadership. In 2018, Mei joined MaRS as director of market intelligence, helping to build a world-class team accelerating startup growth. Through industry expertise and strategic data partnerships, she helped thousands of startups across Canada understand their markets, validate hypotheses, and earn credibility with investors. Currently, Mei also oversees the organization’s entrepreneurship programs, including expert-led courses, peer-to-peer and advisory sessions, digital learning (the Startup Toolkit), and MaRS Talent, which provides niche advisory programs and tools to help startups develop an early investment in employees, HR, and employer brand foundations.

Mei has a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Toronto, specializing in information systems and human-centered systems design. As an undergrad, she was president of the industrial engineers’ society, and led fundraising initiatives for Engineers Without Borders. In 2002, she joined IBM as a market analyst, advising global executives on new opportunities, competitive strategy, and customer behaviour. She advanced to portfolio leader, overseeing the development of IBM’s Smarter Planet industry solutions, before taking on a number of senior marketing roles, including North American marketing lead for cloud and blockchain products, and Canadian market insights lead, assessing business challenges and defining growth strategies using research and data analytics. Mei was also chair of the Canadian Marketing Association’s B2B Council, board president for a non-profit childcare organization, and has led numerous community groups.