Growth Acceleration Program

Krista has been the driving force behind the creation of Momentum, a MaRS program helping scaling Canadian companies reach $100 million in revenue by 2024. Krista has been a passionate innovator and builder of technology-based businesses for over 30 years. She has spent her career working in and advising over 200 organizations, including public companies, high-growth firms and startups. Krista is an engineer, entrepreneur, mentor and expert problem solver. She has a unique combination of strategic, technical, operational and marketing expertise. And she is known for her comprehensive knowledge of the existing and emerging enterprise tech stack (architectures, technologies) and commercialization practices. Her greatest joys come from working with and learning from diverse, talented and ambitious people, as well as being a mother to three amazing young adults.

Scale-up experience:

• CEO of TransGaming (now FinDev, TSX-V: FDI), a leading digital media company Previously served as CFO/COO
• Took company public via RTO and raised over $25M
• Through strategic M&A acquired key talent and titles/brands to become first cloud-based games provider in cable TV segment
• CFO of Viron Therapeutics
• Raised US$20M Series B including venture and strategic investors

• Directly involved in over $500M of financing and M&A transactions in the past 10 years
• Past-CEO of Equation Angels, Canada's second largest Angel network, whose model he helped architect in 2017
• Investor and Past-Chair of the Board of Sensory Technologies, a health-tech venture
• Chartered Business Valuator

• Strategic Planning
• Inorganic growth / M&A
• Pitching for capital
• Mentorship

Asvini leads projects focused on the implementation of strategic priorities across the MaRS Venture Services team. Most recently, she’s helped run the Women in Cleantech Challenge, a joint collaboration between MaRS and Natural Resources Canada. The goal of the challenge is to identify and empower top female innovators from across the country who are developing technologies to tackle the world’s most daunting environmental challenges. Prior to joining MaRS, Asvini worked at Oracle Canada where she headed projects that introduced customized software solutions to improve operational efficiency and client management processes. Before that, Asvini worked at a boutique consulting firm where she helped clients develop their learning and development strategy. Asvini has an MBA from the Schulich School of Business, York University, and a B.A. in economics from the University of British Columbia.

Aoife manages client engagement for two intensive programs at MaRS, including leading the recruitment strategy and onboarding process for companies. She is passionate about helping entrepreneurs, meeting new people and building relationships. Prior to joining MaRS, Aoife worked at EY where she managed the Entrepreneur Of The Year Program for Ontario. Aoife has an MSc in Marketing Practice from the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and a BComm from University College Cork.

Scale-up experience: CEO of Argus Software

• Scaled to $60M ARR/$15M EBIT
• >80,000 customers in nine countries with 40,000 SMB users
• Transitioned company to SaaS model

• Company in turn-around; stabilized and refocused business to supporting 2.4M daily travelers
• Launched an innovative customer experience

• Ranked Wall Street analyst, Managing Director RBC Capital Markets. Covered B2B, B2B2C and other tech companies
• President, Rogers New Media
• BS/MS Engineering MIT; MBA from Harvard
• Creative Destruction Lab Mentor

• Optimizing your value proposition, demand generation and product value pricing strategies
• Positioning your company for success in public markets and late-stage financing, including understanding and managing investor and board stakeholder perspectives

Tony leverages over 25 years of sales and senior leadership experience to challenge and inspire the next wave of Founders in achieving their unrealized potential. He guides management teams in executing growth plans and achieving consistent success where previously they had struggled to meet business objectives. Tony rose through the ranks of Gartner, a leading global research and advisory company. During his tenure, Gartner grew by driving 30+ consecutive quarters of double-digit growth. From individual contributor and sales management to sales leadership and senior corporate leadership, Tony’s charge: to drive consistent growth and retention programs that accelerate business performance across new and tenured sales professionals. As a MaRS Senior Advisor, Tony drives Growth Marketing and Sales Programming for Founders/CEOs and Sales Executives. He mentors’ entrepreneurs, supplying them with the necessary tools, skills and networks to accelerate consistent Growth results. Helping startups prepare for long-term scalability and consistent success. He currently works with ventures at MaRS, MaRS IAF, Stand Up Ventures and BDC.

Scale-up Experience:

• Global CMO of Ceridian
• Scaled Dayforce from $0 to $20M leading to acquisition by Ceridian
• Led Ceridian marketing team to most successful tech IPO of 2018 and $1B in revenue
• Restructured marketing organization into Revenue Center of Excellence leading to 40% of revenue driven by marketing
• VP Marketing of Workbrain
• Scaled Workbrain from $10 to $200M leading to acquisition by Infor
• Grew marketing organization from team of two to 20 people

• Founder of ACCELLE Women in Leadership, which accelerates the personal and professional success of women
• Board member of Orion Talent, Trios College

• All things pre-sales and marketing: brand, awareness, demand generation, PR, performance marketing, etc.
• Sales and marketing operations
• Leadership, organisation structure and team engagement
• Corporate scorecards, metrics and analytics

Scale-up experience:

• HR executive for several later-stage companies
• Scaled headcount from 30-50% YOY
• Significantly decreased turnover and re-engaged employees
• Supported the HR integration of two smaller companies and spun out of another

• Co-author of 2021/22 People Benchmarking Report for High Growth SaaS Companies
• Frequent contributor to The Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, HR Reporter
• Top 25 Human Resource Award winner

• M&A cultural integration
• Building a magnetic employer value proposition
• How do you measure up to external HR benchmarks

A senior, award winning global executive leader with over 30 years’ experience, serving in roles such as Chief People Officer, Global Head of Talent as well as SVP, Human Resources for several multinational organizations. Faith is an entrepreneur, Principal & Founder of Infinite Potential HR Consulting & Coaching. She is currently working part time as a Senior Advisor, Talent at MaRS Discovery District. She also recently instructed part-time at York University in the disciplines of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources Management. Faith serves as an active Professional Advisory Committee board member for degree programs for Sheridan College. Most recently, Faith has been awarded the 2021 induction into the Sheridan College, Pilon School of Business Hall of Fame. Faith has expertise and specialization in: Talent Management, Organizational Design & Development, HR Strategic Planning, Succession Planning, Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, Employee Relations, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Public speaking as well as media and public relations. Faith’s background has given her broad experience across industries such as, Technology, Pharmaceutical, Engineering, Manufacturing, HR Services, and Insurance.

Scale-up Experience: Head of Drug Development at Allelix Biopharmaceuticals

• Successful product development partnership with multinational Pharma
• Team member raising venture capital financing and eventual IPO
• Early-stage research through to clinical development

• Growth of drug development programs from 10 staff to over 200.
• Successful regulatory approval and marketing authorization

• Founder of Advanced Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering Consortium - industry-academic partnership
• Integrated multi-site contract manufacturing and clinical development facilities

• Biotech strategic partnerships
• Therapeutics product development strategies
• VC interactions and financing
• Product licensing (in-/out)

Scale-up experience: Executive Vice President, Pentair

• Grew company from $55M to $180M in 11 years
• Managed five integration projects
• Developed and championed Sales Process Excellence initiative across $250M global business unit
• Deployed globalization and channel growth strategy

• CEO of PE-owned company acquired for $32M and sold for $165M in five years
• Improved EBITDA margin from 9% to 20% via operational excellence strategy
• Acquired one bolt on company as vehicle to enter new market
• Built new US and Belgium plants to expand operations

• Investor and Board member of 2 growth ventures
• Investment thesis advisor to two PE firms

• Sales process
• Product portfolio management
• Strategy execution
• Operations/manufacturing continuous improvement