[Winnipeg Chapter] Supporting your BioTech Startup with North Forge Technology Exchange

Join the S2BN Winnipeg Chapter for an exciting evening with Joelle Foster, the CEO of North Forge Technology Exchange - an incubator accelerator, providing Manitoba’s innovative science and technology-based entrepreneurs with mentors, rockstar subject matter experts, a four-stage start-up program, and any other resources they may need. This event we will outline Joelle's career journey from academia to industry, the founding of the North Forge, highlighting the lessons learned along the way.

Joelle Foster

Chief Executive Officer, North Forge Technology Exchange

Joelle has spent two decades working with entrepreneurs.  In February 2020, she became the CEO for North Forge Technology Exchange in Winnipeg, an organization of which she was a founding board member in 2015.  Joelle has recently become a co-Founder and general partner for the Women's Equity Lab (WEL) Manitoba; she is creating and managing a fund to increase the number of women angel investors in Manitoba that will invest in new businesses.

Joelle has transformed North Forge from an incubator into an incubator accelerator.  She oversees the largest publicly accessible fabrication lab in North America that operates out of 16,000 square feet.  Joelle has developed a complete four-stage digital ‘Founders Program’ to take tech-enabled and advanced manufacturing companies from validation to becoming a Series A company; an advanced manufacturing program called AMLab™ an Angel Network and Women in Innovation Lab called WiLab™. Under her leadership, North Forge saw a 294% increase in the number of companies they are working with.

Before this, Joelle was in Calgary, where she spent two years as the inaugural Executive Director for the University of Calgary’s Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking.  She spent eight years as a Director for Futurpreneur Canada, overseeing Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Nunavut, and NWT.  Under her leadership, in Manitoba alone, 325 businesses opened their doors.  Some of her prominent national startups were Skip the Dishes, Callia Flowers and Go Oil.

Joelle sits on two national boards. The Canadian Council of Small Business and Entrepreneurship (CCSBE) and the Women Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO).  Joelle is also the co-chair of the Business Administration Advisory Board for Red River College and the co-chair for the University of Manitoba Education, Entrepreneur and Student Experience Committee.  Other committee work includes the Inuit Business Development Hub External Advisory Council, the University of Manitoba Faculty of Science Innovation and Commercialization Committee, the Lab2Market Steering Committee, the Red River College ACE Entrepreneur-In-Residence Advisory Committee and she is an advisor for Red Leaf Capital, a Manitoba VC firm.

In recognition of her work, Joelle received the Volunteer of the Year from the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce in 2017. She received the Board of Directors Excellence Award – Business Community Partner from the Manitoba Filipino Business Council in November 2016.

Her past appointments include governance roles with the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, Balmoral Hall School for Girls, the Eureka Project and the Foundation for the Advancement of Entrepreneurship.

Limited space is available. Register early!

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