NACO Academy QuickFire

Manny Padda is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and philanthropist based in Vancouver, B.C. A self-made entrepreneur who built his first multi-million-dollar company at age 26, Manny is dedicated to providing education and mentorship to today’s youth. He is the founder of New Avenue Capital, a global firm focusing on four fundamental pillars: investment, lending, recruitment, and philanthropy. Manny was recently awarded the Canadian Angel Investor of the year and BIV’s Top 40 under 40.

As the recipient of the 2016 Governor General Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers and Entrepreneur Organization’s Global Citizen of the Year, Manny is a true philanthropic leader. His two main pillars for philanthropy are children and education - he believes every child deserves a chance to be educated and it is his personal mission to educate more than one million people worldwide. Manny plans to achieve this by actively contributing to numerous organizations through mentorship, investment and philanthropy.

As the recipient of the 2016 Governor General Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers and Entrepreneur Organization’s Global Citizen of the Year, Manny is a true philanthropic leader. His two main pillars for philanthropy are children and education - he believes every child deserves a chance to be educated and it is his personal mission to educate more than one million people worldwide. Manny plans to achieve this by actively contributing to numerous organizations through mentorship, investment and philanthropy.

Manny sits on a number of advisory boards in the education and not-for-profit sectors. Manny is also an active advisor and angel investor globally and in Vancouver's tech community, having personally invested in local start-ups including Picatic, MyBestHelper, ShareShed, and MTT. He is also the co-founder of GradusOne, an organization that connects students and new graduates with mentors and provides them with resources to help them refine their career path and achieve success.

Manny is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Private Equity & Venture Capital program. Manny also completed his MBA from Queen’s University and his BBA (Honours) from Simon Fraser University.

In her role as Global Blockchain Innovation Lead, Oris Valiente provides blockchain advisory services to Accenture clients and is responsible for developing Accenture’s cross-industry blockchain technology capabilities and its talent pool for blockchain consulting, architecture and technology delivery. She also leads initiatives to help drive Accenture’s leadership and engagement within the ecosystem of blockchain solution providers and industry consortia, as well as open source development communities globally. Additionally, Oris Valiente serves as head of Accenture’s blockchain practice in Canada and advises Accenture’s strategic growth initiatives steering committee on the topic of blockchain.

Blockchain is a new type of distributed database system that maintains and records data in a way that allows multiple stakeholders to confidently and securely share access to the same information.

“Iliana is a trailblazer in the global blockchain community, with deep experience driving innovations and ground-breaking research,” said Simon Whitehouse, senior managing director and head of Accenture’s global blockchain practice. “Her knowledge, leadership and ability to act as a conduit between the blockchain developer community and business will be a strong asset to our clients and leadership, as we help a range of industries leverage distributed ledger technology.”

Oris Valiente is a published author and sought-after speaker, with prior leadership roles in Deloitte’s blockchain practice, where she oversaw the Rubix group. Most recently, she founded ColliderX, a nonprofit blockchain research and development organization, where she also chairs the board of directors.

Based in Toronto, Oris Valiente graduated summa cum laude from the University of Ottawa with a bachelor’s degree in commerce and is a certified public accountant and chartered accountant. She speaks four languages and is an active community volunteer engaged in programs to raise funds to support local charities, teach personal-finance to local youth and mentor highly skilled non-national residents.

Fascinated by the emerging cannabis industry in Canada, Jay Rosenthal co-founded Business of Cannabis (BofC) in early 2017 with two partners.

BofC has become the go-to source for research, context and insight into the dynamic, ever-changing landscape of the Canadian cannabis sector. In the coming months, BofC will further solidify its position in the sector by producing a series of workplace trainings in partnership with the Human Resources Professionals Association, launching the inaugural Medical Cannabis Week in partnership with Technology TO and Health TO and by publishing its first quarterly magazine.

In addition to being a contributor to Huffington Post and Civilized Life , Jay is a sought-after media source, regularly contributing to the Business News Network , CBC , CTV and the Globe and Mail . He has become a thoughtful voice in the cannabis sector and penned varied opinion pieces including:

• “How to Have the New 'Weed Talk' with Your Kids” - Civilized.Life
• “Trump Could Use NAFTA To Bully Canada's Emerging Weed Industry” - Huffington Post
• “The Cannabis Industry Must Earn the Trust of Canadians” - Globe and Mail

Jay has a 20-year career at the intersection of media, business, policy and politics - in the US and Canada. He began his career in the US Capitol working for United States Senator Barbara Boxer. Moving to the Bay Area in the late 90s, he deepened his interest in the intersection of politics and technology, serving in the administration of the Mayor of San Jose, the 10th largest City in the US and the heart of Silicon Valley.

In 2005, Jay launched JMR Strategic, a boutique strategic communications firm working for Fortune 500 companies including Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Allied Waste Services. Along the way, he also launched and sold an online publication focused on California politics.

Jay and his wife Dara Solomon, the Executive Director of the Ontario Jewish Archives and the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, moved their family in 2012 from San Francisco to Toronto, Dara’s hometown.

From 2013 to 2017, Jay directed special projects at Public Inc., a social impact marketing agency, where he led two separate Public Health Agency of Canada-funded projects focused on workplace health and wellness.

Jay is also active in the community, serving as coach in the Toronto Playground Baseball League as well as the Co-President of the Board of the Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School. Jay enjoys cycling with his children Stella, 8 and Cy, 4 around his Bloor West Toronto neighbourhood.

Menashe Kestenbaum began his career in video games when he was 13, writing for IGN, a large corporate gaming media site, where he eventually became a community leader. After studying and subsequently lecturing in the Institute of Advanced Talmudic Law in Jerusalem for eight years, Menashe returned to his passion for the video game industry and launched his first gaming blog, “Nintendo Enthusiast”, in 2011. In 2014, he returned to Toronto and incorporated Enthusiast. He has personally owned and operated gaming websites with a readership of over 2 million, and has led Enthusiast Gaming and grown a writing and community staff team of over 84 people.

Jason Nagy is the Founder and President of Wise Crescent Inc., a Canadian consulting company which provides business and technology strategy planning for organizations, including the building of mobile responsive websites for small businesses, online marketing solutions, and project management. He previously founded JNDevelopment, a software development and consulting company which created an e-learning community platform for over 350,000 users as well as many other large system solutions. Jason has also served as Chief Information Officer with Lawrence Media Sales Ltd., CanSport Live Ltd., and Director of Business System Services I.T. for the Globe and Mail.

As an active accredited investor Jason is a member of the Spark Angels, York Angels and Golden Triangle Angel Network. Jason started investing as an angel in early 2016 and as an angel when asked he likes to participate on boards, make strategic connections and provide mentorship as well as financial investments. Jason plays an active role in the Spark Angels as a member of their board. Before going public, Jason was a board member with Enthusiast Gaming which received early angel funding and has since built a great company which now trades on the TSXV exchange.