GCFF Vancouver Conference 2019 – Investing in Innovation

John Arbuthnot co-founded Delta 9 with his father Bill in 2012 as a fourth year business student at the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba, where he came up with the idea of starting a company to produce medical marijuana in Canada. Over the past four years John has played an integral role in the development of all aspects of Delta 9’s operations. John's focus as CEO is devoted to corporate strategy, financial planning, business development, and implementation of Delta 9's modular growth strategy.

Tanya is the CEO and founder of Infusion Edutainment. She was born in China and Immigrated in Canada in 2013. Before immigrating to Canada, Tanya was a business English trainer to various government departments in China. Since immigrating to Canada, Tanya has been involved in a number of companies including mining, water, landscaping and ESL training business. With a natural interest in new technology and an education training background, she founded Infusion Edutainment VR&AR Research and Dev Co., focused on enhancing education through VR, AI and AR. 

Gilbert has over 18 years of experience in the investor relations industry with a focus on natural resources. In addition, Gilbert has established a broad network of business relationships within the financial and investment communities in both North America and China. Gilbert's expertise and experience has led to a strong following in the Chinese speaking investor community in Canada. In recent years, Gilbert has become frequent speaker and interviewee on mining topics for numerous media outlets, including the Financial Post, Wall Street Journal, Vancouver Sun, OMNI TV, and other industry publications.

As an early member of the cryptocurrency community and after working on world's first ICO, Lisa Cheng founded the Vanbex group in 2013 to professionalize token offerings and blockchain solutions. Lisa's strong background in technology product design, marketing and leadership skills helped grow Vanbex Group into 2 other companies: a visual smart contract creator called Etherparty and Vanbex Ventures, a blockchain incubator and fund.

Manie is the founder and CEO of DigitalFutures B.U.I.L.D. (Blockchain User-centric Innovation & Leadership Development), an independent strategic business development and investment consultancy with a focus on the latest innovations in fintech, digital currency and blockchain (distributed ledger) technologies; and alternative financing via peer-to-peer lending, ICOs/TGEs (Initial Coin Offerings / Token Generated Entities) and crowdfunding for venture capital platforms. He is a strategic business development and global investment, mergers and acquisitions executive with over 30 years of driving new wealth creation, business growth and strategic innovation. He has been involved in multiple successful start-ups, government policy developments and national educational initiatives in South Africa and internationally. 

Ajay Hans, is the Founder and CEO of Mobetize Corp. He brings over 20 years of diverse experience in the development, marketing and implementation of complex billing and payment-related software technologies for the telecom, banking and payments industries. Ajay has been at the forefront of connecting technology to disruptive market opportunities. Prior to Mobetize he has held senior executive positions with leading telecom software technology companies where he was involved in pioneering and successfully implementing solutions for brands including Sprint, AT&T and SaskTel. Ajay's strategic vision at Mobetize is to transform how financial services are delivered and consumed in a digital world.

Dr. Anthony (Tony) Holler is the former CEO and founder of ID Biomedical, acquired in 2015 by Glaxo Smith Kline for $1.7 billion, and former Chairman of Corriente Resources Inc., sold for approximately $700 million to CRCC-Tongguan Investment Co. Tony is the current Chairman of CRH Medical Corp., a publicly traded company and serves as Sunniva’s Chief Executive Officer. His expertise includes strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, and financing, with a singular focus on increasing shareholder value.

Alex is a lawyer with 25+ years of experience in technology, entertainment and casino gaming. In the early 1990's, as a lawyer, Alex represented many of the Las Vegas casino operators in Canada. Alex was instrumental in the early success of both Party Gaming and Poker Stars when he strategically assisted the founders in their formative years; later sold for billion dollars+. Since 2013, Alex has been involved in Esports and in 2016, Alex was appointed as CEO of Millennial Esports Corp. and since that time has led the company in its growth.

Herman Lo leads the management team as the primary founder of ViewsIQ. He founded the company as an inspiration from his Master's research in Human Factors and Biomedical Engineering at University of Toronto. He has over eleven years of experience in building imaging software and seven years of experience in entrepreneurship. He has raised over CDN$3M in funding for ViewsIQ and responsible for initial Panoptiq product sales of CDN$1.5M since inception. As president and CEO, Herman focuses on forging customer relationships and aligning the sales, marketing and technical teams on the management team's corporate strategy to achieve sustainable growth.

Lance is Chief Executive Officer / Director / Co-Founder at the Blockchain Intelligence Group (“BIG”).

With over 20 years of industry experience in technology-based startups, Lance brings a vast and proven track record for growing and developing multi-million-dollar businesses from the ground-up. His background includes roles as Founder/CEO/Director in several publicly and privately traded companies.

In 1996, Lance founded Planet City Graphics, which won worldwide recognition and became a multi-million-dollar corporation within 18 months. He also founded Western Shores Interactive, which became a publicly listed company and reached a market cap of $400 million.

In addition to his business and technical acumen, Lance has a proven track record working with Asian companies and government entities. In 2000, he was recruited to work closely with China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC). He assisted in the development of a secure network that permits the dissemination of information to State-owned business as well as businesses around the world.

In 2015, Lance leveraged his breadth of experience in business building and technology to co-found BIG Blockchain Intelligence Group while setting the company’s strategy and vision.

Craig Founded Canadian Artesian Ice Ltd (CAI) in 2016 as a water bottling company to create the commercial product enterprise for the Nelson Artesian Aquifer well and associated infrastructure. Craig is a very experienced Project Manager and Consultant, working primarily in British Columbia and Alberta. A licensed electrician by trade, Craig has focused his project and business management skills within the construction industry. Craig is a skillful negotiator, networker and promoter and anticipates continuing to work at CAI in product sales as well as in his Director role.

Over the past 30 years, Dave and his team have actively developed and renovated over 100 projects with over 12,000 properties throughout Alberta, BC and the Western United States. Dave has been actively involved in the growth of the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), a non-profit organization which now has over 11,000 members worldwide. In 1993/94, he served as EO’s International president. Dave has a Bachelor of Commerce degree with a major in finance from the University of Calgary.

Joseph Tang is an Investment Advisor at BMO Nesbitt Burns and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Designation. He has been working in the financial industry for over a decade.  His passion is to provide comprehensive wealth management strategies and build customized investment portfolios for his clients. He firmly believes in fundamental investing and in active management of assets by adapting to constant changing economic conditions.

Renee Wei is Director of Global Communications at Goldmoney Inc. Renee leads investor relations and oversees external communications for all divisions of the Goldmoney business. Before joining Goldmoney, Renee spent 7 years as a financial journalist in some of Canada’s top business newsrooms: Bloomberg, Business News Network (BNN) and CBC. Having covered financial services, technology and commodity sectors, she has interviewed some of the world’s biggest business heavyweights and investment minds. Renee completed the Canadian Securities Course in 2014 and earned the Master of Journalism degree from Carleton University in 2011. Born and raised in China, Renee is a native Mandarin speaker.

Canadian Artesian Ice Ltd. (CAI) has exclusive access to a deep drilled artesian well in the Nelson Artesian Aquifer, a rare and valuable water resource located in the Canadian Rocky Mountains near Nelson, BC. CAI has begun negotiations with The Clearly Food and Beverage Company (USA, Canada) to create a 5 year bottling contract to allow CAI to become the leading producer of high quality artesian, alkaline, mineral water bottled under the well-established and iconic Clearly Canadian brand. CAI is seeking the second and final capital financing round to complete its bottling production facilities, to begin water bottling operations and to begin product sales.