Contest Panel

Tiffany Linke-Boyko CEO, STARTUP EDMONTON

Chief Executive Officer for Startup Edmonton, Tiffany leads and delivers a range of programs and events such as DemoCamp, Edmonton Startup Week, and the Preflight workshop series. 

Startup Edmonton connects entrepreneurs and product builders with the community, skills and space they need to take an idea to reality. Founded in 2009, Tiffany has played a vital role in Startup Edmonton's growth into a campus and community hub that has welcomed more than 25,000 participants at events, helped launch 50 startups, and currently houses 180 shared and resident members. 

In addition to her work at Startup Edmonton, Tiffany currently serves on the Mayor's Task Force to Eliminate Poverty, an initiative of the City of Edmonton that brings together expertise from a wide-range of fields for conversations and solution-building around homelessness; and on the Board of Directors for the Edmonton Dream Centre, a centre of excellence in addiction and recovery that provides hope and health to women in crisis through a long-term, holistic residential recovery program.  

Tiffany spent eight years with Extreme Dream Ministries as an event organizer planning youth conferences world-wide. Highlights include organizing a conference at a soccer stadium in Malawi, Africa and organizing the annual YC Alberta that takes place each May at Rexall Place in Edmonton with 16,000 delegates.  

Her work has provided opportunities to fulfill her passion for travel, taking her to Belize, Ukraine, Malawi, Iceland, and across the U.S. and Canada. 

For her many contributions to the betterment of business and community, Tiffany was named Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 under 40 in November 2014. NAIT recognized Tiffany’s contributions with the 2015 Spirit of NAIT Award.

Tiffany, and her husband Steve, are proud Edmontonians and have recently welcomed their first child, Wyatt.  

Ian O’Donnell EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DOWNTOWN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION

“It’s the air of optimism and belief that we haven’t really built the city yet. It’s such an easy city in which to get involved and have an impact. There are so many opportunities for community engagement and volunteerism.”

Ian O’Donnell was seven years old when he learned that his family would be moving from Ottawa to Edmonton. His father would be accepting a job to head Environment Canada’s weather service in the Alberta capital.

As the airplane made its approach to Edmonton, the pilot spoke over the intercom, warning they’d have to detour to the south in order to avoid some heavy weather.

“My father looked out the window and said: ‘That looks pretty bad,'” recalls O’Donnell.

That day? Black Friday – the day a tornado ripped through Edmonton, killing 27 people and causing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage.

“With my dad working for the weather service, right after we landed, we didn’t see him for a week and a half,” says O’Donnell. “The Whitemud was flooded. We couldn’t get to our new home, so we lived at the Westin.”

It only makes sense that someone who arrived on the most destructive day in Edmonton’s history would become a community builder. With Manasc Isaac Architects, O’Donnell has overseen many key projects, including a rethink of the Servus Credit Union corporate centre, which saw a hole cut into the structure to let in natural light, and a design that cut power use nearly in half.

He also helped in the rebuilding of Slave Lake‘s government centre and library. The project, designed by Manasc Isaac, was completed just before the fire of 2011 engulfed the town. The building had to be rebuilt.

“There were physical and psychological sides to that project. That’s the centre of town, so the completion of the building was integral to bring the sense of normalcy back to that town.”

Outside the office, O’Donnell remains a builder. He’s the chair of development for the Edmonton Community League, which is opening up a new 1,500 sq. ft. space in a 103rd Street parking garage.

“The impression of downtown is a lot different than it was a few years ago. This isn’t the downtown of 20 years ago. It’s being reborn. I don’t think ‘revitalization’ is the right word to use anymore. We’re in the next phase of evolution of the downtown.”

O’Donnell envisions a vibrant downtown where new developments have value – but aren’t cheap. He sees a downtown that inspires its visitors, where people come to do more than work.

“There’s a renewed sense of pride. What we need is a lot of people to become tourists in their own city again.” 

Jay Downton OODLE NOODLE, OILERS NATION, LITTLE BRICK

There’s a building at the corner of a busy west Edmonton intersection where Jay Downton likes to think he got his own version of an MBA. It’s roughly 7,000 vacant square feet and far dingier than any business school, with its peeling grey paint and dust – the sort of place that could pass easily for a school of hard knocks.

For 14 tough months in Downton’s life, it was a blues joint. From fall 2004 to about winter 2005, he and long-time business partner Clark Murray operated Blue Chicago restaurant and bar here. At first, Downton saw the concept as “easy and cool” – an extension of the pair’s knack for making a buck off other people’s fun. Going through school, they’d rent buses to run pub crawls, financing Downton’s education (Finance ’02).

There was just one hitch: “We didn’t like blues music.”

That mattered because, for Downton, passion leads the way in business. With Blue Chicago, “We had to deal with areas that weren’t our passion.” Like managing a large staff, booking bands, mingling with pleasant but usually stingy customers, manning the grill when HR issues arose, and 14-hour days, seven days a week. Downton had developed a love for analyzing and crunching numbers at NAIT and was more interested in strategizing growth than slinging pub grub.

Add a newly implemented smoking ban and an NHL lockout and “we had to pull chutes,” he says. Lesson learned: follow your passion.

Judging by the business empire Downton now backs and his growing stature as an entrepreneur, that passion hasn’t steered him off course.

Today, he’s co-founder and co-owner of the Nation Network, a group of nine hockey websites, including the seminal OilersNation.com, projected this year to net its highest revenue yet. He’s president and co-owner of Oodle Noodle, an Asian fast food chain poised for explosive growth. And, most recently, he’s co-owner of Little Brick, a central Edmonton café doubling as his business headquarters.

Linking them is the innovation and altruism that define Edmonton’s growing creative economy and his role as one of its leaders.

“Where I’m at now, failing at a young age was a good thing,” says the 34-year-old.

Rohit Gupta PRESIDENT, ROHIT GROUP OF COMPANIES

If you could change one thing about Edmonton, what would it be? Gupta wants to see Edmontonian’s take more pride in their accomplishments and do more to keep local talent in the city. “Why do we view ourselves as just oil and gas or blue-collar workers? … This is a great city. We should enjoy it and be proud of it.”

Rohit Gupta is so competitive, he once made a younger cousin cry over a game of chess. But it’s that fierce competitiveness that he believes gives him and the Rohit Group of Companies a leg up in the local real-estate development market.

“Whether it’s in my personal life or in my business, if I don’t have that edge to keep producing something that’s better – even working out or eating better – if you don’t have that attitude, it’s tough to progress,” he says.

“If we want to do something wonderful, we have to have that edge.”

Gupta joined the Rohit Group – founded in 1986 by his father, Radhe – in 2002 after completing a computer engineering degree at the University of Alberta. He never intended to join the business at first, but Gupta found his calling as he put his skills to work in new ways.

“A lot of people come from a construction perspective and a very linear path of thinking. But computer engineering taught me more parallel forms of thinking. That has played a huge part; it has shaped the way I process information.”

Since the company started with a single home, its growth has been rapid. In 2015, the Rohit Group landed on the Profit 500 list of Canada’s fastest growing companies, with a 93 per cent increase in sales over the last five years.

Of course, that growth wouldn’t be possible without a great team. The company has won several top employer and best workplace awards. Gupta says that, as employees represent the company to customers through every step of the home-building process, good employee morale is reflected on the balance sheet.

As the Rohit Group grows, so too do its contributions to local charities like Habitat for Humanity, WIN House and the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation, to name a few.

“It’s part of the fabric of who we are as an organization, as a family and as a team,” he says. “We want to do well by ourselves, but we also want to do well by the community. We want to make sure we build a good product, but it’s not just about the houses. There’s got to be community-building in other shapes and forms.”

Casey McClelland VICE PRESIDENT RETAIL, COLLIERS INTERNATIONAL

Casey is an Edmonton Local, loves unique places. Has worked with many new businesses finding the right locations setting them up for success. He has worked helped DOSC, Corso 32, Bundok, Remedy, Dorinku, Derks, Binh’s Nails, Herbert & Frye Cannabis find places in Edmonton.

Casey McClelland graduated from the University of Alberta in 2004, with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. Casey has been actively involved in Commercial Real Estate since 2005. He is consistently ranking among the top five Colliers retail focused agents across Canada, and is currently one of the youngest Colliers Vice Presidents in Canada. Over the past five years, Casey has been the lead agent for over 190 transactions ranging in size from 1,000 SF to 130,000 SF. In addition to his duties and responsibilities at Colliers, Casey also serves as a Board of Director for the Downtown Business Association (DBA)

Julian Faid RAPID FIRE THEATRE

Julian Faid is a senior member of Rapid Fire Theatre having performed in weekly improv shows for more than 17 years. As the co-creator of TEDxRFT – The Improvised Ted Talk, he has performed at improv festivals in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Austin, Toronto and Oslo, to name a few. Off stage, Julian is a Masters student in Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology at the University of Alberta studying the future of Urban Transportation.