Several members of the Nova Scotian startup community have received King Charles III Coronation Medals in recognition of their contributions to this burgeoning segment of the economy.
Senator Colin Deacon, himself a veteran of a few startups, presented the awards over recent weeks, and announced the winners on LinkedIn.
The medals are awarded as part of the celebrations of the coronation of King Charles, and recognize either the recipients’ contributions to Canada or an outstanding achievement made abroad.
The startup community members who received the medals from Deacon include:
Alfred Burgesson
Founder and CEO of The Tribe Network
Burgesson is the driving force behind Tribe, which supports BIPOC startup founders. The Halifax-based organization now counts more than 1,000 people and organizations among its members and has worked directly with 700 program participants in its three-year history.
Gordon Cooper
Co-Founder of RTGS Global
A native Nova Scotian, Cooper has worked in global payments and credit card businesses in such locations as Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong and London. He is now working at increasing Canadian companies’ presence in international markets.
Marc d'Entremont and the team at Katchi Technologies
Based in Halifax, Katchi is dedicated to using technology in precision fish harvesting. The company has designed a commercial fishing net that targets schools of groundfish without making contact with the seabed, ensuring a safer and more sustainable process of fishing.
Myrna Gillis
Founder and CEO of Aqualitas
Having worked for 25 years with people suffering from chronic pain, Gillis founded Aqualitas in the abandoned Bowater Mersey Pulp Mill in Liverpool, N.S. The company uses the poop from koi fish in an aquaponic growing system. It produces a growing suite of cultured strains of organic cannabis, each targeting specific medicinal outcomes.
Mark Hobbs
Co-Founder and CEO, Fundmetric
Hobbs is the CEO of Fundmetric, a business that implements AI data infrastructure to facilitate fundraising for the health and higher education sectors. Before Fundmetric, he was a partner at Denote Communications.
Bob Pelley
Senior Advisor at Invest Nova Scotia
Pelley has been a long-time supporter of entrepreneurship in Cape Breton, and has been instrumental in the creation of several programs in the province, including the Navigate startup house, the i3 Awards and the Spark Nova Scotia awards.
Permjot Valia
Co-Founder of Nava Develop
Originally from the U.K., Valia made his mark on the Atlantic Canada startup community several years ago through his MentorCamp programs. He has also served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the Cape Breton startup community, and has been an active mentor to and investor in a range of startups.
