EY, the global accountancy and business consultancy firm, issued the following press release, announcing the winners of the 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year award:

Robert Crosbie of Crosbie Group Limited named EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Atlantic 2014

EY celebrates gravity-defying entrepreneurs at annual awards gala

HALIFAX, Oct. 4, 2014 - Robert Crosbie, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Crosbie Group Limited — a privately held family business involved in the offshore oil and gas, onshore industrial, real estate and construction sectors — is this year's Entrepreneur Of The Year

Moncton-based startup Agora Mobile has launched a new method of teaching coding and has already signed up about 200 teachers to use the product.

Agora Mobile is an ambitious company founded by Dalhousie University computer science alum Simon Gauvin, who hopes to revolutionize the way people learn coding.

Agora’s main product, Vizwik, lets anyone create apps that work on all mobile devices and that never have to be downloaded or updated. The company lets users join a social network on which they can develop their own apps. They can share these apps with other people. Soon, the system

Entering the austere halls of the J. Herbert Smith Centre for Technology, Management & Entrepreneurship at the University of New Brunswick, with its arched entrance and paneled halls, it’s easy to suppose the school’s summer institute will be a serious affair.

The Centre is the epicenter of entrepreneurship education at the University of New Brunswick, the institution that Startup Canada named

Although women are playing online games in ever greater numbers, female game developers and computer programmers remain rare. That’s something Kirsten Tomilson is working to change as she develops her own digital media company, Fourth Monkey Media.

“I don’t understand why there aren’t more women working in the gaming industry,” said Tomilson, CEO and president of the Bridgewater-based

Having secured a fresh tranche of venture capital financing, Spring Loaded Technology Inc. is looking for a few volunteers to beta-test its revolutionary “bionic” knee brace.

The company said it has just raised $270,000 in equity financing from Innovacorp and has now raised total financing – including equity, debt and grants – of $1.8 million.

Having started at Dalhousie University’s Starting Lean class in September 2012, Spring Loaded is developing a knee brace that strengthens as well as stabilizes the joint. The product can increase the performance of athletes or grant greater

ABK Biomedical Inc., a Halifax medical device startup, said Thursday it has appointed founder Bob Abraham as its new CEO, succeeding industry vet Pat O’Connor.

The company had had bases in both Halifax and Ireland, but under Abraham’s leadership it will consolidate its operations in Halifax.  

ABK is the developer of OccluRad — tiny bio-compatible glass beads used to treat uterine fibroids, or benign tumours, in a woman’s uterus. The product improves efficiency and safety when treating women for the affliction. The company hopes to have OccluRad on the market in Europe in the second

Athletigen Technologies Inc., the Halifax startup that owns the world’s largest sports genetic databank, has launched a product to help coaches, athletes and fitness enthusiasts improve performance through sports-related genetic analysis.

CEO Jeremy Koenig has been plotting a course to launch the product in conjunction with a genetic ancestry service offered by the world-leading, direct-to-consumer genetics provider, 23andMe. Hoping to engage 10,000 users before the end of the year, Athletigen aims to help people understand their athletic genetic strengths and weaknesses, so that they can

The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation yesterday launched its Breakthru startup competition, which will offer the largest prize ever for the biennial contest.

The Fredericton-based innovation agency sent out a press release calling for pre-revenue startups to apply for the contest before Dec. 9.  The contestants will be competing for a total pool of prizes worth more than $500,000 in cash and in-kind services. It’s a significant increase over the total prizes of $406,000 in the 2013 event.

“By getting a bigger prize pool, it gives us the ability to be of more help to the winners,” said

The plain facts about strategic investments bubbled to the surface at Invest Atlantic on Tuesday during a no-sugar-coating discussion on whether strategic or venture capital investments are better.

It’s difficult to write a conclusion on the panel discussion titled Corporate vs. Venture Capital Investment. Its strength was that there were so many views, often opposing views, presented clearly by people with tremendous experience in the field.

The speakers revealed that a good corporate partner/strategic investor can bring a huge wealth of experience and contacts to a startup, not to

Nicole LeBlanc, until recently the CFO of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, is moving to a new role in Toronto.

Speaking from Montreal, where she is training ahead of beginning her new job with the Strategic Investments & Partnership Group at the Business Development Bank of Canada, LeBlanc said she is excited by the move but will continue to support Atlantic Canadian companies.

“My