EY Canada has nominated 17 businesses, including several members of the innovation community, in the Atlantic division of the 2022 Entrepreneur of the Year competition.
The global consultancy used to announce regional nominees and winners in several different categories, but for the past two years it has nominated almost 20 businesses for the regional EoY title.
In July, a panel of judges will announce seven regional winners, who will move forward to compete with Pacific, Prairies, Ontario and Québec winners at the national awards in November.
Now in its 28th year in Canada, the competition last year gave the national award to Dr. Carl Hansen, CEO of AbCellera, and he will compete for the global award next month. AbCellera is a biotech company in British Columbia that developed an antibody treatment for COVID-19.
“Whether food and nutrition, traffic control systems or collaboration tools, many of this year’s finalists are digitalizing traditional industries to drive more efficient and effective products and services for their customers that lead to greater value,” said EoY Atlantic Program Co-Director Gina Kinsman in a statement. “It’s exciting to see how these entrepreneurs are turning challenges into opportunities by placing people and technology at the heart of strategy to lead to new innovations.”
Here are the nominees for Atlantic Canada this year:
Monica Adair and Stephen Copp lead the sustainability-focused architecture company in Saint John.
Mather Carscallen's company designs algae that produce plant-based ingredients for the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and therapeutics industries.
Louis Leblanc started the Moncton-based paper product manufacturing company in 1995.
Adam Keating and Jeremy Andrews created software to help engineers streamline their workflow. Their company is headquartered in St John’s.
Olivia and Riley Giffen's company started in 2015, and it operates out of Stewiacke, NS. One of their ancestors also produced alcoholic beverages in the 18th century.
Sawyer Hannay's cabin resort in Rexton, NB, is the inspiration for his country lifestyle clothing brand.
Corey Yantha's Dartmouth-based technology company makes smart kiosks for dispensing pharmaceutical products and controlled substances
Alex MacLean's clothing brand from Nova Scotia already won him EY's Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015.
Graphite Innovation and Technologies
Mo AlGermozi is the CEO of the Dartmouth company that supplies marine coatings made of graphene to the transportation sector.
Amanda Rogers represents the writing services company that provides services on everything from resumes to Ph.D. dissertations.
Novonix Battery Testing Services
Chris Burns is the CEO of this company, a unit of NASDAQ-listed Novonix. Its technology reduces the time needed to test the life of large lithium-ion batteries, like the ones used in Tesla sports cars.
Pluto Investments Inc.
Paul Antle's venture capital firm based in St John’s started in 1990.
Ken LeBlanc founded the Moncton-based company, which is said to be the largest private home sale network in North America.
Megan McCarthy is the co-founder of the Halifax-based company, which provides software to help achieve net zero emissions for buildings.
Mitch Hollohan is the CEO of this Dartmouth-based company that has produced the Guardian SmartFlagger and Cone, which uses digital technology to replace sign crews at road construction sites.
Jamie King, Brendan Brothers and Raymond Pretty lead this St. John’s company that designed a cloud-based software which allows financial institutions to detect, investigate and report financial crime. It was purchased by NASDAQ for US$2.75 billion last year.
Josée Cormier and Alicia Stafford founded this weight loss brand in 2012. They sell memberships, produce a podcast, and made a documentary titled "Would You Eat a Donut a Day?"
