The 20th annual Alberta Business Hall of Fame – Southern Alberta Gala and Induction Ceremony will take place on November 5, 2024 at the BMO Centre in its newly expanded space. Presented by JA Southern Alberta, three Calgary business leaders will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, while a young entrepreneur will receive the second annual Young Innovator Award.
“The Calgary business community has supported JA Southern Alberta since its inception in 1960,” says Matt Burns, director, Development and Engagement at JA Southern Alberta. “Through a combination of generous individuals, corporations, foundations and government partners, JA Southern Alberta continues to expand its reach within the region. The Annual Gala and Induction Ceremony is a major vehicle through which these groups provide funding for our annual programming.”
This year’s Legacy laureates represent a cross-section of leadership within various industries as well as community participation. They are Susan Anderson, Mike Broadfoot and W. Brett Wilson.
“Susan Anderson has made incredible contributions towards advancing technology solutions in the finance industry, primarily through DirectCash Payments, a firm that grew from two employees to be the second largest ATM company in the world,” says Burns. “Mike Broadfoot has been a founder or early-stage principal investor and director of companies in the energy, B2B software, medical device, financial services and property development sectors. W. Brett Wilson co-founded FirstEnergy Capital Corp. and has since gone on to develop extensive holdings in the energy, real estate, cannabis, agriculture, sports and entertainment industries. He is also best known for being a “fan favourite” on CBC’s hit reality TV show Dragons’ Den.”
This year’s Young Innovator is Hanif Joshaghani, co-founder and CEO of Symend Inc., a leader in conscious engagement. “As Calgary’s economy continues to diversify, it is important to recognize leaders that are spearheading that diversification,” says Burns, “many of whom are in relatively early stages of heading up their businesses and assisting others within their industry or sector to do the same.”
JA Southern Alberta focuses its education delivery for over 65,000 students annual within the region through three main areas: financial literacy, career readiness and entrepreneurship.
“With such a dynamic economic environment with technological change, unstable supply chains and inflation at levels not seen in decades, JA Southern Alberta prepares youth to handle these conditions,” Burns explains. “It continues to prepare youth on how to manage money, how to look at themselves on how they can participate in the economy and in training them to develop economic opportunities.”
“The Charter does not do this alone,” he continues. “Each year, hundreds of volunteers work to deliver programs in all three areas, assisted ably by educators within the region. Without the time dedicated by these two groups, JA Southern Alberta would not be able to grow its reach to the extent it does annually.”
Since the end of the COVID pandemic, demand for all JA Southern Alberta programs has grown. Fortunately, volunteer interest is also growing and the Charter is seeing renewed interest in financial support for its various programs throughout the region.
“There are many ways for individuals and organizations to get involved in the Gala and Induction Ceremony as attendees and sponsors,” Burns says. “Please visit the link below to learn more or contact me at mburns@jasouthalberta.org or at 403-829-9788.”
Link: https://south.abhf.ca/sponsorship.html
The 20th annual Alberta Business Hall of Fame – Southern Alberta Gala and Induction Ceremony will take place on November 5, 2024 at the BMO Centre in its newly expanded space. Presented by JA Southern Alberta, three Calgary business leaders will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, while a young entrepreneur will receive the second annual Young Innovator Award.
“The Calgary business community has supported JA Southern Alberta since its inception in 1960,” says Matt Burns, director, Development and Engagement at JA Southern Alberta. “Through a combination of generous individuals, corporations, foundations and government partners, JA Southern Alberta continues to expand its reach within the region. The Annual Gala and Induction Ceremony is a major vehicle through which these groups provide funding for our annual programming.”
This year’s Legacy laureates represent a cross-section of leadership within various industries as well as community participation. They are Susan Anderson, Mike Broadfoot and W. Brett Wilson.
“Susan Anderson has made incredible contributions towards advancing technology solutions in the finance industry, primarily through DirectCash Payments, a firm that grew from two employees to be the second largest ATM company in the world,” says Burns. “Mike Broadfoot has been a founder or early-stage principal investor and director of companies in the energy, B2B software, medical device, financial services and property development sectors. W. Brett Wilson co-founded FirstEnergy Capital Corp. and has since gone on to develop extensive holdings in the energy, real estate, cannabis, agriculture, sports and entertainment industries. He is also best known for being a “fan favourite” on CBC’s hit reality TV show Dragons’ Den.”
This year’s Young Innovator is Hanif Joshaghani, co-founder and CEO of Symend Inc., a leader in conscious engagement. “As Calgary’s economy continues to diversify, it is important to recognize leaders that are spearheading that diversification,” says Burns, “many of whom are in relatively early stages of heading up their businesses and assisting others within their industry or sector to do the same.”
JA Southern Alberta focuses its education delivery for over 65,000 students annual within the region through three main areas: financial literacy, career readiness and entrepreneurship.
“With such a dynamic economic environment with technological change, unstable supply chains and inflation at levels not seen in decades, JA Southern Alberta prepares youth to handle these conditions,” Burns explains. “It continues to prepare youth on how to manage money, how to look at themselves on how they can participate in the economy and in training them to develop economic opportunities.”
“The Charter does not do this alone,” he continues. “Each year, hundreds of volunteers work to deliver programs in all three areas, assisted ably by educators within the region. Without the time dedicated by these two groups, JA Southern Alberta would not be able to grow its reach to the extent it does annually.”
Since the end of the COVID pandemic, demand for all JA Southern Alberta programs has grown. Fortunately, volunteer interest is also growing and the Charter is seeing renewed interest in financial support for its various programs throughout the region.
“There are many ways for individuals and organizations to get involved in the Gala and Induction Ceremony as attendees and sponsors,” Burns says. “Please visit the link below to learn more or contact me at mburns@jasouthalberta.org or at 403-829-9788.”
Link: https://south.abhf.ca/sponsorship.html
Susan Anderson
Susan Anderson always had an interest in business. Born and raised in Calgary by parents who were both teachers, as a teenager she read business books for pleasure, ever the object of her three siblings’ teasing. Though her parents encouraged a liberal arts degree, she entered the University of Calgary’s commerce program.
After completing a finance degree, Anderson attended law school at the University of Alberta, articled and worked at Fenerty Robertson Fraser & Hatch (now Dentons) in Calgary. After three years she went in-house with Shell Canada. “I really enjoyed working for Shell as a lawyer in the head office, we were involved in a lot of interesting projects and transactions across the country,” she says.
“But the whole time I was a lawyer, I wanted to be the client,” she admits. “I wanted to be on the other side of the table telling the lawyers what to do. I was always looking for opportunities to be an entrepreneur.”
In 1993 Anderson was embedded as lead counsel of Canadian Turbo and Payless Gas, which had been acquired by Shell Canada. Her team was tasked with integrating the acquisition, while still maintaining its entrepreneurial spirit.
A significant part of this role was to get ATMs into service stations across Canada – a challenge since Canadian banks were not interested in adding to their network of ATMs.
In conversation with U.S. counterparts, Anderson learned about non-bank ATMs. At the same time, the Canadian Competition Bureau ruled that Interac must accept non-bank members and eliminated the prohibition on ATM convenience fees.
“Based on the business model in the U.S., myself and Jeff Smith (who co-founded DirectCash Payments and Digital Commerce Bank with Anderson) figured out the economics and proposed the business opportunity,” she explains. “We deployed a number of ATMs into the Turbo and Payless service stations. The research and results of the ATMs installed revealed it was an excellent opportunity.”
In 1997 DirectCash Payments was born. Shortly after, Shell Canada became one of its first customers.
“It was the two of us across a desk from each other,” she recalls. “We were the first company in Canada to install a surcharging ATM.” Twenty years later, there were over 25,000 DirectCash Payments ATMs worldwide and the company had 425 employees.
“We were the second largest ATM company in the world,” Anderson says. “We did 67 acquisitions, including buying the largest ATM provider in Australia, and the second largest in the UK. We sold in 2017 to the largest ATM company in the world.”
Anderson also worked with Canadian banking regulators and counsel to incorporate Digital Commerce Bank, launched in 2008.
“We were one of the first privately owned banks in Canada,” she notes. “I ran it for seven years and now I’m Chair of the board.” As a Schedule 1 bank, Digital Commerce Bank has the same charter as other major Canadian banks, but is virtual. It has 100 employees with two offices and operates a significant payments business in Canada.
Today, Anderson keeps busy running Cannonball Capital Inc., her family office, and serving as Chair of Endeavor Canada, a not-for-profit which helps high impact entrepreneurs scale their businesses faster.
“I’ve always thought that Canada doesn’t have a startup problem, we have a scale-up problem,” she reflects. “We try to identify the leading scale-up entrepreneurs in Canada. We have staff that helps them with whatever problems they’re facing, about 4,000 mentors and a worldwide peer-to-peer network.”
Anderson gives her time to many other charities, several of which focus on helping financially disadvantaged kids play sport, get an education or help with health care. These include My First Bicycle Foundation, Canada Sports Hall of Fame, Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the President’s Advancement Council at the University of Alberta.
Her advice to younger people harkens from her mother: “She used to say no one can take away your education. I tell young people invest in your education, it’s a lifelong asset, and doesn’t stop when you finish school. I also believe in the ‘Five Chimp Rule’: you’re most like the five people that you surround yourself with. Choose your companions wisely because they will shape your character and influence your path.”
Mike Broadfoot
Success in Mike Broadfoot’s life and career is due in large part to teams. From young entrepreneur, to hockey player, to mechanical engineer, to business founder, leader and investor, Broadfoot has been a member of many high-performing teams that, he acknowledges with much gratitude, have been integral to his success.
“While this award recognizes me as a leader, it’s really about the success of those teams I’ve been a part of,” he says. “It’s validation for them.”
Born and raised in Edmonton and Toronto, Broadfoot credits two supportive parents for passing on great advice to him. “They always told me: ‘Whatever you do, do your best,’” he recalls. “And they meant that with deep conviction. The other thing they told me was I need to put more into anything I do than I feel I’m getting out. As I grew older, I could see the psychology of that.”
A talented hockey player with opportunities to play in the NCAA, Broadfoot chose to attend the University of Alberta which had the top hockey program in North America at that time. School came quite easily to the athlete, and he was able to complete an engineering degree and MBA at the same time. This was also when he made his first foray into entrepreneurship.
“For three summers I ran my own little company building decks and fences,” he recalls. “I reflect now that entrepreneurs often have an interesting combination of confidence and fear of failure. And I would say it’s the latter that sort of pushes you to go that extra step all the time.”
After graduating in 1980, Broadfoot traveled to Europe to play professional hockey for a year. After returning to Calgary, he landed a job at Petro Canada, where he spent five years. “I had access to really great mentors there,” he says, “they gave me opportunities to accelerate my learning.”
An entrepreneur at heart, Broadfoot was always on the lookout for an opportunity to step out on his own. “I identified that the deregulated merchant energy industry created opportunities,” he explains. “Things were changing fast, and it was a good thing for my career.”
Broadfoot wrote a business plan and gathered a team made up of top industry colleagues. He spent his vacation time flying down to Houston to find a U.S. sponsor that wanted to start a Canadian subsidiary. Engage energy was eventually born: “That was the start of a 10-year journey that ended up with me being CEO,” he reminisces.
Engage was eventually sold to Duke Energy in 2002. Broadfoot moved on to become a founding director and investor in Peyto Exploration & Development, and soon set his sights on Calgary’s budding technology industry. He helped lead Solium Capital, one of Canada’s first SaaS companies, and Cority, a global leader in occupational health and safety software.
An interest in property development and densification near rapid transit locations in Calgary’s inner city lead him and three partners to launch JEMM Properties in 2016. “We’ve got two buildings and operate about 500 apartments between them,” he notes.
He also lends his time and energy to many not-for-profit organizations, including STARS, Creative Destruction Labs Scale-Up and CAWST. “I’m drawn to these organizations because of their purpose and the quality people in them,” he says.
His advice to younger people focuses on two themes: “Be really curious and thirsty for learning, particularly in the early stages of your career. Second, stand back and think about what the broader purpose of your organization or department is. Pick something that’s going to make a positive change for that department and put energy into it outside of your regular job. People will take notice and you will have an impact.”
Part of a home team with wife Jacquie and adult children Mark and Danielle, Broadfoot spends much of his free time cycling. “All forms of it – mountain, road, gravel,” he smiles. “Jacquie and I have traveled a lot of the word with our tandem bicycle.”
W. Brett Wilson
Any version of the story of Calgary’s rise over the last 40 years should include W. Brett Wilson. For one: his impact on the city’s oil patch as a co-founder of FirstEnergy Capital Corp. in 1993. FirstEnergy would go on to become Canada’s leading investment bank.
Then there’s his role as a ‘Dragon’ on CBC’s hit reality TV show Dragons’ Den, where his verve for deal-making made him a stand-out. And there’s his charity work – the focus of his annual Garden Party and outdoor boat concert, both highly anticipated and attended events.
There are few Calgarians today who don’t know of, or aren’t influenced by, Wilson. A big impact for a kid from North Battleford, Saskatchewan.
“My mom was a social worker and my dad a used car salesman,” he says, “so I became a capitalist with a heart. I had the good fortune of skipping a grade when I was young, so graduated at 16 and headed off to Saskatoon, the big city.”
He entered the University of Saskatchewan’s engineering school: “I still remember my first day, looking around at these guys. They were geeks, absolute geeks. Then I realized, ‘Oh, I fit in! These are my people.’”
With a civil engineering degree in hand, Wilson’s first job in 1979 was with Imperial Oil as a drilling engineering based in Edmonton. The work took him to the Arctic, across Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C.
After three years, he enrolled in the MBA course at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Management, taking advantage of a leave of absence program Imperial offered to employees.
Though he hadn’t written the GMAT, lacked work experience and had a graduating average that was too low, Wilson nonetheless persuaded Dr. Mike Maher, then dean of the Faculty of Management, to accept him in the program.
He would go on to receive a scholarship for the bulk of his MBA. “I was focused, I loved the material,” he recalls.
He spent five years with McLeod Young Weir Limited, then went on to open investment banking advisory firm Wilson Mackie & Co. In 1991. “The first year we broke even,” he reminisces. “The second year we did better than our mothers ever thought possible.”
In 1993, Wilson co-founded FirstEnergy with Rick Grafton, Jim Davidson and Murray Edwards. He retired as chair in 2008, just after his 50th birthday.
The Dragons’ Den opportunity arose almost immediately after he retired. Part of the reason he joined was his pitch to bring “balls, brains and wallets” – something he posited was missing from the show. “The other Dragons gave me a rough time about that,” he chuckles. “I meant cash, courage and commitment. It’s the difference it takes to make a deal.”
From his time as a Dragon, Wilson ended up with three significant businesses: Hillberg & Berk (a jewelry business), The 7 Virtues Perfume and 3twenty Modular (a modular construction business for northern Saskatchewan).
Today, much of his time is spent on a business called Maxim Power Corp., a roughly 300-megawatt Alberta power plant. He remains heavily invested in oil and gas, Kelowna real estate and Saskatchewan farmland. He also enjoys being a co-owner of the NHL’s Nashville Predators.
Wilson’s charitable focus is on adolescent mental health, frontline veterans and the Battlefords. “The future of our country is the next generation, we need to take care of them,” he says. “I’ve done a lot of background work and charity events for the military. And we also do a lot of stuff in the Battlefords. Our goal is to try and change the next generation of the city I grew up in.”
His advice to young, would-be entrepreneurs is to get educated: “I include trades in that. If you’re going to university, take engineering, law, commerce or general arts. And do two of them. The real start of an entrepreneur is to study marketing, entrepreneurship and philanthropy. The study of all three will make you different.”
With six grandchildren, Wilson today prioritizes his health, family and friends: “Work, everything else, that’s after. The grandchildren are fun. The kids are fun. Work is fun. My priority is being healthy.”
Hanif Joshaghani – Young Innovator Award Recipient
This year’s Young Innovator Award recipient is Hanif Joshaghani, who at just 43 has co-founded several businesses, including Symend, one of Canada’s fastest growing companies, is on the board of not-for-profit organizations, and is an active investor and mentor.
With a limited number of hours per day, Joshaghani is diligent about how he spends his time.
“Ninety per cent of my time is with Symend,” he says, “and I make the other 10 per cent available for all these other things. But I track my time. Because if you spread yourself too thin, it hurts you. If you spread yourself out a little, it helps you sharpen the knife because the surface area of what you’re learning from improves.”
It’s a lot of pressure, something Joshaghani admits he performs better under, and which is compounded by this award. “It was humbling and unexpected,” he says of being told he’d won. “It raised the bar where I’m like ‘better not screw this up’.”
It also fosters gratitude, particularly for Alberta, his adopted home. “This province has been very good to me,” he says. “There’s this unique convergence of things that make Alberta great. It is highly entrepreneurial; people have a deep commitment to working hard and making something of themselves. It’s also got that Canadian prairie culture that serves as a really great foundation for the business community.”
Born in Iran, Joshaghani’s family fled the country when he was one and lived in an Iraqi refugee camp until he was 13. They received asylum from Canada and moved to Toronto, where Joshaghani attended school. He completed his last two years of high school at a private school in New York on a scholarship.
He received a scholarship to the University of Chicago where he completed a BA in Economics, and then a scholarship to the University of Toronto to complete an MBA. He began his career in Chicago, New York and London, working in hedge funds and investment banking. A job in corporate finance for Capital Power Corporation brought him to Calgary in 2008.
Within a few years Joshaghani left to start his first venture, CoreWest Capital, a discretionary alternative investment company focused on the aviation, transport and shipping sectors. After that he co-founded InvistaWare (now Aimsio), an all-in-one field management software.
Joshaghani co-founded Symend (a mix of two words: symmetrical, for fair and transparent, and mend, for mending relationships) in 2016, as a digital engagement platform that uses behavioral science and data-driven insights to empower customers to resolve past due bills.
“Big companies need to talk to their customers about a whole bunch of things, like pay your bills, buy more products, renew your services,” Joshaghani explains. “All of these conversations must be done digitally. At the same time, digital is becoming really noisy and saturated. We want to cut through that noise.”
Symend embeds behavioral science – getting people’s attention and controlling for the emotional coefficient of how they respond – to inform the way digital customer communication occurs.
“Then we use AI and machine learning to understand what works and what doesn’t based on individual attributes,” he continues. “That allows you to send less messages that are more effective toward desired outcomes.”
Symend’s clients include roughly 60 per cent of all telecommunication companies in the Americas, many banks and financial service companies and utilities.
“The tool has gotten better and better,” Joshaghani says. “And now with AI, it’s like an assistant inside the solution to guide the user.”
Most of the company’s almost 100 employees are based in Alberta, with some across Canada, the U.S., Latin America and in Europe.
In addition to Symend, Joshaghani sits on the board of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Business Council of Canada and the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund.
He lives by his advice to younger folks: “Be rigorous, be fast and iterate quickly. Don’t get hung up on mistakes. It’s about the number of repetitions. As long as you can stay in the game, be rigorous and tune in quickly, the chances of success are high.”
