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Feature Story
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Rose Athena Graduates from The Accelerator Program�
Waterloo (Ontario), CANADA, December 12, 2013 - World renowned for its cultivation of technology entrepreneurship, Waterloo's Accelerator Centre announced that personalized fashion e-retailer, Rose Athena is the latest company to graduate from The Accelerator Program�. The award-winning Program has successfully graduated 34 companies into the marketplace since 2005, creating more than 1000 jobs, and contributing more than $100 million in revenue to the Waterloo Region economy.
Rose Athena is the brainchild of Bushra Dirir and Lily Wong, two fashionistas turned entrepreneurs who longed for a more personalized way to shop for dresses. Using the finest quality fabric and products, and building on the hottest fashion trends, Rose Athena allows its style-savvy customers to personalize a dress, choosing from an assortment of styling elements from color, to neckline, to sleeve length and hemline, producing a unique form-fitting garment built to an individual's form and liking. The final product is then shipped directly to the customer's door.
Read the full press release here.
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Accelerator Buzz
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Mark McArdle: The Accelerator Centre welcomes a new In-House Technical Mentor
After several years as the In House Technical Mentor, we congratulate Chris Howlett on accepting the role of CTO for In the Chat, a current Accelerator Program Client. Congratulations Chris!
On behalf of the AC team, we are happy to introduce Mark McArdle as our new In-House Technical Mentor for the Accelerator Program. Mark has been a friend of the AC for a few years now, and we are thrilled to have him officially on board.
Mark is a seasoned technology executive, with over 20 years of technical experience with some of the best brands in technology. His early career started as a software developer at MKS and Open Text. This lead to his desire to "do an Internet start-up" in Silicon Valley. In 1996 he left Waterloo and joined PGP Inc., a security start-up based in Redwood Shores.
McAfee acquired PGP in 1997, where Mark remained for the next 11 years. He held various increasingly senior roles and was the Senior VP of Consumer Product Development upon his retirement in 2008. In this role, he was responsible for the Engineering and Product Management functions in a 400+ person organization that spanned the globe. His products were responsible for in excess of $650M in revenue annually, supporting over 30 million users in over 20 languages and were instrumental in the growth of McAfee's success.
Mark's full bio can be found on our website, on the Mentorship page.
University of Waterloo: New Biomedical Engineering Degree and a $5M Lab
The University of Waterloo is one of our integral partners in commercialization and academia. We are thrilled to re-post two exciting announcements!
Source: www.uwaterloo.ca/news
New Degree
The University of Waterloo will offer a new degree in biomedical engineering from Fall 2014 that closes the gap between medicine and engineering.
The new undergraduate program will be housed in the Faculty of Engineering's Department of Systems Design Engineering and will build on Waterloo's foundation of leadership in experiential education, engineering and technology.
The unique curriculum will have a strong focus on the modeling and design of biomedical systems that will be used to develop new technologies and engineering solutions to health-related problems. Read the full announcement here.
$5 Million Lab
A first-of-its-kind, world-class laboratory that could lead to the creation of quantum materials for use in a new generation of technologies will open at the University of Waterloo's Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) on December 12, 2013.
Quantum materials are needed as the building blocks of robust quantum devices that will be able function outside of laboratory settings bringing the possibility of a quantum computer one step closer. Read the full announcement here.
@uWaterlooNews
Canada's Technology for Food in the press: Trade mission zeros in on food technologies
The Record recently covered Ted McKechnie's trade mission to Germany and the Netherlands. Here is an excerpt of the article.
By Rose Simone
WATERLOO - Technology for computers and mobile devices is synonymous with this region.
But Ted McKechnie sees huge potential for Waterloo Region and the Guelph-Wellington area to also become a world class food processing technology cluster.
McKechnie, chief executive of Canada's Technology for Food, explored that potential during a recent trade mission to Germany and the Netherlands. His organization helps food processors find technology solutions that will save them money or add to their production capacity.
He was one of about a dozen people from the area, including the mayors of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, who participated in the trade mission. The trip was organized by Canada's Technology Triangle Inc., a regional economic development partnership.
Read the full article here.
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Client Corner
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#Next Career: Displaced BlackBerry employees get up close and personal with Cream.HR and community leaders
 On November 27th, Accelerator Program Client Cream.HR was joined by fellow sponsors Communitech, HRPA and Heart of Culture, as well as key industry leaders from the community, to provide a panel discussion and expert-led interactive round table discussions for displaced BlackBerry workers.
Moderator for the evening was Jackie Lauer, Human Resources mentor at the Accelerator Centre, and Leadership and Culture CEO at Heart of Culture. Registration for the event was full, with no cost to attendees thanks to the generosity of the sponsors. Attendees represented many different departments and levels, making for very authentic discussions and a non-threatening, encouraging environment.
Christine Bird, co-founder of Cream.HR, was both delighted, and grounded by the event. In terms of the panel members that participated, Christine explains that "Our expert leaders were there for no other reason than that they care about the individual community members " When describing the success of the event Christine use words like authentic, real, helpful, personable, practical, and overall engaged. Jackie was equally as happy with the event, telling us she enjoyed the opportunity to answer questions attendees came prepared with. There were long lineups for panel members and "people stayed well past the end of the event - attendees and panel members included."
One conversation prior to the event really sticks out in Christine's mind. "The person who helped me with the event coordination at BlackBerry who had been very helpful was downsized midway through. I asked for her help still, saying that her value wasn't leaving her just because she was leaving a job. She volunteered anyway and I'm happy to report she was hired by another KW company before the event began."
Overall, the event creatively combined leaders from the community with those who may be unsure of their next career. Christine's goal was to help prepare them for a "valuable opportunity to find greater happiness in a career - without the fear and judgement that comes with the job hunt." Hopefully attendees left the event with tools, confidence and excitement for their next career.
MotoRegistry has launched a new website!
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Alumni News
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Monstercat becomes the first label to accept the first online currency-bitcoin payments.
Read full article here.
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PerspecSys Inc., the leader in cloud data protection solutions for the enterprise, today announced it has been shortlisted as a finalist in the 2013-2014 Cloud Awards Program in the Security Innovation of the Year category. The Cloud Awards identify and celebrate excellence in the field of cloud computing and have chosen finalists from the over 200 organizations submitted this year, with entries coming from across the globe, including Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and the Middle East.
Read the full article here. |
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On November 21, 2013, the Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX) welcomed key leaders in the innovation economy to learn from one another, explore new relationships and accelerate the development of the ground-breaking technologies, products and services propelling the Canadian economy into the future. Congratulations Axonify on being chosen as one of CIX's top 20! Read the full announcement here. |
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