Mentor Network

 

The John F. Wood Centre for Business & Student Enterprise is seeking University of Guelph alumni that would be open to advising aspiring entrepreneurs enrolled in the Hub Incubator Program.

Over the past 5 years the program has built a community of over 50 companies that are at various stages of development. Most founders are students or recent graduates that are creating mission- and purpose-driven businesses to make a positive impact on the world. While exciting and rewarding, this experience can also be quite challenging and many are looking for advice, experience sharing, and encouragement.

If you are a University of Guelph alum or you are someone that would be open to sharing your entrepreneurial experience or knowledge of a particular industry, we would appreciate hearing from you. To explore whether an advising role might be a good fit for you, please leave your contact information below and one of our team members will be in touch to setup a call.

SUBMIT CONTACT INFORMATION HERE

 

Featured Mentors

John London, Vice Chairman, Nuvo Pharmaceuticals

John has over 30 years of experience managing a wide variety of public and private businesses. His experience includes international Masters of Law degree, partnership at a Toronto Bay St. law firm, senior position at auto parts multinational, co-founder of public auto parts company, venture capital investing and CEO and board positions at technology and public pharmaceutical businesses. John’s current focus is business and academic board roles, including his roles at the Wood Centre as Chair of the Strategic Advisory Board and Executive in Residence.

Emily Susan Wood Frasson, President, Wood Development Group

Susan Frasson was born and raised in Guelph, Ontario and has been actively involved in her family’s businesses since the age of 9.  She is a graduate from the University of Western Ontario where she took English, psychology and of course business.  She worked in the family business as a project manager designing new appliances and setting up new assembly lines.  Susan married Alex Frasson in 1996 and two years later gave birth to the first of their four children.  She returned to W.C. Wood Company in 2005 to assist with special projects and strategic planning.  After the family business was sold in 2008, Susan began working in the real estate end of the business and is currently President of Wood Development Group.  In 2009 the family established The W. C. Wood Foundation, which Susan is also actively and passionately involved in. Susan and her husband also own and operate a number of other businesses together.  On a daily basis, Susan juggles her many business interests with her role as a very involved and committed parent, while still making time for her passion as a community philanthropist and activist.   Her style is to build consensus and lead by example and you see that reflected in every aspect of her life - family business owner, philanthropist, parent and life partner.

 

Paul Fitzpatrick, Broker of Record, Home Group Realty

Paul is a 40+ year resident of Guelph; a University of Guelph Grad in 1986 with a degree in management economics. Paul embarked on a career in real estate in 1988. The next 20 plus years saw Paul consistently grow his business and be involved in over 1200 home sales and a historic success ratio exceeding 86%. Paul has been consistently ranked among the Top 10 realtors in his local market and has been recognized for his leadership and innovative marketing.

Not satisfied with the direction conventional real estate companies were taking, Paul opened his own brokerage in the fall of 2011. In a few short years from their humble beginning as a team of 4 Realtors, Home Group Realty has grown to a dynamic independent brokerage of 50+ seasoned Realtors that consistently out-produce and perform the average agent and brokerage in their marketplace. 

Rishi Sethi, Co-founder, SutureOut

Rishi spent the last 5 years and growing the medical device company SutureOut. At SutureOut Rishi commercialized the first guarded blade suture removal tool, developed distribution relationships throughout Canada and the US, handled regulatory compliance with Health Canada & FDA, managed the company’s intellectual property strategy, sourced production overseas, and managed a local and virtual marketing team. He is also actively engaged at the Wood Centre as a mentor with expertise in regulatory compliance, sales, business development, project management, and marketing.

Rishi is an innovative, strategic self-starter who leverages entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for healthcare to drive the development and commercialization of medical devices. He is driven by a win-win, team-focused philosophy that has been instrumental in the development, marketing, and sales of products and services for over a decade.

 

Harrison Newlands, Director of Strategic Relations, Hoshi International

Harrison has a diverse understanding of capital markets, having invested, advised, marketed and help found dozens of small to mid-cap companies and currently serves as the Director of Strategic Relations for Hoshi International. Prior to Hoshi Harrison was Director of Business Development at Fire & Flower, Canada’s leading independent cannabis retailer, and Research Associate for MacNicol & Associates in Toronto, Ontario. Harrison currently sits on the board for a local Ontario based charitable foundation and mentors students and startups at the University of Guelph, Ryerson University, and the Leaf Forward business accelerator.

 

Shanie Arndt, Commercial Marketing Manager

A Commercial Marketer with over 10 years of marketing and sales related experience in consumer goods industries. Working from the top advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, to Fortune 500 international corporations, Shanie has handled brands such as Budweiser, Corona, Johnnie Walker, Bailey’s, Barbie, Nestle, Nokia, etc, and acquired all-around marketing skills with plenty of practices and cases of proven success. Out of her love for business building, she ventured from Fortune 500 companies to an E-Commerce start-up, where she had the opportunity to build her own marketing team from the ground up and to incubate brands with Alibaba (the Amazon in China.) The experience has made her a better marketer with deeper business understanding and matured entrepreneurship.

Shanie specializes in brand strategy development and management, brand incubation, business strategy development, innovation product development and management, communications, marketing campaigns, retail marketing, and digital marketing.

Steve Langford, Management Consultant

Steve Langford is a consultant focused on coaching, training and mentoring. His specialties are process improvement, merchandising, negotiating, executive leadership, people management. A few highlights of his career include:

  • A senior management role at Loblaw Companies from 1986 to 1990 where he managed teams responsible for the procurement of over $1 billion worth of goods for five different store brand lines. He was also a key strategist behind the development Loblaw’s President’s Choice and No Name Products brands.
  • From 1990 to 1993 he ran Sunspun Foods, the foodservice division of Loblaw Companies.
  • He was SVP of Merchandising at Shoppers Drug Mart from 1993 to 1996 where he centralized their purchasing and merchandising.
  • In 1996 he became President and CEO of BC Hothouse Foods, a large greenhouse operation, where he expanded broker networks, negotiated new business globally and grew sales 140% to $150 million in just 2 years.
  • In 2003, he joined Prizm Income Fund as chief purchasing officer, responsible for supply chain and merchandising for 400 KFC and 100 Taco Bell restaurants in Canada. Five years later he became Prizm’s President and revamped operations to focus on profitability and guest experience developing new products, market promotions and media plans.
 
To explore whether an advising role might be a good fit for you, please leave your contact information below and one of our team members will be in touch to setup a call.

SUBMIT CONTACT INFORMATION HERE

Questions? Email us at woodcentre@uoguelph.ca.