Changemakers: Meet 20 emerging leaders reinventing how Canada does business ...Middle East

Now more than ever, we could all use a little sunshine. (Like, come on, 2025—give us a break already.) That means it’s the perfect time for our annual Changemakers list.

Once again, we put out the call for nominations from both the business community and across The Globe and Mail, searching for young entrepreneurs, academics, activists and other professionals devoted to making the world a better place. And we found them—paying gig drivers more fairly, giving a boost to Black entrepreneurs, providing safe spaces for Indigenous patients, making patent searches easier, helping break down Canada’s monopolies and more. Get ready to feel inspired.

Sasha Luccioni, AI researcher with Hugging Face

Sasha Luccioni came across an academic study in 2019 that changed the course of her research. She was completing a post-doc at the Mila AI Institute in Montreal when she read a paper from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, that estimated the carbon footprint of training different AI models. At the higher end, the process could emit five times the carbon dioxide that a single car spews out during its lifespan. “I thought, That can’t be the case for all AI models,” Luccioni says. “These were huge numbers.”

She was correct that not every AI model is an energy hog. But her work since has shown that the generative AI models that have recently exploded in popularity require a lot of energy. Today, Luccioni is one of the leading researchers on the environmental impact of AI, bringing much-needed scrutiny to the climate footprint of our AI era and forcing companies, governments and regulators to grapple with the potential costs.

Luccioni worked in the private sector after finishing her PhD in AI at the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2016 but soon hit a quarter-life crisis. “I was increasingly worried about the climate crisis and had climate anxiety,” she says. She wondered if she should quit her job to plant trees or teach kids about composting. Her partner suggested she put her PhD toward combating climate change. “That was my eureka moment,” she says.

Luccioni convinced Mila scientific director Yoshua Bengio to take her on as a postdoctoral researcher, and she became a founding member of Climate Change AI, a non-profit that brings academics together to explore how the technology can address environmental challenges. But after reading that UMass study, led by Emma Strubell, in 2019, she realized developers had no way to determine the environmental effects of their own models.

Along with her colleagues, Luccioni helped to build software called CodeCarbon that estimates the amount of carbon dioxide produced by executing code and offers suggestions for tapping into computing power fuelled by renewable energy. It’s been downloaded millions of times since its release in 2020. She’s also worked with Strubell on a study showing that general-purpose AI models—like those underlying ChatGPT—are more expensive and energy-intensive than those tailored for specific tasks, challenging the industry ethos that bigger models are always better.

One of her studies found that training an open-source generative AI model used as much energy as 30 homes in a year and emitted nearly 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide, equivalent to driving a car five times around the world. That might not sound like much, but the proprietary models these days are orders of magnitude larger, and using them after training consumes energy, too.

In February, Luccioni—as the AI and climate lead at New York machine learning company Hugging Face—launched a program to score AI models based on energy efficiency. The idea was inspired by the Energy Star ratings developed by the Environmental Protection Agency to designate energy-efficient products, such as TVs, fridges and lightbulbs. A similar system for AI would bring about more transparency—companies are reluctant to release many details about their models—and allow users to make informed choices.

Luccioni has had no problem working with open-source models, but some companies have so far been reluctant to subject all of their proprietary AI models to this level of examination, even if they agree that the concept is a necessary one. “It’s been an uphill battle,” she says. “They’re afraid of looking bad, essentially.”

Luccioni helped to build software called CodeCarbon that estimates the amount of carbon dioxide produced by executing code and offers suggestions for tapping into computing power fuelled by renewable energy.Guillaume Simoneau/The Globe and Mail

The idea was inspired by the Energy Star ratings developed by the Environmental Protection Agency to designate energy-efficient products, such as TVs, fridges and lightbulbs. A similar system for AI would bring about more transparency—companies are reluctant to release many details about their models—and allow users to make informed choices.

Luccioni has had no problem working with open-source models, but companies have so far been reluctant to subject their proprietary AI models to this level of examination, even if they agree that the concept is a necessary one. “It’s been an uphill battle,” she says. “They’re afraid of looking bad, essentially.”

But Luccioni’s work is keeping the pressure on. Besides, if AI companies remain opaque about the climate impact of their models, they’re looking pretty bad already.

– Joe Castaldo

Julie Segal, Senior program manager, climate finance, at Environmental Defence in Montreal

Julie Segal’s role at the advocacy organization Environmental Defence is to advance climate-related financial policy and regulation—a job that just got a whole lot harder under Trump 2.0. But if anyone can keep climate justice top-of-mind in a world gone mad, it’s Segal, who’s also a visiting fellow on just transition at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics.

At just 29, she’s advised on the Climate-Aligned Finance Act in the Canadian Senate, appeared numerous times at the standing committee on the environment and sustainable development in Ottawa, and has presented at conferences worldwide, including the OECD’s 2024 Forum on Green Finance and Investment. She’s also had high-level meetings with most of Canada’s major federal parties—a rare thing for an environmental NGO—to speak about climate change’s impact on the financial system, “both in terms of how finance works and how finance is at risk because of it, and to convey to them some truths that were tough to swallow,” says Keith Brooks, Environmental Defence’s programs director. “Julie did a lot of work to frame this up as a missing piece of Canada’s climate plan and to push for commitments.”

– Dawn Calleja

Brendan MacArthur-Stevens, Partner at Blakes in Calgary

When he’s not litigating commercial disputes for one of Canada’s premier law firms, Brendan MacArthur-Stevens is feeding his soul by advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. Just one case among many: In 2023, for the first time in Canadian history, the Supreme Court expressly used the word “transgender” in a legal decision that recognized transgender and queer youth as “an acutely vulnerable—yet brave and resilient—group.” For the history-making moment, they might thank the young Calgarian lawyer for providing his pro-bono services to represent the underrepresented voices of the queer youth community—a community he’s proud to be part of. The historic ruling was “one of the highlights of my life,” says MacArthur-Stevens, although at just 35 years old, his work as LGBTQ+ legal champion is just beginning.

– Rosemary Counter

Yinka Adesesan is the visionary behind the Black Innovation Summit, a marquee event that brings together innovators, entrepreneurs and allies.William Ukoh/The Globe and Mail

Yinka Adesesan, Black Innovation Programs Manager at Toronto Metropolitan University’s DMZ

At home in Nigeria, Yinka Adesesan watched too many talented entrepreneurs launch businesses that started strong and fizzled out—his own included. Granted, a customized T-shirt store (run out of the back of his mother’s car, no less) probably wasn’t a million-dollar idea, but its teenage founder had the kind of ambition and innovative gusto that would serve him well no matter what he did. These days, Adesesan is putting it to work at TMU’s business incubator, DMZ.

After immigrating to Canada with his family in 2022 (via Barcelona, where he earned a master’s in design management), Adesesan landed at DMZ, where he was promptly promoted. His tall task: “Identify and bridge the gaps in opportunity, funding and support that disadvantage Black founders.” Statistics Canada reports that a mere 2.1% of the country’s business owners are Black (more than two-thirds of them men); at DMZ, 24% of its 850 portfolio companies are Black-led.

Adesesan is watching that number climb thanks to his many and multifaceted efforts. Among them, over $2.5 million distributed in grants and services that directly support 1,000-plus Black entrepreneurs across Canada. Programs include the Black Innovation Launchpad, which teaches entrepreneurial skills to aspiring business owners, and Dream Hub virtual workshops, which allow founders to network and collaborate. The $5,000 Black Youth Entrepreneurship Award, meanwhile, goes to a particularly impressive up-and-coming founder.

Adesesan’s “founders first” philosophy nurtures the business owner more than the actual business—90% of startups fail, and many entrepreneurs fail many times before they finally succeed.William Ukoh/The Globe and Mail

Adesesan’s biggest endeavour thus far, just two months into his new gig, was leading the annual Black Innovation Summit, where 10 Black-led startups pitched a panel of judges for their portion of $55,000 in funding. The winner, if you’re curious, was Montreal-based Cleanster, which connects property owners with top-rated cleaners. At its helm was (young, Black, female) Gloria Oppong; her perfect pitch won both the top prize of $30,000 and the $5,000 People’s Choice Award.

Summit guests, meanwhile, enjoyed a day-long networking event and roundtable discussions to share their successes and failures and mingle with like-minded entrepreneurs. “Yinka’s commitment to connecting as many Black entrepreneurs as possible to our programs and collaborating with other players who are also dedicated to a more equitable ecosystem has transformed DMZ into a true catalyst for change,” says DMZ executive director Abdullah Snobar. “He’s driving widespread impact across Canada by helping more Black-led startups thrive through partnerships and collaboration.”

Crucially, Adesesan’s “founders first” philosophy nurtures the business owner more than the actual business—90% of startups fail, and many entrepreneurs fail many, many times before they finally succeed. “Failure is still a success if it makes you smarter,” he says. The key is to find another idea and try again—but capital helps, and that’s DMZ’s mission. As Adesesan puts it: “Just being able not to worry about money helps you do better business.”

– Rosemary Counter

Kelle Hurd, Vice-chair for Indigenous Health, Department of Medicine, University of Calgary

As one of few Indigenous physicians at U of C, Dr. Kelle Hurd—Métis on her paternal side and with a grandmother of Luiseño heritage—is championing safe medical spaces from the inside out. Of her many positions and endeavours in urban and rural practices across Alberta, Hurd oversees educational delivery to faculty, residents and new students. “We’re creating culturally safe spaces where Indigenous patients can access meaningful care that resonates with them,” she says. Staff under Hurd’s watch are taught trauma-informed care that incorporates Indigenous ways of healing as an adjunct to Western medicine. One small but also huge example: Accommodation of smudging—a ceremonial burning of plants to cleanse negative energy—when patients are admitted to hospital.

– RC

Efosa Obano, Founder of the Black Founders Network & African Impact Initiative in Toronto

When Efosa Obano was growing up in Nigeria, access to electricity and the internet was a luxury, not a given. “I remember learning that there were places in the world where those things were available 24/7,” he says. “And I realized that entrepreneurs were the ones creating that access.” After graduating in 2018, he launched the African Impact Initiative to support entrepreneurs across the continent, and in 2021, he founded the Black Founders Network (BFN), which supports Black entrepreneurs in Canada and abroad. His efforts have empowered more than 15,000 entrepreneurs with training and facilitated more than $10 million in funding to fuel their business growth. “I want to get to a place where seeing thriving Black founders in every industry is completely ordinary,” he says.

– Liza Agrba

Orlane Panet, Co-founder and CEO of MicroHabitat, an urban farming company that optimizes urban spaces through the production of fresh food.Kristine Nyborg/The Globe and Mail

Orlane Panet, co-founder of MicroHabitat in Montreal

It’s not often that corporate sustainability projects extend beyond ambitious declarations about carbon neutrality on company websites and into the tangible world. But Orlane Panet, the Montreal-based co-founder of MicroHabitat, is spreading a service that allows her clients to get their hands dirty—and fill their bellies, too.

MicroHabitat is an urban farming company that partners with corporations, real estate companies and government institutions like hospitals and schools to give unused spaces—like rooftops or vacant lots—new life as mini farms. The concept has produced bountiful results: MicroHabitat clients have donated to 38 food banks across North America and cultivated more than 73,000 pounds of fresh local produce. They’ve also donated 21,752 breakfasts to Canada’s Breakfast Club and 6,500 meals through America’s No Kid Hungry initiative.

MicroHabitat was conceived in 2016 by Alexandre Ferrari-Roy, a friend of Panet’s. She, meanwhile, was fresh out of business school; inspired by what he was attempting she joined him. While he developed the biodiversity and farming-related parts of the operation, Panet tackled the nitty-gritty of making the business actually work. “I’ve done all the jobs my staff have done,” Panet says. With the company now up to 50 permanent employees and 100 seasonal farming staff, “I know the granularity of every role,” she says.

After initially targeting the hospitality industry, Panet and Ferrari-Roy decided to broaden their impact so that more people could benefit from their model—which, after all, solved a number of social and environmental challenges. “We connected with major real estate players and property owners with global portfolios that wanted to bring forward a sustainable action,” she says. “But it goes beyond sustainability, touching social impact and just the quality of life of human beings in general.”

Since then, MicroHabitat has expanded into office, retail, distribution and industrial spaces, with clients ranging from Calgary‘s suburban Southcentre Mall to the rooftops of skyscrapers in Dallas and New York City. Panet says that amid the growth, the COVID-19 pandemic—which initially presented as an existential threat—became an opportunity. At first, companies withdrew from their office leases. Now, however, they’re looking for ways to entice tenants with amenities that foster community and connect workers with nature. MicroHabitat’s gardeners host urban farming workshops and facilitate donations of produce to local charities, helping employees and tenants feel like they’re doing something for the greater good. “People have redefined the purpose of the workplace. Humans need to have access to outdoor spaces, to connect with community, to connect with nature,” Panet says. “People are connecting deeply with what MicroHabitat is offering.”

This year, MicroHabitat is set to expand into the U.K., Switzerland, France and Germany. But ask her about the project that’s closest to her heart—the one she contemplates during late nights at the office—and she’ll highlight MicroHabitat’s local initiatives. “We work with Quebec’s youth protection department, and that has a deeper meaning to me,” she says. “We’re creating a space where food becomes a platform for education, for connection.”

That sparkle she sees in the eyes of MicroHabitat’s young farming participants is what drives her. “These kids are proud of growing food, and they see how magical food can be.”

– Claire Robbins

Sanja Fidler, Associate professor at University of Toronto and VP of AI research at Toronto-based Nvidia

University of Toronto professor Sanja Fidler was tapped by Nvidia in 2018 to lead the GPU-maker’s new research lab in the city. Her work had already spanned the gamut of AI applications, including computer vision and early stabs at generative AI, such as a music-composition program that has the distinction of being featured in an episode of The Simpsons. At Nvidia, the Slovenian-born Fidler has always strived to produce research that will be useful in the real world. One of the projects her lab contributed to was unveiled earlier this year. Cosmos, as the company calls it, is a world foundation model—an AI model that understands how objects move over time in 3-D space, crucial for more advanced self-driving vehicles and robotics applications. “The intuition behind this was that if I can train a model that can anticipate what’s going to happen next,” she says, “that model, under the hood, knows how the world works. That’s what robots need.”

– Joe Castaldo

Azrah Manji-Savin, Co-founder and CEO of Syzl in Toronto

For Azrah Manji-Savin, food isn’t just sustenance—it’s culture, history and an economic lifeline. Growing up in a family of refugees who came to Canada during the Ugandan crisis in the ’70s, she saw firsthand how selling home-cooked meals sustained immigrant communities. That ethos inspired her to co-found Syzl, a sort of Airbnb for kitchens. The idea is simple: connect food entrepreneurs with commercial kitchens on an as-needed basis and at affordable prices. It’s also the first kitchen platform in North America to offer at-checkout single-day insurance. That makes scaling easier for small businesses. “We’re inspired by gig workers and side hustlers,” Savin says. “Flexibility is at the heart of what we do.”

With most users hailing from immigrant and newcomer communities—and a majority of them women—Syzl is changing the economics of food production while staying innovative and compliant. “We’re not just moving fast and breaking things,” Manji-Savin says. “We’re building something sustainable.”

– Liza Agrba

Andrew White, CEO of CHAR Technologies. In 2023, CHAR became the first Canadian company to receive funding from the ArcelorMittal’s XCarb Innovation Fund for its efforts to replace coal in steelmaking.Bailey McLean/The Globe and Mail

Andrew White, founder and CEO of Toronto-based CHAR Technologies

For turning forestry waste into biocoal for making steel

Making steel is one of the most carbon-intensive activities on the planet. Blast furnaces consume vast amounts of coking coal to reach the scorching temperature—1,000°C—required to create molten iron, the essential ingredient in steel. And the industry is responsible for up to 9% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Andrew White didn’t know much about that back in 2009, when he was doing his master’s in chemical and environmental engineering at the University of Toronto. He and his professor were visiting a farm outside London, Ont., that was making biogas via anaerobic digestion. The process uses bacteria similar to those that exist inside a cow’s stomach to break down organic waste—such as food or manure—anaerobically, meaning without oxygen. “We saw this big pile of compost—fibrous, what looks like wet, dirty straw,” says White. “That was the waste product from the anaerobic digestion process.”

The stuff stunk—bad. “It smells very strongly of ammonia—really strongly,” says White. They shovelled some of it into black garbage bags—which, by the way, failed to contain the stench—loaded it into the professor’s SUV and drove it back to Toronto. “We started to ask whether we could make activated carbon—like the stuff in a Brita filter—out of this material, to pull sulphur out of the gas.”

The result of that work eventually led to the creation of CHAR Technologies Ltd., a publicly traded company on the TSX Venture Exchange. Using a technology called high-temperature pyrolysis, CHAR is able to turn forestry waste products (the parts of the tree lumber companies would otherwise throw away) into various renewable energy products, including biocoal, which can replace metallurgical coal in steelmaking. The process is autothermal, meaning no external heat sources are required, and excess energy is created, thereby making the final product carbon-negative.

CHAR turns forestry waste products into various renewable energy products, including biocoal, which can replace metallurgical coal in steelmaking.Bailey McLean/The Globe and Mail

In 2023, CHAR became the first Canadian company to receive funding from the ArcelorMittal’s XCarb Innovation Fund for its efforts to replace coal in steelmaking. CHAR has also been working with Hamilton-based Dofasco—now owned by ArcelorMittal—since 2017 to produce replacements for metallurgical coal. Dofasco is one of many producers in the process of switching from traditional blast furnaces to electric arc models, which have been shown to reduce emissions by roughly 75%. Electric arc furnaces require dramatically less coal, making it possible for CHAR to produce enough biocoal to fully meet steelmakers’ needs.

Over the next several decades, White says he expects steelmakers to shift to whole new technologies that will allow them to reduce or eliminate their carbon footprint. “But between now and the next 25 to 30 years, there’s a lot of these industrial processes that are going to keep running, and we can decarbonize them for the short term.”

White hopes to bring CHAR’s technology to a wide range of other industries, too. “Is Ontario going to continue to be a leader in battery technology? Because a bunch of those components are carbon-based. Could they be biocarbon instead of fossil carbon? That’s just one example,” he says. “You could go into energy storage like supercapacitors—all sorts of cool and interesting things.”

– Jameson Berkow

Zain Zaidi Founder of TransCrypts in Whitby, Ont.

Generations of Zain Zaidi’s family have faced upheaval and adversity, including during the chaos of the partition of India and Pakistan. That history is part of what drove Zaidi to start TransCrypts, with the aim of helping users wrest control of their personal data from bureaucracies. In his senior year at San Jose State University, where he was studying electrical engineering and computer science, Zaidi teamed up with his Toronto-based cousin, Ali Zaheer, to create their blockchain-based flagship product, which streamlines employment and income verification, allowing users to bypass traditional, often discriminatory, background checks. One of its most impactful initiatives—offered free through partnerships with non-profits—is its decentralized medical records platform. Launched near the start of the war in Ukraine, the platform allows refugees to securely store and transport their medical information. To date, it’s facilitated the transfer of more than 200,000 medical records across seven countries, including in the aftermath of the earthquake in Türkiye in early 2023. That product spurred a $3.2-million funding led by Mark Cuban. “Zain is incredibly humble, curious and collaborative,” says Jon French, director of University of Toronto Entrepreneurship, which housed TransCrypts before its launch as a standalone company. “He’s using blockchain and AI to make a real impact on the world.”

– Liza Agrba

Tatiana Estevez, Founder and CEO of Montreal-based Permalution

When Tatiana Estevez and her Quebec-based team talk about the cloud, they mean literal clouds. Some two billion people currently lack safe drinking water, and according to the UN, two-thirds of countries won’t have enough water to cover their needs by 2030. “We’re addressing the problem of water scarcity by, as I like to say, milking the clouds,” says Estevez. A three-unit collection system (a predictive “atlas” to choose the best spots, a radar sensor to analyze the water content and quality, and durable fog collectors) essentially harvests fog, converting it to between 150 and 2,000 litres of water per unit, per day, from remote corners of the planet. A straightforward process that’s comparable to windmills for water, Estevez’s fog collectors are currently being put to the test in Abu Dhabi and scaling up to industrial-size models that are affordable, efficient and safe. “Water that comes straight from the source is very high-quality, comparable to distilled water,” says Estevez, who was recently named by the World Bank as a CEO Water Champion.

– Rosemary Counter

Harrison Amit created and launched RideHovr, a.k.a. Hovr, last May, with the tagline “100% Fare is 100% Fair.” More than 55,000 drivers are currently on Hovr’s waitlist.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail

Harrison Amit, Founder of Toronto-based Hovr

When Harrison Amit arrived in Toronto in 2018, he was awed by ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft. “We didn’t have those in Nova Scotia, and they were such an easy way to get around,” says the 29-year-old. Once he got talking to drivers, though, he heard a different story: “They described an incredibly exploitative model, like a mobile sweatshop.” Drivers make far less than minimum wage, can’t predict their income and have no recourse against AI technology that automatically pairs customers willing to pay the most with drivers willing to accept the least. Unable to resist the entrepreneurial urge to solve a problem, Amit created and launched RideHovr, a.k.a. Hovr, last May, with the tagline “100% Fare is 100% Fair.” Drivers get a fixed base rate, plus additional pay for more time and distance, while Hovr gets a mere dollar per trip—from the rider. How much more does an ethical ride-share cost? “Most trips are actually less expensive than Uber,” says Amit. Hovr is currently working at ramping things up for supply to meet demand: More than 55,000 drivers are currently on Hovr’s waitlist, and 80,000 Torontonians have downloaded the app.

– Rosemary Counter

Sherry Larjani, President of Spotlight Development in Toronto

As a housing developer, Sherry Larjani was disheartened by the stigma and resistance surrounding affordable housing. So she launched The Inclusive, which dedicates 70% of its units to affordability—far surpassing the typical 10% to 20% allocation in traditional projects. With 6,000 units in progress across cities like Toronto, Mississauga and Richmond Hill, The Inclusive is more than housing—it’s a comprehensive network of support. Each development includes services tailored to the community, from food banks and education facilities to 24-hour childcare. “This is about building a model that tackles the housing crisis while truly empowering people,” she says. Rather than leaving the responsibility to government initiatives that often fall short of their stated goals, Larjani has taken the onus on herself to prove that housing can be innovative and inclusive.

– Liza Agrba

Stephanie Curcio, CEO of NLPatent in Toronto

Search for “chair” in a patent database, and you won’t find it described as a chair—it’s a “structure for supporting a seated human body.” That complexity is what Stephanie Curcio’s NLPatent simplifies. After years as a Bay Street IP lawyer, she co-founded the company to harness AI for navigating patent data. Using advanced language models, the platform decodes dense patent language to help unlock innovation. Since launching its revamped system in 2022, the company has achieved over 100% year-over-year growth, serving 55 law firms, universities and other clients across the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia. “We’re democratizing access to patent data,” Curcio says.

– Liza Agrba

Erin Bury is the co-founder and CEO of online estate planning platform Willful.co. So far the company has helped more than 150,000 customers create wills, along with power-of-attorney documents.Supplied

Erin Bury, Co-founder and CEO of Willful in Toronto

Here’s a staggering statistic: 57% of Canadians don’t have a will. For those under 35, it’s 89%. Not long ago, Erin Bury was one of them. It was 2015. Her husband’s uncle had recently died, and the couple realized they needed to draw up a will pronto. They didn’t have kids yet, but they did own property, and they wanted to make things as easy as possible should the unthinkable happen. But as Bury and Kevin Oulds found, writing a will is time-consuming, pricey (upward of $1,500 for even a basic document) and just plain bleak. “There had to be a better way,” she says. “How do we take this really opaque, complex thing everyone knows they need but don’t prioritize because it’s uncomfortable, and democratize it?” The couple hit on an idea: a step-by-step platform that helps users distribute their assets, appoint guardians for their kids and pets, and name an executor to carry out their final wishes. In 2017, they launched Willful. “The result is a customized legal document drafted and reviewed annually by human estate lawyers,” says Bury. There are some limits—blended families, children with disabilities and so on—but for the vast majority of Canadians, Willful is a one-stop shop. So far, it’s helped more than 150,000 customers (most of them young married parents, but plenty of boomer retirees, as well) to create wills, along with power-of-attorney documents. The company’s goal is to ensure every Canadian has a will, and it’s teamed up with partners like Scotiabank, CAA and Wealthsimple to make it happen. “Our biggest challenge isn’t that we’re the David versus the Goliath,” says Bury. “We mostly compete with complacency.”

– Dawn Calleja

Karolina Valente, Founder and CEO of VoxCell BioInnovation in Victoria

Karolina Valente’s personal connection to cancer research began with her late mother’s battle with breast cancer. While completing her PhD, she founded VoxCell to create 3-D bioprinted tissue for drug testing, complete with blood vessels to mimic human samples more accurately than other products on the market. With oncology drug trials facing a 95% failure rate, VoxCell’s tech helps pharmaceutical companies eliminate ineffective drugs early, saving valuable time and resources in the development pipeline. The company’s first product, focused on triple-negative breast cancer, launches next year, paving the way for faster, more effective treatments. “This business is about accelerating life-saving breakthroughs,” Valente says.

– Liza Agrba

Louis Bellemare and Simon Poulin, Co-founders of Upside Drinks in Montreal

Louis Bellemare, a veteran of the bar and alcohol industry, was newly sober. Simon Poulin was leaning that way. But both of them found it hard to find non-alcoholic options. Retailers had—still have—limited alcohol-free options, mostly major brands like Molson and Heineken. Any time a limited-edition craft option hit shelves, it quickly disappeared. With an increasing number of their fellow millennials and Gen Zers eschewing alcohol, Bellemare and Poulin realized there was a huge demand for a one-stop online shop for alcohol-free beer, spirits and wine. They launched Upside in 2022, filling 100 orders a month out of Bellemare’s basement. Now, they’re shipping 5,000. Revenue grew by 250% last year, and Poulin says they expect to hit eight digits this year. Part of that strategy involves creating a community for the sober and sober-curious, and targeting bars, restaurants and hotels both for delivery services and helping them create non-alcoholic menus to keep non-drinkers satisfied—and spending. “There are a lot of people on a mindful drinking journey,” says Poulin, who now only drinks on special occasions. “It’s all about inclusivity.”

– Dawn Calleja

Rylan Kinnon, Co-founder and CEO of Toronto-based SpacesShared

Rylan Kinnon started thinking about how to use homeowners’ empty bedrooms when he was working on student mental health issues for Ontario colleges. He’d spent considerable time in Sault Ste. Marie, where the population was steadily declining. Yet, there was a lack of affordable housing, and post-secondary students were feeling the pinch. He’d read about housing models that matched students with senior citizens. The student gets an affordable room close to school; the senior gets some extra income and help with household tasks. That idea blossomed into SpacesShared, a home-sharing platform that matches students with homeowners who have empty bedrooms. Kinnon’s company started in early 2023, partnering with Georgian College in Barrie, Ont., and Humber College in Toronto. Today, it works with a few dozen post-secondary schools, including Lakehead University, Trent University and the University of Toronto, with more to come.

– Rachelle Younglai

Keldon Bester, Founder of the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project in Ottawa

In 2017, when Keldon Bester was studying at the Harvard Kennedy School, Lina Khan—a rising star among antitrust thinkers who would later become chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission—gave a talk to a small group of students. Bester already sensed that something had gone badly wrong in the economy, with each sector dominated by just a few companies, and Khan’s talk—an emerging antidote to the long reign of the bigger-is-better corporate ethos—had him hooked.

Then came a formative summer in Washington, D.C., at the Open Markets Institute, a competition-policy think tank that fought against monopoly power. Bester saw how to wield “a powerful set of ideas” to foment change. Back home in Canada, after two years at the Competition Bureau, he leapt into an activist role by co-founding the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project—just as the federal Liberals proposed a potential overhaul of the 1980s-era Competition Act.

Bester was there in Ottawa calling on Parliament to break from the laissez-faire law that effectively greenlit every corporate merger. As executive director of CAMP, he testified at House and Senate committees, and helped build political support to toughen rules on mergers in heavily concentrated industries. These and other changes in the new Competition Act garnered rare unanimous approval in a fractious Parliament.

As momentum accelerates, the daily work of change churns on. In the fall of 2024, Bester co-wrote a report that detailed the deleterious taint of monopoly power throughout the Canadian food production system, from seeds and fertilizers to the kitchen table.

– David Ebner

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