The Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs of Canada are proud to present our first speaker panel on the topic of entrepreneurship for social impact, equity, and justice. Our goal is to highlight the important work of entrepreneurs who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) that are working towards anti-oppression, equity, and justice across Canada through their ventures. Moderated by HAE Executive Members Sheliza Jamal and Stacey-Ann Morris, the panelists will share their entrepreneurial journey and how their work is driven by their purpose and their “WHY”. Registrants will have the opportunity to submit questions in advance and engage in a Q&A with the panelists.
This virtual event is free and open to all, regardless of Harvard affiliation, and we encourage anyone to attend who is interested in hearing from accomplished entrepreneurs who are working towards social change in our ever-changing nation!
Moderators
Sheliza Jamal, EdM’18, Founder, Curated Leadership Inc.
Stacey Ann Morris, EdM’14, Co-Founder, Build out Loud”
The Panelists
Samanta Krishnapillai, Founder of the On Canada Project"
Gina Uppal, Co-Founder, The Collective at the On Canada Project
Elaine Alec, Partner, Alderhill Planning Inc.
Stéphanie Jecrois, Co-Founder Technovation Montréal
RSVP
Become a member
About our panelists
Samanta Krishnapillai
Samanta is a creative problem solver who actively challenges the status quo. She founded the project while in her Master’s at Western University. Samanta strives to create critical and compassionate conversations while building and amplifying the community around her.
Gina Uppal
Gina is an ecosystem connector, strategic communications executive, and community organizer with 10 years of experience in increasingly senior roles across public and private sectors. Gina loves helping leaders learn, connect, and steward systems initiatives and appreciates that trust, compassion, and community are central in this work.
Elaine Alec
ELAINE ALEC tiɬxnitkʷ (Standing by Water) from the Syilx (Okanagan) Nation and Secwepemc (Shuswap) Nation and is a member of the Penticton Indian Band in Southern British Columbia. She is a direct descendant of hereditary chiefs Pelkamulaxw and Soorimpt.
Elaine’s first entrepreneurial endeavor began around the age of 8 years old when she put up a lemonade stand on the main road of her reserve where triathletes trained during the summer and she continued to generate income from small business ventures, from beadwork and event planning and eventually incorporated her first company at the age of 22 for a First Nations owned entertainment company that managed musicians, dancers and actors.
During her early years, she wrote a number of business plans and helped secure loans, grants and funding for other entrepreneurs and businesses and supported a number of Indigenous entrepreneurs across the country with their business and marketing ventures.
In 2010, after her separation and when her daughter was 6 months old, she decided to leave her full time job to start up an independent consulting company under her name, “Elaine Alec Consulting” where her primary focus was keynote speaking, comprehensive community planning, liaising with investors and First Nations communities, political advisory work and writing.
By 2015, the demand for her services remained high and she reached out to her colleagues Chris Derickson and Jessie Hemphill who were also experiencing the same challenges and through their discussions agreed to form a partnership and incorporate under the name, “Alderhill Planning Inc.”
Since then, their company has grown to a team of 12 employees and a number of sub-contractors working across the country on various projects with communities, societies, boards, governments and corporations. They are actively working on decolonizing their business practices by challenging systems of control and policy to support the health and well-being of people. Their company generated over 2.5 million dollars in 2021 and continued to be one of the sought after planning firms over the pandemic as they offered trauma informed services and support in all aspects of their planning work.
Elaine is also the sole proprietor of Elaine Alec - Writer & Speaker which manages her book sales, training, online courses and speaking engagements. She has a team of 4 employees and partners with BeeVee Professional Services to grow her training, “Cultivating Safe Spaces” which is in the middle of creating a new community and company specializing in cultivating safe spaces in governments, spirituality, education, writing and publishing, and business.
Elaine is a self-published author and her first book, "Calling My Spirit Back" is an extremely personal examination of lived experience and healing. She has sold close to 13,000 books in the last 20 months and is editing her second book, “Self-Determination: A Pathway to Healing” which is due to be released by the end of 2022.
Stéphanie Jecrois
Stéphanie is the co-founder of the Montreal chapter of Technovation in 2014, a non-profit organization that aims to reduce the gender gap in science and technology by encouraging young girls to develop their entrepreneurial leadership to ultimately pursue careers in the sector.
In order to attend HAE events, please join as either a: Full Member @ $50/year, Affiliate @ $150/year, Harvard Student @ $25/year, Friend of HAE (free membership)
Paid Membership is open to Harvard alumni, faculty, and staff. Student Membership is open to current Harvard students only. Affiliate Membership is a non-Harvard membership open to qualified entrepreneurs and investors.
Go to www.harvardae.org/join
For more information, email info@Harvardae.org