EntrepreNorth

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Benjamin Scott | Project Director

Benjamin Scott is a member of the Tlicho Nation and a true Northerner at heart. He has a passion for supporting organizations to redefine business practice through an Indigenous worldview, and sharing business knowledge and tools to help build entrepreneurial leadership and capacity within communities. In addition to his role as Project Director of EntrepreNorth, in his spare time, Benjamin offers strategic business services through Feed the Fire Business Consulting and is also working on launching a software application to help professional practitioners maximize their most valuable resource, time. Prior to diving into entrepreneurship, Benjamin worked alongside First Nation communities to improve homes, save energy, and reduce costs, and spent about ten years working in government in a number of management roles targeted at maximizing benefits for Northerners, closing gaps in the labour market, and leading the development of territory-wide skills and postsecondary education strategies. He holds a MBA in Aboriginal Business and Leadership from SFU, a BA in Urban Studies from UofC, a Leadership Certicate from UofA, and is an Action Canada Fellow Alumni.

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Xina Cowan | Community Manager

​Xina spent the first 29 years of her life in Montreal and now calls Yellowknife home. After studying Human Relations at Concordia University, she moved to the Eeyou Itschee Cree community of Wemindji in 2013 and began her career in Indigenous leadership and community building. Since then, Xina’s work has taken her all across the North. As EntrepreNorth’s Community Manager, her focus is logistics planning, marketing and communications and partnership development. 
 
Prior to this position, Xina was the Development Manager for Indigenous projects at Youth Fusion – a non-profit that aims to increase scholastic perseverance and engagement. Xina was also the Editor-In-Chief of the digital Indigenous magazine WIOT. Xina’s (not so) side passion is promoting Indigenous designers and artists. She is a Community Outreach Associate for Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto and is particularly invested in supporting the incredible talent coming from the North.
 
When Xina isn’t working or traveling, she’s likely listening to a podcast while making another pot of coffee.

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RADIUS SFU

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Candice Day | Manager, First Peoples Enterprise Accelerator Program

​Candice comes to RADIUS from the social enterprise world, more particularly, her work in urban Indigenous social enterprise development. Her journey began in the Downtown Eastside as an intern at Enterprising Non-profits (enp-BC) in Vancouver; which followed her to Toronto, where she spent some time at enp-TO. Her work at the Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres (OFIFC) led to the creation of an ecommerce platform for Indigenous artwork and artists. This enterprise supported artists both directly and indirectly, with profits being disbursed amongst member Friendship Centres. Now back in Vancouver, Candice has worked for the Metro Vancouver Aboriginal Executive Council supporting social enterprise development for MVAEC’s member organizations; as well as working for Skwachays Lodge, a boutique, Indigenous art-themed hotel and gallery owned by Vancouver Native Housing Society. Her work at Skwachays focused primarily on improving the profitability of the gallery through implementing new operational systems, and streamlining processes.
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Candice is of Secwepemc heritage, though she grew up in Haisla territory in northern BC. This gave her a great appreciation for the mountains and the coast. When she’s not in the office, you can find her exploring the sneaky backroads of the lower mainland on her enduro motorcycle.

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Jacqueline Jennings | Activator, First People Enterprise Accelerator Program

Jacqueline is an entrepreneur and leadership coach, group facilitator and business consultant of mixed Cree, Anishnaabe, Métis and European heritage and she was born between the mountains and the ocean and raised in the unceded territory of Squamish territory of coastal B.C, which has greatly informed her world view.

​With a background in retail, fashion and tech she has worked closely with leadership in organizations including Microsoft, Aritzia, Lululemon. With over 10 years of industry leadership and management experience, Jacqueline uses her extensive knowledge of best practices and forward-thinking leadership development theory to create custom decolonizing leadership experiences and facilitate high-impact dialogues, workshops, retreats and programs. 

Joining the EntrepreNorth team in June 2019, brings experience developing and leading programming for industry agnostic venture accelerators serving both youth founders and Indigenous entrepreneurs over the past 4 years. She is a traditional & herbal medicine enthusiast, a forest bather and horse person.

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