Continuing our Female Founder & Funders special chats:

Ilse Treurnicht is the CEO of MaRS Discovery District, a leading innovation centre located in Toronto. She oversees both the development and operations of the MaRS Centre and its broad suite of entrepreneurship and innovation programs.

Ilse joined MaRS in early 2005 from her role as President & CEO of Primaxis Technology Ventures, a startup-stage venture capital fund focused on the advanced technologies sector. Prior to Primaxis, she was an entrepreneur with senior management roles in a number of emerging technology companies. Ilse is an active member of Canada’s innovation community. She served as Chair of the Canadian Task Force on Social Finance in 2010, and is a member of the Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC).

Ilse holds a DPhil in chemistry from Oxford University, which she attended as a Rhodes scholar.

Featuring Guest Interview by Tara Hunt:

Tara Hunt obtained a degree in Communications and Cultural Studies at the University of Calgary. In 2002, she founded a small marketing brand called "Rogue Strategies." She moved, along with her business, to Toronto, Ontario before moving to San Francisco in 2005.^[4] She co-founded Citizen Agency in San Francisco,^[5] a now-defunct^[6] community-marketing consulting firm.

Hunt was hired by the San Francisco based visual search engine Riya to lead their marketing efforts.^[7][8] In June 2006, Hunt coined a movement of "post-cluetrain" marketing called Pinko Marketing.^[9] Pinko Marketing picked up where The Cluetrain Manifesto left off, changing the focus from company to consumer marketing to consumer-to-consumer marketing.

She was named one of the most influential women in tech by Fast Company in 2009, as she is an early leader of "user generated conferences" such as BarCamp^[10] and is considered to be one of the founders of the co-working movement.^[11]

Hunt was one of the lead bloggers on the popular Canadian online portal One Degree.^[12]

She wrote "The Whuffie Factor", published in April 2009.^[13] The title of the book refers to the reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow's science-fiction novel, 'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom'. Along with the humorous metaphor implied by the title, the book gives practical guidance for online and social media marketing.^[14] The Whuffie Factor has been translated into French and Portuguese. In May 2010, it was reprinted in paperback in May 2010 with the title The Power of Social Networking: Using the Whuffie Factor to Build Your Business .

Hunt speaks at a variety of conferences and events such as SXSW Interactive (2008, 2009, 2011),^[15] the MESH conference (2006) and TEDxConcordia (2011).^[16]

In 2010, along with Co-Founders Jerome Paradis and Cassandra Girard, Hunt launched Buyosphere, formerly known as Shwowp, a social site which lets users organize and share buying trends with others.^[17][18]

Tara is currently Director of Audience Development at Totem.

Featured Female Founder

Danielle Franz, inventor of “Yogalicious” the first frozen kefir to market in Canada shares her delicious and nutritious frozen dessert. Come hungry! Danielle, an entrepreneur herself, knows that entrepreneurs lead a busy lifestyle with competing commitments translated into a need for ‘smart and balanced’ food choices – that’s when Yogalicious makes the most sense. Foods with probiotic benefits offers digestive support making it easier to absorb key nutrients. Yogalicious got to market to move dessert from optional to optimal – everyday! Danielle’s goal is to support people living happier and healthier lives. Danielle’s looking for brand ambassadors, buyers and investment to meet the demand for better for you desserts. Be a part of this exciting story: yogalicious.ca

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