About the Authors

Michael Mihalicz is a PhD student at the University of Glasgow, the Indigenous Advisor at the Ted Rogers School of Management and faculty member in the Entrepreneurship & Strategy department at Toronto Metropolitan University (Recently renamed). Michael strives to help people be more effective decision makers. His research combines principles from Psychology and Economics to explore how people make decisions, and what causes them to make poor choices. His research findings have led him to devote his personal and professional life to help people understand how drive states subconsciously impact decision-making and predispose them to irrational behaviour. Michael is also committed to providing underprivileged communities access to education. In his role as Indigenous Advisor, Michael is helping to increase access to postsecondary courses for Indigenous students and is actively involved in overseeing and supporting reconciliation priorities across campus. Since 2012, he has also been working to afford student inmates across Canada access to postsecondary education and continues to break down educational barriers by finding creative solutions to institutional concerns.

Cody Anthony (he/him) is a Dene undergraduate student at X University and the founder of a new student group, Ted Rogers Indigenous in Business (@trsmindigenous). He started Ted Rogers Indigenous in Business in his second-year to encourage Indigenous students to seek an education at Ted Rogers School of Management and a career in leadership roles. Cody is passionate about Indigenous Entrepreneurship, which he studies as part of his Research Assistant role for the Entrepreneurship & Strategy Department. In addition, Cody is contributing to Indigenizing the Ted Rogers School of Management as a Projects Assistant on the Indigenous Initiatives team.

Jeremie Caribou is a half Cree and Mohawk student in the Public Administration and Governance Program at Toronto Metropolitan University (Recently renamed) in partnership with First Nations Institute. He is from a Nehithew (Cree TH Dialect) speaking community called Pukatawagan situated on the Missinippi (now Churchill River) in northwestern Manitoba. He worked in the trades for 20 years from menial jobs of stacking lumber, to operating heavy equipment and erecting buildings before he decided to come back to school in 2017.

Since then, he has participated in various initiatives at the institution that enabled him to research and expand his knowledge related to colonialism, Indigenous identity, culture, history, knowledge, and placemaking. For instance, beginning in the spring of 2018, he has worked in several departments at the institution as a Research Assistant in the Immigration and Settlement Graduate Program in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Facilities Management Development in the Project Management Office, and the Office of Social Innovation.

Currently, he works in the Library as the Indigenous Initiatives Liaison Lead that includes advancing Indigenous ways of knowing, perspectives, and placemaking – including leading Indigenous land-based educational walking tours and presentations that have delivered locally and internationally. The tours and presentations facilitate in the understanding that national and international political affiliations were established (treaties), encourages participants to challenge anti-Indigenous racism, and creates awareness that Indigenous peoples had and still have highly developed, rich, and vibrant societies.

Dr. Sean Wise is an expert on startups & venture capital. He uses this expertise in his various roles as: university professor, bestselling author, international business speaker, and partner at Ryerson Futures, a seed stage venture capital fund and technology accelerator.

Dr. Wise has mentored hundreds of technology focused startups, collectively these companies have raised more than $2.1 Billion in capital. Dr. Wise studied economics and engineering at Carleton University. He earned his MBA and Law degrees from the University of Ottawa and received his PhD in Business from the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow. Dr. Wise has published five books and more than two dozen peer-reviewed research papers and case studies of high-growth startups.

Dr. Wise has been an entrepreneur himself since the age of 13. He has founded five startups to date, with his most recent selling for millions in July, 2018.

Dr. Wise spent five seasons as a consultant for CBC, on the mega hit venture reality show Dragons’ Den, before moving in front of the camera as the host of the Naked Entrepreneur, which airs on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

In 2018, Dr. Wise became a featured weekly columnist for Inc.com. Since that time he has written more than 100 articles that have been read by more than 500,000 people. Dr. Wise is the Executive Director (and founder) of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Startup School, which over 5 years has delivered more than 60 free seminars, keynotes and working sessions for entrepreneurs in Toronto.

Dr. Wise has been called the Dr. Phil of Entrepreneurship and in 2014, he was named Entrepreneurial Mentor of the Year by Startup Canada.