Our Team

Altitude Accelerator came into existence under the visionary guidance of Pam Banks; now Altitude Accelerator’s Executive Director. With over 20 years of economic and business development experience in Ontario, Pam’s expertise is in developing and implementing entrepreneurial support programs by rallying collaboration from industry, educational institutions and government stakeholders. She strategically works to develop and grow the innovation capacity of emerging companies, assisting the innovation ecosystem in Peel Region to meet its full potential.

James is an entrepreneur and veteran of the financial and environmental industries, bringing to the table over 25 years of experience from these sectors. He is Chairman of Environmental Business Consultants and serves on several boards including Actual Media, WE Communications and BlueZone Technologies. As an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Altitude Accelerator, he coaches business owners and technology developers through the process of commercialization. He is also on the Board of Directors for CHAR Technologies. 

Learn more about James and how he’s helped startup reach success on our blog.

Paul is a business leader and strategist with more than thirty years of experience helping technology based businesses outperform. He has deep insight into technology trends and the challenges and strategic opportunities they present. As an entrepreneur in residence at Altitude Accelerator, he uses those insights to help entrepreneurial startups translate technologically driven disruption into innovative products that achieve market success.

Learn more about Paul and how he’s helped startups grow on our blog.

Angela Bourne is a creative, friendly, and dynamic marketing professional with 15+ years of experience directing and implementing high-profile, cross-functional strategies for renowned brands in luxury hospitality, entertainment, education, and technology. She has deep marketing experience across a variety of sectors including AI, wearables, proptech, VR / AR, and neuroscience, in Silicon Valley, Canada, and Europe. As an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, she helps companies with marketing strategy, GTM, PR, advertising, and brand differentiation.

Learn more about Angela and her successes on our blog.

Geoff brings over two decades of experience in starting, operating and successfully exiting multiple companies acting as a principal, advisor, investor, board member, mentor and/or consultant. He is also President of Pinelands Capital, an investment management firm that invests in and advises early stage technology companies with the potential for rapid growth.

His specialties include: Long-term partnerships with high growth companies and dedicated entrepreneurs, and supporting the execution of strategic transitional events.

Learn more about Geoff and how he’s helped our startups reach success on our blog.

Hessie Jones is a serial entrepreneur, strategist, venture partner and writer with more than 20+ years in start-up technology: data targeting, behavioural and profile analytics, social media technology, privacy and security tech. Hessie is a strong advocate for AI readiness, education and ethical distribution of AI as well as the strong proponent for data self-determination: in the ownership and control of individual data. As the Innovations Manager, she provides the operational support for events and programs, to ultimately influence founder success.  

Learn more about Hessie Jones

Samie Husain – is a serial entrepreneur and has over 20 years experience in Capital Markets, M&A & Valuations. He began his career in the capital markets where he managed equity portfolios, raised capital and valued companies.  He is a General Partner at Preference Capital, a Technology Venture Capital Firm, and is currently working on his fourth start-up in the Tech space.  He holds an MBA from the Schulich School, York University and a BA from the University of Toronto.

Carolyn has over 20 years of experience working on materials technologies.  During her time in industry, she gained expertise in sensing and IOT, 3D printing and prototyping, and conducting collaborative projects with industry and government partners.  As director of CAMDT at Sheridan, Carolyn develops the strategy and mandate of CAMDT as an advanced manufacturing centre. Her role focuses on applied research, particularly within highly relevant and advancing areas of manufacturing, such as automation, modelling and simulation, and cybersecurity.