Meet the Mentors
Alan Foster
Alan has more than 30 years’ experience in building and managing technology based ventures worldwide. Currently Alan is helping leaders in startups and early stage technology companies define business objectives, set priorities and commercialize their products enabling them to grow their companies.
Beth Gallup
Curiosity and drive have given Beth the opportunity to work with publicly-traded companies, research-driven universities, growing businesses, and new startups. Her varied career has introduced her to a wide range of industries, and the often-surprising connections between them. She has worked on boards and across borders, in different cultural milieus. Beth is passionate about entrepreneurial success, achieved through a deep understanding of the customer and a solid go-to-market plan. In her work with New Ventures BC, she often shares lessons learned though her own experience of founding, co-founding, buying and selling businesses. Beth is interested in intellectual property, manufacturer to consumer supply chains; outdoor safety, sport, off-grid and wearable technologies, plus environmentally-intelligent development, construction, and adaptive re-use. Beth lives and works in the BC homelands of the Ktunaxa, an ideal place from which to mentor Distance Venture Acceleration clients located all over the province.
Ean Jackson
Ean “Action” Jackson has invested the past 25 years of his professional career in management, technical and business development roles in the technology industry. He’s been a top sales performer for businesses across North America ranging from startups to major multinational corporations including IBM, Oracle Corporation and Sprint International. Ask him what he loves best, however, and he’ll say “helping folks achieve their goals”.
Ean has started up several businesses, taught entrepreneurship at three universities and served on numerous boards. He speaks four European languages and has mentored entrepreneurs for New Ventures BC since it started in 2000. When not coaching aspiring entrepreneurs, Ean likes to run trails and climb mountains. If you want to get him excited, ask him what it’s like to run 100-miles!
Peter de Verteuil
Peter has over 30 years of experience in Sales and Marketing management, Business Development, Corporate Strategy and Communications. Peter has held leadership positions in dynamic high-growth environments as well as large multinational organizations and has navigated change management through a number of corporate acquisitions. In roles of VP of Sales and VP of Strategy at SAP, Peter managed highly successful sales teams, and helped drive GTM Strategy & Planning for one of SAP’s leading growth divisions. While VP of Marketing for Future Shop, Marketing Magazine named Peter one of Canada’s most influential marketers. Today Peter provides professional Business Development, Strategy, Sales, Marketing and Media consulting and advisory services to a wide spectrum of organizations, from startups to large enterprises.
Prashant Agrawal
Prashant has 25 plus years of leadership experience in business management, development, and corporate strategy, working within large multinational banks. Over recent years, as a senior strategist and technology focused ideation-execution expert, Prashant has become a go-to-person for early stage founders. He helps startups and aspiring-entrepreneurs with business models including product-market-fit, go-to-market, traction, monetization, operational processes,scalability, navigation, negotiation, deal-making and funding. If you want to get him excited, ask him how he can help you go from 0 to 1.
Rochelle Grayson
Rochelle is an Afro-Latin, trilingual, serial entrepreneur, and digital strategist with over 30 years of experience in business, marketing, finance, tech, and education. She has worked with several women’s organizations, been nominated as one of Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women, awarded Vancouver’s Top Forty Under 40, and named one of Vancouver's Top 10 Women in Technology.
