About Us

“I launched this initiative because I wish this conversation would have been available to me as I was growing up in Trois-Rivières. I see so much incredible Canadian potential that could be unleashed if our culture was more supportive of entrepreneurship.”

Ruma Bose

Co-founder and Chair

Ruma Bose is an entrepreneur, investor, best-selling author and humanitarian.

Ruma is currently Chief Growth Officer at Clearco (formerly Clearbanc), a Canadian unicorn and the world’s largest ecommerce investor where she was a longtime advisor, venture partner and investor. Previously, Ruma was Managing Partner at Humanitarian Ventures, investing in high growth technology companies and leveraging their potential for the humanitarian sector.

Ruma was a member of the Management Council of Chobani, one of the largest yogurt companies in America, where she combined several roles, including being President of Chobani Ventures and Chobani Foundation, supporting entrepreneurs and organizations with a mission to make better food for more people. She also strategized and was Founding President of Tent Foundation, Chobani’s founder’s personal philanthropic foundation, which she established as one of the leading foundations in the humanitarian sector. Previous to this, Ruma served as an executive in the financial services and cosmetics industries. Ruma started her career as an analyst at Scotiabank in their International Banking Group.

Ruma co-authored the international bestselling book, “Mother Teresa, CEO” which was translated into eight languages. The book describes the management and leadership principles of Mother Teresa, who Ruma worked with in Calcutta for eight months and explains how they can be applied to businesses and non-profits alike.

Ruma serves as an Independent Director at Iron Spark and on the Governing Board of Directors of Calvert Impact Capital, one of the pioneers in impact investing and gender lens investing, who in the last 25 years have moved over $2 Billion into communities; the Refugee Investment Network, the first impact investing and blended finance collaborative dedicated to creating durable solutions to global forced migration and Global Dignity, an initiative of HRH Crown Prince Haakon of Norway. She additionally sits on the advisory boards of Teralys Capital, one of the largest fund of venture capital funds with $2 Billion assets under management and Global Ventures, a $100M UAE-based venture capital fund investing in growth stage companies across the Middle East and Africa.

She is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), the Global Entrepreneurs’ Council at the United Nations Foundation, and is active in the World Economic Forum as an advisor to its Humanitarian Investing Initiative and as a member of its Expert Network.

Ruma is a frequent speaker and keynote at conferences around the world, including the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women’s Summit, World Humanitarian Summit, World Economic Forum, Banff Forum and the United Nations. She has been featured in publications including The Economist, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, NY Times, Financial Times, LA Times, Business Insider and Bloomberg.

“We founded CEI to demonstrate how outdated our attitudes towards entrepreneurship were in Canada. It’s time we showcase a more diverse, inclusive and ambitious vision of entrepreneurship for the future.”

jonathan glencross

Co-founder

Jonathan Glencross is an entrepreneur and impact investment expert.

Over the past 15 years, Jonathan has been actively involved in building, advising or investing in our biggest challenges for climate, education, food and inclusion. He has led $1.5bn in impact investment mandates and advised dozens of venture-backed companies.

Previously, Jonathan was the co-founder and CEO of Equipmind, a cleantech company delivering energy efficiency and behavior change for equipment operators in the workplace. Jonathan was also Principal at Humanitarian Ventures, venture capital firm investing in high growth technology companies and leveraging their potential for humanitarian benefit. Jonathan served as director at Purpose Capital, a leading North American impact investment advisory firm working with pioneering families, individuals and foundations. He was the author of “The Impact Investing Guidebook”.

In 2015, Jonathan launched Nexus Canada, enabling Canada's youth to join a global movement of 3000+ next generation wealth holders, philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, and impact investors from over 70 countries uniting to accelerate solutions to global problems.

As an undergraduate, Jonathan was the founder of a $17M+ fund for sustainability at McGill University, He has been an advocate for entrepreneurship and systems thinking as a powerful means of tackling complex problems - and served as an advisor to the Buckminster Fuller Institute and Motherfood International. His work has received awards and recognition at provincial, national and international levels and has been public speaker since 2007 on impact investing, entrepreneurship, sustainability, leadership, food systems and financial inclusion.