The Discovery Foundation has partnered with Acetech for many years. Here’s why as told by Dr. David Harper, CEO of the Discovery Foundation:

“About three decades ago a collection of wise-minded individuals envisioned a future for British Columbia that would harness the talent, expertise, and ingenuity of its people to become a global leader in innovation and technology. Both Acetech and the Discovery Foundation were founded at that time and have been helping to realize that vision ever since. With financial and program management support from the Discovery Foundation, Acetech has served more than one hundred CEOs and C-suite tech executives each year through peer roundtables and mentorship, leadership events and the annual summit.

“The Discovery Foundation and Acetech have a common goal to foster the development and sustainability of the science and technology sector in BC. Our partnership now spans a decade, and, during that time, we have partnered to provide the best quality mentorship and leadership programming available anywhere. The highly successful roundtable model pioneered by Acetech has provided the vehicle by which we greatly enhance the likelihood of success and growth of our tech companies in the BC ecosystem. 

“The Discovery Foundation is a not-for-profit charitable society. Our values are accountability and transparency, innovation and entrepreneurship, and diversity and inclusion. Over the past 10 years, our Technology Education Program has provided more than $3 million in funding to agents throughout BC that provide educational and mentoring services. During that span we have partnered with Acetech, providing more than $500,000 to provide workshops to tech CEOs that address unmet needs, such as adoption of digital business platforms, route-to-market, negotiations, as well as many programs that help the CEOs develop their leadership and team-building expertise.

“Discovery Foundation programs focus on supporting under-represented groups (e.g., women, Indigenous Peoples, those with disabilities, etc.) to establish and develop tech-related businesses in BC. We are delighted to see the recent initiatives to appoint more women on the Acetech board and recruit more women-led SMEs to their membership. We are presently working closely together, and with other partners, to bring a suite of business and ecosystem development programs to the regions of BC. Together, this will help build a more inclusive, innovative, and prosperous economy, providing more opportunities for all British Columbians.

“The board and leadership team at Acetech are exceptional in all that they do. They were particularly skillful in adapting our programming to the online environment in short order in 2020, which was as impressive as it was successful. I attend as many of their events as I can, online and in-person, and was honoured to be a keynote speaker at last year’s Digital Summit where I spoke on design-thinking innovation. The annual Acetech Summit is a much anticipated, well-attended, and superbly orchestrated event that attracts top business and subject matter experts from around the globe. We all look forward to this year’s Summit, (hopefully) returning to our traditional venue in Whistler in April.”

For 30 years Acetech has helped CEOs of technology companies become better leaders through peer roundtables, executive training, and an annual Leadership Summit.

Acetech originated over informal get-togethers driven by a basic need – talking to other like-minded CEOs who understood the tech industry. It wasn’t long before the early founders expanded their dinner conversations to engage a growing group of tech leaders. That’s when Acetech and the Annual Summit were born and, eventually, a member-based model that would better serve our community by providing ongoing engagement, learning and support to help tech companies achieve commercial success.

Our passion is supporting tech leaders and their teams to lead better, grow faster and get connected. Acetech has thrived over the last 30 years because of the passion of a group of committed leaders who care about the tech community and economy, and know what it takes to succeed.

Today, Acetech continues to be a premier not-for-profit organization created by leaders for the advancement of growing tech companies. When you join Acetech you become a member of one of the most connected, supportive and high-performing communities of tech leaders.

Acetech continues to deliver the content, connections and community needed to support both strategic and operational leadership growth. We offer a winning combination of peer networks, an annual leadership summit, and executive training curriculum derived from the top business training centres in the world.

"I participated in my first meeting as a member of an Acetech roundtable this month. I can't speak highly enough about the benefits of the program. I would strongly recommend that any CEO looking to level up their corporate strategy consider an Acetech membership." - Kevin Dagenais, CEO at Cascadia Scientific.

If you are the leader of a technology company and want to find out more about becoming a member, please reach out to info@acetechleadership.com. Acetech defines a technology company as any company generating intellectual property that would qualify for the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program and/or Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credits.

As a not-for-profit organization, Acetech can offer all of these membership benefits at an extremely competitive annual rate.

* Acetech is a Vancouver Tech Journal founding partner.