Elevate

As a member of the founding team, Chris helped launch Elevate—Canada’s flagship tech and innovation festival, created to showcase the country’s talent, diversity, and global leadership in innovation.

Held annually in Toronto, Elevate brings together entrepreneurs, investors, creatives, and public leaders to explore bold ideas, celebrate disruption, and strengthen Canada’s innovation ecosystem on the world stage. Built on the belief that inclusive innovation drives impact, the festival has become a cornerstone of Canada’s global tech identity.

Civic Innovation Office

In collaboration with the Mayor’s Office and Bloomberg Philanthropies, Chris played a key role in launching the City of Toronto’s Civic Innovation Office—a pioneering initiative aimed at transforming how municipal government engages with residents, technology, and change.

Designed to act as a bridge between public servants and external innovators, the office was built to challenge the status quo inside City Hall and accelerate the development of people-centered solutions. Its mission: to foster a more agile, responsive government that delivers meaningful outcomes for the communities it serves.

Starter Company Program

To support youth entrepreneurship across Ontario, the Province launched the Starter Company Program—offering training, mentorship, and grants of up to $5,000 for aspiring business owners aged 18 to 29. In Toronto, Chris led the local design and delivery of the program through the City’s Small Business Centres.

Under his leadership, the program exceeded its targets—supporting 275 young entrepreneurs in launching new ventures. Chris oversaw all aspects of implementation, including program design, fund administration, and the development of a Salesforce-based platform to streamline application tracking and performance monitoring.

Digital Main Street Lab

Working with his team, Chris worked to develop the Digital Main Street Lab - an testing ground for new retail technologies in Toronto.

Leveraging Toronto's diverse and vibrant main streets, the Digital Main Street Lab connects retail technology companies with local business improvement areas allowing them to pilot new technologies.

The purpose of the Lab is to assist Toronto's main street businesses in adopting new technologies, while also encouraging the growth of Toronto's retail technology sector.

StartUp HERE Toronto Cafe

Looking to connect Toronto's entrepreneurs with networks of mentors and advisors, Chris led an initiative to develop a mentoring platform in partnership with other business support organizations in Toronto.

The StartUp HERE Toronto Cafe facilitates connections between entrepreneurs and mentors through online engagements, in-person coffee meetups and monthly group mentoring events.

The StartUp HERE Toronto Cafe has a membership of over 2,000 entrepreneurs and mentors - and grows every week - that results in over 500 coffee meetups between entrepreneurs and advisers each month.