Philippe Burns

CEO, Tech Thursday

"Calgary would be the only place I would want to build a company in Canada. We're so early in the game here and have established such a foothold that come five or ten years from now, it would be such a shame to not continue to play this role."

Philippe Burns is the CEO and Co-Founder of Tech Thursday, a for-profit event and media company building one of Canada's fastest-growing tech communities across Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Ottawa. With an average of roughly 100 attendees per event, Tech Thursday has carved out a distinct role in the tech ecosystem. Philippe's path into the tech space began at 17, when he joined Skip the Dishes as its 30th employee and watched it grow to a 2,000 head office staff before being acquired into the world's largest food delivery network. He later followed those founders to Calgary, joining Neo Financial at the Series A stage and helped scale it to a billion-dollar valuation. Headquartered in Calgary, he sees the city's entrepreneurial culture and openness as rare advantages and Tech Thursday as a vehicle for accelerating the mindset shifts necessary to build truly world-class companies in Calgary.