Shane Jaffer

Director, Global Partnerships, Alberta Innovates

"The degree of separation of individuals is very small. It's one or two. You know, it's not six degrees of separation, it's one or two. We're a big city, but a small city. You'll run into people and know people. And that makes a big difference when you're starting a business."

Shane Jaffer is Director of Global Partnerships at Invest Alberta, a provincial investment attraction agency whose goal is to bring businesses and capital into Alberta from around the world. Shane brings a broad international lens to his role, having served as Managing Director of Alberta's Southeast Asia and Oceania Office, Senior Director for Africa at the Alberta International Development Office, and Senior Advisor on Environment, Social and Governance, where he helped build investor confidence in the province. He currently sits on the boards of the Canadian Council on Africa, the American Chamber of Commerce in Canada West, and the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. In his current role, Shane oversees a network of roughly 300 global partner institutions who serve as referral sources and connectors for companies considering a move to Alberta, operating across 14 international offices. Originally from Tanzania and a Calgary resident for over 20 years, Shane brings a personal understanding of what it means to arrive in a new place and build something from scratch, a perspective that informs his conviction that Calgary's diversity, talent base, quality of life, and tight-knit community are among its strongest calling cards for international tech investment.