Joelle Foster (she/her)

Joelle has spent two decades working with entrepreneurs. Joelle is a co-founder and the CEO of North Forge Technology Exchange, a technology incubator accelerator that also runs the largest fabrication lab in North America. Joelle is also a co-founder and managing partner for the Women's Equity Lab (WEL) Manitoba; she has created and is co-managing a fund to increase the number of women angel investors in Manitoba.

During COVID, she developed a complete four-stage digital Founders Program, which led to a 300% increase in the number of technology-enabled and advanced manufacturing companies they are working with. She created an Angel Network in 2021, launched the Women in Innovation Lab called WiLab™ March 2023, and rolled out the Global Entrepreneur Initiative in February 2023.

Before this, Joelle was in Calgary, where she spent two years as the inaugural Executive Director for the University of Calgary's Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking. She spent eight years as a Director for Futurpreneur Canada, overseeing Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Nunavut, and NWT. Under her leadership, in Manitoba alone, 325 businesses opened their doors. Some of her prominent national startups were Skip the Dishes, Callia Flowers, and Go Oil.
She is also a proud member of the C100, the Canada Tech Network, and the Canadian Incubator Accelerator Network.