Mount Royal University appoints leader of scale-up and growth programs in support of Alberta businesses

Sept. 29, 2022

Dr. Kelly Williams-Whitt, PhD, Dean of the Bissett School of Business, and Ray DePaul, Executive Director of MRU’s  Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship are thrilled to announce the appointment of Peter Fenwick as MRU’s inaugural Director, Scale-up and Growth Programs.

This appointment and the Growth Catalyst program is funded by Alberta Innovates Ecosystem Development Partnerships Program, PrairiesCan Regional Innovation Ecosystem program, the Cathy and Bruce Williams Innovation and Entrepreneurship Fund, and the TD Ready Commitment.

“I am truly excited to be returning to Alberta in this important community building role at MRU.” Fenwick first moved to Alberta in 2012 co-leading the innovation portfolio for Alberta Health Services, after 15 years at General Electric and a couple of digital health start-ups.  “Throughout my career I’ve approached business and business growth in a customer value creating manner, with a for-profit for-purpose mindset. It’s wonderful to learn how similarly members of our inaugural cohort of companies share this desire and passion. I look forward to being in service to our growing list of clients, partners, key stakeholders and funders.”

“This is an important ecosystem building role for us at the Institute. Peter brings with him a trifecta of experiences to lead our scale-up and growth programs and to support participating companies. He has a well-known innovator’s mindset with deep experience in sales and marketing, government policy, and technology development,” says Ray DePaul, MRU Executive Director, Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

The Institute’s business growth programs are rooted in the groundbreaking work of Dr. Simon Raby, PhD, Associate Professor, Bissett School of Business. , “As Academic Director of the program I look forward to tapping into Peter‘s experience as an intrapreneur, having scaled businesses within businesses; as well as his perspective as a practitioner on accelerating growth of earlier staged firms to benefit the many Alberta companies in our programs including our flagship Growth Catalyst program.”, says Raby who is also an Associate Director at the Institute.

Fenwick looks forward to meeting and (re)connecting with those across the province who seek to scale-up and find new growth opportunities that create Alberta jobs while scaling products and services to new markets.

Fenwick previously held positions in various private and public sectors, including Deputy Minister in the Cabinet Office of the Ontario government, sitting on the Treasury Board / Management Board of Cabinet and the Deputy Minister Committee on Technology & Transformation; VP Strategy for Green Shield Canada; and Senior Provincial Director, Major Initiatives of Alberta Health Services, sitting on the Corporate Services and Human Resources Executive Committee; National Director of Enterprise Sales and Market Development at GE Healthcare, where he chaired GE’s Marketing Council and was co-lead of a services business that grew from $60 to $100M during his tenure. Earlier he held various management and front-line sales roles at Ohmeda, then Datex-Ohmeda (Canada) Inc. which grew from 6$M to over 50$M before it was acquired by GE.

Fenwick earned his MBA from the joint Kellogg-Schulich program of Northwestern University (Chicago) and York University (Toronto), and a Bachelor of Science in Applied Sciences, Mechanical Engineering from Queen’s University (Kingston). He also holds two professional designations, that of Certified Health Executive from the Canadian College of Health Leaders, and ICD.D from the Institute of Corporate Directors. He is a lifelong learner who has also given back as a sessional instructor in International Entrepreneurship at York’s Schulich MBA program, and in Social Entrepreneurship via the business program at Calgary’s Ambrose University.

Fenwick is known as someone who loves working inside organizations experiencing existential change, especially those redefining customer experiences based on quality, innovation, and citizen-centred design. He is currently an expert advisor at the Life Sciences Innovation Hub at Innovate Calgary, and on the Board of Imagine Citizens Network.

More about the Growth Catalyst

Led by Mount Royal University’s Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Growth Catalyst is an intensive program designed to spark the creation and set the foundation for executing a growth strategy by CEOs and their senior leadership teams.

To learn more about the program and apply, visit growthcatalyst.ca.