Having gone through the recent sale of a group of companies, entrepreneur Jordan Fraser said people thinking of selling their company need to be prepared for an exit. “It’s not something that you can just choose to do. We had been thinking about this for 18 months and we were able to get a lot of checks and balances in place so that the due diligence . . . we were prepared for,” said Fraser.

Over a period of six years, the Bennett family, based in Atlantic Canada, sold a number of companies under its umbrella group, learning many lessons along the way. In 2013, Cathy Bennett was elected to public office. As a Member of the Newfoundland & Labrador House of Assembly, she served in Cabinet as Minister of Finance, President of the Treasury Board, Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, and the Office of the Chief Information Officer. For 35 years, Bennett worked with a group of McDonald’s franchise restaurants in Newfoundland - 17 years as the owner.

Jennifer Campbell is known as a strategic thinker who gets things done. She’s the Founder and CEO of Two Worlds Consulting, which is a Canada-wide social and environmental consultancy, that continues to grow - boosted last year with the addition of employees buying into ownership of the brand. The company, based in Victoria) originally evolved from her concept to build a business around the core values of respect, integrity, trust, and reciprocity, and has grown to serving clients across Canada.

Ana McRae is known as THE entrepreneur coach that can help people build wealth alongside freedom and fulfillment, not at the expense of it. McRae, Entrepreneur Coach & Founder, Ana McRae Coaching Corp., is based in New Brunswick and has worked with entrepreneurs over the past nine years both in a coaching capacity and as a management consultant.

In the past eight years, Blair Hyslop and his team have successfully completed four acquisitions and attempted one that was not so successful. Hyslop, co-owner and co-CEO of Mrs. Dunster’s, is this year’s Chair at the annual Atlantic Canada Business Transitions Forum taking place April 9 in Halifax.

As a designated Family Enterprise Advisor™ who was born into a third generation business family, Shauna Feth has been actively and effectively promoting, educating and supporting outreach programs for entrepreneurs and business families for over 11 years. Feth, who is President and CEO of the Alberta Chambers of Commerce, based in Edmonton, with 107 Chambers in the province representing more than 22,000 businesses, says more and more businesses these days are looking to transition.