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.

Nick Boyd launched Vancouver-based Fusion Projects in 2006. The company grew out of four other companies Boyd had including millwork, drywall, store fixtures and he was able to leverage the relationships these other companies had to launch Fusion. Despite a recession a couple of years later, Boyd managed to leverage the 2010 Vancouver Olympics to grow the business.

Just as startups need to mature in terms of go-to-market, sales, and product, CEOs need to evolve as well, particularly as the company goes through rapid M&A-fueled change. This is a challenge Michael Garrity experienced multiple times as Financeit has both been acquired and been the acquirer.

After the pandemic, Louise Simkin and her partner at Vancouver-based Noise Digital Inc. reviewed their business plan and realized they had already achieved some of their business goals as a digital media agency in Canada. So as they reviewed their plans, they thought more about the future and what they wanted to do.