Thank you for listening to the Leaders, Innovators and Big Ideas podcast, supported by Rainforest Alberta. The podcast that highlights those people who are contributing to and/or supporting the innovation ecosystem in Alberta.

Rebecca Finley-Schidlowsky - Rebecca is a Management Consultant who specializes in Governance and Strategic Planning. She has worked with hundreds of Boards and Senior Management Teams in the startup, private enterprise, not-for-profit and public sectors across Canada. Rebecca has been the Board Chair and Governance Committee Chair of Next Gen Men for the past 4 years and has led the development of the organization’s Board and Committee structure from the ground up. An accomplished speaker and facilitator, Rebecca has also had the privilege of being a guest speaker for MBAs/EMBAs at The Drucker School of Management based in Claremont, California (USA). Rebecca runs a Governance Basics Blitz Workshop targeted at not-for-profits and associations that has welcomed participants from Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, California, Spain, and New Zealand. Rebecca and her colleague Jeff Homer, host workshops specifically targeted at helping startups understand governance complexities.

Dr. Jana Rieger is a global leader in functional outcomes assessment related to head and neck disorders. Over her 20-year career in this field, Jana has held roles as a professor, clinician, researcher, and now, entrepreneur. Jana raised $2.5M in grant funding between 2014 and 2019 to develop the Mobili-T: a wearable device that uses software-enabled biofeedback technology to deliver a proven method to regain swallowing function for the 500 million people globally who are suffering from a swallowing disorder because of common medical conditions such as stroke, Parkinson's Disease, or head and neck cancer. In 2017, Jana spun a company out of the University of Alberta in order to move the technology from the lab and into the hands of the people who needed it. With her leadership, the True Angle team graduated from the Creative Destruction Laboratory in 2019 – one of the most highly-regarded business accelerators in Canada, and from the MATTERHealth Accelerator in Chicago in 2020. Jana raised over $1M in funding from angel investors, and was awarded an additional $780K in grant funding for True Angle. True Angle has now entered the US market with the Mobili-T, with plans to expand globally. Over the course of her academic career, Jana started and built several world-class programs from scratch. Early in her academic career, she raised $2M to plan, set-up, and deploy an innovative health outcomes assessment program that is internationally-renowned and credited as the gold standard in the field. From that program, Jana employed her expertise in team building and brought together thought leaders from 4 different countries to participate in an innovative international research network, the Head and Neck Research Network (HNRN). As founder and first director of that network, she developed policies and procedures, databases, privacy impact assessments and ethical approvals for the group, creating a strong foundation for governance. Over the years, Jana has been recognized as excelling in thought leadership. She has functioned at a director level within the health-care system in Alberta to bring together diverse groups of clinicians, researchers, and policy-makers. In her role as CEO of True Angle, Jana now brings her skills in fund raising, innovative program development, international team building, and thought leadership to the table to commercialize a remote digital technology that has the potential to change the lives of millions of people globally.

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Show Summary

Rebecca interviews True Angle founder and CEO Jana Rieger to discuss important topics like what it takes to make the jump from being an academic to an entrepreneur, advice for female entrepreneurs and her thoughts on the growing Alberta startup ecosystem!

Show Quote:

"I love what Alberta is doing right now and with a coordinated effort, we could become a real powerhouse for new innovation in all sectors."

"It's important for us to have female leadership, it's to set the stage for the wheel to start spinning so that younger women can look at [entrepreneurship] as a potential option for them in their career and lives."

Credits...

This Episode Sponsored By: SAIT School for Advanced Digital Technology

Episode Music: Tony Del Degan

Creator & Producer: Al Del Degan

System Engineering Sponsor: Kris Chase - Chase Telecom Inc.