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Maple Leaf Angels

About Us

Established in 2007, Maple Leaf Angels (MLA) is a not-for-profit membership organization. Maple Leaf Angels connects the brightest, most promising entrepreneurs with accredited investors who invest their capital and time supporting Canadian startup companies.

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We invest collectively in seed and early stage companies

Maple Leaf Angels brings together like-minded investors (MLA members) to share their expertise and best practices, to collaborate to support Canada’s early stage ecosystem.

MLA angels are successful entrepreneurs/executives who invest and take an active interest in early-stage companies. Our members collectively invest their human and financial capital in innovative, early-stage technology companies to help them grow and realize their potential.

Board of Directors

Mohammed is a management consultant, entrepreneur, renewable energy
developer, angel investor, and aspiring writer. He’s passionate about working with others to bring novel ideas to life. Currently, he’s the Chair of the board at Maple Leaf Angels and a member of its investment review committee. He also serves on the investment committee of the MLA 48 Fund III. Previously, Mohammed founded and operated Club Ovahi, a
retail mobile app company, and produced and distributed an educational mobile app. Within the renewable energy space, Mohammed partnered with Adenium Energy Capital and acted as its General Manager in Jordan, where he co-created one of the country’s largest solar power portfolios. He is also a founding investor of Yellow Door Energy, a company that finances and builds solar power plants for commercial and industrial clients. At the beginning of his career, Mohammed established himself in management consulting, where he was a Senior Manager at Deloitte. He advised Fortune 500 companies to plan and execute complex technology projects,
enhance business performance, and develop results-oriented strategies. He holds a degree in
Mechanical Engineering from the University of Jordan and an MBA from the University of Utah.
Mohammed is a keen follower of innovation trends; he studies and writes about emerging
technologies, innovation strategy, and the startup ecosystem.

Mohammed Ghalayini

Board Chair

Eric has a unique and diverse background. He is the co-founder of and Director of
Festival Programming at Maker Festival. Born and raised in Ontario on a small chicken farm, Eric went to Queens University for engineering. He co-founded StumbleUpon during a gap year. After graduating, he lived and worked in Silicon Valley at a high-tech startup, designing and installing industrial sensors. After moving back to Canada, Eric founded Sensebridge – a wearable electronics company. He was a trustee and later Dean at the Toronto Awesome Foundation, and is a community organizer for Hacklab.TO, Quantified Self Toronto,
Long Now Toronto, and DIYbio Toronto. He currently leads a Machine Learning study group and is helping the Toronto Space Club to launch balloons and model rockets to the edge of space. In addition to serving as MLA’s Interim Managing Director this year, Eric has been an active member of MLA since 2018 and received the MLA New Angel of the Year Award in 2019. He has served on MLA’s Investment Review Committee for the last 3 years and is also a member of the MLA 48 Fund III Investment Committee.

Eric Boyd

Director

Richard has over 30 years of investment advisory and sales experience, most
recently as the Co-Head of BMO Nesbitt Burns (BMO NB). During his years at BMO NB, he served on the Board of NB, as a member of various advisory groups, where
his role included oversight of the NB Funds and Futures products. He also served as an Alternate
Member of the Banks Management Committee. Richard had also been the head of the NB United Way Campaign during a period of his tenure at NB. In 2017, he received his ICD.D designation and over the years, he has completed a list of security industry designations in both Canada and the US, including PDO, Branch Managers, Options and various Commodities/Futures licenses.
Richard has been a member of Maple Leaf Angels since 2017, where he has actively participated in weekly Office Hours session and been a member of the Investment Review Committee and
MLA48 Fund LP investment committee. Richard joined the MLA Board of Directors in 2018. To date he has made angel investments in seven individual start-ups and four angel funds, including MLA48 II and III.

Richard Mills

Director

Murray is a private investor investing in public markets and early-stage angel investments with a focus on medtech.  He provides advisory services to companies and not-for-profit institutions on capital raising, governance and investor communication, serves on several boards, and participates as a member of the Investment Review Committee of a Toronto-based healthcare venture fund.  Murray chairs the Audit and Finance committee of MLA.

Murray Neal

Director

Elizabeth’s work experience includes Portfolio Management at CPPIB in Thematic Investing where she was in charge of a project to establish a Fund for Growth Capital for Health Care. Prior to this she was a Vice President, Investments at Working Ventures Canadian Fund where she led the health care and biotechnology group and was responsible for a $60 million portfolio resulting in several successful exits. She has served on numerous Boards of Directors of private and public companies in the healthcare and information technology sector. She was Chairman of the Sunnybrook Working Ventures Medical Breakthrough Fund which was an initiative to commercialize technology emanating from the University of
Toronto. A graduate of Queen’s University (Chemical Engineering) and with an MBA from Concordia University (Finance), Elizabeth has many years of experience in financial services.

Elizabeth has completed the ICD.D (Rotman School of Business) and serves as the President of the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club as well as a Member of the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee and the Pension Sub-Committee.

Elizabeth Seger

Director

Carol Lee is a private investor investing in public markets and early stage angel investments. She is an active member of the Toronto startup ecosystem and a passionate supporter of underrepresented founders.  Her involvement in the ecosystem include:

  • Maple Leaf Angels member and frequent participant in MLA’s weekly Office Hours;
  • Women’s Equity Lab Toronto LP (investor);
  • an OCI External Reviewer;
  • Toronto Business Development Centre mentor and panel interviewer (2021-2022);
  • member of Angel Investors Ontario Content Steering Committee; as well as
  • an angel investor partner to DMZ, Venture Lab and the Firehood.

Previously she spent 17+ years in global investment banking roles in New York, Toronto and London.  Over the course of her career, she has advised, structured and executed over US$30 billion in M&A. financings, and structured product transactions for asset managers and corporates across a number of industries (i.e., consumer products, energy, mining, industrials).

She leverages the skills and discipline she developed through her banking career underwriting investments and conducting due diligence for financings and M&A in her approach to early stage investing.

Carol holds a Honors Bachelors of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business as well as a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Carol's interests include tennis, travel, design, hiking and photography and loves being the cool active aunt to her two nieces and nephew.

Carol Lee 

Director

Angelo Del Duca has extensive experience in the electronics industry and holds an engineering degree from the University of Toronto in Electrical Engineering.  Angelo is an active Angel Investor and is a member of the York Angel Investors, Maple Leaf Angels and the Spark Angels assessing potential investment opportunities and mentoring companies seeking investment and business growth.  Additionally, Angelo is very engaged within the Angel Ecosystem with both Angel Investors Ontario and the National Angel Capital Organization and serves on several committees within these organizations contributing to Membership and Marketing, Angel in Residence, and has been called upon to participate in Start-Up Peer Review committees for NACO and IRCC. He was named Angel of Year (2016-2017) by the York Angel Investors and was the Chair of the Board of Directors for the York Angel Investors (Term ended June 2023).  He has also been recognized for his Mentoring in the start-up community and was named as Volunteer of the year from the City of Vaughan in 2018 and 2021.  Angelo is routinely asked by companies to serve on their formal Advisor Board and is also an active member on several company Boards. Most recently Angelo co-founded a new Angel Group – LaunchHub Angels focused on deploying investment from the Canadian-Chinese Investment Community.

Previously he held positions as an Industrial Technology Advisor (ITA) delivering the National Research Council (NRC), Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) program to SMEs in the downtown Toronto area and then transitioning to a Director in Ontario leading a Team of ITAs in delivering and managing a portfolio of supported SME initiatives. In addition, Angelo also provided financial support to Not-For-Profit Organizations such as the York Angel Investors, ventureLAB, Centennial College, Seneca College, George Brown College with specific initiatives advancing the business growth of companies through Industry collaborations, Incubator/Accelerator support, and Business Mentoring such Investment Due Diligence.   Prior to joining IRAP, Angelo was co-founder of a Microelectronics Design firm that assisted companies in Canada and the United States with the research and development of advanced electronic devices (ASICs and FPGAs) to customers in the US and Canada

Angelo Del Duca 

Director

Joe Milstone is a professional Founder, CEO, advisor and corporate director having worked with multiple private, public and not-for-profit organizations throughout his career.  Joe is internationally regarded as a leading innovator in professional services, having founded and successfully exited two legal services organizations, the most recent in March of 2023.  Joe continues to be an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Legal Innovation Zone at TMU and the Founder and Principal at Legalyze Operations Corporation, a strategic advisory company working with technology startups, corporate departments and professional services firms alike.  Over the years, Joe has been recognized with several awards and accolades, including the Ontario Business Achievement Award for Service Innovation, Top 50 Legal Industry Innovators, CEO of one of Canadian Business’s fastest growing companies five years in a row, E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist (Ontario), CEO of one of Canada’s Top 10 Corporate Cultures, and Thorpe Benefits Award for CEO Wellness.  Joe holds a joint JD/MBA degree from Osgoode Hall/Schulich School of Business where he finished in the top 5 in both classes, and an Economics degree from the University of Western Ontario where he was the Gold Medalist.  Joe’s family includes his wife, two (technically) adult sons, a (very) teenage daughter and a beloved rescue dog. 

Joe Milstone 

Director

Over 25 years in the market research and data analytics field, initially with his own firm, Research Dynamics, end eventually an executive at GfK Research and Ipsos.  Over this timespan Angelo has held positions on management boards that included risk management and financial oversight of the North American business operations.  From a consulting perspective, Angelo has worked across the entire research spectrum from ideation to commercialization, for many global brands.   Adept at team development, building culture of collaboration and innovation through leadership, mentoring, and empowering teams to achieve their full potential.

Angelo Pierro  

Director

Management Team

  • Maxime has 20 years of experience in deal transactions on both the buy and sell side from Canada to Asia. Maxime also acts as fractional CFO, and his operational finance experience gives him an edge by having a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of a deal.
  • His expertise is in financial services, technology and many other industries.
  • Maxime holds an MBA from the Rotman School of Management and is a CFA charter holder.

Maxime Girard 

Managing Director & CCO

  • Michael has experience in venture capital as well as an operator, where he helped secure a $1.5 million financing round.
  • Before joining Dextra Advisory, he was a Co-founder of the company that won Montreal Inc. Startup of the Year 2021.
  • Michael graduated with a Combined Major in Business and Computer Science at the University of British Columbia and is a CFA II Candidate.

Michael Sun 

Operations Manager

over $44 million in 102 companies

See member investee companies

Office Address:

95 King St. E, Suite 300, Toronto, ON M5C 1G4

Contact Us:
Email: info@mapleleafangels.com

Phone: 416-646-6235

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