Industry committee  Absolutely we do, and we encourage it.

Industry committee  I've certainly not seen it. I always maintain there's no shortage of capital for good projects. Our job, and the challenge, is the matchmaking, because I hear the other side. What my office does is to try to bring those together.

Industry committee  It does that, but it doesn't have a mandate to do so.

Industry committee  Yes.

Industry committee  There's another component to it that perhaps Dr. Branda could speak to, being a researcher at SFU who works under that policy.

Industry committee  Well, to your last point, the people I deal with are all science and technology angel investors--i.e., they're successful technology entrepreneurs who've made money building their own businesses and now are willing to put some of that back, both in time and money. That's the diff

Industry committee  I'd be happy to.

Industry committee  Another example is the New Ventures BC competition we run. We have the University of Victoria, the University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University working collaboratively on that. In fact, the three deans of business from those respective schools are on the board of d

Industry committee  Were you asking about where the money came from within the fund?

Industry committee  The answer to the first question is that currently there are about 150 investors. These are private individuals, typically accredited investors, and typically successful entrepreneurs. I have a list of over 500 of these people who are invited to our monthly meetings. They're all

Industry committee  In my experience, and certainly in this community, there's a wealth of accomplished entrepreneurs willing to invest in young new start-up entrepreneurs, people who are willing to put their time and money in. I run this angel network in Vancouver and have been doing it with my c

Industry committee  And pumping up the students.

Industry committee  Absolutely I can. It's a key component of the New Ventures BC business competition that Soren referred to and that we do jointly with UBC and the University of Victoria. What is consists of is accomplished, experienced business people—entrepreneurs and investors—who work with the

Industry committee  IP protection, marketing analysis....

Industry committee  Oh, I'm sorry. Speak of the devil--the BlackBerry. I have one quick comment. One recent initiative we've embarked on is the Western Universities Technology Innovation Fund, which is very instrumental in funding pre-venture capital companies. This is a fund that we set up using