Dr. Laurence Hewick

Dr. Hewick is President of Hewick Research Inc., an international firm which specializes in market intelligence to facilitate companies to commercialize new technology, raise capital and to expand into foreign markets. Prof. Dr. Hewick is also Director of International Business Studies at Alma Mater Europea University in Europe and President of the Global Family Business Institute.

Currently, in Canada, Dr. Hewick is on the Board of Advisors for ROCKLINC Investment Partners, GruCorp Services, and is a Co-founding member and Senior Partner of First Line Capital. Internationally, he is a member of ERENET (Entrepreneurship Research Education Network of Central Europe) and KEN (the Knowledge Economy Network). Dr. Hewick is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Business at Alma Mater Europea, (Maribor, Slovenia). He has spent his career evenly split between academe and industry in Canada and Europe.

Dr. Hewick has spoken at 24 international economic development conferences in 12 different countries: Austria, Bolivia, Croatia, China, Hungary, Indonesia, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Slovenia, Serbia and the Ukraine. He is known for his “grass-roots, no nonsense business approach with respect to entrepreneurship, venture capital and its role in economic development.

Dr. Hewick has been honored by Florida State University as their Distinguished Alumni for Business and Industry; Streetsville Secondary School with a plaque on their Hall of Fame; Wilfrid Laurier University as Alumnus of the Year and in 2013 by the Ontario Legislative Assembly for his transformative impact on public-private partnerships.

Dr. Hewick holds a Ph.D. from Florida State University, a M.Sc. from the University of Guelph and an Honors B.A. in Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University. He has also completed the Canadian Securities Course and worked as a market analyst in the Canadian securities sector.

In his personal life, Laurence is an avid outdoorsman and naturalist with many interests including his farm in north Burlington and European wines. He is also a strong advocate of partnering the business and academic communities to reduce youth unemployment and underemployment.

Duncan MacIntyre

Duncan MacIntyre is the founder and CEO of Hattaras Corporation (hattarascorp.com), an international technology licensing and consulting company.

Duncan has led many large and diverse organizations including the international commercial operations of The NutraSweet Company (while based in Chicago) and Orica Canada and Latin America, where he was President. Early in his career, the Federal Governnment appointed Duncan as the founding CEO of Canada’s National Quality Institute.

His community involvement has included membership on the NSERC Ontario Advisory Board, the Board of Directors of the Mississauga Halton LHIN, the National Governance Committee of the CNIB and the Board of Directors of The Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation.

Duncan has a Bachelor of Science degree from St. Francis Xavier University and a Masters in Business Administration from St. Mary’s University. He is the co-author of approximately thirty U.S. spectroscopy patents that have been licenced to global companies including Motorola and Medtronic.

Bill Van Huisstede

Bill Van Huisstede graduated from Mohawk College in April 1977 as a Tool and Die Maker. In 1978 Bill moved to Calgary with his family where he worked as a tool and die maker before migrating to the rapidly expanding financial services industry. Within a six-year period, Bill quickly moved up the ranks within the financial services industry. He began as a sales representative, and after several promotions became the Regional Vice President of a significant financial firm.

In October 1984, Bill and his wife Donna opened a financial planning firm called Canadian Equity Planners with another partner. Within two years, they grew this business from one office to 14 offices with over 100 sales representatives. In August of 1986, Bill sold his interest in this company and moved back to Ontario where he took an executive sales position at Guardian Capital Management. During his two years at Guardian, assets under management grew from approximately $100 million to over $200 million.

In May 1988, Bill and Donna established Fortress Equity Management Inc, an independent Mutual Fund Dealer. By 2000, assets under administration had grown to over $120 million. Due to significant changes in the financial services industry, which made it increasingly more difficult to compete against some of the larger firms, Bill sold the assets of Fortress Equity Management Inc to Investment Planning Counsel (IPC). Subsequently, IPC was sold to Investors Group or IGM Financial.

In October 2011, Bill retired from the financial planning industry in order to devote more of his time to a number of important charities. These include his own local church congregation where he serves in a leadership capacity along with his role at that time as the Chairman of EduDeo Ministries. EduDeo Ministries is a charitable organization that through several partnerships in Latin America and Africa provides young people with a strong Christian based education. Currently Bill is also the current Chairman for “Voice of the Church” a Christian radio and internet broadcasting association.

Bill and his wife Donna have been married for 37 years. They have two children and four grandchildren. Bill’s entrepreneurial drive, principled character and practical day-to-day experience in the financial services industry make him a valuable component of ROCKLINC’s Advisory Board.

Robert Wildeboer

Rob Wildeboer, resides in Milton, Ontario. He is the Executive Chairman and co-founder of Martinrea International Inc. Martinrea International Inc. is a leading North American auto parts supplier, specializing in automotive fluid systems and metal forming products, with leading edge expertise in hydroforming, hot stamping, stamping, and welding. Martinrea has over 30 plants and 6,000 employees in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Prior to joining the Corporation as a full-time executive, Mr. Wildeboer was a partner of Wildeboer Dellece LLP, a law firm that practices corporate, securities, and tax law that he co-founded in 1993. Prior to that Mr. Wildeboer had been a lawyer with Stikeman, Elliott; an associate professor of law at Osgoode Hall Law School, where he taught corporate law and corporate finance; and a regulator with the Ontario Securities Commission.

Mr. Wildeboer is Vice-Chairman of Aecon Group Inc., Canada’s largest public infrastructure company, a director and Vice-Chairman of the Auto Parts Manufacturers Association (APMA); a director of the Canadian Automotive Partnership Counsel (CAPC), a member of Canada’s Science, Technology and Innovation Council created by the Government of Canada, a member of the Ontario Manufacturing Council, a member of the Economic Advisory Council created by the Government of Canada, Chairman of the MacDonald-Laurier Institute, a leading Canadian and Ottawa-based policy think tank, and a director or advisor of numerous private corporations and charitable organizations.

Mr. Wildeboer holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Guelph, a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School, an MBA from York University and an LLM from Harvard University.