Mark Betteridge
Living in Canada, Mark Betteridge is an angel investor in early stage technology firms including biotechnology, medical devices, food processing and parallel/serial computing. Mark is an advisor and an early investor in publicly traded X-Biotech, realizing a 34x return on investment after it went public on the stock market.
Mark is also a Board member of the BC Business Council. He was also a founding director and past Chair of the Board of Covenant House Vancouver. Mark also served as the Chair of BC Agri-Food and Bio-Products Advisory Committee for the BC Innovation Council. Previously, he was Vice Chair of the Vancouver Economic Development Commission and a Director of the Vancouver Aquarium, as well as a Director of the BC Technology Industry Association. Currently, Mark holds the role as a Chairperson in Current Taxi, a sustainable taxi company based in Canada.
Alwyn Slabbert
Alwyn Slabbert is an Industrial Engineer with strong ties to the Green sector with particular emphasis on Operations Management in High Tech startups. He obtained his Engineering degree in South Africa and then obtained a Honours Degree in Business Administration. He was one of the first Industrial Engineers to be registered with the SA Council for Professional Engineers as a professional Industrial Engineer.
With an initial base of general Mechanical Engineering consulting experience, including general building services and design and installation of large industrial and chemical projects, his emphasis then shifted to agricultural and green industries. Initial projects included design and construction of several agricultural processing projects, as well as the development of a comprehensive computerised Management Information system for agriculture.
A move to Canada in the 90’s saw him involved in establishing Manufacturing and Operations capabilities in Green High Tech startups such as Ballard Power, where he managed the development of the manufacturing function for 250kw stationary Fuel Cell Gensets for use in several European centres. Subsequently he took over the management of manufacturing of Fuel Cell bus engines supplied to the Mercedes Benz Citaro subsidiary in Germany as part of the Clean Urban Transportation in Europe (CUTE) programme.
Later noteworthy projects included among others establishing the complete facilities infrastructure and Operations function for a Vanadium Flow Battery startup; managing international projects in mobile video surveillance for the largest North American supplier of mobile video surveillance equipment and support of initial feasibility studies for a Bio-Diesel project in Haida Gwaii in British Columbia.
Mr. Slabbert is currently retired but continues to support deserving causes in the Green space.
SEED Club 