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Our Team

Meet the faces behind Spring who collectively bring a world of knowledge, experience, and passion to the entrepreneurship and impact communities.

Keith Ippel

Keith Ippel

CEO & Co-founder

With over 25 years experience as a leader in technology and impact businesses, Keith has accelerated companies and ecosystems and raised over $30m in angel investment and venture capital. A global keynote speaker, teacher, and advisor, Keith leads Spring and focuses on our strategic growth and global ecosystem advisory work. Keith has been riding his bike to work for over 10 years now- rain or shine!

Caroline von Hirschberg

Chief Operating Officer

Caroline brings fresh experience starting and scaling social ventures in the UK and Kenya. Along the journey of iterative product development to international product launches of renewable energy solutions, Caroline has learned the value of human centred design, the rollercoaster of managing international operations, the value of partnerships and how to raise funds from multiple sources! She’s now excited to share these insights with social entrepreneurs looking to grow their impact.

Avary Kent, Chief People Office at Spring Activator

Avary Kent

Chief People Officer

Avary Kent is a serial Social Entrepreneur with deep expertise in bringing ideas to life. She co-founded Conveners.org where she first met the team at Spring. Avary is a world-class experience designer and she is excited to build a strong team culture and expand the reach of Spring's incredible programs.

Luan Tolosa

Director, Strategy & Operations

Luan considers herself an expert generalist; passionate about using her technical knowledge, entrepreneurial experience, and corporate background to empower people through entrepreneurship. At Spring, Luan’s focus includes our global ecosystem advisory work, international program management, and strategic and operational leadership of projects and programs. Luan is also the Co-Founder of SEWT and holds her MBA and Certificate in Social Impact from Queen’s University.

Allison Gibson - Food Innovation Program Manager at Spring Activator

Allison Gibson

Director, Program Operations

Allison is a social enterprise strategist and entrepreneur with over two decades of experience in the hospitality industry. As Director of Impact & Operations at Paintbox Catering & Bistro and Program Operations Director at Spring, she prioritizes creating opportunities for marginalized residents of under-serviced communities with a focus on those on an entrepreneurial journey or facing barriers to meaningful employment.

Mari Matthews

Mari Mathews

Director, Impact Investing

Mari began her career working internationally for 10+ years in the ski & tourism industry. In Oslo, Norway she co-founded Outtt raising over 4 million NOK and driving the company to over seventy thousand monthly active users and 40+ paying customers. Now back in her hometown of Vancouver, Mari devotes her time to helping entrepreneurs navigate raising capital for early stage growth.

Graham Day, Investment Director at Spring Activator

Graham Day

Director, Impact Investing

Graham has extensive experience working with social enterprises in executive roles. Most recently, he worked as CFO with Sistema.bio—an award-winning company delivering renewable energy solutions to smallholder farmers in developing countries—where he raised over $15m in financing to fund the company's expansion across four continents. At Spring, he is thrilled to expand and enrich the impact investing ecosystem in Canada and help propel amazing businesses to new heights.

Geraldine Barrera - Business Development Manager at Spring

Gerri Barrera

Business Development Manager

With a love for art and nature, Gerri launched her first business as a wedding florist in Southern California. After six years of leading small service and retail businesses, she pursued an MBA in search of a community that valued practices that are both impact-driven and scalable. At Spring, she combines a mix of strategic planning and entrepreneurial hustle to reach and support all stakeholders in the impact ecosystem.

Tina Ippel

Operations Manager

After a 10-year hiatus to homeschool her daughter, Tina is now the Spring team's Operations Manager. Her prior experience includes working as a Financial Analyst for a consumer food company and a pottery shop entrepreneur serving West Coast potters. Tina loves order and actually thinks that math is elegant and fun. We promised not to hold that last part against her!

Heena Narula | Spring Activator

Heena Narula

Community and Impact Manager

Heena is passionate about designing transformational learning experiences. At 25, she started and led her own community school directly impacting 400 families. Recently, she set up the International Operations vertical at a leading EdTech startup focusing on program design and delivery along with learner success. At Spring, Heena helps design impactful learning opportunities to deliver a smoother learning experience and build strong entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Kristen Perry

Program Manager

Prior to joining Spring, Kristen built and led a non-profit organization focused on developing high-potential post-secondary entrepreneurs and was a Venture Manager at the Creative Destruction Lab. She has a background in ecosystem development, incubation programming, and operations for entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors. Kristen holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen's University with a Certificate in Social Impact.

Davina MacPhail

Davina MacPhail

Program Manager

Davina began her career in microfinance impact research before expanding into banking to deepen her understanding of traditional financial institutions. She has worked in India, London, Paris, Taiwan, and Cambodia, having developed and fundraised for a social enterprise in the latter. Before coming to Spring, Davina worked for a social impact investing fund investing in social enterprises in Europe and Africa.

Tra My Pham

Program Manager

Tra My co-founded and scaled two startups in the retail sector. The first, Bisu Bisu, is a customizable accessories brand. The second, The Craft House, is an offline and online co-selling marketplace for e-commerce startups. At Spring, she finds a team with whom she can continue doing what she loves: supporting entrepreneurs along their journeys of product launches, pivots and growth.

Lucy Cullen

Lucy Cullen

Program Manager

Lucy has worked in the hospitality industry for 10+ years, and founded two social enterprises in the food space. Before joining Spring, Lucy worked with Forward Food under Humane Society International/Canada which reduces the environmental impact of foodservice menus. She has been named Canada's Top 25 Under 25 Environmentalists twice, and Corporate Knight's Top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability. She is excited to help food entrepreneurs solve complex problems. In her spare time, Lucy enjoys writing and playing music on the piano and saxophone.

Neema Rimber

Program Manager

Neema likes to think of herself as an amalgam. With a degree in Economics and International Relations from UBC where she was also a MasterCard Foundation Scholar, her academic background and values for support and engagement feed a keen interest in social impact and financial inclusion ventures, especially with underserved and equity-seeking communities. Her experience includes roles in impact measurement, competition policy and operations and logistics and she is excited to bring these intersectional experiences to support the Spring team as a Program Manager.

Selina Powszedny

Selina Powszedny

Program Associate

Selina has been passionate about protecting and caring for all beings since a young age. This passion led her to study Environmental Studies and Geography, with a concentration in Urban, Health and Development Studies at the University of Victoria. She completed an Honours thesis, researching environmental and social sustainability initiatives in urban Cascadia. During her time at university and after, she has worked at various non-profits and companies with a focus on the environment and education.

Dani Petra

Dani Petra

Program Associate

Dani has 20+ years of experience working with public and private organizations including government, entertainment, hospitality, and tech. She loves learning and perfecting new skills and developing collaborative, long-lasting working relationships. Dani thrives making ideas a reality, especially for organizations making bold positive changes that connect people to each other and help communities grow. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Advertising and a Marketing MBA.

Marlubi Gomez

Client Marketing Strategist

Marlubi has travelled the world wearing many hats such as actress, writer, marketer, journalist, and entrepreneur. Originally from Venezuela, Mar has developed a deep passion for human-centered design and how it can be used to transform the world through entrepreneurship. In Chile, she started her own modeling academy, helping young girls develop their confidence and self-esteem.

Nadia Al-Wahaibi

Nadia Al-Wahaibi

Growth Marketing Strategist

Nadia combines her passion for marketing analytics and user experience design to help connect Spring with impact-driven and impact-curious individuals. Her social scientific background in international economic development sparked her curiosity to learn more about the effect of digital economies in developing countries. Nadia's previous marketing, sales, and design experiences in startups of varying growth stages make her a champion of the entrepreneurial spirit.

Kamila Suchomel

Brand Strategist

Kamila is a communications aficionado and an international relations researcher passionate about fusing knowledge from social scientific disciplines with design thinking to drive positive impact. By day she helps build enthusiasm for Spring and its programs, and her evenings consist of working to co-found a research lab for agile governance and modern policy design.

Nazm Grewal

Nazm Grewal

Intern, Operations & Marketing

Nazm recently completed her second year of Applied Mathematics at Western University. She's actively involved with the student entrepreneurship community and was previously Vice President, Events at W5 – Western Entrepreneurship Association. She also has experience working in product and growth at an early-stage startup, and is passionate about advocating for diversity and inclusion within social entrepreneurship and venture capital spaces. In her spare time, Nazm loves to bake, try new recipes, and read!

Mike Winterfield - Spring EiR

Mike Winterfield

Advisor & EiR

Top 40 under 40. 20 years in the tech industry specializing in services companies and SaaS products. 14 years in various executive roles, most recently President of Traction Rec and COO at Traction on Demand. Mike has spent the last decade scaling companies from start-up to $300M by building high performing teams committed to core values. Avid lover of nature and any form of outdoor activity or experience.

Sana Kapadia

Sana Kapadia

Advisor

Sana Kapadia is a world changer, champion of diversity and systems change. A Top 40 under 40 winner, she drives strategy and impact at Spring with her rich global background in impact Investing, equity research, and social entrepreneurship. Currently living in Germany, Sana is a mum of two adventurous trailblazers (under 4!), reads voraciously, loves traveling and wants to scuba dive with her beach-loving husband.

Is this you?
Amazing Human

We are not currently actively hiring, but if you're an amazing human who wants to change the world through innovation, we want to hear from you!

Change the world with us!

We acknowledge that we are headquartered on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō, and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples, and as a global team we’d like to extend this acknowledgement to all those who have historically stewarded and nurtured the lands we live, work, and play on today.