Canada: the Great White North, our home and native land. Now, more than ever, our nation stands as a beacon of progress — a trailblazer that continues to set the standard for the rest of the global community. In the fourth annual assemblage of our Power 50 guide, we gathered the major influences — the people, the companies, the ideas, the places — that are shaping our society, facilitating opportunities, and moving our nation forward. From business titans and record-breaking athletes to powerful politicians and inspiring movements, Canada is full of incredible stories that give us much reason to be proud.
Discover the 2018Bay Street BullPower 50 guide below, and use @BayStBull #BSBPower50 to share your thoughts.
POWER PLAYERS
Yung Wu
CEO, MaRS
Photography by Francisco Garcia
For Yung Wu, the concept of “personal success” is almost an oxymoron. The CEO of MaRS, one of the world’s largest urban innovation hubs, insists his career “has never been about me – it’s always been about my team, it’s always been about my organization, it’s always been about the impact on a category or the world at large.”
Before joining MaRS, the self-described serial entrepreneur had “anonymously retired” after a successful career of launching and backing health and tech startups, including Castek Software, where he gladly remained behind the scenes. “I had always tried very carefully to orchestrate a below-the-radar presence for myself. And MaRS is about the furthest thing from an anonymous experience that you can get, just because its stakeholder map is so huge,” Wu admits. Now he is the face of an organization that supports 1,200 ventures – “they drive somewhere over $2 billion in revenue right now,” he adds. “We’re starting to see some really great leading indicators, for the fact that Canada is now turning into a destination – not just a source – for entrepreneurs and talent and innovation,” he remarks.
He continues, “Now we have to find a way not to lose our most promising companies, we have to find a way to surround them with what they need, whether it’s growth capital or talent or market customers and partners. For Canada to succeed, we need them to succeed.”
Wu’s passion for Canada is rooted in his background as a Taiwanese immigrant: “I think I owe everything to this country. I can trace every single one of the business opportunities or companies that I have built or invested into or grown, to the fact that we had opportunities here that we never would have had anywhere else,” he enthuses, “so this was a chance to make a difference – this is a unique opportunity to do that.”
With just over six months at the helm of the Toronto-based non-profit, which continues to fuel some of today’s most promising and exciting tech opportunities, Wu is clearly fulfilling a personal mission: “Here at MaRS, our core ideology is ‘we before me,’ and that resonates for me. It’s more about what we can do for others – it’s not about any one of us, individually.” — PB
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