entrepreneurship@UBC says Farewell to Managing Director Kari LaMotte

This Spring, entrepreneurship@UBC is saying farewell to our Managing Director of nearly 4 years, Kari LaMotte. Kari joined the team in 2018, quickly leveraging her decades worth of founder and team building experience to help grow the organization and our community. She has been key to our development, prioritizing our ecosystem and championing a  ‘many hands approach’ to the venture building experience. 

Kari joined entrepreneurship@UBC as an Entrepreneur in Residence lending her organizational and operational expertise before officially becoming the Managing Director in 2019. She quickly honed in on and prioritized the vision and mission of the organization: to support innovators and entrepreneurs across the University of British Columbia and nurture them through their venture building endeavors to create global change. Over her tenure, Kari was key in building the culture of entrepreneurship@UBC as we know it today, empowering entrepreneurs while fostering a community of transparency and accountability. Kari helped to build our network and the next generation of founders creating impact while emphasizing a space of growth both individually and as a collective. 

entrepreneurship@UBC has seen substantial growth in all areas under Kari’s leadership including:

• Achieving ‘world class’ scores on our venture programming from founders
• More than doubling the research-based ventures in our program
• Increasing community engagement by 200%
• Increasing active, annual investor engagement by over 550%
• Overseeing the development of our 4 T’s model: Team, Tech, Treasury and Traction holding diversity, equity and inclusion at the forefront of our approach
• Winning our first award this Spring at the BC Cleantech Awards

Kari is deeply committed about the founders we support and bridging our UBC and Vancouver ecosystem of researchers, investors, industry members and leaders to create incredible outcomes for UBC entrepreneurs: 
 

“entrepreneurship@UBC is about being in service to these large scale visions and people driving them: from bioplastics to making blood type matching obsolete, from upcycling spent beer grains to turning chopsticks into beautiful furniture - these ideas are creating the sustainable, ethical future we want to live in, and supporting these founders with the vision they have is without a doubt, the most rewarding and important thing I have done in my life to date.”

– Kari LaMotte

We will greatly miss Kari and are thrilled to share that she will be plugging back into our ecosystem as part of our Mentor Network this fall. We wish her all the best in her next chapter and will continue to amplify her efforts across the ecosystem!