helen siwak, portfolioyvr, vancouver, bc, west coast entrepreneurs

Helen Siwak: Editor’s Message: Web Summit Special Edition II

If the inaugural Web Summit Vancouver taught us anything, it was that Vancouver was ready. The second edition confirmed it. What began as a bold experiment in bringing a global technology conversation to Canada’s west coast has settled into something the city can genuinely call its own, and Portfolio.YVR has been honoured to document it from the inside.

This special edition brings together ten of the most compelling voices we encountered across both years of the summit. Our six features introduce founders and operators whose work spans entrepreneurship, strategy, operations, financial infrastructure, human resources, and longevity and wellness. Kerri Kinna of BARTR, Neel Singh of Tropoly, Hassan Pardawalla of Parda Sense Solutions, Paschal Okwundu of Binta Financial, Dana Ramnarine of rhum.hr, and Truc Tran of Anera Life Inc. each bring a story of building something meaningful under real conditions, with real stakes.

Our QuickTakes section returns to four women featured in last year’s edition to find out what the year of building actually looked like. Mary Carmichael stepped into a new role at Bell Cyber as Field CISO, Western Canada, reshaping how Canadian organizations think about cyber resilience. Amarjeet Kaur of Yali-CyberShield paused to sharpen her thesis and emerged with a stronger foundation. Lyndsay Malchuk has taken her capital markets storytelling to a global stage with the Apaton Group. And Margaret Dibor has replatformed her original vision into Dima Risk Solutions, building trust as currency in the Canadian market.

For entrepreneurs, visibility has never mattered more — digitally and IRL. At Portfolio.YVR, we exist to create content that provides visibility, validation, and searchability for West Coast entrepreneurs and SMBs — distributed internationally, amplified across social channels, and placed in front of the investors, collaborators, and communities our subjects are working to reach. Every founder deserves an affordable platform equal to their ambition — and if yours is ready for the spotlight, we would love to hear from you.

We cannot wait to see what Web Summit Vancouver 2027 brings.

All my best,

Helen

Author Profile

Helen Siwak, Collaborator: This story is created in collaboration between Helen Siwak and the featured subject. As the founder and publisher of Portfolio.YVR Business & Entrepreneurs Magazine, Helen works closely with entrepreneurs to share their paths of innovation, resilience, and growth. Each story in this series is co-developed through interviews and first-person insights, blending authentic voices with Helen’s editorial expertise to highlight the remarkable individuals shaping British Columbia’s business landscape.