President and CEO (interim) and Vice President, Mentoring, Innovacorp

Stephen Hartlen is interim president and CEO and vice president of mentoring at Innovacorp, an organization enabling innovative early stage Nova Scotia companies to accelerate commercialization of their technologies and increase competitiveness in export markets.

As interim president and CEO, Stephen oversees Innovacorp’s High Performance Incubation (HPi)™ business model, a powerful combination of incubation infrastructure, business mentoring, and seed and venture capital investment. In his role as vice president of mentoring, Stephen leads Innovacorp’s venture advisory team, which provides advice and guidance to early stage technology entrepreneurs.

Stephen joined Innovacorp in the spring of 2003 with more than 14 years of private sector experience in business development, sales, and go-to-market strategy development in both the corporate financial services and the information technology sectors.

He began his career with Keltic Incorporated, a publicly listed and Atlantic Canada-based management holding company, where he was responsible for developing an Atlantic Canadian customer base for GE Capital Financial Services. In 1994, Stephen joined MT&T as director of business development for Connections Nova Scotia, a public - private partnership between MT&T and the Province of Nova Scotia focused on attracting telecommunications-intensive businesses to the province. He then took a leave from MT&T to join a Bedford, Nova Scotia-based technology start-up, InfoInteractive, focusing on North American business development. Following InfoInteractive's acquisition by AOL Time Warner, Stephen rejoined Aliant (formerly MT&T), working with the technology subsidiary xwave, and spent the following two years focused on sales and new business development throughout the United States.

At Innovacorp, Stephen and his team are deeply engaged in the daily operations of several portfolio companies. Stephen also leads the roll-out of the highly successful bi-annual I-3 Technology Start-Up Competition, a provincial competition for Nova Scotians with potential new knowledge-based businesses, and manages the Early Stage Commercialization Fund, an initiative that helps move Nova Scotia university and community college research to market. He is involved in a formal advisory capacity with several clients, including EastMed Inc., where he is a member of the board of directors. He also serves on the review panel for the Springboard Fund Awards and the Dalhousie University Corporate Residency MBA Advisory Board.

Stephen is a graduate of Dalhousie University with a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and Saint Mary's University with a Master of Business Administration in Finance. He is also pursuing the Chartered Director designation through the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University and the Conference Board of Canada.

To download a high resolution headshot of Stephen, click here.