Dr. Ilse Treurnicht
CEO | MaRS
Toronto, ON, CANADA
This extraordinary CEO and Rhodes Scholar leads an organization dedicated to developing the next generation of Canadian growth companies
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Biography
Ilse Treurnicht is the CEO of MaRS Discovery District, a leading innovation centre located in Toronto. She oversees both the development and operations of the MaRS Centre and its broad suite of entrepreneurship and innovation programs. MaRS offers advisory services, market intelligence and entrepreneurship education to emerging companies in health care/life sciences, digital media/ICT, cleantech and social purpose businesses across Ontario.
Ilse has worked closely with the leadership of Toronto’s academic institutions and teaching hospitals to create MaRS Innovation, an integrated commercialization platform for 14 Toronto Institutions and served as the interim Managing Director for a year following its formal launch in early 2008.
Ilse joined MaRS in early 2005 from her role as President & CEO of Primaxis Technology Ventures, a start-up stage venture capital fund focused on the advanced technologies sector. Prior to Primaxis, Ilse was an entrepreneur with senior management roles in a number of emerging technology companies.
She is an active member of Canada’s innovation community and has served on the boards of private companies, industry associations and research organizations. She has also been a member of several government advisory panels.
Ilse holds a DPhil in chemistry from Oxford University, which she attended as a Rhodes scholar. She has twice been honoured with the prestigious Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100™Award—the first time in 2009 and again in 2011.
Industry Expertise (10)
Information Technology and Services
Public Policy
Government Relations
Research
Corporate Leadership
Training and Development
Cleantech
Market Research
Biotechnology
Investment Management
Areas of Expertise (8)
Encouraging Creativity and Innovation
Social Innovation and Culture
Venture Capital Management
Advanced Technologies
Emerging Technologies
Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Innovation & Economic Development
Social Entreprise
Accomplishments (9)
Board of Directors – Cogniciti (professional)
Cogniciti is a joint venture formed in 2009 through a partnership between Baycrest, one of the world’s leading cognitive science institutes, and MaRS, Canada’s premier innovation centre.
Recipient – The Toronto Awards (professional)
Dr. Treurnicht was the recipient of The Toronto Awards in the Science category. The Toronto Awards recognized 10 people who rose above the fray. They turned heads, ignored convention and made us proud to call ourselves Torontonians.
Nominee – 25 Transformational Canadians (professional)
Dr. Treurnicht was nominated as being one of 25 Transformational Canadians by The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail partnered with CTV and Cyberpresse to celebrate Canadians who have sought to make a difference – not just by doing what they do, but through the demonstrable impact they've made on the world around them, whether in Canada or beyond. Through their vision, leadership and actions, each of these people has immeasurably improved the lives of others.
Recipient – Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100™ Award (professional)
Dr. Treurnicht has twice been honoured with the prestigious Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100™Award—the first time in 2009 and again in 2011. The Canada’s Most Powerful Woman: Top 100™ Awards is Canada’s most recognizable Award for the country’s highest achieving female leaders in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.
Board of Directors – The Next 36 (professional)
The goal of The Next 36 is to help launch the careers of Canada’s most promising and innovative undergraduates. The program will identify these students through a rigorous selection process, and give them the academic foundation, practical skills, role models and networks to become Canada’s next generation of entrepreneurial leaders. Students learn from high-profile business leaders, entrepreneurs and academics while wrestling with the challenge of building a new venture from idea to market.
Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute – International Advisory Committee (professional)
The Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital is home to leading researchers, educators, and clinicians — dedicated professionals making new scientific discoveries, generating novel therapies, developing innovative training programs, and helping translate knowledge into practice. The Institute fosters an environment in which inter-professional teams collaborate to bring established best practices and research discoveries to patient bedsides faster than ever before.
Advisory Council – MaRS Centre for Impact Investing (professional)
The MaRS Centre for Impact Investing (CII) is a national hub designed to increase the awareness and effectiveness of social finance to catalyze new capital, talent and initiatives dedicated to tackling social and environmental problems in Canada. The CII is a social finance hub and incubator that acts as a neutral collaboration space for all sectors—government, community and private—enabling collective participation, talent and product development.
CEO – MaRS Discovery District (professional)
MaRS is where science, technology and social entrepreneurs get the help they need. Where all kinds of people meet to spark new ideas. And where a global reputation for innovation is being earned, one success story at a time. MaRS provides resources — people, programs, physical facilities, funding and networks — to ensure that critical innovation happens. We stimulate, identify and harness great ideas, nurture their development and guide the transformation of those ideas into reality.
Chair – Canadian Task Force on Social Finance (professional)
The Task Force on Social Finance (TFSF) has been assembled by Social Innovation Generation, a national project partnered with the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto, seeking to fundamentally alter the way we think about investing and philanthropy in Canada. The TFSF’s mandate is to deliver recommendations that will ignite the development of an investment marketplace dedicated to addressing Canada’s social and environmental challenges.
Education (1)
Oxford University : DPhil, Chemistry
Dr. Treurnicht attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar
Links (8)
- MaRS Discovery District - Ilse Treurnicht (
- The Toronto Awards - Ilse Treurnicht
- MaRS Discovery District ─ How we Wove Innovation into Toronto’s Fabric
- Entrepreneurship: Two Women from MaRS
- MaRS gives entrepreneurs JOLT to aid startup
- Cities: Global hotspots for innovation
- Canada’s Most Powerful Woman: Top 100 Awards - Ilse Treurnicht
- New MaRS Facility in Toronto
Event Appearances (25)
KEYNOTE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS
MaRS Innovation Summit 2010 Toronto
KEYNOTE SPEECH: Public/Private Partnerships
Build, Buy or Ally: Partnership Models for Enterprise Growth Toronto, Ontario
2010-11-02
KEYNOTE SPEECH – Innovation and Collaboration: Canada`s Challenges and Opportunity
Innovators in Action Speaker Series University of Waterloo
2010-06-16
Open-Access Science
Creative Places and Spaces Conference: The Collaborative City Toronto, Ontario
2012-10-29
The Challenges and Opportunities of Innovation
The Canadian Club of Toronto Event Series Toronto, Ontario
2011-10-12
The Business of Aging: A moonshot mission for Ontario
Ontario Innovation Summit - The Business of Aging Conference Toronto
2009-12-01
KEYNOTE SPEECH
61st Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference London, Ontario
2011-10-26
The Future of Innovation
Canadian Women in Technology Event Series Toronto
2011-06-09
Expert Commentator: CIX Top 20 LIVE! ICT
Canadian Innovation Exchange Toronto, Ontario
2011-12-01
KEYNOTE SPEECH
Cosmopolitan 2011 Toronto, Ontario
2011-09-23
Leadership Panel
2012 THINK Conference Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
2012-04-16
Governments and Social Entrepreneurs: Partnership versus Subcontracting
Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship University of Oxford
2010-04-16
KEYNOTE INTRODUCTION
The Innovation City Conference MaRS Discovery District, Toronto
2012-07-18
Panel Chair – Catalyst Cities: Leaders of the new economy
The Innovation City Conference MaRS Discovery District, Toronto
2012-07-18
Privacy by Design in Technology Growth Companies
Privacy by Design: Time to Take Control Toronto, Ontario
2011-01-28
KEYNOTE SPEECH – Entrepreneurship, Recovery & Growth: Building Canada’s Innovation Economy One New Company at a Time
The Economic Club of Canada Speaker Series Toronto, Ontario
2011-03-02
KEYNOTE INTRODUCTION
Business of Aging Summit MaRS Discovery District, Toronto
2012-04-30
KEYNOTE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS
Creative Places + Spaces: The Collaborative City Conference MaRS Discovery District, Toronto
2009-10-30
Moderator: Techniques targeted at engaging MNE’s and SME’s in the innovation ecosystem
International Commercialization Forum Toronto, Ontario
2012-03-21
KEYNOTE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS
CityAge – The Innovation City MaRS Discovery District, Toronto
2012-07-18
Panel Chair – Catalyst Cities: Leaders of the new economy
CityAge – The Innovation City MaRS Discovery District, Toronto
2012-07-18
KEYNOTE CLOSING ADDRESS – Innovation: It’s Not a Four-Letter Word
CIO Peer Forum Toronto, Ontario
2012-04-20
Social Innovation / Social Finance: The Big Society, Localism and Social Enterprise
The Big Society: The Current Ethos of Social engagement in Britain and its implications for the Role of Government University of Toronto
2011-03-28
Leadership, Innovation and Sustainability
2009 Brick Works Forum on Leadership, Innovation and Sustainability Toronto, Ontario
2009-11-06
KEYNOTE SPEECH – Innovation: Then, Now & Next
Social Innovation Generation Social Impact Series MaRS Discovery District, Toronto
2012-02-13
Sample Talks (5)
Women and Canada's Innovation Economy
Innovation represents a challenge and an important opportunity for Canada’s economic future: strengthening our competitive advantages where we are already well positioned, and making a new generation of knowledge based businesses possible. Today, women are modest participants in Canada’s innovation economy, and its leadership. For Canada to succeed, we need to mobilize our best ideas and our skilled resources. Women engineers have a very important contribution to make, now and in the future.
The Future of Innovation
Dr. Ilse Treurnicht, CEO MaRS Discovery District, presents on the importance of innovation for national productivity, and the crucial role women play in building and supporting innovation.
Models of Social Innovation Collaboration
Canadians already understand that innovation of all kinds is critical to our country’s future prosperity. Our response will require much more than the contributions of individual innovators and companies, and must include communities, institutions and government. Dr. Treurnicht will explore models for collaboration - between silos of specialization, and the cultures of academe, business, and the public sector - as we embark on a shared journey towards a resilient innovation nation.
Raising the Bar: Organizational Leadership
A discussion highlighting best practices by top thought leaders in the areas of health, education and technology. The session will aim to extract new insights by drawing on the expertise and experience of the CEO of MaRS Discovery District. More specifically, the discussion will be focused on how innovation can be realized within organizations despite having fewer resources available to them.
Catalyst Cities: Leaders of the new economy
Catalyst cities are centers of business and innovation — establishing new models of partnership that align public & private objectives, promote new ideas, and foster great culture to create the economies and living standards we desire. Catalyst cities are leading the attraction of human and financial capital as they re-emphasize the role of urban strengths through major events, exports, entrepreneurship and globally connected talent. This presentation will explore catalyst cities in more depth.
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- Keynote
- Moderator
- Panelist
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