Rise Coaches
Dihan Chandra
Cohort 1
Dihan Chandra is a passionate social entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience. He currently leads Organic Lifestyle and Spent Goods ventures, which underscore his commitment to people- and planet-friendly business models. His businesses have fed 152,000 people, offset 8.7 metric tons of CO2, and delivered organic products across the USA and Canada by partnering with over 25 like-minded organizations, such as Big Carrot, Sachi Organics, 100Km Foods, Naturepedic, and Sleeptek.
Dihan’s notable accomplishments include speaking at Zero Waste Conferences and being featured in the City of Toronto’s Circular Economy Case Studies, documentary shorts by Loblaws and CBC on food waste diversion and developing a universal tracking system for reusable containers.
Areas of interest: Sustainable business models that drive behaviour change, Circular economy adoption, Social Entrepreneurship, System change, Retail (E-commerce, digital marketing, SEO, conversion optimization).
Mark Rodford
Cohort 1
Mark is a serial impact entrepreneur with a lifetime of business, operational, and board experience. His capacity for meaningfully connecting with people, coupled with an insightful worldview, solidifies his inputs at the confluence of community and business.
Mark consults with a wide variety of businesses and organizations on strategic planning, business development, and branding. He is a strategic and creative community leader respected for building strong, high-performance work environments. Mark has an entrepreneurial and inclusive management style and the capacity to engage a cross section of corporate and community stakeholders.
Areas of expertise: Impact models, Impact Measurement, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Branding, Community Building
Fatima Gould
Cohort 1
Fatima Gould is an experienced business coach who helps startups develop a clear plan to launch their business ideas into a successful organization. Her unique coaching approach focuses on building the personal capacity of business owners to increase their profits and confidently pitch their business to potential partners. She conducts group coaching sessions to build strong networks and encourage growth and accountability. If you want to take your business to the next level, Fatima is the coach you need.
Fatima is the author of “Over the Wall,” a soul-searching autobiography about a woman’s spiritual journey.
Lisa Kember
Cohort 2
Lisa Kember helps ambitious impact entrepreneurs grow a stable and financially sustainable venture. As a passionate champion for the entrepreneurial community, Lisa is a business growth expert with a coaching and advisory practice, runs training courses to help entrepreneurs optimize their business, and facilitates peer advisory programs for established founders and CEOs.
Lisa has been an entrepreneur throughout her career, running marketing, public relations, personal development, property management, and real estate investment companies. She built a company that doubled in size each year for several years running. She grew another company to over 120,000 customers in 5 years through strategic partnerships that generated close to $36 million in annual business. And since she began coaching in 2017, Lisa has helped 18 companies successfully grow up to 400% annually, resulting in the acquisition of two of these ventures.
Apart from her practical experience, Lisa holds a BA in Honours English from the University of Waterloo, a marketing practicum from Ryerson University, and a Resource Development Diploma from Sheridan College.
Outside of work, Lisa is an adventure seeker – she has swam at the foot of the Zambezi, camped with bears in Northern Canada, pulled leeches off her leg in backwoods rivers, eaten caterpillars, biked long distances, paddled boarded Ontario lakes and rivers… and she still can’t keep up with her 10-year-old son. But ask her what her greatest adventures have been and she will tell you it has been her entrepreneurial endeavors.
Areas of expertise: Business Development, Sales Skills, CRM, Lead Generation, Marketing, Public Relations, Media Relations
Chris-Beth Cowie
Cohort 2
Chris-Beth Cowie stands at the forefront of the social enterprise industry as the CEO of Empowered 4x, a business training and consulting firm in Canada. Empowered 4x is on a mission to create spaces to empower individuals to be successful entrepreneurs support their leadership development, and exponentially amplify the differences they make.
Chris-Beth is a Venture Partner at BlackTech Capital (BTC) which is a pre-seed fund in Toronto investing in Black and other Underrepresented Entrepreneurs focused on CleanTech, leveraging the manager’s networks and track record growing several companies to 9x valuation increases. Chris-Beth has held Business Mentor roles at an award- winning institution, Sheridan College and the City of Mississauga.
With a broad knowledge of leadership, social impact, and entrepreneurship, Chris-Beth is a visionary who inspires business owners to view entrepreneurship through the lens of culture, spirituality, and wellness. Chris-Beth strongly believes in poverty reduction, financial equality, and actively pursues her mission to increase economic mobility and expand wealth.
Chris-Beth embraces the core values of faith, mental wellness, personal growth, and community. Over the years, she was awarded Top 40 for community development in her local City. She received a BAH in International Development, graduating with Honors at the University of Guelph. Chris-Beth applies her expertise to exceed clients’ expectations in a ‘funepical’ way. Her ‘Make a difference’ mantra is fueled by deep faith, wisdom, compassion, grace, fun and epic adventures.
Anthony Gordon
Cohort 2
Anthony Gordon is a corporate and commercial lawyer with several years of experience as in-house counsel. He is the co-founder and CEO of FiduSure Financial Inc., a boutique financial services firm. Anthony specializes in financial, tax, and estate strategies choices. His focus is on meeting his clients’ individual and unique needs, by co-creating comprehensive financial and business blueprints tailored to their values, personal aspirations, and financial objectives.
He holds a law degree, a master’s degree in taxation law, as well as the Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU®), and Certified Executor Advisor (CEA) designations. He teaches business and law at the university level and is a trained Newfield Network executive and business coach. His coaching methodology includes developing robust financial management strategies, and implementing value acceleration strategies to increase the value and profitability of businesses
Anthony was named 5-Star advisor by Wealth Professional for Ontario and Eastern Canada. The award is reserved for advisors who have gone above and beyond to navigate market volatility and elevate their service to clients. He also wrote the chapter “Tax Minimization for Property Owners” in the best-selling book Property Trendsetters.
Areas of Interest: supporting ventures scale, value acceleration for business and personal financial success
Rise is a program for social entrepreneurs ready to scale their impact enterprises at an accelerated pace. This project is funded by the Government of Canada through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario). For more information, visit the program page or email us at edge@sheridancollege.ca.
