Praveen Varshney

Mr. Varshney and Empowered Startups’ Co-Founder Paul Girodo have known each other for many years starting when Paul provided services to Varshney Capital Corp., to assess the sustainable growth model of a company in which Varshney Capital Corp. was taking public in 2005.  Mr. Varsheny is involved at an executive/advisory level providing insight and strategic direction to Empowered’s startups.

 

Mr. Varshney has been a principal of Varshney Capital Corp., a Vancouver based merchant banking, venture capital and corporate advisory services firm, since 1991.  Mr. Varshney obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of British Columbia in 1987 and is a FCPA, FCA.

 

He is a director or officer of various publicly traded companies including Mogo (Co-Founder) and Hempco Food and Fiber Inc.  He is also a Co-Founder of G-PAK and former CFO of Carmanah Technologies Corp. which became Canada’s largest solar company.  He also was Co-Founder of a predecessor of Mountain Province Diamonds who’s Gahcho Kué in September 2016 became the world’s largest new diamond mine since 2003 & De Beers’ second-largest producer behind its Jwaneng mine in Botswana.  He’s also one of Vancouver’s most active Angel Investors.

 

Mr. Varshney is a Toniic member and a long-time member of both EO Entrepreneurs Organization & TiE (Founding Director).  He’s also on a number of non-profit boards such as The Varshney Family Charitable Foundation, OneProsper.org and a Founding Member of instrumentbeyondborders.org. He’s also an SVP Vancouver Partner, a Vancouver Police Foundation Trustee, and on the Advisory boards of Room to Read – Vancouver, Heart & Stroke Foundation – BC Yukon, and The Thomas Edison Innovation Foundation in New Jersey, USA.

 

Mr. Varshney is a past recipient of Business in Vancouver’s 40 Under 40 Awards.