Bill Tam

Bill Tam is recognized as one of the pre-eminent leaders of the BC tech sector. A lifelong entrepreneur, Bill has been actively involved with tech and startups as a founder, executive, investor, advisor and board member for the past 20 years.

Bill co-led the development of the Digital Technology Supercluster and currently serves as Vice President, Business Development and Partner Relations. The Supercluster is a new initiative undertaken in partnership with the Government of Canada to develop economic clusters at scale by fostering ambitious, collaborative R&D projects that will drive the digital transformation of Canadian businesses and improve Canada’s competitiveness globally.

Bill was recently appointed to the Steering Committee of the Cascadia Innovation Corridor initiative – a cross-border partnership linking British Columbia, Washington and Oregon as a cohesive, globally recognized hub of innovation and commerce. In 2017, the tech industry in Vancouver was recognized among the top 15 Startup Ecosystems globally and the #1 ecosystem in Canada.

Bill works to promote entrepreneurship in driving economic opportunity while forging partnerships across business, government and post-secondary institutions to design new approaches for accelerated, inclusive growth. He launched the largest tech accelerator in British Columbia – the BC Tech Innovation Hub – and led the creation of The Cube – an accelerator focused on emerging startups in Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality. He serves on the Board of Governors at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and serves as an industry advisor at UBC, Simon Fraser University and BCIT. For the past several years, Bill chaired the judging committee of the Entrepreneur of the Year award for the Pacific Region and was part of the judging committee for the annual New Ventures BC competition. During his term as CEO of the BC Tech Association, Vancouver was recognized among the top 15 Startup Ecosystems globally and the #1 ecosystem in Canada in 2017.

Bill received his MBA from the Ivey Business School and his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering Summa Cum Laude from McGill University. In 2018, UBC awarded Bill the Applied Science Dean’s Medal of Distinction for his contributions to the engineering and tech community.

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