Shirley Speakman

Shirley Speakman General Information

Biography

Ms. Shirley Speakman served as a Board Member at Encycle. She serves as a Senior Partner at Cycle Capital. She also serves as a Member of the Investment Council at Amplify Capital. She serves as a Board Member at Fibracast, MineSense, and Liveable Cities. She serves as Board Observer at GreenMantra Technologies. She joined Cycle Capital as a Partner and is based in our Toronto office. She served as a Board Member at Polystyvert. She was the Director of Investments for the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF) a $40M+ venture capital fund established by the Ontario government to invest in seed and early-stage technology-oriented companies based in Ontario. As Director of Investments, she was responsible for investment recommendations and decisions, portfolio management, sourcing, and partnering. She continues to contribute to the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund as an advisor on its cleantech investment committee. During her tenure at IAF, she oversaw investments in cleantech, successfully exited investments, and assisted portfolio companies in securing significant follow-on financing. Before joining the IAF, she spent over 12 years acting as an advising biotech, ag-biotech, and advanced manufacturing and materials companies in areas such as strategy, finance, negotiations, and fundraising. She spearheaded numerous financings and M&A transactions and participated in the creation of a $40M cross-border life sciences fund and the close of a Canadian-based $40M ag-biotech fund. She holds her ICD.d (University of Toronto), an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University, and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Waterloo.