Valerie Fox

Valerie Fox

Valerie Fox

Chief Innovation Consultant, The Pivotal Point

Bio

Val is on a mission to enable thriving entrepreneurial communities locally, nationally and internationally based on a triple win practice of partnership, collaboration and iterative growth. This practice evolved from the co-founding and execution of the DMZ, launched in 2010, which by 2015 was named the number one University Business Incubator in North America and number 3 in the world by UBI. She left soon after to form The Pivotal Point and is now helping to grow progressively successful community-based incubators worldwide.

Val has over 30 years in the digital world, where she started a graphic design business, and then was hired by one of her clients, IBM, to be part of their innovation intrapreneurial network. There she led enterprise software design teams, was creative director for large experience sites, such as the Sydney Olympics and was awarded 5 patents, including one for the Universal Shopping Cart for the Web (in the top 5% of IBM patents). Other awards include the Sara Kirke Award for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the 2016 CNE Woman of Distinction award, The WISE 2017 50 over 50 award and the honour of being part of the 2016 Canada Innovation Leaders team.