Malcolm MacTaggart started the Spark Angel network in 2012, with an ‘on-the-back-of-a-napkin’ (literally) vision on his flight back from an angel conference in Halifax. There were 3 points on the triangle; play a small role in the transformation of Durham’s economy from metal-bashing to knowledge-based; enable high-potential entrepreneurs with innovative scalable ideas get a hand-up (not hand-out); form a ‘been there, done that’ group of community-minded people who would be ‘the person they needed 30 years ago’ to make it happen for the next generation of entrepreneurs.

An Ivey MBA, CPA, Chartered Investment Manager, founder, professor, mentor, portfolio manager, advisor and serial entrepreneur Malcolm embodies the ‘been there, done that’ set of experiences that matter the most to entrepreneurs, founders and businesses at all ages and stages, across a broad spectrum of sectors and industries, both domestically and internationally. He teaches in the business faculties at 3 universities (York, Trent and Ontario Tech), a wide variety of courses (10, for those who care to count) all with the common thread of being entrepreneurship-related and founder-focused.  

Malcolm joined Microsoft in the mid-80’s and was the Country Manager of Microsoft in Canada during its formative years. He left the company in 1990, four years after it went public. In the late-90’s, he built CryptoCard (a remote-access, network security firm based in Ottawa) from a handful of people, into a company doing business in over 30 countries. He led the company to a successful exit in 2006 and retired from corporate life. Since then, he’s focused his time and attention in the ‘all things entrepreneurship’ world. Malcolm brings a broad mix of skills and a diverse set of experiences having looked at the business ‘gemstone’, over many years, through many different facets; 10+ years in the corporate world, 10+ years in the academic world and 15+ years in the start-up and private equity world.