Ray Walia - FCPA, FCMA

CEO

@raywalia

2024 inductee into the British Columbia Canada Innovation Hall of Fame and recognized as one of the 500 Most Influential Business Leaders in Vancouver, Canada for 2021, 2022 & 2023, Ray Walia is a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the entertainment, technology, and real estate sectors.
Ray founded Launch Ventures which owns and operates a network of proprietary accelerators, innovation labs, and investment funds. The most prominent incubator is Launch Academy, Western Canada’s leading entrepreneurship facility, which has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2.5 Billion in funding. Launch Academy is a designated provider for the Canadian Startup Visa Program.
Ray has invested in over 30+ startups either personally or through his funds and was named Entrepreneur Mentor of the Year for 2014 and 2015, BIV Top Forty Under 40, G20 Young Entrepreneur, BC Tech Person of The Year Finalist 2018, and elected as Fellow of Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia, FCPA, FCMA in 2022.

Sam Chan

VP of Programs

Sam is the Head of Programs at Launch Academy, where he oversees the development of the incubator’s various programs. Over the years, he has advised hundreds of startups on their go-to-market strategies.
Formerly, he consulted for Samsung, Microsoft, Intel, Qual-comm, and NBC on their developer relations strategies, and ran some of the largest hackathons in the world.

Jean Yoon

Senior Program Manager

With a passion for video games and tech, Jean landed her first tech job at Launch. Outside of working at Launch, Jean is also a Twitch.TV video game streamer with an accumulated view count of 40 million views, the founder of SFU’s first PC gaming club, SFU Online Entertainment League, and remains fairly active in the gaming community.
You can also find her playing a lot of PC games on her free time, looking up new places to eat and trying to figure out which hot sauce to buy next. So if you ever need a food or hot sauce recommendation, she is your go-to person.

Camille Bonnet

Program Manager

Camille is originally from France, and has a background in Human Resources in the Tech Industry! She worked at companies such as Ubisoft and DNEG in the past. Since moving to Vancouver, she has been persuaded to eat kale chips and go hiking around BC — which definitely makes her an honorary Vancouverite.

Elena Kiseleva

Digital content manager

Elena developed her passion for tech by promoting a social business incubator, covering dozens of founders’ stories in digital media, and leading a content team in the US-based EdTech startup. At Launch Academy, she works on social media.
In her spare time, Elena is an outdoor enthusiast. Her curiosity led her to climb Europe’s highest mountain and scuba dive in the Indian ocean on an expedition with the World Guinness explorer.

MEET THE TEAM