"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every problem, and an optimist sees the opportunity in every problem."
– Winston Churchill
MEET DAVE
Dave Dinesen is a seasoned CEO, Board Member, Angel and Venture Capital investor. As a serial entrepreneur with a focus on mission and building great teams, Dave is invested in technology solutions that address global challenges like food security, AI, health tech, and fintech, in addition to a 25-year career in technology enabled service companies with a specific focus on background screening.
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As CEO of both public and privately held companies, Dave understands the landscape and challenges businesses face in today’s environment. Assembling the very best talent and teams to execute a vision is Dave’s true passion.
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Dave has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, The Globe and Mail and has been named Top 500 most influential leader in both 2021 and 2022. You can also hear Dave in a few TEDx presentations on the topic of Vertical Farming and indoor Ag Tech.
COMPANIES
Dave is the COO of MacKay CEO Forums. MCF is one of Canada’s largest Peer Learning companies with over 1200 CEOs and Executive members who, by participating in a professionally facilitated peer group, all grow and learn through sharing their experiences with each other.
Peer learning is not advice and opinion, but shared experiences from someone who has gone through what you’re going through. At MacKay, we believe that surrounding yourself with game-changers is the ultimate way to propel your life and career. As COO, Dave is partnering with MacKay founder Nancy MacKay to lead MCF to be the category leader as the world’s premier CEO and Executive peer learning company.
At MacKay, our vision is to populate the world with inspiring leaders.
From 2015 - 2022, Dave served as Chief Executive Officer of CubicFarm Systems Corp.™, TSX: CUB, which is a Vancouver, BC-based agriculture technology company specializing in automated vertical farming and controlled environment agriculture.
The globally patented CubicFarms™ technology is automated vertical farm growing machines that grow more produce, in less space, using less labour, energy, water, than any other vertical farming system. These systems are designed for commercial-scale production of leafy greens, herbs, microgreens, and other crops, and can be installed virtually anywhere on earth to produce consistent crops 52 weeks a year.
During his time at CubicFarms, Dave and the CubicFarms team acquired HydroGreen Global. Located in South Dakota, USA, HydroGreen designed the optimal animal feed technology producing quality fresh forage regardless of season or weather using a fraction of the water compared to traditional crop production. One person can seed and harvest with the touch of a button. Fresh Forage is highly nutritious and highly digestible, promoting better animal performance and health.
Dave was Chairman of ModoHR, a Vancouver, BC-based technology-driven HR company from 2018 - 2022. ModoHR automates and continually creates scalable, compliant processes to deliver accurate Canadian background data in real time.
ModoHR has comprehensive web applications that offer a single, unified workflow for requesting and monitoring results in a secure environment that ensures the privacy of your information. ModoHR's goal is to efficiently and securely deliver accurate information in real time with previously unreachable levels of automation.
ModoHR was acquired 100% by Checkr in 2022.
Dave founded the BackCheck side of SterlingBackcheck in 1997. BackCheck quickly became Canada’s leading and largest background screening company, and after expanding to the UK and South Asia, one of the largest in the world. With a team of over 500 amazing “BackCheckers”, BackCheck was one of the true innovators and trail blazers and has screened over half of the Canadian workforce, and served the majority of the country’s largest employers.
In 2012, BackCheck was acquired by US-based Sterling Infosystems. Dave continued to grow the merged company becoming President of the Canadian and UK Divisions. The merged company, SterlingBackCheck, was then acquired by a private equity division of Goldman Sachs in 2015 which facilitated Dave’s exit after 18 amazing years.
PORTFOLIO COMPANIES
Merchant Advance Capital provides short-term bridge and opportunity financing to small and medium-sized businesses across Canada. Merchant Growth offers quick and convenient financing solutions for small businesses. Unlike traditional bank loans, there’s no lengthy application process or excessive paperwork. Their priority is to meet your business needs as quickly as possible with flexible funding options that work best for you!
WideOcean has assisted with fundraising and provided growth capital to Merchant Advance Capital.
Regenurex, formally AlgaeCan Biotech Ltd., is one of the world's most pure, natural forms of Astaxanthin, and is the only Canadian manufacturer based in British Columbia, Canada. It's made from a local source of freshwater marine microalgae known as Haematococcus Pluvialis.
The product contains only Astaxanthin and is combined with high-oleic safflower oil to aid adsorption and a natural source of tocopherols (vitamin E) to aid stability. It is free from artificial additives or preservatives. It is non-toxic, even at high levels of consumption, in contrast to other carotenoids, including Vitamin C, E, and Beta-carotene. Astaxanthin does not become a pro-oxidant. It is a Powerful Antioxidant, Anti-inflammatory, Non-GMO, that supports muscle endurance and recovery.
Regenurex was acquired by Pond Technologies TSXV: POND.
TalentClick is a leader in psychometric behavioural analysis testing. TalentClick is used in more than 100 countries worldwide offering organizations the ability to access data-driven insights to hire, train, and develop top performers. TalentClick helps employers obtain personality assessments to create happier safer and more profitable workplaces.
TalentClick's Safety Quotient is their number one product, which is a personality safety assessment that is used for hiring or employee development.
