Steve was appointed as President and CEO of the Venture Ontario in 2017. Steve is responsible for the overall management and leadership of Venture Ontario.

Prior to his appointment as President & CEO, Steve was responsible for leading the development of economic and innovation strategies for the Government of Ontario on industry sectors like life sciences, clean technologies, and information and communications technologies. This work included reviewing programs that support entrepreneurs, businesses and researchers commercializing their ideas, including reviewing the capital and financing needs of start-up and scale-up firms.

Steve also worked at the Ontario Ministry of Finance, where he was responsible for maintaining oversight of billions of dollars in government spending and launching new programs and initiatives such as Metrolinx and Venture Ontario. Steve also worked at Infrastructure Ontario where he developed public-private partnership arrangements in transportation infrastructure. Prior to his work in the Government of Ontario, he spent time at BC Ferries in strategic and corporate planning and at Merrill Lynch on the bond trading desk.

He is a graduate from the University of Victoria with a MA in Economics.

Brenda M. Hogan has over 20 years’ experience in strategy and execution in venture capital at the co-investment, fund of funds, and fund level investing. 

She oversees the investment portfolio, with a focus on strategy, origination, execution, portfolio management, and stakeholder relations. Brenda has managed assets across a variety of sectors including IT software and services, life sciences, and cleantech. She has held senior roles in mergers and acquisitions, finance, and corporate venture capital investing with Bell Canada, EY, the Business Development Bank of Canada, and a software start-up. 

She sits on the Board of the Canadian Venture Capital Association (CVCA) and is a co-founder of its Private Capital Board Governance Program; she also sits on the Private Equity Women’s Investment Network (PEWIN) Advisory Council.  Brenda served with the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) as a member of the Benchmarking Committee and served three terms on the Board of Women in Capital Markets (now VersaFi), serving as Chair of the Governance Committee; and was Chair of Canadian Women in Private Equity (CWPE).  Brenda holds an MBA in finance; is a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors SME Board Effectiveness Program; and has received leadership training from the Ivey School of Business.