Toronto, Ontario, is North America’s third largest and fastest growing centre for financial services.

Canadian industry leaders such as Scotiabank, the TSX and Sun Life Financial have their head offices here. International companies such as HSBC, Citibank, American Express, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Bank of Punjab and dozens more have also all located their Canadian headquarters here.

Why do so many companies choose Ontario? For answers, start with the strength of our banking system. The Geneva-based, non-profit World Economic Forum’s influential Global Competitiveness Report 2008–2009 found that Canada has the world’s soundest banking system. Ontario is the heart of Canada’s banking system.

Canada has a sophisticated, highly advanced financial system that is supported by an internationally respected regulatory and supervisory framework. Our regulatory system is updated every five years to meet not just boom times, but changing times, like the ones we are experiencing right now. It is among the soundest in the world, not just according to the Global Competitiveness Report, but also according to the International Monetary Fund.

The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is the third largest financial centre in North America by employment, after New York and Chicago. It houses the headquarters or executive offices of the top five Canadian banks, and is home to 85% of the 41 foreign banks currently located in Canada. It is headquarters for six of the top ten life insurance companies operating in Canada and headquarters for all of Canada’s top ten investment dealers, and home to 59% of foreign investors’ head offices, including many of the international leaders in financial services: American Express, CitiGroup, HSBC, ING, Morgan Stanley, UBS and many others.

A sophisticated and cost-competitive business environment ensures Ontario is the powerhouse that drives Canadian financial services.

INNOVATOR PROFILE: Sarah Barham and William Woods, Co-Founders, Hedge Fund Hotel

It takes an entrepreneurial vision to see an opportunity where others might only see competition and a crowded field. Sarah Barham and William Woods, co-founders of Ontario’s Toronto-based Hedge Fund Hotel, saw an opportunity to create successful businesses and a unique range of service for one of the fastest growing and most profitable segments of the financial services world: hedge funds.

Sarah, William and their daughters moved to Toronto from Bermuda in 2003. “We chose Ontario for the schools,” says Barham. “The quality of education here, for our children, was what first attracted us to Ontario.” Career entrepreneurs, the Woods started researching opportunities to start a business in Ontario before they even started their immigration applications.

Approximately 200 domestic hedge funds operate in Canada, the majority of them located in Toronto, Ontario,where an estimated CDN$400 billion of hedge fund assets are under administration. In addition to domestic asset servicing firms such as RBC Dexia and CIBC Mellon, and leading hedge fund administrators UBS and Butterfield Fulcrum, seven of the top 10 global hedge fund administrators (by AUA) have offices in Toronto, including CACEIS (Olympia), CITCO, Citigroup, IFS/State Street, and SS&C Fund Services. All of this activity is a testament to Toronto’s growing reputation as a financial services hub with the capacity to serve global markets.

The Woods had seen a co-lo business model for hedge funds in other parts of the world, known as ‘hedge fund hotels’. “In Singapore and other places we’d seen this service model designed to support the growing hedge fund industry,” says Barham. “After seeing all of this activity in Toronto, we thought, why not here?”

The Woods envisioned a business centre that would focus on meeting the basic needs of new hedge funds while helping them reduce the start-up costs of launching a new business. “New hedge fund managers need office space, and they need information, inspiration and capital." says Barham. "Often, a manager starting a fund has previously been employed by a large asset management organization and isn’t used to having zero support around him or her. Running a small business leaves them drowning in detail and unfocussed on the main objective of raising assets and outperforming.”

To help Ontario businesses get down to business, the Hedge Fund Hotel, located in mid-town Toronto, offers office suites and board rooms, staff support, communications equipment, including broadband, and ancillary services such as ‘after the close’ meetings and capital introduction conferences. The Hedge Fund Hotel is tailored to meet the specific needs of new hedge funds, to provide an information hub for the Canadian hedge fund community, and for investors and service providers with a vested interest in this alternative sector in Canada.

The Woods have also started the Annual Canadian Hedge Funds Awards, hosted each Fall in recognition of the achievements of Canadian hedge fund managers. Awards are given in specialized categories such as Best Overall Return, Best Sharpe Ratio, Assets Under Management (AUM) under $25 million, and AUM over $25 million.

“Canadians are well known for not beating their own drum,” Barham says. “Internationally, this led to some people underestimating the Canadian fund industry and its potential. But there’s a lot of activity here, especially in Ontario. It’s a dynamic environment for growth.”

Each day, people around the world benefit from made-in-Ontario medical discoveries: insulin, the pacemaker, the artificial kidney, advances in 3-D imaging techniques and the discovery of genes for cystic fibrosis, epilepsy, breast cancer and Alzheimer’s. Why? Because in Ontario, leading-edge research converges with international business expertise and advanced manufacturing capabilities. The result? A thriving life sciences sector that includes world-leading pharmaceutical companies, innovative medical device developers and a wealth of biotechnology firms.

Ontario is a life sciences hub that is closely connected with international researchers and markets. World markets welcome made-in-Ontario pharmaceuticals and medical devices. That’s one of the reasons why so many Ontario operations have global product mandates. In 2007, Canada exported CDN$6.5 billion in pharmaceutical and medical manufacturing products, and Ontario accounted for 75% of those exports.

What’s our secret? We provide all the ingredients needed to grow strong, healthy life sciences companies:

• a smart, skilled workforce – scientists for research, technicians for quality control, business managers with experience in global markets.
• world-leading research institutes.
• strong government support for R&D, innovation and commercialization.
• internationally competitive business costs.
• access to NAFTA and global markets.

INNOVATOR PROFILE: Andras Nagy, Senior Scientist, Mount Sinai Hospital

Pluri–Pioneer
By Megan Scudellari

With a simple insight and unselfish collaboration, Andras Nagy pushed stem cell research in directions it had never been before.

Andras Nagy bent over his coffee-stained menu and began to scribble. Pentao Liu, a cancer geneticist from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom, watched from across the lunch table. It was January 2008, and Liu had just given a talk at a conference near Munich, Germany about a DNA transposon system called piggyBac, a ‘jumping gene’ first isolated from the cells of the cabbage looper moth. Now Nagy, a senior scientist at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, had an idea.

The piggyBac system is very efficient at inserting genes into cells and can be removed afterward, leaving no trace behind. Sitting in the café, Nagy quickly drew a series of crude circles, arrows and triangles, a map of how the piggyBac system could be used to reprogram adult skin cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The first iPS cells were created using viral vectors to insert reprogramming genes, but viruses have the potential to mutate or alter the host genome, possibly causing cancer in iPS-derived tissues, so researchers have been eagerly searching for an alternative. Nagy believed he had one. “We were very excited about it,” he recalls. Fourteen months later, Nagy, Liu and their international team were the first researchers to reprogram somatic cells without the use of viruses.1

Like other first-generation stem cell savants, Nagy did his training in an altogether different area. As an undergraduate in Budapest, he was a devoted mathematician. Until he met a girl. When a cute medical school student, who would later become his wife, invited Nagy to join her for a little experimental fun, he couldn’t resist. Together, they dissected a human brain. “It was a mixture of horror and excitement,” laughs Nagy. “It was a turning point in my life.” Nagy began to pack his schedule with biology and chemistry courses. In 1979, he completed his PhD in genetics at Lorand Eötvös University in Budapest, followed by a postdoc at the Center for Neurochemistry in New York. Nagy returned to his alma mater in 1982 and set up an experimental embryology lab, a first of its kind in Hungary. There, he made chimeras of embryos from fertilized and unfertilized egg cells to determine the roles of paternal and maternal factors in development.

But within several years, Nagy wanted to do more. Because of his fascination with embryology, Nagy sent a letter to Janet Rossant, a renowned developmental biologist in Toronto. Rossant invited Nagy to join her lab as a visiting scientist at the Lunenfeld. “The original plan was to go for 2 years,” says Nagy. “In the fourth year, I bought a piano for my daughter.” He was staying. In 1994, Nagy accepted a position as senior scientist at the Lunenfeld, and a year later he was appointed a professor in molecular genetics at the University of Toronto.

Excerpted from The Scientist.com. For the full content of this profile of Ontario-based researcher Andras Nagy, go to Pluri-Pioneer.
For a range of articles on the life sciences industry in Ontario, visit The Scientist.com’s online supplement, Life Sciences in Ontario.

Ontario has become a high-performance hub for the North American information and communications technology (ICT) and digital media industry. IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Siemens, Cisco Systems, Apple, Xerox, Oracle, Accenture, Motorola – all have their Canadian headquarters here.

We’re also the home of Canadian leaders – Celestica, Research in Motion, Rogers, Open Text, Mitel Networks, Aastra Technologies, Constellation Software, Corel, PROCOM, BreconRidge – to name just a few.

Our digital media sector is also growing. Ontario has over 700 interactive digital media firms based everywhere from Toronto to St. Catharines–Niagara, the Waterloo region and Ottawa. Ontario-based firms generate about CDN$1 billion in revenue each year. A wealth of post-secondary programs in digital media studies, including renowned offerings in computer animation at Sheridan College and in integrated media at Ontario College of Art and Design, ensure a high-quality talent supply for this burgeoning sector.

Why have so many ICT, software and digital media companies set up shop in Ontario? Because we have what they need to serve their growing global markets:

• Low business taxes
• An exceptional workforce
• Funding programs that cut innovation costs
• A robust and open R&D environment
• Competitive business costs
• A large and thriving ICT supply chain, and
• Quality of life to attract global talent

INNOVATOR PROFILE: Damir Slogar, CEO, Big Blue Bubble Inc.

Today, executives and entrepreneurs all over the world set up wherever they find the best combination of opportunity, infrastructure, talent, cost-efficiencies and market access.

That’s why business leaders and entrepreneurs choose Ontario as a location to successfully start or expand new businesses. Take Damir Slogar. Born in Croatia, he started his career in the mid 80s as a programmer, and then spent the next couple of years in broadcasting and editing a video game magazine.

In 1999, Damir moved from Croatia to Mississauga, Ontario. He knew he’d find just what he needed to start the video gaming company he’d long envisioned. “There were other, established gaming companies here, and a lot of big publishers are here and it’s significantly easier to set up a business like this in Canada than it would have been in Croatia. Also, the infrastructure is here. Back in 1999 it wasn’t like it is today, high-speed internet was a rarity, but you could get it here in Canada.”

Damir and his wife found the process of immigration easy. “Almost all the information we needed was on government websites,” he says. “So it wasn’t hard to find out what we needed to do.”


On the personal side, settling in proved isolating at first. “But that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” says Damir. “You focus on what you need to do.” Damir worked for a London, Ontario-based gaming company for five years. Meanwhile, after hours and on weekends he built a business plan for the company he wanted to start.

In 2004 Damir and his team founded Big Blue Bubble, with one driving goal in mind – to become the leader in the video game industry. The company currently creates award-winning games for the mobile, hand-held and console games market, including games for the Wii and Nintendo DS.

Damir, the CEO, and his team have formed strong relationships with some of the most influential international publishers to develop over 25 mobile games that have sold several million copies worldwide.


INNOVATOR PROFILE: Spatial View

First Glasses-Free 3D Screens Developed Right Here in Ontario

The first ever real-time auto-stereoscopic 3D screens that do not require 3D glasses was developed right here in Ontario by Spatial View. The screens are located in the Cityscape area of the Experience Canada pavilion and will be used to introduce some of Ontario's most popular tourist attractions to a world-wide audience. Toronto-based Spatial View's 46" auto-stereoscopic 3D screens can display multi-dimensional video without the use of 3D glasses.

Spatial View is a leading developer of 3D image processing and display technologies. The company's vision is to make 3D more accessible, affordable and versatile opening up 3D to a broader market, including mobile and personal computers. Spatial View's unique technology allows users to view 3D content in high quality on a variety of platforms without the need for 3D glasses. Established in 2004, Spatial View is headquartered in Toronto with offices in San Francisco, Dresden and Brussels.

The successes of companies like Spatial View are examples of how the province's talented workforce and innovation across industries helps business succeed and create technological breakthroughs.

The demand for alternative energy in North America is growing, and Ontario is in a prime position to meet that demand.

Ontario is transforming the market for renewable energy technologies including solar, wind, biogas, biomass and waterpower, through our Green Energy Act (GEA), which firmly establishes Ontario as the North American leader in producing and using renewable energy. The GEA provides the stable investment environment required for companies to make the capital and human resource investments necessary to produce renewable energy.

We’ve also made it easier for companies to provide the energy they produce to the province’s electrical grid, through the introduction of North America’s most comprehensive Feed-in Tariff (FIT) Program. FIT offers a comprehensive pricing structure to companies and individuals feeding energy into the grid from renewable sources. To date, 184 new FIT projects have been approved, including a CDN$7 billion investment to generate 2,500 MW of wind and solar power made by a consortium led by Samsung C&T Corporation. These initiatives are making Ontario a leader in green energy development in North America.

Ontario’s strategic location in North America, long-term government support for alternative energy generation and advanced and diverse manufacturing capabilities, position us as a preferred location for manufacturers of sustainable, alternative energy technologies and related components, service providers and project developers.

INNOVATOR PROFILE: Samsung C&T Corporation and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)

In early 2010, a consortium led by Samsung C&T Corporation and the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) announced an investment of CDN$7 billion to generate 2,500 MW of wind and solar power. These projects will triple Ontario’s output from renewable wind and solar sources, and provide clean electricity to more than 580,000 households.

According to the terms of the green energy investment agreement, Samsung C&T and KEPCO will establish and operate a series of wind and solar power clusters over the next 20 years. The clusters, which will be built in several locations throughout the province, will eventually include wind turbines that will generate up to 2,000 MW as well as solar power facilities that will generate up to 500 MW. The entire project will have a combined power-generating capacity of 2.5 GW by 2016, producing energy equivalent to 4% of Ontario’s total electricity consumption.

The first stage of the project is scheduled to be completed by the first quarter of 2013 and will include a 500 MW cluster (400 MW wind and 100 MW solar) that will be built in the Chatham-Kent and Haldimand County regions of Southern Ontario.

The Province plans to shut down all of its coal-fired power plants by 2014 and increase Ontario’s ratio of renewable power generation. Ontario is currently a North American leader in the adoption of green energy policies with its passing of the Green Energy Act in May 2009.

Premier of Ontario Dalton McGuinty stated that as a result of the investment, “We will be delivering more green energy for Ontarians to use – and more green energy products for North America to buy. With this step, Ontario is becoming the place to be for green energy manufacturing in North America.”

The Korean consortium will also work with major partners to attract four manufacturing plants. This will lead to the creation of 1,440 manufacturing and related jobs building wind and solar technology for use in Ontario and export across North America.

The consortium fully intends to use Ontario-made steel in its renewable energy projects, such as constructing its wind turbine towers.

This is the single-largest investment in renewable energy in Ontario’s history. The consortium chose Ontario because the province’s Green Energy Act guarantees stable rates for renewable energy.

Sung-Ha Chi, President and CEO, Samsung C&T Corporation, said, “We commend Ontario for creating a welcoming climate for green energy investment. Samsung takes pride in its global efforts to support a more sustainable future and looks forward to working with Ontario residents and businesses to create clean, green power.”

Quick Facts
• More than 1,200 MW of new renewable projects, representing CDN$2.8 billion of investment, have started up in Ontario since 2003.
• Ontario is Canada’s leading province in wind and solar power.
• The Green Energy Act will create 50,000 new jobs in the green energy sector.
• CO2 emissions from coal-fired power generation are 73% lower than 2003 levels, with four more units coming offline in fall, 2010.