Cybele Negris
Co-Founder (President & CEO) and Director
Cybele Negris is a founding partner and President and CEO of Webnames.ca. Cybele has diverse experience in both management and operations, including prior directorships and officer positions in several public and private companies.
Before Webnames.ca, Cybele managed a start-up that grew to over 40 people and went through an IPO prior to her exit. She then ran her own management consultancy, working closely with crown corporations and private companies. She was also a partner in a multi-million dollar construction business.
A recognized community and business leader, Cybele is active on a number of crown, corporate and community boards, in addition to being a longtime advocate for greater diversity and inclusivity in the technology sector.
Appointed to the Board of Directors of the Royal Canadian Mint, BCAA, and Blue Shore Financial, Cybele also serves as Vice-Chair of Science World. Passionate about BC’s business community, Cybele is Vice-Chair of the permanent Small Business Roundtable for the BC Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation and sits on BC's ongoing COVID-19 Industry engagement panel. As a Founding Visionary of the Prosperity Project, Cybele is actively involved in work to help mitigate the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on Canadian women.
She has been instrumental in securing a Girls and STEAM Week Proclamation from the British Columbia since 2018, also playing a key role in designing Sciene World’s annual Girls in STEAM event for thousands of 11-to-16 years old girls, trans, genderqueer, non-binary and gender questioning youth to encourage STEAM pursuits as viable career options. She also is a regular contributing columnist to Business in Vancouver magazine.
Some of her past appointments have included BC Premier’s Technology Council, Simon Fraser University’s Innovation Advisory Council, Vice-Chair of Small Business BC, Board Member of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, Board of Governors of Capilano University, Capilano University Foundation, Vancouver Economic Development Commission and President of Wired Women Vancouver.
She has been honoured with numerous awards, among them:
- BIV500-BC’s Top Business Leader - Technology Innovator (2021)
- Canada’s Marketing, Advertising, PR & Communications Hall of Fame Inductee (2021)
- BC Business Women of Influence 2018 and 2017
- BC Business 50 Most Influential Women 2015
- Women's Executive Network, Hall of Fame Inductee 2015
- Women's Executive Network, Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015
- PROFIT W100 - Canada's Top Women Entrepreneurs (2004 to 2012)
- Business in Vancouver Influential Women in Business Award 2010
- Finalist, YWCA Women of Distinction (2006)
- Finalist, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Pacific (2005)
- Business in Vancouver's Top 40 Under 40 (2003)
Cybele was involved in drafting and is a signatory of the BC Small Business Accord, and participates in mentorship programs, having acted as an advisor in the establishment of MentorshipBC, previously mentoring women through both the Women’s Executive Network and the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs.
Sharing her experience in entrepreneurship and tech leadership, Cybele speaks at over two dozen conferences and events each year. Notable events include LevelUp Leadership Conference, CISO Executive Summit, WXN’s Conversation with Canada’s Most Powerful Female CEOs, TEDx, Startup Canada's Innovating Differently, and many more. She has been featured in the book Canada 150 Women: Conversations with Leaders, Champions, and Luminaries, CBC, Chatelaine, the National Post, the Financial Post, Maclean's Magazine, BC Business, Business in Vancouver, Vancouver Sun, the Book of New Pioneers, and many more.
John Demco
Co-Founder (Secretary), Director and Chair
John Demco conceived the .CA top-level domain and is a Director of Webnames.ca. Up until 2006, he was the manager of Computing Facilities at the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia where John administered the .CA registry on a volunteer basis from 1987 to December 2000. John was also instrumental in setting up one of Canada's first Internet connections in 1988. Today, John is affectionately known as one of the godfathers of the Canadian Internet for his visionary work in creating and reserving a space for Canadian identity on the Internet.
John has served on the Board of BCNET and is a founding member of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) Board of Directors, which he helped to establish.
John has been honoured with numerous awards:
- University of British Columbia Honorary Alumnus Award (2014)
- Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013)
- Canadian New Media Lifetime Achievement Award (2006)
- Finalist for Ernst & Young's 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year Awards for Information Technology in the Pacific Region
- University of Alberta Alumni Honour Award (2003)
- CANARIE IWAY Award for Community Service (2001)
- BCNET Advanced Network Builder Award (2001)
- Recognized by the Prime Minister as a founder and builder of the Canadian Internet (1997)
- Inductee to the Canadian Internet Hall of Fame (1997)
Leonard Brody
Leonard has been called “a controversial leader of the new world order”. He is a highly-respected entrepreneur, venture capitalist, bestselling author and a two-time Emmy nominated media visionary. He has raised millions of dollars for startup companies, been through one of the largest internet IPOs in history and has been involved in the building, financing and sale of multiple companies.
In 2004, Leonard founded NowPublic.com, a pioneer in the field of citizen journalism. Time Magazine named the company one of the top 50 websites in the world. Now Public was inducted into the Newseum in Washington and was acquired by the Anschutz Corporation. Leonard currently sits as the President of the Clarity Digital Group responsible for overseeing one of the largest online news conglomerates in the world including Examiner.com and NowPublic, which between them, share over 20 million unique visitors a month and over 200,000 contributors.
He is President of the Innovation and Digital Group for the Anschutz Company, one of the largest live sport and entertainment businesses on the planet, which owns assets such as the O2 Arena in London and the Staples Center in LA; sports teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Galaxy, and the Los Angeles Kings; and is one of the premier concert promotion businesses in the world, seating hundreds of millions of people a year.
Leonard is principal in several venture capital funds; works behind the scenes in the financing and creation of 20-30 companies a year; and is one of the proud owners of Coventry City Football Club in England. A highly sought-after speaker, Leonard has lectured at institutions such as Stanford, the G8 and the United Nations. His insight has been requested by companies such as The Financial Times, Warner Music, Dell, Visa and Pepsi, as well as, the governments of countries such as India, Israel, Ireland, Russia and South Africa. His work has been featured in such publications as Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC and The New York Times.
Leonard is co-author of the bestselling books, Innovation Nation: Canadian Leadership from Jurassic Park to Java and Everything I Needed to Know About Business…I Learned from a Canadian. He holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from Queens University, a law degree from Osgoode Hall and is a graduate of the Private Equity Program at the Harvard Business School.