Board of Directors & Team

Shawn is an experienced senior executive in the financial services industry for more than 24 years, as well as having key personal experience in the agricultural industry including primary production and Ag Services.

Shawn is an accomplished business leader in retail banking, commercial/agricultural lending and wealth management. As a senior executive, responsibilities have included strategic planning, asset/liability, liquidity and enterprise risk management.

Shawn is a co-founder and President of a national tier two agricultural bridge lender and owns and operates a small, diversified farming operation in SW Ontario.

He is an active investor in Real Estate, Private Debt, Public Equity Markets and Angel/Early-Stage investments.

Shawn completed an MBA – Financial Services from Dalhousie University, B.Comm from the University of Windsor and an Accounting Diploma from St. Clair College.

He is the founder and initial Managing Director of the Southwestern Ontario Angel Group (SWOAngels), based in London Ontario and co-founder of the Windsor Essex Capital Angel Network (WECAN) based in Windsor Ontario. He serves on the Board of SWOAngels (past Chair) and is Chair of the Board of WECAN. He is an active Angel investor and serves on the boards of several of the Angel Group’s invested companies.

Carmen holds a Master of Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business, a Bachelor of Engineering Science from McMaster University and operates a consulting Business – Gicante Associates, specializing in Business Development and Strategic Planning for hi-tech companies.

Dave has over 20 years of financial leadership experience with 14 of those years in senior CFO and CEO positions with Fortune 500 and medium sized companies in the pharmaceutical industry. He has provided strategic leadership and direction in all aspects of a business.

Dave was co-owner of a gelatin hard capsule manufacturer Pharmaphil, which supplied the nutritional and pharmaceutical hard capsule industry in Canada, USA and Mexico. He sold his business to Qualicaps, a global supplier of capsules, owned by the private equity firm, The Carlyle Group. Prior to the acquisition of Pharmaphil his career spanned progressive work experience with KPMG, Hiram Walker / Allied Domecq and Cardinal Health.

Dave has instructed for the Pre-Graduate Master of Management program for the Centre for Executive and Professional Education (CEPE) at the University of Windsor. In 2016 he held the position of Acting Director for the EPICentre at the University of Windsor. Dave obtained his MBA degree from the University of Detroit.

Deborah Livneh Eng. MBA is the Executive Director at WECAN Investors angel group. She connects investors to promising innovative early-stage companies and helps entrepreneurs access to capital.

Deborah co-founded a medical device company. She sold it to a publicly traded US medtech company and had led the Canadian plant of the multinational Olympus Medical Corp.

In the past several years, Deborah has been coaching Startups on accelerating their innovation to market and advises them on getting ready to pitch to investors. She has been advising young business as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at WEtech Alliance, and as mentor and leader at MedHealth Innovation cross border cluster, MI. She is a volunteer mentor at Venture Partners at CU Boulder and a Mentor-in-Residence at VentureWell Aspire medtech program.

Ms. Livneh is a lifelong community volunteer and served on various boards in Windsor and Michigan. Notably, she is past Chair of the Board of Governors at St. Clair College.

Deborah holds a B.Sc. in Engineering degree and an M.B.A. degree

Daniel Dent is the founder and CEO of BorderConnect Inc.

In 2002, Daniel started a software development firm specializing in enterprise applications. The business was successful, but project work was “feast or famine” with lumpy revenue. In 2004, Daniel pivoted to a SAAS business model and rebranded. Opportunity presented itself because trucking and logistics companies were facing strict new security initiatives and lacked in-house software engineering and IT infrastructure required to interface with government systems. 

BorderConnect has grown into an industry leader within the transportation sector with over 2800 active monthly customers processing millions of shipments each month. Daniel’s experience bootstrapping BorderConnect has helped him learn interdisciplinary skills in business development, sales, marketing and software engineering.

Daniel is an Angel investor in Customs City Global Solutions Inc, a software business focused in the growing customs sector of eCommerce. Daniel serves on the board of directors for Customs City.

Daniel has been a member of WECAN since 2019 and joined the board in early 2021. He enjoys meeting entrepreneurs and learning from fellow investors.

Daniel holds a Computer Science degree from the University of Windsor.

Bio coming soon.

Michelle has also been the “concierge” for WEtech Alliance, a Regional Innovation Centre located in Windsor for the past 8 years. Michelle brings a wealth of Administration experience and organizational skills from her past position at The Windsor Star newspaper for 32 years where she was an admin co-ordinator.

James Marsh is Dean of the Zekelman School of Business and Information Technology and the School of Media, Art and Design at St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario.

During his career, he has lead several businesses, and was the President of Marsh Food Services Ltd. and SCM Technologies Ltd. He was also the Director of the Industrial Gas Cylinder Business for the Worthington Cylinder Corporation.

He currently runs a real estate investment corporation. James is a past president of the Art Gallery of Windsor. He serves on a number of boards such as Enactus Canada, a learning platform for students who see business as a way to address social issues and on the Education Quality and Accountability Office of Ontario.

He holds a Law degree and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Windsor as well as a Master’s in Research Methodologies from the University of the West of England, Bristol.

He is married to an equestrian and has two daughters, one who is runs computer systems and the other is an architect, both living in the USA.