A champion of enlightened and digital economies, Catherine Warren is the CEO of Innovate Edmonton.
Living and working in Canada, the US, UK and Europe, Warren has served as a C-suite executive for publicly-traded companies, academic institutions and government-business enterprises. Most recently, as Chief Executive Officer of Vancouver Economic Commission, she led the team in attracting $3B in foreign direct investment to the region, with a portfolio including the Vancouver Film Commission, the world’s largest animation and visual effects sector, smart cities technologies such as AI, 5G and quantum computing and the green and impact economies. As CEO for The Centre for Digital Media, Warren led Vancouver’s vibrant industry, education and arts district through its last mile of urban revitalization through a partnership with four Canadian universities. A veteran in uniting business and academia, Warren also served as the inaugural Chief Industry & Research Officer for Emily Carr University of Art & Design. In more than two decades as a tech advisor, Warren’s track-record includes mergers and acquisitions for digital distribution and digital IP, raising capital and liquidity events for tech companies, consulting to national media funds, hedge funds, crowdfunds and coaching executives on strategic growth and monetization. Earlier in her career, she was the start-up COO of a broadcast software company that she and her partners took to the Nasdaq and grew to a $300M market cap. Warren has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, with a focus on climate change, and a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York, where she did her original thesis work onsite at MIT covering the launch of its digital Media Lab. Warren is also Canada’s representative on the Emmy Nominating Committee and the World Summit Awards for digital innovation, a United Nations flagship program.