Laura O’Blenis is a business executive with over 23 years' experience in leading change, generating results, marketing products and services, and successfully negotiating new business opportunities and contracts. She has spent the past 12 years of her career focused on research and technology parks in the domestic and international markets and the previous 11 years in property and real estate management with real estate giant Cadillac Fairview. A trained facilitator, Laura is the founder of Stiletto, (an economic development impact consulting firm), co-founder of the Canadian Association of University Research Parks (AURP Canada) and founding Executive Director of New Brunswick’s Knowledge Park. She is an MBA candidate, chair of the Start-up Canada National Ecosystem Task Force, past-chair of the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance CanWIT Atlantic Chapter, a past president of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce and past president of the Fredericton Executive Association.
Laura brings a wealth of knowledge in export markets and has worked with companies of all industries (from retail, to high-tech to manufacturing) in successfully expanding into new markets (domestic and international). She has specific expertise in the Canadian, United States and European markets and specializes in commercialization, innovation, technology park concept developments, export-market expansion and partnership development. She was awarded the Startup Canada Female Entrepreneur of the Year for Atlantic Canada in 2016 and was a finalist for Business Person of the Year for the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce in 2018.