jordan wille

International Project Manager at Shopify

I graduated from Brentwood in 2010 as a "lifer" from Privett House (grade 8 to grade 12). During my time at Brentwood I was drawn to rowing, and to the business courses offered there (like Entrepreneurship 12). I continued with both passions by rowing at Queen's University while I pursued my degree in Economics.

During this time, I launched a nonprofit called Athletes Earning Medals (AEM), which provided flexible work placements for national team athletes - coinciding with my graduate thesis on national team funding in Canada. One of the fundraising projects that we launched in 2016 was an eCommerce store on Shopify that donated all profits from these sales to our featured athletes, helping them reach Rio 2016. Some of our sponsored athletes that went to Rio 2016 included the Lightweight Women's Double (who won a silver medal), and the Heavyweight Men's Four, who finished 6th in the world. In the end, AEM was acquired by one of our corporate partners and at its peak, AEM had 15+ active work placements and raised thousands of dollars for Canadian athletes. You can read more about our story in the 2016 issue of the Brentonian.

Following AEM, I launched two additional sports-related startups. Athletes of Canada, a way for Canadians to support our athletes and charities through social media, and Buzz Velo, a Facebook Messenger bot that provided curated cycling and triathlon content for its users. The former was acquired by NTSQ Sports Group in Oct 2017 and raised over $10,000 for charities like CANfund, and BC Cancer Foundation. The latter was a quarter-finalist in Facebook's Journalism Innovation Channel in Toronto.

Continuing within the technology industry, I returned to the Canadian eCommerce company that helped me launch AEM's fundraising site, Shopify. I started at Shopify almost three years ago, and currently work at the International Project Manager. In this role, my job is focused on one important task: make entrepreneurship accessible to everyone around the world. Brentwood helped me succeed at this role, because diversity was always a key aspect of Brentwood experience. Different countries, perspectives, and cultures are a staple of our beautiful school, and that viewpoint helps shape Shopify's direction every day.

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Find Jordan on Brentonian Connect.

Additional Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanwille/