Welcome to this week's Sunday Briefing. In this issue, seven Calgary-area leaders are spotlighted in the Globe & Mail, plus budget highlights and 10 other things you need to know. Have a great day. We'll see you again Wednesday.

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Local execs get the spotlight on Globe & Mail's emerging leaders list

Last week, the Globe & Mail published the annual Changemakers list on which it spotlights "50 emerging leaders reinventing how Canada does business." As its writers and editors put, the individuals showcased are "activists, executives, entrepreneurs and academics whose single-minded devotion to making the world a better place should be an inspiration to us all." Featured in this year's cohort are at least seven Calgarians worth learning more about. Here they are:

Shelley Kuipers and Judy Fairburn are co-CEOs of The51, a Financial Feminist™ platform where current and aspiring investors (particularly women* and gender-diverse* individuals), come together to democratize access to capital for women and gender-diverse founders.

Kevin Krausert is co-founder and CEO of Avatar Innovations, which is Canada's first corporate venture studio focused on decarbonization.

Apoorv Sinha is founder and CEO of Carbon Upcycling Technologies, a waste and carbon utilization company unlocking opportunities in the circular economy.

Nagwan al-Guneid is a director at Business Renewables Centre-Canada, which is working to simplify and accelerate large-scale renewable energy use across Canada.

Kevin Read is president and CEO of Nomodic, an environment, community, and technology-driven integrated construction firm, specializing in prefabricated building systems and projects.

Based in Athabasca, Juanita Marois is CEO of Métis Crossing, "a Métis-owned gathering place and destination."

Explore the Globe & Mail's full list of emerging leaders.

🤝 Funding, Deals + Partnerships

• The Alberta budget's tech, talent and digital media highlights: It includes millions to develop talent in high-demand areas, including technology, as well as $24.5 million in 2023-24 for the Alberta Technology and Innovation Strategy. Calgary Tech Journal.

• Provincial budget promises $9.5M for upgrades at Telus Spark Science Centre. Michael Rodriguez / Calgary Herald

📰 Need To Know

• Top story: The faces of Calgary’s tech scene are changing. Innovate Calgary seeks to change the expectation of what tech founders look like. Calgary Tech Journal

• Silo AI, a Finnish AI company that ranks as one of Europe’s largest private AI labs, opened a west coast hub last week. The company has customers in Calgary and plans to expand across the country.

• Calgary- and Winnipeg-based CultivateCI among 16 ventures chosen for agtech accelerator program. There are a total of sixteen national and international ventures participating in the cohort. Calgary Tech Journal

• Start Alberta and the Black Business Ventures Association spotlighted 15 black tech founders. Details

• Alberta's best – in Austin, TX. Bōde is among 50 companies headed to SXSW next week. Calgary Tech Journal

• ICYMI: Platform Calgary celebrated black founders in tech. Continue

• Nominations are open for the first-ever Alberta Cleantech Awards. The deadline is March 31. Learn more

• Platform Calgary is looking for female entrepreneurs-in-residence for its Incubator. Learn more

💡 POV: Ideas and Insights

• The Council of Canadian Innovators response to the Alberta budget: "With such a large surplus, we would have liked to see the government provide additional capital funding for high-growth local companies, to ensure they can maintain their momentum at a time when the global capital markets are challenging for technology companies, and many firms are being forced to cut back."

• Nate Glubish, MLA for Strathcona-Sherwood Park, writing in the Westaskiwin Times about record-setting tech sector growth

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