/ News / Local News /

Ex-Dragon Brett Wilson named keynote speaker at college gala

Tuesday, Feb 07, 2012 03:25 pm | Julie Bertrand
Dean West for the Albertan
Dean West for the Albertan
Brett Wilson in a promo shot for the upcoming reality show Risky Business.
view all photos (-count-)

Olds College has announced that former Dragon Brett Wilson will be the keynote speaker at its black-tie gala on March 23. This year, the event’s theme is Cirque du Gala.

“As we bill this event as a highlight of the social and business calendar, we always want to make sure that we deliver a high-end product for that,” said Jordan Cleland, vice-president of advancement at Olds College.

“Brett Wilson is certainly a high-end name-brand speaker in a Canadian context.”

Wilson is a well-known Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist. He started his career as an engineer in the oilfields of Western Canada, before going back to university to study for an MBA. After graduation, he switched careers and became an investment banker, working for and founding investment firms that deal with the oil and gas industry.

In 2008, Wilson joined the popular CBC program Dragon’s Den. During his time on the show, he was known as one of the gentler and kinder Dragons, brokering more business deals than any other Dragon in all versions of the program. He left the show in 2011 after he and CBC failed to reach an agreement on his contract.

He launched his own reality TV show Risky Business, which aired last fall on Slice.

“Brett understands the drivers of the Alberta economy,” said Cleland.

“He understands being a small-town Western Canadian boy, the value of rural economies, both agriculture and other components of rural entrepreneurship.”

Olds College counts on Wilson to help sell out the event. This year, the gala will be held at the Ralph Klein Centre, enabling the college to raise the number of guests from 342 to 500.

“We are quite confident in our ability to increase our guest list because we have always sold out our event and had a waiting list in the past,” said Cleland.

“Having a name-brand, renowned keynote speaker will be a huge part of our ability to do that.”

For information on tickets, please visit http://www.oldscollege.ca/events/gala/ or contact Doreen at 403-556-8232.

Comments

Be the FIRST to comment!

   
Got something to say? Post Comment!

You haven't entered any comments to post!

The Olds Albertan welcomes your opinions and comments. We reserve the right to edit comments for length, style, legality and taste and reproduce them in print, electronic or otherwise. For further information, please contact the editor or publisher.

In order to post comments on our web site, you must validate your email address. An email was sent to you when you registered that included an activation link. If you have not yet done so, please click on the link to activate your account.

If you did not receive your activation email, please click here to have it resent.

To post comments, you must login or register on OldsAlbertan.ca
Story URL:

Copyright © 2010 Great West Newspapers Limited Partnership. All rights reserved. The contents of this website are protected by copyright and may be used only for your personal non-commercial purposes. All other rights are reserved and commercial use is prohibited. To make use of any of this material you must first obtain permission of the owner of the copyright. For further information, please contact the editor or publisher.