Michael Katchen is the Founder & CEO
of Wealthsimple. No stranger to invest-
ing (he won his first investment challenge
at age 12) or launching new businesses,
the entrepreneur worked as a consultant
for McKinsey & Company after graduating
university, and then launched the online
portal, 1000Memories, with friends in Sili-
con Valley. After spending a year at Ances-
try.com, he shifted his focus to building
Wealthsimple.
“One of the first things I did when I start-
ed the business was surround myself with
icons of the industry,” Katchen said. “I told
them what we wanted to build and many
had been part of big transformations in the
investment world in the past. To them it
was obvious that this was the next major
transformation.”
FINANCIAL GURUS AMONG
COMPANY ADVISORS
The company’s list of advisors is an im-
pressive one, including Eric Kirzner, a pro-
fessor at the Rotman School of Business
28 business elite canada
H
OCTOBER 2015
