Alberta's 50 Most Influential People

AlbertaVenture's 12th annual 50 Most Influential People list is out and thankfully this year's roster isn't just a catalogue of oil and gas CEOs. While Premier Ed Stelmach grabbed the cover, the 2008 list features representatives from Alberta's broader economy including a couple tech stars - Timo Ewalds of Nexopia and David Martin of SMART Technologies. Have a read:

Timo Ewalds - Nexopia Creator
MySpace? My wha’? Facebook? So over it. If you have a teenager, chances are they’ve drifted from other social networking sites to Nexopia.com. Since its launch six years ago, more than 1.2 million 14- to 20-year-olds have made the switch. Oh, and did we mention founder Ewalds started developing Nexopia.com while he was still in an Edmonton high school? Early this year the site received a multimillion- dollar injection from Hubert Burda Media, one of Germany’s largest media companies, which was, like, so cool.

David Martin - Tech Adviser
With everything that he knows about building the largest tech company in Alberta, David Martin, co-founder of Smart Technologies, could write a book about the lack of investment funding available to the industry. Instead, the recently appointed chair of the Alberta Value-Added and Technology Commercialization Task Force penned a government report that calls for the creation of a $100-million fund that will eventually grow to $300 million in venture capital.