Michal Jacob-Fletcher

Michal Jacob-Fletcher admits that when she applied for the WestLink Internship Program, she knew little about technology commercialization. Fresh from her University of Calgary MBA, Jacob-Fletcher thought she would combine her business background with her degree in industrial design and become a product manager. Then she saw an ad for the first WestLink Technology Commercialization Internship Program and changed her career route.

Jacob-Fletcher spent both her technology and venture placements with Hypercube Ventures, a Calgary-based consulting company. There, her design skills were put to much use, and she also had a glimpse into business operations and the way a small company is run.

She then moved to the University of Calgary’s Universities Technology International (UTI). She assessed technologies coming into the office from campus researchers as well as inventors in the community. “I had a good manager who let me be involved in many aspects of the office,” says Jacob-Fletcher. “UTI was a perfect fit for the WestLink program.”

When she finished the program, Jacob-Fletcher told former WestLink CEO Derek Gratz that she hoped to land a federal government job. Through his connections, she was hired with Industry Canada as a regional officer for Alberta. She met with companies wanting to do research and development to see if the government program would support the business. With a budget of $3 billion a year, Industry Canada helped propel these companies to the next level. Jacob-Fletcher helped the companies prepare their proposals and then represented them in Ottawa.

After a one-year contract, Jacob-Fletcher moved to Ottawa working for the same program, but as an investment officer on the side that chooses which companies to fund. “It was very much like a venture capital firm, where you do your due diligence on the companies and negotiate the investment,” says Jacob-Fletcher. “However, we are also concerned with the benefit to Canadians and the social benefits these companies provide in addition to our return on investment which differs from a venture capital firm.”

Now, she is the manager of a similar program in Agriculture Canada. With a budget of $140 million and eight investment officers working on her team, Jacob-Fletcher is recommending investments in agricultural-based Canadian companies that want to take their product to the market. “These business have to be ready to sell or market and are likely in that ‘valley of death’ where little funding is available to them and government contributions help leverage private sector funds,” says Jacob-Fletcher.

Off work on her second maternity leave, Jacob-Fletcher eventually thinks she will come back to the federal government. She appreciates how the WestLink Internship bridged her into the Industry Canada job, not only because of Gratz’s connections, but because it gave her the experience in technology commercialization she did not have before. The bootcamps and training also gave her the head start she needed in the field.

“Looking back, it was a good decision at the right time in my career,” says Jacob-Fletcher.