Laureates

Susan Anderson

Susan AndersonSusan Anderson is a serial fin - tech entrepreneur and a mentor to both start up and scale up entrepreneurs.

She and a co-founder started DirectCash Payments Inc., a publicly traded financial services company in 1997. DirectCash Payments grew from two employees to be the second largest ATM company in the world with revenue over $400M and 425 employees worldwide until its sale in January 2017. In 2008, Susan co- founded Digital Commerce Bank, a private Canadian chartered financial institution and was its founding President & CEO for over 7 years and is currently the Chair of the Board.

Currently, she is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Cannonball Capital Inc., which is her family office and an active institutional investor in venture companies, private and public equities as well as commercial real estate. 

She is the Chair of the Board of Endeavor Canada which selects and mentors scale up companies.

Susan is on the board of directors of the My First Bicycle Foundation, Cannonball Foundation, Canada’s Sport Hall of Fame and Digital Commerce Bank. She is on the strategic advisory board of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the President’s Advancement Council at the University of Alberta.

In 2010, Susan received an Alumni Honour Award from the University of Alberta. Ms. Anderson was also honoured as one of the “most powerful women” in Canada by the Women’s Executive Network in 2010. She was the recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (Prairies Region) award in 2005.

Ms. Anderson graduated with distinction with a commerce degree from the University of Calgary in 1984 and in 1988 obtained a law degree from the University of Alberta.

She has two grown sons and is an avid traveller, hiker, golfer and pickleball player.