Teresa "Teri" Ann Kirk is a Canadian lawyer, e-business entrepreneur and CEO of Funding Portal, a Toronto-based North American mobile fintech platform connecting businesses with sources of funding.
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Early life and education
Kirk earned a Masters in Public Administration from Queen’s University, and graduated as a Juris Doctor from Osgoode Hall Law School.
Career history
Kirk practiced law for 12 years, in private practice and as Director of Legal Services, Consumer and Commercial Relations, Attorney General of Ontario.
Kirk has also held executive roles in Bell Canada, including Vice President, Business Development, and VP Public Sector Markets. In 2000, Kirk was president of Electronic Courthouse, a company that provided web-based dispute resolution using a process which Kirk invented.
Kirk built and commercialized three e-business venture corporations. In 2011, Kirk launched her third e-business, The Funding Portal Inc. The Portal aggregates federal, provincial and municipal grants, tax incentives and industrial support programs in a proprietary searchable database and provides an online guide to government and private funding processes in North America. As of 2012, the company had offices in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, and secured partnerships with accounting firm KPMG LLP and Canadian media company Postmedia Network.
Kirk has also made presentations to entrepreneurs on the subject of government and private funding, including a TEDx talk and at the Discovery 12 Conference in Toronto. She is frequently quoted in news reports about business financing in Canada and has contributed articles to major newspapers, including the Globe and Mail.
Community involvement
Kirk has been a Trustee, Ontario Science Centre, on advisory councils at Queen’s University, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Vice President of the Canadian Club of National Capital Region, and President of the Canadian Tulip Festival. She is a registered Exempt Market Dealer with Ontario and Alberta Securities Commissions and completed Partners, Directors and Senior Officers certification through Investment Funds Institute of Canada and related certifications through the Canadian Securities Institute. She currently chairs the Education and Professional Development Committee on the Board of the Private Capital Markets Association of Canada (PCMA) and sits on the Economic Development Committee of the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
Awards and accolades
In May 2016, Kirk received the 2016 EY Sara Kirke Award for Entrepreneurship and Innovation from CATAAlliance. The award is presented to an entrepreneur who has shown outstanding technological innovation and corporate leadership that has significantly expanded the frontiers of Canada's advanced technology industry.
Kirk has been named one of Ottawa’s top female entrepreneurs by the Ottawa Citizen and one of Ottawa’s 100 most influential people by The Hill Times.
In September 2011, The Ottawa Chamber of Commerce named Funding Portal the National Capital Region’s top new start-up.