Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Province taps ex-SFU president Andrew Petter as Innovate BC chairman

Former B.C. cabinet member will help lead strategic direction of tech sector
andrew_petter_credit_rob_kruyt
Innovate BC chairman Andrew Petter | Photo: Rob Kruyt, BIV

The Crown agency responsible for shepherding growth in B.C.’s tech sector has landed a familiar face from the province’s higher-education circles to lead its board.

Former Simon Fraser University president Andrew Petter has been tapped by government to take over as chairman of Innovate BC, effective Friday.

The appointment sees Innovate BC maintaining continuity in terms of the board leadership’s background. Petter takes over from Alan Shaver, who had previously served as president of Thompson Rivers University until taking on the chairman role at the Crown agency in 2018.

“Innovation is key to everything. It's not just a sector issue, it's an issue that cuts across the whole economy of the province and Innovate BC has a number of roles to play in supporting startups and supporting the tech sector, but also in helping to facilitate investment in advising governments and in supporting innovation,” said Petter, a lawyer by trade who maintains a professorship at SFU’s School of Public Policy.

He told BIV some of the top priorities facing the province’s tech sector include attracting talent, scaling startups into larger firm and then retaining those anchor companies so that “they can see a future in British Columbia and not simply be acquired and taken offshore.”

“If we can knit together some of the capacities we have in our universities in our business community and amongst the startup community … we can make real headway.”

While Petter said he appreciated having a six-month break after departing as SFU’s president and vice-chancellor back in September 2020, he felt a responsibility to contribute after the pandemic threw B.C. for a loop.

“We know that a lot of people have been displaced in terms of employment because of COVID-19, so there's a huge opportunity there through retraining and upskilling,” he said.

Prior to his time at the University of Victoria and Simon Fraser University, Petter also served as the province’s attorney general and minister of advanced education, training and technology under the BC NDP government of the 1990s and early 2000s.

“That definitely helps him to be well positioned to understand how government works, how our decision-making works. But his experiences over the last 15 years in academia, working with the business community, I think well-positions him for helping us in our future plans,” B.C. Innovation Minister Ravi Kahlon told BIV.

The chairmanship role is appointed at the discretion of the innovation minister and Kahlon said he did not consider other candidates before reaching out to Petter.

“He is an innovator, he does think out of the box, he's built fantastic relationships in academia, and the business community and the tech community,” Kahlon said. 

Innovate BC’s last major leadership change came in 2019, when former Accelerate Okanagan Technology Association CEO Raghwa Gopal took over as president and CEO.

[email protected]

@reporton