Paving the way for Caribbean entrepreneurs

Building a successful company presents many challenges and, although there is increasing diversity in the entrepreneurship community, racialized and other underrepresented groups face distinct obstacles that can prevent them from realizing their dream of starting a business.

Among those obstacles are often a lack of financial resources and the absence of role models. A generous new gift from Wes Hall promises to help build a more level playing field. The founder and executive chairman of Kingsdale Advisors recently established the Wes Hall Social Entrepreneurs. The initiative will support a cohort of five Caribbean students each year for the next five years as they take part in an incubation program within Toronto Metropolitan University’s Social Ventures Zone (SVZ). 

“We don’t have generational wealth in this country,” says Hall in reference to Black Canadians and other people of colour in Canada. “Our parents didn’t have the opportunities we have, so they couldn’t give us a leg up in that way,” he adds. “That’s one of the reasons there are not a lot of people in my position that look like me, and those that do are often underestimated. But I use that to my advantage. I own who I am. And the more of us that get to this level and pass it on to our children — the more examples there are for today’s and tomorrow’s generation — the more it will become normal to see a person of colour in a position of wealth and power.”

Wes Hall Social Entrepreneurs will begin the program by participating in a series of workshops designed to help them develop their own social venture idea. Next, students will be paired with a startup operating in the SVZ where they will have access to personal mentorship and gain real-world experience working with an early-stage social venture.  Each Wes Hall Social Entrepreneur will receive $4,000 to use either as a capital investment in their own business, or in lieu of working a part-time job while they focus on honing their entrepreneurial skills. Upon completion of the program, the students will have earned valuable and relevant experience working for a social venture and be able to apply what they learned to running a budding startup. They will also have gained access to Toronto Metropolitan University’s Zone Learning ecosystem, and a valuable network of mentors and peers to help guide them as entrepreneurs.

“I want to support those who are looking at problems they see around them and coming up with solutions to make life better for those who are struggling,” says Hall. 

Participants in the program won’t have to look far for inspiration. The initiative’s namesake is an incredible example of what is possible with the right amount of determination. Raised by his grandmother in a tin shack in Golden Grove, Jamaica, Hall learned about self-sacrifice and the value of a strong work ethic early in life. Day in and day out he watched his grandmother prepare meals for all the grandchildren in her care, go to work, and supplement her income by selling homemade puddings and homegrown bananas and plantains at the local market. 

“My grandmother became an entrepreneur out of necessity,” says Hall. “The self-sacrificing spirit she displayed towards me and my siblings is something I will never forget. I live my life trying to live up to her example.” 

Hall carried that example with him when he moved to Toronto at 16 to live with his father. He worked while in high school, often multiple jobs at a time. Eventually he managed to get into the mailroom at a downtown Toronto law firm. From there, his will and drive, combined with opportunities presented to him through the firm’s education allowances, led him to study finance and earn his law clerk’s certificate. He would later climb the ranks at Global Television and eventually started Kingsdale Advisors, building it into the leading shareholder services and advisory firm in Canada.

In addition to Toronto Metropolitan University, Hall is a long time supporter and advocate for Pathways to Education, providing high school students from low-income communities with the resources they need to graduate and take their first steps toward realizing their full potential. Hall also recently donated $1 million to Sick Kids to train Caribbean medical professionals in paediatric oncology and blood disorders.

Hall points again to his grandmother as the source of inspiration for giving back. “She was the first philanthropist that I knew,” he says. On the wall in his Bay Street office he keeps a picture of her standing in front of the tin shack in Golden Grove. “It reminds me that I didn’t achieve success quickly enough to get her out of there — that I have to keep pushing and make the best of the opportunities in front of me, for myself and others.”

The SVZ is part of the university’s zone ecosystem, a network of 10 industry-oriented incubators and accelerators that help young entrepreneurs launch and grow a startup successfully, while providing unique experiential learning opportunities for students.