Leonard Brody
Best-selling Author & Business Visionary
CEO & Co-founder of NowPublic

Leonard is a highly respected entrepreneur, venture capitalist, best-selling author and Emmy nominated media visionary. He has helped in raising millions of dollars for startup companies, been through one of the largest internet IPOs in history and has been involved in the building, financing and/or sale of five companies to date.

Much critical acclaim has followed him in his endeavours. At Onvia (where he was part of the initial executive), the company was voted Canada’s number one startup in 2000 and subsequently closed a $240 Million IPO on NASDAQ.

Currently, Leonard is Co-Founder and CEO of NowPublic which is one of the pioneers in citizen generated news and quickly becoming one of the largest news agencies in the world with over 170,000 contributing reporters in 160 countries & over 3 million readers a month.  The Guardian in London ranked NowPublic as one of top 5 news sites in the world and Time Magazine named it as of the top 50 websites in the world.

Leonard acts as an advisor to venture capital funds in the US, Europe and Asia. Throughout his career, has also advised several entities including, the Associated Press, Alliance Atlantis, CanWest Global, Derby County Football Club and Sonic Foundry. In addition, he was the Senior Technology Advisor to Former Minister of Foreign Affairs & International Trade – David Emerson. Currently, Leonard is a Senior Advisor to the Canadian Ministry of International Trade and a Director of Canada’s largest technology association, CATA.

A highly sought-after public speaker, Leonard has lectured at universities such as Stanford, the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai and the Gordon Business School in Johannesburg. His insight has been requested by companies such as Forbes, Warner Music and Bell, as well as, the governments of countries such as India, Israel, Ireland and South Africa. He has spoken at conferences throughout the world including NASSCOM, the World Newspaper Congress, CEBIT and the Monaco Media Forum. His work has been featured in such publications as USA Today, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, El Mundo and Der Spiegel. Recently he was given the award as one of Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40. He is coauthor of the best selling books, “Innovation Nation: Canadian Leadership from Jurassic Park to Java” and “Everything I Needed to Know About Business...I Learned from a Canadian” both published by John Wiley and Sons.

Leonard holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from Queens University, a law degree from
Osgoode Hall and is a graduate of the Private Equity Course at the Harvard Business School.