Have you submitted your pitch to The Pitchies competition yet for your chance to win over $20k in prizes? Our experts want to see the finest new innovations so get your webcam or videocamera in action. We are just coming up to the announcement of our first semi-finalists so simply enter your pitch in our Compete section after you have uploaded it.

We also wanted to share some more background on the stellar judges we have lined up for the big November event where the Expert Pick winners will be announced. Plus, don’t forget to get your network voting for you for the People’s Choice Awards!

2008 Pitchies Judges - Bios

Basil Peters , Angel Investor, Entrepreneurial CEO, Fund Manager

While still in grad school, Basil co-founded Nexus Engineering. Nexus grew to seven companies with over 300 employees with operations in Hong Kong, Jakarta, London and five Canadian cities.  Basil is currently the manager of the Angel Fund Fundamental Technologies II.  Full bio

Greg Wolfe, Executive Vice President, Operations of SAP-Business Objects

Greg Wolfe is responsible for managing SAP-Business Objects operations and ensuring customer success in the Americas and EMEA. Wolfe has a strong track record of success in creating and managing high-growth and customer-obsessed organizations. Full bio

Mike Desjardins , Driver, Virtus

Mike is the Driver of Virtus and Past President of the Vancouver chapter of EO - the Entrepreneurs Organization. A graduate of UBC’s Commerce Faculty with a specialization in Marketing. Mike also spent three and a half years as the President of Purity Water Treatment Products. Full bio .

Robin Chakrabarti, Vice President, Corporate Development of T & M Group of Companies

The T&M Group have over 30 years of experience investing in, acquiring, building and growing profitable businesses, including Boston Pizza, Mr. Lube and Global Entertainment. In 2005, Robin was named one of BC’s top 40 businesspeople under 40. See Robin’s profile on Linked In

Ron Bertram, General Manager, Nintendo of Canada Ltd.

Ron Bertram is the Vice-President, General Manager for Nintendo of Canada Ltd . He is responsible for all of Nintendo’s business activities in Canada. Under Ron’s stewardship, Nintendo of Canada’s business has quadrupled in size to over ½ billion dollars. More bio here.

Ron Moravek, Chief Executive Officer, Sitemasher

Ron Moravek’s extraordinary ability to identify business opportunities and execute business plans made his joining Phil Calvin a natural next step in Sitemasher’s development path. The results-oriented, creative, high-energy leader comes packaged with an inspirational, fun and empowering management style. Full bio

Thomas Hellmann, B.I. Ghert Family Foundation Professor in Finance and Policy, Sauder School of Business University of British Columbia

Dr. Thomas Hellmann is a Professor at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. He holds a BA from the London School of Economics and a PhD from Stanford and teaches executive, MBA and undergraduate courses in the areas of entrepreneurship and strategic management. Full bio