When Guy Levesque sits down for our interview, one thing stands out before he says a word. Draped around his neck is a bright red University of Calgary scarf, a small but deliberate gesture that has become something of a trademark.
He started the tradition years ago in Ottawa, where a garnet and grey University of Ottawa scarf helped him strike up conversations with alumni working in the city’s technology park.
“It was the perfect icebreaker,” he says. “People would see the scarf and say, ‘Hey, University of Ottawa, I went there,’ and by the end of the night you’d talked to fifty people.”
Now, after moving west to lead the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking at the University of Calgary, Levesque has traded one scarf for another.
Our conversation took place during Calgary Innovation Week, where Levesque spoke on multiple panels about entrepreneurship, education, and innovation. The annual event brings together founders, policymakers, and educators to explore how cities like Calgary are building innovation systems from the ground up.
For Levesque, it was a fitting setting. The week’s discussions touched on the same questions that have guided his work, how to turn Canada’s research strength into prosperity and prepare the next generation to think entrepreneurially.
That mix of connection and purpose has shaped his 30-year career across Canada’s innovation system. He has held national roles at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and the University of Ottawa.
Today, as executive director of the Hunter Hub, he is focused on a question that sits at the centre of Canada’s economic future. How to turn education and research into an engine for entrepreneurship.
The draw of a city built on confidence and community
Levesque’s decision to come to Calgary was as much about place as purpose.
“There’s so much confidence in this community,” he says. “People know they can succeed. They can point to others who have, and those people are giving back.”
That confidence, he says, is matched by a culture of generosity.
In less than a year, Levesque has built relationships that would have taken several years to form elsewhere. People are quick to offer introductions or lend support, creating an atmosphere that feels both entrepreneurial and neighbourly, rooted in the idea that success is something to be shared.
Levesque traces that back to Calgary’s boom-and-bust history.
“We celebrate trying again,” he says. “When you’ve lived through the ups and downs of commodity cycles, you learn to reinvent yourself. People here aren’t afraid to fail. They’re surrounded by others who give them advice and help them try again.”
That resilience, he says, defines the city’s innovation economy. Calgary’s youth, confidence, and willingness to give back have created a community unlike any other in Canada, one that thrives on collaboration and renewal.
He also sees this as the foundation for what comes next. The alignment between government, academia, and industry, he says, is stronger in Calgary than anywhere else in the country. That collective focus, in his view, is what turns ideas into action and ambition into results.
“I don’t know of any other community in the country… that has that magic sauce of all these things together in one,” he says.
That alignment has made Calgary a living experiment in how a city builds its innovation system from the ground up. For Levesque, it is the perfect testing ground for his lifelong conviction that entrepreneurial thinking can transform how people learn, work, and lead.
From classroom to campus hub
Levesque began his career not in policy or research, but in a high school classroom.
“My first role was figuring out how to motivate and build curiosity in students who didn’t really understand why they were there,” he says. “That’s what I think about almost every day at the Hunter Hub, how to ignite, inspire, empower, and equip people to pursue something meaningful.”
That philosophy now drives an ambitious university initiative.
The Hunter Hub was created through a $40-million gift from the Hunter Family Foundation, which the U of C described as the largest private gift in Canada to create a cross-faculty entrepreneurship hub. Its mission focuses not on building startups alone, but on cultivating “entrepreneurial thinking” across disciplines.
“The Hunter family wanted to equip all of our students with the right toolkit to be creative problem solvers,” says Levesque. “It’s a place where you can try things, fail safely, and belong to a community that shares the same curiosity.”
The Hub serves thousands of students, alumni, and faculty every year. Some come to explore startup ideas. Others, Levesque says, are “intrapreneurs,” people who apply entrepreneurial thinking inside existing organizations.
“Whether you’re in nursing, social work, or fine arts, you’re solving problems every day,” he says. “Entrepreneurial thinking isn’t about starting a company. It’s about seeing unmet needs and finding creative ways to meet them.”
By bringing undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and founders into the same space, the Hub aims to normalize innovation as part of everyday life.
“You come to a workshop or boot camp, and you end up surrounded by people who think differently,” Levesque says. “That’s where the real magic happens. It’s not just about programs, it’s about community.”
Turning ideas into impact
Canada has long excelled at research, but Levesque is focused on what happens after the discovery.
“We have one of the best tertiary education attainment rates in the world,” he says. “Our challenge is translating that into prosperity.”
He believes that begins with a stronger understanding of intellectual property and how to capture its value. Too often, he notes, Canadians associate IP only with patents, overlooking assets like software, code, trademarks, and trade secrets that can be just as important to national competitiveness.
Helping students and founders understand how to protect and leverage those assets, he argues, is one of the first steps to building a more self-sustaining innovation economy.
From there, the challenge becomes scale. Levesque points to Calgary as a rare example of a Canadian city where startups can start, grow, and stay. He has seen more companies relocating from other provinces to take advantage of that environment.
“Thinking you can scale is great,” he says. “Actually doing it is critical.”
For Levesque, connecting those pieces — education, capital, and policy — is essential if Canada wants to move from potential to performance.
“Our future prosperity depends on our entrepreneurs,” he says. “If we get this right, we can stop flagellating ourselves about commercialization and finally reap the benefits of the talent we generate every year.”
What’s at stake
For Levesque, the stakes extend far beyond Calgary. He says Canada is at a turning point in how it thinks about innovation, sovereignty, and talent.
“We need to reinforce our ability to maximize the value of the IP that’s generated here,” he says. “That means better awareness, stronger policy, and smarter procurement so that startups can find their first customers close to home.”
He also believes universities have a responsibility to lead.
Levesque shared University of Calgary president Ed McCauley’s belief that at the centre of really good entrepreneurial ecosystems, there’s always a strong research university. He framed the Hunter Hub’s job as preparing students and researchers to turn learning into real impact, a theme he returned to throughout the interview.
The Hunter Hub is his laboratory for testing that idea. Its mission, and Levesque’s, is not simply to produce more entrepreneurs, but to develop people who think differently about solving problems.
“The people who come to the Hunter Hub want to change the world in small and big ways,” he says. “Sometimes it’s local, sometimes it’s global, but it’s always about making things better.”
Whether he’s wearing a garnet and grey scarf in Ottawa or a red one in Calgary, Levesque’s message remains consistent. Canada’s future, he says, will depend on whether it can channel its research strength, its entrepreneurial spirit, and its culture of community into a single national advantage.
“If we get this right,” he says, “we’ll stop talking about potential and start talking about performance.”
Final shots
- Calgary’s innovation edge lies in confidence, community, and alignment across public, private, and academic sectors.
- Entrepreneurial thinking, not just entrepreneurship, is emerging as a key skill across all disciplines.
- Canada’s challenge isn’t a lack of ideas, but turning research and education strength into scalable ventures.
- Intellectual property awareness and strategic procurement could help keep Canadian innovation at home.
- Strong research universities anchor thriving innovation ecosystems.
Digital Journal is the official media partner of Calgary Innovation Week.
