Accelerate Okanagan’s acting CEO now permanent

Brea Lake has been hired as the CEO of Accelerate Okanagan after serving as acting CEO for the past nine months.

More than 120 people applied for the job.

“We had some incredible candidates apply for this position, but Brea stood out above the rest,” board chairman Quinton Pullen said in a news release. “We are fortunate to have someone with her vision, team leadership and ability to build community and lead our organization through this next stage of growth.”

Prior to taking on the acting CEO job, Lake was director of operations.

“There is no question that big things are happening in Okanagan tech,” Lake said in the release.  “As a community, we’ve set some big goals and I am looking forward to leading our team and supporting the entire ecosystem in achieving them.”

Lake replaces Raghwa Gopal who become president and CEO of Innovate B.C. in February.

Accelerate Okanagan bills itself as a “tech accelerator.” It supports new and growing tech businesses in the Okanagan.

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