Joyce Groote currently runs Holeys Canada Inc. as President & CEO.  She is also one of 12 TEC Canada Chairs in BC and currently runs 2 TEC groups that hold up to 16 CEO’s per group.

Since 1957, TEC has been helping good senior leaders become great CEOs.  With under 15,000 CEO’s worldwide in 17 countries, TEC has the business model to get help CEOs get results and achieve their business goals.  In the Vancouver area alone, there are 17 different CEO groups managed by the 12 TEC Chairs.  Interestingly, Joyce is the only female Chair in Canada, a fact she has been working hard to change by introducing new women into this area.

Holeys is best known for its comfortable fun line of footwear, earlier known as Holey Soles, that is now targeted to the home and garden markets.  Joyce became a business partner and shareholder in Holeys in 2004.  She immediately developed a strategic business plan, and moved the business from a humble garage into what it has become today.  In 2006, Holeys was identified by Profit magazine as the fastest growing
entrepreneurial company in Canada and was within the top five positions for the                                   Joyce Groote, Director
subsequent 3 years.   She readily admits that there have been many learnings                                      Women's Enterprise Centre
along the way and is willing to share the lessons. 

Running a company in footwear is a long way from her early career in scientific research as a geneticist. Her career path took her from academia, to government to non-profit and finally to the private sector; a pathway that has resulted in an eclectic set of skills.

Some of the other activities that Joyce has been involved with over the past include:

• Being the first person to ever clone a tree gene early in the history of biotechnology.
• Consolidating various biotechnology associations, the result being her creating and leading BIOTECanada, a non-profit organization as president & CEO.
• Chairing the Global Industry Coalition, a group that included representatives from the pharmaceutical, environmental and aqua-culture industries under the United Nations Biodiversity Protocol
• Founding the Life Sciences Angel Network, a Vancouver organization which provided mentoring and helped to raise over $200M for start-up and early-stage life science companies as well as creating Building Biotech Venture Capital Corporation which has successfully invested in such companies

Joyce Groote is an athlete, concert musician and loves tackling renovation projects around her home.