Arlene Dickinson is a Canadian businesswoman, investor, author, and television personality. She is the General Partner of District Ventures Capital and CEO of Venture Communications and is represented by CBC Television as a self-made multi-millionaire. Dickinson joined the cast of the CBC business reality show Dragons' Den during its second season in 2007 and later departed in the ninth season in 2015. She then returned to continue with the Dragons for the 12th season in 2017. She was selected to perform on the series after she won numerous awards including Calgary Business Owner of the Year, PROFIT magazine's Top 100 Women Business Owners, the Pinnacle Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence and Canada's Most Powerful Women Top 100.
Personal life
Born in Germiston, South Africa and raised in Canada, Dickinson graduated from high school in Calgary, Alberta. She married at age 19 and had four children. She divorced at 31. Today, she is single and a grandmother of seven. Politically, Dickinson identifies as non-partisan. When her former Dragons' Den co-star Kevin O'Leary entered the leadership race for the Conservative Party of Canada, she responded by saying that he "has this notion that greed is good." This prompted speculation that Dickinson was planning to run for office for the Liberal Party of Canada, which she denied. Afterwards, she continued to criticize O'Leary for referring to the national debt as the deficit.
Business
Arlene joined Venture Communications in 1988, taking sole ownership in 1998. During her tenure, she has taken the company from a local firm into one of Canada's largest independent marketing and communications firms, with offices in Calgary and Toronto. Apart from her business accomplishments, Dickinson is also a public speaker represented by several speakers bureaus. In October 2012, she launched Arlene Dickinson Enterprises to fund and target Canada's entrepreneurs. Businesses she has invested in include Urban Cultivator, The Carbon Farmers and Balzac's Coffee Roasters. Under the ADE umbrella, she also launched YouInc.com, a social website designed to celebrate the "entrepreneurial lifestyle." Future plans for the multiplatform entity include an upcoming magazine, radio shows, apps and television formats. In 2015, Arlene founded District Ventures, Canada’s top accelerator for entrepreneurs in the food, beverage and health sectors. In 2017, Arlene launched her venture capital fund, District Ventures Capital. With a mandate to invest in innovative Canadian consumer packaged goods companies, District Ventures Capital has quickly become one of Canada’s most respected venture capital funds for innovative food, beverage and health companies. In 2019, District Ventures announced the latest component of their commercialization efforts, District Ventures Kitchen, with the acquisition of Food Starter, Toronto’s leading food startup incubator and accelerator. The District Ventures Kitchen offers the opportunity to businesses in the food and beverage industry to innovate and commercialize their product. Over the years, Dickinson has served on boards including Ad Rodeo, Kids Help Phone, and the Calgary Municipal Lands Corporation. She sits on the advisory committee of the Stratford Institute at the University of Waterloo, the Leadership Council of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics as well as the editorial advisory board of Marketing Magazine. In October 2016, Dickinson was appointed to the board of directors of one of Canada's largest licensed medical marijuana producers, Aphria.
Books
In 2011, Dickinson published her first book, Persuasion, in hardcover as an autobiography. On the bestseller list for many weeks, the book is now available also in paperback and electronic formats. Her second book, All In, subtitled "You, Your Business, Your Life", was released in 2013. In 2019, Dickinson released her third book, Reinvention: Changing Your Life, Your Career, Your Future, which has also been featured on the bestseller list. Unlike her previous work, Reinvention is a detailed blueprint for locating your purpose, realistically evaluating your strengths, assessing opportunities outside your comfort zone and charting a bold new path. The book has received endorsements from Chris Hadfield, author of An Astronaut’s Guide to Earth and You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes, and Masai Ujiri, President of the Toronto Raptors.
Media
Dickinson starred as a dragon investor on Dragons' Den, starting in 2007 for the second season. She also starred in her own spinoff The Big Decision. In 2015, Dickinson announced that she was leaving Dragons' Den after the ninth season. She returned for season 12 in 2017. Dickinson guest starred as a past version of herself on the Canadian TV seriesMurdoch Mysteries, in 2012, in the episode called "Invention Convention", as a possible investor. She has also appeared as a judge on Recipe to Riches in the 2014 season. In 2017 she hosted Under New Management, a television special in which she guided aspiring new entrepreneurs in the process of purchasing a business. A series based on the special is premiered on CBC Television in 2019. In 2018, Dickinson and singer Jann Arden debuted as cohosts of The Business of Life, a lifestyle podcast on topics such as entrepreneurship, motherhood, writing, relationships and navigating life challenges.
Awards
Dickinson has been recognized with several honours and awards including: Global Television Woman of Vision, the Calgary Business Owner of the Year Award, PROFIT and Chatelaine's TOP 100 Women Business Owners, the Pinnacle Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence and has been inducted into Canada's Most Powerful Women Top 100 Hall of Fame. In 2011 she received the WIFTS Lifetime Achievement Award. She is an honorary degree recipient from Mount Saint Vincent University and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. She is also an honorary captain of the Royal Canadian Navy. Her company Venture Communications was noted as one of the 2001 winners on the list of Canada's Best Managed Companies sponsored by Deloitte, CIBC, National Post, Queen's School of Business and MacKay CEO Forums. In June 2016, Dickinson received an honorary degree from Concordia University.
Humanitarianism
Dickinson is the national spokesperson for Breakfast Clubs of Canada to help raise awareness of the importance of children having a nutritious start to the day. In 2013, she joined on as a champion of the Give a Day campaign, in support of Dignitas International and the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
