In 2001, a newly graduated Mark MacDonald thought he was set for life when he landed his dream job at Nortel Networks. 1 year later, after failing to respond to disruptions in the industry the company was on the path to bankruptcy, and Mark was jobless. Witnessing a giant like Nortel fall due to a lack of foresight and action was all Mark needed to take his future into his own hands.

In 2003, he started his first business designing and installing home automation systems, which he sold three years later. For the next decade, Mark honed his technical problem-solving skills to help engineers, developers and electricians design and power spaces all over Atlantic Canada, which lead him to merge two companies in 2016 forming Catalyst Sales and Marketing. In 2018, he started a renewable energy company and in 2021 founded Electric Avenue, an Electric Vehicle Charging company that sells both hardware and software.

Today, he sits on the board as the Strategic Alliance Chair for the Atlantic Canadian chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization. He also serves as a sustainable energy advisor on the community council for VIDA living, a development company raising the standard of affordable rentals in North America. While his dream job may not have panned out the way he thought, it did set him up in ways he never could have imagined. Mark credits Nortel for teaching him an invaluable lesson about business and life, to never rest on your laurels and that the status quo is never the option.