Peggy Van de Plassche
Peggy Van de Plassche is a seasoned advisor with over 20 years of experience in financial services, healthcare, and technology. She specializes in guiding boards and C-suite executives through transformational change, leveraging technology and capital allocation to drive growth and innovation. A founding board member of Invest in Canada, Peggy also brings unique expertise in navigating complex issues and fostering public-private partnerships—key elements in shaping the Future of Business. Her skill set includes strategic leadership, capital allocation, transaction advisory, technology integration, and governance. Notable clients include BMO, CI Financial, HOOPP, OMERS, GreenShield Canada, Nicola Wealth, and Power Financial. For more information, visit peggyvandeplassche.com.
Episodes
158 episodes
🌴 Networking in the Desert: Why Dubai Feels Different
✨ One week in Dubai and already noticing patterns in how people actually do business here.Networking feels… different.Meetings in days, not monthsFull attention, not 25 min with an Apple Watch ...
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Season 4
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Episode 2
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12:36
⚖️ Structural Inequality: Polite Silence vs. Blunt Truth
💸 In Dubai, inequality isn’t hidden. It’s right there: Lamborghinis next to labor buses. Nobody pretends it’s sad, nobody calls for change. It simply is. The pecking order is clear, unapologetic, and accepted.😶 In the West, we p...
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Season 4
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Episode 1
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11:11
🏃Four Weeks, Two Cities: Hitting Reset in the UAE
I’m pressing the reset button: 4 weeks, 2 cities, ~many coffees. Dubai Sep 10–20 → Abu Dhabi Sep 22–Oct 3.Why? Because sometimes it’s riskier to stay put than to move. The UAE’s dynamism is a pull; today’s noise ...
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Season 3
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Episode 53
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12:46
🤖How to AI-Proof Your Career (and Actually Thrive)
AI-proofing your career boils down to 2 moves: 1) Amplify everything AI can’t do (or doesn’t do well). 2) Double-down on your secret sauce.Why now? The IMF estimates ~40% of global jobs are exposed to ...
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Season 3
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Episode 52
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19:38
😱Did You Lose Someone to Conspiracy Theory?
Ever had a perfectly normal coffee turn into a TED Talk on how cannibals run the world? Same. ☕🌀My new newsletter is a field guide to the conspiracy slide—how a chat that starts with “sugar is bad” ends with “the lizard people a...
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Season 3
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Episode 51
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12:38
💩The Art (and Agony) of Taking Sh*t
If you know me well, you know my tolerance for nonsense is… minimal. If you don’t know me well, you probably think I’m endlessly calm and kind. Both are true.The problem? We’re living in a world where public headphone-f...
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Season 3
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Episode 50
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23:13
👨Let Me Talk To Your Husband
👨🔧 “Let Me Talk to Your Husband.” Because apparently, you need a Y chromosome to understand drywall.If I had a dollar for every contractor who said that to me, I’d be sipping rosé in a manicured garden in Monaco—not ...
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Season 3
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Episode 49
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8:54
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🚀 From VC to CEO: Melissa Widner on Building Smarter Capita
🚀 From VC to CEO — and Why Founders Are Rethinking DilutionWhat happens when a venture capitalist jumps into the trenches to run one of her portfolio companies?In this week’s podcast & newsletter, I sat down with the br...
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Season 3
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Episode 48
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27:01
📆 When did grabbing a coffee become a logistical nightmare?
Between calendar invites for brunch, soft-circled plans, 20-text back-and-forths, and the ever-popular last-minute “doctor’s appointment” excuse… I’m starting to think we need a project manager just to have lunch.We used to meet...
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Season 3
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Episode 47
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12:29
👥 Building a Business with Heart and Hustle: A Conversation with Stéphanie Reniers
🚀 From Startup to Global HR Tech — and a Family Move to Dubai What does it take to build a 500-person company, raise three kids, and still prioritize culture over growth-at-all-costs?This week on the podcast, I sat down with <...
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Season 3
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Episode 46
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26:42
🎯 How to design a career—and a life—that works for you
🚀 Success, Strategy & Staying HumanA friend reached out recently—unhappy in her role and ready to make a move. We spoke about the job market (not great), office politics (they pass), and the uncomfortable truths of ageism and ...
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Season 3
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Episode 45
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19:11
What does it really take to build and scale deep tech across borders?
What does it really take to build and scale deep tech across borders? (Hint: It's not just capital or code.)Last week’s event The Humans Behind the Next Wave—co-hosted by La French Tech Toronto,...
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Season 3
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Episode 44
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15:40
📍Dubai Is Calling: What Oscar Orellana-Hyder Wants Westerners to Know
If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I’m a sucker for new frontiers.And lately, one signal keeps getting louder: a growing number of Canadians and Americans—myself included—are turning their attention to the UAE. Not just because...
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Season 3
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Episode 43
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37:46
🧭 How to Invest in Great Companies (and Build a Better Capital Market)
Last week, we celebrated FrontFundr’s 10th anniversary—a milestone not just for the company, but for the Canadian innovation economy.In the past decade, nearly $300M has been invested via FrontFundr by almost 20,000 investors
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Season 3
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Episode 42
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19:38
💡How to turn external tech teams into a strategic asset
What if tech outsourcing could actually be… a strategic advantage?On this week’s podcast, I sat down with Sean Languedoc, founder & CEO of Outforce AI, to talk about why outsourcing is so often broken—and how to fix it....
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Season 3
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Episode 41
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34:51
✈️ Staying Global in a Deglobalizing World
🌍 Staying Global in a Deglobalizing World Reflections from the Burgundy ForumLast week, I attended Burgundy’s annual forum in Toronto—a quiet but powerful gathering of serious long-term investors.The theme this year?
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Season 3
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Episode 40
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12:33
🏡 The Leak, the Ladder, and the Illusion of Trust
What a roof leak taught me about fiduciary duty, asymmetric relationships, and why micro-communities matter more than everWould you trust your roofer like you trust your lawyer?During two days of torrential rain in Toronto,...
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Season 3
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Episode 39
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14:57
🏒What the Maple Leafs’ Playoff Defeat Can Tell Us About the Corporate World
🏒What the Maple Leafs’ Playoff Defeat Can Tell Us About the Corporate WorldI don’t follow sports. But living in Toronto, even I couldn’t escape the Maple Leafs playoff drama.The part that stuck with me wasn’t the final score (1–6, o...
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Season 3
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Episode 38
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12:12
🍄Paris, Mushrooms and Me - A Journey of Microdosing and Personal Transformation through Europe
I wrote a book. Then I didn’t publish it. Now I’m sharing it anyway.In the summer of 2022, I started writing Paris, Mushrooms and Me—a raw, funny, and deeply personal story about my first experiences with microdosing and ...
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Season 3
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Episode 36
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15:32
💸How to Unlock Growth, Profitability, and Resilience Without a Single Acquisition
💥 Most M&A Deals Fail. So Why Are We Ignoring the Gold Mine Inside Our Own Businesses?70–90% of M&A deals fail to create value.And yet, executives, boards, and advisors still chase acquisitions like it’s the only path to growth....
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Season 3
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Episode 37
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13:59
🧠 Founders, Play Your Own Game
💥 "Raising capital is like a favor from the mafia—once you shake hands, you’re in the game."That’s one of the many sharp insights from my recent conversation with Brice Scheschuk.Brice has seen it all: founder, operator, in...
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Season 3
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Episode 35
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32:58
💸Value Creation: A Personal Playbook from the Past 25 Years
PE isn’t broken. But the rules have changed—and most firms haven’t.I’ve spent 25 years in value creation: → In a PE-backed manufacturing company → As part of a SWAT team transforming a global tech firm → In...
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Season 3
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Episode 34
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33:34
💪 Tariffs aren’t the only way to push back.
💪 Tariffs aren’t the only way to push back. Sometimes, Canada needs to put its elbows up—with policy.In the face of rising tariffs, trade weaponization, and U.S.-centric tech monopolies, what if there was a smarter way to fight ba...
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Season 3
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Episode 33
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12:43
🎨 3 Books on Art That Will Open Your Mind and Lift Your Spirit
Art doesn’t just decorate our walls. It reshapes the way we see the world—and ourselves. 🎨I recently read three extraordinary books that cracked open my understanding of creativity, value, and human connection: ✅ Poor...
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Season 3
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Episode 32
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14:36
🌱 Good News in Healthcare: A Reminder to Look for the Light
Good news in healthcare doesn’t always make the headlines — but it’s happening all around us. 🌿In the last decade alone, we’ve seen seismic shifts: ✅ Psychedelics are redefining mental health care. ✅ Early cancer...
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Season 3
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Episode 31
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18:59
