Michael Wekerle (born December 17, 1963) is a Canadian merchant banker and television personality, best known for being an investor on the Canadian reality show ''

Dragons' Den ''Dragons' Den'' is a reality television program format in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing investment finance from them. The program originated in 2001 in Japan, where it ...

'' for three years, first appearing in the ninth season."The rise and fall and rise of Michael Wekerle: A second act for Bay Street’s wild child"
''

Canadian Business ''Canadian Business'' is the longest-publishing business magazine based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and founded in 1927. The print edition terminated in the end of 2016. Beginning in January 2017, the magazine was published online only. In Octob ...

'', October 15, 2014.

Business career

Born in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Wekerle spent a year studying at

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

before dropping out and taking a job as a phone clerk at the

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; ) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the List of stock exchanges, 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in th ...

. He subsequently joined First Marathon, rising to become head trader for the firm. In this capacity, he was one of the key figures in

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet, with significant additional telecommunications and mass media ass ...

' takeover of

Maclean-Hunter Maclean-Hunter (M-H) was a Canadian communications company, which had diversified holdings in radio, television, magazines, newspapers and cable television distribution. History The company began in 1887, when brothers John Bayne Maclean and H ...

in 1994."The Oracle of Bay Street: finance bad boy Michael Wekerle is back, and his new firm is already the talk of Toronto"
. ''

Toronto Life ''Toronto Life'' is a monthly magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ''Toronto Life'' also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including ''Real Estate'', ''Stylebook'', ''Eati ...

'', October 16, 2013. He left First Marathon in 1995 to join Griffiths McBurney and Partners (GMP)."Griffiths McBurney now a major stock market player". ''

Hamilton Spectator ''The Hamilton Spectator'', founded in 1846, is a newspaper published weekdays and Saturdays in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. One of the largest Canadian newspapers by circulation, ''The Hamilton Spectator'' is owned by Torstar. ...

'', August 9, 1996. In his role with GMP as vice-chairman of trading, he was closely involved with the 1997

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

Research in Motion BlackBerry Limited, formerly Research In Motion (RIM), is a Canadian software company specializing in secure communications and the Internet of Things (IoT). Founded in 1984, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartpho ...

. Wekerle left Griffiths McBurney in 2011 by mutual consent, receiving a severance package in return for agreeing to a non-compete clause. Wekerle launched his own merchant banking firm, Difference Capital, in 2012 to invest in technology startups. His investments through Difference Capital include the film and television studio Thunderbird Films, the data analysis firm Appinions, the medical technology firm BrainScope, the social media management service

HootSuite Hootsuite is a Online presence management, social media management platform, created by Ryan Holmes in 2008. The system's user interface takes the form of a dashboard (web administration), dashboard, and supports social network integrations for T ...

,"Wekerle Joins ‘Maple Syrup Mafia’ to Fund Tech"
Bloomberg.com, December 4, 2014. and the technology firm Vision Critical. In 2014, he announced the launch of a new

business incubator A business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services, starting with management training and office space, and ending with venture ...

in the Waterloo Region that would offer

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

funding to new tech startups. He subsequently began buying high-tech commercial buildings in Waterloo, a number of which had previously been owned by BlackBerry.

''Dragons' Den''

In March 2014, he was announced as one of two new dragons, along with restaurateur Vikram Vij, who would join ''Dragons' Den'' in its ninth season following the departures of

Kevin O'Leary Terrence Thomas Kevin O'Leary (born July 9, 1954), also known as Mr. Wonderful, is a Canadian businessman and television personality. From 2004 to 2014, he appeared on various Canadian television shows, including the business news programs ''Sq ...

and Bruce Croxon. In one of his first dragon deals on the series, he invested in Covergalls, a new line of

workwear Workwear is clothing worn for work, especially work that involves manual labour. Often those employed within trade industries elect to be outfitted in workwear because it is built to provide durability and safety. The workwear clothing industr ...

designed for women in industrial jobs. He left the show after the 12th season.

Other activities

He is a partner in the Canadian franchise expansion plans of

Mark Wahlberg Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971), formerly known by his stage name Marky Mark, is an American actor, producer, and former rapper. Mark Wahlberg filmography, His work as a leading actor, leading man spans the Comedy film, come ...

's Wahlburgers chain of restaurants. Wekerle is a former owner of El Mocambo, a live music venue in

, which he purchased in 2014. In 2013, he was a participant in the Humour Me Comedy Classic, a charitable event in which business executives train to perform

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage (theatre), stage and delivers humour, humorous and satire, satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical comedy, physical acts. These ...

routines as a fundraiser for Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. He is also a sponsor of "Wekfest" and "Wektoberfest","Dragons' Den star Michael Wekerle buys Toronto's El Mocambo for $3.7M"

Business News Network BNN Bloomberg is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by Bell Media with the name licensed from Bloomberg L.P. It broadcasts programming related to business and financial news and analysis. The channel is headquarte ...

, November 7, 2014. annual charitable fundraising music festivals in Waterloo.

In other media

Wekerle made a special guest appearance in '' Trailer Park Boys: The Animated Series''.

Personal life

He was married twice and his first marriage ended in divorce. In 2024, he married his long time sweetheart, Yasmin Castellon. In 2010, Wekerle experienced a bout of depression after his second wife, Lea-Anne, died of a heart attack. His behaviour became increasingly erratic over the next several months, which eventually prompted his departure from GMP Capital. At a charity fundraising roast for Newcap Broadcasting CEO Rob Steele that summer, he drunkenly interrupted host Rex Murphy, and in October, he arrived drunk at a hotel in

Little Rock Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

, and allegedly engaged in rowdy and disorderly behaviour."Canadian millionaire Michael Wekerle sued for ‘drunken escapade’ in U.S."
canada.com, October 25, 2013. A valet with the hotel filed a lawsuit against Wekerle in 2013, alleging that he had suffered a permanent injury as a result of Wekerle's behaviour. He lives part-time in

Caledon, Ontario Caledon (; 2021 Canadian census, 2021 population 76,581) is a town (Ontario), town in the Regional Municipality of Peel in the Greater Toronto Area of Ontario, Canada. The name comes from a shortened form of Caledonia, the Roman name for what is ...

, at the Heath Putnam Farm, which was owned by

Norman Jewison Norman Frederick Jewison (July 21, 1926 – January 20, 2024) was a Canadian filmmaker. He was known for directing films which addressed topical Social issue, social and political issues, often making controversial or complicated subjects acces ...

(the Chancellor of Victoria College). Wekerle's

Porsche 918 Spyder The Porsche 918 Spyder is a high performance sports car manufactured by German marque Porsche. The 918 Spyder is a plug-in hybrid powered by a mid-mounted naturally aspirated V8 engine, developing at 8,700RPM, with two electric motors deliveri ...

burst into flames at an

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (from the phon ...

gas station on 28 September 2014 in Caledon while he was filling up his gas tank. Some gas overfilled, which caused the explosion. Nobody was hurt during the occurrence."Michael Wekerle thankful no one hurt after Porsche Spyder bursts into flames"
'' Caledon Enterprise'', October 9, 2014.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wekerle, Michael Canadian financiers Canadian male voice actors Canadian television hosts Living people Participants in Canadian reality television series Businesspeople from Toronto Canadian philanthropists Canadian venture capitalists 1963 births Dragons' Den