Arden Tse
mentorit moderator

What gets you out of bed each morning? My alarm. That, and knowing each day is going to be different from the last. The best part of my job is that I get to run a program that helps others, which is something I value. I'm lucky enough to get to study, observe, and even practice mentorship (both as a peer mentor, and as an informal mentee of some great board members and volunteers). Entrepreneurs don't have an HR support system like people who work in corporate organizations, and being an entrepreneur myself, I know the value of having mentors and fellow entrepreneurs to lean on.

What’s your favourite book? I'm actually reading a series of books by Canadian Author Ian Hamilton, which center around the character of Ava Lee. She's a Chinese Canadian forensic accountant who gave up the corporate gig to chase down money and help solve financial "issues" encountered by wealthy business clients, and sometimes criminal organizations. She's also a highly skilled martial artist and able to take care of herself! It's a well written series of novels that see her traveling the world, getting into and out of all sorts of interesting situations.

What 3-5 words best describe you? Chases shiny objects. Squirrel!

What’s your favourite thing to eat? Where is it from? I love comfort food, but particularly, I love noodles. Whether Italian pasta, Chinese rice noodles, or Japanese ramen (of course).

What’s something that people don’t really know about you? I love airports. I'm fascinated by people's stories and everyone there has one (I sometimes try to guess or even make up their stories about why they're at the airport). It also represents a gateway where people are going to or coming from another place. I've had the travel bug ever since backpacking Europe on my own and working in the cruise ship industry so to me, airports represent adventure and the opportunity to explore the world.

More... Arden has had the career of about eight people and after a lengthy career in the world of commercial real estate, investment, and finance, is now the Manager of the University of Alberta's Venture Mentoring Service. He couldn't have gotten to where he is without having a great network of mentors himself, and considers himself lucky to be running the only dedicated mentorship program for entrepreneurs in Edmonton. In fact, most days Arden can't believe he actually gets paid to help grow strong entrepreneurs, although the bank that holds his mortgage is certainly glad that he's getting paid to do so. Oh yeah, he also owns a restaurant because "just a job" isn't enough to deal with his short attention span (Prairie Noodle Shop).