Andrew Black

Andrew has a wealth of experience helping to build some of the world’s leading consumer products and consumer technology companies. His expertise spans six different industries and includes building and transforming businesses in highly competitive markets. He has launched over 100 new products and services for global icons including Nike, Virgin, LEGO, Cadbury Schweppes, and Colgate Palmolive. Andrew has strong operational and leadership experience, having been President Americas at LEGO, General Manager for the US Equipment Business at Nike Inc., and VP Marketing-North America at Cadbury Schweppes/Dr Pepper 7UP. In 2004, he followed his passion for starting disruptive new businesses and founded Virgin Mobile Canada with Sir Richard Branson. He and his team grew the Virgin business to over 1 million customers and $300M in revenues within five years, while winning the JD Power Award for customer service every year. Virgin Mobile was acquired by Bell Canada in 2009. Black then founded Blackpoynt Brand Ventures with the mission of helping visionary entrepreneurs build disruptive consumer brands. His portfolio of 8 early stage consumer businesses included Awake Chocolate and Hello with two portfolio companies exiting – Pushlife (acquired by Google) and Virgin Gaming (acquired by Difference Capital). In 2013, Black founded BrandProject, a company creation studio that builds, buys, and makes seed stage investments in disruptive consumer brands. BrandProject raised $12M in equity, lead by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC). BrandProject provides both consumer business building expertise and investment equity to all its partner companies. Black is a graduate of Queen’s University with a Bachelor in Economics. He also is a Board Member of Free The Children and Virgin Unite, and is a mentor at Next 36 and Extreme Start Ups. Andrew, his wife and four daughters live in Toronto.