About Me

Me and my nephew Elias

My name is Aran Hamilton and I’m living in Toronto, Canada.

I’m actually from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and if you know anything about “home” then you know that I’d be disowned for suggesting that I’m from Toronto. Many people live in Toronto, but very few will say they’re from here.

I’m married – newly – and still learning the ropes.

Coming soon to a phone near you

Last year I started up at a company called EnStream. We are a joint venture owned by the 3 largest Canadian wireless carriers (Rogers, Bell, and Telus) and our whole purpose is to launch some pretty cool stuff in the mobile money space up here in Canada. You can do a lot more things on your phone in other countries than you can do in Canada, and EnStream is looking to change that. I’d love to hear what you think we ought to do.  Please stay tuned for more news on us.

Where’d I come from

I’ve spent a lot of my career creating and implementing business strategy and development plans for new and established companies.

Before I joined EnStream, I was at m-Qube and VeriSign for a few years. m-Qube was an awesome little start-up that we sold to VeriSign – an interesting company with some incredibly strong technology solutions. While I was managing VeriSign’s Canadian business, they really began to come into their own and play an even larger role on the world’s technology stage.  My chief responsibilities were to develop the Canadian marketplace and to drive and support our 100+ person Canadian team. A big part of our Canadian business was mobile messaging – VeriSign is the largest aggregator in Canada and they manage a ton of infrastructure and programs for telecommunications and media clients.

Before that, I’d spent six years as a strategy consultant. The gig at Monitor Company only lasted a few months but shaped a lot of my social circle for the 9 years since.  PSTG and Digital Cement were great places for me to cut my teeth and really dive into consulting, launching successful business development, customer lifecycle and engagement strategies for such marquee clients as FedEx, Dell, Kraft, Sympatico, MDS, and Industry Canada. A lot of my work focused on smart use of technology, online and email relationship marketing and what the government should be doing online.

“Different” Stuff

I have an M.B.A. from the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, and a B.Sc. in Biology from University of King’s College and Dalhousie University. I’m 6′6″ and I played basketball for Kings.

I’m a member of the “top secret” College of Electors at the University of Toronto, and I was pretty stoked to be elected to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association by my industry peers last year.

A few years ago I dropped out of the traditional business world to develop a retail concept offering health products and services.  We started with a blank whiteboard and ended up building a franchisor with over 30 locations in domestic and international markets. Not too shabby!

I like to spend time advising local entrepreneurs with their start-ups. I’m always looking to talk to interesting people doing interesting things or trying to hit the slopes on my smokin’ new snowboard!