About Jennifer Turliuk
Summary:
- Entrepreneurial leader with a strong background in strategy, marketing, business development, and writing
- Work featured in New York Times, Wired, Fast Company, Forbes, Harvard case study, and more
- Training from Procter & Gamble, Singularity University at NASA, and business school at Queen’s University
Career Highlights:
- CEO of MakerKids, the first makerspace for kids in the world. We empower the makers of tomorrow with programs on robotics, coding and Minecraft.
- Created Career Love, which offers courses and coaching on how to find work that you love.
- Forbes article was one of Forbes Greatest Hits (with over 1 million views), on the Forbes Most Read and Top Trending Stories for over a week, featured on Linkedin Today, and reprinted by New York’s daily newspapers, Business Insider and Vault.
- Keynote speaker at first MakerCon in Europe, spoke at MakerCon New York and on panel discussion with Peter Thiel (founder of Paypal), did a TEDx talk in Spanish (at TEDxSantiago)
- PR & Marketing consultant for various startups and campaigns including the Matterform 3D scanner crowdfunding campaign, the highest Indiegogo raise ever outside the US ($471,000)
- Participant in Singularity University‘s 2012 Graduate Studies Program at NASA
- Ran Canada’s largest business plan competition and created a launchpad program for top young entrepreneurs that was selected for the Startup Chile program
- Developed self-education program that involved shadowing at 6 startups after being 1 of top 6 finalists from hundreds in competition to shadow Dave McClure of 500 Startups
- DJ‘d for Red Bull, some of Chile’s largest nightclubs, and 1 of the top 10 black tie events in the world (according to David Letterman)
- Led launch of Tide Pods (biggest launch in 27 years on P&G Canada’s largest brand)
- Wrote a play that was in Canada’s largest ten-minute play festival
- Launched SMS-based disaster relief project for Hurricane Sandy that was featured in the New York Times, Fast Company, CBS, and more within a week of launching.
- Helped build a 3-D printer for a music video
- First website featured in a major children’s magazine at age 12
Contact Me
Access my resume here. Access my Linkedin here. The best way to reach me is by email: jenn.turliuk@gmail.com.
Keynote Speeches
Jennifer has done many keynote speeches. She is represented by National Speakers Bureau.
She is available to speak on the following topics:
STEM & The Maker Movement - From Consumer to Creator:
Turliuk’s business model for MakerKids became the first and largest makerspace for kids in the world. Her focus is on interest-driven STEM learning programs, great service and fostering 21st century skills and technological skills – empowering youth to be the leaders of tomorrow. In addition to teaching kids technology skills, MakerKids also helps them develop skills like leadership, resilience, creativity, and more.
Career Planning by Design:
Turliuk’s exploratory approach to finding her career has been documented as one of Forbes’ Greatest Hits. In this presentation, she shares how audiences can learn from her experience of prototyping her career future, taking risks, and challenging herself to explore new opportunities, all while pursuing her passion.
NextGen Business Success:
Today’s success comes from the hustle and can-do attitude. Turliuk’s business model is based on a ‘Make it happen’ approach: Make anything possible, make something awesome, make things happen and make new connections. She shares her entrepreneurial journey, lessons learned along the way and how Singularity University helped frame her thoughts around technology and education.
Other Topics
Jennifer is can also speak about other topics, such as:
- Fostering youth entrepreneurship
- Millennials / Gen Y
- Marketing / PR
- Other
Past Speaking Engagements
Jennifer is frequently invited to give talks, and has won speaking awards in Canada and Brazil.
Past speaking engagements include:
TEDxSantiago
"Malas Decisiones en Tu Carerra"
("Career Ups and Downs")Jennifer gave a TEDx talk in Spanish at TEDxSantiago after learning Spanish for 8 months.
MakerCon: Norway, New York, California
"The Business of Making With Kids"
Keynote Speaker, MakerCon Nordic: Called the 'epicenter of the maker movement', MakerCon is a professional conference by and for makers. Jennifer was invited to speak about MakerKids.
Maker Faire: Rome, New York, California
"Re-Making the World through Making with Kids"
Maker Faire Rome: Jennifer was invited to give a talk to 1500 people at the opening conference of Maker Faire Rome. Other speakers included Brian Krzanich (CEO of Intel), Massimo Banzi (CEO of Arduino), Dale Dougherty (CEO of Maker Media), Leah Buechley (professor at MIT Media Lab), Mark Frauenfelder (founder of Boing Boing), and more. Her speech was covered by Wired.
Humber College Convocation
Graduation Speech
Jennifer was awarded an honorary degree and invited to speak in front of 3000 graduates. Past honorary degree recipients include the Chief of Toronto Police Services, Mike Myers, and more.
Writing
Here are some examples of Jennifer’s writing:
Forbes
One of Forbes Greatest Hits (with over 1 million views), on the Forbes Most Read and Top Trending Stories for over a week, featured on Linkedin Today, and reprinted by New York’s daily newspapers, Business Insider and Vault.
Venturebeat
Acted as correspondent at Singularity University’s Graduate Studies Program for Venturebeat
Make Magazine
Articles include 7 Cornerstones of Making with Kids (MAKE Magazine print issue Volume 40), How to ReMake the World by Making with Kids, and Two Maker Moms Discuss the Importance of Making for Kids
Strategy Magazine
Selected to write about a new idea for September 2014 print issue. Wrote about “The closet of your dreams”
Women 2.0
Jennifer wrote an article about one of her shadow experiences as part of her ‘Startup Shadow’ project, which involved shadowing and interviewing many prominent founders and investors in Silicon Valley.
Teva Online for Business
An article that was co-written with Ken Wong, marketing professor at Queen’s University and member of the Canadian Marketing Hall of Fame. As part of an independent study with him, Jennifer also wrote other blog posts that offered insights to marketing professionals about how to market to millennials most effectively, demystifying which trends relating to consumption habits are actually relevant to this age group and how they can be successfully applied to marketing strategies.
Other
Jennifer has also written for TVO, Techvibes, the Hamilton Spectator, Burlington Post, and Startup Weekend. She was a Blogger for the Queen’s University School of Business website, and was Co-Editor of her high school newspaper, the Trojan Times (at Hillfield-Strathallan College).
Jennifer wrote a play that was featured in Canada’s largest ten-minute play festival, InspiraTO. She wrote the book and lyrics for a musical that she produced in the Toronto Fringe Festival.
Books
Jennifer is the author of a number of books. Follow Jennifer on Goodreads to stay up to date with her book projects.
The MakerKid
The MakerKid is a children's book about a kid named William who likes to make things, and his quest to build a robot and meet other kids who make things.
Every Child A Maker
Discover How You Can Empower Children to Create the Future!
This book explains what makes MakerKids so unique, and helps children develop the skills and mindsets they need to become the makers of tomorrow.
The future of our planet rests in the hands of kids. Every Child a Maker will show you how to help children in your life to reach their potential.How to Figure Out What To Do With Your Life (Next)
Forthcoming with Dundurn Press
Eighty percent of people are dissatisfied with their jobs. This book will help you choose a next career step that you’ll love, using a career design process developed through interviews with the world’s leading founders, investors and professors that involves design thinking, quantified self and lean methodologies.
Selected Projects
My mission is to help more people find and follow careers that they are passionate about, good at, and that help them and the world. Currently 80% of people are dissatisfied with their jobs (Deloitte Shift Index Survey) - I want to make a dent on reducing this number. Childhood is the most formative stage of life, so I am currently focused on empowering kids to develop the skills and confidence to have better careers. Here are some select projects I have worked on along the way.
Founder and CEO, MakerKids
2013-Present
MakerKids is the first makerspace for kids in the world. We empower the makers of tomorrow with the skills and mindsets to change the world. Thousands of kids have participated in our camps, after-school programs and parties on coding, robotics and Minecraft. We have written curriculum for Intel and trained educators from the Toronto Public Library and the Toronto Catholic District School Board. MakerKids was named Best Kids' Workshops by Toronto Life Magazine and one of the top ten awesome birthday party places by Today's Parent. Our Board of Advisors includes the CEO of Arduino. We are franchising and hiring - reach out to jenn@makerkids.com if you are interested.
CareerLove
2012-Present
Over 80% of people are dissatisfied with their careers. Jennifer wants to flip this statistic on its head so that the world can have more people in careers where they are satisfied and can make contributions to solving the world's biggest challenges.
Jennifer interviewed prominent founders, investors and professors including the founders of Airbnb and Square to create a process for finding your next career step that involves design thinking, lean startup methodology, and quantified self. This process was featured in her Forbes article which has had over 1 million views and was one of Forbes' Top-Read articles. Now, Jennifer helps people find careers they love through her writing, coaching, online courses, and more. Jennifer has helped clients to land jobs at Google, P&G, Kelson, and more, land investment, sell franchises, and get into prestigious incubators. To learn more, click here.
Singularity University Graduate Studies Program
2012
Singularity University is a program started by NASA and the founders of Google that teaches about the most cutting-edge exponential technologies (e.g. 3D printing, genetics, nanotechnology, etc) and how to use them to solve the world’s greatest grand challenges (e.g. poverty, water, etc). Faculty members included Eric Ries, Vivek Wadhwa, Vinod Khosla, Jean-Michel Cousteau, the Chair of Kiva’s board, astronauts, members of the Obama administration, and more. With a mission to positively impact 1B+ people within the next 10 years, the program consisted of a mix of lectures from subject experts, field trips to places like IDEO and Autodesk, team projects, and technology workshops. Jennifer was selected from over 3000 applicants as one of 80 students (from 36 countries) for the 2012 Graduate Studies program and was granted scholarships. Her team won the Android app challenge, garnering $2000 in funding. She wrote about the Singularity University experience as a correspondent for Venturebeat.
PR & Marketing Consultant
2012-2013
Provided PR, marketing, writing, sales and strategy services to clients working with exponential technologies to change the world:
- Matterform 3D scanner (first affordable desktop 3D scanner): raised over $471,000 via Indiegogo campaign - the highest Indiegogo raise ever outside the US at the time. Garnered press in major media outlets such as Fast Company, MAKE Magazine, Venturebeat, GeekDad, Wired Italy, CBC.
- Atmel (the makers of the microcontroller used by Arduino) and Ardulab (a startup that lets anyone send an experiment to space for under $5K): landed press in Fast Company, Make magazine, Huffington Post, Mashable and more.
- Oroeco (the world’s first automatic purchase impact tracking tool. Created by a group of Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley and MIT professors): Exceeded $15K fundraising goal for Indiegogo campaign. Garnered press in major media outlets such as Venturebeat, Huffington Post, Forbes, Discovery News, Reuters
- Dyo.co (custom 3D printed jewellery): secured major press for launch
Self-Education Program
2011
After being named one of the 1 of top 6 finalists from hundreds in a competition to shadow Dave McClure of 500 Startups, Jennifer created her own self-education program that involved meeting with and interviewing successful entrepreneurs and founders, shadowing at 6 companies for 1-5 days each to learn from them and help out wherever possible, volunteering at conferences (such as DEMO and Founder Showcase), sitting in on some classes at Stanford with the permission of the instructors, and visiting the offices of companies such as Facebook, Google, Apple, etc.
She met with and interviewed entrepreneurs and investors including Peter Thiel (founder of Paypal and early investor in Facebook), Tim Ferriss, Richard Branson, Joe Gebbia (Airbnb), Dave McClure (500 Startups), Eric Ries (Lean Startup), Steve Blank (4 Steps to the Epiphany), Reid Hoffman (Linkedin), Brad Feld (Techstars), Matt Flannery (Kiva), Randy Reddig (Square), Brian Wong (Kiip), Sam Zaid (Getaround), and more. Jennifer shadowed at Kiva, Causes, Ashoka, the Stanford d.school, Launchrock, and Dojo, helping them with things like marketing, customer service, sales, design, and strategy.
You can read more about this self-education program in Jennifer’s Forbes article about it, which was one of Forbes Greatest Hits (with over 1 million views), on the Forbes Most Read and Top Trending Stories for over a week, featured on Linkedin Today, and reprinted by New York’s daily newspapers, Business Insider and Vault.
Marketing, Procter & Gamble
2008-2011
Brand Management, Tide: Leader of Canadian Launch of Tide Pods (biggest P&G launch in 27 years since launch of Tide liquid). Commercial leader on P&G’s largest brand; responsible for vision setting, strategy and plans. Led diverse multi-functional team and agencies, developed business models, managed multi-million dollar budget, created and executed marketing plans (tagline, visuals, TV commercials, online advertising, print ads, out-of-home, and in-store materials). Delivered over 80% of market share in unit dose segment. Tide household penetration increased +1.7pts. Covered by the New York Times, AdAge, Business Courier, and many more. Led digital strategy for P&G Fabric Care brands.
Shopper Marketing, Loblaws team: Developed and executed marketing plans for P&G products at Loblaws (Canada’s biggest retailer)
DJ
2007-2012
Jennifer DJ’d at NASA and for Red Bull, Moosehead, the International Beer Festival, events, some of the biggest nightclubs in Chile, and 1 of the top 10 black tie events in world (according to David Letterman). At one point, she was DJing 4 times a week (for various groups, nightclubs and events) and had a weekly residency. She also had a radio show and interviewed major musicians such as Serena Ryder.
Recommendations
The word around town
Caroline Burke
Manager, Procter & Gamble
"Jennifer is a very strong marketer due to her entrepreneurial spirit and clear drive to succeed. We worked together when she first started at P&G and she was an extremely quick learner and picked up total responsibility of her projects right away. She is a great partner to have on any business."
Ken Wong
Professor, Consultant, Professional Speaker and Entrepreneur
"I taught Jennifer and served as her advisor. I was impressed enough to invite her to write a blog with me for one of my clients. She is bright, articulate and committed to entrepreneurial success. Strongly recommend her for anything requiring intelligence, persistence and energy"
Ian Monroe
CEO, Oroeco
"Jennifer did a fantastic job spearheading media outreach for Oroeco. She connected us with more than a thousand journalists, leading to high-profile publications to help spread public awareness about Oroeco's mission and services, as well as contribute to the success of our Indiegogo campaign. She's quite creative in her approach, and she was a joy to work with!"
David McConomy
Assistant Professor Smith School of Business at Queen's University
"During the four years that Jennifer was at Queen's I spent many hours discussing career opportunities with her and came to know her quite well. Jennifer is a hard worker who can identify exactly what she wants and has the energy and intelligence to pursue her objectives relentlessly. I would recommend her as an employee or as a consultant without hesitation."
