Ayon Shahed, President of Branch Innovations & Vice President of Innovation and Business Development

Ayon Shahed is a strategic executive with more than 15 years of leadership experience spanning healthcare, technology, social enterprise, housing, and public policy. He brings deep expertise in business development, strategic growth, partnership building, and systems change, with a leadership style grounded in strong communication, thoughtful facilitation, and the ability to move complex ideas into action.

At Seafair, Ayon helps drive growth, innovation, and strategic partnerships across the organization’s portfolio, while also serving as President of Branch Innovations. His work focuses on building and scaling ventures, advancing high-impact collaborations, and developing practical, people-centred solutions that create value for communities, public systems, and entrepreneurial ecosystems alike. He is known for working effectively across government, private, and non-profit sectors, and for leading initiatives that connect commercial opportunity with meaningful impact.

Before joining Seafair, Ayon held senior leadership roles with Choices for Youth and Engineers Without Borders Canada, where he helped lead organizational growth, innovation, and cross-sector partnerships.

Ayon has also contributed extensively through board and committee leadership, including past roles with the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, the St. John’s Tool Library, the City of St. John’s Affordable Housing Committee, MusicNL, and the Catherine Donnelly Foundation. He currently serves as Vice-Chair of the techNL Board of Directors and is a 2026 Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference Delegate.

His work has been recognized nationally and regionally. In 2024, Ayon was named one of Future of Good’s outstanding Canadians in Corporate Social Impact. He completed the Strategic Innovation Programme at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School in 2021, received Queen’s University’s Engineering Excellence Award in 2019, and was named one of Atlantic Canada’s Top 50 Under 40 in 2015.