Kai Chen, who usually is in near perpetual motion in his double life as a consultant and co-founder of Toronto-based start-up impact fund True North, was grounded by Covid-19. But he was determined lockdown would not inhibit an ambitious response to Canada’s urgent need for personal protective equipment (PPE).
“I am normally flying every week for work. This is the longest period I have experienced of not doing anything outside my home,” he says from the Netherlands, where he has lived since early 2019.
Yet during the pandemic, China-born, Canada-raised Chen and his fellow directors turned True North into one of the leading suppliers of PPE to the Canadian government.