Michael Hyatt became a self-made millionaire when he was just 25, by building two highly successful tech firms valued in the hundreds of millions. Today, he ranks as one of Canada’s top entrepreneurs, is a celebrated “Dragon” on CBC’s new online sensation Next Gen Den, and is a weekly Business Commentator on CBC News Network. Hyatt is also an active investor and philanthropist. Speaking on leadership, entrepreneurship, the future of tech, and managing change, he underscores all his talks with the message that to achieve success you need to prepare for a marathon, not a sprint.

Hyatt sees tremendous disruptive change coming to all businesses, and believes that the Golden Age is ahead. He feels that computing power is set to become exponentially stronger (as it has been for many years), but that this time artificial intelligence (AI) will step out—Siri is just the start. In his view, AI is coming to everything we do, and, combined with the massive Internet of Things wave, we will see huge changes to just about every profession including medicine, law, banking, and energy.

Hyatt is the co-founder and executive chairman of BlueCat, one of the leading growth companies in the country, focused on the internet of things. Prior to his current role, he led the company since its inception as CEO, where his leadership philosophy was to focus on strategy and empower his employees to execute. Intentionally hiring people “smarter than him”, Hyatt looked for team players that could help make the big decisions as a group. Always keeping an eye on the big picture, Hyatt led—and leads—with the idea that the constant and consistent march toward the strategic goal wins the day.

Before co-founding BlueCat, Hyatt also co-founded (and was the initial CEO of) Dyadem, which provided software and services that improved the ability of large industrial, energy, manufacturing and chemical companies to manage quality, mitigate risk, achieve regulatory compliance, plan for business continuity, and improve profitability. The highly successful engineering software company was acquired by IHS in a great eight-figure deal.

A “G7 Fellow” at the Rotman School of Management’s prestigious Creative Destruction Lab, Hyatt acts as a coach for venture founders to set business and technical milestones to increase the ventures’ chances of success. He is also on the CEO Board of Advisors at Georgian Partners, one of Canada’s leading venture capital firms; was a finalist in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award; and was a recipient of the Top 40 Under 40™ Award.

An active investor, Hyatt is driven by his core principals which focus most significantly on people and companies that are trying to make a huge impact (and have the ability to disrupt). Additionally, Hyatt helps and mentors youth to succeed and become contributing citizens in their communities. He is the chair of his family’s charitable foundation, The Hyatt Family Foundation, which donates and invests in a number of important projects including women’s health and employment, biomedical research, and international water programs. He is also an active lender with Kiva.org, a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.