WOJ Innovation & Technology, co-founded by Esther Wojcicki (Godmother of Silicon Valley) visited Surrey recently and there was a lot of buzz about BC becoming the next Silicon Valley even though there wasn’t anything concrete announced by her or those involved in bringing her. Entrepreneur Amit Hooda held a technology industry reception on April 13 that brought out government officials, BC post-secondary institutions, land developers, and community leaders, including many from the Indo-Canadian community. 

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff

SURREY – WOJ Innovation & Technology, co-founded by Esther Wojcicki (Godmother of Silicon Valley) visited Surrey recently and there was a lot of buzz about BC becoming the next Silicon Valley even though there wasn’t anything concrete announced by her or those involved in bringing her.

Entrepreneur Amit Hooda held a technology industry reception on April 13 that brought out government officials, BC post-secondary institutions, land developers, and community leaders, including many from the Indo-Canadian community. 

The Surrey Board of Trade was a Surrey opportunity city promoter with the collaborative focus of bringing 50 new technology companies to Surrey, as well as to other BC communities and in collaboration with First Nations to create jobs and ensure labour support to this emerging industry. These opportunities will be with an employer consortium led by Google and 150 leading companies including Salesforce, Deloitte, Accenture, Workday and others.

According to the press release, Wojcicki and Hooda have transformed thousands of lives through the WOJ Pedagogy and TRICK learning model. Wojcicki is the most sought-after global educator and was intimately involved with Google and GoogleEdu since its inception, where she was one of the leaders in setting up the Google Teacher Academy and remains a guiding force. She is the mother of Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe, and Janet Wojcicki, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco Medical School. 

Her company WOJ offers an entrepreneurship and innovation engineering pathway with UC Berkeley. WOJ curriculum, designed with UC Berkeley and Google, ensures the highest quality, cutting-edge computer science and applied software engineering education.

 “We have a growing tech industry in BC and welcome Esther Wojcicki on behalf of Premier John Horgan and the BC Government, welcoming her pedagogy, WOJ innovation and engineering efforts to create Silicon Valley North,” said the Raj Chouhan, MLA and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. 

“The goal of this reception was to start the economic journey to attract technology companies to Surrey,” said Anita Huberman, President and CEO, Surrey Board of Trade. “We have to think differently to attract businesses. That is why we are following the example set by Austin, Texas where technology companies shifted their location focus to where students were located to capitalize on human capital potential in partnership with colleges and universities.” 

Collective industry partners will feature next steps to make Surrey and BC the next Silicon Valley through 2022.