Monica Ruffo

Monica is a serial entrepreneur known for her ability to lead, grow and inspire exceptionally innovative purpose-driven companies.

A graduate of McGill University with certificates from Harvard Business School, Columbia and Cornell Universities, Monica began her career at Canada’s largest communications agency, working with some of the world’s most coveted brands. She then co-founded Amuse, an agency that was acquired three years later by Interpublic Group where she was named Canadian CEO. Under her leadership, the company earned multiple awards and was named TOP 25 smartest creative agencies in the world.

At the height of her career, her life took an unexpected turn when she was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer. Throughout her 15 months of cancer treatment, she uncovered what she felt was a huge gap in the market: most “natural” health products were in fact not natural at all. Driven to change this, she completed a Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from Cornell University and founded the Well Told Company, a company that developed completely clean and highly efficacious supplements from organic plants and nothing else. Four short years later, the company had grown to 21,000 points of distribution across Canada and the US and IPO-ed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company was later acquired, and Monica exited in 2023 only to go on and found Originarium, an investment fund and advisory to start-ups. She is also currently the executive Chairwoman of Flare Companion, an AI start-up, and she is on the expert advisory panel of McGill University’s Desautels School of Management where is she also a regular guest lecturer on entrepreneurship.

Throughout her career she has been repeatedly recognized, receiving over 250 international awards including Cannes Lions and was named TD Bank’s Top 25 Game Changing CEOs in 2023. She has also been mentioned and appeared countless times in major press publications including Forbes, the Harvard Business Review, CNN, Good Morning America, Today Show, and others.