John MacInnes

A native Calgarian, John MacInnes received his early education at Strathcona Tweedsmuir School in Calgary and then Trinity College School, Port Hope, Ontario. He later studied Economics at Bishop’s University, Lennoxville, Quebec. John financed his university education by founding, and operating two successful companies.

Upon his return to Calgary, John worked in commercial real estate before he was found by Manvest Inc., a then newly formed Calgary venture capital firm who hired John as a business analyst. For Manvest, John traversed North America assessing the suitability of a wide variety of businesses for equity investment and recommended accordingly.

In 1995 John left Manvest to found his own computer networking and software development company. Bayne Computing Solutions Inc. provided high-level software development and consulting throughout North America.

In 1999, John founded Print Audit, a developer of remote printer monitoring and print management software. Over the years Print Audit has built an extremely successful business model for its Office Equipment Dealer customers worldwide. Print Audit has offices in 10 countries serving over 150,000 customers.

In 2008, John was accepted into the distinguished Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Entrepreneurial Masters program. This three year program helped John to see his business differently and encouraged him to do much more.

In 2018 Print Audit was acquired by ECi Software Solutions Inc. and John subsequently left Print Audit to help out in his other ventures and investments.

John started Payroll Rewards (formally Payroll by Credit Card) in 2014. Payroll Rewards enables business owners to earn popular rewards points on their largest expense, payroll. Payroll Rewards has swiftly grown payroll flow through to over $1 Billion and its customers have earned billions of American Express Membership Rewards. Payroll Rewards customers were acquired by American Express in 2021.

In November 2021 John launched his newest venture, Earthware, which is a reusable container service for restaurant takeout and delivery. Earthware's social enterprise offers a return-for-reuse zero waste takeout container program in Calgary, Airdrie, Canmore and Banff. Their mission is to tackle the millions of single-use container waste that ends up in our province's landfills. 450 million takeout containers (plastic and compostable) will end up on our streets and in the landfill across Alberta this year. Their reusable container solution is the best option for reducing waste and is far superior, both environmentally and economically, to recycling and composting.

Earthware's partnership with the Alberta Bottle Depot Association marks a global first in reusable systems; it is the first time an agreement like this has been made with a government regulated deposit return system.

Food service providers and their customers have enthusiastically embraced Earthware’s zero-waste takeout deposit refund model. Over 50,000 containers have been sold to 35+ restaurants and thousands of containers have been returned to participating bottle depots for refunds. Earthware’s traction with the deposit return model has seen revenue growth six times compared to 2022. With expansion plans set for Edmonton and remaining Alberta municipalities, and talks with the BC Bottle Depot Association, the goal of diverting millions of tonnes of single-use waste is well on its way to materializing.

John’s mission is to be involved in the creation of one million jobs. He believes his passion for and experience in entrepreneurship gives him the unique skills to influence other business owners to create new jobs. Since 2012 John has advised dozens of companies via very structured engagements built to make sure these companies are growing and creating new jobs. John will also continue to start and build his own businesses.

John is a proud family man who loves raising his 18 year old son, Bayne, with his wife of 20 years, Dawn.