A social marketing professional with expertise in strategic communications, Lynrod Douglas co-founded and led for 13 years a marketing and publishing company which became renowned for its reputation as a trailblazer in the Ethnic Marketing industry.  His company was eventually sold to a multi-national in 2003.  In addition to the ​Black Pages directory, his company published many titles including Business Connections and Jump magazines, several novels and two studies on Black entrepreneurship.  His company also produced several key events including Expo International, a multi-cultural exposition, Black Expo Canada, First Fridays, Ethnic Youth Self-Employment Project, Ethnic Youth & Business Day and Minority Women and Business Day.

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Lynrod played a key role in assisting the City of Toronto to develop a small business strategy and to include minority-owned business in the City’s procurement process. His success in Canada has led to invitations by the governments of Angola and South Africa to advise them on “micro” business affairs. He was appointed Chair to the Investment Committee of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation to advise on the management of a $24 million endowment fund, and served as a small business advisor to the Government of Canada.

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An accomplished fundraising specialist with expertise in sponsorship/donation generation, Mr. Douglas served as Corporate Development Officer for the Canadian Diabetes Association. He is presently publisher of New Business Florida, a guide and resource for new and startup businesses. The company also provides business, marketing and strategic planning services to small businesses and non profit organization.  He served as a small business advisor for the Government of Canada and is also president of the Caribana Arts Foundation.