Meet E’layna Baker: Membership Associate

E’layna is the newest addition to the Engine team. She assists with outreach efforts related to the Engine membership and supports business development activities. She also helps in a marketing and communications capacity through assisting with social media planning and event promotion for members and partners of the Engine.

Before moving to Canada, she lived on the capital island of The Bahamas. Here, she cultivated a love for food, agriculture, and the environment. She decided to travel abroad to pursue studies in agri-food at the University of Guelph, before joining the Bioenterprise team.

 

Location: Guelph, ON

 

Something that most people don’t know about you: 

Despite growing up on an island, and visiting beaches more times than I can count, I don’t know how to swim. I’ve even taken swimming lessons many times in my life, but it’s something I just can’t seem to get the hang of. 

What is your favourite part about working at Bioenterprise? 

The freedom to learn and the guarantee that I would never get bored. Although I’m a recent grad, I strive to be a life-long learner. Connecting with members and experiencing first-hand the expertise in our network presents me with many opportunities to expand my knowledge about food, agriculture, and agri-tech… and that excites me.

What meal or dessert is a family favourite in your household?

My family enjoys eating anything with crab in it. Some favourites are stuffed crab, crab and rice, or crab and dough. We’re also soup and stew lovers, so we also enjoy meals like stew conch, stew fish and split pea soup.

What is your connection to food and/or agriculture?

I’m from the island of New Providence, which is the capital Island of The Bahamas. Growing up on an island, my connection to the earth and marine environments has always been pretty tight. My grandmother was very big on herbs and natural medicines, and our yard always had a variety of grasses, fruit trees, herbs, and spices. Living on an island also has drawbacks, and as I got older, I began to pay attention to our level of food import dependency, the high food prices and lack of policy supporting agricultural innovation on the islands. 

Which TV series are you watching right now? 

I’m currently watching Grey’s Anatomy. I know I’m super late to the party, but it’s honestly something I randomly decided to play as background noise one day. Then I got hooked. 

What’s one thing you would want a prospective member to know about the Engine?

We encourage businesses at all stages to contact us and learn about our services. We’re always eager to learn about new innovations and cater our support to benefit a specific business’ size and need.

 

Learn more about E’layna and the rest of the Bioenterprise team here

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The benefits of being part of the Engine

Accelerating innovation through our national and global network

Bioenterprise brings together key players in the food and agri-tech ecosystem to support start-ups in their journey from market entry to global expansion. We are committed to connecting entrepreneurs to a network of industry leaders, researchers, government stakeholders and critical service providers to help ensure their success.

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