![\"Algonquin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1756748764774.jpg\")
Algonquin college Entrepreneur in Residence Denis Staples. Photo credit: Christopher Dor\u00e9\/LinkedIn\n<\/p>\nAt age 48, Ottawa entrepreneur Denis Staples was \u201cessentially retired\u201d after the sale of a family business, but all that changed when he had the opportunity to pass on his knowledge to the next generation of business leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Algonquin College professor and program coordinator Christopher Dor\u00e9 announced on LinkedIn that Staples will provide mentorship and feedback to students in the management and entrepreneurship program as the first volunteer \u201cEntrepreneur in Residence.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe couldn\u2019t be happier to welcome Denis Staples as the inaugural EIR,\u201d Dor\u00e9 wrote in the post. \u201cThis new position marks a milestone for our program, giving students direct access to entrepreneurial leadership at a level we\u2019ve never had before, and furthering our goal of becoming the best business and entrepreneurship program in Canada!\u201d<\/p>\n
With a bachelor of commerce from McMaster University and an EMBA from Queen\u2019s University, Staples worked alongside his father at Renfrew-based Madawaska Hardwood Flooring. He later went on to a stint in marketing and human resources at Rideau Carleton Raceway. In 2000, he joined another family business, Deslaurier Custom Cabinets, and took over as president from 2005 to 2018, growing the company from $2 million in annual sales to around $29 million when it sold in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In an interview with OBJ Thursday, Staples said he\u2019d \u201cessentially retired\u201d at age 48 after the sale of the custom cabinetry business, but, unable to sit still, he turned to volunteering.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Algonquin college Entrepreneur in Residence Denis Staples. Photo credit: Christopher Dor\u00e9\/LinkedIn\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI got involved in minor hockey stuff and was on the board of the Ottawa Jr. 67\u2019s. And it got to the point where I realized that I have all this institutional knowledge in my head and I\u2019m not sharing it with anyone,\u201d said Staples, who also provides HR, marketing and management advice through his company Umbrella Consulting & Executive Coaching.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Staples started volunteering at a local school, a habit he kept up into the pandemic when the principal would ask him to fill in when substitute teachers weren\u2019t available. He said the experience uncovered his love of teaching and taught him a lot about younger generations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, they\u2019re completely different from my generation,\u201d he said. \u201cThey learn differently, they interact differently. I\u2019d go in and say to the kids, you guys want to do (these worksheets) or do you want to learn about money? I developed this presentation about financial literacy. What is a savings account? What is interest? What\u2019s good debt and bad debt? That\u2019s when things started to click in my head. Like hey, I think I\u2019m pretty good at this. Maybe I should be looking into teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Staples didn\u2019t have the teaching background, he found a unique opportunity at Algonquin College after connecting with Dor\u00e9.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the past few years, Staples has regularly visited with the school\u2019s aspiring entrepreneurs to provide insight into what it takes to run a business. Through the Entrepreneur in Residence role, he said he now has an opportunity to double-down on the work and provide direct mentorship and feedback to students.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was one class where (Dor\u00e9) asked the students how many of them are going to want to open a business and like 90 per cent of them raised their hands,\u201d said Staples. \u201cThat\u2019s part of the idea. I can help with their business plans and, in some cases, their actual businesses. It\u2019s super exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a tumultuous world for new grads who must navigate a rocky job market, technological advancements and high costs, Staples said he isn\u2019t surprised to see so many students looking to forge their own paths.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said his first impression of the current generation of students is that they aren\u2019t following traditional formulas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always going to be some element of risk and I feel like this generation is okay with that,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have these ideas and they want to try them out. They\u2019re open to non-traditional employment. I think they\u2019re less restricted and they view that there are many paths to success. In my generation, there was a formula and we all sort of did the same thing. I think this generation has way more paths to their careers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At age 48, Ottawa entrepreneur Denis Staples was \u201cessentially retired\u201d after the sale of a family business, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[84,4203,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-116483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurship","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}