Graeme Millen

Graeme Millen is a director of technology banking at Silicon Valley Bank in Toronto, where he leads the energy and resource innovation efforts for the bank across Canada.

Graeme is responsible for the development of new business relationships as well as the strategy and oversight of the current portfolio. SVB’s extensive experience across this sector globally allows his team to create the right financing solutions for companies designing innovative solutions in energy, new transportation, agriculture, food, and industrial sectors. Graeme strives to enhance the bank’s recently established presence in this particular niche and region.

Graeme thrives on connecting and assisting dynamic, high-growth companies — “the most interesting, game-changing organizations on the planet” — using nimble, inventive capital to create a launch pad for their success.

Graeme earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies with high honors from Ottawa’s Carleton University in 2008 and an MBA from the University of British Columbia, where he was valedictorian for its Sauder School of Business graduating class of 2013.

A Chartered Professional Accountant and Certified Management Accountant, Graeme has more than a decade of experience in renewable energy and project finance. His background includes time as an analyst, investor, developer and operator of clean energy projects across North America. In Nairobi, Kenya, he created fundraising strategies for a social venture that develops user- and environmentally friendly cook stoves.

In 2015, Graeme co-founded the Paper Bag Accelerator, an event-based organization that brought established and inspiring entrepreneurs together to seed — not sell — ideas for communal growth.

Graeme is no stranger to the rough-and-tumble: He’s a former Australian rules football player for the Canadian national team. These days, he clears his mind climbing the planet’s mountains, hiking its forests and running its trails.