I Heart Edmonton

Once again, Edmonton's Avenue magazine names our city's 'Top 40 Under 40' who are making a difference right here at home BY EMIL TIEDEMANN L AST year Avenue tried something new. The local monthly magazine set out to find our city's "brightest and most talented individuals under the age of 40 who are excelling in their careers, giving back to the community and raising our city's profile." In other words, Edmonton's " Top 40 Under 40 ." The fine folks over at Avenue put out the call early off, asking readers to nominate worthy candidates. They responded with more than 200 nominations, each of which would have to submit a list of accolades and references, as well as some background information, a resume, and reasons why they should be considered for the Top 40. Once that task was complete, Avenue staff set out to determine who was the most deserving, trimming the selections down to a short list of 65. The Top 40 was chosen from there by ...

Host. Humanitarian. Husband... Breakfast Television 's Ryan Jespersen ( that's three e's ) wears many hats, and recently let 'I Heart' take a peek underneath them... BY EMIL TIEDEMANN W HAT I'm about to tell you may shock you. It might anger you. It may even make you want to grab your computer screen and toss it across the room into your pile of I Heart Edmonton memorabilia! Ryan Jespersen , charitable & personable co-host of Citytv 's Breakfast Television , is a Calgarian !! That's right, born and raised in our southern rival, yet living among us! But before you start your online petitions, you should know something else about Mr. Jespersen. He's come to love Edmonton just as much as we do. In fact, you might even call Jespersen, 33, an ambassador of our city, taking every opportunity available to promote and/or celebrate all the fascinating locals and the countless things to see 'n' do in Edmonton. "I try to reflect what people wa...

Some of the latest happenings in the city of Edmonton... BY EMIL TIEDEMANN E arlier today (April 11) Edmonton curler Kevin Koe and his teammates Nolan Thiessen (pictured left with Koe), Blake MacDonald and Carter Rycroft won the 2010 Capital One Men's World Curling Championship in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Like fellow Edmontonian Kevin Martin did at the Olympics in February, Koe shut-out runners-up Norway. "It's been an amazing run," Koe said after his win, Canada's 32nd overall. "It's hard to believe that it's over and that we're world champions. It just feels great. 3 2-year-old mechanical engineer and "computer nerd" Christian Nelson is recruiting volunteers to help him piece together our city...in 3-D! "You have to be either a photo geek or a computer geek," he told the Edmonton Journal . "For the pictures, basically anyone with a digital camera can help out." The purpose of the project is to landscape ...

Software developer and social media guru Mack D. Male takes part in our brief Q&A about our favourite city BY EMIL TIEDEMANN M OST 26-year-olds I know can barely figure out the countless apps on their iPhones or can even put together a proper sentence ( don't judge me! ), but I have no doubt that our latest Q&A participant, Mack D. Male , could tackle both missions simultaneously with his hands tied behind his back! Ahh...actually, that probably couldn't be done. Scratch that! Let's just say that Mack D. Male isn't like most 26-year-olds I know. "I'm a geek who lives in Edmonton," Male writes of himself. He's just being modest. Along with a couple of friends, Male founded Paramagnus Developments , a "privately held company headquartered in Edmonton, focused on building social applications and services," and has been for the last 10 years. Currently the team is working on ShareEdmonton , a local aggregation platform for Edmontonians an...

Ward 5 city councillor Don Iveson takes part in our brief Q&A about our favourite city! BY EMIL TIEDEMANN A T 30, Don Iveson is currently the youngest city councillor in Edmonton's City Hall . But it isn't his age that Iveson will be best remembered for in the coming years. It's "for proving you can change city hall--with lots of persistence, patience and non-partisan bridge-building." Or at least that's why he recently made the inaugural " Top 40 Under 40 " list by Avenue magazine, recognizing Edmontonians dedicated to building a better future for our city. The Ward 5 councillor--and self-confessed Trekkie--was born right here in Edmonton. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Alberta , where his mother Margaret is an education professor. Iveson also served as the editor of the school's newspaper The Gateway , and then as advocacy director of the U of A's Students' Union . He entered politics in 2007, surprising many...

Local magazine sifts through the best of the best of Edmontonians who are shaping our future BY EMIL TIEDEMANN I CAN'T imagine exactly how many under-40-year-olds there are in our grand city, and I can't imagine having to dwindle those tens of thousands of fine folks down to a short list, and then selecting the 40 who would make up Avenue magazine's inaugural " Top 40 Under 40 " list. Fortunately, that task wasn't up to me . Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel , Grant MacEwan President & CEO Paul Byrne , Avenue 's Director of Marketing Trudy Callaghan , Edmonton Arts Council Executive Director John Mahon , Chair of Junior Chamber International Edmonton Julie Ward , and Lexus of Edmonton GM Bruce Kirkland were given the burden of tackling this list, which meant rejecting countless worthy candidates and narrowing it down to 70, and then again to the final 40. How did they come up with the elite 40? I'm glad you asked! Avenue magazine went on the prowl ...