Julia Rivard Dexter

Halifax
Internet Entrepreneur, Olympic Canoe-Kayaker

Julia (Rivard) Dexter is an innovative tech entrepreneur and former Olympian. 

Rivard founded Queen Street Studios, a centre for independent creatives which won awards for business startups in the Maritimes. In 2008 Queen Street Studios merged with the web development firm Norex. Under Rivard’s creative direction, Norex developed a medal counter widget for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing that had 3 million downloads.

Rivard is a partner in SheepDogInc, Canada’s first and most successful Google partner. She also founded Squiggle Park, designing interactive video games to encourage global literacy.

Rivard was a 3-year member of the Canadian Kayak team and competed in the World Championships and in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. She has continued as a volunteer on various sporting groups, including the Canadian Olympic Committee, and received the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013.

Memories of… Copeland Street   

One of my fondest memories as a kid was when I was about 4 years old. (This memory was also probably the first example of my competitive spirit). My family lived at 658 Copeland Street which was a perfect neighbourhood to grow up in. It would have been the summer of 1980 and I had been given a ‘Big Wheels’ to ride around the neighbourhood. (I think I had the boy version). 

Being a bold and independent kid, I decided to circle the block solo, racing as fast as I could against an imaginary clock. I loved pushing the pedals as fast as I could, and remember the sound of the hard plastic tires as they rolled over the little pebbles on the sidewalk left over from the winter sanding. 

One day, as I rounded the corner of Murray and Jane Street, I saw a large group of teenagers at École Algonquin who must have been out during their lunch break. I stopped my big wheel, stared them down and gave them a look of victory, showing off my newfound freedom while they were stuck at school. 

I spent my entire childhood in the neighbourhood, in fact my family lived in three different houses on Copeland Street. If I try hard enough, I feel like I can close my eyes and be back, playing marbles on the grassy boulevard, jumping cracks in the sidewalk and riding my Big Wheel until I was called to come inside.