Harley Finkelstein

Harley Finkelstein (born November 8, 1983) is a Canadian businessman, entrepreneur and public speaker. He is best known as the president of Shopify. He is a board member of the CBC, and an advisor to both OMERS Ventures and Felicis Ventures. He is also a Dragon on CBC Dragons' Den, Next Gen Den.

Early life and education Finkelstein was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. At 17, he founded a T-shirt company while attending McGill University.

Career After completing his JD and MBA, Finkelstein worked at a law firm in Toronto for a year. In 2009, Finkelstein met with Tobias Lütke, the co-founder and CEO of Shopify, to discuss opportunities for the company, Finkelstein was hired soon after and was named Shopify's Chief Platform Officer. In December 2014, Finkelstein was appointed a member of the C100 board.

In January 2016, Finkelstein was named COO of Shopify.

In December 2017, Finkelstein joined the board of directors for CBC. The duo also started a podcast titled Big Shot in 2023.

Awards Finkelstein was named Angel investor of the Year at the Canadian Startup Awards in March 2017.

In 2017 Finkelstein was awarded Canada’s Top 40 Under 40.

Personal life and philanthropy Finkelstein is Jewish and is the grandson of Holocaust survivors. He is married to Lindsay Taub, a psychotherapist and entrepreneur, and they have two daughters. The four of them live in Montreal. In 2018 it was announced that Finkelstein was donating $2,000,000 to establish the new Finkelstein Chabad Jewish Centre in the Sandy Hill neighbourhood of Ottawa. After attending the Chabad centre when he was a student at the University of Ottawa and realizing that there was not enough room to fit all the students who wished to attend events, he promised the Rabbi he would donate to pay him back for the generosity of his family in welcoming Jewish students in Ottawa.

Finkelstein has spoken about, and uses the concept of Ikigai.