User:Pconnor/NACO

The National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) is the industry association representing Angel investment capital throughout Canada. NACO incorporated as a non-profit in 2002, to serve as an informal forum allowing Canadian Angel investors to network, learn from their peers, and speak on national issues. It has since included Angel investor groups in membership, engaged in educational activities, allied with Angel associations abroad, and been invited into formal advisory roles by several government and non-profit organizations.

NACO (formerly the National Angel Organization ) grew out of the first CHIN-UP Angel Investor Golf Invitational in support of children's injured nerve research at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. This 2001 event gathered more than 100 Angel investors, the largest such gathering in Canada at that time. A strong demand to reconvene with an educative, professional development agenda led to a meeting later that year.

NACO organizes a National Angel Summit in a different Canadian city each year, convening Canadian and international Angels and Angel groups along with government officials, academics and other Angel community stakeholders. Each Summit provides expert panels and speakers to share the latest and best practices in Angel investment, as well as networking opportunities for all participants. The last Summit was hosted in Halifax, Nova Scotia October 15th to 17th, 2008 and the next will be hosted in Toronto, Ontario October 14th to 16th, 2009.

NACO staff and directors, in addition to providing the Canadian Angel community with news, seminars, curricula, events and referrals, impart the Angel investor perspective to Canadian governments and news media. The NACO website is the principal Canadian source for Angel news, texts, events, group listings, policy proposals and media releases.

The current chairman of NACO is Andrew Wilkes and the current president is W. Daniel Mothersill.