‘A remarkable guy’: Tech investor injured in cycling crash known for tenacity and resilience, friends say
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Arlene Dickinson, a Calgary-based venture capitalist who has been featured on CBC’s Dragon’s Den and general partner at District Ventures Capital, which targets the food and health sectors, tweeted that Ruffolo was a champion of the country’s entrepreneurs and “will continue to be an incredible force in Canada.”
Paul Georges Leroux, former research & development and innovation leader at Deloitte, tweeted that Ruffolo was his mentor at the accounting and consulting firm and taught him to be a good partner. He called news of the cycling accident “heartbreaking.”
Ruffolo’s career has not been without adversity. A 2018 article in The Pivot Magazine chronicled how his job and personal finances were jeopardized shortly after he became a partner at Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm that capsized in the wake of the Enron scandal in the early 2000s. While it was touch-and-go for a while, with a lot of money on the line, Ruffolo was able to stay on course when Arthur Andersen Canada merged with rival firm Deloitte.
In the article, which is still featured on the website of Canada’s Chartered Professional Accountants, Ruffolo’s wife, Carryn, pegged that crisis as the moment in his career when Ruffolo began to take bigger risks.
“When you have nothing left to lose, you take greater chances,” she told the accounting magazine at the time.
“And when you’re not driven by money, you make sound decisions.”
