W. Brett Wilson

After announcing his departure from Dragons' Den in early 2011, he participated in his own entrepreneurship-themed series, Risky Business. He has written regularly on entrepreneurship for the Oilweek, Alberta Venture and the National Post. In 2012, he published Redefining Success: Still Making Mistakes through Penguin Books. He regularly speaks to student and business audiences about the importance of marketing, entrepreneurship, and philanthropy and believes these subjects should be core curriculum.

Wilson graduated with degree in Civil Engineering and worked for Imperial Oil for three years in the oilfields of Western Canada. In 1985 he graduated from the University of Calgary with an MBA in entrepreneurship and began work as an investment banker with McLeod Young Weir Limited (now Scotia Capital). Wilson co-founded an investment banking advisory firm, Wilson Mackie & Co., in 1991, and in 1993, co-founded FirstEnergy Capital Corp with Rick Grafton, Jim Davidson and N. Murray Edwards. FirstEnergy is a Canadian stock brokerage firm that provides investment-banking services to global participants in the energy sector. Wilson retired as Chairman of FirstEnergy in 2008. His sports interests include ownership in the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League.

Wilson was married to his engineering classmate Pamela Janzen from 1981 to 2001. Together they have three adult children.

William Brett Wilson, CM SOM (born on July 1, 1957; named after his father William George) is a Canadian investment banker, businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He was a season 3, 4 & 5 panellist on CBC Television's Dragons' Den. Wilson was born in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. He holds honorary doctoral degrees from Royal Roads University and his alma mater, the University of Saskatchewan.