Dr. Arthur Barbut is the CEO of the Downtown Windsor Business Accelerator, located in Windsor, Ontario. With over 15 years of research and practical experience, Arthur has developed great insights into how successful businesses are created and nurtured. His passion is to connect practical and academic insights to create innovative ecosystems that allow entrepreneurs to prosper. Building a thriving entrepreneurial culture is essential for our economy and long term sustainability. Only through creativity and bold innovation will we solve the massive challenges that are facing our society. As Peter Drucker famously noted "The best way to predict the future is to create it."Arthur’s doctoral research focused on how social capital is created across different types of business incubators. Social capital theory is based on the premise that a network provides value to its members by allowing them access to resources embedded within the network (Bourdieu, 1985; Seibert, Kraimer, & Liden, 2001). Although social capital receives a lot of attention in economic and business literature, to date limited research has focused on this topic within business incubators and accelerators. This is surprising given that research suggests social capital fosters an environment that is conducive to information and knowledge exchange (Anderson, 2008), startup and network formation (Liao & Welch, 2005) and firm performance (Batjargal, 2003). Arthur’s research confirms that social capital plays a vital role in helping entrepreneurs gain access to networks and resources that they would otherwise not be able to access. Successful entrepreneurial ecosystems are able to utilize structural, cognitive and relational social capital to create a culture of trust and genuine collaboration. Over the past decade, under Arthur’s leadership, The Accelerator has grown from renting a 6,500 sft building to owning a historic 55,000 sft facility that has transformed the region, creating 1500+ jobs and generating over $30M in regional economic impact.Arthur sits on a number of boards including the Global Automotive and Mobility Innovation Challenge (GAMIC). GAMIC is an annual competition for early-stage automotive and mobility companies, with past semi-finalists and winners raising over $230M in equity funding. Arthur also serves as an advisor to a select number of startups and social enterprises.