Fireside Chat with Jenn Harper – Award Winning Social Entrepreneur

An award-winning social entrepreneur, Jenn Harper is the founder and CEO of Cheekbone Beauty Cosmetics INC. Cheekbone Beauty aims to help every Indigenous person see and feel their value in the world while developing sustainable colour cosmetics that won’t end up in a landfill.

Jenn Harper is an Anishinaabe woman and is a member of the Northwest Angle #33 First Nation in Kenora, ON. Throughout her life, Jenn has struggled with accepting her Indigenous roots. She was estranged from her Indigenous family for much of her child and adult life. After learning about her grandmother’s experience in residential school, she understood how her family was affected by generational trauma. Harper has been making a name for herself in the beauty industry for a number of years but gained popularity quickly after appearing on CBC’s hit show, Dragon’s Den in 2019. Since her appearance on the show, Jenn has been featured as Chatelaine’s “Woman of the Year in 2019”, Canadian Business’s “2022 New Innovator’s List”, and Entrepreneur Magazine’s “100 Women of Influence in 2022” list.

She continues to be deeply involved in all aspects of Cheekbone Beauty operations, including product innovation with the Cheekbone Beauty chemist and sustainability experts to reimagine beauty products, starting with raw ingredients all the way to how all products are packaged. As part of its sustainability mission, Cheekbone Beauty is associated with organizations such as Pact Collective, and B.Corp. These partnerships show the brand’s commitment to both people and planet.

As of 2025, Cheekbone Beauty is available in 65 Sephora stores across Canada as a Sephora Clean and Planet Positive brand. It is also available in 148 JCPenney stores across the United States.

Giving back to the Indigenous community is critical to Cheekbone Beauty’s mission. To date, Cheekbone Beauty has contributed upwards of $250,000 in product, monetary, and project-focused donations to the organizations across North America and will continue to do so.

Join Alex McCann in sitting down to have an insightful chat with Jenn about all things entrepreneurship, and what innovation really means to Jenn.