Patrick is a finance and technology professional who is passionate about the cooperative sector. Before joining the LCUC, Patrick worked with the Canadian Credit Union Association (CCUA) where he led their government relations work on the Open Banking and adjacent files. Patrick has a business degree from Carleton University and is currently pursuing the CFA designation as well as French proficiency.

Seasoned business, product and risk professional with 24 years’ experience at leading financial, payments and professional services firms. With a passion for innovation, Sanjeev’s current focus is on solving meaningful problems by leveraging payments data.

Sanjeev has completed the Digital Transformation and the Design Thinking & Innovation certification programs from MIT Sloan School, obtained the CPA, CA, and CISA designations, and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree (in Economics and Finance) from the University of Toronto.

Azra currently works with Global Affairs Canada’s International Assistance Bureau, providing advice and guidance on managing for results. Prior to that she worked in Strategic Policy Planning as a Policy Advisor in the Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) Centre of excellence, where she was actively involved on budget, results and delivery and other policy planning files. At Transport Canada, she worked as an evaluation in the Evaluation and Advisory Services directorate, where she worked on performance measurement and program evaluations. Before joining the Canadian public service, Azra worked in the non-profit sector in Geneva on security sector reform and capacity building for civil society and members of parliament in Southeast Europe. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Western University, London, Ontario, and a Masters in International Development from the Geneva Graduate Institute, Switzerland.

Dr Margareta Drzeniek is Managing Partner with Horizon Group and a globally recognized expert on global risks, economic development, notably in the Arab World, competitiveness, and innovation.

For many years she was lead author of The Global Competitiveness Report, The Global Risks Report in addition to other benchmarking reports of the World Economic Forum. She advised government agencies, ministers, national competitiveness councils and the private sector in the Arab World and worldwide on how to manage global risks, improve competitiveness, boost exports and investment, or measure impact. She is a regular speaker at high level conferences and events, including World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, IMF/WB Annual Meetings in Washington DC, sessions of the UN General Assembly in NY, etc. and serves as expert for media (BBC, CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, etc)

Lewis S Eisen, JD, CIP, CVP  is the author of the international bestseller How to Write Rules that People Want to Follow: A guide to drafting respectful policies and directives, 3rd Edition. He combines his experience practising law with 20 years of business consulting and 12 years’ experience as an Information Management specialist in the federal government. Lewis shows people how to shift their organization’s policy writing culture from confrontational to cooperative, and his approach to drafting policies using respectful language has been adopted at organizations across the US, Canada, and Europe.

Professor Rafael Gomez is Full Professor of Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto. His previous experience includes appointments at the London School of Economics and Glendon College (York University). He has been invited to conduct research and lecture at universities around the world, including in Madrid, Munich, Beijing and Zurich. His many research interests include small-scale entrepreneurship, worker preferences for workplace representation and the effect of demographic change on labour markets and economic institutions. He has co-authored and co-edited 4 books and over 50 articles and chapters in prestigious academic publications. In 2015 his book Small Business and City: The Transformative Potential of Small-Scale Entrepreneurship was published by Rotman-UTP press. He has also won a substantial research grant from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council to study worker preferences at the workplace in Canada, a study that will be simultaneously carried out in three other countries

Andrea Greenhous is dedicated to making the world of work better. She’s the founder and president of Vision2Voice, an internal communications agency, specializing in building exceptional employee experiences and authentic brands, from the inside out.

Now, more than ever, employees crave meaningful work where they can learn, grow, and thrive. They are looking for connection, a sense of belonging, and they want to feel empowered and valued.

That’s why Andrea and her team have been transforming communication inside organizations from ad hoc news dumps into a powerful strategic force. They’ve left a trail of happy clients across North America, including several Fortune 500 companies.

Thriving in a world of constant change is now a business imperative and supporting people through that change means building resilience and cultivating a learning and growth mindset. This has led to a signature approach that emphasizes harnessing employee voices and amplifying their experiences and ideas. The most important lesson, according to Andrea: “Employees aren’t a resource. They are an invaluable source — of wisdom and insight.”

Doubling down on her focus on building healthy organizations where people thrive, Andrea recently pursued a specialization in psychological safety by earning a Fearless Organization Practitioner Certification, enabling her to measure and improve this key element of organizational success.

An outdoor enthusiast and animal lover, Andrea is a mom to two adult children, both of whom share her passion for sports. As she says of her daughter, a fellow runner, “She’s speeding up while I’m slowing down…but I still enjoy trying to keep up.”

With no intention of hitting the brakes professionally, Andrea is tremendously proud of the growth of her business, which is due in large part to organizations understanding the importance of putting people first, the power of listening, and the importance of communicating authentically to the smart and dedicated people they’ve trusted enough to hire.

With over 12 years working in the field of engagement, I’ve developed a passion for designing and facilitating conversations that matter and creating engagement experiences where participants feel valued, relationships are built and initiatives and projects move forward. You’ll find me in the midst of both large and small-scale projects, bringing experience facilitating community forums in large urban centers or walking pipelines with Elders in the remote wilderness.

Over the last number of years, I’ve worked with clients to provide advice and strategy development for high-stakes and emotionally charged conversation and situations. It’s my great pleasure to work with public organization, governments and private companies across Canada as well as internationally and has worked with clients in multiple sectors including energy, healthcare, education, land use planning among others.

Katerina Kalenteridis is a policy analyst at the Mental Health Commission of Canada. She has a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Toronto and is passionate about all areas of health policy. Most recently she has worked on the COVID-19 policy research project focusing on issues facing rural and remote communities, the homelessness workforce, and the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

Akshay Mohan is a doctoral student at the Center for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto. He has over fifteen years of experience in high-performance teams, transformational innovation and strategic program management. His previous roles have included being responsible for the science and technology program of World Economic Forum’s flagship Annual Meeting in Davos. A serial technology intrapreneur and innovator, his research has been featured in popular press and journals alike. Akshay holds a SM in Media Arts and sciences from MIT Media Laboratory and a B.Tech from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India. Mohan’s research interests include building workplaces and artificial intelligence systems focused on individual mental health, understanding the impact of work and the workplace on individual mental health, and design of work for optimal productivity.

Ruben Nelson is one of the few Canadian pioneers of serious futures thinking and its application in the practice of strategic Foresight.  Ruben has invested his life exploring the many ways we and our world are changing and what this means for our future.  He has used his insights in every corner and sector of Canada to assist senior executives make reliable sense of their adjacent futures.  Ruben’s research has led him to the view that, if we are to sustain success in the unique conditions of the 21st Century, we must develop new mental maps of where we are in history.  Over six decades, Ruben has taught philosophy and comparative religion, worked for Pierre Trudeau, helped formulate Canada’s policy on Multiculturalism and been a leader in the Canadian Association for Futures Studies, the International Association for Humanistic Psychology, the World Futures Studies Federation and the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science.  Ruben was born and raised in Calgary, educated at Queen’s University, Kingston, Queen’s Theological College, Kingston, and United Theological College, Bangalore, India.  Today, Ruben is Executive Director of Foresight Canada.  He and Heather, his wife of 60 years, and their two cats live in Lac Des Acrs in the Alberta Rockies.  They have two, now adult, children.

Caroline Pinto gets to the root of a problem.

A seasoned public affairs and government relations practitioner with over 20 years’ experience, Caroline’s uncommon ability to untangle complex issues and provide practical solutions gives her a competitive edge in policy development, negotiation, and strategic problem solving.

As Managing Principal and a co-founder of Counsel Public Affairs, Caroline provides strategic political and policy advice across a broad range of issues and sectors, including health care, the sharing economy, housing and land development, forestry, Indigenous issues, regulated industries and professions, as well as a host of not-for profit sectors.

Caroline’s profound understanding of the political and public policy development process stems from her work as policy advisor to the Attorney General of Ontario and Minister Responsible for Native Affairs under the Mike Harris government from 1995 to 1998. Building on her experience in government, she had a two-year stint as Vice President and Director in the Private/Public Partnership Group at Deloitte & Touche LLP. Prior to her more than 20-year career in politics and government relations in and around Queen’s Park, Caroline practiced law in Ontario.

Clients count on Caroline to craft and execute complex and integrated government and public relations action plans built to succeed, including effective political and public policy analysis and solutions, stakeholder mapping and engagement, and strategic communications.

Caroline’s experience as a trusted strategist is supported by years of leading interdisciplinary teams, her work on coordinating health professions’ regulatory reviews, and working collaboratively with government on emerging public policy areas including the sharing economy.

She’s the strategist you need to lead your large and complex public affairs projects to success – both on time and on budget.

Mauriene Tolentino (they/she) is a health policy analyst, researcher, and community organizer in Tkaronto/Toronto with a Masters of Public Health from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health with specialization in Women and Gender Studies and Public Health Policy. Currently, they are a Policy and Research Analyst at the Mental Health Commission of Canada.