Speakers
Jules Kortenhorst is the Chief Executive Officer of Rocky Mountain Institute, an independent, nonprofit think-and-do tank dedicating to transforming global energy use to create a clean, prosperous and secure future. His background spans business, government, entrepreneurial, and nonprofit leadership, including serving as the founding CEO of the European Climate Foundation (ECF), the largest philanthropic organization dedicated to policy development and advocacy on climate change in Europe.
Christopher Ragan: Chair of Canada’s new EcoFiscal Commission, which is supporting the development of ecofiscal policies that work to correct market price signals to encourage the economic activities we do want (job creation, investment, and innovation) while reducing those we don’t want (greenhouse gas emissions and the pollution of our land, air, and water). Mr. Ragan is an associate professor of economics at McGill University and is the author of What Now? Addressing the Burden of Canada’s Slow-Growth Recovery, published recently by the C.D. Howe Institute.
Gil Penalosa is passionate about cities for all people. Gil advises decision makers and communities on how to create vibrant cities and healthy communities for everyone regardless of age or social status. His focus is on the design and use of parks and streets as great public places, as well as sustainable mobility: walking, cycling and public transit. Gil is the Founder and Chair of the Board of the successful Canadian non-profit organization 8-80 Cities. He is also an accomplished presenter and inspirational speaker. Because of Gil’s unique blend of pragmatism and passion, his leadership and advice is sought out by many cities and organizations. Gil has worked in over 180 different cities across six continents.
Julie Gelfand: Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development. On behalf of the Auditor General, the Commissioner provides parliamentarians with objective, independent analysis and recommendations on the federal government’s efforts to protect the environment and foster sustainable development.The Commissioner conducts performance audits, and is responsible for: monitoring sustainable development strategies of federal departments; overseeing the environmental petitions process; and auditing the federal government’s management of environmental and sustainable development issues.
Bruce Anderson is one of Canada’s most respected public opinion researchers and strategic communications advisors. In 1983, he joined Decima Research, and was appointed President of Decima in 1989, at the age of 32. Mr. Anderson left to become a founding partner of the Earnscliffe Strategy Group and helped lead that highly regarded company for 15 years. He rejoined Decima as CEO in 2004 and led the company for another 4 years of growth, during which it was twice named one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies. In 2013 he became Chairman of Abacus Data, one of Canada’s fastest growing young research companies. Mr. Anderson advises many blue-chip corporate clients and industry associations and has done years of in-depth polling on politics and public policy. He has served as a top advisor for several political leaders in the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties. He is one of Canada’s leading commentators on public opinion and political affairs, a regular member of the CBC’s popular At Issue panel and writes a weekly online column for the Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper.
Glen Murray was first elected to the Ontario legislature in 2010 as the MPP for Toronto Centre. He was re-elected in 2011 and 2014.Murray currently serves as Minister of the Environment and Climate Change. He has had a lifetime of activism in urban planning, sustainable development and community health. He served as mayor of Winnipeg from 1998 to 2004. As Chair of the Big City Mayors’ Caucus, Murray led the successful campaign to transfer the equivalent of five cents per litre of the federal gas tax to municipalities for infrastructure renewal and construction. In 2004, he moved to Toronto and served as Senior Resident at Massey College and a Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Design at the University of Toronto. Murray was a Managing Partner of AuthentiCITY, a Toronto-based urban sustainability consulting and planning firm. He was appointed Chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy by former prime minister Paul Martin in 2005. Murray became president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute in 2007.
Additional speakers
Tzeporah Berman has been designing and winning environmental campaigns in Canada and internationally for 20 years. She currently works as a strategic advisor for dozens of environmental organizations, First Nations and philanthropic advisors on clean energy, oil sands and pipelines. She is the former co-director of Greenpeace International’s Global Climate and Energy Program, Executive Director and Co-founder of PowerUp Canada and Co-founder and Campaign Director of ForestEthics. Tzeporah was appointed by the Premier of British Columbia to the Green Energy Task Force in 2009 to design recommendations for the development of renewable energy in the region. Her first book, This Crazy Time: Living Our Environmental Challenge was recently published by Knopf Canada.
John Brodhead is the first Executive Director of CityWorks, a new strategic initiative of Evergreen, a national charity whose aim is to build green cities. CityWorks engages citizens and builds multi-sector collaborations to help decision-makers make cities more livable and resilient. Its focus is on urban infrastructure, in particular sustainable transportation and housing. Prior to joining CityWorks, John was Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Cabinet Affairs for Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and served in other roles in the Office of the Premier, including Executive Director of Communications and Senior Policy Advisor. John was also Vice President for Strategy and Communications for Metrolinx, the regional transit agency for the Greater Toronto Area.
Guy Burry is an entrepreneur and corporate director. He is Chair of Craigellachie Corporation, a small asset consultant and merchant bank. Guy serves as a director for several organizations, including Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions; GreenChip Financial Corporation; St. George’s College Foundation; The Taylor Statten Camping Bursary Fund; and Enactus Canada. Guy chairs York University’s Pension Fund Investment Committee and is former chair of the University’s Investment Committee. He was formally a Governor of York University, Vice Chair of the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, and chair of TAF’s Finance and Investment Committee. Guy’s interest in the environment is deeply rooted in his love of wilderness and the outdoors. He has made several “angel investments” in the sector and is chief strategist of a family office that has seeded several funds dedicated to clean technologies.
Meaghan Calcari Campbell is a Program Officer at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, where her primary work focuses on bringing together diverse interests in British Columbia to resolve conflict and ensure a healthy ocean and sustainable communities. Meaghan received her B.S. in environmental science and psychology from the University of Notre Dame, certificate of International Population and Reproductive Health from the University of Michigan and Master of Environmental Management from Duke University. She is working on her M.B.A. at Cape Breton University.
Tamara Connell is the Director of Sustainability Learning Programs at The Natural Step Canada. In this role, she works towards fostering sustainability literacy within Canada by designing and delivering learning opportunities of various shapes and sizes. Tamara is also particularly interested in personal leadership for sustainability, and served as the Program Director for the world-leading Master’s of Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability at the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden. She is passionate about helping individuals overcome barriers and write new mental narratives to enable positive change on our precious planet.
John Cook is President and CEO of Greenchip Financial Corp.. Prior to co-founding Greenchip, John was President of the MaRS Discovery District where he led corporate development and strategy from 2001-2005. John has also held executive positions at Invesco/Trimark and BPI Financial Corporation, and served on a number of charitable and corporate boards.
Cheryl De Paoli is the Executive Director of the Alberta Real Estate Foundation. She holds a Master of Science (Business) from the University of Bath and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary. Cheryl is a certified facilitator who brings stakeholders together for systemic conversations that focus on good questions and participatory techniques. Cheryl’s consulting work focuses on sustainability strategy and corporate social responsibility in the government, non-profit and business sectors by designing processes and programs around creating the future system. She has worked in Argentina, India, Mexico, Turkey and the United States and on notable projects such as imagineCALGARY, The Canadian Water Innovation Lab, Calgary 2012 and the Energy Futures Lab.
Stewart Elgie is a professor of law and economics at the University of Ottawa, and director of the University’s interdisciplinary Environment Institute. He received his Masters of Law from Harvard, and his doctorate (J.S.D.) from Yale (thesis on forest carbon markets). He is also the founder and chair of Sustainable Prosperity, Canada’s major green economy think tank and policy-research network. His research involves many aspects of environmental and economic sustainability, with a particular focus in recent years on market-based approaches. Elgie started his career as an environmental lawyer in Alaska, litigating over the Valdez oil spill. He returned to Canada and founded Ecojustice, now Canada’s largest non-profit environmental law organization.
Lara Ellis is the Program Director at the Ivey Foundation in Toronto. The foundation has embarked on a new granting direction that supports conservation through the integration of environmental and economic goals and policies. Prior to this role, Ms. Ellis worked on the foundation’s Conserving Canada’s Forests Program in her capacity as Program Officer. This followed many years campaigning to protect Ontario’s forests and ecosystems at the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – Wildlands League. Ms. Ellis has two degrees from McGill University, a B.A in English Literature and a Masters of Management (McGill-McConnell Program). Lara is a Board Member of the Canadian Environmental Grantmakers’ Association.
JoAnne Fishburn works as a creative consultant with filmmakers and NGOs to build outreach and engagement strategies around a variety of media projects. JoAnne comes from a history in film production and financing having been involved with projects for HBO, History Television, and National Geographic. As an Impact Consultant she has worked with ‘Pig Business’, a film that explores “the true cost of cheap meat”, ‘Cyber-Seniors’, and most recently “The Messenger”, a cinematic ode about declining songbird populations. She was also involved in the early development of ‘Earth: A New Wild’, a PBS/National Geographic/Passion Planet co-production, which was funded by the Ann Ray Charitable Trust and The Nature Conservancy. Expanding on her work on environmental issues, JoAnne authored a report commissioned by Breakout Educational Network entitled “Can Media Affect Social Change?” an impact evaluation on CBC Nature of Things, ‘Save My Lake’ narrated by David Suzuki.
Bryan Gilvesy is a farmer and proprietor of the Y U Ranch, a model for sustainable grassland agriculture producing grass-fed Texas Longhorn beef direct to consumers in Ontario. Since 2006, Bryan has been an advocate of valuing nature’s benefits to engage rural communities and farmers as key environmental solution providers. Eastern Canada Lead of the innovative community-led, farmer-delivered ecological services program ALUS (Alternative Lands Use Services) and Co-Chair of the Sustain Ontario Steering Committee, the Alliance For Healthy Food and Farming, he is helping lead conversations around sustainability and building sustainable value. Bryan holds a degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University.
Cathy Hawara is the Director General of the Charities Directorate with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). She is responsible for the overall management of the federal regulation of registered charities under the Income Tax Act. Prior to joining the CRA, Cathy served as the Director of Appointments with the Senior Personnel Secretariat at the Privy Council Office. Cathy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Law, both from the University of Ottawa. Cathy clerked for Mr. Justice Ian Binnie at the Supreme Court of Canada and was called to the Ontario bar in 2000. Cathy carried on a general litigation practice with McCarthy Tétrault in Toronto, specializing primarily in medical malpractice, before joining the public service in 2002.
Brett Hendrie is the Executive Director of Hot Docs, a Toronto-based organization committed to showcasing and celebrating excellence in documentaries, and to creating business opportunities for Canadian and international documentary filmmakers, producers, broadcasters and distributors. Since joining the Toronto-based organization in 2001, Brett has helped to develop Hot Docs festival as a calendar event for local audiences and industry professionals. Set to celebrate its 22nd year in 2015, Hot Docs attracts over 200,000 public attendees and over 200 documentary filmmakers, producers, broadcasters and buyers. Brett has co-programmed the festival’s past international spotlight competitions focusing on docs from Brazil, Japan, France, South Africa, Israel and the Netherlands.
Stephen Huddart is President and CEO of The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation. The Foundation has played a leading role in developing and supporting social innovation and impact investing in Canada as a founding partner of Social Innovation Generation (SiG). McConnell’s newest initiatives include Innoweave, The McConnell Reconciliation Initiative, Cities for People, and RECODE. Stephen’s career spans several fields and includes leadership positions in the private, public and non-profit sectors. Prior to joining the Foundation, he worked with children’s singer Raffi as Executive Director of Troubadour Music Inc. and the non-profit Troubadour Institute. He co-founded and operated the Alma Street Café, a community-based business that for several years was Vancouver’s jazz café of record and where the local chamber of commerce named him Business Person of the Year in recognition of his active support for a wide range of community groups.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo is from Northern Alberta and a member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation. She has worked as an advocate for Indigenous rights for the past 12 years. She has studied and worked in Brazil, Austalia, Mexico, and Canada focusing on Indigenous rights and culture, resource extraction, and ICTs. She has produced short documentaries, researched, and worked on topics ranging from the tar sands, inherent treaty rights, water issues to cultural appropriation. For the past eight years, Melina has worked against unabated tar sands extraction and expansion as a Climate & Energy campaigner with Greenpeace in Alberta as well as with the Indigenous Environmental Network internationally. Melina is currently finishing her Masters degree in Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria with a focus on Renewable Energy in First Nation communities.
Pat Letizia is an ardent champion of the voluntary sector and has significant experience in local, provincial and national arenas of philanthropy, policy, governance, and social innovation. As Executive Director of Alberta Ecotrust Foundation, she works across sector boundaries with foundations, governments, and industry to share ideas and strategies for supporting the nonprofit and charitable sector in protecting the environment and building healthy, engaged and sustainable communities. Known as a keen collaborator and regularly invited to contribute her ideas and expertise in a range of advisory and leadership roles, Pat is currently appointed to the Alberta Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Initiative Leader’s Council and sits on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Environmental Grantmaker’s Network and the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, Prairie Region. She is the new Changemaker-In-Residence at Mount Royal University’s Institute for Community Prosperity.
Susan Manwaring is the National Chair of Miller Thomson’s Charities and Not-for-Profit Group. She provides both specialized tax and general counsel advice to charities and not-for-profit organizations across Canada and internationally. She advises on establishing charities and non-profit organizations and works with them to address their operational and governance concerns. She is knowledgeable in the law relating to charitable expenditures, social enterprise and social finance and day-to-day questions of charities, and is regularly called upon to advise on compliance and taxation matters under the Income Tax Act (Canada), as well as other relevant provincial tax regulations.
As CEO of the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, Burkhard Mausberg is a leader in making Ontario’s Greenbelt a successful and popular initiative. Prior to his appointment as the founding President of the Greenbelt Foundation, he directed the environmental programs of the Ivey Foundation – one of Canada’s leading private family foundations. His background includes positions as CEO of environmental organizations that he transformed and grew into important forces for change in public policy, including Environmental Defence Canada, Great Lakes United, and the Environment Fund. He also taught environmental studies at the University of Toronto for eight years, and writes widely on the environment in popular and educational settings. As a volunteer on several non-profit boards, he specializes in board governance and fiscal responsibility.
Mike Morrice founded Sustainable Waterloo Region in 2008 to launch a program that would engage businesses in setting and achieving sustainability goals. Within five years, 14% of Waterloo Region’s workforce was employed by participating organizations, the program was financially self-sufficient and tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon pollution had been committed to be reduced. In response to global interest in the program, in 2012 Mike founded and now leads Sustainability CoLab: a social profit organization that provides direct support and a proven approach for member organizations to launch and grow a similar program. Currently CoLab is supporting seven organizations across Ontario. Named an Ashoka Fellow in 2012, Mike is one of 43 Canadians within this global community of leading social entrepreneurs, each with a new ‘knock-out’ idea and high potential to scale their impact.
Rosalyn Morrison is Vice President, Community Initiatives at the Toronto Foundation an independent charitable organization, which connects philanthropy to community needs and opportunities. She leads the development of Toronto’s Vital Signs® Report an annual quality of life Report; Community Knowledge Centre an online portal of over 260 community organizations working on solutions to city issues; and Vital Toronto Fund grant programs, community convening, and collaborative projects. Her previous leadership work in the arts and culture sector focused on strategy development for provincial and national organizations and establishing partnerships with businesses, educational institutions, public galleries and museums, and private and public funders.
Andrea Nemtin is President and CEO of Inspirit Foundation, a public foundation working in the area of social inclusion and pluralism in Canada through granting, media and impact investing. A social entrepreneur for over 20 years, Andrea began her career as a media creator and change maker. As the president and CEO of PTV production, Andrea led the organization to became a leader in multi-platform storytelling, creating award winning projects that went beyond broadcast. She ran the social marketing and advocacy campaigns at Adbusters, has been an executive board member at Hot Docs, chair of the Abilities Arts Festival as well as a past national chair of the Documentary Organization of Canada.
Chad Park is the Executive Director of The Natural Step Canada and the Director of the Energy Futures Lab. Chad regularly writes and delivers presentations on a wide range of sustainability and social innovation topics, including collaborating for systems change, sustainability-driven innovation, organizational change, and sustainability leadership. His work increasingly focuses on partnership-building and enabling collaboration, having led the development and launch of a multi-stakeholder approach to tackling complex social and environmental challenges called the Sustainability Transition Lab. Chad is the Director of one such collaborative initiative, the Energy Futures Lab, and plays a key thought leadership role with other initiatives including the Future Fit Business Benchmark, Housing Action Lab, and Natural Capital Lab.
Mary Pickering is VP, Programs and Partnerships at the Toronto Atmospheric Fund. Mary has more than 25 years of management experience in the environmental non-profit sector and is an accredited member of the international Partnership Brokers Association. Mary oversees the design and development of TAF programs focusing on social innovation, policy advocacy, and multi-stakeholder collaborations. Mary also supervises the granting program, communications, and the organization’s key performance indicators.
Julie Price is Program Lead at Tides Canada. Julie leads a strategic grant-making program called the Northern Manitoba Food, Culture & Community Fund. This fund is a collaboration between ten organizations and it’s purpose is to support local projects that increase access to healthy food, improve community health and drive community economic development. Julie was born and raised in Manitoba, where she completed a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture followed by a Masters in Natural Resource Management. Julie has supported and facilitated the development of local organizations including the Farmers’ Markets Association of Manitoba, Harvest Moon Local Food initiative, Fort Whyte Farms, and Manitoba Farm Mentorship. She is a founding board member of Food Matters Manitoba, a provincial food security organization.
Sidney Ribaux helped found Equiterre in 1993 and chaired the Board of Directors until 1998. Since then, as executive director, he has been involved in all of the organization’s activities, from development, to implementation, to funding. In 2007, he received a fellowship from Ashoka, an international organization that recognizes and supports social entrepreneurs. In 2009, he received the first Canadian Award for Environmental Innovation from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He is also an honorary fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Sidney also spearheaded and chairs the Centre for Sustainable Development, which is one of the greenest buildings in Canada, as well as a hub for social and environmental groups.
Shannon Rohan is a sustainability professional with a focus on helping institutional investors devise and implement responsible investment policies and practices. Her principle area of expertise is devising shareholder engagement approaches for mission-driven investors. She has worked with the Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE) since 2006 and currently holds the position of Director of Responsible Investment. Shannon has a Masters of Arts degree in International Affairs from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Simon Fraser University. She brings over ten years of experience working in the area of responsible investment and corporate responsibility in Canada and internationally.
Jenny Russell has been Executive Director of the Merck Family Fund since 1998. The Fund has been a leader in funding and initiating collaboratives related to consumption, land protection, urban green space, and youth organizing. In the past few years she has led the Fund’s interest in applying a climate lens to all programs and investments. Prior to this position, Jenny headed the Island Foundation, another family foundation based in Marion, MA. She has also been actively involved with the Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA) and the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity serving on the boards and on numerous committees.
Merran Smith: As Director of Clean Energy Canada, Merran leads a team working to inform and inspire policy leadership on renewable energy and zero-carbon transportation. Merran is a 2014 recipient of the Clean16 award, which recognizes leadership in sustainability and clean capitalism. She writes and speaks extensively on the opportunities for Canada in the global low carbon economy. She also received the Wilburforce Foundation Award for Outstanding Conservation Leadership, and a Transformative Leadership award from the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation.
Andre Vallillee is Chair of CEGN and Environment Program Director at the Metcalf Foundation. Prior to joining Metcalf, Andre worked as a Program Manager with the Ontario Trillium Foundation, overseeing the province-wide environmental grants portfolio and serving as the Foundation’s Strategy Lead for the environment sector. He also serves on the National Board of Trustees of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and the Toronto Atmospheric Fund’s Grants & Programs Committee. Andre received his Bachelors in Environmental Studies and Political Science from the University of Victoria, his Masters in Planning from the University of British Columbia, and completed an Executive Education program in Leadership and Organizing through Harvard Kennedy School.
Jack Wong is the Chief Executive Officer of the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia. The Foundation makes grants to support land use and real estate practices which contribute to resilient, healthy communities and natural environments. Before being named CEO in February 2011, Jack worked in finance and administration with the Vancouver Board of Trade for ten years. A certified member and fellow of the Society of Management Accountants of Canada, Jack holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Business Administration from UBC. Jack also has an active volunteer life, including the Canadian Society of Association Executives, Vancouver Police Foundation, Richmond Museum Society, UBC School of Community and Regional Planning, Canadian Environmental Grantmakers Network and as a Vancouver Board of Trade Leaders of Tomorrow student mentor.
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