Dr. Dave Williams

Astronaut, Aquanaut & Leadership Expert

A true Canadian hero, Dr. Dave Williams is an emergency room specialist, former hospital CEO, aquanaut, astronaut – and the only non-American to hold a directorship at NASA. He has extensive experience leading organizations where uncontrolled risks can have significant consequences; those lessons are captured in keynotes and workshops, offering unique images to help tell the many stories he shares. In his presentations, Dave addresses topics such as risk management, leadership, resilience, team building & team work, motivation, and health & wellbeing.

Sandy McIntosh

EVP People & Culture and CHRO
Telus

Sandy McIntosh brings more than 20 years of strategic human resources leadership experience. As Executive Vice-President, People & Culture and Chief Human Resources Officer at TELUS, she leads a team responsible for creating business, talent and culture practices that advance TELUS’ business priorities. McIntosh advises the Executive Leadership Team and supports TELUS’ Human Resources and Compensation Committee on culture transformation, labour relations, cost transformation, mergers and acquisitions, total rewards and talent development programs to accelerate TELUS’ growth and performance.  

During her tenure, TELUS has achieved team member engagement in the top 10th percentile of employers globally, has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers, inducted into the Top 10 Corporate Cultures Hall of Fame, and named Best Diversity Employer for several consecutive years.  

Sandy holds an Executive MBA and a Master of Industrial Relations degree from Queen’s University and an undergraduate degree in Public Administration from Carleton University. 

Jarik Conrad

HCM Advisory, Executive Director, Equity at Work
UKG

JARIK CONRAD, EdD, SPHR, SHRM-CSP, NACD.DC is a sought-after speaker on many of the most important business leadership topics of today, such as employee health and wellness, the future of work, emotional intelligence, and workplace diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging (DEI&B). In 2021, Dr. Conrad was recognized as one of the world’s top “people practitioners” in the annual HRD Global 100, as well as a top 100 HR Influencer by Engagedly. He is the author of the bestselling book, “The Fragile Mind: How it Has Produced and Unwittingly Perpetrates America’s Tragic Disparities.” His new book, “In Search of Humanity”, was recently released in April 2022.

Dr. David Satok

Chief Medical Officer
Rogers Communications

Dr. David Satok is the VP and Chief Medical Office at Rogers Communications Inc. Prior to 2008, David held the position of Chief Medical office at Apotex Research Inc., Canada’s largest pharmaceutical company. In addition to these roles, David has continued working in the area of Family Medicine seeing patients on a daily basis. He lectures at the University of Toronto Department of Family Community Medicine as well as  teaching students within his office. Dr. Satok graduated from the University of Toronto Medical School in 1991 and completed his residency in Family Medicine in 1993. He received his fellowship in 2003. David strongly believes in a comprehensive, integrated, preventative approach to medicine striving for the best possible outcomes for his patients.  

Greg Bambury

CHRO
Medavie

Greg Bambury is the Chief Human Resources Officer for Medavie Inc., Medavie Blue Cross and Medavie Health Services. Medavie Inc. is a health company that oversees Medavie Blue Cross and Medavie Health Services. In his role, Greg has a pivotal role in driving employee engagement and supporting the ongoing growth and transformation of the organization. With more than 25 years of extensive experience as a leader in human resources, Greg has driven major strategic initiatives within numerous large and complex organizations.

Marie-Helene Daigle

VP Human Resources
Sollio Agriculture

Present in over 52 locations across Canada, Sollio Agriculture is one of the country’s leading players in the Canadian agriculture value chain, specializing in marketing farm inputs and delivering value-added agronomic services. As Vice-President, Human Resources for the past six years, Marie-Hélène’s first major responsibility was to support the organization during its growth phase, which saw a 35% staffing increase in only 18 months. From the onset of the global pandemic, Marie-Hélène and the entire Sollio Agriculture Human Resources team then focused on ensuring its employees remained safe, engaged and productive in a time of crisis. In the ensuing two years, the team learned that in the face of adversity, humans have an extraordinary capacity for resilience, agility, and caring. As Sollio Agriculture moves forward now with an established hybrid work model, Marie-Hélène’s HR team is currently focused on leading an end-to-end, comprehensive transformation of the company’s organizational model to enhance operational efficiencies and add even more value for the company’s customers and networks.

Today, the team’s core mission focuses on translating business objectives into HR strategies, and fostering healthy, inclusive, and engaging workplaces to unleash our talents’ full potential. The team is proud to have been selected as The best HR team in Canada at the 2021 Canadian HR Awards. Marie-Hélène holds a Master’s in organizational psychology, as well as over 20 years of experience as a human resources leader. Prior to her current role, she served as Director of Talent Management at La Coop fédérée (now Sollio Groupe Coopératif). Previous roles include managing a Global Talent Acquisition team at Rio Tinto and serving as Partner and Senior Director at SPB Organizational Psychology (now Humance), a Canadian consulting firm. Deeply committed to her community, Marie-Hélène has been President and is an administrator on the Board of Directors of a Montreal job search centre for over seven years.   

Donna Valiquette

Chief Corporate Administrative Officer, Canada & Head of Culture & Employee Experience, Americas
MUFG

Donna Valiquetteis Chief Corporate Administrative Officer(CCAO)for Canada and Head of Culture and Employee Experience for the Americas. In her CCAO role, she oversees Human Resources(for Bank and Securities), Communications and Office Managementand sits on the Executive Committee forboth entities in Canada. In 2019, she also took on the role of Head of Culture, reporting to the Chief Human Resources Officer for the Americas, andthis role was expanded in July of 2020 to include Employee Experience for the Americas.

Ms. Valiquettejoined MUFGin 2014 from Credit Suisse where she spent six years as Head of Human Resources for Canada. Prior to Credit Suisse, shewas Vice President,HumanResources at Altamira (a subsidiary of National Bank), Director, Human Resources at the Canadian Bankers Association and Manager, Human Resources at UCUCredit Union. In2021, Women in Capital Markets honoured her with the Transformational Leadership Award, given to senior executiveswho havemade a lasting contribution to gender diversity and inclusion and who are driving organizational and cultural change with measurable impacts. Shewas the recipient of the MUFG Culture of Excellence Award in 2015,andin 2016HumanResources Director Canadamagazinenamed Ms. Valiquette to its Hot List as one of Canada’s who’s who in HR.

Based in Toronto, with offices in MontrealandVancouver, MUFG Bank Canada has been providing global banking solutions in Canada for more than 60 years. Along with its affiliates, the bank offers Canadian and international clients a full range of wholesale corporate banking services. It is part ofMitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG),one of the world’s leading financial groups. Headquarteredin Tokyo with over 360 years of history, MUFG has a global network with over 2,700 locationsand 170,000 employeesin morethan 50 countries.

Emma Horgan

Chief People Officer
Questrade

An HR executive experienced in strategic leadership and the full range of HR disciplines, Emma Horgan has been Chief People Officer at Questrade since February 2017. Since joining her primary focus has been on transforming the People and Culture function and aligning the people strategy to the organizations mission and strategic deliverables.  Questrade has been enjoying a period of significant growth, both organic and inorganic, and her team has played a critical role in ensuring the People and Culture priorities have been helping fuel and support this. 

Prior to Questrade she enjoyed a long career at Maple Leaf Foods Inc. in several progressive HR roles, last of which was Vice President HR & Leadership. In that role Emma lead a team of HR Business Partners who provided HR service and support to Maple Leaf’s commercial and professional services teams, and she also led the team focused on culture, talent, performance, leadership and learning.  During her time at Maple Leaf, Emma had key leadership roles in a number of significant organization transformation efforts.  

Originally from the UK, Emma has an Msc in Strategic Human Resources Management from the University of Hull, and 20 years of progressive experience with the full range of Human Resources responsibilities including, strategy development, organizational design, talent acquisition, talent and succession management, leadership development, performance, engagement, employee relations, legal matters, policy, labour relations and change management etc. She moved to Canada with Maple Leaf Foods in 2005. 

Nadine Huggins

CHRO
Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Nadine Huggins is an experienced leader with over 20 years in the public service and several years prior as a management consultant.  Nadine excels at driving innovation and change.  Nadine built her career finding solutions to complex issues, leading complex projects and supporting teams to work to their strengths. Nadine has a proven record of accomplishment as an innovator, who uses leading edge solutions, sound judgement and effective relationship management to address current and emerging challenges, and effect positive organizational change.  She uses strong collaboration, consultation and negotiation skills to translate broad vision and objectives into tangible results. As the Chief Human Resources Officer for the Royal Canadian Mounted police Nadine emphasizes and drives integrity, inclusion, and a people first focus.  Nadine consistently works toward building a healthy, respectful, and diverse police service. 

Lisa Osachoff

Chief People & Culture Officer
Western Financial Group

Lisa is currently the Chief People & Culture Officer, leading the Human Resource & People Development part of our organization. This includes Talent Management and Learning and Development, People Systems & Programs, Total Rewards, Payroll & Pension, HR Systems, Wellness, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  

Within her career she Lisa has been responsible for developing strategic career pathing, facilitating corporate succession planning and reinforcing strategic nature of people development within any business. Lisa holds a Bachelor of Sociology from the University of Lethbridge and has a strong background in retail sales and human resource management, spanning over 20 years. 

Lisa currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba with her husband Ray and their two cats, Toffee and Caramel. She is also an international level show jumping judge as well as a Canadian national which takes her to horse shows across North America.  

My philosophy:  

“A great organizational, aligned culture around purpose and values will always show up in the amplification of the customer experience. Our goal, our purpose in HR is to help scale that across the enterprise through relevant and effective programing that supports our people.”  

Drew Calcagno

Principal, Product Operations & Strategic Communications
Google

Drew Calcagno is a principal at Google Research, focusing on product operations and strategic narratives for the company’s R&D efforts in various forms of artificial intelligence, advanced computing, and more.  He’s a former government official and naval officer, having served non-politically at the White House, at the Pentagon, and on a forward-deployed warship. At those posts, he wrote artificial intelligence policy for the Chief Technology Officer of the United States and managed machine learning programs for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. Calcagno graduated from the University of Oxford as a Rotary Scholar, the University of London – SOAS as a Fulbright Scholar, the US Naval Academy with distinction.  

Sandra Petosa

Senior Vice President, Talent, Culture & Diversity
Groupe CH

Senior Vice President of Talent, Culture and Diversity at Groupe CH (Montreal Canadiens, evenko, Spectra and Rocket). With more than 20 years of experience in the Human Resources and Organizational Development field across various industries both as an external consultant and internal leader, Sandra and her team are responsible for accompanying employees at every point of their journey within the organization. For the last 4 years at Groupe CH she has been partnering with leaders to attract, hire, retain and promote the best talent. Fostering diversity & inclusion, talent engagement, development, change management and continuous improvement are at the heart of her contributions. 

Dan Sharkey

SVP, Global Human Resources
CAE

Dan Sharkey joined CAE as Vice President, Global Human Resources, in February 2015. In this position, Mr. Sharkey oversees all Human Resources services worldwide and is responsible for the strategic planning of workforce and skills development to maintain and enhance CAE’s world-class team.

Mr. Sharkey brings to CAE 30 years of experience in human resources management including global change initiatives, labour relations, career development programs, coaching, leadership and organizational development, employee engagement and cultural transformation. Prior to joining CAE, he worked as a Senior Human Resources Business Partner in various Bombardier Aerospace divisions, in the US and Canada, for 17 years, and more recently as Vice President, Human Resources for Bombardier Aerospace’s Commercial Aircraft division. He has held leadership positions in Human Resources functions for other industry leading companies including ShawCor Ltd, Southam Murray Printing, and Atlantic Packaging.

Mr. Sharkey is a graduate of the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario with an honours Bachelor of Business Administration. He also completed an MBA at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

Gary Beckstrand

Vice President
O.C. Tanner Institute

Mobilizing 30 years of game-changing research, business development and leadership expertise, Gary has seen what works (and what doesn’t) at top organizations around the globe.  As vice president at O.C. Tanner, Gary’s insights have been sought after by multiple Fortune 100 companies, and he has spoken to tens of thousands of business leaders at industry conferences across his career.  In addition to coauthoring the acclaimed Appreciate: Celebrating People, Inspiring Greatness, each year Gary directs research and publication of O.C. Tanner Institute’s Global Culture Report, drawing upon the sentiment and stories of more than 20,000 people worldwide to capture a real-time pulse of the workplace culture, and the successful leadership strategies for attracting, engaging and retaining top talent in an ever-evolving marketplace.  Gary also frequently features on inc.com entreprenuer.com and Forbes.  Prior to joining O.C. Tanner, Gary held leadership positions at Frito-Lay, Kellogg’s, and Franklin-Covey.

Mia Guerra

Vice President Human Resources, Global Functions & Digital Business Services
HSBC

Mia Guerra is an accomplished leader and Human Resources Professional with over 25 years experience in the financial industry.  In her current role as Vice President Human Resources, Digital Business Services and Global Functions, HSBC Bank Canada, Mia partners with senior executives to drive business performance through the execution of their people strategy.  She has been recognized for her extraordinary commitments to her past roles at HSBC as Head of HR Advisory, Canada & the US; AVP Performance and Reward; and Regional Head of Strategy & Planning, Commercial Banking.  Prior to HSBC, Mia provided consulting services to other Financial Institutions, specializing in organizational design & effectiveness and change implementation. 

 Mia’s HR career has gravitated on delivering business transformation, process re-engineering and change management. 

 Outside of the office, Mia is an avid traveler, foodie, gardener and golfer.  She is committed to constantly rebalancing work and personal life, living by the motto: Work hard…play hard. 

Nancy Drab

Global Director, Organizational & Leadership Development
Roche

Nancy lives by a fundamental core belief that genius lies within everyone. This, along with Roche’s clear purpose, brings her day-to-day contributions to life with meaning. With over 15 years specializing in organizational development, Nancy has gained experience in various industries including service, manufacturing, aeronautics, and currently Diagnostics and Pharmaceuticals. She joined Roche in 2015 supporting Canada’s Diagnostics organization. As the business and human resources practices evolved, Nancy represented the needs of the Canadian organization within global teams.

With further and ongoing changes across the business, in 2019 she was then assigned as Interim Lead for the local Commercial transformation. Her mandate was to shift the organization towards a more agile operating model allowing for greater customer and patient focus and innovation. In 2021, Nancy moved into her current role where she now oversees the delivery of foundational leadership programs focused on evolving mindset to meet the challenges of today’s complex environments. Nancy holds a MA in Educational Technology, a Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching and recently became an accredited Professional Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation.

Candace DiCresce

Senior Director, Safety & Wellbeing
Rogers Communications

Candace DiCresce is the Senior Director of Safety & Well-being at Rogers Communications, where she leads a talented team that is driven by a passion for supporting our employees’ safety and well-being at work and throughout their lives.

Candace has 25 years of experience in safety, environmental and sustainability consulting, industry, and the public sector, including working for Deloitte, MDS, and the Toronto Transit Commission. Her current focus is on driving strategic integration of safety, disability management, mental health, wellness, accessibility and accommodation at Rogers into a holistic function that protects and enriches employee physical and mental well-being. She is honoured to serve on the CCOHS Council of Governors; in 2018, she was recognized as an Innovator in Workplace Mental Health by DiversityCan Magazine.

Candace holds a B.A.Sc. in civil engineering from the University of Toronto, is a proud professional engineer, and is the grateful mother to two weird and wonderful teens.

Rob Catalano

Chief Engagement Officer
WorkTango

Rob has spent the last 18 years focused on creating better workplaces through building HR Technology and advisory companies. Rob spent 10+ years growing Achievers as part of the founding team and his passion for improving the employee experience led to him co-founding WorkTango in 2015. He was named one of the 100 Top Global Employee Engagement Influencers in 2020 and has had the privilege of speaking to HR leaders at conferences in over 40 cities. He is an avid hockey and volleyball player, traveler, used to play guitar in a metal band, and in his own terms a ‘pointaholic’ – he collects loyalty points for everything and anything!

Carolyn Byer

HR Lead Canada
Microsoft

A strategic leader with 20+ years of broad based and progressive experience in various human resources disciplines within Canada and globally. Creative and collaborative thinker who builds strategies that reimagine processes to inspire human resource excellence. Excel at helping business leaders build diverse and inclusive teams, and fostering the right culture so that employees can do their best work. Carolyn is also passionate about sharing insights about Microsoft’s culture transformation to help other organizations on their own journey.

Adam Kelly

EVP & CCO
CloudMD

Adam Kelly is an executive commercial leader that has more than 20 years experience in the health and wellness field leading sales, marketing, product development and client support teams. Adam has deep industry knowledge across a broad spectrum of health solutions including mental health, occupational health, workers’ compensation, and disability management. Prior to joining the CloudMD team, Adam held leadership roles at Shepell-fgi, Morneau Shepell, and MindBeacon.

Erin Gordon

Vice President Human Resources
Lindt & Sprungli Canada

Erin is the first to tell you she has a pretty sweet gig. As the VP HR at Swiss chocolatier, Lindt, she contributes to the company’s overall business strategy and help establish its priorities through a people-focused lens. She is passionate about delivering meaningful and relevant people experiences and creating workplaces where people want to work.  She sees HR as a real game changer in terms of the company successes. She has over 2 decades of HR leadership experiences across very diverse industries including hospitality, mining and experiential organizational development. One of the key factors she attributes her success is the ability to get curious and really understand the business and the players she partners with.  

 Erin holds a B.A from Guelph University in Psychology, post graduate diploma in Human Resources from Sheridan College and her CHRE designation through the HRPA.  

….and yes her office really has a chocolate room and her son’s friends have called her Willy Wonka on occasion.  

Sean Fahey

CEO
VidCruiter

Sean is an award-winning business leader, serial entrepreneur, and CEO of VidCruiter, one of the fastest-growing remote recruitment companies on the market. He holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Florida Atlantic University, and after years of first-hand recruitment experience, he’s passionate about sharing what he knows so others might find the same level of success he has. 

Jo Ann Miele

Director Talent Management
Bayer Canada

Jo Ann is a strategic and results-driven senior organizational development leader. Her thought leadership is informed by extensive and diverse experience in both global and Canadian companies within multiple industries including financial services, health care, pharmaceutical, telecommunications and airport management. In her numerous senior-level roles driving the talent management, leadership development and organizational effectiveness agenda, she has a solid track record in building organizational capability, transforming culture, positively impacting employee performance, and achieving long-term business goals.

Jo Ann is CDI.D Board Certified, a certified Change Management Practioner from the Niagara Institute, an Emotional Competency Inventory Practioner from the Korn Ferry Hay Group and is licensed in Hermann Brain Dominance from the Herman Group

Dana Cioffi – Tagliabue

Vice President, Human Resources & Employee Value Proposition
Teranet

Dana Cioffi is the Vice President of Human Resources at Teranet and has direct accountability for leading the development and deployment of a comprehensive Talent Management Practice that enables business growth and strategy alignment.  She also leads the HR Business Partner function supporting a global employee base of 1200.  Dana has 25 years transformational Human Resources experience across a variety industries and while she has specialized in Talent Management, she has a depth of experience in all areas of HR.  #lovewhereyouwork 

Raj Dam

Assistant Director, Partnerships and External Relations, Arts & Science Co-op
University of Toronto

An Assistant Director with the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), Raj Dam leads the Partnerships and External Relations functions for the Arts and Science Programs at the University. Raj has over 15 years of leadership experience in business development, strategic partnerships, and marketing communications across South Asia and North America. 

  Raj along with his team work with employers across Technology, Healthcare, Government, Retail, Manufacturing, Banking and Finance, Supply Chain etc and help them connect with diverse and well trained talent pool across 35 different programs at UTSC. This manifests in many ways including helping organizations craft an early talent program, offer engagement with students in campus or online, connecting employers with federal or provincial funding partners and similar other Industry-Academia interventions. 

  Raj is a strong believer and champion of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at workplace and has been a mentor to many individuals from equity deserving groups as they seek meaningful employment in Canada. 

Heather Lamont

Vice President, Client Success & Loyalty
ADP Canada

We’re pleased to announce Heather Lamont as Vice President, Client Success & Loyalty at ADP Canada.

Her career that now spans two-decades in Financial Services & FinTech; has included senior leadership roles across human resources, core operations, product management, PMO, business transformation and customer experience. The diversity of functions as well as having the opportunity to delve into both strategic and execution roles speaks to her flexibility and versatility in leadership. In her most recent appointment at Ethoca (a Mastercard Company) she was accountable to lead the global Customer Experience & Engagement teams. The remit included people leadership & strategic direction for product technical integration, after-sales support & service, customer project management, operational excellence, revenue optimization and voice of customer programming. Before joining Ethoca, Heather spent working for several of North America’s leading financial institutions including Bank of Montreal, American Express, Bank of America and MBNA Canada Bank.

She studied Business Administration at Bishop’s University in Quebec; holds Six Sigma Green & Yellow belt certifications and has completed numerous leadership development programs.

Her work (and the work of her teams) have been recognized with numerous professional awards and speaking engagements on Women in Leadership and Industry trends. She was a 2017 recipient of PaymentsSource’s Most Influential Women in Payments award, the 2020 & 2021 GTACC’s People’s Choice Award for Canada’s Top Customer Service organization, CSPN Women in Leadership Customer Experience Advocate Award for the Finance & Insurance sector and most recently was shortlisted for a Women in Payment’s Advocate for Women award.

What Heather is most passionate about though is giving back to the communities in which we live & work. Influenced by her personal experiences, she is active in several charitable organizations that support and advocate for women & children’s health, survivors of domestic abuse, and food insecurity. She champions these causes at her work-life as well by incorporating volunteerism and activism in team engagement events.

Roxana Firescu

Senior Vice President, HR
Cineflix

Roxana oversees all aspects of Human Resources for Cineflix Media’s corporate, production, distribution, joint venture, and producer partner entities, with a portfolio that includes employee relations, recruitment, company benefits, compliance, and policies and procedures. She drives Cineflix’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion mandate and other HR-related special projects. Roxana also oversees Facilities Operations for the company’s North American offices.  

With a focus on fostering a positive work environment and a culture of collaboration, Roxana has been instrumental in building Cineflix’s HR department and works closely with executive management and department heads to support the company’s objectives.   

Jeff Livingston

Marketing Manager, Brand
ADP Canada

With a knack for sharing stories and engaging audiences across the globe, Jeff Livingston has helped grow some of the world’s biggest and brightest brands. He’s now leading Canada’s HR thought leadership charge, as the producer and host of the “[email protected]” podcast – competing against some of the biggest podcasts in the world, with the actionable insights to transform today’s workplace.