Financial Acumen, General Management

Andrea Chan, CPA, CA, is MNP’s Regional Managing Partner for Toronto North and a member of the firm’s Assurance and Accounting team. Andrea works one-on-one with dental, medical, legal and other professionals, delivering sound advice to help her clients achieve their personal and business goals. Andrea’s expertise includes developing customized plans for clients planning to start, purchase or sell a practice. Her experience allows her to walk her clients through the purchase or sale decision from beginning to end, ensuring they make the choices that are right for them. She specializes in developing projections and proposals as well as industry benchmarking, helping ensure her clients have sound strategies for the future Andrea also provides strategic advice on tax minimization strategies. She develops customized retirement and succession plans for her clients, helping them realize their dreams. Andrea earned a Bachelor of Mathematics specializing in accounting and a Master of Accounting at the University of Waterloo. She is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), qualifying as a Chartered Accountant (CA).

Change Management, Coaching and Collaboration

Andrew Levison has been a senior faculty member at the Schulich ExecEd for over 12 years teaching clients about Leadership and Talent Management. Andrew works globally across all industries in the private and public sectors helping his clients unleash their inherent potential for success. He is also an expert public speaker, executive coach and facilitator.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Dr. Maxwell is the Bergeron Chair in Technology Entrepreneurship, Lassonde School of Engineering combines over 20 years in large technology and entrepreneurial ventures with 20 years in innovation, technology and entrepreneurship research and teaching in academia (in Canada and US). He has won awards for both including the Heizer Award for top PhD (Academy of Management), Educator Award (Temple University), and the President’s Teaching Award (York University).  During this period he has brought his unique understandings of the interaction between the physics of technology innovation and the behavioural economics of technology adoption to industry professionals in a wide variety of formats.  His structured approach to creative problem solving has been supercharged by the availability of AI tools, which he continues to explore in the context of enhancing innovation.  He will be sharing some of the insights, and practical examples in the workshop.

Anne Genge has been a tech innovator and educator working closely with practice owners, dental/medical teams, and IT providers to protect patient and practice data and enable compliance with privacy regulations for more than 20 years in Canada.  She is a multi-certified cybersecurity expert with global awards for her work in cyber risk management, ransomware prevention, as well as cybersecurity education for healthcare providers. Her motto, “no geek speak,” coupled with her humour and great story-telling, has made Anne one of Canada’s leading cybersecurity and privacy educators.  Today, she’s on a mission to help everyone understand online threats and be able to defend themselves at home and at work when using technology. Anne is a trusted source for dental practices and is an author and contributor to many associations and publications across North America.  Certifications: Certified Information Privacy Professional, Certified Healthcare Cybersecurity Professional, Certified Healthcare Security Risk Assessment Specialist

Project Management

Ariel Deluy’s experience spans more than 15 years during which he implemented enterprise project management systems, building and managing multidisciplinary and highly effective project teams to deliver complex solution for clients, and providing strategic planning services for a number of Fortune 1000 organizations. Ariel's leadership philosophy and professional experience is based on combining strategy with technology to deliver enduring results to clients.  In the public sector, Ariel has worked with CATSA, TSA, and airport authorities throughout Canada and the United States on several successful airport security projects and baggage systems automation. Ariel received his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Concordia University, and his Bachelor of Applied Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Windsor.

Change Management, Project Management, Strategic Planning

Asad has over 20 years of professional experience, having served in various capacities for the British Government and within the Canadian higher education sector. His extensive project deployment experience spans 12 countries. In addition to his global project and change management expertise, Asad has spent more than five years teaching at the graduate level in Canada, contributing to the academic and professional development of future project managers.

Asad holds formal academic qualifications in Business Administration (MBA) and Computer Science, complemented by professional certifications in Project Management (PMP®, AgilePM®), Program Management (SAFe SPC®), Business Analysis (CBAP®), Change Management (Prosci®), Process Optimization (Lean Six Sigma Green Belt), and IT Service Management (ITIL® v4). He is committed to continuous professional development across various domains and integrates practical knowledge with strong theoretical foundations.

Marketing

Ashley Konson's passion is helping clients and students discover and apply cutting-edge thinking and the best practices of brand leaders from around the globe for growing brands and businesses. Ashley has worked in senior and executive-level marketing positions in the United States, Canada and South Africa, with Nestle, The Walt Disney Company, Imax Ltd. and Holt Renfrew. He is the author and instructor for the Kellogg-Schulich EMBA Designing Brand Experiences program, and program director for the MBA & MMKG Brand Management programs at the Schulich School of Business at York University. He is also visiting faculty at the S. P. Jain School of Global Management based in Dubai, Singapore and Sydney, Australia. Ashley has been recognized frequently for “teaching excellence” and is a two-time winner of the prestigious Seymour Schulich MBA Teaching Excellence Award for which he has been nominated nine times.

Big Data and Analytics, General Management, Marketing

Ashwin is director of the MBA Program and co-director of the York Consulting Group at the Schulich School of Business, York University, where he is also a professor of marketing. Ashwin teaches in the BBA, MBA, PhD and Kellogg-Schulich Executive MBA programs, in addition to teaching in certificate programs for the Schulich Executive Education Center. Ashwin holds the exclusive distinction of having received the Seymour Schulich Excellence in Teaching Award at both the BBA and MBA levels at the Schulich School of Business. Ashwin’s passion is in the area of developing analytical, decision-making and presentation skills. His TURNING POINT methodology helps managers to clearly identify the key issues that demand their attention, develop a systematic approach to developing solutions to these issues, and present their ideas in a compelling manner. He has conducted a number of seminars on this methodology both in-house at the Schulich ExecEd and for organizations such as CIBC, Rogers, Schneider Electric and Telus, among others.

Financial Acumen

Atipol is a highly rated professor at the Shulich School of Business at York University. He specializes in alternative financial arrangements, international technology transfer, multinational corporations as well as economic development of South East Asia.

Management

Avinash is Design Leader and Educator with a cross-disciplinary background in user experience design, business, and engineering. His life's purpose is to drive change for the good in a human-centred way. After completing a BE in Computer Science Engineering, he was selected for a Postgraduate degree in UX Design from NID (National Institute of Design), Ahmedabad, a world-ranked (India’s foremost) design institute. In Canada, Avinash continued his education with an MBA from the Rotman School of Management, the University of Toronto, majoring in Strategy and Business Design. In addition to 3 startups, he also co-founded 1 non-profit and has worked in the public sector, consulting, and for three Fortune 500 companies. Even when not designing, he enjoys aspects of design in cooking and photography. As a photographer, Avinash sees potential everywhere—finding beauty in ordinary places. As a cook, leftovers and food that might go bad also hold potential. His signature dish is Litti-Chokha, a traditional dish from my native state in India.

Healthcare, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Dr. Baseer Khan is an ophthalmology surgeon and currently on staff at Southlake Regional Health Centre, North York General Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, Stevenson Memorial Hospital and the Kensington Eye Institute. Dr. Khan was instrumental at establishing a leading glaucoma and anterior segment program in the Central LHIN. Dr. Khan is a gradate of and professor at the University of Toronto, where he educates fellows, residents and medical students. In 2016, he completed the Physician CEO program at the Kellogg School of Management and Business. He is an innovator and researcher and has been a principal investigator in more than 15 clinical trials and has designed a number of surgical instruments. A highly respected consultant and adviser to many medical-device and pharmaceutical companies. Outside of his clinical and surgical practice, Dr. Khan is also highly involved in humanitarian work, performing multiple surgical and teaching missions in Jordan, Vietnam, Haiti and Jamaica.

Project Management

Benoit De Grace is the former President and current Senior Vice-President at PMC - Project Management Centre and has a B.Eng. in Industrial Engineering with a specialization in project management. He is a member of the Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute (PMI). As a bilingual Senior PM consultant, Benoit’s work has taken him across Canada, as well as the United States and overseas, with clients such as Bombardier, Caterpillar, Sandoz, Shell, Standard Life, Ultima Foods, the Quebec Ministry of Transportation, and the Department of National Defense. Over the past 20 years, he has gained an excellent reputation as a trainer in project planning and control techniques, project team leadership, and communications. As a senior business analyst, he has a keen ability to synthesize business processes and adapt project management know-how to various corporate environments, helping organizations define and streamline their business processes.

Financial Acumen

Beppino Pasquali is a Canadian chartered professional accountant with 20 years’ experience in accounting and taxation for small- to medium-sized companies. He advises clients in achieving growth and shareholder value. His considerable experience is evident in the seminar as he incorporates real life cases. Beppino lectures in the Kellogg-Schulich EMBA and MBA programs in the field of financial and managerial accounting, and at the Schulich ExecEd (Schulich ExecEd). He has trained hundreds of sales and customer service representatives, managers, executives and professionals. His “Financial and Managerial Accounting for Non-Financial Manager” program is one of the most attended programs at Schulich ExecEd.

With a career spanning over two decades in the film, television, and cultural sectors in the US and Canada, Beth Janson has consistently driven innovation and development in the industry. A seasoned executive who has served as COO of the Toronto International Film Festival and CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, she now brings a wealth of experience and expertise to her own strategic consultancy, Penn Road Advisors. A champion of inclusivity, Beth was the founding director of the Rent the Runway Foundation’s Project Entrepreneur program, a groundbreaking initiative launched in partnership with UBS, offering women the tools, training, and networks needed to build scalable and economically impactful companies. Beginning in 2002, she worked for more than a decade to build the Tribeca Film Institute. Under her leadership, TFI became an important resource and support for filmmakers through programs such as Tribeca All Access (Bloomberg Philanthropies), the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund, and the IWC Filmmaker Award. TFI’s work in the emerging sector of multi-platform, XR and VR storytelling was trailblazing and included launching the TFI New Media Fund, the first fund in the US for new media projects; TFI Interactive; and Tribeca Hacks. Beth's career journey has always had storytelling at its centre, whether as Programming Director of the Newport International Film Festival or through roles at the Public Theater (George C. Wolfe, Producer) and HBO Documentary Films under Sheila Nevins. Her contributions were recognized with an Emmy nomination in 2017 for her work as Co-Executive Producer on "Meet the Patels," and in 2020, she received the Crystal Award for Outstanding Achievement in Business from Women in Film & TV Toronto. Beth is a proud alumna of York University, where she earned her BFA Honors. In 2015, she was one of two non-profit leaders in the US to receive a Ford Foundation fellowship to attend the Owner/President Management Program at Harvard Business School. Her commitment to transformative leadership and impactful contributions continues to shape the industry landscape.