Healthcare

Eric Pook has been consulting small businesses since the late ‘90s with an emphasis on revenue creation and cost mitigation. He grew up in a medical entrepreneurial environment and continued that passion by starting or growing businesses throughout North America. Eric advises Doctors each day on how to successfully leverage the dental office lease agreement to maximize practice value while reducing risk and liability.

Financial Acumen, Technology

Eugene previously held the position of Executive Vice‐President, Digital Excellence and Technology Advisor, for Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC). Eugene started his career in telecommunications and has worked for Nortel Networks Corporation, Bell Canada Enterprises Inc., and Open Text Corporation. In progressively senior technology and business roles in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. he built his career by discovering and delivering ‘next generation’ digital capabilities within enterprise large and small. He holds a Master’s Degree in Administration, Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, is a Certified Management Accountant, and is a recent graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors program. He is a frequent speaker on “The Hyperconnected Digital World”. In 2015, Eugene was named CIO of the Year by RIS News and Canada’s CIO of the Year (Private Sector) by Information Technology Association of Canada. He is on the Board of Governors at York University. He is also executive in residence for AI at the Schulich Business School.

Evelina is an executive and systemic team coach, award winning executive educator, and an expert in vertical leadership development. She leads a thriving private practice partnering with senior leaders and founders and their leadership teams to transform the way they lead, team, and navigate through complex human and organizational challenges. Evelina integrates cutting-edge science and practice to tackle the areas that are most critical to sustainable success and business growth, yet most difficult to change. Throughout her career, Evelina has partnered with hundreds of clients in private, public and not-for-profit sector organizations to diagnose, design and deliver integrated interventions at the individual, team, and organizational level. She is known for her engaging, authentic, collaborative, and compassionate style and fostering high trust relationships that disarm people’s natural defenses so they can engage in deep development and sustain the change. Prior to starting her private practice, Evelina was a learning and organizational development practitioner at the University of Guelph, where she also served as Faculty in the Lang Masters in Leadership program, teaching an intensive 7-day leadership development program that garnered a reputation as being "transformational." Evelina has also served as a team coaching SME and global co-leader for the International Coaching Federation’s Team and Group Coaching Community of Practice.

Federico has 20+ years of experience as a business leader, specializing in designing, delivering, and developing strategic and operational plans. He is responsible for the development, management, and delivery of training programs related to Negotiation, Sales Effectiveness, Leadership, Behavioral and Communication Styles, Potential Evaluation, Persuasive Communication, Strategy, and Organization. His experience and expertise span diverse industries, business lines, and company sizes, from multinational corporations to medium and small organizations. Regardless of the environment he works in, he focuses on fostering negotiation and communication skills among individuals, departments, and entire organizations to cultivate an impactful communication approach and drive business results. Federico has extensive experience in Mobile Telecommunications, Digital, IT, IoT, Customer Care, Manufacturing, Construction, Luxury, FMCG, Energy, Automotive, Finance, Insurance, and Banking. He holds an Executive Master in Business Administration from Fondazione CUOA and is fluent in Italian and English.

Communication, General Management

Gail Levitt is an influential leadership facilitator, coach and mentor with a unique approach that engages and inspires participants to learn and apply both theory and practice for peak performance. Gail offers a wide range of influential leadership topics, including negotiating; productivity management; strategic and critical thinking; managing change; communicating without authority; transformational coaching and team collaboration. Gail’s extensive training and work experience as supervisor, manager and senior leader in both public and private sectors enable her to adapt easily and engage diverse audiences with relevant examples they can apply immediately. Gail’s highly acclaimed first book, Team Planning for Project Managers and Business Analysts, was published by CRC Press in 2013. Her forthcoming book The Truth about Collaboration: Why People Fail and How to Succeed will be available in June 2020.

Big Data and Analytics, Business Analysis, Financial Acumen, General Management

Gary Kimmel leads a team of Financial Services industry experts & architects within one of the largest software companies in the world. He and his team consult with C-suite and senior executives to create revenue growth, cost optimization, improved compliance and competitive advantages in their businesses.  He brings a unique blend of business acumen, international experience and technology leadership and is credited with advancing many businesses in multiple industries over the last twenty-eight years. Having worked predominantly within large enterprises, Gary has built teams and provided organizations with improved revenue, agility, time to market and improved ability to deal with technology costs and innovations.  He has also worked on multiple corporate acquisitions and integrations, process improvement programs, business re-architectures and technological disruption initiatives. Gary is a Certified Blockchain Expert and currently holds the role of Field CTO and Head of Financial Services Enterprise Architecture at Salesforce. Previous roles include Strategic Digital Marketing Executive and Director of Strategic Innovation at Salesforce where he led organizations to grow through disruptive innovation and ‘zero design’. Gary has worked extensively within the Financial Services sector.  He spent multiple years at TD Bank Financial Group as Chief Security Architect, Head of Enterprise Strategic Architecture and the Head of the Digital Channel Mobile Teams. Before TD Bank, Gary spent eight years with Microsoft in multiple countries, serving as an Enterprise Strategy Consultant in the Financial Services Sector and an Industry Technology Strategist in the Media & Communications Sector. Gary studied at Damelin College and also at the University of Cape Town.  He holds Salesforce, TOGAF, ITIL, Microsoft Solutions and Operations Framework certifications as well as a Blockchain Expert Certification.  

Coaching and Collaboration

Gary Miller is an Instructor in the MBA program for the Schulich School of Business, York University. He has more than 25 years of experience coaching individuals and teams to develop confidence and competence as leaders skilled at driving business results. Familiar in delivering exceptional presentations, courses, and lectures, Gary uses his coaching and facilitation skills to help participants and organizations to hone their people management expertise. He creates a comfortable, collaborative and positive learning environment, which allows individuals and teams to reach their full potential.

Gave is an experienced executive, lawyer, and board director within the media and cultural sectors where he has developed, commissioned, and structured projects across film, TV, streaming, social, gaming, and live events. Currently, he is an advisor and investor in startups across all aspects of the creator economy.   Most recently, he served as the Head of Content Programming for North America at TikTok, where he led the team responsible for original live production, in-app editorial, trends, and off-platform content collaborations such as TikTok Radio and TikTok Tailgate.  Previously, he led CBC’s digital content offerings including CBC.ca, CBC Kids, and launched the streaming service CBC Gem, as Executive Director of OTT Programming. In this role, he created CBC's first YA content strategy and was responsible for commissioning a slate of series from some of Canada's most talented new voices.   Gave also served as Executive Director of the Reelworld Film Festival, worked as a business affairs executive, and began his career as a media and entertainment lawyer at a Bay Street law firm. Gave currently serves on the boards of the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, TO Live, and the Shaw Rocket Fund. He is a frequent speaker on the intersection of media, content, and innovation and has been featured in The Today Show, Variety, Toronto Life, and SHARP Magazine. He holds BA, MBA, and JD degrees from the University of Toronto and is called to the Bar of Ontario. 

Big Data and Analytics

George J. Georgopoulos is from London, Ontario, Canada. He received his undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Western Ontario, M.A. and PhD in Economics from the University of Toronto, where he is now an Associate Professor of Economics at York University. He has experience working with various governments regarding Statistical Analysis including the Governments of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the Government of Bolivia, and the Government of Canada. The work in Canada included in 2008 being part of a team of economists from Canada and the European Union that worked on the exploratory stage of the Canada-EU free trade agreement, commissioned by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Georgopoulos is the York Senior Fellow Scholar at Massey College, University of Toronto. He has taught and received teaching excellence awards at York University and the University of Toronto. He has also received the Dean’s Excellence Award for Research at York. His research is in the area of Business Statistics, Finance, and Business Economics Strategy. He has discussed his work at various international conferences and to business leaders and in various media sources including CNN International, Bloomberg, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Global Television News in Canada and the CTV Television News in Canada.

Greg Kozdrowski has a BA and MCATD, and he resides in Toronto. He specializes in performance consulting, instructional design and learning technology.

Management

Gregory Milavsky is a Founder of The Black Box Institute, an advisory boutique. He was formerly Managing Director/Group Head of Scotiabank Private Equity Investments and head of Merchant Banking for Rothschild Quantico Capital. Greg spent five years at Rothschild Canada Limited, most recently as Senior Vice President and Director. Prior to Rothschild, Greg was an investment banker with James D. Wolfensohn Incorporated in New York. Greg worked with the CIBC Group as an Associate Director, Corporate Finance in London and Tokyo. He has provided investment banking, corporate finance and financial advisory services to global public and private corporations and governments.

Glem Dias is an award-winning talent management practitioner with diverse industry experiences from Investment Banking, Software, Telecommunications, Pharmaceuticals and Retail. He has been in global roles within Fortune 500 companies managing the design and development of succession management, high potential leadership development, mentoring, action-learning and critical talent mobility.

Hamida is driven and passionate about propelling individuals and teams to achieve their full potential. She executes leadership development, coaching and organizational excellence initiatives in health care. Her work in design and implementation of an emerging leaders program has received Honourable Mention for Excellence from the Association of Talent Development. She has held leadership and project management roles in the academic, research and government sectors. Her most recent board roles include president of the Ontario Association of Public Health Nursing Leaders and member responsible for the Women’s Portfolio on the Ismaili Council for Canada.

General Management

Haniyeh Yousofpour is an award-winning, Harvard-educated business professor and consultant with a passion in organizational change management, influential negotiation and effective utilization of human capital. Yousofpour is a multiple award-winning educator teaching in full-time and part-time Master of Business Administration and Executive Education Programs. In addition to her teaching, Yousofpour has founded a consulting firm providing various integrative management consulting services to multinational Fortune 500 companies. Yousofpour’s integrative and distinctive approach, focusing on self and other awareness, and thorough assessment of the environmental and organizational culture, goals, resources and limitations, enables her to provide customized and attainable solutions scalable to diverse range of clients and situations. Building on the same philosophy she has an effective approach to negotiation and conflict resolution and has led multiple negotiation deals with various global organizations (e.g. AMEX, GE, Xerox, Sodexo to name a few) to reduce cost and improve organizational performance.

Big Data and Analytics, Technology

Hemant Sangwan is a full-time professor at Seneca College. Alongside his position as an instructor for Schulich ExecEd, he is a sessional lecturer at Schulich School of Business, York University and Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He teaches courses in AI/ML, data science, analytics, economics, marketing research, and statistics at undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels. Hemant has led executive education modules in marketing analytics and data science for business delegates and has conducted intensive boot camp programs in Python programming and data science at the leading schools (Boston University, University of Toronto) in the world. Hemant has also contributed to curriculum and program development, pedagogical, and multi-media teaching innovations. He spent 12+ years in the industry (Boston Consulting Group (BCG), GfK Canada, Leger Marketing, IHS Markit) working as a consultant and expert in management consulting, data science and analytics, marketing research, economic consulting and forecasting functions. In his consulting roles, he served clients in the financial services, CPG, retail, telecom, and construction sectors, both in Canada and international markets. He has demonstrated exceptional knowledge of problem formulation, project management, survey design and analytics, data interpretation and translation on cases in growth strategy, branding, pricing, CRM, and new product development. He was a strategist (volunteer) for a political campaign for a candidate in the Ontario municipal election in 2018 and served as Chief Financial officer for a candidate in the federal election in 2021. In this volunteer role, he used his skills in analytics, marketing strategy, branding, and social media to advise the candidate on campaign logistics, voter segmentation, platform positioning, and campaign messaging in print, digital, and social media channels.