Speaker Biographies
The Honourable Charles Sousa
Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
Charles Sousa was first elected to the Ontario legislature in 2007. He represents the riding of Mississauga South. He was appointed Minister of Citizenship and Immigration in October 2011.
Sousa previously served as the Minister of Labour. Before joining government, Sousa worked for the RBC Financial Group for more than 20 years.
Sousa graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1982 with an Honours BA. In 1991, he completed a fellowship at the Institute of Canadian Bankers. He earned his MBA at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario in 1994. Sousa served as a member of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Toronto Board of Trade and as director of the American Chamber of Commerce.
Sousa is an ambassador for Credit Valley Hospital Foundation special events and past president of the Federation of Portuguese Canadian Business and Professionals. He has helped coordinate charitable events that support community-based organizations such as the United Way, the Rainbow Ball Foundation of Mississauga and the Community Foundation of Mississauga. In 2003, Sousa was honoured with a Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal in recognition of his outstanding achievements. He also received the Order of Merit from the Republic of Portugal in 2009.
Sousa is a lifelong resident of Mississauga South. He grew up in Cooksville, attended local schools and is now raising a family in the Lorne Park area with his wife, Zenny.
Deputy Minister Chisanga Puta-Chekwe
Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration
Chisanga Puta-Chekwe became Deputy Minister of the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration and the Deputy Minister Responsible for Women's Issues on March 9, 2009.
Deputy Minister Puta-Chekwe was previously Chair of the Social Benefits Tribunal. He spent a year in Zambia on a leave of absence from the OPS, working as Country Manager for First Quantum Minerals, with responsibilities for government liaison, negotiations and policy development.
In 1998, he became the founding Chair and CEO of the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal. His experience also includes several senior positions with Canadian and international organizations, including the Ontario Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, Meridien International Bank, England, and the law firm of Lloyd Jones & Collins, Zambia.
Deputy Minister Puta-Chekwe studied law at the University of Birmingham in England. A Rhodes Scholar, he received a Master of Laws degree from the University of London, and B.A. and M.A. degrees in philosophy, politics and economics from the University of Oxford.
Helen Burstyn
Helen Burstyn is the Co-Chair and Executive Lead of The Partnership Project. She leads the implementation of the recommendations of the Partnership Project, an Ontario Government initiative that she co-chaired with Dr. Eric Hoskins, then Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.
Helen served for six years as Chair of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, one of Canada's leading granting agencies that invests $120 million annually in not-for-profit and charitable organizations.
She served as Deputy Secretary to the Premier's Council and held various senior roles in legislative research, economic development and international relations in the Ontario Public Service. She also served as Senior Advisor, Stakeholder Relations, to the Premier.
Helen is a member of the Mayor's Task Force on Arts and Theatres, a Director and Past-President of The Canadian Club of Toronto, Vice-Chair of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Honourary Board Chair and Co-Founder of Gilda's Club Greater Toronto, and a founding board member of Equal Voice. She is a Director of the Luminato Festival of Arts and Creativity, the Canadian Journalism Foundation, The Walrus Foundation, and past Board Member of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
L. Robin Cardozo
Chief Executive Officer of the Ontario Trillium Foundation since 1999, Robin Cardozo leads one of Canada's largest granting foundations in its mission to help build healthy and vibrant communities in Ontario.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Mr. Cardozo served as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of United Way Toronto. During those years, Mr. Cardozo's leadership earned him the United Way movement's highest national honour, the André Mailhot Award.
Mr. Cardozo was born in Pakistan, and was educated in Pakistan and in Britain. He was trained as a Chartered Accountant, and was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (FCA) in 2000. He is also a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D).
Mr. Cardozo currently serves on the Boards of Bridgepoint Hospital and Centennial College. He also serves on the advisory board of The Centre for Effective Philanthropy, based in Boston.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation is an agency of the Government of Ontario. Since 1999, the Foundation has distributed more than $1 billion to deserving organizations in the Arts and Culture, Environment, Human and Social Services and Sports and Recreation sectors. The Foundation's support of these organizations contributes to the building of healthy and vibrant communities across Ontario.
Jacob Colker
Jacob Colker is Co-Founder of the for-profit social enterprise, Sparked.com. Formerly known as The Extraordinaries, Sparked created the field of Microvolunteering and helped turn the concept into a widely accepted engagement practice for the philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, and cause marketing sectors. To-date, the company has helped nearly half a million people volunteer online, including employees from Google, Kraft Foods, SAP, LinkedIn, and more.
Sparked has received numerous awards for their work including a 2010 Rolex Award for Enterprise, a 2009 Echoing Green Fellowship, a 2009 Ashoka Changemakers Award, and a 2009 United Nations WYSA Award. Prior to Sparked, Jacob spent two years working in the nonprofit sector on climate change and human rights issues, and five years working on political campaigns in California, Illinois, and Maryland.
Paula DeCoito
Paula is a sociologist with over 25 years of executive management experience in the Canadian non-profit sector. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Social Planning Council of Peel and the President of Word and World Eramosa Centre for Reflection and Response. Paula's expertise includes research and training in the areas of social movements, social entrepreneurship, non-profit management, diversity management, social inclusion, and the settlement and integration of newcomers to Canada. Her current research is focused on the future of the non-profit sector in western society and the rise of the spiritual industry in North America. Paula is also a student of shamanism and serves as a ceremonialist. She is also the co-author of four diversity management manuals focused on the non-profit sector:-
- Building the Diversity-Competent Organization: A Best Practices Manual for Non-Profit Organizations (2005)
- A Diversity Management Tool Kit for Non-Profit Organizations (2006)
- Diversity Competence for Non-Profit Organizations: A 12-Step Planning Process (2006)
- Writing Funding Proposals for Diversity Management (2006.)
Jeronimo De Miguel
Jeronimo De Miguel joined Manulife Financial in 2006 after graduating with an MBA in Finance from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. He has had a number of finance-related roles within Manulife since that time including Director of Investor Relations, Director of Financial Reporting & Planning and Assistant Vice President, Strategic Planning. In the Fall of 2010 he moved into a new role as Assistant Vice-President, External Relations, which includes media relations, philanthropy and Manulife's new Signature Cause of volunteerism.
Since joining External Relations, Jeronimo led the team that announced a major commitment to volunteerism in 2010 and was instrumental in establishing strategic partnerships with CBC and Radio-Canada to launch Canada's Champions of Change and Gens de Coeur public engagement programs. Jeronimo acts as primary link at Manulife to the not-for-profit sector, including Volunteer Canada, which has partnered with Manulife on various projects including a ground-breaking research report about today's volunteers (Bridging the Gap), released in December 2010, which led to the launch of a national volunteer hub (GetVolunteering.ca) and the establishment of a volunteer matching tool in March 2011. In September 2011, he led the launch of the first-ever comprehensive online conversation about Volunteerism in Canada.
Prior to joining Manulife in 2006, Jeronimo worked for a number of UN agencies in development programming around capacity-building efforts in post-conflict areas such as Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Cyprus and Brazil.
Mandy Dennison
Mandy Dennison is the Manager, Corporate Philanthropy Programs at Research In Motion, the designer and manufacturer of the BlackBerry® smartphone. Mandy and her team manage RIM's global philanthropic investments and global community focused employee engagement programs.
Mandy serves her community in a variety of avenues, including leadership work with the Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation, Volunteer Action Centre of Kitchener-Waterloo, Capacity Waterloo Region and the City of Waterloo Community Grants Committee. She chairs the Greater KW Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals Committee, is a member of the Grant Review Team on the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Kitchener-Waterloo YWCA. She was recognized in 2011 as one of Waterloo Region's 'Top 40 under 40' citizens.
Mandy holds a Bachelor of Arts from Wilfrid Laurier University and currently resides in Kitchener, Ontario.
Blair Dimock
Blair Dimock was appointed OTF's Director of Research, Evaluation and Knowledge Management in March 2006. Prior to joining the Foundation, Blair was Director of Strategic Planning and Research at TVOntario, where his responsibilities included corporate strategy, government relations, regulatory affairs and research. Earlier in his career, Blair worked with the Premier's Council, an advisory body to the Premier of Ontario, where he coordinated the Task Force on Lifelong Learning. Blair began his career as a lecturer in International Politics at the University of Toronto and at Trent University, where he was nominated for the Trent Award for Excellence in Teaching. He holds an Honours B.A. from Mount Allison University and an M.A. from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University.
An active volunteer, Blair has been a member of the Learning Partnership's Roundtable on Technology, the Education Committee of the Metro Toronto Zoo, and the Steering Committee of the Centre for the Study of Education and Work at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT).
Ilona Dougherty
Passionate about fusing art and social change from an early age, Ilona's diverse experiences range from being a Canadian delegate to the United Nations at 17 years old to producing concerts across Canada. A life long social entrepreneur, in January 2004 Ilona co-founded Apathy is Boring, (www.apathyisboring.com) a national non-partisan charitable organization that uses art and technology to educate Canadian youth about democracy. As Apathy is Boring's Executive Director she has been featured by the national media, worked with rock stars, and given thousands of youth the tools they need to get involved in their communities. Raised by socially engaged parents in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and Whitehorse, Yukon, Ilona currently lives in Montreal, Quebec.
Faiza Kanji
From a very young age, Faiza Kanji's parents instilled in herself and her brothers a strong sense of volunteerism. They, as immigrants to Canada almost 40 years ago, made a successful transition into Canadian life with the help of many kind and generous volunteers. A volunteer herself from a very young age, Faiza has successfully managed volunteers at the Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC), Youth Employment Service (YES) the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF) and Surrey Place Centre. She is currently General Manager, Volunteer Development at the YMCA of Greater Toronto and a designated Certified Volunteer Resources Manager (CVRM.) Faiza is also an active member and volunteer of the Toronto Association for Volunteer Administrators (TAVA) and Professional Administrators of Volunteer Resources – Ontario (PAVR-O) where she received the President's Award in recognition of her volunteer contributions. She is also the Ontario Regional Representative for the Canadian Journal of Volunteer Resources Management (CJVRM) and a member of Canadian Administrators of Volunteer Resources (CAVR.) Faiza believes strongly that a community with a sound sense of volunteerism and a committed volunteer base improves the overall quality of life and health of all its members.
Mark Kelley
There are few journalists who have covered this country the way the CBC's Mark Kelley has. To cover the story of homelessness, he moved into a shelter in Montreal. To cover a story on teaching troubled students, he spent a week as a substitute teacher at a school in northern BC. He's driven a Winnebago across the country to talk to voters during a federal election. He has hosted the CBC's Morning Show, The National, and now his own show, Connect with Mark Kelley, a nightly news and current affairs program on the CBC News Network. He is a 5 time Gemini award winner, and a proud father of 4 beautiful boys.
Peter MacLeod
Peter MacLeod is the co-founder and principal of MASS LBP, an innovative firm based in Toronto which works with visionary governments and corporations to deepen and improve public consultation and engagement. Since 2007, MASS has led some of the Canada's most original and ambitious efforts to engage citizens in tackling tough policy options while pioneering the use of Civic Lotteries and Citizen Reference Panels on behalf of a wide array of clients.
Sharif Mahdy
Sharif has been working with the Students Commission of Canada the lead organization to the Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement for two years. Sharif is primarily responsible for coordinating the various national, provincial and local youth-focused projects of the organization.
Projects have included: the Youth Assembly on Gambling and Co-Addictions, Project PEACE (crime prevention program), Influence in Action (critical thinking and drug awareness program), Health Canada's Youth and Young Adult Committees and YMCA Canada's Young Adult Leaders Forum to name a few. Sharif graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree in Health Promotion. Sharif started his youth engagement career in overnight camping working in camping for 8 summer seasons.
Paulette Minard
Paulette Minard is Community Affairs Manager, The Home Depot Canada. In this role, she is responsible for the overall management of The Home Depot Canada Foundation, a private registered charity, as well as, all community investment activities that support The Home Depot's commitment to giving back to the communities it serves.
Prior to joining The Home Depot, Paulette was Program Manager, Education and Community Relations for the Canadian Olympic Committee where she developed and delivered community outreach programs geared to youth and designed to promote the importance of sport and physical activity.
A graduate of McMaster University, Paulette began her career with the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club as a Community Relations Coordinator. Paulette has enjoyed the opportunity to build her career in an area of business that she is truly passionate about, giving back and making a difference in the community.
Anil Patel
In 2001, Anil and some university friends co-founded Framework, the charity that runs the Timeraiser. The Timeraiser is a program aimed at engaging skilled and energetic Canadians to get involved in the community. The Timeraiser is Part volunteer fair, Part silent art auction, Part night on the town. The twist of the silent art auction is that instead of bidding money, participants bid volunteer time. Successful auction bidders have 12 months to complete their volunteer pledge with the charity they meet the night of the Timeraiser. When the hours are complete, art winners get to bring the artwork home as a reminder of their good will.
To date the Timeraiser has generated 95,000 volunteer hours, engaged 6,500 Canadians to pick-up a cause, worked with 350+ agencies in need of skilled volunteers and invested $490,000 in the careers of Canadian artists. Framework is the 2006 recipient of the Queen's Alumni Humanitarian Award and 2009 Tides Canada Top 10 Most Innovative Charities.
In the decades ahead, he has made a commitment to promoting life-long active citizenship across the country. Anil sits on the board of United Way of Toronto & Ontario Trillium Foundation and is asked regularly to contribute to other initiatives in Canada focused on volunteerism, corporate social responsibility/employee-supported volunteerism and nonprofit capacity building.
Sarah Saso
Sarah Saso is the Executive Director, Green Shield Canada Foundation where she manages its operations, including strategic direction, program development, community giving, communications, financial management and investment monitoring. Sarah has extensive experience in the non-profit, private and public sectors working for arts, heritage, communications and financial services organizations in the areas of corporate social responsibility, sponsorship, public relations, marketing, communications and event management.
Prior to working at Green Shield, Sarah was the Director of Community Relations at Manulife Financial where she was responsible for the Corporate Giving, Public Accountability Statement and Employee Volunteer programs. While at Manulife Sarah proved, in an evidence-based study, that there are bottom-line business benefits connected to employee supported volunteerism.
Prior to working at Manulife Sarah was the Director of Sponsorship at CIBC and helped create CIBC's sponsorship strategy.
A big believer in giving back to the community, Sarah co-chairs the Association of Corporate Grantmakers, is a member of Volunteer Canada's Corporate Council, and enjoys getting her hands dirty volunteering for Habitat for Humanity.
Erin Spink
Erin Spink currently serves as President of PAVR-O (Professional Administrators of Volunteer Resources- Ontario) helping lead over 365 peers in advancing volunteer engagement matters across the province. In 2009, Spink completed an MA in Leadership, submitting the first quantifiable measurement of volunteer engagement in the world, contributing to a new dialogue through published writing, workshops and speaking opportunities. Most recently, Erin was one of 16 other young Canadians selected as an Action Canada Fellow.
Cathy Taylor
Cathy Taylor is the founding Executive Director of the Volunteer Centre of Guelph/Wellington, celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2011. Cathy is a member of the Ontario Volunteer Centre Network Steering Committee, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of Volunteer Canada. She recently led a provincial project on "building stronger organizations through volunteer centre services and engaging new Canadians as volunteers".
Cathy has an Honours Degree in Political Studies and History from Queen's University. She has also graduated from the York University-Maytree Foundation 2007 Executive Directors' Institute. Cathy's personal volunteer work includes a recent four year term as Co-Chair of the Public Sector Division of the United Way campaign, a current board member of the YMCA-YWCA of Guelph, and helping out at the local Eden Mills Writers Festival.
Cathy has three young children and lives in Eden Mills (a small village outside of Guelph).
James Temple
James Temple is the Director of Corporate Responsibility for PwC Canada and has a dual role leading the PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada Foundation.
An experienced professional in not-for-profit management and corporate affairs, James has held related roles at the Royal Bank of Canada, Direct Energy and various agencies within the not-for-profit sector.
Speaking worldwide on the issues related corporate community relations; James has most recently been a featured speaker at the World Volunteer Forum, International Corporate Citizenship Conference, and was one of this year's judges for Strategy Magazine's Cause + Action Awards.
He serves as Co-Chair of the Association of Corporate Grantmakers, is a member of the Board of Advisors for the Institute at Havergal College, and serves on Advisory Councils for the YMCA of Greater Toronto, Sheena's Place, Dress for Success, and the Ontario Association of Food Banks.
He holds a degree in Geographic Analysis from Ryerson University and a Certificate in Advertising and Media from the Canadian Marketing Association.
