Speakers

Chris Baylis is the President and CEO of The Sponsorship Collective and a self-confessed sponsorship geek.

After several years as a sponsor (that’s right, the one investing the money!) Chris decided to cross over to the sponsorship sales side where he has personally closed tens of millions of dollars in sponsorship deals. Chris has been on the front lines of multi-million dollar sponsorship agreements and has built and coached teams to do the same.

After several years as a sponsorship consultant for The International Fundraising Consultancy, Chris launched The Sponsorship Collective with one goal in mind:

To build best-in-class sponsorship programs for his clients

Chris now spends his time working with clients to value their assets and build strategies that drive sales. An accomplished speaker, international consultant and head coach inside The Sponsorship Academy, Chris has helped his clients raise millions in sponsorship dollars.

Brad Offman is Founder and Principal of Spire Philanthropy, a management consultancy specializing in corporate-charitable partnerships. He is the former Senior Vice President, Strategic Philanthropy at Mackenzie Investments. Brad is also former President of the Mackenzie Investments Charitable Foundation and Managing Director of the Mackenzie Charitable Giving Fund. Prior to joining Mackenzie, Brad served as Vice President, Development at the Toronto Community Foundation.

Brad is currently on the Board of CANSOF Foundation, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Toronto and Benefaction Foundation. He is a member of the National Advisory Council for Imagine Canada.

Brad is past Chair of the Leave A Legacy Program for the Greater Toronto Area and former member of the Board of Directors for Philanthropic Foundations Canada. He is a past Faculty Member for the CAGP Original Gift Planning Course and is currently on the organization’s Government Relations Committees. He is also on the Editorial Advisory Board for Gift Planning in Canada.

Brad holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and a Master of Arts Degree from the University of Toronto and a First Class Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree from McGill University in Montreal.

Allen Davidov, MBA, CM. is the Vice President & Practice Leader of the not-for-profit, energy, transportation, and public sector at Environics Analytics. With nearly twenty years of experience in marketing, analytics, and fundraising, he has worked with organizations of all sizes to unlock the value of information in decision-making and business strategy. Prior to joining EA, Allen successfully led marketing, and a variety of fundraising programs at a number of organizations, including Sinai Health Foundation, Habitat for Humanity GTA, Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Ontario Region, St. John’s Rehab Hospital Foundation at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and North York General Hospital Foundation. Allen is also an active member of the Canadian Marketing Association Not-For-Profit Council, a marketing and data volunteer with the Canadian Association of Gift Planners, and a member of Seneca College’s Marketing Advisory Council. He holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Liverpool, a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Ryerson University, a Creative Advertising diploma from Centennial College, and a Chartered Marketer certificate from the Canadian Marketing Association.

Brittany Hill is the CEO and Founder of Accelerist, the partnership intelligence SaaS platform where some of the industry’s most prolific brands and nonprofits prospect, value, access and measure their events and partnerships with each other. As a passionate data seeker and trend translator, Brittany specializes in using analytics and innovations to support B-corporations and Fortune 1000 companies as well as enterprise and federated nonprofits in their pursuit of sustainable events and partnerships. Britany’s trendsetting insights have been featured in Forbes, Huffington Post, TIME, and MSN.com. In her role, Brittany spearheads social impact product development and leads a talented team who has supported 100s of customers in effectuating social change.

Jill Lewis helps businesses deliver on their purpose and build reputation through strong Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. With over 12 years’ experience driving sustainability and employee engagement strategies forward, she thrives on opportunities to make tangible, positive change at the community level.

In her current role at Aviva Canada, Jill oversees the company’s ESG ambition, including its net zero by 2040 climate plan. In addition, she played a pivotal role shaping the development of Aviva’s Take Back Our Roads social impact platform, which leverages data, expertise and partnerships to make roads safer for Canadians.

Throughout her career, Jill has advanced sustainable development and human rights agendas with UNDP, UNICEF, the World Bank and Amnesty International and benefitted from meaningful volunteer roles with organizations including Kopernik and the Canadian Red Cross.

Elizabeth Dove is Volunteer Canada’s Director of Corporate Citizenship. She is the organizational lead on supporting companies in their employee/stakeholder community engagement programs. She convenes the Corporate Community Engagement Council, leads the consulting practice for businesses, and collaborates with companies and nonprofits to create thought-leadership on CSR practices that provide benefit to communities, businesses, their employees and other stakeholders. She has worked as senior staff and consultant for companies and non-profits advancing health issues, empowerment of women and youth, the arts, and international development. Elizabeth holds the McGill-McConnell Master of Management for National Voluntary (Non-Profit) Sector Leaders and is a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work on social justice issues.

Shelley Mayer, CM is the founder and president of Ramp Communications, a certified B Corporation, and award-winning creative agency. She is inspired by people and organizations making a difference, and her passion lies in developing brands and communications rooted in smart thinking and research informed strategy. With more than 20 years of combined client and agency experience, Shelley is a trusted strategic advisor to social impact organizations. She leads a team of specialists who provide expert execution in all facets of marketing including brand development, advertising, digital marketing, social media outreach, public relations, and events. Shelley holds a business degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and the Canadian Marketing Association, Chartered Marketer (CM) designation. Shelley joined the CMA NFP Council in 2019 and provides thought leadership to CMA members. She is also a founding and ongoing Activator with SheEO, she sits on the Breakfast Club of Canada Campaign Cabinet, and is a Futurpreneur Canada mentor.

A strategic thinker, motivator and change agent, Ed has delivered approximately $10M of sponsorship revenue to businesses by leading, motivating and empowering. Ed has grown engagement and revenue for businesses and associations through membership drives, education, events and sponsorship. He enjoys family, friends and building new relationships! 

Mena Gainpaulsingh is a fundraising leader with national and international experience and a demonstrated commitment to human rights. Mena began her career in the human rights sector, managing a capital campaign in the United Kingdom to build a new treatment centre for torture survivors.
She moved on to fundraise for Rights of Women, which provides support for women experiencing violence and discrimination. She then worked with the International Fundraising Consultancy, relocating to Canada in 2010 to establish a Canadian chapter before starting her own Ottawa-based firm.
Gainpaulsingh, who holds a law degree from the University of South Wales, also sat on the steering committee for Prime Minister’s Row, which worked to develop Canada’s first street museum. She has volunteered for the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre, the Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, the Institute of Fundraising (UK) and the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Mena was appointed as CEO of the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in April 2018.

Stéphane Glorieux is the President of Keurig Canada Inc. and Canada Dry Mott’s Inc., now doing business as Keurig Dr Pepper Canada. He joined Keurig Canada in 2012 as Vice-President, Operations, before being appointed President in May 2014. Previously, he held various leadership roles at Kraft Food France and Kraft Canada. A graduate of École Polytechnique de Montréal where he received his Mechanical Engineering degree, Stéphane also holds an MBA from McGill University.

As head of Keurig Dr Pepper’s Canadian business unit, Stephane leads a team of seven executives working in Finance, Supply chain and operations, Commercial Strategy, Sales, Marketing, Communications and sustainability, and Human resources.

Just like the organization he leads, Stéphane is very engaged in his local community, both from business and personal standpoints. Passionate about people, his management style fosters development within a culture that embraces change and engagement. Strategic thinking, pragmatic decision-making, and organizational planning are important assets he enjoys sharing to help solidify the vision of the organizations in which he personally invests himself.

Gaurav Gupta is a senior leader in the impact space, with a career spanning the corporate, non-profit and foundation sectors across six countries. His background is in engineering, strategy consulting, public health and impact. Gaurav currently leads social and environmental impact strategy for KPMG in Canada, focusing on the UN SDGs, national sponsorships, employee volunteerism and environmental sustainability. He is also a part of the KPMG Leaders of Tomorrow Circle and represents KPMG in Canada at the KPMG Global Corporate Citizenship table.

Phillip founded PUBLIC in 2008 to disrupt the way companies think about doing “good”. Driven by a passion to prove that social and environmental impact is a key business driver to achieve profit with purpose, he set out to build a social impact agency – designing social and environmental purpose brands, strategies, programs and campaigns. As CEO, he is responsible for overseeing the strategic and creative growth of the business, including oversight on some of PUBLIC’s North American clients including: Tiffany & Co., Comcast NBCUniversal, Johnson & Johnson, Uniqlo, and Sephora. Phillip is also a columnist for Fast Company writing on “profit with purpose”.

Paul Joliat was appointed as Assistant Vice-President, Global Partnerships at Sun Life in 2014. He oversees Sun Life’s global sponsorship and philanthropy strategies and execution. He is responsible for enhancing the organization’s reputation and profile across Canada and around the world.

Paul has led several prominent programs across Sun Life, including their signature Team Up Against Diabetes strategy. As part of its activation, he helped introduce inventive new tactics such as physical and online diabetes screening clinics at Sun Life sponsored events. He leveraged key sports properties as platforms to communicate Sun Life’s global cause, diabetes. Paul also led the implementation of Sun Life’s diabetes platform in the United States and throughout Asia, integrating the cause into proprietary events in each Sun Life market.

Under Paul’s leadership, the Toronto Raptors and Sun Life proudly expanded their long-standing partnership to include the first jersey patch sponsorship in the team’s history. This partnership also included prominent programming in support of type 2 diabetes awareness and prevention. On the Arts front, Paul has led the development of innovative national programs such as the award-winning Sun Life Musical Instrument Lending Library program. It provides the opportunity for millions of Canadians to borrow an instrument from their local library free of charge.

Recently, Paul has been actively developing Sun Life’s social impact measurement framework and implementing new and innovative mental health initiatives. He has also been leading a regional Asia sponsorship strategy, while taking a lead role in managing the company’s philanthropic response to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Paul has over 20 years of sponsorship marketing and CSR experience. Prior to joining Sun Life, Paul worked in the agency world developing sponsorship, activation and community relations strategies and programs for well-known Canadian companies and numerous arts & entertainment, sports and not-for-profit organizations. Paul holds an honors degree from the University of Guelph (Psychology major, Music minor) and an MBA from the University of Alberta. Paul lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons.

From 2000 to 2020, Mark Sabourin was the editor and publisher of The Sponsorship Report, a twice-monthly publication that reported on corporate sponsorship in Canada. In that capacity, he interviewed thousands of the country’s thought leaders. He also organized and hosted a slew of annual conferences and workshops on corporate sponsorship, including Sponsorship Week and Sponsorship Toronto. Recently, the joined the coaching staff at The Sponsorship Accelerator, program of The Sponsorship Collective that helps properties build best-practice sponsorship programs.

He founded Lavergne in 1986, manufacturing recycled plastics compounds from post-consumer & post-industrial plastic wastes steams.

In 1996, he was the first one to obtain a non-objective FDA status in North America where the end products used in contact with food. A first in the recycling community.

In 1998 he added a new division that utilized a unique technology that transformed recycled material into a highly sophisticated recycled engineering compounds. All the while, recruiting experienced team members with skill sets in fields of chemistry, technology equipment, production output, quality systems, that enable the company to offer the industry with high-quality products in a competitive market.

More investment started in the summer of 2018 to increase capacity, adding latest separation technology and more automation, keeping up with the demand, assuring fantastic service and never jeopardizing their clientele competitive edge within their respective industries.
“I wake up every morning to make plastic circular.” – Jean Luc Lavergne

Mark is the founder and one of three Board of Director’s at technology start-up, Spontza.com.

Spontza.com are creating a platform that digitally transforms the methods used today by many Right Holders, which in return provides Brands with a platform to connect to their target audiences, based on their needs, outcomes and values.

“As consumers, during our buying process we want to quickly search and view the information we want and need, in order to make an educated buying decision. The question we have asked ourselves at Spontza is, why is this not the same for Brands when searching to reach their target audience? Today, we have opportunities to connect audiences faster if we improve process, increase transparency, increase awareness and if we provide Brands with access to Rights Holder information & data that they want and need. Spontza will be enablement that makes this happen”

Mark has operated in the Digital Advertising space for over 15 years and prior to founding Spontza, operated as part of the Leadership Team for a FTSE 100 company in the UK.

As the first leader of the Petro-Canada CareMakers Foundation, Leila is responsible for overseeing all aspects of this new corporate charity, focused on supporting family caregivers in Canada. With a career spanning over 20 years of creating meaningful social impact programs for such leading corporations as Deloitte, Loblaw and Rogers she has extensive knowledge of best practices in corporate social responsibility. Leila has also leveraged her professional experience on behalf of the NFP sector, by providing strategic planning counsel to such clients as the United Way.

Leila is a past Board member of Volunteer Canada, as well as Philanthropic Foundations Canada (PfC), Canada’s leading membership organization for Canadian foundations, and has served on a variety of Executive Councils, such as the Conference Board’s Community Investment Council. She is often asked to speak on such topics as corporate volunteering, community partnership and corporate grantmaking.

Leila holds an MBA from the Ivey School of Business, an M.A. in Communication and Culture from York and Ryerson Universities, a post-graduate certificate in Public Relations, and her B.A. from the University of Toronto.

Dr. Adriana Shnall is the Program Director of Baycrest@Home, Clinical Programs. and the Koschitzky Centre for Innovations in Family Caregiving, Prior to this, she was the Manager and Professional Practice Chief for Social Work at Baycrest. Adriana has 30 years of clinical experience working with older adults and their families including outpatient community services, long term care and inpatient services. She was the recipient of the Baycrest Outstanding Innovations award. Adriana has an academic appointment with the Faculty at the rank of Assistant Professor, and teaches at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work and at the Institute for the Life Course and Aging, University of Toronto. Adriana is the Chair of the Caregiving Committee for the National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly (NICE) and is a member of the Ontario Caregiver Coalition and the Toronto Caregiver Coalition. Adriana integrates clinical practice, education and research in the area of family caregiving with an expertise in evidence based, innovative family caregiving initiatives.

Elizabeth has experience building cooperative alliances across-sectors nationally and internationally.
At impakt, she has led the development and implementation of social purpose initiatives and helped to shape the social vision for several clients. Her work has been instrumental for clients such us Petro-Canada, BRP, Cadillac Fairview, and more, as well as for the development of impakt’s Change for Good series. She has an MBA from the Schulich School of Business focused on sustainability, social impact, and international development.

Andreas Souvaliotis is a globally recognized Canadian social innovator. He created the world’s first national wellness promotion platform, the once hugely popular Carrot Rewards app. A decade earlier he had built and sold Green Rewards, the first-ever environmental lifestyle promotion program in the world.

He is a prolific, unconventional and outspoken supporter of global wellness, inclusion, diversity, climate action and social entrepreneurship

Rusul Alrubail (@rusulalrubail) is the Executive Director of Parkdale Centre for Innovation, a non-profit incubator and accelerator that seeks to fill the accessibility and inclusivity gap to innovation, tech, and entrepreneurship, especially for underrepresented groups: women, newcomers, and people from low-income backgrounds. Alrubail was recently named as one of WXN’s 2020 Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the Science and Technology sector. She is also a published author, keynote speaker, and mom of two.

Rose Lipton is nonprofit executive, educator and social impact leader with over 12 years of experience working with nonprofit agencies, government officials, educational institutions, and corporations to achieve social change through strategic partnerships. In her previous role as the Director of Canadian Programs for Right To Play International, she built trusting multi-year relationships with some of Canada’s largest brands and corporate foundations, secured net new federal and provincial funding, and oversaw transformative outcomes for children and youth. In her current role as the Executive Director at the Indigo Love of Reading Foundation, Rose brings together Indigo store teams, home office teams, distribution centres, vendors and customers alongside parents, educators, school leadership and students to significantly enhance the literacy outcomes for students in high-needs communities across Canada. 

Gina brings a collaborative and integrated approach to her work, drawing on over 25 years of public affairs and marketing communications experience in diverse sectors, including energy, telecommunications, business-to-business, healthcare and not-for-profit. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with a Major in Communications from Simon Fraser University, Certificates in Corporate Citizenship Management and Corporate Community Investment from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, in certificate in Corporate Social Responsibility from University of St. Michael’s College, and is a graduate of Partnership Broker Training Levels I and II.

Calgary is home for Gina, her husband Barry and their daughter Hennessey. Gina is an avid gardener, foodie, traveler and community volunteer.

Andrew is responsible for developing and executing RBC’s corporate sustainability strategies and leading ESG disclosures. More recently this work has focused on developing RBC’s enterprise climate change strategy, the RBC Climate Blueprint. Andrew plays an important role in protecting and enhancing RBC’s brand through external engagement with key stakeholders such as investors, government, clients and NGOs on a range of environmental and social topics. Andrew leads the RBC Sustainability Group, an eight person team that is the centre of expertise for the integration of sustainability into RBC’s business and functional units and recent work has focused on supporting business units in the development of sustainable products and services, sustainability bonds, science-based targets, responsible procurement, human rights, modern slavery, and climate-related disclosures. Before joining RBC in 2008, Andrew worked as a consultant for Deloitte in the Environment and Sustainability practice helping clients develop sustainability strategies and project managed GHG emission inventory audits. He also worked as an Air Quality Scientist for Jacques Whitford Environment (now Stantec) preparing air emission inventories for industrial clients, conducting ambient air quality monitoring programs and preparing regulatory submissions to the Ministry of the Environment. Andrew holds a BSc. from the University of Guelph in Natural Resources Management, an MSc. in Environmental Technologies from Imperial College in London, UK and has a Masters in Business Administration from the Schulich School of Business in Toronto.

Rickesh Lakhani has over 15 years of experience in the charitable and social profit sector. Currently, he is the Executive Director at Future Possibilities for Kids, where they work with children in their middle years (ages 9 to 12) from underserved communities in the GTA, to support them in achieving community enhancing goals while building confidence, leadership and life skills.

Prior to this, Rickesh was the Director, Campaign at United Way York Region, leading an $8M annual fundraising campaign. He recently served for 6 years on the Board of Directors of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Greater Toronto Chapter. He launched the York Region chapter of Be Good Be Social, a free conference to support charities and social profit organizations in using social media to achieve their missions. Rickesh is a strong advocate for volunteerism and has contributed hundreds of volunteer hours to a variety of initiatives.

Gail Banack is a highly recognized retail executive, mentor and leader of high-performing teams. She has deep experience Omni-Channel Retail (E-Commerce), Global Brand Marketing and Consumer Insights. In establishing and managing consumer insights function at Target Canada, Labatt and Spin Master, Gail was responsible for turning the voice of the consumer into action; helping launch brands, deepen customer engagement and grow market share. Gail’s career in retail continued with Canadian Tire, where she led e-commerce strategy, customer care and 3rd-party managed services business. Currently, she is the Chief Kids Officer and lead merchant for Indigo Kids, responsible for omnichannel revenue growth, through product development, merchandise strategy, and innovative marketing.

Kate is a retired Bay Street equity analyst and Chartered Financial Analyst. Her passion is fundamental analysis and reading the fine print. In 2006, Kate joined Charity Intelligence to answer donors’ questions about charities. With better information, donors can avoid mistakes, give better, and have higher impact.

Charity Intelligence is donor’s go-to trusted source for its independent opinion. In the charity evaluation space, Charity Intelligence’s website is the world’s 4th highest ranked. Canadians may not be the biggest givers, yet their giving can be the best. Charity Intelligence is happy to lead Canadians in giving for higher impact.

Jon is the founder of Packer & Co. a consultancy built around the potential for communications to help organizations achieve meaningful, long-term advantage that is good for their business, their reputation and people, and for society. Jon previously founded of a long established Toronto PR agency, which he successfully exited in 2020. He is a published contributor on urban and arts issues, a communications educator and speaker, communications advisor to the Toronto School of Art, a past member of the Board of Directors at the Gardiner Museum, and is currently a member of the Ryerson University ProCom Communications Advisory Council.

Valerie Chort is Vice President Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability for RBC and Executive Director of the RBC Foundation.
She is responsible for developing an integrated citizenship strategy aligned to RBC’s purpose and business objectives, and creating positive social, economic and environmental impacts in the community. Key pillars under her leadership include corporate sustainability, social impact and innovation, employee engagement, and impact measurement.
For over 25 years she has helped businesses, governments and non-government organizations proactively manage environmental and social risks, and create value through purpose-led ESG strategies. Valerie has been instrumental in developing RBC’s Climate Blueprint, the company’s integrated climate strategy to accelerate clean economic growth and support clients in the transition to a low-carbon future, delivering innovative social impact flagship programs: RBC Future Launch and RBC Tech for Nature, and leading ESG performance management and disclosure.
Prior to joining RBC in 2015, Valerie’s career spanned consulting, industry and government roles. Most recently she spent 14 years with Deloitte as Americas Leader for Sustainability & Climate Change, and Partner with Deloitte’s Enterprise Risk Services.
She serves on the Boards of the Women’s College Hospital Foundation and the International Institute for Sustainable Development, is a member of the Privy Council’s Impact Canada Advisory Council and a founding member of Women for Nature. In 2021, she was named as one of 26 Climate Champions in Canada by the British High Commission in Canada and the Canada Climate Law Initiative. She is also a mentor to an extensive roster of young leaders.
Valerie earned a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering from University of Ottawa. She also has a certificate in Executive Education from Darden School of Business.

Judy Haber has been pricing, packaging, and selling sponsorships since 1990. Considered best in class, she is one of the top sellers of Corporate Sponsorship in the country.
Since March 2020, Judy has identified in excess of $6.5 million in Corporate Sponsorship support for various projects across the country.
Some companies Judy has worked with include GFL, Shaw, Rogers, New Balance, Enbridge, Lexus, Canalta Hotels, The Co-Operators, and Leons, just to name a few.
Please join Judy for her presentation on how to best package and attract corporate support for your event.