Past speakers at our educational events and interactive workshops:

Ann Armstrong, Lecturer, OB/HRM & Director, Social Enterprise Initiative, Rotman School of Management
John Baker, CEO, Aperio & Associated Faculty, Nonprofit Management & Leadership Program, Schulich School of Business
Donnie Claudino, Co-Founder & Creative Director, PureVisual Design
Brenda Gainer, Director, Nonprofit Management & Leadership Program, Schulich School of Business
Alex Gill, Principal, Mendicant Group & Instructor, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Management Program, Ryerson University
Zayna Khayat, Principal, Boston Consulting Group
Jim Love, President & Managing Partner, Performance Advantage
Agnes Meinhard, Founder & Director, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Ryerson University

Event Speakers

Ann Armstrong
Director of Social Enterprise Initiative, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Lecturer, OB/HRM, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Faculty, Master of Biotechnology, University of Toronto Mississauga
Faculty Associate, Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto

Dr. Ann Armstrong is Director, Social Enterprise Initiative and Lecturer, Organizational Behaviour/HR Management at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and Faculty Associate at the Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto. Dr. Armstrong has been a lecturer in OB/HRM at Rotman for the past six years, and has taken an active role in increasing the School’s involvement in the non-profit/social enterprise sector. She teaches courses in non-profit consulting, change management, team building, and organizational theory and design, as well as in the Master of Biotechnology and the Culture, Communication and Information Technology programs. Dr. Armstrong also consults to organizations on compensation, creativity and organizational design, and currently serves as Chair of the board of Rotman NeXus, a student-run consulting agency serving the social sector, and as Chair of the Advisor Committee of the University of Toronto’s Volunteer Consulting Group. Some of Dr. Armstrong’s publications include, “Teaching Creativity: An ‘EEE’ Experiential Exercise,” Journal of Management Education (1999); with J. D’Cruz and M. Taylor, “The Magellan Corporation,” (2001), prepared for the Rotman School of Management Aerospace EMBA; and with T. Rimac, “Pot of God or Pandora’s Box? Early Stages of a Social Enterprise within a Non-profit Organization – A Canadian Perspective”, for the IESE Social Enterprise Conference (Barcelona, 2005). Dr. Armstrong attended and achieved her PhD from the University of Toronto. She has also won Teaching Awards from Rotman School of Management, Graduate Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Guelph, and the R.P. Gilmor Award for Student Service, also from the University of Guelph.

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John Baker
CEO, Aperio
Associated Faculty, Nonprofit Management & Leadership Program, Schulich School of Business

John Baker is a Partner and Chief Executive of Aperio, running the Canadian office of the firm. John has an extensive breadth of Executive and Chief Executive experience in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors and has a broad background in strategic and business planning. He has been particularly recognized for his work developing leadership training programs for non-profit executives, and in developing multi-organization partnerships. Prior to his work with Aperio, John was the Founding President of Proventus Inc., a for-profit spin off of a not-for-profit association, and prior to that the President and CEO of the Ontario Service Safety Alliance. John is also a retired Naval Officer having elected early retirement after 21 years of service in the Canadian Navy. He has a BA in International Studies from the Royal Military College of Canada, has attended the Banff School of Management and The Aresty Institute of Executive Education - Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Donnie Claudino
Co-Founder & Creative Director, PureVisual Design
donnieclaudino.com

Donnie Claudino is Co-Founder and Creative Director of PureVisual, a design and communications firm for the non-profit community. Donnie has over ten years of graphic design experience, and more than five years of experience working in advertising and marketing. His wide-range of interconnected skills includes creative management, collateral and web design, campaign development, print production, research, writing, illustration and photography. His previous experiences include Communications Director of United Planet, a small international, volunteer-abroad, nonprofit organization, Marketing Associate of Appalachian Mountain Club, and Board Member of the American Marketing Association, Boston. Donnie holds a Master’s degree in Non-Profit Marketing Management from Lesley University and a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from the University of South Carolina.

Brenda Gainer
Associate Professor of Marketing, Royal Bank Professor of Nonprofit Management, and Director, Nonprofit Management & Leadership Program, Schulich School of Business

Brenda Gainer is a professor of Marketing at the Schulich School of Business at York University, where she is also Director of the Nonprofit Management and Leadership Program and holder of the Royal Bank Professorship in Nonprofit Management. Since receiving her PhD in 1992 her research interests have focused on nonprofit marketing, philanthropy and cultural management. Brenda teaches in the areas of marketing, resource development, board governance and community networking. In conjunction with community partners, she has recently developed capacity-building programs for immigrant and refugee-serving NGOs, social service agencies and the community housing sector as well as an Executive Directors Institute for nonprofit leaders. Before embarking on an academic career, Brenda worked in the areas of aboriginal rights, women’s issues and arts management. She continues to serve as a board member for many nonprofit and academic organizations and as a consultant in the areas of marketing, resource development, strategic planning and social enterprise start-up.

Alex Gill
Principal, Mendicant Group
Instructor, Nonprofit Management, Government Relations & Corporate Citizenship, Ryerson University

Alex Gill is the principal of Mendicant Group. Alex has more than ten years of experience as a nonprofit administrator and executive. Prior to founding his consultancy, Alex was Vice-President of Communications and Marketing at the Canadian Centre for Philanthropy / Imagine Canada. He also helped set up the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers, serving as its first Director of Public Affairs and later as its interim CEO. He began his career in the nonprofit sector as the Director of Communications for ACTRA Toronto Performers. Alex has a Masters degree in Communications and holds postgraduate certificates from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management (change management) and York University’s Schulich School of Business (marketing management). He also teaches nonprofit management, government relations and corporate citizenship at Toronto’s Ryerson University.

Zayna Khayat
Principal, Boston Consulting Group

Dr. Zayna Khayat is a Principal with the Toronto office of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting firm that helps clients across all industries solve strategic and management issues across a range of business topics. Since joining BCG in 2001, Zayna has helped for-profit and not-for-profit clients in a variety of sectors including telecom, financial services, aviation, and health care solve diverse business issues including strategy and organizational re-design. Zayna is a core member of BCG’s Health Care practice where her clients include biopharmaceutical companies, health insurers, medical device companies, etc.. She is also a core member of BCG’s Organization Practice where she has expertise in organizational re-design. At BCG, Dr. Khayat is actively involved with the firm’s Women’s Initiative and Community Investment Committee. Prior to joining BCG, Zayna earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Toronto / Hospital for Sick Children where she was a scholar of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, studying how insulin and exercise regulate blood glucose in the muscle, and why/where this process breaks down during disease states such as diabetes. Dr. Khayat is a founding member of the Toronto Volunteer Bridge, a volunteer networking agency serving young professionals in the GTA. She also maintains involvement with various initiatives of the Toronto City Summit Alliance including the TRRA (Toronto Region Research Alliance) and Career Bridge. Zayna speaks fluently in English, French and Arabic, and resides in Toronto with her husband and 2 children.

Jim Love
President & Managing Partner, Performance Advantage
Fellow, Certified Management Consultant (CMC) Canada

Jim Love is the chair of CMC Canada’s largest member services chapter, a Fellow, Certified Management Consultant (FCMC) and President and Managing Partner of Performance Advantage, a Canadian consulting company with international reach and experience in a range of industries, including financial services, natural resources, aerospace, health care, government, manufacturing, and high tech. Jim is a consulting veteran with over 30 years of experience in both senior business and IT roles. His consulting career has included roles as Global Vice President for DMR Consulting and Principal at Ernst & Young. Jim is an expert in a number of consulting disciplines, including Strategy, Performance Metrics, Lean & Six Sigma, Portfolio Management, and Program Planning. He is passionate about leveraging people, processes and technology to enable high performance teams. Jim has written numerous publications and is a frequent contributor to prestigious journals such as the U.S. based Cutter Journal. His recent articles include “Getting On the Same Page - Dashboards and Strategic Metrics”, May 2006, “Get Real With Strategic Budgeting”, March 2006 and “SOX Without Losing Your Shirt - Compliance and Process Transformation”, September 2005. He is currently working on a new series entitled “Portfolio Management Without Tears”.

Agnes Meinhard
Associate Professor, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University
Founder & Director, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Ryerson University

Dr. Agnes Meinhard is Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Theory in the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University. She is the founding director of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies at Ryerson. Her research focuses on the voluntary and nonprofit sector. Some of the areas she has researched are: the formation, growth and demise of voluntary organizations; risk management in nonprofit organizations; corporate participation in the social economy; partnerships between for-profit and nonprofit organizations; strategic responses of voluntary organizations to changing policy; women’s voluntary organizations; volunteer behaviour and development; student volunteering; leadership and organizational change. Her work has been published in books and academic journals. Agnes Meinhard was instrumental in establishing Canada’s first undergraduate interdisciplinary curriculum in nonprofit and voluntary sector management at Ryerson University and teaches courses in developing effective nonprofit organizations and leading nonprofit organizations through change. Voluntary organizations are not only of academic interest to Dr. Meinhard; she serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations.

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