Connect with past guests
Obaid Afzal, Director, Financial Reporting at Mevotech. Obaid Afzal is the Director, Financial Reporting at Mevotech since 2017. He provides strategic leadership to the business and finance functions at Mevotech, as well as the management of its financial and capital resources. Obaid overseas Financial Reporting, Treasury functions, Audits and Financial Systems with a strong focus on continuous improvement of Internal Controls & Procedures.
Segun is a project management consultant in the financial services industry. He has successfully delivered several complex multi-million dollar projects with high employee and customer impacts at Canada’s largest Banks and Grocery Retailer.
Leona McCharles-Vice President, Talent Solutions, RBC Leona has over twenty years of experience leading strategic teams within the financial services, telecommunications and retail industries. She currently leads a Human Resources team centered on growing and transforming global HR strategies and practices in recruitment, performance, reskilling, work design and people assessment. Her current focus is on creating a future-ready workforce and preparing RBC for the skills-based future of work.
Justyna Wrebel- Mobile Mortgage Specialist , RBC As a leading mobile mortgage specialists with over 18 years of experience in residential mortgages, she has helped many clients achieve their dream of owning a home. Justyna offers free professional advice about home-buying journey and mortgage options, seven days a week at a time and place convenient for you.
Finance Industry
The finance industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in Canada. This industry is growing the fastest in Toronto, known as the heart of Canada’s finance industry. The Toronto finance industry resides in the downtown core known as the Financial District on Bay Street. Bay street’s financial district is the home of Canada’s top banks, insurance companies, Toronto stock exchange, tech companies, and much more. Toronto is North America’s second-largest financial hub in terms of employment, with over 800,000 employed in this industry.
Healthcare Industry
Healthcare is Canada’s largest service industry. Canada is one of 43 countries that provide universal healthcare, healthcare paid for by the federal government. The demand for healthcare professionals continues to grow, especially with the pandemic and the aging population. Registered nurses are among healthcare professionals in demand. Healthcare professionals are some of the highest-paid individuals in the country. The Healthcare industry also diversifies into the tech industry as tech plays a huge part in managing the country’s health information in order to create more productivity and efficiency.
Healthcare Professionals
Rebecca Liu, PhD, Research Fellow at the Women’s College Hospital Institute for Health Rebecca is a Research Associate at Women’s College Hospital Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care. She leads virtual care projects, evaluating their effectiveness and implementation into practice. Her role at WIHV involves consulting stakeholders from government organizations, hospitals, and private sector companies on various digital health products/services to enhance quality improvement.
Professional Practice Specialist, Nursing and Personal Support at VHA Home HealthCare Sara has been a registered nurse since 2007 and obtained her Master's of Nursing in 2009. Her expertise is in maternal child health, with clinical experience in obstetrics and the NICU. She has worked in both academic and community hospitals and home health as a bedside nurse, educator, advanced practice nurse and professional practice specialist.
Orezi Akporuno, Public Policy, Region of Peel Orezi is a global health professional passionate about ensuring community members' health, wellbeing, and safety, especially vulnerable populations. She works as a Public Policy and Advocacy Analyst in the Health Services department at the Region of Peel. She was previously a Health Promotion Specialist with their Public Health Division and has collaborated on several health initiatives at McMaster University (her Alma mater).
HR Professionals
Teri Dennis-Davies, Senior Vice President Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at MLSE (Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Partnership) Teri Dennis-Davies, a seasoned executive with more than 20 years of experience in senior leadership roles in human resources, which includes aspects of diversity inclusion and employee advocacy, recently joined MLSE as Senior Vice President, Equity Diversity and Inclusion in October 2020.
Recruitment Manager, Terrapure Environmental Corine is an HR professional with a strong passion for recruitment, which stems from her understanding that people, not policies, make up the culture and are behind an organization's success. In addition to speaking four (4) languages, Corine’s unique ability to understand and appreciate various cultures has allowed her to work in organizations such as World Vision Canada and CBC/Radio-Canada. Corine is a Certified Diversity and Inclusion Recruiter.
Senior Manager, Future of Work & Culture RBC Peggy Capitain is the Senior Manager, Future of Work & Culture, and she leads key talent strategies to ensure RBC thrives in the rapidly changing world. Excited about the endless possibilities in the future of work, she actively champions new ways of thinking and workforce innovation through her thought leadership. During her tenure in Human Resources, she led many high-impact programs that aimed to unleash employees' potential.
AVP Talent Acquisition Sunlife Financial Gerson (pronounced Hair-son) is an accomplished transformational leader who believes in the power of data, digital solutions and thinking outside the box. Gerson has extensive global experience in Talent Acquisition and Talent Management strategy, programs, models, operations and technologies in the oil & gas, hospitality, financial and insurance industries.
Human Resource Industry
Human resource professionals in Canada work in different sectors, such as finance, tech, public services, healthcare. Human resources allow room for career advancement and professional growth as there many different facets to it. It is a very diverse profession with aspects ranging from payroll, employee benefits and compensation to equity and human rights to employee health and safety regulations to employer obligations, and so much more. Approximately 22,710 people are in this occupation. Due to the increase in macroeconomic conditions, the human resources sector is expected to grow between now and 2024.
Marketing & Communications Industry
The marketing, communications and advertising industry aims at communicating companies value proposition to consumers through effective communication strategies, brand presence and research.
Mar-Comm Professionals
Business and Operations Lead, CityServ Aaron is an accomplished digital-first marketing and business strategy leader with a track record of creating global business growth programs across B2B and B2C businesses in publishing, entertainment, professional services, and technology. He is currently helping build CityServ, a cutting-edge digital platform to offer a wide range of easy to deploy digital-ready services that municipalities can leverage to bring their services online.
Vice President, Public Affairs Ontario Chamber of Commerce. A communications and public affairs professional for close to 15 years, Michelle Eaton joined the OCC team in 2018 as Vice President of Communications and Government Relations. Michelle brings extensive leadership experience from both the public and private sectors.
Head of Digital Products, Infiniti Research. Denisa is rising leader with 10+ years of marketing and management experience. Record of exceeding clients’ growth targets and satisfaction through innovative strategies, effective processes and advanced analytical models. Effective communicator/negotiator and people-oriented, with proven ability to inspire and motivate individuals and teams toward common vision and goals.
Tech Professionals
Director, Operations Transformation at RBC Kaleigh holds a BA from Western University and MBA from the Ivey School of Business and has worked across various industries within operations, technology and strategy. Kaleigh joined RBC in 2015 and has held subsequent roles and led strategic initiatives that drive the Technology & Operations strategy. Kaleigh currently leads a team responsible for maximizing the success of automation and transformation initiatives.
Founder of Glomacs IT Solutions and Services Inc. Dr. Iyilade is the founder of Glomacs IT Solutions and Services Inc, Canada. A seasoned Information Technology professional with almost two decades of experience. He holds BSc, MSc, and Doctorate degrees in Computer Science. His specializations and areas of expertise include AI, Data Science, Big Data, and Analytics.
Technology Industry
The Canadian Technology industry is rapidly booming and very competitive, as the world, today is increasingly digital. As this industry grows, so do the job opportunities, especially in cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. With over 43,000 tech companies, Canada is continually encouraging employment in this industry as the demand increases each day. In 2019, this industry brought in a revenue of $210 billion, surpassing many other industries in a short amount of time. With companies such as Google, Amazon and Facebook opening their offices in Toronto, experts label Toronto the next Silicon Valley. Individuals employed in this sector average $80,000 annually, which is only set to increase as the industry rapidly grows.
Immigration Industry
Currently annual immigration in Canada amounts to around 300,000 new immigrants - one of the the highest rates per population of any country in the world.
Immigration Professionals
Founder/Lead Consultant, InfoPlace Canada. She is a Registered Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC # - R519833). She is also a Chartered Professional Accountant. Her education in Canada began as an international student in 2004 and she graduated with a Bachelors of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan. In addition to being a Chartered Accountant, she acquired an Immigration Consulting Diploma from Ashton College and became a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant.
Energy Professionals
Senior Manager, Business Planning, Reporting and Benchmarking at Ontario Power Generation. I started as an Engineer In trainee and most recently accepted a role as Senior Manager in Transformation Projects, CIO. In between this, I have lead teams and projects in finance, strategic projects and NDE Robotics inspections.
Channel Optimizer, Shell Akin joined Shell as an Electrical Engineer in the Oil & Gas sector. Over the last 10 years with Shell, He has had various roles with increasing responsibility in Engineering, Project management, Asset Management and is currently Managing the Eastern Canada Downstream Business. He has an MBA from Queens University, PMP from the UK and is a designated Professional Engineer in Alberta & Ontario.
Energy Industry
Canada has one of the world’s largest oil reserves and is a reliable crude oil supplier, making Canada very relevant in the international markets. Alberta takes the cap for employment in this industry, although the employment has not been that great due to lower oil prices and spending cuts. Experts expect this to worsen because of the COVID pandemic, which lowered oil and gas prices even more.
Entrepreneur Industry
More information on this industry coming soon.