Speakers
Brett House
Brett House is Vice-President and Deputy Chief Economist at Scotiabank. He works with the Chief Economist to manage as global research team that provides Scotiabank and its clients with macroeconomic insights across the bank’s domestic and international business lines.
Prior to joining Scotiabank in October 2016, Brett was Chief Economist at Alignvest Investment Management in Toronto and Global Strategist at Woodbine Capital Advisors, a New York-based global macro fund. Earlier in his career, Brett served as Principal Advisor in the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary-General and as an Economist at the International Monetary Fund. He cut his teeth in fixed-income markets at Goldman Sachs International in London and at the World Bank in Washington, DC.
Brett is a Rhodes Scholar with degrees in economics from the University of Oxford and Queen’s University at Kingston. In addition, he has taught at Oxford and McGill University in Montréal, and has held research roles at Columbia University in New York and Massey College at the University of Toronto.
Brett sits on the investment committees of Pearson College and the Canadian Rhodes Scholars’ Foundation. He received the 2014 Québec Notable Award in Finance and the 2015 Good Citizen Award from his hometown of Lincoln, Ontario. He was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010.
William W. Moriarty
William W. Moriarty, CFA currently serves as a Senior Advisor and Chair of the Risk Committee of RPIA, an Investment Advisor to the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, Chair of the Invesco Canada Funds Advisory Board, Chair of Invesco Canada’s Independent Review Committee, an Investment Advisor to Canadian Overseas Investment Ltd. and a member of the Advisory Board of Tundra Process Solutions Ltd. Mr. Moriarty is the former President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation, a registered Portfolio Manager and Investment Fund Manager that managed $8.1B in pension and endowment assets. Prior to joining UTAM during 2008, Mr. Moriarty was a Vice Chairman of RBC Capital Markets. Over his career at RBC, which began in 1983, Mr. Moriarty served as: Director of Equity Research and Chair of the Investment Strategy Committee; Head of the Global Research Division; Head of the Global Equity Division; Co-Head of the Capital Markets Services Division; and, Head of the Alternative Investments Division. He was also a member of the RBC Capital Markets’ Operating and Executive Committees, the Bank’s Pension Investment Committee, and a Director of RBC Asset Management Inc. (mutual funds) and RBC Capital Partners Limited (private equity). In addition, he has served on several community, industry and public Boards and was a founding Director of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada and Chair of Market Regulation Services Inc. (the SRO that regulated securities trading and market related activities of participants on Canadian Stock Exchanges and alternative trading systems). More recently, he served as a member of the Ontario Ministry of Finance’s Pooled Asset Management Implementation Working Group. Mr. Moriarty holds a BA from the University of Toronto, an MA from the University of Chicago, a CFA from the CFA Institute and completed the Board Effectiveness Program at the Rotman International Centre for Pension Fund Management.
William Litchfield
William is the Executive Director, University Relations and Chief Advancement Officer at Vancouver Island University. In addition he serves as the Executive Director of the Vancouver Island University Foundation. Under his leadership the VIU Foundation has doubled endowed funds and annual giving over the last five years, while at the same time tripled scholarships over the last three years.
Previously he held the position of Director, Advancement at Parkland College in Saskatchewan, leading the International, Marketing, and Fund Development departments including the first ever Capital Campaign for a Trades and Technology Centre.
William holds an Honours degree in International Business from Carleton University, a graduate certificate in International Development from University of British Columbia and a Master’s degree in Project Management from the University of Liverpool. William’s graduate thesis focused on the critical success factors for small colleges to engage in entrepreneurial activities as a source of institutional revenue and community economic growth.
He has lived and worked in New Brunswick, Ontario, British Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil.
James Tansey
Jennifer Johnstone
Jennifer Johnstone is President & CEO of Central City Foundation, an organization that has been working to improve the lives of neighbours in need in Vancouver’s inner city since 1907. In the past 25 years, her career in non-profit management and community resource development has included key leadership positions with Vancity Community Foundation, Battered Women’s Support Services, Vancouver Status of Women, and Ballet British Columbia. She has also maintained a successful private consulting practice in fundraising and organizational development and is an instructor in the Fundraising Certificate Program at BCIT. An in-demand speaker about non-profit management, social purpose real estate, organizational innovation and inner-city issues, Jennifer is also a leader in the business community for her continued mentorship of women and youth. Jennifer remains passionately committed to social justice and community investment and currently serves as a Board member with a number of local organizations and is the President of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Vancouver Chapter.
Vivian Smith
Vivian Smith, CFRE, is known for her commitment to philanthropy and her passion for the fundraising profession. This has led her to become one of the most respected and sought-after advisors to the charitable sector in Canada. After 17 years managing her own consulting firm, she has taken on the role of executive director for the Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation and is presently leading it through its largest-ever capital campaign. Vivian is active in the Association of Fundraising Professionals as a Master Trainer and a director on its international board. She is also a director on the board for the Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce and a frequent presenter at conferences and educational sessions throughout North America.
Boris Martin
Boris Martin is the CEO of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada, an impact-first organisation that invests in people and social enterprises to stem upward economic mobility and create systems of equality, inclusion and opportunity.
Mr. Martin joined Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada's executive team as Vice President of Strategy and Investment in 2011. There, he led an organisational transformation process to enable EWB to adopt a social venture investments approach in sub-Saharan Africa.
Mr. Martin brings expertise in agriculture and small and growing business development from his own experience as an EWB Fellow in West Africa, and through EWB's current portfolio of seed stage ventures and talent development programming.
He has served as CEO to EWB Canada since 2014. He holds a PhD in engineering and a Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation.
Michelle Baldwin
Michelle Baldwin is Executive Director of Pillar Nonprofit Network and helped to co-create Innovation Works and VERGE Capital in London, Ontario. As a social innovator whose personal mission is to be a community connector, Michelle is passionate about connecting people and organizations. Michelle is a firm believer that nonprofits are integral to our community and that business, government and nonprofit sectors must work collaboratively to strengthen it. She has extensive experience in nonprofit management, social enterprise, social innovation, social finance, communications and fundraising. In the development of Innovation Works a 32,000 sq ft co-working space for social innovators, Michelle was involved in bringing innovative social finance tools including a 1 million dollar community bond and 1.2 million in social finance loans to make the project possible. She currently serves on the Board of the Ontario Nonprofit Network. Michelle currently sits on the Premier’s Advisory Committee on Community Hubs, Community Economic Advisory Panel with City of London and Entrepreneur Support Network. She is also a past board member of Huron University College where she was the chair of the Campus Community Advisory Committee and the London Health Sciences Community Advisory Council. Pillar Nonprofit Network has been recognized with the June Callwood Outstanding Voluntarism Award from the Ontario government and London Convention Centre Ambassador Award. Michelle was the recipient of an Honorary Diploma from the Faculty of Media, Arts, Design from Fanshawe College and Green Umbrella Award from the Urban League of London for demonstrating outstanding community citizenship and leadership in the City of London. Michelle holds a Master of Educational Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, as well as a Communications & Public Relations Professional Certificate from Western and a Volunteer Management Certificate from Fanshawe College.
Shannon Rohan
Shannon joined SHARE in 2006 as a Program Officer and currently holds the position of Director of Responsible Investment Leadership where she works with pension funds, foundations, Indigenous trusts and universities to develop and implement responsible investment policies and practices. Shannon also leads strategic projects for SHARE including the Valuing Decent Work Initiative and the Reconciliation and Responsible Investment Initiative.
Prior to joining SHARE, Shannon worked with the Johannesburg-based African Institute of Corporate Citizenship where she conducted research on responsible investment in Africa and helped to establish the Centre for Sustainability Investing. Shannon has conducted training with the International Finance Corporation and sat on the African Task Force of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative.
Shannon has a Master of Arts degree in International Affairs from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Simon Fraser University.
Nick Henderson
Nick Henderson is a Portfolio Manager in the Responsible Global Equities team. He is the alternate manager of the Responsible Global Equity Strategy, and has held that position since 2016. As well as a portfolio management remit, Nick also has lead coverage across the following sustainability themes: Digital access & inclusion, Responsible consumption and production, and Sustainable mobility.
Nick joined both the firm and the team in 2008, and has therefore been involved in the strategy for over 10 years. Prior to joining the firm, Nick graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom, he has the IMC qualification, and is a CFA Charterholder.
Liam O’Sullivan, CFA
Liam O’Sullivan joined RPIA in 2010 and is a client-facing Portfolio Manager who focuses on the development of fixed income solutions for clients. Prior to joining RPIA, Liam held the position of Chief Risk Officer at Northwest Investment Management – an alternative asset management firm based in London, UK. Before this role, he spent time on the credit trading desk at CIBC World Markets, also in the UK. Liam earned his CFA designation in 2011. He has an undergraduate degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from New College, Oxford and a master’s degree in Economics from UBC.
Mitchell Prothman, CFA, CFP
Mitchell Prothman is the Senior Portfolio Manager and Chief Trader of Alitis. He has a key role in the asset management operations at Alitis and has over 11 years of financial industry experience. His responsibilities include the day-to-day management of the Alitis Pools, investment due diligence, economic analysis and portfolio design and management.
Mitchell’s qualifications include the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation and a Financial Management diploma from the British Columbia Institute of Technology.
Omar Medina
Omar Medina serves as a Relationship Manager based in SEI’s Toronto office where he is responsible for providing investment and administrative support to institutional clients. He serves as the primary day-to-day contact for his clients in support of their strategic initiatives.
Prior to his employment with SEI, Omar held various business development and relationship management roles advising and working closely with institutional, retail and high net worth clients. In addition, Omar worked in credit risk management where he was ultimately responsible for a large credit portfolio at a major Canadian Bank.
Lisa Stewart
Lisa is Associate Vice President, Capital Markets at Neighbourhood Holdings. She started her career at Ernst & Young in Calgary and Vancouver in Assurance Services before joining Transaction Services. Following her time at Ernst & Young, Lisa joined RBC Capital Markets as an Equity Research Associate where she covered two sectors: Energy Infrastructure and Diversified Financials. Her coverage universe included publicly traded mortgage originators and mortgage insurers, which is where she developed a keen interest in Canada's housing market. Most recently, Lisa worked in Leveraged Finance at CIBC where she analysed and financed multiple private equity leverage buyouts.
Lisa is a Chartered Accountant (CA, CPA) and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary. Outside of her professional duties, Lisa sits on the Vancouver Steering Committee of Women in Capital Markets and is co-chair to SheBiz, a conference held for over 300 young women in the lower mainland to promote gender equality in STEM fields.
Michelle de Cordova
For the past seven years Michelle has led the Corporate Engagement program within the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) team at NEI Investments. NEI’s Corporate Engagement program integrates targeted, in-depth dialogues with companies; engaged proxy voting according to guidelines promoting sustainability and good governance; responding to proactive requests from leading companies and industry associations for an investor perspective on ESG issues; public policy engagement on corporate regulations and standards to create sector and economy-wide change; and participation in multi-stakeholder initiatives to find practical solutions to ESG challenges. She has authored and co-authored a variety of publications on responsible investment topics ranging from oil sands to executive compensation, and participates in many Canadian and global responsible investment industry leadership initiatives, including the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance Environmental and Social Committee and the Steering Committee of the Investor Alliance for Human Rights. Before joining NEI Investments, Michelle served as a diplomat and worked as a staff member and consultant for environment and social development organizations in Canada, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Mark Hilson
Mark Hilson is a Managing General Partner of Romspen Investment Corporation and oversees the Fund’s overall operation and performance.
Previously, Mark worked at Onex Corporation for 22 years where he was a Managing Director. Prior to joining Onex, Mark was an Associate in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group at Merrill Lynch and a Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble. Mark has an MBA (George F. Baker Scholar) from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and an Honours Bachelor of Business Administration (Gold Medalist) from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Mark has served on the Board of Directors of McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Shaw Festival, Wilfrid Laurier University, and numerous Canadian and US public company boards.
Chris Little
Chris Little joined Tides Canada in October 2015 and provides operational and strategic leadership for the finance department, including oversight of the accounting, financial, reporting and budgeting processes and organizational risk management strategy.
Before joining Tides Canada, Chris served as Project Manager for a large finance system implementation at Vancity Savings and Credit Union. Chris is also a co-founder of the charitable project Reconciliation Canada and held numerous roles there including Director, Operations and Partnerships and Director, New Way Forward Development.
Chris is a CPA, CA and holds a BSc in Physiotherapy from the University of Toronto. She enjoys spending her free time on the North Shore mountains with her family and two dogs.
Johann Olav Koss
Johann joined Waratah Capital Advisors in October 2017 and is leading the firms’ ESG initiative. This includes the upcoming launch of a dedicated strategy seeking to generate risk-adjusted returns by emphasizing environmental and social impacts as risk and return factors. Prior to joining Waratah, Johann led the growth of Right to Play as its founder and CEO, reaching millions of children worldwide.
He is an internationally recognized social entrepreneur who has been widely acknowledged for his work in promoting the use of sport and play as a tool for positive childhood development. He founded Right To Play in 2000, dedicating himself to growing it into an influential international non-government organization and a leader in the Sport for Development and Peace movement. Currently, the organization operates in more than 20 countries reaching two million children each week, and has of 2017 had an annual budget of $57 million. Johann Koss founded FairSport together with Jim Swartz in 2016 in response to the lack of support of whistle-blowers in sport. The foundation Respects Athletes’ Rights and Voices and is Free of Corruption and Coercion. In addition he has worked on sustainable development goals with the United Nations as UNICEF special representative and goodwill ambassador.
Johann has received a number of awards for his philanthropic service and leadership. Most recently, he received the Order of Canada from the Governor General, the order is the cornerstone of the Canadian Honours System, recognizes outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.
Before founding Right To Play, Johann was an Olympic speed skater and is considered to be one of the greatest winter Olympians of all time. In 1994 he made world headlines when he added three gold medals in the Lillehammer Olympic Games, in his home country of Norway to his collection from the one gold and silver won in Albertville in 1992.
Johann has an undergraduate medical degree from the University of Queensland, and an Executive MBA from the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, at the University of Toronto. He has received honorary degrees from Brock University, the University of Calgary, the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, the University of Aust Agder in Norway and most recently the University of Guelph-Humber.
Ron Lloyd
Ron joined Waratah Advisors in April 2015. Ron brings 30 years of leadership in the North America pension consulting and investment management industries to Waratah. Prior to joining Waratah, Ron was President of Hewitt Associates Canada (now AON Hewitt, a global pension and asset consulting firm) and held senior executive positions at Gluskin Sheff + Associates, Romspen Investment Corporation, and Wescourt Capital.
Ron graduated from Queen's University with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree and a Masters of Industrial Relations degree. Ron has also completed executive courses at the Harvard Business School and University of Toronto, as well as completed the Fundamentals of Alternative Investment Certificate Program by the CAIA Association. He received his Chartered Investment Manager designation.
Michael Cassady
As a Senior Investment Advisor at Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management, with 20 years experience, Michael assists high-net-worth individuals and their families in creating, monitoring and implementing financial plans to meet their unique needs.
Erik Benson
Erik is an Investment Advisor and Portfolio Manager at Canaccord Genuity Wealth management, with 25+ years of experience in the financial services industry. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Simon Fraser University and holds both the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Investment Manager (CIM) designations.
Tom Savage, CFA
Tom is part of the Vertex One team specializing in merger arbitrage, event-driven arbitrage, and special situations. Prior to joining Vertex One, Tom was a proprietary trader with CIBC World Markets where he was responsible for equity and derivatives arbitrage and special situations strategies. Tom began his career as an equity analyst at KBSH Capital Management before working in private equity at Birch Hill Equity Partners. Tom is a CFA charter holder and a member of the Vancouver Society of Financial Analysts. He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen’s University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
