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Edward Waitzer was Chair of Stikeman Elliott LLP from 1999 to 2006 and a senior partner until his retirement in 2021. He remains affiliated with the firm and his practice continues to focus on complex business transactions and a range of public policy and governance matters.

He is Professor Emeritus, past Jarislowsky Dimma Mooney Chair in Corporate Governance and was Director of the Hennick Centre for Business and Law at Osgoode Hall and the Schulich School of Business at York University from 2008 until 2020.

Edward has served as Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission, the Technical Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and as Vice-President of The Toronto Stock Exchange.

He has written and spoken extensively on a variety of legal and public policy issues, chaired various committees and task forces addressing public policy issues and serves and has served on and chaired a number of corporations, foundations, community organizations, editorial boards and advisory groups.

He is a Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and was an inaugural fellow of the American College of Governance Counsel.

Jennifer Robson is an Associate Professor in the Graduate Program in Political Management at Carleton University, where she teaches courses in public policy analysis and advocacy.

Jennifer has published research on family policy, tax policy, wealth inequality, gender inequality and the design and delivery of social programs.

Prior to joining Carleton, Jennifer held senior roles in policy development and research at Policy Horizons Canada and the federal Department of Finance and spent nearly a decade in the voluntary sector.

She is a 2024-25 McConnell Visiting Scholar at the Max Bell School of Public Policy (McGill), and a visiting fellow and Research Advisor to the Institute for Research on Public Policy. She has participated in a wide range of advisory bodies for the Minister of Finance, Employment and Social Development Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency. Jennifer continues to collaborate with non-profit organizations through the Asset-Building Learning Exchange among others.

Erin Millar is the CEO and Co-founder of Indiegraf, where she works to grow community media businesses across Canada and the U.S.

Erin is a journalist and entrepreneur who founded The Discourse, where she led an award-winning journalism team and developed a successful business model for in-depth local news.

She regularly contributes as an industry organizer and advocate on government policy and is chair of the Canadian Journalism Collective, a non-profit organization created to distribute a $100-million annual fund from Google to support sustainability and innovation in the Canadian news ecosystem.

Erin’s work responds to the massive transition in local news ownership underway. She works with startups seizing this generational opportunity to transform local news to be more equitable and responsive to community information needs.

Margie Mendell is an economist and Distinguished Professor Emerita, School of Community and Public Affairs and Director, Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy at Concordia University.

Margie has published on the work and influence of Karl Polanyi, the social economy, democratizing capital and solidarity finance in Quebec and on the evolution of “social finance” internationally.

She is a member of the board and past co-founder of CAP Finance, a network of Quebec-based solidarity finance institutions that created the Social Finance Fund in Quebec, an organization that broadens access to capital for social and solidarity enterprises and organizations.

She was a member of Quebec’s Advisory Policy Committee on framework legislation for the social economy and the Action Plan for the social economy. She is a member of the Advisory Council of the Global Social Economy Forum (GSEF) and has collaborated with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Research Institute on Social Development (UNRISD) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) on numerous projects related to social finance, the social and solidarity economy, and on sustainable development performance indicators.

Margie was awarded a Prix du Québec by the Government of Quebec in 2013, named Officer of the Order of Quebec in 2014 and Member of the Order of Canada in 2017. In 2024, she was named Officer of the Order of Montreal.

Char Love is Natura &Co’s Chief International Advocacy Officer. She is a fiercely determined optimist who firmly believes in the power of people coming together as an unstoppable force for good.

Char and her team are focused on building, implementing and evolving a global advocacy strategy which is focused on where to take a stand in this moment that matters and how to join forces with others to engage in structural and culture change.

In her role at Natura &Co, Char works with a network of global partners to accelerate the transition to a regenerative economy.  She is a member of the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and a Founding Working Group Member of the Taskforce for Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD).

Prior to joining Natura &Co, Char was Co-Founder, Chair and Activist in Residence at B Lab UK and Co-Founder of Volans.  She is an Executive in Residence at Oxford’s Said Business School where she teaches an MBA course on Regenerative Business and is an Associate of Oxford Net Zero. She is also a member of the board of Make My Money Matter.

Alex Himelfarb is former Clerk of the Privy Council. He joined the federal public service in 1981 after a decade teaching at the University of New Brunswick.

Alex held a number of senior positions in various departments including Executive Director of the Parole Board, Assistant Secretary Social at the Privy Council Office, Associate Secretary at Treasury Board and Deputy Minister, Canadian Heritage.

He was appointed Clerk of the Privy Council in 2002 and served three Canadian Prime Ministers until his appointment as Ambassador to Italy. After his retirement from public service in 2009, he led the School of Public and International Affairs at York University’s Glendon College until 2014.

Alex has served on and chaired numerous NGO boards and advisory committees, including the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Coalition to End Homelessness, the Atkinson Foundation, the Narwhal and WWF Canada.

He has published extensively on Canadian society and public policy and is a fellow of the Broadbent Institute and Parkland Institute.

Alex received his PhD in sociology from the University of Toronto.

Rob Germain is the CEO at Victoria, B.C.-based CHEK Media – the only employee-owned TV station in North America.

Germain was News Director at CHEK in 2009 when the station was threatened with closure. He helped lead a takeover bid by employees, the union and community-minded investors.

Under employee ownership for 15 years, CHEK has become a model of success, in stark contrast to many corporately owned, legacy media organizations. CHEK has doubled in staff and has transformed into a multi-media company with its own CHEK+ streaming service and podcast network.

CHEK Media has been recognized with numerous journalism and industry awards and Germain himself received a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Radio Television Digital News Association.  Germain is also a director and past president of the BC Association of Broadcasters.

Tariq Fancy is founder of the Rumie Initiative. A successful investor, turnaround specialist and entrepreneur, he has a unique perspective on how to merge sustainability and social imperatives with traditional business models focused purely on profit.

Tariq was BlackRock’s first-ever Global Chief Investment Officer for Sustainable Investing. He later began publishing op-eds challenging the ESG status quo, culminating in a 2021 viral essay entitled “The Secret Diary of a Sustainable Investor” that sparked a wide-ranging and ongoing backlash against ‘greenwashing’ in the financial services industry.

Rumi, a non-profit whose free microlearning tools are used by millions in over 200 countries today, broadens digital access, such as allowing Afghan girls to learn safely from anywhere on a mobile phone. Rumie is a graduate of tech incubator Y-Combinator and subject of a 2016 Harvard Business School case study.

Tariq has worked as a senior investment professional at Credit Suisse First Boston’s technology investment banking group, MHR Fund Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). He led the turnaround of Wildfire, an Asian software company acquired in 2015.

Tariq holds a Master’s in Economics & Public Policy from Sciences Po Paris and an MBA from INSEAD in France and Singapore.

Brian Dijkema is the President, Canada at Cardus and Senior Editor of Comment. He is a public policy analyst, public commentator and writer.

He regularly works with municipal, provincial, federal governments and civil servants on a wide range of policy issues.

Brian consults widely with industry, business, labour and civil society institutions and is regularly called upon to make presentations on research and policy to legislatures and industry professionals.

He contributes to media outlets on cultural and political issues across Canada and internationally, including the Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Toronto Star, The Hub, National Affairs and more. Brian, his wife Nicole and their four children call Hamilton, Ontario, home.

Jeff Cyr is Co-Founder of Raven Capital, Founder and Managing Partner of Raven Indigenous Outcomes and President and CEO of the Raven Indigenous Impact Foundation.

Métis from the White Horse Plains area of Southern Manitoba, the traditional Buffalo Hunt staging grounds in the Red River Valley, he has 25 years of experience providing strategic leadership for Indigenous for-profit companies and not-for-profit companies and governments at senior levels.

Jeff pioneered the community-driven outcomes contract (a unique pay-for-success social finance model) and the Indigenous Solutions Lab process, which earned him an Ashoka Fellowship in 2019.  That model has now expanded to a first of its kind Indigenous Outcomes Fund.

Recently, he was Vice-President of the Indigenous Innovation Initiative at Grand Challenges Canada, a sessional lecturer at Carleton University in Public Policy and a guest lecturer at Oxford University in Social Finance. Previously, Jeff was the CEO of the National Association of Indigenous Friendship Centres (NAFC) and Chair of the Institute Advisory Board for Indigenous Peoples’ Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Jeff lives and works on unceded Algonquin lands in what is now known as Mont-Tremblant, QC.

He holds a BA in Asian Languages and Politics and an MA in Political Studies/International Relations from the University of Manitoba.