John Tory
Chair, CivicAction

John Tory helped to found CivicAction and served on the Board of Directors before becoming the voluntary Chair of CivicAction. Mr. Tory is a lawyer, business leader, community activist and broadcaster. He was formerly an elected representative serving as Member of Provincial Parliament for Dufferin Peel Wellington Grey, as Leader of the Ontario PC Party and as Leader of the Official Opposition in the Ontario Parliament. The early years of Mr. Tory’s career were spent practicing law in Toronto, and in the 1980s he served as Principal Secretary to Premier Bill Davis and as Associate Secretary of the Ontario Cabinet. In 1995, Mr. Tory joined the Rogers Group of Companies, first as President and CEO of Rogers Media Inc. and then as President and CEO of Rogers Cable. He presently serves on the Board of Directors of Rogers Communications Inc. and a number of other companies. Mr. Tory has an extensive background in volunteer community service. He served as volunteer Chairman and Commissioner of the Canadian Football League and has chaired fundraising campaigns for St. Michael’s Hospital, the United Way and the Toronto International Film Festival. Currently, he hosts a daily three- hour talk show on Canada’s leading talk station Newstalk 1010.

Kilian Berz
Partner & Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group

Kilian Berz is a Partner and Managing Director and leads the Canadian Practice of The Boston Consulting Group. Kilian has worked extensively as a consultant across many industries, for government and non-for-profit organizations.

Kilian has focused a significant amount of his time on transforming organizations led from a perspective of the creating a differentiated customer experience. Based on customers’ technical, functional and emotional needs, he helped companies to redefine their customer service proposition and innovate their approach to deliver the targeted experience.

Kilian has led global research on organizational change and innovation. He has studied success factors for top performers across all customer segments and developed a strong quantitative perspective on the improvement potential of individual organizations.

Kilian holds a Master of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Oxford and an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Bonn University. His thesis focused on managing organizational change and aligning personal interests with the overall organizational aspiration.

Hon. David Crombie
Former CEO, Canadian Urban Institute; Former Mayor, City of Toronto

A native Torontonian, David Crombie has been a champion for strong neighbourhoods and helping to improve Toronto’s social systems for decades. He is a former Mayor of Toronto and Member of Parliament, and has served as Federal Cabinet Minister. He served as Chancellor of Ryerson University and was conferred the title of Chancellor Emeritus in 2006. A member of many community organizations, Mr. Crombie is a Director of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance, the Founding Chair of the Waterfront Regeneration Trust, President of David Crombie & Associates Inc., Chair of the Toronto Lands Corporation, former Chair of Ontario Place Corporation and the former President and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute. He also serves as Chair of the Advisory Council for the Nuclear Waste Management Organization. David Crombie has been appointed as an Officer to the Order of Canada.

Zabeen Hirji
Chief Human Resources Officer, RBC

Coming soon.

Susan McIsaac
President and CEO, United Way of Toronto

Susan McIsaac became President and CEO of United Way Toronto on September 1, 2010. She is a widely recognized leader with more than 20 years experience in the non-profit sector. Prior to becoming President and CEO, Ms. McIsaac was United Way Toronto’s Chief Development Officer. Before joining United Way, Ms. McIsaac worked for KCI Ketchum Canada, a leader in organizational health, fundraising communication and philanthropic counsel, where she supported a variety of non-profit clients as a campaign director and later as Vice President of Educational Services from 1992 to 1998. Ms. McIsaac has spent a lifetime in service to the community. She donates much of her time to several non-profits in Toronto including the Greater Toronto Civic Action Alliance Board of Directors, and works as a mentor for United Way's CITY Leaders program. She is also a steering committee member for the Governor General’s Initiative on Volunteerism and Philanthropy. In 2007, she received the National Award of Excellence from United Way of Canada–Centraide Canada and was named Outstanding Fundraising Professional of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Ratna Omidvar
President, Maytree

Ratna Omidvar is President of Maytree, a private foundation that promotes equity and prosperity through its policy insights, grants and programs. The foundation is known for its commitment to developing, testing, and implementing programs and policy solutions related to immigration, integration and diversity in the workplace, in the boardroom and in public office. Ms. Omidvar also serves as a director of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance and is the chair of the Board of Directors of the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC). She has been appointed to a number of taskforces, including the Transition Advisory Board to the Premier of Ontario in 2003 and to Prime Minister Paul Martin’s External Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities. In 2006, Ms. Omidvar was appointed to the Order of Ontario. In 2010, the Globe and Mail profiled Ms. Omidvar as its Nation Builder of the Decade for Citizenship.

Mike Pedersen
Group Head, Wealth Management, Insurance, & Corporate Shared Services, TD Bank Group

Mike Pedersen is the Group Head, Wealth Management, Direct Channels, and Corporate Shared Services for TD Bank Group. He is responsible for TD’s global wealth management businesses as well as the bank’s direct channels and corporate shared services. In addition, Mr. Pedersen champions the bank’s environmental agenda. Prior to joining TD in July 2007, Mr. Pedersen worked in London, England, where he was responsible for Barclays' global private bank and two other international businesses. Before joining Barclays, Mr. Pedersen spent twelve years in a number of executive capacities at CIBC, including Senior Executive Vice President, Retail and Small Business Banking, and Executive Vice President, Branch Banking. He is a past chairman of the Canadian Bankers Association, has a long history of involvement with charitable organizations, and was a recipient of Canada's Top 40 Under 40 award in 1998. Mr. Pedersen co-chairs the Greening Greater Toronto Task Force and is on the Board of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance and the Toronto Region Research Alliance. He also chairs the financial services sector campaign for the United Way, and sits on the Advisory Committee of the Greening Canada Fund.

Susan Pigott
Vice President, Communications and Community Engagement, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Susan Pigott is the Vice President, Communications and Community Engagement at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. Trained as a nurse and a social worker, Ms. Pigott has worked in the non-profit human services field in Toronto for over 25 years. Prior to CAMH, she was the Chief Executive Officer of St. Christopher House, a community-based, multi-service agency that operates in the west end of Toronto. Prior to that, she spent seven years at the United Way of Greater Toronto, first as Allocations Director and then as Vice President of Fundraising. In 2006-07, she took a leave of absence from St. Christopher House to serve as the Executive Lead for Citizen Engagement, supporting the Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform. An active volunteer, Ms. Pigott served on several boards including the Community Social Planning Council and the Hospital for Sick Children. Currently, she is a board member of the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance, the Change Foundation, Soulpepper Theatre Company, Workman Arts and the LCBO.

Courtney Pratt
Chair, Toronto Region Research Alliance
Chairman, Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions

Courtney Pratt was named Chairman of the Toronto Region Research Alliance in October 2007. He also served as the organization’s CEO from October 2007 to March 2010. Previously, he served as Chairman and as President and Chief Executive Officer of Stelco Inc. He also held leadership positions with Toronto Hydro Corporation, Hydro One Networks Inc., The Caldwell Partners, and Noranda Inc. Mr. Pratt is Chairman of Knightsbridge Human Capital, and a Director of Moosehead Breweries Limited, 407ETR, and Orocobre Limited, an Australian resource company. He is a member of the Alberta Premier’s Council on Economic Strategy, Investors Group Independent Review Committee, and the Ontario Advisory Council of Telus.

Mr. Pratt’s on-going community involvement includes Director of the Canadian Council on Learning, The Learning Partnership, and the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance. Mr. Pratt previously was Chair of the Board and Chair of the Campaign of the United Way of Greater Toronto, Director of Career Edge, and Director of the Toronto Board of Trade. He was Chair of Imagine, is the Founding Chair of The Charter for Business of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards in Canada, and is a past Director of the University Health Network. Mr. Pratt was awarded the Order of Canada in January 1999.

Peter Sloly
Deputy Chief, Toronto Police Service

Deputy Chief Peter Sloly is in his 23rd year with the Toronto Police Service. He is presently in charge of Executive Command, responsible for professional services, strategic planning and legal services. Previously, he was in charge of the Operational Services pillar and he also served as Staff Superintendent for the Staff Planning & Community Mobilization pillar. Deputy Chief Sloly is a member of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the FBI National Academy Associates, the Police Executive Research Forum, the TPS Military Veterans Association and the Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers. He has also served on the following Boards of Directors: Spirit of the People Aboriginal Centre, Black Business & Professional Association’s National Scholarship Foundation, Merry Go Round – Kids Cops & Computers, Covenant House, Herb Carnegie - Future Aces Board, Ontario Science Centre, the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance and the TDSB Elkhorn Public School Parent’s Council. Prior to his policing career he played professional soccer with the Toronto Blizzard and the Canadian National Soccer Team.

Carol Wilding
President and CEO, Toronto Board of Trade

Carol Wilding was appointed President and CEO of the Toronto Board of Trade in 2007. In addition to her role with the Board of Trade, Ms. Wilding serves as a director on the boards of the Royal Ontario Museum and the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance and as a member of the advisory board for the Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation. She also served on the Mayor’s Economic Competitiveness Advisory Committee and remains an active member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario. Ms. Wilding has earned several prestigious awards including the Outstanding Public Contribution Alumni Award from the Schulich Business School, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and the Public Sector Excellence Award for Technology. In 2009 she was named a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario. For her leadership in the not-for-profit sector, Carol was named to the Top 100™ list of Canada’s Most Powerful Women for 2010 in the Cisco Public Sector Leaders category.