 Brigid Barnett
Manager, Responsible Investing, Public Market Investments
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
Brigid is responsible for implementing CPP Investment Board’s corporate environmental and social engagement program including approaches such as proxy voting, working through coalitions and direct engagement.
Prior to joining CPP Investment Board in 2006, she worked as a senior research analyst at Innovest in both Toronto and London, England, a money market trader at TD Asset Management, and a fixed income research analyst at TD Securities.
Brigid holds an Honours BA in Economics from Queen's University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a CFA charter.
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 Chris Coulter
President
GlobeScan
Chris is a sought-after speaker and facilitator, regularly briefing clients on trends in business and society. A thought-leader on reputation, brand and sustainability, Chris is a valued advisor to global leadership companies and organizations. Chris provides expertise to GlobeScan’s project teams, and strengthens partnerships with clients and external consultancies. Chris has been with GlobeScan since 1998.
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 John Coyne
Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Unilever Canada Inc.
Mr. Coyne joined Unilever Canada in 1992. He is responsible for the corporate affairs function at Unilever Canada. He has worked on a wide range of transactions and restructurings as Unilever Canada has evolved to "One". During that time, he took on a variety of challenges including the restructuring of the Good Humor-Breyers ice cream business as Director of Corporate Planning. His role in leading the law department reflects a continuing opportunity to properly reflect the most effective legal solutions to enable the business to continue to achieve its objectives and enhance its reputation. Mr. Coyne practiced law at a large corporate Toronto law firm for seven years and is a graduate of Queen's University in Kingston and the Osgoode Hall Law school.
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 Daniel Desjardins
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Bombardier Inc.
Daniel Desjardins is the Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Bombardier Inc. and is a member of the Management Committee of the Corporation. He joined Bombardier Inc. in April 1998. As General Counsel, Daniel manages a legal department of 175 lawyers in 17 countries. Daniel also has the corporate responsibility for environmental, health and safety matters, as well as insurance and risk management. He chairs Bombardier’s Corporate Social Responsibility Committee. The latest CSR Report was published in May 2012.
Prior to joining Bombardier, Daniel was senior partner of Hudon Gendron Harris Thomson from February 1986 to April 1998, where he practiced in the field of corporate, banking and real estate law.
Daniel is the author of articles and has presented at many conferences on various topics including in-house practice. He obtained his Law Degree (LL.L) in 1977 from University of Montreal and his Master’s Degree (LL.M) in 1983 from McGill University.
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 Normand Dumont
Executive Vice President
RONA Inc.
Normand Dumont serves as Executive Vice President - Merchandising at Rona Inc. Mr. Dumont served as an Executive Vice President of Merchandising for Rona Inc. from 2004 to February 2012. He joined RONA in 1989, served as its Vice President of Purchasing since 2000 and also served as its Vice President of Merchandising since 2001. He holds a Bachelor of Science from University of Laval in bio-agronomics.
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 Frances Edmonds
Director, Environmental Programs
HP Canada
In her role as Director, Environmental Programs, Frances Edmonds is responsible for overseeing environmental programs and initiatives across HP Canada. This has included assisting HP Canada in launching its many takeback, programs, as well as designing and delivering HPs first sales environmental training program which has been adopted worldwide by HP.
Frances works closely with HP’s many partners to drive sustainability practices across HP’s business and throughout Canada. From championing WWF’s Living Planet @ Work program to creating sustainability reporting contests, Frances seeks new and innovative ways to bring the power of HP to create meaningful change in Canada’s businesses.
She has worked with the industry association, Electronic Product Stewardship Canada (EPSC) from its inception, including helping to develop a recycling standard which has been adopted by all provincial hardware recycling programs, and she worked with governments, industry and retailers to establish provincial hardware takeback programs across Canada and currently chairs the Saskatchewan Waste Electronic Equipment Program (SWEEP) board.
Frances has judged the Recycling Council of Ontario’s Waste Minimization Awards for five years and works with many NGOs to promote high standards in recycling and environmental education.
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 Eugene Ellmen
Executive Director
Social Investment Organization
Eugene Ellmen is Executive Director of the Social Investment Organization, Canada's national association for sustainable and socially responsible investment (SRI). He is one of Canada's leading experts on SRI.
Eugene's responsibilities at the SIO include leadership and management of the association in all of its mandates, which include industry and public education, SRI industry research, public policy and membership networking and training.
He is the author of the critically acclaimed Canadian Ethical Money Guide, updated through five editions between 1988 and 1998. He continues to be a frequent commentator, speaker and writer on socially responsible investment.
In the 1980s, he was a business writer with Canadian Press, where he covered the early development of the SRI industry. Subsequent to his stint at CP, he worked in communications and public affairs with Credit Union Central of Ontario, the Ontario government and a number of private clients. He joined SIO as Executive Director in 1999. |
 Rudyard Griffiths
Author and Broadcaster
Rudyard Griffiths is co-founder of the Historica-Dominion Institute, a national non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of Canadian history and civic literacy. Mr. Griffiths is also co-founder of the Grano Speakers Series and co-organizer of the Munk Debates, a semi-annual event that brings leading international thinkers and doers to Canada to debate pressing global issues.
Mr. Griffiths is a public commentator on Canadian cultural issues, national politics and international affairs and is an advisor to various not-for-profit foundations and organizations in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
A columnist with the National Post and political commentator for CP24, Rudyard is the author of the 2009 Globe and Mail book of the year, Who We Are: A Citizen’s Manifesto and is the editor of seven collections of essays on Canadian political and historical themes, including 101 Things Canadians Should Know About Canada (2008).
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 Evelyne Guindon
VP International Programs
Care Canada
Evelyne Guindon is a seasoned development professional with 25 years of experience, and has worked on a broad range of initiatives in the global health, nutrition and environmental sectors. She joined CARE Canada in 2011 and is responsible for securing institutional resources, and developing and managing CARE Canada’s portfolio of development and humanitarian programs.
Prior to joining CARE, Ms. Guindon was Director of Resource Development and Partnerships at the Micronutrient Initiative and the Executive Director of UNICEF Quebec. She also lived and worked in Southern Africa for six years. Throughout her career she has championed and led innovative cross-sectoral partnerships and, as an accredited partnership broker, she has a firm belief in this approach to helping find solutions to global poverty challenges. She is co-chair of the Devonshire Initiative as well as a member of the Board of Directors of RESULTS Canada and the Canadian Council for International Cooperation.
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 Dermot Hikisch
Head of Community Development
B Lab
Dermot Hikisch is Head of Community Development with B Lab. He leads B Lab's efforts to expand the community of Certified B Corporations, establishing Benefit Corporations as a recognized corporate form, and the emergence of GIIRS, the Global Impact Investing Rating System.
He is the former Head of Research for UK-based ENDS Carbon and Wind Power Intelligence. His work included producing intelligence reports, developing climate-risk indices for FTSE, and rating Europe’s largest brands on their carbon performance. He has been published in the fields of business and water insecurity, climate change, true cost accounting, and CSR in Canada. As a consultant he has worked with SMEs, Fortune 500 companies, the UNPRI, and major municipalities. Previously, he led the research team for Climate Counts, and was a sustainability ambassador with Procter & Gamble.
Dermot launched Red Bull Energy Drink into Canada and fought forest fires for nearly a decade. He really likes trees. He has a MSc. in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from Sweden, resides in San Francisco, and is the founder of a new start-up called FieldGood.
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 Etienne Lamy
Principal Advisor – Communities and Social Performance
Rio Tinto
Etienne Lamy is Principal Advisor – Communities & Social Performance in Rio Tinto’s Corporate Communities & Social Performance Global Practice, based in Montreal. Etienne has worked in the area of international development for more than 20 years prior to joining the sustainable development/communities relations team of the former Alcan, now Rio Tinto, in 2007. His current portfolio of responsibilities includes: public-private partnerships, design and implementation of customized communities engagement strategies for projects, operations and sites closure, agreements making (First Nations, communities, etc), permitting and environmental and socio-economic impact assessments, global practice lead for regional economic development and corporate assurance (communities performance reviews, investment reviews, etc).
Prior to joining Alcan, Etienne spent most of his career in international development working as a Development Economist, Senior Project Manager and Director for a leading Canadian International Development NGO (CECI). He worked in more than 20 countries of Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the Balkans/Central Asia and lived many years in Africa. He performed consulting work for numerous external clients including the Canadian International Development Agency, The International Affairs Bureau of the City of Montreal (China Program), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, USAID, etc. His main areas of responsibilities covered regional economic development, poverty reduction, capacity development of local organizations and national level institutions, good governance/decentralization, human rights, gender equity promotion, monitoring and evaluation, impacts tracking, etc.
His education includes a B.A. and an M.A. in economics from the University of Montreal.
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 Heather Lang
Director, Research Products
Sustainalytics
Heather is responsible for Sustainalytics’ global platform development and managing the North American research analyst team. She sits on the board of directors for the Canada’s Social Investment Organization and is also a steering committee member of the Social Investment Research Analyst Network (SIRAN). Her previous work experience at Sustainalytics was as a senior research analyst focusing on the consumer staples sector. Prior to joining the company, Heather worked as a corporate social responsibility consultant and spent two years working for a human rights organization in Israel/Palestine. She has an undergraduate degree from McGill University, a Master’s degree from Carleton University and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Toronto.
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 Avrim Lazar
ExCo²
Avrim Lazar was President & CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada from 2002 until 2012 during which time the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement was signed.
Avrim has held senior policy positions in the government of Canada in the Ministries of Justice, Agriculture, Environment and Human Resource Development. During this period he was responsible for national policy in areas as diverse as climate change, biodiversity, child poverty, employment insurance and labor force training.
Avrim was Chair of the Committee of the Whole of the Second UN Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1995. He also chaired the National Business Association Roundtable and the Advisory Committee on Paper and Wood Products (ACPWP) to the United Nations. He is the Past-President of the International Council of Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA).
Continuing with this career dedication, Avrim is currently an independent consultant who provides coaching for policy and communications excellence to organizations and groups. He assists diverse groups in identifying common interests and supports them in pursuing those interests. He reconciles social, environmental and economic interests and navigates the government, civil society and business interface to achieve success.
Avrim taught high school in Vancouver and Zambia from 1969 to 1973. Over the years, he has given many courses in the graduate studies programs at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University.
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 Lorraine Little
Senior Manager of U.S. Public Affairs
Liquids Operations and Projects for Enbridge Energy Company (U.S.), Inc.
Lorraine Little, M.B.A., is the Senior Manager of U.S. Public Affairs for Liquids Operations and Projects for Enbridge Energy Company (U.S.), Inc. Lorraine has been with Enbridge since 2008 when she was hired as Community Affairs Manager for Enbridge Major Projects. Currently, she manages a team of employees and contractors who are responsible for building relationships in the communities in which Enbridge operates or is planning to expand its pipelines or facilities.
Prior to coming to Enbridge, Lorraine worked in the non-profit sector in public education, training, and program development. She earned a bachelor's degree in international business and finance from the University of Wisconsin-Superior and her master's in business administration from Bethel University in St. Paul.
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 Bruce Lourie
President
Ivey Foundation
Bruce is one of Canada’s leading environmental thinkers and co-author of the best selling book Slow Death by Rubber Duck: How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects Our Health. He is President of Ivey Foundation, a private charitable foundation in Canada, a Director of the Ontario Power Authority and a Director of the San Francisco-based Consultative Group on Biological Diversity. He is an honorary director of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and a member of World Wildlife Fund’s Climate Advisory Committee.
Bruce is a founder of a number of for profit and non-profit organizations including Summerhill Group, a prominent consulting company in Toronto; the Sustainability Network, a highly regarded capacity building organization; and the Canadian Environmental Grantmakers’ Network. He has acted on numerous international, federal, provincial and municipal bodies advising on environmental and energy policy issues. Bruce has degrees in Geology, Environmental Studies and a near-complete doctorate.
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 Jim McArdle
Senior Vice-President, Corporate Affairs and Secretary
Export Development Canada
Jim McArdle was appointed as Senior Vice-President, Corporate Affairs and Secretary in January 2012, after serving as Senior Vice-President, Legal Services & Secretary since 2006.
Mr. McArdle is responsible for Corporate Social Responsibility, Planning and External Relations, Economics, Enterprise Portfolio Management and is Secretary to the Board.
Before joining the Executive of EDC, he was the General Counsel, responsible for the legal aspects of numerous project financings in the extractive, telecom and power sectors, as well as drafting EDC’s Code of Business Ethics and Code of Conduct.
Prior to joining EDC, Mr. McArdle was a member of a national Toronto law firm for 10 years and is a graduate of Columbia University's Senior Executive Program.
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 Peggie Pelosi
Founder and CEO
ORENDA
Peggie Pelosi has spent her career inspiring international business leaders through her speaking, coaching and writing—all based on 20 years of personal sales success.
At the peak of her sales career, Peggie was brought in as VP of Network Development (Sales) for USANA Health Sciences (usna- NASDAQ). Peggie immediately saw that while USANA’s products were solid and the people were great, the corporate culture was hampering bottom line results.
In an effort to inspire the company and its employees, Peggie created a partnership between USANA and the Children’s Hunger Fund that reinvigorated the company. The next few years brought staggering results. Not only did company-wide contributions to the charity grow 10 fold, sales increased dramatically resulting in a 3000% increase in USANA’s share value.
Strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) made the difference, and Peggie wanted to share what she had learned. Peggie left USANA to establish ORENDA; a strategic CSR consulting company dedicated to helping companies leverage the power of CSR to create a meaningful connection between people and the places they work. Peggie Pelosi is also a sought after speaker to businesses, business groups, business schools and non-profit organizations on Corporate Karma; How business can move forward by giving back.
Peggie is a graduate of the CSR program at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto.
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 Rod Perry
Business Development Manager
DuPont Canada
Rod Perry is Business Development Manager in DuPont’s Sustainable Solutions business working on Clean Technologies including carbon capture. He is also a member of the DuPont Canada Corporate Sustainability team. Rod’s professional interest in sustainability has influenced his volunteer efforts which include work on water purification systems in Africa with the Water School. Rod is a Systems Design Engineering graduate from the University of Waterloo.
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 Michael Sadowski
Vice President
SustainAbility
Based in New York, Michael leads SustainAbility’s work in the finance and consumer goods sectors and is a member of SustainAbility’s Management Team. Over his career, Michael has advised a variety of global companies on sustainability issues, focusing on strategy development, business case articulation, communications and stakeholder engagement. Michael’s past and current clients include Brown-Forman, Gap, Inc., Goldman Sachs, Holcim, HP, Nike and Standard Chartered. Michael plays a key role in SustainAbility’s research and advocacy work, and has researched and written on topics including the business case for sustainability in emerging markets (Market Movers), globalization (Raising Our Game), stakeholder engagement through web 2.0, engaging mainstream investors and retail sustainability (European Retail Digest, Winter 07-08).
Prior to joining SustainAbility, Michael was a Senior Consultant in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Sustainable Business Solutions practice, where he worked on a range of sustainability, compliance, governance and ethics engagements. Prior to this, Michael worked in finance, first at UBS, then at a hedge fund that invests in financial services firms
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 Lorraine Smith
Director
Sustainability
Lorraine Smith works from Sustainability’s New York office and directs client projects on strategy, stakeholder engagement and value chain or life cycle thinking. She has facilitated strategic development and diverse stakeholder engagements with global corporations in mining and metals, retail, agriculture, and manufacturing, with a focus on the inter-connectivity across multiple sectors, and across functions within companies. Additionally, she brings extensive expertise in sustainability reporting and transparency initiatives involving external stakeholders.
Before joining SustainAbility she worked as a sustainability consultant beginning in 2004. Her work included projects with organizations from a range of sectors, including aluminum products manufacturer Novelis, garment manufacturer Gildan Activewear, retailer Walmart Canada, grocery products manufacturer Liberté, networking organization Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, environmental not-for-profit Evergreen Foundation, sustainability reporting and strategy consultancy BuzzWord, and consumer branding company Green Living Enterprises
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 Helmut Stadler
Project Manager
BMW i
Helmut Stadler was appointed Project Manager for BMW Group Canada’s new sub brand, BMW i, effective July 2012.
Mr. Stadler first worked as a freelancer for BMW AG in Munich from 1995-1998 whilst attending university. In this position, he assisted various BMW projects and managed the editorial servicing of the BMW Homepage. Before he joined BMW Group AG full time in January 2005, Mr. Stadler was working as a management consultant focusing on customer relationship management. In his first position at BMW Group AG, as a consultant for strategic dealer development, Mr. Stadler was responsible for the retail advisory board, dealer potential management and retail preparation for the relaunched 6 Series. He held that position until December 2006,
Between 2007 and 2011, Mr. Stadler held various positions with BMW Group AG. His roles included Manager of Dealer Network Planning and Dealer Development Programs in the Asian, Pacific, African and Eastern European regions; Interim Head of Dealer Development in the Asian, Pacific, African, Eastern European and Middle Eastern regions; and acting as part of the Competence Centre, Strategic Sales Channel Development as a market contact partner for Russia, Thailand, Malaysia and South East Asia.
In a later capacity, Mr. Stadler was the Project Manager, Dealer Performance in Sales, where he was responsible for the implementation of a coaching project in 14 markets at 870 dealer outlets managing a global team of 75 people, including BMW employees and external consultants.
Mr. Stadler joined the Canadian market in June 2011 as Head of Sales Funnel Management for BMW Group Canada. In his current position as Project Manager for BMW i, he is responsible for the establishment of the sub brand BMW i in the Canadian market, and the launching of BMW’s electric vehicles.
Mr. Stadler has a degree in political sciences, media law and communication sciences from the Ludwig-Maximilianeum University in Munich, Germany. He lives in Toronto.
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 Barb Steele
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Network for Business Sustainability
Barb works with the NBS team to support their mission of enabling business sustainability by fostering collaboration between research and industry. In her current role she is working to improve the access and applicability of NBS research and tools for business leaders. Her hope is for management decision making to become more sustainable and believes that NBS plays a critical role in creating this shift. Barb’s work experience includes senior leadership roles in marketing, consulting and account services with both for profit and non-profit organizations.
Barb holds an Honours Business Administration degree from the Richard Ivey school of Business, and a Masters of Science in Organizational Development and Change from Pepperdine University.
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 Coro Strandberg
Associate
CBSR
Coro Strandberg is Principal of Strandberg Consulting. She provides strategic advisory and facilitation services to companies that seek to be leaders in sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Strandberg is a recognized Canadian thought leader on the opportunities of generating business and social value through a disciplined approach to shared value creation. She is often hired by governments and industry associations for her insights on how to mobilize business to improve its social and environmental performance. Strandberg specializes in the integration of sustainability into board governance, strategy and business processes and systems. This includes executive compensation, finance, procurement and capital projects. Many of Strandberg's clients have award-winning approaches to sustainability, including The Co-operators, which ranks number three on the Best 50 Corporate Citizens rating by Corporate Knights.
Strandberg has written a number of publications and how-to guides on CSR, which can be accessed at www.corostrandberg.com. Her insights are drawn from a twenty-year career in the sustainability field, including 12 years as a director of Vancity, where as Chair of the Board she helped position the credit union as an international leader in corporate social responsibility.
She is a member of the UBC President's Advisory Council - Sustainability External Advisory Board and a founder and advisor to the BuySmart Network, which offers training and advice on sustainable procurement. She was named one of the Clean50 in 2012 for her role advancing corporate social responsibility in Canada.
Strandberg lives and works out of her LEED Gold home in Burnaby, B.C.
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 Bob Willard
Bob is a leading expert on quantifying and selling the business value of corporate sustainability strategies and has given hundreds of keynote presentations to corporate, government, university, and NGO audiences. Bob applies his business and leadership experience from his 34-year career at IBM Canada to engage the business community in proactively avoiding risks and capturing opportunities associated with environmental and social issues.
He has authored four books: The Sustainability Advantage (2002), The Next Sustainability Wave (2005), The Sustainability Champion's Guidebook (2009), and The New Sustainability Advantage (2012). In addition, his DVDs, spreadsheets, numerous webinars, and extensive slide set provide capacity-building resources for sustainability champions.
Bob serves on the advisory boards of The Natural Step (TNS) Canada and Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF); he is on ad hoc advisory committees for sustainable business certificate programs at three colleges and universities; and he is a member of the Durham Region Round Table on Climate Change. He was inducted into the International Society of Sustainability Professionals' Hall of Fame in 2011, and was honored to be in B Corp's "Best for the World" Overall Impact list of the top 10% of worldwide B Corps.
He has a BSc from McGill University (1964), and an MEd (2000) and PhD (2005) from the University of Toronto. Residents of Ontario, Bob and his wife are the proud parents of three adult children and the proud grandparents of three grandsons.
More information about Bob and his resources for sustainability champions can be found at www.sustainabilityadvantage.com.
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 Karen Yacos
Director of Domestic Community Outreach
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc.
Karen Yacos is the Director of Enterprise Domestic Community Outreach at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (“GMCR”). She is part of GMCR’s Corporate Social Responsibility team, and leads outreach activities in the United States and Canada (in collaboration with the Canadian business unit, GMCR Canada) including grantmaking, volunteerism, product donations, and employee giving. She also works with the brand marketing teams to develop and implement signature cause programs for GMCR’s brands.
Before joining GMCR, Karen was with ICLEI USA, an international association of local governments that have made a commitment to sustainable development. While at ICLEI, she managed the development of the goals, measures, and best practices that will comprise the STAR Community Index—a national sustainability rating system designed to improve the livability of cities by integrating and advancing social, economic, and environmental values and solutions. Karen has also worked for several non-profit organizations on a variety of community development, planning, and public engagement initiatives in communities across the country. These include the Orton Family Foundation, where she was the Senior Program Director for nine years, and The Seaside Institute.
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