Lord John Alderdice

Lord House of Lords, UK

Since his appointment in 1996 as a life member of the House of Lords – the Upper Chamber of the British Parliament – John Alderdice has been an active member of the Liberal Democrat Caucus, which he chaired during the Conservative-Liberal Coalition Government.  He is currently a member of the Select Committee of the House on International Relations and Defence.

From 1987 to 1998, Lord Alderdice was Leader of Northern Ireland’s Alliance Party and one of the negotiators of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. He was then the first Speaker of the new Northern Ireland Assembly until 2004 when he was appointed one of four international commissioners charged with overseeing security normalization in Ireland. From 2005 to 2009 he was President of Liberal International, the global family of over 100 Liberal political parties and is now a Presidente D’Honneur.  He has retired from clinical psychiatry but continues as a Senior Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and Professor of Practice at the University of Wales Trinity St David.

He lectures, writes, and consults on the psychology of fundamentalism and intractable political violence and has a long-standing interest in the well-being of indigenous peoples.  He has been recognized with many national and international prizes and honorary degrees for his academic and practical contributions in these fields including most recently the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.  Lord Alderdice is the Founding Chairman of The Concord Foundation.

Amb. Sébastien Beaulieu

Director General, Security & Emergency Management, and Chief Security Officer Global Affairs Canada

Sébastien Beaulieu is a senior executive at Global Affairs Canada, and a career diplomat since 1998. He is currently Director General, Security & Emergency Management, and Chief Security Officer.

 

He has been Chief of Staff to the Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2010-12), Ambassador of Canada to Tunisia (2012-15), Middle East Relations Executive Director (2015-17) and Syria

Envoy (2017-19), as well as Ambassador of Canada to Senegal (2019-21).

 

He has also worked on Canada-U.S. relations, climate change, international security, trade policy and international trade litigation, in addition to assignments in Geneva & Paris. In support of Canada’s public diplomacy, he is engaged with the University of Victoria as Adjunct Professor with the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business, and co-founder of the Victoria Forum.

Education:

• Bachelor in Social Sciences, Université de Moncton, NB, Canada (1995).
• Juris Doctor (J.D.), McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada (1998).
• Editor-in-Chief, McGill Law Journal (1997-98).
• Law Society of Ontario, ON, Canada (2000).

Anita Bhappu

Dean Gustavson School of Business

Dr. Anita Bhappu joined the Gustavson School of Business as dean and professor in July 2023.

Anita holds a PhD in Management from the University of Arizona, Tucson. In addition to her academic career as a researcher and an educator, she has served in leadership roles at several prestigious North American institutions, most recently as department chair and associate dean of student success in the School of Engineering at the University of California, Merced. Anita was also an associate professor and division chair of retailing and consumer sciences at the University of Arizona, Tucson from 2008-2017, and held prior faculty positions at Georgetown University and Southern Methodist University.

Anita’s research interests span from digital sharing platforms and service interactions to diversity and conflict management in virtual teams. Her work has appeared in top academic publications and business media, contributing to scholarship in her field while offering advances in knowledge for practitioner use.

Carson Ebanks

Permanent Secretary/Chief Officer Cayman Islands Government

Carson Ebanks is a Justice of the Peace, a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, and a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE). He holds a Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES Hons. Urban and Regional Planning – Peace and Conflict Studies Minor) Dean’s Honour Roll, from the University of Waterloo, Ontario Canada, and a Master of Arts – Planning in Community and Regional Planning (MA, PLA) from the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Mr. Ebanks was the Director of Planning for the Cayman Islands from 1991 – 1997. Since 1997, he served the Cayman Islands Government as a Permanent Secretary and Chief Officer, for the Cayman Islands Government, until he retired in 2011.

He is a founding trustee of the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands and has also served on the Boards of the Central Planning Authority of the Cayman Islands as Executive Secretary, the Cayman Islands Civil Service Co-operative Credit Union (VP), the Housing Development Corporation, the Water Authority-Cayman, the National Roads Authority, Cayman Turtle Farm, the Cayman Islands Port Authority, the Cayman Islands Airports Authority, Cayman Airways, and the National Trust of the Cayman Islands.

Mr. Ebanks is the President of the Cayman Islands National Karate-do Association, the Cayman Islands Weightlifting Association, and the Secretary General of the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee. He is also the first Vice President of the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC) and chairs their Sustainability Commission. Mr. Ebanks also serves on the Sustainability Commission and the Legal Commission of Centro Caribe Sports, and was on the Co-ordination Commission of Pan Am Sports for the 2023 Pan American Games. He has a black belt in Wado Ryu Karate Do, and is a three-time Olympic Sailor.

He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Consolidated Water Co., and its Compensation and Corporate Governance Committees, as well as its Subsidiaries Cayman Water Company and OCEAN Conversion (Cayman), Consolidated Water (Honduras), Consolidated Water (Rotan), and Desalco Ltd. With a keen interest in life-long learning, Mr. Ebanks is also a member of the Board of Governors of the University College of the Cayman Islands, and its Academic and Administrative Committee, and its Human Resources Committee.

Prof. Adel Guitoni

Professor, Gustavson School of Business Director of Programs

Adel Guitouni is an award-winning associate professor of management sciences, operations research and decision support systems at the Gustavson School of Business. His PhD and master-level students benefit from his multi-disciplinary approach to teaching and professional activities, which includes his work with the Canadian government where he directed large scientific teams involved with major events and strategic initiatives such as the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and G8/G20 summits, and a variety of projects with the Canadian Forces.

Since 2011, Adel has actively engaged in several educational activities that support the democratic transition and socio-economic development in the MENA region (i.e., Tunisia and Libya) from providing coaching sessions to senior government officials to obtaining grant funding to develop the country’s leadership capacity. In 2014 in partnership with Tunisian higher education institutions, he established a not-for-profit non-governmental organization dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship development and innovation.

Adel has published numerous refereed papers and book chapters, and is the recipient of several multi-million dollar research grants. On the research side, he has made several contributions to multiple criteria decision aid (MCDA), supply chain management, information systems, resource management and cloud computing. His research interests include the automation of planning and scheduling, net-enabled dynamic resource management and supply chain management, classification and machine learning, multiple criteria decision analysis, multi-objective optimization, collaborative decision making and decision support systems.

Through his research Adel’s goal is to help improve the decision-making process at the individual and corporate level. Through his entrepreneurship and leadership project work, he hopes to empower youth and leaders by giving them the tools to change their world.

Chief Ava Hill

Board Director Commonwealth Sport Canada

Ava Hill, whose traditional name is Iohahatie, was born on the Six Nations Reserve and is a Mohawk, Wolf Clan.  Ava was the Elected Chief of the 56th and 57th Six Nations Elected Council. Prior to holding the Office of the Elected Chief, Ava was a Councillor for District Two for three terms, a total of nine years.   After serving for fifteen years as a member of the Six Nations Elected Council, Ava did not seek re-election in 2019.

During her tenure as Chief, Ava represented the Chiefs in Ontario on the Ontario Provincial Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion up until June 2018.

In the 80s and 90s, Ava spent time working with the Chiefs in Ontario as the Executive Director of the Chiefs in Ontario Office and also at the Assembly of First Nations as the Executive Assistant to the National Chief.  Subsequent to her work at the AFN, Ava was the Executive Assistant to the Co-Chair of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

Ava is a former member of the Board of Governors at the University of Waterloo.  She is currently a member of the National Consortium for Indigenous Economic Development at the University of Victoria and a member of the Advisory Council for Victoria Forum 2020.  She is also the Co-Chair, along with the President of the International Commonwealth Games Federation, for a Working Group that is working on a Declaration on Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples Through Sports.

Ava is a Board Director for Commonwealth Sport Canada.  As well, she is a member of the Canadian Advisory Board for Right to Play.

Ava is currently one of the Co-Chairs for the Capital Campaign Committee which is raising funds for a New Museum and Art Gallery at the Woodland Cultural Centre.

She is also a member of the Amethyst Selection Committee for the Ontario Public Service and was invited to be a Witness Ambassador for the Four Host First Nations/Canadian Olympic Committee Bid to host the 2030 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler.

She was awarded with the YMCA Peacemaker Medal for 2020, which was presented by the YMCA of Hamilton, Burlington and Brantford, and also received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Brock University in October 2021.

Chris Horbachewski

Vice-President External Relations University of Victoria

Chris Horbachewski joined the University of Victoria as Vice-President External Relations on February 1, 2020.  The external relations portfolio includes alumni relations, fundraising, community and government relations, university communications and marketing, ceremonies and events, the Farquhar Auditorium and the Legacy Art Galleries.

Before joining UVic, Chris served as Vice-President, Advancement at the University of Lethbridge since August 2005. In that role, Chris provided leadership and direction to Alumni Relations, Development, Strategic Marketing and Communications, and Public Affairs and Government Relations.  He was also Chair of the Art Gallery Advisory Committee. Prior to that, he held a variety of fundraising and advancement leadership positions at the University of Manitoba between 1997 and 2005 including Campaign Director and Director of Advancement Services.

Chris has held a variety of professional and community engagement roles over the course of his career such as: Chair; and Treasurer, with the Council for Support and Advancement of Education (CASE), District VIII. He has also served as a member of the Board for the Alberta Science and Technology Foundation as well as the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce.

In 1996, Chris received a Bachelor of Arts in history and political science from the University of Calgary.

Prof. Saul Klein

Professor of International Business, Gustavson School of Business Executive Director

Saul Klein is a Professor of International Business in the Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria (Canada), where he served as Dean from 2012 to 2023.

Born in Zimbabwe, Saul has had a broad-ranging career spanning developing, developed and transition countries. He holds a BA in Economics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) and MBA and PhD degrees from the University of Toronto (Canada). From 1996 to 2001, before joining the Gustavson School, he was the SA Breweries Professor of Marketing and International Business at the Wits Business School (South Africa).  Previously, he was a Senior Fellow in Marketing at the National University of Singapore.  He has also held full-time appointments at Wake Forest University and Northeastern University in the United States, and has been a visiting professor at Melbourne Business School (Australia).

Before taking on the role of Dean, he was Head of International Business, and Director of Executive Programs at the Gustavson School. He is also an Extraordinary Professor of Marketing and International Business at the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria (South Africa).

Saul specializes in the areas of Marketing Strategy, Global Business and International Marketing.  He has provided consulting assistance to over 60 different organizations, in these areas, in Canada, the USA, Singapore and South Africa.  He has also led strategic planning workshops for a wide variety of organizations in different sectors.

As Dean, Saul launched the Gustavson School’s Brand Trust Index, to measure the extent to which Canadians trust over 400 different brands, and he drove the business school’s commitment to responsible management education.

He currently serves on the Board of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD). He was previously a member of the Boards of Mediterranean Entrepreneurship Development and Innovation (Tunisia), Primeserv Group Ltd (South Africa). the National Consortium for Indigenous Economic Development (Canada), the Centre for Asia Pacific Initiatives (Canada), and on the international business school advisory committees of UIBE (China), Beijing Jiaotong University (China), NSYSU (Taiwan) and the University of Pecs (Hungary).

Sen. Jim Munson

Chair

Former Senator Jim Munson is best known to Canadians as a trusted journalist and communications advisor. He reported on current affairs for more than thirty years, most notably as a bureau chief and foreign correspondent for CTV News. His reporting touched upon events around the globe – from Belfast to Beijing – including the First Gulf War, the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the Tiananmen Square Massacre. At home, he covered the FLQ crisis in Quebec and later, in Ottawa, every Canadian government and federal election from 1974 onwards. Senator Munson was twice nominated for a Gemini Award in recognition of excellence in journalism.

In 2001, following his career as a reporter, Senator Munson joined the Prime Minister’s Office as a communications advisor and was made Director of Communications the following year. He was called to the Senate on December 10, 2003, to represent the province of Ontario and served as Whip of the Senate Liberal Caucus from 2008 to 2016.

Senator Munson is Chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights and a vocal advocate for individuals with an autism spectrum disorder. His leadership in Parliament led to the adoption of An Act respecting World Autism Awareness Day and the landmark Senate report Pay Now or Pay Later: Autism Families in Crisis.

Ms. Jill Schnarr

Chief Social Innovation & Communications Officer TELUS

Jill leads corporate communications, media relations, government relations, brand marketing, sponsorships, community investment, TELUS Friendly Future Foundation, and corporate events. With over 30 years of telecom and tech industry experience, Jill has significantly influenced TELUS’ reputation as a global leader in social capitalism, enabling TELUS to be the most respected, admired and trusted telco brand in Canada and one of the most valuable Brands in Canada, with a 2023 brand value of $10.3 billion.

Throughout her career, Jill has ensured TELUS’ social purpose approach focuses on business benefit, enabling every dollar invested in the community to return over 4 times back to TELUS in business impact and 150% to the community in societal impact. Jill leads TELUS Days of Giving, facilitating over 80,000 volunteers globally in 2023 alone, and our Team TELUS Cares programs, enabling over $1.6 billion giving and 2 million days of volunteerism since 2000. She has launched major TELUS marketing campaigns including We Give Where We Live, Go Pink, Share Love, All Connected and the Let’s Make the Future Friendly campaign.

Jill was recognized as one of Canada’s Distinctive Women, Canada’s Most Powerful Women, one of the Most Influential Women in Vancouver, one of Ad Age’s 2022 Leading Women and as Most Innovative Leader by the Canadian Women in Communications. Under Jill’s leadership, TELUS was acknowledged as the Most Philanthropic Corporation in the World by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, one of Strategy Magazines 2021 Brands of the Year and was awarded the Prime Minister’s Inaugural Corporate Volunteer Award.

Maureen Young

Vice President Coast Capital Savings

As Coast Capital’s Vice President, Social Purpose, Maureen plays a key role in defining the credit union’s social purpose vision: Building Better Futures Together by Unlocking Financial Opportunities that Positively Impact People and Communities. Maureen leads the development and implementation of Coast Capital’s long-term social purpose impact plan and the integration of social purpose across company operations.  Maureen also oversees Coast Capital’s sustainability initiatives, including its net zero commitments, B Corp certification and annual disclosures, and leads Coast Capital’s philanthropic and purpose investments, which see 10% of Coast Capital’s budgeted bottom line reinvested into the community.

Maureen is a member and co-founder of the Canadian Purpose Economy Project which seeks to accelerate the transition to the purpose economy. Maureen is also Past Chair of the Youth Futures Education Fund, an initiative she helped found, focused on ensuring youth from the foster care system have the opportunity to achieve their post-secondary education, and she also serves on the Board of the BC Co-op Association. Prior to joining the credit union, Maureen held senior positions with the Fraser Basin Council, Nelson & District Economic Development Commission, and Tourism Action Society in the Kootenays.