August 30, 2022, 15:30-17:30 PST
Location: UVIC, David Strong Building, C116 (in-person only)
The climate crisis has emerged as a major threat to the continuation of the human experience. Global supply chains account for a large portion of greenhouse gas emissions and therefore have a major impact on air, land, and water biodiversity. In fact, a typical company’s GSN is responsible for eighty percent of its greenhouse emissions, and more than ninety percent of its contribution to air pollution, which are generated in the production and distribution of a consumer product. The impact of GSNs also extends to social issues. Increased inequality, violation of human rights, the COVID-19 pandemic and recent geopolitical events have exposed the fragility of our socio-economic systems and global supply chain networks. For example, the problem of forced labour is well-known in today’s GSNs resulting in more than 24.9 million people documented working in slavery conditions around the world.
Several stakeholder and advocacy groups (e.g., regulators, investors, customers, employees, social media, and the general society) are placing pressure on businesses, multinational corporations, and other economic actors to take responsibility for the impact of their global supply chains’ activities on the environment and society. For example, investor-led initiative such as Climate Action 100+ (comprising 615 global investors with more than US$60 trillion in assets under management) targets publicly traded companies to reduce their emissions. More than 15,268 companies in over 163 countries signed on the UN Global Compact initiative by committing to the UN SDGs. Governments are also enacting legislation to combat modern slavery.
This roundtable will explore opportunities and challenges for transitioning toward sustainable global supply chains, and solutions for corporations to achieve their sustainability and corporate responsibility strategies.
Dr. Elizabeth Borycki is a Professor in the School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria. She is the Director of the Social Dimensions of Health and the Director of the Health and Society programs in the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies. Elizabeth received her PhD from the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, a Masters degree from the University of Manitoba in geriatrics and community health nursing and an Honours Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Lakehead University. Elizabeth joined the University of Victoria over 10 years ago. Prior to coming to the University of Victoria, she spent over 15 years working in health care in varying roles in chronic disease management, geriatrics, case management, clinical informatics as well as health information technology design and implementation management. She has published over 150 articles, book chapters and books in health and health informatics.
Elizabeth has served as Academic Representative for Canada for Canada’s Health Informatics Association (2007-2013), Vice President representing North America on the Board of Directors for the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) (2010–2013). She founded the International Medical Informatics Association Working Group focusing on Health Informatics for Patient Safety and she is currently the Scientific Program Committee Co-Chair for Medinfo 2017. Elizabeth returns to the Board of Directors of IMIA in August of 2016 as Vice President – Special Projects.
Dr. Andre Kushniruk is Director and Professor of the School of Health Information Science at the University of Victoria. Dr. Kushniruk conducts research in a number of areas including evaluation of the effects of technology, human-computer interaction in health care and other domains as well as cognitive science. His work is known internationally and he has published widely in the area of health informatics. He focuses on developing new methods for the evaluation of information technology and studying human-computer interaction in health care and he has been a key researcher on a number of national and international collaborative projects.
His work includes the development of novel methods for conducting video analysis of computer users and he is currently extending this research to remote study of e-health applications and advanced information technologies, including computerized patient record systems. Dr. Kushniruk has held academic positions at a number of Canadian universities and he has taught courses in areas such as human-computer interaction, database management and systems analysis and design. He holds undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Biology, as well as a M.Sc. in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from McGill University.
Dr. Cheryl Mitchell is the Academic Director for the MBA in Sustainable Innovation. Dr. Mitchell’s research focuses on the business of healthcare, with an emphasis on the context and processes that support or impede care delivery. Specifically, her current projects examine how process, professions, legitimacy and the use of current and historical narratives inform organizational design and change. Cheryl is also a Principal Investigator at the Cardiac Network of Canada (CANet), a National Centre of Excellence (NCE) where she researches collaboration in research networks. Dr. Mitchell teaches primarily in the MBA program and has taught courses on collaboration, design thinking & innovation, organizational development, leadership, as well as overseeing all Capstone Consulting projects. She has a Masters degree in Counselling Psychology as well as a PhD in Human & Organizational Systems.
Prior to joining the University full-time, Dr. Mitchell worked as a freelance advisor, facilitator and social science researcher, who has provided organizational system solutions across the public service and social service sector for more than 20 years. During that time, she designed and facilitated hundreds of group programs for over forty thousand participants. Over the years her practice evolved from team building and leadership development, through engagement and strategic planning, to a focus on organizational structure, team crisis interventions, change management, and identity & culture development. Since 2016, Dr. Mitchell has specialized in healthcare working with on various projects both locally, provincially and nationally. She currently specializes in health system design & facilitating multi-stakeholder collaborative processes to develop sustainable solutions to complex system issues, and to drive innovation.
Dr. Mitchell has also developed curriculum and training programs on many topics for organizations and conferences, as well as delivered several keynote presentations. She uses her skills in social science to apply qualitative research methods for data collection and thematic analysis to better understand organizational dynamics and ensure the development of comprehensive and sustainable solutions. As well, she also has an understanding of implementation science, and the process required for system innovation and transformation. As a practitioner, she is known for her solution-focused approach, her ability to apply a range of collaborative strategies including design thinking and agile scrum methods, and her style of navigating through all types of conversations from resolving issues, identifying opportunities for innovation, and creating sustainable systemic strategies. Dr. Mitchell is also a certified executive & team coach and qualified to deliver a wide range of assessments.
Alexander Rekik has 30 years of entrepreneurial, management, consulting, training and NGO service experience both in the US and in the emerging markets.
After getting his Bachelor and Master degree in Engineering (Cum Laude) and after finishing his postgraduate studies in Business Administration and Management from the US, Alexander has contributed in setting up many successful ventures in the US, Europe and the Middle East.
Gerri Sinclair was first appointed as B.C.’s Innovation Commissioner in July 2020. She has a breadth of experience in senior leadership positions in the investment capital, digital media, and information technology fields. She is also an Associate with the non-profit Creative Destruction Lab.
Sinclair is the former Managing Director at Kensington Capital in Vancouver. In this role, she led the $100M B.C. Technology Fund. She was the founder of SFU’s ExCITE Media lab, a Visiting Scientist at IBM Research, the founder/CEO of NCompass (acquired by Microsoft), a past President of the B.C. Premier’s Technology Council and Chair of Canada’s National Telecom Policy Panel.
Sinclair was the Founding Director of the Centre for Digital Media’s Master of Digital Media program in Vancouver. She has served as Innovation Strategy Advisor at Vancity and Telefonica in Barcelona.
She has served on many government and corporate boards. Including the Toronto Montreal Stock Exchange, the Vancouver Airport Authority, Telus Corporation, BC Telecom and Ballard Power, as well as Canada’s Information Highway Advisory Council and the National Broadband Taskforce.
Sinclair is the recipient of many awards as a leading woman in technology. She has received the prestigious Canadian Public Policy Forum Testimonial Award. Additionally, Sinclair was named a member of “Vancouver Power 50”, a BC Business “Woman of Influence” and among the Top 150 Women in Canada. She is the 2018 recipient of the BC Technology Association’s Bill Thompson Lifetime Achievement Award. Recently, Sinclair was awarded the 2020 Business in Vancouver Women in Business Lifetime Achievement Award.
Samir Trabelsi is a Professor of Accounting and Governance at the Goodman School of Business. Professor Trabelsi began teaching at Goodman School of Business in 2004. He holds a Ph.D. in Accounting from HEC Montreal and a CPA designation. He has taught courses in corporate governance, external reporting, and research methodology. Prior to his academic career, Trabelsi practiced public accounting at KPMG Tunisia. Trabelsi’s research interests are in the area of corporate governance, sustainability, Corruption, and risk management. Trabelsi’s research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He won the best paper award at several conferences. He has also been the recipient of the Brock University Award for Excellence in Teaching (2017) and the Departmental Researcher of the Year Award (2019).
As the founding director of the CPA (formerly CGA) Ontario Research Excellence Centre and even prior to its establishment, Dr. Trabelsi has organized many international conferences, globally as well as on the Brock University campus. These events have brought together academics and practitioners from across the province, Canada and internationally.
Bruce Williams, CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce, is one of Vancouver Island’s most recognizable faces. As a public figure and former broadcaster, he is known for his integrity, altruism and unique ability to create successful partnerships and collaborations.
Williams is well known for his impeccable communication skills. His in-depth knowledge of economic development and strong connections to leaders and decision makers have made him an effective engagement and development strategist for business, non-profits and First Nations. Williams’ background includes experience as a CEO, as well as diverse roles on senior management teams. He has chaired non-profit boards and spearheaded fund-raising campaigns.
Career Highlights:
Board Member:
Accolades
Dr. Stephen Flynn is the Founding Director of the Global Resilience Institute at Northeastern University where he leads a major university-wide research initiative to inform and advance societal resilience in the face of growing human-made and naturally-occurring turbulence. At Northeastern, he is also Professor of Political Science with faculty affiliations in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs.
Dr. Flynn is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on critical infrastructure and supply chain security and resilience. He is co-author of the textbook, Critical Infrastructures Resilience: Policy and Engineering Principles (Routledge, 2018) and has led teams in conducting post-disaster infrastructure resilience assessments, initially with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and then from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In 2014, Flynn was appointed by the Secretary of Homeland Security to serve as a member of the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Council (HSSTAC). He also serves as chair of the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) Security Advisory Committee. Additionally, he holds research affiliations with the Wharton School’s Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He previously served as Founding Co-Director of the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security at Northeastern University. Dr. Flynn is also the principal for Stephen E. Flynn Associates LLC, where he provides independent advisory services on improving critical infrastructure security and resilience.
Before joining the faculty at Northeastern University in 2011, Dr. Flynn served as President of the Center for National Policy. Prior to that he spent a decade as a senior fellow for National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Prior to September 11, 2001, Dr. Flynn served as an expert advisor to U.S. Commission on National Security (Hart-Rudman Commission), and following the 9/11 attacks he was the executive director of a blue-ribbon Council on Foreign Relations homeland security task force, again co-led by former Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman. He served as the principal advisor to the bipartisan Congressional Port Security Caucus, advised the Bush Administration on maritime and homeland security issues, and after the November 2008 election of President Barack Obama, served as the lead policy advisor on homeland security as a part of the presidential transition team. From 2003-2010 he served as a member of the National Research Council’s Marine Board.
Dr. Flynn has presented expert congressional testimony before the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives on 31 occasions. He has delivered keynote addresses at more than one hundred international and national conferences. Dr. Flynn is a frequent media commentator and has appeared on Meet the Press, 60 Minutes, The News Hour, The Today Show, the Charlie Rose Show, CNN and on National Public Radio. He has written two of the most widely-cited books on homeland security: The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation (Random House, 2007) and America the Vulnerable (HarperCollins 2004). Five of his articles have been published in the prestigious journal, Foreign Affairs. Excerpts of his books have been featured in Time, as the cover story for U.S. News & World Report, and as the subject of two CNN documentaries.
A 1982 graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Dr. Flynn served in the Coast Guard on active duty for 20 years, including two tours as commanding officer at sea. As a Coast Guard officer, he served in the White House Military Office during the George H.W. Bush administration and as a director for Global Issues on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration. He was a Guest Scholar in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution from 1991-92, and in 1993-94 he was an Annenberg Scholar-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania. He received the M.A.L.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in 1990 and 1991 and in 2009, he received an honorary doctorate of laws from Monmouth University.
Dr. 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, on behalf of the business school, 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.
Before joining the Gustavson School of Business full-time in 2011, Adel served as one of its adjunct professors. He has also held positions with the Canadian government and taught at Laval University, University of Sherbrook and Concordia. He has supervised numerous graduate students and six post-doctoral fellows, and he maintains membership in international policy groups and think tanks.
Location: UVIC, David Strong Building, C122 (in-person only)
As humans continue to deplete our natural environment, we face what scientists call the “sixth mass extinction” where as much as half of all present species could be extinct by 2100. Urgent action is needed to prevent such destruction and to regenerate our life-supporting ecosystems. In addition to supporting life, and providing us with meaning, beauty and natural resources, our ecosystems and biodiversity provide essential services that are critical to our efforts to combat climate change. In other words, by regenerating and protecting our ecosystems, we also help mitigate extreme events such as wildfires, floods, and drought. In this Roundtable, our panelists together with the audience will discuss the barriers to, and strategies for, regenerating our depleted ecosystems to address climate change.
Brittany Hull is the Vice President of Marketing for Earth’s Own Food, the Vancouver-based food company who has been making plant-based milk since before the hashtag was trending. The Earth’s Own portfolio of Oat milk, Almond milk, butters and spreads can be found in grocery stores, coffee shops and kitchens across Canada.
Having graduated from Gustavson in 2000, Brittany spent the first ten years of her career working in several large multinationals in Toronto, including at Heinz, Kellogg’s and Canada Dry, before returning home to the beautiful West Coast.
Brittany is a passionate believer in the power of plant-based eating as a tool in the fight against climate change. Through her work on the Earth’s Own brand, her and her team have built the Earth’s Own Plant Project to support people and projects that are moving the plant-based agenda forward to fight the climate change crisis. They’ve supported seven plant-based enterprises to date with more being announced this Fall.
Brittany has been featured in number of publications, blogs + podcasts including Strategy Magazine, Canadian Grocer, Foodology, Vancouver Is Awesome, Vegconomist, Noms Magazine and “What’s Working in Marketing”.
Outside of work, Brittany is an avid traveler, an inexperienced but eager gardener and an active early morning riser, who enjoys starting the day by running up mountains. Brittany is happiest when spending time with her husband and two young daughters in their hometown of Port Moody, BC., where she is surrounded by mountains, trees, and ocean.
David Ranson is Executive Director of the BC Parks Provincial Services Branch in the BC Ministry of Environment. David is responsible for ensuring we maintain a world class provincial parks and protected area system here in BC. He manages seven departments responsible for: planning and land administration; Indigenous relations; conservation; facilities management; recreation policy and services; visitor information and marketing; and community engagement and education.
David has worked for BC Parks twice in his career: in his current role for the last five years and as the planning department head from 2003-2007. Over his career, David has held a variety of senior management positions throughout the ministry and other provincial agencies including as an environmental regulator with the Environmental Protection Division, directing business development for the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC; and handling regulatory development and case administration for the Human Rights Council of BC. Before joining the public sector in 1994, David worked in private practice as a lawyer.
Natalie Slawinski is Professor of Sustainability and Director of the Centre for Social and Sustainable Innovation at the Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria. She earned her PhD from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario. Her research focuses on understanding sustainability, temporality and paradoxes in organizations, and has been published in such journals as Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal and Organization Studies. Her most recent research examines these themes in the context of social enterprise. Natalie serves as an Advisor to Memorial University’s Centre for Social Enterprise and is a Research Fellow at the Cambridge University Judge Business School’s Centre for Social Innovation. She is also a member of the editorial review board at Organization & Environment.
A long-time champion for women’s leadership, gender equality, and the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Mary Coyle has forged a distinguished career in the post-secondary education and non-profit sectors, with a focus on international and local development.
She holds a diploma in French Language from the Université de Besançon in France and a Bachelor of Arts in Languages and Literature with a major in French and a minor in Spanish from the University of Guelph. After working for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry as a Cuso International cooperant in Botswana, she earned a Master of Arts in Rural Planning and Development at the University of Guelph. She subsequently worked as a rural development advisor in Indonesia and later to support two State Islamic Universities develop their community engagement strategies.
For the next decade as Executive Director of Calmeadow, Ms. Coyle helped the organization pioneer the creation of the world’s first commercial micro finance bank, BancoSol, in Bolivia and establish the First Peoples Fund to provide micro loans to First Nations and Métis communities in Canada.
In 1997, she joined St. Francis Xavier University, serving as Vice President and Director of the school’s Coady International Institute, a world-renowned centre of excellence in community-based development and leadership education. During her tenure, the Coady International Institute grew significantly, enhancing its global education and innovation agenda and expanding programming for women, youth, and Indigenous Peoples.
Since 2014, Ms. Coyle has worked as the Executive Director of the Frank McKenna Centre for Leadership at St. Francis Xavier University, a centre devoted to developing student leadership. She also continues to work as an advisor and facilitator for various organizations, including the Haitian Centre for Leadership and Excellence and the Friends United Indigenous Arts and Culture Initiative. Mary Coyle played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, and the Indian School of Microfinance for Women.
She has 3 daughters, Emilie, Lauren, and Lindelwa, and 7 grandchildren.
Location: UVIC, David Strong Building, C118 (in-person only)
It is more important than ever that Africa´s youth is prepared to bring knowledge and skills to solve problems, make sense of information, and know-how to gather and evaluate evidence to make decisions. Precisely these skills are developed in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines, collectively known as STEM. But university graduates in STEM are far from being familiar with the world of business or entrepreneurship. And, even if they were actually aware of the career opportunities awaiting them in business they often do not have any idea how to take the first step. In this panel discussion, we will be speaking to individuals with expert knowledge in Africa, and the STEM, employability and entrepreneurship ecosystem of the continent. Our focus will be to bring the audience to “Engage with Africa” through this dialogue and to create the platform for further conversation on how best practices of Canada and the west can be employed to help accelerate the African growth and development narrative.
Greg became executive director of Academics Without Borders in October 2017.
Immediately prior to taking on the executive director role, Greg was the director, special projects at the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario for two years. Greg served as provost and chief academic officer of Aga Khan University (AKU) from 2011-2015 and was based in Nairobi, Kenya, for three of those years. AKU is an international institution of higher learning operating in eight countries on three continents, with campuses in Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, England, and Afghanistan. He is professor emeritus and provost emeritus at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada, where he held an appointment from 1977 through 2015.
At Western, Greg served as chair of the Department of Psychology, Dean of Graduate Studies, and for 10 years as provost and vice president (academic). As a developmental/clinical psychologist and professor for over three decades, he has pursued a better understanding of the nature, origins, and developmental consequences of the first relationship between an infant and his or her mother. Greg, with his graduate students and collaborators, has been involved in a series of diverse but interrelated programs of research, including: studies of adolescent mothers and their children; intervention for families with infants at high risk for poor developmental outcomes; comparative study of the development of siblings within a family; and studies of the neurobiological, genetic, and psychophysiological correlates of early social interaction and relationships. His research has been generously supported by several national granting agencies throughout his career and has been published regularly in leading journals in the field. Greg co-authored a book on the state and future of higher education in Ontario, Academic Transformation: The Forces Reshaping Higher Education.
Shaheen Nanji (MA, International Studies) is the Executive Director, SFU International at Simon Fraser University and is responsible for the collaborative development and implementation of the University’s international engagement.
As a convener and facilitator of partnerships, engagement and dialogue on global issues, she is committed to collaboration between diverse disciplines, sectors, cultures, perspectives and interests for deeper impact. Her areas of work have included international development; the Sustainable Development Goals; refugees and migration; equity, diversity and inclusion; education; and diaspora. She serves on the Boards of Academics Without Borders and the Proteknon Foundation for Innovation and Learning. She is also an Associate of the SFU Centre for Dialogue.
Professor Neil Turok (Chair) is the Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh, at the School of Physics and Astronomy.
Prof Neil is a former Director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and former Chair of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge University. He is also the Founder of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, and Chair of the AIMS International Governing Board (IGB) and present Chair of the AIMS South Africa Council.
Born in South Africa, Neil Turok founded the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), a pan-African network of centres for education and research in 2003. AIMS was the subject of a TED talk for which Turok received the TED prize in 2008. “My wish is that you help us unlock and nurture scientific talent across Africa, so that within our lifetimes we are celebrating an African Einstein.”
Turok has also been recognised with awards from the World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (WSIE) and the World Innovation Summit on Education (WISE). He is one of the world’s leading physicists, and a renowned educational innovator. He is currently the director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and holder of the Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Niels Bohr Chair at the institute. He was a professor of physics at Princeton and held a Chair of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge. With Stephen Hawking, he developed the Hawking-Turok instanton solutions describing the birth of inflationary universes. He is the co-author, with Paul J. Steinhardt, of the critically acclaimed book Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang – Rewriting Cosmic History. Turok was awarded the 1992 James Clerk Maxwell medal of the UK Institute of Physics.
Dr David Attipoe (MD, iiAfrica), a Ghanaian permanent resident in South Africa, holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Cape Town. He is currently the Managing Director of Industry Immersion Africa (iiAfrica) a pan-African institution that trains top graduates in business and soft skills. He is an AIMS Alumnus and he graduated from Senegal with an MSc in Mathematics (Cum Laude) with a focus on finance. Before his joining AIMS, he studied bio-mathematics (Botany, Zoology and Mathematics) at the University of Ghana. He was the Program Lead of the AIMS ESMT Industry Immersion Program from 2019 to 2021, a program that sought to build the bridge for Mathematicians to transition to industry. Under his leadership, the program scaled to 3 African Countries from South Africa. In 2021, in partnership with Academics Without Borders (AWB Canada) and Strathmore University, he successfully launched the IIP Program in Kenya. In 2022, David has further scaled the program to Cameroon and the iiAfrica team has trained 100 top Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates from more than 15 African countries. His vision is to train 1 million STEM graduates in the next 10 years to build an African ecosystem where the graduates impact the continent’s 4IR ambitions.
He was recently selected as one of the 40 African German young business leaders (AGYLE). The Programme brings together “40 under 40” young leaders from Germany and Africa in a long-term business network for the development and promotion of innovative ideas and business models between Africa and Europe. He is passionate about STEM education in Africa. His particular interest in experiential learning leans toward how STEM education enhances entrepreneurial efforts for the economic transformation of the African continent.
