Irfhan Rawji is the Founder & Executive Chair of MobSquad, an innovative Canadian start-up that ensures high-caliber software engineers with US work visa challenges remain working with their current company, but near-shored from Canada. MobSquad also forms near-shored teams of software engineers in Canada for North American clients on an exclusive, long-term basis.

Irfhan is also a Managing Partner with Relay Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm with over US$700MM of assets under management. Irfhan has prior experience at McKinsey & Company, Birch Hill Equity Partners, Onex Corporation (TSX:ONEX) and Parkland Corporation (TSX:PKI).

Irfhan is presently Board Chair of The Organic Box, Alberta’s largest organic food hub, offering home delivery as well as click-and-collect grocery services. Additionally, Irfhan is Board Chair of Activate, a partnership between the Government of Canada, private investors and the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada aimed at reducing the incidence of stroke; Activate represents an innovation in social finance as Canada’s first social impact bond. Irfhan is also a Director of Sage Properties, a Calgary-based real estate investment corporation, is Board Chair of The Logic, a digital media publication focused on the innovation economy, is a Director at Alate Properties Inc., an early-stage property technology investment firm, is a Director of PBA Land & Development, a Calgary-based Western Canadian property development firm, and is a Director of Canadian Western Bank (TSX:CWB), a Schedule I Canadian bank focused specifically on business owners.

OGoldy Hyder is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Business Council of Canada. Founded in 1976, the Council is a non-profit, non-partisan organization representing the chief executives and heads of 150 leading Canadian businesses, employing 1.7 million Canadians and composed of every major industry across the country.

From July 2014 to October 2018, Mr. Hyder was President and Chief Executive Officer of Hill+Knowlton Strategies (Canada), providing strategic communications counsel to the firm’s extensive and diverse client base. Prior to joining Hill+Knowlton in 2001, he served as Director of Policy and Chief of Staff to The Right Honourable Joe Clark, former prime minister and former leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party.

In addition to his achievements in business and public policy, Mr. Hyder has a long track record of service on behalf of several charities and non-profit organizations. He is a past co-chair of the United Way of Ottawa’s Campaign Cabinet, former chair of the Ottawa Senators Foundation, and a former member of the Board of Governors at Carleton University. Currently, he is vice-chair of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada’s Asia Business Leaders Advisory Council, co-chair of Canada’s World Trade Organization Business Advisory Council, and an executive committee member of the Century Initiative. In addition, he sits on the advisory boards of two leading organizations promoting advancement of women leaders: Catalyst Canada and the 30% Club (Canada).

Mr. Hyder is a regular commentator in the Canadian media on business, politics and leadership. He is the host of the Speaking of Business podcast, which features interviews with Canadian innovators, entrepreneurs and business leaders. In 2013, he received the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in recognition of his contributions to Canada. He holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from the University of Calgary.

Stephen is a widely recognized economist with nearly 40 years of experience in financial markets, forecasting, and economic policy, including 35 years in the public sector.

Prior to joining Osler, Stephen was the 9th Governor of the Bank of Canada, Canada’s central bank. Stephen was Governor of the Bank for seven years after having previously spent 14 years there during 1981-95 occupying a range of increasingly senior positions.

Stephen is also the author of the upcoming book titled The Next Age of Uncertainty: How the World Can Adapt to a Riskier Future that maps out the powerful economic forces that are shaping our future and the ideas that will allow us to master them.

Prior to joining the Bank of Canada, Stephen spent 14 years at Export Development Canada, as Chief Economist (1999-2008), Head of Lending (2008-2011) and finally as President and CEO (2011-2013). He also spent four years at BCA Research, where he was Managing Editor of the International Bank Credit Analyst, one of their flagship publications.

Stephen is a Certified International Trade Professional and a graduate of Columbia University’s Senior Executive Program. He has been a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., and at the Economic Planning Agency in Tokyo, Japan. He is a frequent speaker and writer and has taught economics at the University of Western Ontario, Concordia University and Queen’s School of Business.

At Osler, Stephen provides clients with his significant expertise and strategic guidance regarding the financial system, trade, and economic policy both domestically and on a global scale.

Ms. Llewellyn holds Bachelor of Commerce and MBA degrees from Saint Mary’s University where she focused on Finance, Marketing and International Business. In 2014, Saint Mary’s awarded her with an Honorary Doctor of Commerce. She is married to Sean Llewellyn and is the mother of two wonderful children, Sofia and Zachary.

Rania Llewellyn was appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer of Laurentian Bank in 2020, the first woman to head a major Canadian chartered bank. She is a first generation Canadian, having immigrated from the Middle East in her teenage years. As a transformational change leader, her top priority is building high-performance teams and creating a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion. Her focus on improving the customer experience, and driving growth and shareholder value has earned her recognition and awards, including being named one of the Top 25 Women of Influence in 2021, and receiving the Women in Payments Award for Thought Leader in 2019, in recognition of her outstanding work in modernizing the Canadian payments industry.

Ms. Llewellyn has more than 27 years of experience in the banking industry. Previous experience includes serving as an Executive Vice President at Scotiabank, where she began her career as a part-time teller. Over the years, she held a variety of progressively senior positions across a number of different groups, building up expertise in global payments, including digital and technology, corporate banking, retail banking, and commercial banking. She also launched the Bank’s multicultural banking division and served as President & CEO of Roynat Capital, a Scotiabank subsidiary which provides alternative financing for mid-sized companies through the use of senior, sub-debt, mezzanine and equity.

Mark Wiseman is a leading investment manager and experienced corporate executive. He currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors at Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) and as a Senior Advisor to Boston Consulting Group and Hillhouse Capital. He was formerly Senior Managing Director at BlackRock, Global Head of Active Equities, Chairman of its alternatives business, and Chairman of BlackRock’s Global Investment Committee. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2016, he was President and CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). Mr. Wiseman serves on the board of several non-profit organizations, including Alpine Canada, the United Way of Greater Toronto, Sinai Health Services, and the Capital Markets Institute.

Lisa brings with her more than 20 years of proven experience in policy research and analysis, knowledge mobilization, change management, venture philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, and marketing communications. She previously held the position of Executive Director of the Mowat Centre’s Not-for-Profit Research Hub (Mowat NFP). She has also served on the executive management team at Lift Philanthropy Partners – an organization that focuses on helping non-profits improve their accountability, performance metrics, and overall capacity.

Lisa also held a variety of senior management positions at Habitat for Humanity, leading a cross-functional team in expanding the association’s domestic and international activities, specifically in Quebec and in partnership with Indigenious communities. She also worked in retail banking and wealth management, and she studied at Glenn Gould Professional School of Music, the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Business, and York University’s Schulich Business School.

Muraly Srinarayanathas is Executive Chairman of 369 Global Inc., a rapidly growing business conglomerate with interests in education and training, financial services, creative and entertainment and venture capital. As a global citizen who has lived and worked around the world, Muraly possesses not only a strong business acumen but also a unique global perspective and the ability to bring diverse groups of people together around a common goal.

Muraly is a strong believer in the power of philanthropy and has been since launching his first social purpose business under the guidance of Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He leads the Srinarayanathas Foundation which is focused on building a prosperous, inclusive, and influential Canada at home and around the world. The foundation takes a culturally responsive approach to giving back by prioritising all eight pillars of wellness – physical, social, emotional, occupational, financial, spiritual, intellectual, and environmental – often overlooked when thinking about the experiences of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour in Canada and vulnerable populations around the world.

Muraly often speaks about the importance of creating a sustainable and equitable future for newcomers and has been featured in leading publications including the Toronto Sun, Toronto Star, Toronto.com and Toronto Life.

Carol Anne Hilton is the CEO and Founder of the Indigenomics Institute and the Global Center of Indigenomics. Carol Anne is a dynamic national Indigenous business leader, author, speaker and senior adviser with an international Masters Degree in Business Management (MBA) from the University of Hertfordshire, England. Carol Anne is of Nuu chah nulth descent from the Hesquiaht Nation on Vancouver Island.

Carol Anne is the author of ‘Indigenomics- Taking A Seat at the Economic Table’ and is an adjunct professor at Royal Roads University’s School of Business.

Carol Anne was the only Indigenous person appointed to the Canadian Economic Growth Council as a senior advisor to the federal Finance Minister. Carol Anne most recently served on the BC Emerging Economy Taskforce, and the BC Indigenous Business and Investment Council. Carol Anne currently serves as a Director on the McGill University Institute for the Study of Canada, MITACS Research and the BC Digital Supercluster.

Carol Anne’s work has been recognized with the 2020 BC Achievement Foundation’s Award of Distinction in Indigenous Business and the 2018 national Excellence in Aboriginal Relations Award from the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business.

The road to real leadership is rarely a straight one. Among Canada’s most successful entrepreneurs, few have faced more obstacles than Zahra Al-Harazi. With a no-holds-barred attitude, Al-Harazi helps people and organizations realize their potential for success through finding their purpose. She draws on her experience as a pioneering woman in the business world with a unique approach to attitude, leadership, and success, as well as her experience as a refugee, immigrant, entrepreneur, and community-builder.

A survivor of two civil wars, Al-Harazi immigrated to Canada with her three children in 1996. She had no higher education or connections and very little understanding of the business world, but her entrepreneurial spirit quickly led her to start her first company Foundry Communications, an internationally recognized Canadian creative powerhouse.

Al-Harazi is currently co-founder of the startup, Skillit, which is a marketplace for sharing knowledge and building skills. She is also a consultant who has worked with thousands of leaders on employee engagement, navigating disruption, leading change, shifting stakeholder values, corporate social responsibility, and brand transformations.

In recognition of her many accomplishments, Al-Harazi has been named one of Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40, Woman Entrepreneur of the Year by Chatelaine magazine, and one of Canada’s 100 most powerful women by WXN. She has also received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for contributions to Canada, and the RBC Top 25 Immigrants to Canada Award.

Al-Harazi is a former Canadian Ambassador to UNICEF. She currently sits on the board of directors for The Walrus, and is the author of What it Takes, published January 2020.

Murad Al-Katib is President, CEO and board member of AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. Murad is an international agri-food commodity trading strategic business and financial thinker and founded AGT Foods in 2001, building a Canadian start-up into a global multi-billion-dollar value-added pulses, staple foods, and ingredient company.

Murad was born and raised in the small rural community of Davidson, Saskatchewan,and was born to Turkish immigrant parents. His career began in the public service with the Government of Canada and then as a founding director of the Saskatchewan government’s international trade and export development agency, the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership (STEP).

Murad is a graduate of the Rotman Institute of Corporate Directors ICD course and has a varied experience in board roles including appointments to the Industry Strategy Council of the Government of Canada in 2020, Chair of the SME Advisory Board for Canada’s Trade Minister, Chair of the Government of Canada National Agri-Food Strategy Roundtable, and others.

Murad has been a passionate advocate of entrepreneurs, championing compassionate entrepreneurism, working to expand youth and First Nations participation in business startups and advocating the role of entrepreneurs in driving social change and innovation in the new global economy.

From a window washer to The Globe and Mail's Report on Business Top CEO 2020 Strategist of the Year, Dr. Ajay Virmani is a quintessential immigrant success story. Dr. Virmani has been awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by RBC and Ernst & Young.

Dr. Virmani founded Cargojet from the ashes of the bankruptcy of Canada 3000 and has made Cargojet Canada’s most-awarded cargo airline. With a $3-billion market cap, Cargojet has been featured for a second year in a row in the Top 10 on the TSX30 program, launched in 2019, which recognizes the 30 top-performing TSX stocks over a three-year period.

Cargojet flies to over 16 Canadian cities each night, serves Latin America, Europe, and Asia through scheduled service and has emerged as the largest enabler of next-day e-commerce in Canada. Today Cargojet employs a team of over 1200, ships over 40 million pounds of time sensitive essentials every week, and operates a fleet of 30 Boeing freighter aircrafts.

Dr. Virmani is a long-time philanthropist through the Virmani Family Foundation and the Cargojet Foundation which have supported numerous initiatives in healthcare and arts. Dr. Virmani was instrumental in the launch of University Health Network (UHN) Diwali Gala in 2011, which has since raised $9.6-million for programs at UHN. He has generously supported the Sick Kids Hospital and the Trillium Health Network. Dr. Virmani holds a special place in his heart for the arts community and has served for numerous arts organizations including the Canadian Screen Awards. Dr. Virmani believes that the arts are a great unifier of diverse communities in Canada.

Chris Hannay is The Globe's independent business reporter, based in Toronto. Before that, he was the assignment editor in the Ottawa bureau, where he helped direct coverage of federal politics. He launched the Politics Briefing newsletter in 2015 and wrote it every morning for more than five years. In addition to business and politics, he has also written features and won the National Newspaper Award for arts reporting in 2018. He started at The Globe as a summer staffer in 2010.

"Carole Saab is a tireless champion for cities and communities, driving an ambitious vision for local government leadership in building a more sustainable, livable and inclusive Canada.

Carole is an accomplished strategist with over a decade of experience in federal and municipal advocacy. Carole has been a driving force behind watershed achievements for municipalities, securing unprecedented investment and progress for cities and communities. One of Canada’s Top 40 under 40, she is recognized by peers as a game-changer, and consistently voted as one of Canada’s top 100 lobbyists.

Carole’s leadership has positioned FCM as one of the most respected and effective advocacy organizations in Canada.

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Karla Briones arrived in Canada in a U-Haul truck with her family when she was 18 - after a long five-day drive from her native country, Mexico.

She and her family lived the struggles most immigrants experience: cultural, language, environment and job security barriers.

She is now proudly a Mexican-Canadian serial entrepreneur with retail, food and online businesses.

She is the founder of KB Consulting, a business consulting and network agency for immigrant, BIPOC and underrepresented entrepreneurs. 

In 2021 she launched the Immigrants Developing Entrepreneurs Academy (IDEA) – an online platform designed to educate and connect newcomers to the Canadian business ecosystem.

Karla is also a business strategist and coach and part of the team of independent business advisors at Invest Ottawa - the local economic development agency. She works with all types of entrepreneurs who are launching, building and scaling businesses. Most recently she launched the Peer Groups, where she helps revenue-generating companies reach their first $1M faster.

Karla is a Nation’s Capital Immigrant Entrepreneur of the Year award recipient and a TEDx Speaker on the topic of immigrant entrepreneurship.

She is a small business columnist for the Ottawa Citizen, an entrepreneurship professor at Algonquin College and serves on the board of directors for the Ottawa Markets and the Ottawa Board of Trade, as well as volunteering as a business mentor for Futurpreneur Canada, the Centre for Social Enterprise Development (CSED) and other local entrepreneurship community groups.

Guest speaker, lecturer, and generous with her advice, Karla is passionate about growing the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Canada and giving back to the country that welcomed her with open arms.

Karla is the lucky mom of two amazing, strong and inspiring humans: Carmen (9) and Nico (13) who also have their own business! She lovingly instills in them her Mexican roots and encourages them to use their Canadian wings to fly after their biggest dreams. Her husband and business partner, Shawn, patiently supports, encourages and contributes to the success of it all. 

 Temur Durrani is a technology reporter for the Report on Business at The Globe and Mail, based in Toronto.

His coverage focuses on technology news and issues related to cryptocurrencies, the presence of “Big Tech” in Canada, the evolution of Web3, and the country’s burgeoning creator economy.

Temur joined The Globe in early 2022 after most recently working at BNN Bloomberg, where he reported national enterprise stories and business features for broadcast and digital audiences. Prior to that, he was a reporter at The Winnipeg Free Press, The Toronto Star, iPolitics (Ottawa) and the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. He’s also written for Maclean’s Magazine, The Financial Post and The Hamilton Spectator.

A globe-trotting newshound originally from British Columbia, Temur has covered protests in Hong Kong, graffiti art in India and Pakistan, crashes in Alaska, crime in the GTA, federal politics in Ottawa, small business in the Maritimes, finance on the Prairies, and even the Raptors’ historic run to the NBA final.

A juror for the Dalton Camp Award, which grants young writers with a $10,000 prize for the best essay on the link between media and democracy, Temur frequently appears on live-audience and broadcast panels to provide analysis about the Canadian economy.

He speaks six languages fluently or conversationally (guess which ones!) and loves a good meme, especially before that meme becomes a fungible or non-fungible token.

Dawn is the editor of Report on Business magazine, handling long-form features, packages and oversight of the publication. She also writes the magazine's back-page column, "Last Word," along with the occasional feature.

From 1985 to 1997, Mr. McGuire worked in Premier Frank McKenna’s administration, including as Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Tourism, and as the Leader of the Province’s Information Highway Secretariat.

Francis P. McGuire assumed the position of President (Deputy Minister) of the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency on June 12, 2017.

Mr. McGuire has served both in government and in the private sector. Having been educated in the French and English systems, and being a resident of New Brunswick, Canada’s only officially bilingual province, Mr. McGuire is completely at ease in working in either official language.

After stepping aside as President and CEO of Major Drilling Group International Inc., where he served from 2000 to 2015, Francis McGuire provided advice to companies and individuals on strategy, leadership and organizational design. Mr. McGuire also served on the Board of Directors of Major Drilling. Second largest mineral drilling company in the world, Major Drilling operates in over 20 countries and is listed on the TSX. In 2008, Atlantic Business Magazine named Mr. McGuire Atlantic Canada’s CEO of the Year. In 2012, Mr. McGuire was inducted into the New Brunswick Business Hall of Fame. Ernst & Young named him Atlantic Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013.

Mr. McGuire served on the Board of Directors of Industrial Alliance from 2001 to 2017. Headquartered in Québec, Que, Industrial Alliance is Canada’s 4th largest insurance company. Mr. McGuire also served as Chairman of the Board of NB Power from 2007 to 2010.

Francis McGuire was the Chair of the Wallace McCain Institute for Business Leadership at the University of New Brunswick, and is an emeritus member of the New Brunswick Business Council.

Gina El Kattan is the co founder of Nuba. A BIPOC women owned company making certified organic, freshly brewed, all natural, ready to drink hibiscus tea and other drinks from the Middle East. Nuba is founded with the mission of supporting predominantly-female small farmers in Southern Egypt by using their harvest, to manufacture and sell authentic Middle Eastern herbal drinks worldwide. Nuba can be found Canada wide in major chains such as Loblaws, Whole Foods and Adonis.

Nuba was recently featured on Season 16 of CBC’s Dragons Den and are the recipients of Visa Canada She’s Next Grant.
Gina is a graduate of the University of Toronto and Duke Fuqua MBA.

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