Thriving Failures
Event Details
Join us as we discuss this event’s topic,
Thriving Failures: building resilience and learning from epic mistakes.
The event will kickoff with a Keynote by Olivia Nuamah, Executive Director of Pride Toronto, and will be followed by two panel discussions moderated by Kathy McGuire, SVP & Managing Director of McDonald’s at Cossette, and Valerie Swatkow, Chief Development Officer of Vision7 International.
June 26, 2019
6:30-9:30
BrainStation: 460 King St. W
Please note that the building’s entrance is on Spadina Avenue.
Paid parking is available at 76 Spadina.
Speakers
Keynote Speaker
Olivia Nuamah
Executive Director, Pride Toronto
Olivia Nuamah is the Executive Director of Pride Toronto after having spent 3 years working in the downtown Toronto with homeless men and women. She spent over 2 decades working in a number of roles with the British government focused on policy and practice development with socially and economically marginalized communities. She works across a number of areas focusing on community engagement, consultation and development.
Moderators
Kathy McGuire
SVP & Managing Director, McDonald’s at Cossette
Kathy McGuire is Senior Vice President and Managing Director at Cossette. She leads the McDonald’s Canada business within the agency – having built a team of over 100 talented people to drive results across all platforms. As a senior member of Cossette’s leadership team, Kathy brings people together to create innovative marketing solutions and drive technological and social innovation for a diverse roster of clients as well as leading the McDonald’s team to create impactful, globally-recognized campaigns. Kathy excels at building high-performance teams and motivating top talent to create campaigns that drive business growth for some of Canada’s top brands including BMO Financial Group, Intact Insurance and Bell Canada. She has deep expertise across sectors and has built cross-functional teams, harnessing the power of One Cossette, for financial services, government, telecommunications, quick service restaurant and not-for-profit clients.
Valerie Swatkow
Chief Development Officer, Vision7 International
Valerie Swatkow has led a 25-year dynamic career in advertising and integrated communications, spanning diverse markets across Canada, the United States and South East Asia. An optimistic ‘champion of ideas’, Valerie is relentless in her pursuit of achieving success for those organizations she works with. Her curiosity and passion for assisting newly emerging innovators and disruptors evolved from her engagement with NewCo, a global platform that celebrates businesses on a mission that she introduced to Toronto. She currently holds the title of Chief Development Officer for Vision 7, the hold-co for some of Canada’s leading Agencies including Cossette, where she is responsible for business development within the tech and innovation sector. She’s a mother of two young children and has found the “cat herding” skills she’s built over the span of her career have come in handy at home.
Panelists
Chanèle McFarlane
Personal Branding Expert, Brand Marketer, TEDx Speaker
Chanèle McFarlane is a multiple award-winning personal branding expert, TEDx speaker and marketing communications specialist. By day, she leads employer branding at Capital One and outside of work, she's known as the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Do Well Dress Well, a career lifestyle website that has cultivated a loyal international community around content on personal branding and professional development.
A sought-after speaker at conferences, universities, colleges and organizations across North America, Chanèle has been recognized as one of the PR in Canada’s Top 30 Under 30, one of the Top 100 Black Women to Watch in Canada and one of the Top 25 Women of Influence.
Kena Paranjape
Entrepreneur, writer, speaker, and the Founder of All You Are
Kena Paranjape is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker and the Founder of All You Are. She is passionate about inspiring others to live well every day and harness their creativity to create a fulfilling life. In addition to founding All You Are, Kena is the co-founder of BRIKA, an innovative retail concept focused on highlighting and supporting emerging artisans and designers. Kena has 15+ years of experience in retail including creating and managing retail merchandising strategies for Indigo, Joe Fresh and Gap as well as a high-end eco-friendly concept. She currently sits on the advisory board of the David Sobey Center for Innovation in Retailing and Services.
Joe Shuchat
Entrepreneur
Joe is a Canadian entrepreneur with a passion for sports, technology, and performance. Joe is a massive golfer having represented Canada internationally on multiple occasions as well as spending two years caddying and coaching on tour including multiple Major Championships. This inspired him to Found Winning Identity, a private customizable network for teams and organizations. His cloud-based software improved communication between athletes and coaches through unique functionality that helped users achieve their goals. Winning Identity was successfully acquired by Blast Motion in 2016, and Joe is currently the CEO of Mindful Sports Group as well as the Chairman of the Board for GivingSquad.
John Erhart
Agency Lead, Google Canada
John Erhart is an Agency Lead at Google Canada where he manages relationships with top agency executives. He moved to Toronto 6 years ago to head up the programmatic advertising business for AOL Canada and has worked in digital media for over 10 years. Prior work experience includes healthcare consulting, pharmaceuticals and finance. He holds Bachelors of Economics from Colgate University and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson College. John enjoys hiking, travel and performing Improv at Second City.
Felicia Snyder
VP Tokyo Smoke
Felicia leads the Tokyo Smoke Brands portfolio, a collection of premium cannabis brands under the Canopy Growth umbrella. This includes overseeing brand management, marketing and creative for Tokyo Smoke, Van der Pop, DOJA and Maitri. Prior to Tokyo Smoke, Felicia spent several years in South Korea with Samsung Electronics, as a Global Strategist and Senior Business Development Professional. She began her career as a Management Consultant at global consulting firm Oliver Wyman. She also spent time in Mountain View as a Senior Market Manager at Google. She holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and earned her Bachelor of Commerce at McGill University (graduating with Great Distinction).
Sinead Bovell
Entrepreneur
Sinead Bovell, the Model Who Talks Tech, is the founder and CEO of WAYE (Weekly Advice for the Young Entrepreneur), an organization that bridges the gap between millennials and the digital future. Through her monthly event series called WAYE Talks, where cool meets nerdy over tech, Sinead educates millennials on the future of technology. In addition to WAYE Talks, Sinead offers weekly business articles, strategy consulting, and business masterclasses to empower young entrepreneurs with the tools and resources needed to thrive in the digital future. Prior to WAYE, Sinead received her degree in business from Wilfrid Laurier University, and her Masters in Business from the University of Toronto. She worked in logistics and supply chain for global supply chain leader Brambles, before moving on to management consulting for A.T. Kearney. She was appointed Director of Youth Led Innovation for Blockchain for Impact, where she will be working with the United Nations on the mission to apply technology to sustainable development and humanitarian challenges. Recently selected to present at the United States Chambers of Commerce Summit, Sinead’s mission is to build a progressive, informed and thriving society; one in which technology is built, as she says, “on the right side of history.”
Shilbee Kim
Diversity and Inclusion Mindset Coach
Shilbee Kim is a diversity and inclusion mindset coach who works with leaders to enhance their 21st century skills in inclusive leadership. She trains, consults, and coaches leaders in cutting-edge industries such as A.I., cannabis, digital detox, social enterprises and more. Previously, she spearheaded policy changes and developed training on diversity and inclusion for a pioneering coworking space, the Centre for Social Innovation with 3,000+ member organizations. Currently, she is also the Communications Coordinator for the Campaign for Cannabis Amnesty calling on the government to expunge criminal records for minor cannabis possession charges impacting 500,000+ Canadians.
Sponsors
Thank you to:
