Equity in action.

Arati Sharma and Satish Kanwar are Toronto-based entrepreneurs and active members of the Canadian business and technology ecosystem. Arati and Satish focus on supporting companies and initiatives led by women and underrepresented founders. They are new parents to their son Kabir, and residents of the High Park community.

Arati is a Director of Marketing at Shopify, where she leads go-to-market strategy and campaigns for Shopify’s products to millions of entrepreneurs globally. Satish is a Vice President of Product at Shopify, where he leads the development of ecommerce, retail, and multi-channel shopping experiences. They were both previously part of user experience studio Jet Cooper, which was acquired by Shopify in 2013 in order to establish its footprint in Toronto. Arati is a graduate of McMaster University and Satish of the University of Toronto.”

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Christina Kramer is responsible for technology, infrastructure and innovation for CIBC worldwide. Her team enables the efficient, reliable running of the bank, protecting CIBC from risks, and proactively partners with CIBC’s lines of business to accelerate growth by transforming how the bank operates, and meeting clients’ and team members’ evolving needs. She leads a talented team and nurtures an inclusive culture focused on a shared purpose to help make clients’ ambitions a reality.

Since joining CIBC in 1987, Christina has held progressively more senior executive roles within CIBC’s retail, business banking and human resources groups. Most recently, she was Senior Executive Vice-President and Group Head, Personal and Small Business Banking.

A director on the board of The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, Christina was also formerly CIBC’s Executive Sponsor of the Canadian Cancer Society CIBC Run for the Cure for 9 years, leading Team CIBC to raise $30 million during that time.

Christina is the recipient of the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers. She has also been inducted into the WXN “Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada” Hall of Fame.

She’s a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University.

Mr. Debow is currently Vice President, Commercial at Shopify. He was the former founder and Chief Executive Officer of Helpful.com, a video messenger platform for professionals, the co-founder and former Co-Chief Executive Officer of Rypple, a social performance management platform, and a founding team member of Workbrain, a publicly traded workforce management software company.

Mr. Debow holds a B.A. from the University of Western Ontario. He received a J.D./M.B.A.from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law and Rotman School of Management and an L.L.M. from Stanford Law School.

Mr. Debow currently serves on the board of Loblaw Companies Limited. He is also a founding partner of the Creative Destruction Lab at the Rotman School of Management and an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto.

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Donette Chin-Loy Chang, a distinguished communications leader, accomplished public affairs strategist, prolific philanthropist and proud TMU alumna, has been recommended to the Board of Governors as the next Chancellor of Toronto Metropolitan University. Dr. Chin-Loy Chang’s appointment as TMU’s sixth Chancellor will begin on October 10th for a three-year term. The Chancellor, who is the ceremonial head of TMU, acts as an ambassador for the university on local, national and international levels, presides at all convocations, and confers degrees and diplomas.

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Over the years, she has supported hundreds of students by funding scholarships and well-being initiatives at TMU, and established bursaries across several areas of the university, including the DMZ, the Chang School, and the Lincoln Alexander School of Law. She also created an emergency fund for students during the pandemic and contributed to TMU’s Viola Desmond Awards program and the President’s Awards to Champion Equity campaign.

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Dr. Chin-Loy Chang’s professional career spans over four decades. She has created and managed successful strategies for countless corporate, government, not-for-profit and institutional clients. As a philanthropist, she and her late husband, Dr. the Honourable G. Raymond Chang, OC, OJ, TMU’s third Chancellor, have been dedicated to transforming lives through education, healthcare, social justice and the arts in Canada and globally.

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After graduating in 1978, she worked as a reporter-producer with CBC Radio, eventually leading the overseas service of Radio Canada International in Toronto and has trained journalists in several English-speaking Caribbean countries and in Haiti. As a strategist for global public relations firm Ruder Finn & Rotman, she provided counsel to the Prime Minister of Jamaica, ministers of government, heads of crown corporations and media practitioners, and was later appointed by the Prime Minister as head of radio at the Jamaica Information Service. She was also a visiting lecturer at the University of the West Indies in the Faculty of Mass Communications. In the early 1990s, she founded Donette Chin-Loy and Associates, a leading communications agency in the Caribbean. In 2000, she partnered with fellow TMU alumna, Dr. Lucy La Grassa, to establish La Grassa Chin-Loy Communications in Canada.

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She has dedicated her time and philanthropy to many influential organizations and causes. She is former co-chair of Food For The Poor Canada, an international relief agency. She is also co-patron of the University of the West Indies annual benefit awards, the largest Canadian fundraiser in support of student scholarships.

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She served on the dean’s advisory board for TMU’s Faculty of Community Services and was a member of the university’s renaming committee. Currently, she is a board director for the BlackNorth Initiative and the Toronto International Film Festival, and chairs TMU’s Alumni Council. She also sits on the advisory boards of the Onyx Initiative and TMU’s Anti-Asian Racism Taskforce, founded by the university’s fifth Chancellor, Janice Fukakusa.

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Dr. Chin-Loy Chang holds a Bachelor of Applied Arts degree in Journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. She has received honorary degrees from Toronto Metropolitan University (2021) and the University of the West Indies (2018).

Lindsay Taub is a foodie, an entrepreneur, a wife and a mom to 2 young children. She used to be a psychotherapist, but now she chooses to help people with something even more therapeutic than therapy: ice cream. She believes in the healing power of sweet dairy (and non dairy) treats and loves being a delicious part of her community with her shop, Sundae School.

Harley Finkelstein is an entrepreneur, lawyer, and the President of Shopify. He founded his first company at age 17 while a student at McGill. Harley completed his law degree as well as his MBA at the University of Ottawa, where he co-founded the JD/MBA Student Society and the Canadian MBA Oath. Harley is an Advisor to Felicis Ventures, and one of the “Dragons” on CBC’s Next Gen Den. Recently, he received the Canadian Angel Investor of the Year Award, Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award, and was inducted into the Order of Ottawa.

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Isaac Olowolafe Jr. is the Founder and General Partner of Dream Maker Ventures (DMV) a Toronto based, early-stage venture firm. DMV Fund II, “The Diversity Fund” is the firm’s second fund that primarily invests in early-stage tech companies with founding teams inclusive of persons of colour, women, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ+, immigrant, refugee and indigenous entrepreneurs.

Isaac is also an award-winning real estate entrepreneur, angel investor and philanthropist. Isaac’s corporation, Dream Maker Inc., successfully operates multiple divisions including a brokerage, real estate development, wealth management, property management, education, private equity and insurance. The Development division celebrated the completion of the first major mixed-use development (condos, townhomes, retail) called Dream Residences at Yorkdale, located directly across from Yorkdale Mall, and has more developments underway across the GTA. Through his love of sports, Dream Maker Developments became the jersey sponsor of the Men and Women National Basketball Team and will be participating in the 2019 World Cup in China.

Isaac received a Bachelor in Economics from the University of Toronto. He has received numerous awards and recognition, including a Harry Jerome Business Award, an Enterprise Business Award by Planet Africa, an Arbor Award from the University of Toronto, a Business Leadership Award by Leadership and Governance Canada Inc. and a Public Service Award from the Transformation Institute for Leadership & Innovation and Toronto Board of Trade Award.

In addition to his membership in the Ryerson Innovation Circle, Isaac made a generous donation which named the Isaac Olowolafe Jr. Digital Media Experience Lab in Ryerson’s iconic Student Learning Centre.

Mark was appointed President & CEO in June 2016, where he is responsible for leading CPP Investments and its investment activities.

He joined CPP Investments in 2012 as its first President for Asia. In November 2013, Mark became Head of International, where he was responsible for the organization’s international investment activities, managing global advisory relationships and leading the organization internationally.

Prior to joining CPP Investments, Mark had a 20-year career at Goldman Sachs where he was most recently Vice Chairman of Asia ex-Japan. Based in Asia for more than 20 years, among other roles, Mark ran the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs in Asia ex-Japan for six years. He was a member of Goldman Sachs’ Asia Management Committee and the Firmwide Capital Committee. Beforehand, Mark qualified as medical doctor in 1990 and in 1991, after practicing medicine in the UK, he joined Goldman Sachs in London in European Corporate Finance.

Vanessa is a Senior Counsel  at  RBC. Prior to joining RBC, Vanessa was a litigation counsel at the Department of Justice Canada, specializing in a broad range of complex legal and policy matters involving social benefits programs and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Vanessa regularly represented the Attorney General of Canada before the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal.

Vanessa is on the Board of Directors of International Planned Parenthood Federation / Western Hemisphere Region and of IPPF Canada. She was a guest speaker on women empowerment at the International Women’s Empowerment and Leadership Conference and at the Women’s Festival Toronto Gala. She has volunteered for the Elizabeth Fry Society of Ottawa, which supports and advocates for young and adult women who are criminalized or may become criminalized. She earned both a JD and a License of Civil Law from the University of Ottawa. Vanessa speaks English, French and Spanish fluently.

Michael Hyatt is the co-founder of BlueCat, which was sold to Madison Dearborn Partners, of Chicago, IL. He serves as a director of BlueCat, ranks as one of Canada’s top entrepreneurs, and is known as a technology visionary.  Michael is also a weekly business commentator on CBC and was a celebrated “Dragon” on CBC’s online Dragons’ Den. He is the Host of BMO’s Unplanned Business podcast to help small businesses and an investor on the hit Spotify podcast “The Pitch”. Michael is a Founding Partner and Fellow at the Rotman School of Management’s prestigious Creative Destruction Lab and sits on the CEO Board of Advisors of Georgian Partners, one of Canada’s leading venture capital firms. He was also recently named Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at Blakes, one of the most successful law firms in the country.

Michael was awarded the “Power Partner Award” from the Women of Inspiration Awards for his supportive and innovative work with Women in Canada and the developing world.

Michael and Vanessa are active investors and philanthropists who are part of the Hyatt Family Foundation. The foundation focuses on women’s health, critical hospital research and sponsorship of underprivileged minorities.

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Rajen Ruparell is a Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist, best known as the Founder, Chairman, and Majority Shareholder of Endy, a groundbreaking direct-to-consumer bedding company that was acquired in a record e-commerce deal by Sleep Country Canada.

Prior to Endy, Rajen was a Co-Founder of Groupon International via the acquisition of Citydeal (Groupon’s largest acquisition). At Groupon, Rajen spearheaded the creation and growth of Groupon Goods, the company’s product arm, and played a pivotal role in leading their global deals team.  Groupon IPO’d in 2011 as one of the largest tech exits in history.

Currently, Rajen serves as the Chairman of TwoGoose Ventures, a private family office with diverse investments spanning Technology, Retail, IoT, Real Estate, Consumer Health, Food, and E-Commerce. His remarkable achievements have earned global recognition, with features in prestigious publications such as Forbes, Fortune, The Globe & Mail, and The Financial Times, along with an appearance on Larry King.

Rajen’s dedication extends beyond the boardroom, as evidenced by his role as the youngest-ever Trustee on the Chicago Architecture Foundation Board and his involvement in Executive Advisory Boards such as the Canada-US Business Council and Techweek.  Education is one of the core giving areas of his family foundation.  He has built primary schools in India, donated to academic institutions in North America and is also a proud supporter of the DMZ Black Innovation Programs in Toronto.

With a passion for entrepreneurship, a commitment to philanthropy, and a track record of groundbreaking success, Rajen Ruparell continues to inspire as one of Toronto’s most influential leaders.

Ralph E. Lean is a highly regarded business lawyer and a trusted advisor to clients that range from start-ups to global corporations. Since September 2011, Lean has been a distinguished counsel in residence at the Ted Rogers School of Management. In addition, Lean had an illustrious legal career at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP and Gowlings LLP. Lean also serves on the boards of many Canadian public and private companies, as well as several charities, foundations and civic groups: he is the Founding Chair of the Canadian Advisory Board of Right to Play, and serves on the boards of Giants of Africa and The PS43 Foundation.

Leveraging his strong connections in the legal and political community, Lean frequently brings in guest speakers to the classroom. Teaching at an undergraduate level to the students in “Law, Business and Politics – the Real World,” Lean has featured Paul Beeston, CEO and president of the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club and Arlene Dickinson, CEO of Venture Communications and an entrepreneur on CBC’s Dragon’s Den. On a graduate level, Kathleen Wynne, premier of Ontario, and John Honderich, chair, Torstar Corporation, have been featured as part of a special Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) Toronto MBA student speaker series. Lean is also very involved with the Law and Business Student Association, leading major case competitions and participating in networking and industry events.

Calin Rovinescu, C.M., has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada since April 1, 2009. Mr. Rovinescu was the Executive Vice President, Corporate Development & Strategy of Air Canada from 2000 to 2004, and also held the position of Chief Restructuring Officer during the airline’s 2003-2004 restructuring. From 2004 to 2009, Mr. Rovinescu was a Co-founder and Principal of Genuity Capital Markets, an independent investment bank. Prior to 2000, he was the Managing Partner of the law firm Stikeman Elliott in Montréal, where he practiced corporate law for over 20 years and was a member of the firm’s Partnership Board and Executive Committee.

Mr. Rovinescu was Chair of the Star Alliance Chief Executive Board from 2012 to 2016 and Chair of the International Air Transport Association in 2014-2015 and he continues to serve on its Board of Governors. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of BCE Inc. and Bell Canada, and of the Business Council of Canada.

Mr. Rovinescu holds Bachelor of Law degrees from the Université de Montréal and the University of Ottawa, and has been awarded six Honorary Doctorates from universities in Canada, Europe and the United States. Mr. Rovinescu was named the 14th Chancellor of the University of Ottawa in November 2015. In 2016, Mr. Rovinescu was recognized as Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year by the Financial Post Magazine. In 2018, Mr. Rovinescu was appointed a member of the Order of Canada. In 2019, Mr. Rovinescu was recognized as Strategist of the Year and as Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year for the second time by the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business magazine.

At the Weston Family Foundation, more than 60 years of philanthropy has taught us that there’s a relationship between healthy landscapes and healthy people. That’s why we champion world-class health research and innovation with the same passion that we support initiatives to protect and restore biodiversity in our unique landscapes. We take a collaborative approach to philanthropy, working alongside forward-thinking partners to advance Canada and create lasting impacts. We aspire to do more than provide funding, as we enable others to find transformational ways to improve the well being of Canadians.

Since the Foundation’s beginning, each generation of our family has taken an active role in our grant-making to spark new ideas, shepherd promising initiatives, and scale ambitious projects. With every advance, we move forward together.

Whitecap Venture Partners is a Toronto-based early stage venture capital fund investing in high growth companies. Whitecap invests across three verticals Information Tech, Food Tech, and Med Tech. Whitecap has been investing in Canada for over 30 years, and closed Whitecap IV in 2019 with $125M in commitments.

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