FUTURE SKILLS CENTRE - Key Persons
Abie previously worked as an HR Project Leader and an HR Partner in the tech industry. She is experienced in project implementation and execution, analytics, communications, and employee engagement. She has been actively involved in several collaborative projects in academic and corporate sectors that aim to create positive social impact. Abie holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Human Resources Management from Ryerson University's Ted Rogers School of Management.
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- Associate Director, Research & Evaluation
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- Communications Specialist
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- Managing Partner
- President
- President and Managing Partner, Digital
Armughan Ahmad is a President & Managing Partner, Digital at KPMG. He leads the firm's digital transformation solutions go to market serving large enterprise, commercial and public sector clients.
He is a technology executive with 20+ years of international experience helping clients undergo digital transformations. He has built globally diverse teams that digitally re-engineer business functions using mainstream and exponential technologies delivering innovative personalized experiences for workforce and customers.
He is a passionate driver of the digital economy and a dot connector leading sales, engineering, marketing and customer success teams by bringing together a complete ecosystem of technology alliances, government policies, start-ups, research and bright minds to accelerate outcomes. Armughan's passion is fueled by successful transformations that harmonize human and machine partnerships by embracing future of work models.
Armughan's teams have developed award-winning innovative Multi Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Mobility and Security solutions aligned to clients' front, middle and back office business functions across North American, European and Asian markets.
He brings his start-up to large corporation growth mindset experience to drive change management by selling and delivering new and improved customer experiences across financial, manufacturing, retail, telecom, energy and public sector industry verticals.
Before joining KPMG, Armughan served as the Senior Vice President & General Manager at Dell Technologies leading their sales and engineering teams for Multi Cloud, Solutions and Alliances business globally. He previously held executive positions at Hewlett Packard and Huawei 3Com, leading world-class teams that are powering the Fortune 500 and commercial industries.
Armughan serves on the advisory board of Future Skills Center and Queens University's AI and Analytics board. He is a passionate promoter of girls' STEAM education, mental health awareness and homelessness resettlement programs.
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- Strategic Project Analyst
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- Director of Education and Engagement / International Union of Operating Engineers
- Vice - Chair of the Douglas College Board of Directors, Chair of the British Columbia Sector Advisory Group for Transportation & Transit
Brian is the vice-chair of the Douglas College Board of Directors, Chair of the British Columbia Sector Advisory Group for Transportation & Transit, Vice President of the Canadian Association of Fleet Supervisors, and former BC Director with the National Council of Deans of Technology. Brian holds a Master's Degree (SFU), a Provincial Instructors Diploma (VCC), and is a Red Seal Endorsed Heavy Duty Equipment Technician (BCIT).
Prior to taking on the role of Director of Education and Engagement with the International Union of Operating Engineers, Brian was the Dean and Campus Principal of the Faculty of Trades and Technology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. He participated in a trade mission to Germany focusing on Industry 4.0 developments and to Australia, looking at applications of artificial intelligence and competency tracking. Prior to this he was an instructor and department head in the School of Transportation Trades at Vancouver Community College.
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- Associate Director, Operations
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- Strategic Project Analyst
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- Research and Evaluation Associate
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- Chief Executive Officer / Atkinson Foundation
- Chief Executive Officer of the Atkinson Foundation
Colette Murphy is the Chief Executive Officer of the Atkinson Foundation. As a grant maker, advocate and investor, Atkinson is committed to reducing income and wealth inequality by strengthening movements for decent work and a fair economy.
Prior to her work at Atkinson, Colette held senior roles with the Metcalf Foundation and the United Way Toronto. She also worked behind-the-scenes on innovative social and economic policy, anti-racism and leadership development initiatives over the course of her career. A Canadian who was raised in the US, Colette began her career in refugee settlement.
Colette stands out as a philanthropic leader for her ability to work effectively across government, a range of stakeholders, and the grassroots to mobilize systemic change. A respected advocate for social procurement, workforce development and other strategies aimed at equitable economic development, she has collaborated to leverage billions of public dollars earmarked for infrastructure development. To date, this work has resulted in projects on the ground in excess of $37 billion as well as new legislative, regulatory and policy frameworks. She is the co-founder of the Power Lab, a leadership learning and innovation initiative led by people who are generating economic and democratic power within historically excluded and equity-seeking communities.
Currently, Colette serves on the board of directors of the Shareholder Association for Research and Education and Philanthropic Foundations Canada. She has a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University and a Masters in Environmental Studies from York University.
Job Titles:
- Content & Communications Coordinator
Courtney's prior experience includes administrative and coordinator roles in other post-secondary institutions, including the University of Toronto, Simon Fraser University, and the University of Tasmania. She also previously worked at Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, where she provided administrative support to Canada's role in the Independent Assessment Process for survivors of residential schools. Courtney also works on freelance editing projects and is a research assistant for a U of T international research collaboration studying state building and road building in Nepal. She has an Master of Arts in Human Geography with a Collaborative Specialization in Development Policy and Power from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Arts in Human Geography (minors in English and French) and a Certificate in Editing from Simon Fraser University.
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- Communications & Marketing Manager
With over 8 years of strategic brand marketing, agency and creative experience as well as a proven track record in cause marketing and project management, Dan brings a diverse background within both mission-driven organizations and traditional marketing agencies to his role as Communications and Marketing Manager. He holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.), Psychology from McMaster University, and a Post-Graduate Certificate, Sport and Event Marketing from George Brown College.
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- Chief Executive Officer / St. John 's International Airport Authority
- Chief Executive Officer of the St. John 's International Airport Authority
Dennis Hogan is the Chief Executive Officer of the St. John's International Airport Authority. With more than 20 years of executive leadership experience in industry and government, Dennis is currently leading the Airport into its next chapter.
Prior to his appointment with the Airport Authority, Dennis was CEO of WorkplaceNL, where he led a comprehensive business modernization initiative designed to transform the organization's deployment of people, processes, and technology. Dennis also served in several executive roles with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, including Assistant Deputy Minister, Workforce Development and Immigration, and Assistant Deputy Minister, Labour Market Recruitment - Major Projects, Department of Advanced Education, Skills and Labour; Assistant Secretary to Cabinet, Economic Policy with the Executive Council; and, Assistant Deputy Minister, Innovation, Research and Technology, and Chief Innovation Officer, Department of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development. Earlier in his career, he was the inaugural Executive Director of OceansAdvance, Newfoundland and Labrador's ocean technology cluster initiative, and he was founding CEO of the Newfoundland and Labrador Construction Safety Association.
In addition to the Future Skills Centre, Dennis currently serves on the boards of the Atlantic Canada Airports Association, Destination St. John's, and the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University. He is former First Vice Chair of the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada, and he served on the boards of the Research and Development Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Genesis Centre, Memorial University. He is a former member of the Atlantic Advisory Board, National Science, Engineering and Research Council of Canada, and the Conference Board of Canada's Leaders' Panel on Innovation-based Commerce.
Dennis holds a Bachelor of Arts (Economics and Business) from Memorial University and a Master of Business Administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was a Sloan Fellow. While attending MIT, he also completed advanced studies in leadership, strategy, and communications as a graduate cross-registrant at Harvard Business School and the Kennedy School of Government.
An engineer who started her career in the private sector, Desirée Lopes has an eye for new opportunities and experience in launching innovative initiatives, which she brings to her role as Future Skills Centre's Director, Programs.
Prior to joining FSC, she was the associate director of a global capacity building initiative at Yale University, where she led operations, partnerships, and monitoring and evaluation for programs across six countries and an online training program. Desirée has also managed institutional and research partnerships, training activities, and outreach to reduce inequality for the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Desirée holds an MBA and a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University, where she was a Moore Foundation Fellow, and a B.Sc. in Forest Engineering from the University of Sao Paulo.
Job Titles:
- Events Coordinator
- Communications
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- Manager, Strategic Initiatives
Prior to joining the Diversity Institute, Felicia worked as a project analyst on SaaS software implementation projects for the continuing education departments of colleges and universities in North America and the Middle East. Her earlier experience focused on leading product development and management for desktop and mobile client portals in the field of finance. Felicia holds a Master of Arts in Gender Studies and Feminist Research from McMaster University, and an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Arts and Business from the University of Waterloo. Her interests include feminist economics, and historical and contemporary relations between women and the labour market. She joined the Diversity Institute - Future Skills team to contribute to the development of research aimed at understanding the opportunities in the existing and future Canadian labour market for underserved groups.
Job Titles:
- Strategic Project Analyst
James Walton holds a MA from Queen's University. His research interests include how organizational culture affects the adoption of innovative technology in large organizations, as well as the history of technology, naval history and rural economic development. Prior to joining the Diversity Institute James spent time working in local economic development, rural broadband connectivity, and teaching.
Job Titles:
- Chief Sustainability Officer
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- Chief Executive Officer
- President
- Founder and Leader of Blueprint
Karen Myers is the founder and leader of Blueprint, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the social and economic well-being of Canadians by helping to solve complex public policy challenges. Over the past twenty years Karen has built a solid reputation for her ability to lead large-scale, complex projects in a range of policy domains including employment and training, poverty reduction, income security, and housing affordability. She has extensive experience as a researcher, policy analyst, performance consultant and program evaluator that spans the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Prior to founding Blueprint, Karen was a research director at SRDC and a senior policy advisor with the Ontario Government. She began her career with Benchmark Performance, a consulting firm focused on helping people and organizations deliver results. Karen holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto and a Master of Public Administration from Queen's University.
Job Titles:
- Digital Communications Specialist
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- Research and Evaluation Associate
Prior to joining the Diversity Institute, Kayla worked in patient advocacy with Parkinson Canada. She has extensive experience working in politics and government, having held various positions at Queen's Park as Constituency Assistant in Scarborough-Guildwood, Legislative Assistant at the Ministry of Research and Innovation, as well as Office Manager/Scheduler and MPP Liaison for the Minister of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs. Kayla holds a BA in Political Science from Brock University, studied Public Administration at Humber College and is currently working towards obtaining her CHRP designation.
Kevin (Joong Woo) Jae is a graduate from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Arts in Anthropology. Kevin is interested in futures studies and foresight. He has written for scholarly publications like the World Futures Review (forthcoming), as well as publications like the Human Futures Magazine, and The Scenario magazine. He has presented his research in numerous global conferences, including the APF Collaborate 2020 Conference and the 2020 Asia Pacific Futures Network Virtual Conference.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director
- Executive Director, Indigenous Initiatives and Partnerships / British Columbia Institute of Technology
Kory Wilson is Executive Director of Indigenous Initiatives and Partnerships at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. She holds the position of National Indigenous Education Chair for Colleges and Institutes Canada and Chair of the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics Indigenous Affinity Group.
Kory has over 20 years of experience in post-secondary education, community development, and in the legal profession. With a deep commitment to education, she knows innovative and creative solutions are a must to move Reconciliation into Reconcili ACTION. She is a strong believer that education and access to knowledge are key to move everyone forward, and that when people know better, they do better.
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- Chief Executive Officer / Firespirit Inc.
- Owner and Chief Executive Officer of FireSpirit Inc
Lawrence Daniels is the Sole Owner and Chief Executive Officer of FireSpirit Inc., a growing Manitoba Indigenous Human Resources Company. FireSpirit provides specialized employment services for a broad spectrum of clients in Winnipeg and the Northwestern Region of Manitoba. Lawrence strives to deliver a value-based service that celebrates Indigenous knowledge, while recognizing the importance of participating in a modern, globalized economy.
In collaboration with a broad base of partners he works to combine both modern concepts and indigenous frameworks to create unique tools within FireSpirit. These tools include Holistic Job Coaching Models, Indigenous/Experiential Essential Skills Curriculums, Resilience Building Tools, Workplace Policy Development, Recruitment and Retention strategies for Indigenous and Northern populations.
As a long-time resident and member of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation Lawrence continues to pursue a deeper understanding of innovative business practices, Indigenous Culture, and better ways to improve self sufficiency for all Canadians. This pursuit will ultimately lead to FireSpirit evolving from an employee driven company, to a community driven by fellow entrepreneurs.
Job Titles:
- President and CEO, the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation
Lili-Anna Pereša was named President and CEO of the McConnell Foundation in November2020. Previously, she served as the President and Executive Director of Centraide of GreaterMontreal for eight years, which is the second largest United Way in Canada.
The common thread in Lili-Anna's commitments and decades of leadership for variousorganizations (the YWCA of Montreal, the One Drop Foundation, and Amnesty InternationalFrance) is to empower people, to contribute to the development of less privileged communitiesand to help improve the living conditions of the most vulnerable populations. Lili-Anna's yearsof humanitarian work (notably with CARE in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, with Oxfam inBurkina Faso, and as a science teacher in Malawi) have earned her numerous distinctions,including an honorary doctorate from the Université de Montréal, and an appointment asKnight of the Ordre National du Québec.
An engineer by training, Lili-Anna graduated from the École Polytechnique de Montréal in 1987before going on to earn a graduate degree in management from McGill University and amaster's degree in political science at the Sorbonne in Paris.
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- Executive Director, Magnet
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- Strategic Project Analyst
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- Research Manager
- Director ( Acting ), Research and Special Projects ( Future Skills )
Michael is Research Manager - Future Skills at the Ted Rogers School of Management's Diversity Institute at Ryerson University. He is also a Fellow of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto and a Rhodes Scholar. Previously, Michael was Practice Lead for Government Transformation at the Mowat Centre and has also worked as a Returning Officer for Elections Canada and with Global Affairs Canada, most recently as a Cadieux-Léger Fellow. Michael is often asked to speak about his research on disruptive technologies and regulatory issues, and his research and analysis on these and other subjects have appeared in a variety of academic and popular publications. Michael holds degrees from Balliol College at the University of Oxford, the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, and Queen's University.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Associate
- Research Fellow
N.T. Khuong Truong is a Research Fellow in the School of Economics, Finance and Property at Curtin Business School, Curtin University, Australia. He is an affiliated Senior Research Associate - Future Skills at the Ted Rogers School of Management's Diversity Institute at Ryerson University. His research interest includes an array of topics in applied econometrics and labour economics, especially those focusing on skills, education, and immigrants and their children. He is also interested in the intersection between economic and social policy, technological trends, and their impacts on the changing nature of work and the future of work. Khuong holds degrees from McMaster University and the University of Waterloo.
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- Digital Experience Manager
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- Director, Government and Public Affairs
With more than a decade of experience leading strategic initiatives and policy development in dynamic work environments, Noel Baldwin brings his extensive experience to his role as Future Skills Centre's Director, Government and Public Affairs.
An expert in building and managing strong stakeholder networks, Noel has wide-ranging knowledge of government relations, advocacy, strategic communications, and product dissemination. Prior to joining FSC, he was the coordinator of postsecondary education and adult learning at the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC), a forum that brings together Canada's ministers responsible for education to address policy issues. He was responsible for coordinating pan-Canadian activities to address issues around the future of skills. He has also served as a policy and research officer with the Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation and a policy officer with Transport Canada.
Noel grew up in Ottawa and studied at Mount Allison University. His volunteer work includes serving as an adjudicator for the TD Scholarships for Community Leadership. Noel has two young children who (happily) take up much of his non-working time.
Noel is available for interviews with members of the media. He is an expert in:
Public policy
Policy Analysis
Politics
Research
Education policy (postsecondary)
Intergovernmental relations
International relations and coordinating bodies (OECD, UNESCO, etc.)
Prior to joining the Diversity Institute Kayode worked as a research coordinator at George Brown College, and was visiting scholar at the Centre for Refugee Studies of the York University. Kayode holds a PhD in Politics, Human Rights and Sustainability, and has published articles in reputable journals like the International Journal on World Peace, International Social Science Journal, and Journal of African Election.
Job Titles:
- President and CEO / Tlicho Investment Corporation
Pedro Barata is Executive Director of the Future Skills Centre, a forward-thinking hub dedicated to researching, testing, evaluating and building innovative skills solutions to help job seekers and employers in Canada navigate labour market changes.
Grounded in a commitment to inclusion, Pedro has advised all levels of government on social & economic policy and implementation related to skills and workforce development, poverty reduction, income security reform, seeking breakthroughs on housing and homelessness, and immigration reform.
Pedro's work and extensive volunteer activities in the non-profit sector span two decades, focused on impact strategies, public policy, community building and communications. His career path has traveled through United Way Greater Toronto, the Atkinson Foundation, Family Service Toronto, Social Planning Toronto and the City of Toronto.
Pedro holds a Bachelor of Arts from York University and a Masters of Social Work from the University of Toronto.
Pedro is available for interviews with members of the media. He is an expert in:
• Skills development
• Workforce development
• Social policy
• Economic policy
• Poverty reduction
• Community initiatives
Job Titles:
- Director, Operations
- Operations
Rajanthi Manivannan brings more than a decade of strategic planning and organizational development experience with established and startup NGOs to her role as Future Skills Centre's Director, Strategy and Operations.
Rajanthi was most recently COO at The Rumie Initiative, a non-profit that makes access to free digital education possible for underserved communities worldwide. She was previously with 100 Resilient Cities, pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, as head of HR and prior to that was the Acumen Global Fellow and acting head of finance and data with M-KOPA, which provides financing for mini solar home systems in rural areas of Kenya and Uganda. Rajanthi also worked in northern Ghana as a strategy consultant with NORSAAC, a local NGO focused on women's rights and governance, where she built internal operational management systems as well as running grant management and fundraising strategies.
She holds a professional accounting designation (CMA, CPA) and a BA in Economics from University of Waterloo.
Job Titles:
- Innovation Lab Specialist
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- Research Assistant
- Postdoctoral Fellow
Rashmi Krishnamurthy is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Stephen J. R. Smith School of Business at Queen's University. Rashmi is working in the areas of digital technologies, information technology-enabled innovation, and entrepreneurship. She has published articles in MIS Quarterly Executive, Cities, International Journal of Information Management, and Information Polity, among others. Rashmi received her Ph.D. from Arizona State University.
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- Administrative Coordinator
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- Administrative and Operations Coordinator
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- Director of Corporate Strategy
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- Director, Strategic Initiatives
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- Senior Bilingual Policy Analyst
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- Vice President, Research and Innovation / Ryerson University
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- Director, Research, Evaluation and Knowledge Mobilization
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- Strategic Project Analyst
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- Executive Director, the Training Group / Douglas College
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- President & CEO / Canada - India Business Council