Jeff A.D Martin is a soul-stirring, thought-provoking, highly requested transformational speaker, who has been using his platform to inspire people from around the world. Much of Jeff’s love for people can be attributed to his years of involvement as a community advocate, a mentor and also to his 15+ years of experience in Law Enforcement. Jeff A.D. Martin has worked as a police officer and in various investigative roles. He is a youth communication specialist, with over 1000 forensic interviews with children. 

 Jeff A.D. Martin is also an author of two critically acclaimed books. A City of Toronto best-selling children’s book, “Brothers from the 6/ Sisters from the 6: Role Models in my Community”, and an Amazon best selling personal development book, “KNew Me: 10 Men, 10 Stories of Perseverance”. Jeff A.D. Martin is an award-winning professional speaker, a certified coach, University of Guelph certified leadership professional, Harvard University certificate recipient for public speaking and the curator of Inspire Legacy Company Online Academy, where he teaches the art of public speaking and student character development. With his career and life experiences, coupled with his benevolence and passion to inspire, Jeff A.D. Martin shares his gift of purpose in efforts to help others find their true potential. 

 

Keita Demming is a leadership, innovation and performance management consultant. As the Head of Development and Innovation at The Covenant Group, Keita Demming generates added value by driving new and existing relationships. Keita Demming is passionate about developing high-performing organizations and generating novel solutions to assist leaders manage complex challenges under pressure. Keita Demming works with organizations to develop new approaches to their thinking and systems to add value to each organization’s strategic objectives.

Keita Demming brings academic research and a wealth of experience in working with his business Norm Trainor. Together, they coached tens of thousands of leaders, entrepreneurs and organizations in how to develop new lines of business or overcome complex problems that stand in the way of success.

Keita Demming’s approach brings new heights to the word “innovation”. Drawing on academic research on innovation and organizational change and translating into systems, tools and transforming mindsets bring leaders to take immediate action and generate results. Keita Demming also leverages technology and user experience design to help develop programs and products that will add value to high-performing organizations, delivering proven products and coaching to clients through effective learning experiences and implement internal processes that ensure our teams and clients excel based on the strategy.

Keita Demming shows how lasting success comes from leading with people, not simply managing them.

Keita Demming holds a MSc for Organizational Change and Development, Complexity Theory and High Performance from the University of Manchester. Keita Demming also holds a PhD in Workplace Learning, Development Management, Transformational Learning, Social Innovation and Business Innovation from the University of Toronto. Keita Demming is the recipient of the IDPM Best Thesis of the Year Award for his approach to Rethinking Development Management and Organisational Change. For his PhD, Keita Demming argued that all innovation is social. Life is intensely social and to make change happen we need to change what we do and say daily. His thesis sought to understand how we create change by transforming the things people do and say within organizations.

Keita Demming challenges the dominant discourse of organizational change and to assist leaders re-conceptualize their approach to include a more complexity informed perspective.

 

Keren Taylor-Hughes is an Agile Change Advisor, Former CEO, M&A Strategist & Board of Directors Member with a passion for implementing positive, lasting change within an organization. Currently leading a Transformation practice rooted in 5 C’s: courage, cognizance of bias, culture, collaboration & conviction.

Proudly leveraging a background in child welfare, healthcare, manufacturing & community engagement after spending 3+ years leading Harvest Manitoba, one of Canada’s most visible & impactful non-profit organizations as CEO. Keren has had the opportunity to mentor, train & lead teams across North America at the highest levels. As a servant leader she teaches how listening, empathy & being authentic brings people together to connect with one another to build strong relationships to drive innovation and orchestrate change. Her career and her life goals have aligned to be focused on making a positive impact on the world by leading change that delivers value rooted in purpose, vision & impact. Her professional life returns back to one key, foundational element she learned early in her career: organizational change & innovation adoption only comes after mindset change – which can only be inspired, not enforced.

Keren has assisted numerous organizations across Canada & the US successfully navigate and implement transformation initiatives in many different ways. She has developed and implemented software systems for healthcare companies in the USA later to adopted by the Province of Manitoba. From small nonprofits to publicly-traded companies with large-scale M&A’s affecting thousands, the ideas, strategies and insights she has been a part of has been through a humanistic business landscape across Canada and the US. Keren holds a Master’s Degree in Leadership and a B.A in Sociology & Psychology from the University of Winnipeg, sat on numerous Boards of Directors and has been featured in or contributed to media outlets and publications including CBC News, Global News, Winnipeg Free Press, The University of Manitoba Press, Business Insider & beyond. She currently leads a private consulting practice with a focus on strategic change management & leadership advisory serving industries as diverse as health, transportation, food production & more.

Keren leverages years of education & experience ranging from CEO to Senior Consultant to act as a Coach & Advisor to Executive teams and a catalyst for transformation for individuals, organizations and industries. From large-scale change & transformation initiatives including board selection process development, merger transition, rebrand & launch, leadership training & development structure, roadmap & toolkit establishment, development of a Project Management Office (PMO) & many more. Some of her previous clients for these initiatives include multi-term mandates with organizations including Bunge, Ontario Telehomecare Network (OTN), BC Transit, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, Assante Asset Management and the Canada Health Infoway.

Norm Trainor is the President and CEO of The Covenant Group, referred to by many as “The Business Builder.” Norm Trainor formed The Covenant Group (TCG) in 1995, where Norm Trainor’s team has amassed and diagnosed research on top performing professionals, distilling that research into The 8 Best Practices & Business Builder concepts. TCG educates and coaches entrepreneurs, providing them with the necessary business tools to enhance their performance and achieve new levels of profit and productivity.

TCG works with some of the world’s largest institutions and has client networks across North America, Europe and the Caribbean. TCG specializes in helping financial services organizations grow market share and increase productivity by improving the practice development capability of their owners, managers, advisors and agents. Norm is an international speaker; the author of the best-selling books, The 8 Best Practices of High-Performing Salespeople, The Entrepreneurial Journey and The Business Builder; and has written articles for various leading publications in North America and internationally. Norm was named one of “The 20 Most Innovative People in Insurance” by LifeHealthPro in 2015.

Norm helps leaders, entrepreneurs and busy professionals with crucial strategy, structure, systems and processes to be more effective in their roles, performance and efficiency through guidelines for enhancing performance and increasing results in every aspect of your business. Well known in the Financial Industry, he is focused on how the approach to performance strategy in order to grow revenue and profitability through planning, preparing, executing, and measuring. We show clients how to achieve and sustain peak performance with our unique planning process for the critical areas of business: Financial Services Professionals.

Rachel Baptiste partners with Boards, Corporate, and Non-profit organizations across varying industries to bring about transformational change in the areas of Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion, Organizational Development, Leadership, and Talent Management. Rachel Baptiste has 20+ years of experience in progressive leadership roles with Fortune 100 companies.  Rachel Baptiste’s most recent executive role being VP, Organizational Development & Corporate Social Responsibility. Rachel Baptiste is also an Executive Coach certified through International Coach Federation.

Rachel was recognized as one of Top 20 Coaches in Toronto in 2021 by Influence Digest.  Rachel also a Mentor and Faculty at University of Toronto St. Michael’s Post Graduate Program in Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability.

Having secured a seat at the executive leadership table, Rachel as a woman of colour draws from her lived experiences and expertise in organizational development to advocate for inclusive spaces where diverse talent can move from barely surviving to thriving.  Rachel views an organization as human centered, strengthened by the differences of its people.

Her consulting and speaking approach are relatable and engaging.  She acknowledges and meets people where they are while illuminating a path forward for them to envision a brighter future.

Warren Macdonald works with innovative, forward thinking organizations and associations looking to foster a shift in perception. Warren Macdonald’s life’s boundaries were redefined in April 1997 with his accident on North Queensland’s (Australia) Hinchinbrook Island. Climbing to the Island’s tallest peak, Warren Macdonald became trapped beneath a one-ton slab boulder in a freak rock fall. Two days later he was rescued, only to undergo the amputation of both legs at mid thigh. Just ten months later, Warren Macdonald climbed Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain using a modified wheelchair and the seat of his pants.

In February 2003, he became the first double above-knee amputee to reach the summit of Africa’s tallest peak, Mt Kilimanjaro (19,222ft), and more recently, in a spectacular effort requiring more than 2,800 pull-ups over 4 days, created history once again in an ascent of America’s tallest cliff face, El Capitan. He is also the only above knee amputee to make an ascent of Canada’s landmark frozen waterfall, the 600 ft “Weeping Wall” in Alberta.

Warren’s first book, “A Test of Will” is an Australian bestseller and the subject of the “Trapped under a Boulder” episode of the Discovery Channel series “I Shouldn’t Be Alive”. His film documenting the epic four-week journey to Federation Peak, Australia most challenging mountain summit, “The Second Step”, has been acclaimed worldwide, screening on National Geographic Television and winning eight international awards including Grand Prize at the prestigious “Banff Mountain Film Festival”.

Warren has appeared on numerous news and current affairs programs, including “Larry King Live”, “The Oprah Winfrey Show”, and “The Hour” with George Stroumboulopoulos.

He lives in Canmore, Alberta with his partner Margo Talbot.

Linda Nazareth is an economist, a futurist and a respected authority on the future of work.  As a newspaper columnist and an author, she knows how to frame things in ways that both educate and entertain and as the Senior Fellow for Economics and Population Change at think-tank the Macdonald Laurier Institute she knows what she is talking about.

Linda’s career has taken some non-traditional turns for someone in her field. Her first jobs were as a government economist where she specialized in labor market planning, which was followed by a stint at a major financial institution where she spent years as a Senior Economist. Wanting to change things up while she could, she lobbied to have a job created for her on Business News Network (BNN, Canada’s answer to CNBC) while it was a start-up and spent a decade on-air as their in-house economist.

During her time on BNN, Linda started writing books and giving keynote presentations, and eventually left daily broadcasting to give those passions her full-time attention. Her clients have included everyone from American Express through to The Economist Magazine, and all have benefitted from her ability to take big ideals and distil them into information that they can use for their own strategic plans.

Linda’s fourth book, Work Is Not a Place: Our Lives and Our Organizations in the Post-Jobs Economy draws on the research she has been building for years as well as the insights gained from interacting with audiences across a range of sectors. With it, she is eager to engage people in thinking about what the world might look like when we replace the idea of ‘jobs’ with that of ‘work’ – and why that might not be a bad idea at all.

A frequent media commentator, Linda has been quoted everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to Wired magazine.

Arlene Dickinson is a serial entrepreneur and General Partner of District Ventures Capital, a venture capital fund focused on helping market, fund and grow entrepreneurs and their companies, in the food and health space. Arlene Dickinson is a three-time best-selling author, podcaster and accomplished public speaker. Arlene Dickinson is widely recognized for her role as a Dragon/Venture Capitalist for over 12 seasons on the multi-award-winning CBC television series, Dragons Den.

Ms. Dickinson’s leadership has been recognized many times, including Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100 Hall of Fame, the Pinnacle Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence, as well as PROFIT and Chatelaine’s Top 100 Women Business Owners. She is a Marketing Hall of Legends inductee and a proud recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Award. Dickinson has served for many years as an Honourary Captain in the Royal Canadian Navy.

She sits on several public and private boards and is actively involved in supporting community and country.

Ann Gomez is an inspiring speaker, a USA Today bestselling author and the founding president of Clear Concept Inc., a global training organization. Ann Gomez is passionate about helping people do their best work at all stages of their career and has 20 years of experience delivering compelling and practical talks about productivity, collaboration, mindset, and wellbeing.

Ann Gomez is a 2x bestselling author of The Email Warrior and Younger Self Letters: How Successful Leaders & Entrepreneurs Turned Trials Into Triumph. She has been featured in The Globe & Mail and has appeared on CBC Radio, Global TV and BNN, and other major news outlets and online platforms, including Huffington Thrive Global. She is an active blogger and media spokesperson and is the 2021 winner of the Women Business Enterprises (WBE) Canada Leader Award. Ann is also a recurring faculty member at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management Initiative for Women in Business.

Ann Gomez and her team at Clear Concept Inc. work with people around the world and across industries to help busy people make the most of their time.

Prior to founding Clear Concept Inc., Ann was a management consultant at A.T. Kearney. Earlier in her career, Ann was a pharmaceutical representative and research coordinator.

Ann has an MBA from Queen’s University where she was the President of the MBA class. Ann also has an Honours Bachelor’s Degree in Science (Biology & Psychology) from McMaster University.

Speaker and Author, Ann Gomez, is passionate about helping people make time for what matters most. As a former management consultant, entrepreneur and mother of four children, Ann knows what it’s like to feel a sense of overwhelm and stress. Her compelling and practical talks are designed to have an immediate impact and help people to:

• Take control of busy days.
• Boost productivity and restore balance.
• Deal with a high volume of work, email and meetings.
• Build and contribute to a high-performance team.
• Strengthen collaboration, feel less isolated and more connected.
• Cope with stress and build resilience to navigate challenges.
• Manage energy and reclaim focus.
• Prioritize wellbeing.
• Shift from surviving to thriving.