What does it take to leave an audience altered through a keynote or workshop presentation? It takes the kind of talk that delivers such a fundamentally penetrating message that you are left compelled to act on what you hear. This is exactly what you get when Vik Maraj speaks.

Vik Maraj is more than inspirational. His message is transformative. Vik Maraj combines humour, engaging gestures and a clear presentation with audience involvement techniques to deliver a riveting and compelling presentation. He is one of Canada’s leading experts on teamwork, leadership, workplace culture and communication. Maraj is a memorable speaker that always sparks innovation. He therefore leaves the audience with thought provoking practical and strategic solutions after his presentation. Vik Maraj conveys superior content throughout his uncompromisingly authentic delivery.

Vik Maraj’s ground breaking content and is a pathway to human and organizational potential that has likely remained unfulfilled within your ranks. Maraj opens up this pathway with his ability to convey messages that are inspire audience members with permanent awakening; to what lies beyond the ordinariness of most organizations and individual’s toleration levels. His material and delivery transcend motivation and inspires audiences by the reinvention of practices, communication skills and leadership.

Vik’s dynamic presentation content comes from his day-to-day work with groups of people. Every day, he engages his training in neuro-science and molecular biology. He also combines high-stakes conflict resolution, dynamic group processes, systems thinking, and ontology to permanently expand individual performance. His down to earth approach captivates the audience and allows them to rethink their roles and their responsibilities at work. As a result, Vik’s messages create workplace synergy among all team members. He focuses individuals on strategic organizational goals, propelling them and their organization into the future.

Vik Maraj is also the co-founder and former CEO of a two hundred plus person international education company. In many ways, cutting his teeth as an entrepreneur and leader was his “rite of passage” into the real world of organizational performance. All this has led to a penetrating understanding of the truths and understandings between the correlation of people and performance – and it is not more adVike, formulas, or motivation.

Vik has created transformative shifts in governments, boards, corporations, not-for-profits, rural communities, municipalities, NGO’s (including the United Nations), and people from all walks of life. Similarly, Maraj has been involved in restoring a billion dollar international environmental collaboration. Maraj has also empowerd the leadership of Canada’s First Nations and rewriting the future of rural communities. Above all, Vik Maraj’s is one of Canada’s business and organization experts. He transforms what is possible when people come together to fulfill their purpose.

Known as “The Falcon”, Viviane Forest is an inspiring public speaker at corporate, education and community events. Her presentations are genuine, strong, and they motivate people to be active and reach for their goals and dreams. In the past ten years, she has spoken to approximately 10,000 people in Quebec and Alberta. She is frequent presenter to corporate gatherings and often accepts speaking engagements for public events or fundraisers. She has experience speaking to small groups like a classroom or large conference gatherings as a keynote.

Viviane’s keynote address, Failure is Not an Option appeals to many organizations because of her charm and ability to speak authoritatively in both French and English. Forest can also facilitate team building sessions. Viviane Forest is a Triple Gold Medal Paralympian of 2000, 2004 and 2010. Viviane is one of Canada’s most decorated Paralympic athletes. After a nine-year career as a member of the national Goalball team, she now competes for Canada in Para-Alpine skiing. Viviane Forest has seven Paralympic medals from three different Paralympic Games.

Viviane was born in Montreal but now calls Edmonton home. She has been in competitive sports since the age of four. Viviane played hockey and ringette, participated in karate, judo, track and field, cycling and provincial level swimming. The one thing that differentiates Viviane from other athletes is that she has only 4% of normal vision. Yet she excels at the highest possible levels.

Viviane Forest races down the ski slopes, with her guide, at speeds over 100 km/hr. They use a two-way radio system, trust and confidence to prevail on the slopes of the world. At the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, Viviane won medals in all five alpine race disciplines: a Gold in the prestigious Downhill, three Silvers in Super-G, Slalom and Super Combined and a Bronze in Giant Slalom. With two Paralympic gold medals won in Goalball at the Sydney 2000 and the Athens 2004 Paralympic Summer Games, Viviane has become one of a few female high performance athletes in the world to win gold medals in both summer and winter Paralympic or Olympic Games.

Recently Viviane Forest has national recognition for her sporting accomplishments: Canadian Paralympic Committee inaugural Debut Award, and Alpine Canada TELUS Award of Excellence Breakthrough Athlete of the Year. In addition to her sport accomplishments, the community also is lucky to Viviane as a leader and role model. She is the recipient of the Edmonton’s Salute to Excellence (October 2010), and The Global Woman of Vision (May 2010).

Viviane’s story is stunning and captivating. Her five-medal podium finish at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games had her collecting over 25% of Canada’s medals while injured. Her tenacious determination and commitment to her dreams create a humourous and intense story, sure to inspire. Between training and competing, Viviane is an inspiring public speaker at corporate and community events. Her presentations are genuine, strong, and they motivate people to be active and reach for their goals and dreams. In the past ten years, she has spoken to approximately 10,000 people across Canada.

She frequently speaks at corporate gatherings and often accepts speaking engagements for public events or fundraisers. Forest has experience speaking to small groups like a classroom or board meeting and large conference gatherings in convention centres.

Viviane Forest tailors her Failure is Not an Option presentation for the following topics:

• Motivate / Inspire
• Resiliency
• Believe in Yourself
• The Journey of a 3 Time Paralympic Champion
• Overcoming Adversity
• Perseverance
• Goal Setting
• Public Appearances, Autographs, Photo Opps

Wade Sorochan is an accomplished Alberta broadcaster and national award winning speaker, author and mental health advocate recognized as Canada’s “Social Media Expert.” Wade first gained recognition for his pioneering impact on the #1 rated radio talk show and “Canada’s most unique radio talk show”: The Bill & Bill Show. Nicknamed “The Tone Arm”, Wade Sorochan became the first broadcaster in history to spontaneously use song clips to enhance a radio talk show. Wade went on to host his own popular radio and television talk shows in a career that has spanned four decades.

As a mental illness survivor, Wade Sorochan is a sought after speaker sharing his inspiring story of living with mental illness; being emotionally abused and abandoned as a child, experiencing five mental breakdowns, eventually hitting rock bottom, and how he is surviving and thriving with mental illness. Wade’s warm and friendly style and sense of humour creates an instant and genuine connection with his audiences.

Wade Sorochan is the author of the ground-breaking book Unsocial Media: Virtual World Causing Real World Anxiety. The book reveals how social media can affect mental health. He is also the author of the book Fastest Tone Arm in the West: Chasing a Radio Dream. The book features entertaining stories from a successful radio career and inspiring story of surviving child abuse and mental illness.

Wade Sorochan’s Awards

•   CAMH National Difference Makers Award , Recognizing 150 Leading difference makers for Canadian Mental Health
•   Canada 150 in 150 Award , Recognizing 150 Inspiring Albertans

Wade Sorochan’s Media Coverage

• The Toronto Star, Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, CTV Edmonton, Global TV Edmonton, City TV Toronto,
• CBC Radio Edmonton, CHED Radio Edmonton, CJOB Radio Winnipeg, News Talk 770 Calgary

If there’s one thing peak performance experts like Wayne Lee agree on, it’s that the mind is capable of leading us anywhere. He also knows that for many of us, our minds are littered with detours, potholes and accidents waiting to happen. Fear, self-doubt, inhibitions of all kinds, these beliefs reside in our subconscious and prevent us from reaching our conscious goals. But if you set your GPS (Great Programmable Subconscious) for success, you can achieve anything while taking the ride of your life.

Wayne’s own journey to excellence was fueled with an unrelenting passion for entertaining and empowering people. From a childhood fascination with magic and visualization, Wayne’s gift for seeing and acting on what’s possible has grown to international proportions: He is one of North America’s premier corporate presenters, a veteran of thousands of successful shows, a published author, and peak performance coach to professionals of all walks of life. And he’s practised what he preaches.

Wayne Lee is a former five-time Canadian amateur wrestling champion, who also served as a beloved classroom instructor before taking the stage in the corporate world. More recently, he was named “Entertainer of the Year “for the Canadian Events Industry. Which brings us back to the power of the mind. Wayne Lee is an unrelenting advocate for individuals and teams looking to turn potential into performance.

Through humor and hypnosis, Wayne Lee helps people drop their defenses and access their GPS. Once in there, Wayne shows how what you put in–beliefs, attitudes, goals and vision–acts as coordinates that absolutely determine whether or not you reach your destination. Get it wrong and you’re stuck in traffic. Get it right and you’ll get to your goal faster and more directly than you ever thought possible.

Many people find it difficult to make the connection between the inner goings on of the mind and outward action and performance, yet it’s crucial to any success. That’s why Wayne Lee’s work is so special. He can break down the barriers of even the most cynical and resistant individuals through laughter and hypnosis, in the process showing them how to access their own subconscious. Once people realize what’s possible when they program the GPS for success, it’s as if they become a new person–the person they were always meant to be. For employers, that means productivity, teamwork, and a great attitude at work. For employees themselves, it’s like being handed the keys to the ride of their lives.

Sunjay Nath (MBA, BScE, CSP), travels globally sharing insights on leadership and performance. His trademark, “The 10-80-10 Principle” is a framework that helps individuals and teams improve performance. This methodology combines best practices with small wins to help people empower themselves. Sunjay Nath was a founding Vice President of an e-learning company based in Toronto. This company went on to become a multimillion-dollar organization. Prior to that position he worked as an engineer for a distribution company in New York. Sunjay served as a camp director for several years with a camp that focuses on developing leadership skills in students. He has also held positions with H&R Block and Bank of Montreal.

Nath started an international speaking business when he was 19; he wasn’t even old enough to rent a car. This was particularly problematic when he would travel. As a speaker, Nath has travelled extensively and addressed in person well over 1,000,000 people around the world since 1995. In 2005, Sunjay became the youngest Canadian (and third youngest in the world) ever to earn his CSP (Certified Speaking Professional). The CSP is the highest internationally recognized designation that a speaker can aspire to achieve.

With his background, Sunjay Nath offers a rare combination of both left and right brain activities to engage all audience members. Sunjay Nath holds an undergraduate degree in Mathematical Engineering, a degree that after the first year of the program, 80% of the students failed out. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration. During his MBA, he took first prize in an international business case competition.

Always striving to achieve Sunjay Nath has earned is Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do, has run a full 26 mile (42km) marathon and has jumped out of a perfectly good plane (some call it skydiving). He has served as President of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers Toronto Chapter and President of his Engineering Discipline. He is a magician, a comedian, a professional actor and entertainer. In university he was rated as one of the country’s top debaters. Sunjay Nath is the author of The 10-80-10 Principle, The ABCs of Student Leadership, and a contributing author for the book, Professionally Speaking. When not on the road, Sunjay enjoys spending time with his wife and three high energy, extremely busy sons.

Susan is the first Inuk artist to win a Juno (3) and a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for lifetime artistic achievement, she is an officer of the Order of Canada, holds several Honorary Doctorate degrees and has held command performances; but Susan also acknowledges the path has not been easy.

“Here I was, living a life I never imagined, but I was struggling to understand who I was. There was no opportunity growing up to learn about who we were, the Inuit, from our own perspective. In essence, we were institutionalized by being told who we were, how we would live and when you are told a story for so long, you learn to believe it,” explains Susan.

During the past 25 years of reflection and songwriting, Susan kept coming back to one area of profound knowing, the Inuit are an extraordinary people deeply grounded in a culture forged by their Ancestors, their journey is what shaped them.

“Their life experience is the foundation on which our precepts of determination, adaptability and love for life are built, they began the journey to our present-day Nunavut.” (Susan’s Walrus Talks comments)

“The conversations around reconciliation have provided an opportunity to begin to re-write our narrative. The Indigenous people in Canada come from highly organized societies built on knowledge, process and organization – without which none of us would have survived.”

For Susan, art has played a significant role in her healing journey and in the re-writing of her narrative, she believes it plays an important role for indigenous youth who are dealing with contemporary identity issues today. “Our children and youth are strong and resilient, they still believe very strongly in their culture, in Inuit or Indigenous culture, and they are still fighting every day to find their place.”

“They need to be anchored to an identity and so much of those connections are in our ancestors and their stories and we have a duty and a responsibility to engage our children and youth in the process of connecting with and helping them write those stories.”

Susan has always been very open about how her own fears and personal trauma that left her disillusioned and disconnected. Born in Arviat, Nunavut, her parents formative years were in traditional Inuit culture, her formative years were not traditional and were somewhat disconnected from her culture.

Despite the success she experienced in the 1990s, by 1998 she was suffering from post-partum depression and found herself in a dark place in need of time to reflect and heal, what followed was the several years of reflection, healing and making deeper commitments to her singing/songwriting career.
And so, began what Susan calls her “awakening”. As she learned more about her culture and the strength and resilience of the Inuit who have been on this land for over 5,000 years, Susan was also engaging her own “inner artist” and falling in love with performing, sharing stories and singing.

“We have an extraordinary culture and an extraordinary past, we must embrace the opportunity to learn about our very own heroes, write those culture bridges and reframe who we are in today’s world.”

Through her music, Susan continues to share her experiences as an Inuk growing up in Nunavut, as well as the challenges faced by northern communities and Indigenous youth.

Susan is actively involved in various projects to bring food and support to northern communities and in 2016 the Arctic Rose Foundation gained charitable status with a focus on helping youth in the north through art and other engaging creative projects.

A geoscientist, journalist and explorer, Susan R. Eaton studies the interplay of plate tectonics, oceans, glaciers, climate and life in polar regions.

A Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, Susan explores the world’s oceans—from Antarctica to the Arctic—in the snorkel zone, a unique land-sea-ice-air interface where charismatic animals and snorkelers comingle.

In 2018, Ocean Geographic named Susan one of the “Ocean’s Best” 18 most influential women leaders in ocean conservation.

Twelve years ago, Susan suffered a scuba diving trauma that landed her in a hyperbaric chamber for three days, ending her 30-year diving career. Undaunted, her up-close-and-personal relationship with the ocean—which had included studying marine biology and teaching scuba diving—didn’t end in the hyperbaric chamber…

Redefining her relationship with the ocean, Susan has snorkeled with thousands of chatty belugas Hudson Bay and with docile manatees at Crystal River, Florida. She’s snorkeled in the Galapagos Archipelago where sea turtles, sea lions and nurse sharks outnumber snorkelers. In Haida Gwaii, she’s assisted the Haida Nation, snorkeling northern rivers to count salmon migrating to their ancestral spawning grounds. Susan has come face-to-mask with charging 1,400-pound leopard seals in the Southern Ocean—so close, in fact, that she could count the freckles on their upper palates and inspect their tri-serrated teeth which dispatch 30-pound penguins in mere minutes.

On Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, Susan was honoured to be included in the book by Paulina Cameron, entitled “Canada 150 Women: Conversations with Leaders, Champions and Luminaries.”

In 2015, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society named Susan one of Canada’s top 100 modern-day explorers and trailblazers. A year later, the same organization named her one of Canada’s 25 greatest female explorers.

In the past decade, Susan has participated in five science-based dive and snorkel expeditions focused on climate change in the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, the Western Antarctic Peninsula, Labrador, Nunavut, Greenland, Svalbard, Spitzbergen and Iceland.

Susan is the founder and leader of the multi-year Sedna Epic Expedition, which is comprised of an international team of women ocean explorers, scientists, historians, artists, image-makers, educators and scuba divers. Founded in 2013, the Sedna Epic Expedition’s mission is to scout, document and record disappearing sea ice in the Arctic.

In consultation with Inuit team members and advisors, Sedna’s sea women deliver hands-on, ocean knowledge sharing and mobilization programs to Inuit youth, girls and Elders. Since 2014, Susan has led three all-women dive and snorkel expeditions to the Arctic (Labrador, Nunavut, Greenland and Iceland).

An active volunteer in the conversation sector since 1990, Susan is passionate about protecting Canada’s endangered ecosystems and the animals who call them home. She currently sits on the board of directors of Nature Canada—the oldest nature conservation charity in Canada—whose mandate is protecting parks and wildlife areas and creating citizen science and urban nature initiatives. Susan is a founding member of Nature Canada’s Women for Nature, a collaborative partnership of 150 women of influence who champion nature and inspire young leaders for nature.

A senior advisor in the Canadian and international energy sector, Susan provides technical, financial and strategic due diligence to oil and gas, legal and equity finance companies. Susan’s strong financial background was honed while working, as Vice-President of Exploration, with several publicly-traded and privately-held junior oil and gas companies. She is an expert witness in oil and gas litigation and regulatory hearings.

Susan holds a B. Sc. Hon. degree in geology and biology from Dalhousie University and a M.Sc. in petroleum geology (geophysics specialization) from Imperial College’s Royal School of Mines, University of London.

Equipped with a B. J. Hon. degree from Carleton University’s School of Journalism, Susan began her media career in as an on-camera news reporter with CBC-TV. Today, as a corporate communications specialist, she creates external communications materials which include annual and quarterly reports, press releases, speeches, advertorials, and website and social media content.

As a freelance writer, Susan reports on science and technology, business, energy, the environment, space, geotourism and adventure travel. Her articles and photographs have been published in Canadian, American and international magazines and newspapers, including The Geographer, Water Canada, Canadian Geographic, Ocean Geographic, Outpost, Popular Mechanics, Explorer, DIVER Magazine, ALERT Diver, DivePhotoGuide, New Technology, Alberta Oil Magazine, Business Edge, the Financial Post, the Edmonton Journal and the Calgary Herald.

Occupational therapist Sylvia Marusyk is an entertaining speaker who gives her audiences the tools to build healthy lives and work places.  She’s fun, she’s sassy and she’s passionate about safety, health and wellness! Her lively presentations focus on a proactive approach to creating vitality, personally and corporately. As an Occupational Therapist with years of practice in the field of work place safety and personal health, Sylvia Marusyk knows prevention is the key to creating happy, healthy individuals, employees and businesses.

Sylvia Maursyk’s entertaining presentations focus on a proactive approach to building healthy lives and work places. Her years of assessing and treating injuries as an Occupational Therapist offer Sylvia a unique insight through which she has developed a proactive approach to preventing stress and workplace injuries. Because she is an active Occupational Therapist her practical insights and strategies are relevant, current and incorporate solutions to overcome today’s challenges.

Stressed employees make more mistakes, take more time off work and are less safe on the job due to preoccupation, poor judgment and fatigue. Recognizing we are a mind-body, not a mind and a body, has helped her educate people on truly effective ways to change their health. Sylvia Marusyk’s presentations invite audiences to laugh while learning practical, powerful tools to handle stress, reduce repetitive strain injuries and prevent burn out. She always brings relative and up to date information from her consultation practice to every presentation. Furthermore, Sylvia Marusyk will take you and your organization to become healthier, happier and less stressed, She will inspire your audience and ignite productivity and performance for individuals. She can also work with safety coordinators and tams to create a workplace culture that puts health at the forefront for their employees.

Sylvia Marusyk is a high energy speaker who gets top marks from audiences, meeting planners. As a result, she often returns to organizations for repeat engagements.  Her message is both practical and inspiring.  This occupational health therapist is passionate about maintaining health and safety in the workplace and it shows. Sylvia Marusyk rated in the top 1% of public speakers by Dr. James Reese. Above all, Sylvia Marusyk is passionate on helping individuals discover the power of the mind and body so that they can make health a priority and live their best lives.

Sylvia Marusyk’s certifications include:

• Certified Master Clinician in Functional Capacity Evaluation, Job Demands Analysis, Office Ergonomics and Industrial Ergonomics
• Sahrmann Certificate for Upper and Lower Extremity Assessment and Treatment
• Progressive Goal Attainment Scale Certificate

Tanveer Naseer is an award-winning and internationally-acclaimed leadership writer and keynote speaker. He is also the Principal and Founder of a leadership coaching firm that works with executives and managers to help them develop practical leadership and team-building competencies to guide organizational growth and development. Naseer’s writings and insights on leadership and workplace interactions have been featured in a number of prominent organizations and media publications such as Forbes, Fast Company, Inc Magazine, The Globe and Mail, The Economist Executive Education Navigator, CBC Radio Daybreak, Global News, and the Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Tanveer Naseer is the recipient of several awards and recognitions as one of the world’s top thinkers/writers in the leadership sphere, including being recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the Top 100 Leadership and Management Experts. Naseer has been very active on speaking circuit, giving keynote speeches and talks in Canada and the US, including his TED talk “Forget Passion – Purpose is the Real Spice of Life”.

His engaging and thought-provoking style and content has been recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of today’s “100 Great Leadership Speakers,” a list that includes such highly sought-after thought leaders as Sir Richard Branson, Tony Hsieh, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ken Blanchard, Brené Brown, and Marshall Goldsmith. In addition to his work speaking, writing, and consulting on leadership, Tanveer Naseer is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BnextR Technologies, a start-up technology company behind the professional development program, MasteryPractice, a science-based online program designed to help people develop new habits and behaviours that are critical to career success and growth.

Tanveer Naseer also serves as the Chairman of the Governing Board for one of the largest regional high schools in the province of Quebec, Canada. Naseer holds a Master of Science degree in Pathology from McGill University and currently lives in Montreal, Canada with his wife and their three daughters. Tanveer Naseer’s first leadership book, “Leadership Vertigo” has received rave reviews and endorsements by many of today’s top leadership thinkers and practitioners.

Theo Heineman is passionate keeping workers safe. An expert and spokesperson in the field of Health and Safety she is a master at using powerful stories to inspire owners, managers and workers into consistent action and collaboration in order to create a safe and healthy workplace. As a four-time winner of the BBB Marketplace Ethics and Integrity Award, Heineman is recognized as a leader in safety in Canada.

Heineman is an inspiration to audiences and gives them a solid action plan to integrate into their workplace. She is the Founder, President and CEO of a Safety Solutions Consulting Firm, and since starting her company in 2009, she has experienced significant growth and established a recognized brand in Manitoba. Theo Heineman has over 20 years’ experience as a business owner and entrepreneur. She is also an award winning sales and marketing professional with more than 15 years of experience. She also has over 15 years of safety management related experience, working both locally and internationally as a consultant and trainer.

Her consultation practice specializes in providing integrated, full-service workplace safety and health solutions to support Manitoba businesses in creating safer work environments, increasing profitability and meeting the requirements of workplace safety and health legislation. The advantages for organizations to go beyond attaining legal compliance under regulation and legislative initiatives reduce overall losses and improve productivity and quality, resulting in healthier employees and more profitable and sustainable businesses.

Widely recognized as a leader and expert in both business and Safety Management Systems, Heineman is passionate about having an impact on sending workers home to their families safe and healthy at the end of every work day and protecting organizations from avoidable loss and liability. She is a Board Certified Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP), and Certified Safety and Health Consultant (Canadian Society of Safety Engineers). Theo Heineman is also a member of the Entrepreneurs Organization. In 2011 she was awarded the Manitoba Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards for both Building Business and Overall Excellence. In 2012 she sat on the WCB Advisory Committee for the Future State of Workplace Illness and Injury Prevention in Manitoba and she is a board member for Manitoba’s Better Business Bureau.

Heineman can deliver keynotes, workshops, training sessions focused on safety that will leave a lasting impact.