Adam McLeod is the Senior Manager for T&O Early Talent Programs at RBC, responsible for leading the Core Student Program for 800+ co-op students each year. He is also the co-chair of RBC NextGen, an Employee Resource Group with over 15,000 members, focusing on enabling early to mid career employees to have a meaningful and dynamic journey at RBC. Over a ten year career at RBC, Adam has worked across multiple lines of business, mostly in Program Management and Agile Enablement. As a volunteer he has coached baseball teams for many years, and has been a mentor for highschool robotics teams. Before joining RBC he was an English teacher and an unsuccessful poet. He holds BBA and MBA degrees from the Schulich School of Business at York University, and a certificate in Project Management from Centennial College. Adam lives in Whitby, Ontario with his wife Karolina and his dog Toby. He enjoys reading (mostly fiction and poetry) and eating (anything good).

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In AJ's 5 years with Shopify they have worked to build and improve Shopify's Intern Program. AJ has a passion for creating an unmatched intern experience that focuses on learning, community building, and inclusivity for all intern participants. AJ began as a recruiter for Shopify's intern program where he found great joy in building relationships and helping interns reach their full potential. AJ takes this same human first approach when planning, building, and organizing all aspects of Shopify's Intern Program.

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As Manager, Student Coaching & Development at Co-op, Career & Experiential Education, Brock University, Alesia Dane leads a highly skilled team to coach and develop student talent. Alesia's passion includes connecting organizations to campus talent in innovative and meaningful ways.

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Alison Reaves is the Academic Program Manager for the Work-Integrated Learning and Career Education Centre at NorQuest College where she manages projects and supports her team to connect students to the workforce through experiential learning, skill development, and industry engagement. Previously, Alison was the Associate Director for Business Career Services at Appalachian State University where she coordinated all business internships, taught career development courses, and supported students. Alison brings over ten years of experience in career development, student support, and industry engagement.

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Amanda Bibeau is Manager, Campus Talent Acquisition with PwC Canada and recently earned her Master's Degree in Technology Operations and Innovation from the University of Winnipeg. In her current portfolio, Amanda oversees strategy and operations pertaining to CPA Early Talent Acquisition and manages relationships with key Universities and Accounting bodies while coaching a team of Associates and Senior Associates throughout Western Canada. In addition, she is highly involved in diversity and inclusion initiatives. She brings with her over 9 years of focused Campus Recruitment experience and a passion for helping young professionals launch and love their careers!

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Angela’s career is built on a diverse set of learning opportunities. After obtaining her CPA, CA designation at KPMG, she took on the opportunity to lead the GTA campus recruitment team where she focused on attracting top talent from several Canadian universities for summer, co-op and full-time roles in audit, tax, advisory. Angela has also coached and educated students from the Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science on job search and professional development skills through 1:1 advising, online webinars and curriculum development. Today, she leads KPMG Canada's national campus recruitment strategy - collaborating with the best-in-class campus recruiters and employer brand team!

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Angela is Senior Director, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment with responsibility and oversight of MLSE’s evolving EDI community of practice, advancing the organization’s commitment to create an equitable, diverse and inclusive workplace respectful and reflective of its community and fans. Angela and her team engage closely with key networks to develop and execute enterprise and Team EDI initiatives, combining strategic planning, coordination and communication, resource and capacity management, learning, awareness building and progress reporting. Prior to this role, over her 18-year career with RBC, Angela held multiple leadership positions, responsible for the strategic design and operational effectiveness of sales and service teams and for implementing effective diversity strategies and programs that interrupt bias, elevate cultural competency and cultivate belonging. In support of her strong commitment to EDI, Angela is an active mentor devoting her time to empower and prepare youth to navigate their careers, in particular, young women from backgrounds of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour.

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Brien Convery is a purpose-driven, people-centric executive with decades of diversified and progressive global experience. His work spans a wide range of industries and disciplines, in both public and private sectors.

From his start in Consumer Products to Management Consulting Services, Financial Services and Banking, Construction and now to Real Estate Investment and Development with QuadReal, Brien has built a robust career portfolio focusing on human resources and talent acquisition.

As an American / Canadian talent executive, published thought leader and TEDx speaker, Brien has been featured in many well-known publications including the Toronto Star, American Banker and Dell Technologies. Most recently, he was recognized by LinkedIn as a 2021 LinkedIn Best Talent Voices/Talent Leader Award Finalist. He produces and hosts his podcast series #CoffeeWithConvery on Anchor® by Spotify to inspire the next generation of young talent and give students a voice as they navigate the school to work transition.

Brien currently holds the part-time position of Executive in Residence, Department of Management at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus where he is an advisor to faculty; to the research team to provide development guidance of community-based work-integrated-learning projects; and to students in areas of professional development and leadership.

Brien is a graduate of The University of Hartford, Connecticut holding a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration, Management and Operations.

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Charlene lives on the unceded and occupied lands of the Abenaki Peoples (Sherbrooke, Quebec) with her partner of almost 20 years, her seven old daughter, an international student, three senior dogs and a cat. She worked in post-secondary for over 15 years, the past 12 being in co-op and experiential learning. Most recently, she took on the role of Executive Director for CEWIL Canada where she shares her passion for all things WIL. She is a volunteer basketball mom (and bench coach) to a CEGEP D1 women's basketball program in Sherbrooke and an active volunteer at her daughter's school. She is also pursuing an individualized master's program in WIL and employer engagement. She is fluent in English and French.

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Dan Lonergan is an outgoing, charismatic work integrated learning professional and father to two amazing boys. When he's not discussing strategic partnerships for CEWIL Canada or hosting their podcast, "into the WILderness", he can be found playing bass guitar, skiing or watching Seinfeld on repeat. With over 7 years experience in the field, Dan will take anyone up on the opportunity to chat about innovative WIL ideas, incorporating WIL into curricular programing (especially in Business schools), sharing best practices, helping students navigate their career paths and helping industry discover a multitude of ways to connect with the next generation.

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Dana is a proud Swampy Cree/Metis woman from Saskatchewan with a strong connection to her Cree culture, values, and worldview. She received her BA, MA, and MBA from the University of Saskatchewan and has worked in various roles in higher education throughout her professional career. She has played a leading role in many Indigenous engagement and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) strategies and initiatives and advocates for building more inclusive practices and processes in post-secondary environments and in workplaces. Her passion and goals are to give back and contribute to the prosperity of Indigenous people and communities, advance truth and reconciliation in Canada, and facilitate meaningful engagement between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people and communities.

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Darrius is a connector. He finds joy in connecting people to people, people to opportunities and organizations to companies. Currently, he serves as the Senior Coordinator of Diverse Talent Partnerships at Zendesk where he is responsible for establishing and cultivating partnerships with organizations to help build pipelines of underrepresented talent.

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Dr. Golnaz Golnaraghi (she/her) is an Iranian Canadian immigrant women author, speaker, and award-winning changemaker. With more than 30 years of professional experience, through Divity Group, Golnaz provides facilitation, leadership development, equity, diversity and inclusion education and program design services. She is the Founder of Accelerate Her FutureTM, a leading career accelerator in Canada providing tailored programs by and for self-identified Black, Indigenous and women of colour pursuing careers in business and tech while building networks of solidarity and action. She holds an MBA from the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business and a Doctor of Business Administration from Athabasca University. Her talks, research and commentary have appeared in conferences, podcasts, journals, books and media internationally. A TEDx speaker, Golnaz has been named as a Globe & Mail Report on Business Changemaker (2021) and a Future of Good New Founder to Watch (2022).

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Graham Donald is one of North America’s leading experts on attracting, recruiting, and engaging students and graduates.

He founded Brainstorm Strategy Group Inc. in 2003 to focus on improving students’ school-to-work transition by advising and training both the employers that hire students and the educators who support their career development on campus.

His clients have included KPMG, PwC, University of Toronto, Deloitte, GE, McGill University, HSBC, UBC, Rutgers University, Kraft, and many others.

He chairs several conferences annually including the Campus Recruiting Forums in cities across Canada and the USA; the Canadian Career Development Summit; and, the Strategic Enrolment Marketing & Management Forum. He also speaks regularly at conferences across the US and Canada.

Graham Donald is a firm believer in the value of a general arts education and makes use every day of the skills he developed pursuing a double-major in English and Literary Studies. He received both his BA and MBA from the University of Toronto.

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Hoda Abokhadra is currently working as an Analytics DevOps Engineer at Scotiabank while pursuing her Master's degree in Data Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. As an active member in the Google Developers community, Hoda currently holds multiple positions as a Women Techmakers Ambassador and an Organizer at the Google Developer Group in Mississauga.

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In almost 12 years at Scotiabank, Jena has held progressively senior roles across multiple business lines and teams including operations, risk, and most recently human resources. With a passion for learning, marketing, performance management, and early talent, she found a home in campus recruitment and talent development. Jena leads a global team of campus recruiters and program managers, across four countries supporting all areas of the organization. She was part of the remarkable team three years ago that launched a resume-less process for campus hiring across the bank, and has been proud that the team has never looked back! Jena loves breaking down barriers, trying new things, and challenging the status quo.

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Jennifer Powell has 13 years of experience working in the post-secondary sector in areas that include communications, marketing, admissions, student recruitment, student services, work integrated learning, career development, event planning and stakeholder relations.

During her time at Durham College, she also was a member of the Board of Governors.

Prior to joining the sector, Jennifer worked at a national not-for-profit that represented the interests of both grocery retailers and foodservice distributors across Canada in both event planning and public policy positions.

Jennifer holds a diploma from Sir Sandford Fleming as well as post-graduate certificates obtained through Ontario Tech University and Ryerson University and a micro-credential through the Brainstorm Strategy Group Inc.

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Jenny Richmond-Bravo works as an Experiential Learning Coordinator at King’s University College (an affiliate of Western University) in London, Ontario, where she develops and coordinates experiential and work-integrated learning opportunities for students, including The King’s Promise – a co-curricular career development program.

Jenny earned her M.Ed. in Adult Education and Community Development at the University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in 2010, and has just begun the Ed.D. program in Educational Leadership at Western. She also holds a certificate in Career Education from CACEE (Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers). Jenny is passionate about experiential and community-engaged learning as avenues for the development of holistic competencies and transferable skills which can be applied in all aspects of life.

At home, Jenny is the mother of 8-year-old twins who keep life busy and very interesting!

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Kielley has helped build a mentorship program from scratch for over 50 students globally. In her past career, Kielley also led professional development classes dedicated to improving student marketability, specifically in underrepresented talent groups. Overall, Kielley has over 6 years of career and professional development experience for students.

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Krista Steeves is the regional associate director - Atlantic Canada for the IHub at CEWIL Canada. The IHub supports work-integrated learning projects in post-secondary education for entrepreneurship, field placements, community service-learning and community and industry research projects. CEWIL is the leading expert on curricular work-integrated learning in Canada with a focus on quality experiences for students that contain personal and critical reflection. Previously she held the role of director of experiential learning and career development at Mount Allison University. She has worked in the post-secondary environment for over 25 years and has held various positions in Student Life at the University of Toronto and St.Francis Xavier University. Krista is a Mount Allison grad with a BA in Sociology and Anthropology, she holds 2 Masters degrees from the University of Toronto, one in Higher Education Policy and one in Counselling and Psychotherapy. She is also a professional licensed counselling therapist in the province of New Brunswick and runs her own counselling and consulting business. One of her passion's is entrepreneurship and inspiring others to chase their dreams and silence the critic who says it can't be done!

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Laura Fyfe is a career professional with a background in labour market research. As Skills Translation Co-ordinator in the department of Co-op, Career & Experiential Education at Brock University, Laura facilitates meaningful connections between skills, education, and the ever-evolving labour market. Laura has been at the forefront of developing and integrating Brock's campus-wide career competencies framework.

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Laura pursued her CPA, CA designation and worked in the accounting field for 6 years before realizing her true passion: working with people in the HR space. After a career shift to HR, Laura is working on people initiatives within Scotiabank's Global Technology Applications team. Previously, Laura was the Campus Recruitment Manager for Technology and Corporate Functions at Scotiabank. Laura loves helping students with early career development and helping others pursue their passions. In her spare time, you can find Laura playing sports and spending time with family.

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Maurice Fernandes is an award-winning Recruitment professional with over 20 years of experience specializing in campus recruitment, employment brand, and career education. Maurice's recruitment experience has taken him as far west as Silicon Valley and as far east as Prince Edward Island. Maurice was responsible for an early talent acquisition program that was recognized by Canada's Top Employers for Young People. Maurice has spoken about HR/recruitment best practices and labour trends at a variety of conferences and campuses and contributed to articles for the Globe and Mail and the Canadian HR Reporter. Maurice is currently a Career Education Manager at the Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) Career, Co-op, Student Success Centre. When not geeking out on chaos theories in career development, Maurice can be found on a softball field, agonizing over his fantasy football team, or perfecting ice cream recipes.

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In her role at Knockri, Melissa works with leading organizations and institutions to defeat bias and increase diversity in talent acquisition, development, and mobility. In the last 12 years, Melissa has held various client-facing roles with a focus on understanding complex challenges and helping to address them with innovative technologies. Melissa’s passion for equity throughout the talent lifecycle is what brought her to Knockri, where she leads teams that are committed to understanding and addressing barriers to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In her spare time, she can be found cheering her young children on as they try their hand at various sports and activities!

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Roberta is a passionate, high-energy leader with cross-functional experience working in Supply Chain, Regulatory Affairs, Human Resources and Change Management at Ontario Power Generation. Roberta holds a Honours Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Guelph, a Masters in Business Administration from Queen’s University and is a Certified Human Resources Leader. She draws on her strengths in team leadership, communication, and strategic-thinking combined with solid business acumen, integrity, and project management.

In her current role, as a Director in Recruitment and Onboarding, she leads a team of HR professionals to develop enterprise recruitment strategies and services that support the organization achieve its resourcing and business goals. Prior to this role, Roberta was a Director in Talent Management, Change and Leadership Training where she led a team to develop enterprise people and change strategies and programming. Roberta started her career in Regulatory Affairs and has also held various positions with increasing responsibility in Human Resources and Supply Chain.

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Sabrin Lila is the Director, Talent Acquisition at Hydro One Networks Inc. She is an energetic leader, who has held this position since 2022 and has experience in multiple disciplines including Compensation, HR Analytics, Talent Management, Leadership Development, Organizational Design and Employee & Labour Relation.

Sabrin is focused on designing innovative ways to attract, retain and motivate diverse talent. She is forward thinking and keenly interested in designing strategies to prepare for the future workplace, through programs such as workforce planning and analytics.

She holds a Masters of Industrial Relations and Human Resources from the University of Toronto and Bachelor of Political Science from Wilfrid Laurier University.

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Obstacles don't scare Sarah Wells. As an Olympic hurdler and Pan Am Games Silver medallist, Sarah has become an expert in overcoming hurdles both literally and figuratively. Founder of the Believe Initiative, Sarah has used her story to help over 125,000 people in North America understand the importance of being resilient and the power of believing in yourself. Sarah has worked with organizations such as Salesforce, Deloitte, Proctor and Gamble, Kraft-Heinz, Bell Media, and Google on how to build more resilient teams and leverage passion to activate purpose. Most recently you might recognize Sarah from Season 7 of the Amazing Race Canada where she finished as runner up, and was able to use her skills in a whole new kind of way. As someone who used to exercise for a living, she's a little bit crazy, but very passionate about making an impact. You'll want to listen up when Olympic semi-finalist and Pan Am Games silver medallist Sarah Wells takes the stage!

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Steve is the Vice-President of Global Talent Attraction at Ceridian responsible for the enterprise TA strategy and delivery for all roles across the organization from early talent to executive hires. Leading a diverse global team from Montreal to Manila to Mauritius, the TA team partners directly with the business to proactively source for the future talent needs of Ceridian.

Prior to Ceridian, Steve spent 12 years with GE where he started as the Head of TA for Canada then took on additional responsibilities in 2001 leading talent acquisition for GE’s emerging markets including Asia, Africa and the Middle East. His last role with GE was as Global Head of TA leading a team of 700+ TA professionals across 40+ countries with responsibility for recruitment technology, talent analytics, talent sourcing and research as well as recruitment marketing and branding. He most recently joined Ceridian from the TD Bank Group as their Vice President of Talent Acquisition.

Steve has been dedicated to the recruitment function for the last 25 years and a frequent guest speaker at conferences and seminars focused on the talent attraction space. His volunteer work is currently focused on Providence Healthcare where he acts as the Chair for the E-Philanthropy Advisory Committee. His true passion in life is travelling across the globe with wife Christine and boys Gavin and James. Favorite spots include Tokyo, Dubai, Hawaii, California and the islands of the Bahamas.

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Vicky is a Senior Manager within BMO’s Enterprise Campus & Early Talent team, responsibly for the strategic oversight of recruitment efforts for students and recent graduates into the Technology & Operations, Corporate Areas, Wealth Management, and Commercial Banking business units. With 12 years of experience in talent acquisition, candidate experience, program design and execution, and cross-functional stakeholder management, Vicky is a passionate advocate for early talent and the impactful contributions they bring to organizations like BMO. When Vicky is not wearing her early talent recruitment hat, she can be found on the soccer field cheering her 8 year old daughter on!

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Wincy Li is an award-winning student affairs professional/researcher, whose interests include international students' experience in Canadian post-secondary institutions and the labour market, internationalization of higher education, and the global trend of professionalization of student affairs. Her passion for serving various equity-deserving student/client groups is driven by her experience as an international, first-generation, working-class university student. Over the last 15 years, she has worked in case management and program administration roles in higher education, non-profit, and community organizations. When not leading an outstanding team of career educators at Toronto Metropolitan University, you can find her experimenting with recipes or planning her next overseas trip.

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