Craig’s incredible life journey starts in his parents’ living room, and takes him around the world, to Oprah’s couch, to building a global organization that has helped millions lift themselves out of poverty.

Craig Kielburger is a social entrepreneur and the co-founder of a family of organizations dedicated to the power of WE, a movement of people coming together to change the world.

Kielburger is best known for his activism as a young teenager and his work co-founding and leading ME to WE, a business that links purchases to global social and economic development. He also founded and co-leads WE Charity (formerly Free the Children), which focuses particularly on youth education and mobilization. Much of his work revolves around a conviction that youth are fundamental to creating systemic change. 

He is a powerful, internationally acclaimed speaker, social entrepreneur, and New York Times bestselling author and author of 12 books, including his newest book WEconomy: You can find meaning, make a living, and change the world, Craig will inspire your group to take steps toward making a meaningful impact right now.

Marc Saltzman has reported on the high-tech industry since 1994 – as journalist, author, lecturer, consultant, and radio and TV personality. A leading technology expert, he’s been invited by celebrities such as Donald Trump, Al Gore and Stephen Hawking to respond to an “Ask the Planet” question for Yahoo.

He has 3 million views on his own YouTube channel, and hosts #GearUP on WatchMojo  – one of the most popular YouTube channels with more than 20 billion views and 16 million subscribers. He hosts Gear Guide, a tech-focused video that airs daily at Cineplex theatres across the country.

He’s authored 16 books, writes and hosts four radio shows, is the host and producer of Tech it Out (syndicated across 277 stations), and is a frequent guest on CTV, Global, FOX, CP24, CHCH, TSC, and HLN, and appeared on Entertainment Tonight, the Today Show, CBS Early Show, Access Hollywood and Saturday Q. Marc sits on the board of Merry Go Round Children’s Foundation, which operates the flagship program, Kids, Cops & Computers. 

Dr. Christine Greene has over 10+ years of experience in epidemiological and laboratory research. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences and an MPH in Hospital and Molecular Epidemiology from the University of Michigan. She strives to improve public health in the areas of infectious disease prevention and control in clinical, dental and community settings.

Her work serves to improve the accuracy of environmental mediated infectious disease transmission modelling, strengthen current guidelines to control healthcare-associated infections and stimulate innovative approaches to reduce the risk of biofilm-related infections, pathogen transmission and the environmental persistence of infectious agents.

Dr. Greene is the ISO TC 304 Convener for International Standards on Hand Hygiene and is a member of the NSF International 444 Joint Committee Standard – Prevention of Injury and Disease Associated with Building Water Systems. Dr. Greene serves on the board of The Infection Prevention Strategy (TIPS) and is a co-founder of the Healthcare Infection Transmission Systems (HITS) Consortium – an organization that strives to break down silos in healthcare using a cross-disciplinary, systems approach to addressing the pressing issues around infection control.

John brings over 30 years of environmental infection prevention, facilities management and safety experience in hospitals, long term care, corporate and education establishments with direct management experience in environmental infection prevention, facilities management, biomedical engineering, construction, housekeeping, laundry and as a hospital safety officer.

In his role as Head of Innovation for Sodexo’s North American operations, John was responsible for R&D, development of standards, training and deployment for the Sodexo’s environmental infection prevention offer globally. John is an Advisory Board member of TIPS.

In her role as head of Sustainable Impact, Frances Edmonds is responsible for overseeing HP’s full suite of corporate social responsibility programs including strategic partnerships with key nonprofit organizations and an industry leading volunteer program. Under Frances’s leadership, HP became the most sustainable technology company in Canada in 2018.

Frances works closely with HP’s many partners to drive sustainable practices across HP’s business and throughout Canada. From being a founder of WWF’s Living Planet @ Work and Living Planet @ Campus programs to her TEDx talk demonstrating the power of collaboration, Frances seeks new and innovative ways to leverage the power of HP to create meaningful change across Canada.

Frances also has a passion for environmental education developing and implementing global environmental education and volunteer programs for HP. She is frequently featured in the news as an expert resource for media on sustainable impact.

Frances acts as a judge for a number of sustainability awards. She received her second Clean 50 award in 2017 recognizing her as one of Canada’s top sustainability professionals. She sits on the boards of Learning for a Sustainable Future and the Schulich Centre for Responsible Business advisory council.

Frances started her career with the UK Government as an enforcer of environmental health and safety requirements followed by her role as manager of environmental health and safety in Canada’s chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Frances has a degree in Environmental science from Bradford University (UK), a post graduate diploma in Occupational Health and Safety and is a Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP).

Sam Demma is a 19-year-old TEDx speaker, one of the top 25 under 25 environmentalists in Canada and the co-founder of the social enterprise PickWaste. In addition, Sam is also a connector for the league of innovators, the youngest member of an advanced toastmasters club, and the emcee of Speaker Slam Youth.

All throughout his life, Sam consistently stepped outside of his comfort zone and he now strives to spread a simple but powerful message, that small consistent actions can lead to massive changes.

In the past year alone Sam has spoken in front of crowds as large as 1000 or as small as 15, empowering a total that exceeds 8000 young people. A few past events include: TEDxYouth Toronto, Speaker Slam Grand Slam, McMaster University, Algoma University and dozens of secondary schools. All in all, Sam has one goal. To inspire and empower 10 000 000 young people in the next 20 years. Sam knows that every keynote is an opportunity to change a life and that is precisely why he speaks from the heart at every engagement.

Jo-Anne St. Godard has served as Executive Director of Recycling Council of Ontario (RCO) since 2001 and her expertise focuses on the development of policies, programs, and practices that advance the circular economy and drive positive environmental outcomes with market-based approaches. Ms. St. Godard harnesses unique opportunities to facilitate relationships between all actors of supply and value chains that transition environmental imperatives and obligations into opportunity. She leads several innovative initiatives, including developing circular procurement frameworks and implementation strategies for public buyers, which includes Ontario’s largest municipal governments; establishing a long-term waste reduction plan in partnership with Nashnawbe Aski Nation, which covers 544,000 square kilometres in Northern Ontario; piloting a food waste project that leverages a co-operative model in the commercial sector; and partnering with the Royal Canadian Geographic Society and Walmart Canada to educate Canadians and reduce plastic waste.

Aliya Ansari is an executive-level fundraiser, with a knack for connecting causes to people, and a passion for impact-based philanthropy. With 15 years of experience in conceptualizing effective revenue-generation strategies, relationship-building and event management, she has a proven track record of success in closing multi-level gifts. She’s globally-minded in her ambition to effect change, while also being invested in her own community. For over 10 years, Aliya has been in executive-level management roles in national and global fundraising settings spanning the sector from youth education to international development working with organizations such as, Junior Achievement of Canada and the Canadian Business Hall of Fame, Junior Achievement Worldwide, Shelter Movers, National Council for Jewish Women of Canada, The YMCA of Greater Toronto, and the International Development and Relief Fund. In 2018, Aliya co-founded a new organization called Pink Hive, which was launched to help meet the growing demand for strategic and tactical support across the charitable landscape. Pink Hive is focused on creating a culture of dialogue, impact, empowerment, respect and innovative thinking amongst charities, corporations and the general public. Pink Hive helps charities raise their profile, showcase their fundraising and volunteer opportunities, and allow their key stakeholders to experience the power of positive impact. Over her career, Aliya has been successful in sourcing, cultivating and closing transformational gifts across the charitable sector. Aliya has successfully worked with corporations, private foundations, governments, high net-worth individuals and associations. She has worked with all areas of Canadian business in their fundraising and philanthropic endeavours.

Chris Boyd leads the Building Water Health program for NSF International, a global public health organization working to align sustainability and public health outcomes in managing water systems. NSF International is working with healthcare facilities and municipalities across the U.S. and Canada to prevent Legionella outbreaks and is partnering with the National Environmental Health Association to host the second annual Legionella Conference in Los Angeles.

Chris has over 20 years of experience helping communities address environmental and public health challenges, including the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in New York City, where he led the agency’s response to the largest Legionella outbreak in New York City history in 2014. He also reorganized the response to building and environmental outbreaks and oversaw implementation of the first Legionella-controlling regulatory standards in cooling towers.

As assistant commissioner of Environmental Sciences and Engineering in NYC, he was responsible for regulatory oversight of the city’s municipal water system.

Ashleigh Bliss is the director of the Toronto branch of Alvéole, a Montreal based urban beekeeping company, and certified B Corporation, whose mission is to reconnect people in cities to nature, through rooftop beehives. Prior to joining Alvéole, Ashleigh worked as an account manager for a digital marketing agency. She currently lives in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood where she spends her time getting her hands dirty in the garden, or enjoying the city with her dog Rosie.

Barley Chironda a Registered Practical Nurse, is also the Internation Infection Control Specialist with Clorox Canada. Barley is typically found engaged in motivating Hospital Staff, Patients and the public on proper infection prevention practices. Barley also volunteers as the Infection Control Specialist with the Cdiff Foundation and is former IPAC-GTA President as well as IPAC-Canada Social Media Manager. He has also held roles in frontline IPAC, IPAC Management as well Medical Device Reprocessing Management.

Dr. John Coles is a Senior Research Scientist and Project Manager at CUBRC Inc. in Buffalo, New York where he works in the Information Exploitation Sector. Dr. Coles was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and SUNY Chancellors award winner, and has multiple awards and publications relating to his work in disaster relief, emergency management, counter-terrorism, and health analytics.

Dr. Coles leads the multi-disciplinary Healthcare Informatics Team at CUBRC, an initiative to transition data storage and analytics technologies, originally developed for the U.S. Government, into the healthcare space with a major focus on behavioral health using longitudinal records.

Kelly Drennan is a systems thinker, social entrepreneur, thought leader, disruptor and collaborator who is devoted to making change within the fashion industry. Twelve years ago she founded Fashion Takes Action, out of her desire to create a better, more sustainable future for her two daughters. Armed with more than a decade experience working in conventional fashion PR & Events (prior to starting FTA), Kelly aims to raise awareness for its many negative social and environmental impacts – both with industry and consumers. Determined to making fashion circular, Kelly is responsible for convening the Ontario Textile Diversion Collaborative, with more than 30 stakeholders committed to increasing the rate of textile diversion, while unlocking local solutions for reuse and recycling. In 2017 Kelly was recognized as a Canadian environmental leader with the esteemed Clean 50 Award for her work in Education & Awareness, and is the first recipient for the fashion industry. Kelly produces the annual World Ethical Apparel Roundtable (WEAR), and oversees FTA’s youth education program My Clothes My World. Kelly is a sought after consultant for fashion designers and brands who want to embrace CSR and sustainability.

Barry Friesen is a husband, father of one 28 year old, professional engineer and currently the General Manager of Cleanfarms Inc. Barry loves waste-resource management and works to eliminate waste in our society. Cleanfarms, the company Barry currently manages is an industry stewardship company responsible for managing the collection, recycling and safe disposal of agricultural waste across Canada. Think of Cleanfarms as the ‘blue box’ for agriculture. Barry also serves on the Board of the Canadian Product Stewardship Council, the Board of the Alberta Plastic Recycling Association and has also served as past Board member of his local Rotary Club, chair of the Board of the Compost Council of Canada, past Board member of the Recycling Council of Ontario and the past Chair of the National Task Force on Packaging. In his volunteer time, Barry works with his local Rotary Club which hosts an annual ribfest in Toronto attracting 100,000 attendees. Not surprisingly, Barry manages waste at the event and through its zero waste program has been able to divert over 75% of waste from disposal through unique program design. Programming requires attention to all aspects of the event including training of volunteers, food and product vendors, restricting the types of food and product containers used and working closely with waste management facilities to process the waste generated.

Andrew Hejnar is 3M Canada Company’s Energy Manager with more than 15 years of experience in leading sustainability initiatives at 3M. Hejnar’s focus on improving energy performance and reducing greenhouse gas emissions at 3M’s manufacturing facilities and commercial buildings across Canada and around the world enabled 3M to achieve the ISO 50001 Energy Management System Standard. Hejnar was recently named Energy Manager of the Year for 2018 by the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE). In 2017, Hejnar was named one of Canada’s Clean 16 as an outstanding contributor to clean capitalism in Canada. Hejnar holds Masters Degree in Energy Management, has Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering, he is Professional Engineer of Ontario, Certified Practitioner in Industrial Energy Management Systems and SEP Performance Verifier. He has also completed industry certificates including the Advanced Certificate in Facilities Management and Certified Energy Manager, Certified Energy Auditor, and has achieved Certified Carbon Reduction Manager accreditations.

Christopher is a consultant within Mercer’s Career business in Montreal. He primarily provides project management and support in mandates covering talent strategy, compensation benchmarking, job evaluation, salary structures, employee engagement, human resources transformation and performance management. Christopher also leads Marsh & McLennan’s Canadian internal sustainability team, and for the past two years has been developing Mercer Career’s sustainability service offering, aimed at helping clients build sustainability into their core business.

Inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Karen Malone is committed to re-imagining the boardroom with a seat for sustainability at every leadership table. Karen’s agency, LitPark, works at the strategic level, identifying the best opportunities for practical and meaningful approaches to sustainability. Karen is an experienced leader in CSR program design and impact reporting who takes a hands on approach to define and test smart and simple sustainable strategies, creating a point of differentiation, improving financial performance and ensuring long-term survival in the marketplace.

Lauren Ott is a social entrepreneur who connects leading Canadian businesses, families, and organizations to causes they care about. After spending time teaching at a public high school on the side of a volcano in Ecuador, Lauren returned to Canada and turned her passion for community to a career in driving impact across the country and beyond.

She has worked on Parliament Hill, spent five years with WE, formerly known as Free The Children. At WE, Lauren worked in communities in the Amazon region, as Co-Founder Craig Kielburger’s right-hand for strategy and engagement, and eventually, as Director of Business Development responsible for all WE Days and operations from Saskatchewan to Atlantic Canada. Last March, Lauren took on a new challenge as the Chief Kits Officer of the newly launched social enterprise, Kits for a Cause.

Rachel Morier has over 10 years combined experience in sustainability, consulting, and project management for packaging. Rachel recently joined The Beer Store as Director of Sustainability where she is responsible for environmental compliance and stewardship to ensure that all alcoholic beverage containers are reused or recycled at the highest order.

Prior to joining The Beer Store, Rachel led sustainability initiatives at PAC Packaging Consortium, a North American not-for-profit industry association, to identify solutions throughout the value chain that lead to zero packaging and food waste. Rachel holds a Master in Environmental Studies at York University with a Graduate Diploma in Business and the Environment from the Schulich School of Business.

President of The Bargains Group, Jody Steinhauer has mobilized her award-winning discount wholesale and promotional products company to revolutionize the business landscape for good. As a Canadian female entrepreneur, Jody uses her network of resources and leveraged buying power to aid every company and non-profit agency that she touches to maximize their buying dollar. Pioneering her belief of “giving back makes great business sense”, Jody is a tireless advocate and founder of the charity, Engage and Change. Its two annual initiatives, Project Winter Survival and Project Water, help thousands of homeless throughout Toronto and the surrounding area survive the extreme weather conditions while engaging individuals in active philanthropy. Inspired by the impact her charity has made, Jody launched the social enterprise, Kits for a Cause. Jody has made it turn-key, fun and engaging for businesses to engage their employees while solving local community services’ needs for resources. Her model of “brokering goodness” has worked with some of the top industry leaders in both the corporate and philanthropic spheres. Jody has been the esteemed recipient of TRBoT’s Business Leader of the Year Award, Rotman Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and Canada’s Top 40 Under 40.

Jason Tetro is a visiting scientist at the University of Guelph and an advisory board member with TIPS, The Infection Prevention Strategy.. He has been involved in health-related microbiology and immunology for the last 30 years.

He has worked in various fields including bloodborne, food and water pathogens; environmental microbiology; disinfection and antisepsis; and emerging pathogens such as Zika virus. In the public, he is better known as The Germ Guy™.

He has written two books, The Germ Code, which was shortlisted as Science Book of The Year in 2014, and The Germ Files, which spent several weeks on the national bestseller list. He has also co-edited, The Human Microbiome Handbook, which provides an academic perspective on the impact of microbes in human health. He is currently the host of the Super Awesome Science Show, which explores how science fits into our everyday lives. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Syvannah Vine is one of Busch System’s Waste Diversion Specialists, responsible for helping clients reach sustainability goals by implementing effective waste management strategies. Busch Systems designs and manufactures customized recycling and waste containers for K-12 schools, colleges and universities, arenas, healthcare facilities, municipalities and environmental consulting companies.

The company’s headquarters are in Barrie, Ontario. Syvannah studied Environmental Biology at Nipissing University in North Bay, ON, and also obtained a diploma in Environmental Technology from Canadore College. Syvannah is a certified Waste Auditor through the Recycling Council of Ontario, as well as a certified Environmental Professional in Training.

Cameron Waite, a 20 year sales veteran, is the Director of Sales for Avidbots. Cameron’s experience in robotics Sales, and introducing new and disruptive technology, stretches across a multitude of industries. Taking a consultative approach, he has helped many companies introduce automation to their operational strategies.

Co-founder of The Infection Prevention Strategy (TIPS)

Michael Diamond is the co-founder of The Infection Prevention Strategy (TIPS), a non-profit organization that recently announced $1,000,000 in Scientific Impact in its first 24 months of operation. Michael is devoted to advancing information and science to address the myriad issues relating to infection prevention and global health.

Mr. Diamond is driven by the firm belief that we should not have to wait years for promising technology, ideas and processes to be implemented and accepted. Michael has created a model of information sharing that makes the process of vetting new technologies, implementing successful programs and inspiring innovation, more efficient, more accessible, more global and more collaborative.

Michael’s most notable achievement to date is the TIPS online journal, www.IC.tips, a Pan-Access, worldwide collective that extends globally and touches locally. Michael leads teams around the world to develop trials and pilot studies to aid in the discovery of successful research-to-market technological advancements. His global team includes engagers and implementers. Currently represented in 38 countries, and well-established as the world’s largest engagement network, the TIPS motto is: Join. Contribute. Make A Difference.