Our Board of Directors is comprised of committed and engaged people from across Canada
Thomas Kennedy
Board Chair
Chairman and Senior Managing Director, Kensington Capital Partners
Biography
Tom Kennedy is the founder of Kensington Capital Partners and Chair of the Investment Committee. Tom serves on the Advisory Boards of several private equity funds and private companies and has been an active supporter of the Private Equity and Venture Capital business in Canada. His public service and philanthropic work have been longstanding, primarily focused on education and healthcare.
Tom’s previous experience includes 10 years in operational and management positions with Consolidation Coal Co. and Alberta Energy Company. He has investment banking experience as a senior executive with Bunting Warburg, Lancaster and TD Securities.Tom holds a B.Sc.Eng. (Mining) from Queen’s University and a D.B.A. from the University of Edinburgh and is a professional engineer.
Paul Allison
Director
Chair of the Board of Directors, Raymond James Ltd.
Biography
As Non-Executive Chair of Raymond James Ltd., Paul Allison provides strategic guidance to the management team, governance and serves in a senior client relationship capacity. From August 2008 until December 2021, Paul was Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Raymond James Ltd.
Paul has more than 28 years of senior capital markets and investment banking experience to this role including underwriting and arranging public and private debt and equity capital raising, as well as developing and managing retail products.
Paul is an active volunteer in various charitable and industry organizations, Past Board Chair of the Humber River Hospital; member of the Board of Directors of Industry Investment Regulatory Organization of Canada; member of the Deans Business Advisory Council DeGroote School of Business McMaster University, and a former director of the Investment Industry Association of Canada
He holds a Master of Business Administration Degree (MBA) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and Management from McMaster University. He is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers.
Luc Béliveau
Director
Partner, Fasken Martineau
Biography
Luc practices mainly in the fields of restructuring and banking law, and regularly represents borrowers, lenders, investors, creditors, receivers and trustees. He defends and represents their interests in the course of restructurings, liquidations, recapitalizations, realizations of securities and asset recoveries. He also routinely acts in shareholder disputes.
Honours and Awards:
Recognized in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2017 in the area of Insolvency Litigation & Financial Restructuring. Named in Lexpert 2016 US/Canada Cross-Border Guide Litigation. Recognized as one of the leading Canadian practitioners in the area of Insolvency Litigation & Financial Restructuring by the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory (2015 edition). The Best Lawyers in Canada recognized Luc Béliveau as one of the best Insolvency and Financial Restructuring lawyers in Canada (2013 – 2017 editions)
Community Involvement:
Member of the organizing committee of Montréal Passion Vin for the benefit of the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont Foundation – The Integrated Cancer Center (since 2013)
Membership/Affiliations:
Member, Insolvency Institute of Canada (IIC), Member, Barreau du Québec, Member, Bar of Montréal, Member, Canadian Bar Association, Member, Liaison committee with the Superior Court, Commercial Division (2000-2003 and 2013-2015), Member of the Federal Judicial Advisory, Committee for Québec (since 2012), Liaison Committee with the Superior Court, Civil Division (2004 – 2006), Member, Turnaround Management Association (TMA).
Nicolas Caprio
Director
President, Rexall Pharmacy Group Ltd.
Biography
Nick began his career as a Pharmacist at Pharmaprix in 1990, becoming a Pharmacist-Owner at Pharmaprix in April, 1991. Nick held that position until April, 1998, when he was appointed as the Vice President of Operations, Pharmaprix. In March, 2006, Nick was then promoted to Vice President, Pharmacy Performance at Shoppers Drug Mart. Nick held that role until 2010, when he was appointed to the Senior Vice President position at Pharmaprix (in Montreal) before being promoted to Senior Vice President at Shoppers Drug Mart. Nick was recently appointed as Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Rexall, overseeing the Pharmacy, Rexall Health Solutions and Operations teams.
Mr. Caprio brings over 25 years of leadership experience in the health care and retailing sectors to the Company. Mr. Caprio’s experience in the health care sector includes community pharmacy, pharmacy operations, pharmaco-economics, health and wellness and clinical pharmacy within the community setting. Mr. Caprio’s retailing experience includes leading an incredible operations team to drive results, merchandising, marketing, loyalty, communication and customer service.
Nick received his Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from the University of Montreal and a Minor in BSc, Chemistry. Nick graduated from the Health Sciences program from Marianopolis College.
An active contributor to the industry and his community, Mr. Caprio continues to be a licensed pharmacist in both Ontario and Quebec, Mr. Caprio sits on the TELUS GTA Community Board, to help youth in Toronto. Nick was the co-chair for the 2013 One Walk to End Women’s cancers to raise funds for the Jewish general Hospital foundation and Nick was the National Chair representing Shoppers Drug Mart for the 2015 One Walk to Conquer Cancer, leading over 800 Shoppers Drug Mart employees (from numerous stores and central office) on the walk to raise funds benefitting the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Mr. Caprio is a past trustee of the Jewish General Hospital Foundation.
Debra A. Doucette
Director
President and CEO, Odlum Brown Limited
Biography
Debra Doucette is President and CEO of Odlum Brown Limited, a full-service investment firm headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Debra leads with objective and strategic insight developed from an accomplished career in the investment industry spanning over 35 years.
Debra has earned a reputation for her vision, passion and dedication as a leader in the business community. She is a board member of St. Paul’s Foundation, Providence Health Care, the UBC Sauder School of Business Faculty Advisory Board and the alumni UBC Board of Directors. Debra is also an Industry Director and the Vice Chair of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.
Debra is a strong supporter of Odlum Brown’s sponsorship and charitable giving programs. In 2016, she was recognized for her leadership with the Joseph and Rosalie Segal United Way Community Vision Award. Debra was also recognized as a 2017 Canada’s Most Admired (TM) CEO and received a 2016 BC CEO Award from Business in Vancouver. In 2015, she received an Influential Women in Business Award. In 2012, Debra was honoured with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the BC Community Achievement Award, and was also inducted into the Women’s Executive Network’s Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Hall of Fame after being recognized as one of the Top 100 for three consecutive years.
Lucie Dutil F.S.A., F.I.C.A.
Director, Member of the Board Governance Committee
Retired from Bell Canada
Biography
Lucie has more than 25 years’ experience in consultation and management positions. Prior to June 2015, she was VP of Pension & Benefits in Bell Canada’s finance team. Among her main responsibilities; she participated in the development of the corporate business plan, the pension strategy and benefits. She also interacted with the company’s senior management and Board members. She led a team of professionals who specialize in such fields as actuarial work and employee benefits.
She led the team that further advanced BCE’s pension de-risking strategy by transferring longevity risk for$5 billion of pension plan liability to Sun Life. From 2009 to 2014, as Vice President – Human Resources, she helped define the company’s HR strategy and policies, leading a multidisciplinary team of 200 employees, including professionals who specialized in such fields as actuarial work, compensation and employee benefits, and HR systems.
As part of the Bell Let’s Talk mental health initiative, along with her Human Resources team, she had a mandate to ensure the implementation of the mental health in the workplace pillar. Before working at Bell, Lucie worked for a consulting firm and Insurance company.
She is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries as well as a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. She is also a board member of la Fondation des Mutins de Longueuil.
Tracy Ewing
Director, Chair of the Board Governance Committee
Communications Consultant
Biography
Tracy is a communications consultant specializing in strategic planning, investor relations and corporate and crisis communications. Prior to this, Tracy was Vice President, Communications for Corus Entertainment, overseeing all internal and external communication plans for the company, as well as investor relations, corporate marketing and the company’s philanthropic endeavours. Tracy joined Corus Entertainment as Vice President of Marketing for Nelvana, focusing on the creation of the company’s global marketing strategy for a burgeoning portfolio of brands and branded consumer products.
Prior to joining Nelvana, she held senior marketing and sales positions in leading consumer products companies, driving growth of world-renowned brands including Ralph Lauren, Playtex, WonderBra and Hanes. Tracy has an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Labour Management Relations and Political Science from Trinity College at the University of Toronto. Tracy has served on several industry and charitable organizations including Mainstay Housing (Board Chair), the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (Communications Committee Co-Chair), the Canadian Investor Relations Institute ON (Marketing Committee Chair), and as a juror for the Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA Canada) Corporate Reporting Awards
Dave Friesema
Director
Retired CEO, Sleep Country Canada
Biography
Mr. Friesema is the Chief Executive Officer of Sleep Country, a position he has held since November 2014. He has been with Sleep Country since 1995 holding numerous senior positions, including Head of Sales, General Manager and Chief Operating Officer. During his tenure, Mr. Friesema has been involved in developing many of the sales training programs, creative marketing advertisements and influencing the advance positioning that Sleep Country enjoys in the mattress industry today. Prior to joining Sleep Country, Mr. Friesema helped establish and manage mattress retail organizations in the United States. He is currently the Chairman of the Better Sleep Council of Canada and is a past board member of Shelternet for Abused Women. He attended the University of Detroit Business School and the University of Missouri-St. Louis School of Psychology.
Raymonde Lavoie
Director, Member of the Marketing Committee
Chairs the Advertising Standards Council, Board Chair FRIENDS
Biography
After starting her career as a Copywriter, Raymonde Lavoie brings an extensive background in senior positions in creative and strategy with various world class Montréal agencies, namely J.Walter Thompson, Cossette, O&M, and as a communications entrepreneur. She founded her own agency (RTA) in 1988, which she sold in 1999. After leading a number of key projects, Raymonde acquired leadership of DesArts communication as shareholder and president. She now works at the Cundari agency in Montréal, in strategic planning.
Raymonde has enjoyed being active in the communications community:
- Former Board member and chair of UNICEF Québec’s Communications Committee
- Past member of OXFAM Québec’s Rebranding Committee
- Former member of the Board of the Association des agences de publicité du Québec (AAPQ)
- Current involvement with the International Women’s Forum, member Montréal Chapter communications committee
- Québec Chair for Advertising Standards Canada (judging all advertising complaints in French language)
Raymonde has been honoured with various awards (PCM, Clio, Extra and Mondial de la publicité francophone, nomination to Marketing Personality of 2003) and has contributed to the advancement of the upcoming generation of communicators as a teacher in the Certificate in Advertising at the Université de Montréal and as Mentor of a special women’s task force on networking the communications industry (Les Espionnes de la comm). She has also given lectures on Strategic Branding which is her subject of choice.
Christophe Lecomte
Director, Chair of the Audit & Risk Management Committee
Entrepreneur, Land–Return Inc./TBL Consulting
Biography
TBL is a multi-pronged enterprise focused on a number of business ventures and consulting activities. Current holdings include Real estate, Timberlands and Out of Home. TBL continues to advise clients in a number of industries, with a focus on improving bottom line results through financial and operational management processes.
Chris has expertise as a Financial and operational consultant / entrepreneur skilled at navigating organizations through change, achieving increased efficiencies and bottom line results. An engaging entrepreneurial team-builder combining strategic, analytical and creative approaches to solution development and implementation.
Specialties: Mergers and acquisitions, financing, process reengineering, forecasting and budgeting, Management Practices, Communications, Performance Improvement, Strategic Planning, Change Management, Mentoring & Coaching Staff, Radio and TV Broadcast Media operations, Team building.
Chris was VP/CFO of a number of media companies including Vista Radio, Corus Entertainment, ZOOM and Telemedia.
Chis is a Chartered Accountant with degrees from Western and Windsor Universities.
Rich Padulo
Director, Member of the Marketing Committee
Founder of TREAT ACCESSIBLY North America
Biography
Rich is passionate about all aspects of marketing and is driven to create remarkable brand experiences – whether it’s through corporate events, product launches, pop up shops or capturing data & generating leads, as the President of PADULO X, his goal is to create experiential marketing that makes people happy.
In the past 17 years, Rich has has obtained extensive experience in brand and retail advertising for traditional & experiential marketing. From financial services to not-for-profit. He has worked with brands such as Hasbro, Allstate, Mercedes-Benz, smart, The Bay, Sears, The Home Depot, The Alzheimer’s Society of York Region, Sephora, Ford, Coty & President’s Choice Financial.
In the past five years, some of the world’s best-known brands have trusted his company to properly execute their programs.
Rich was formerly President of Immersion Media. Prior to that he was the youngest marketing manager responsible for branding and marketing at Services Ontario.
Rich studied sociology at Concordia University.
Dr. Giuseppe Papia
Director
Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Vascular Surgery and Critical Care Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Biography
Dr. Pappia joined the Division of Cardiac and Vascular Surgery at Sunnybrook Health Services in 2009. Upon graduating from the University of Ottawa Medical School, Dr. Papia pursued specialty training in general surgery at the University of Toronto, where he also received a Master of Science degree in molecular biology as part of the surgeon scientist program. He then pursued subspecialty training in vascular surgery and critical care medicine at the University of Toronto, with further fellowship training in endovascular surgery at the Cleveland Clinic.
In 2009, Dr. Papia completed the patient safety officer executive development program at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. His area of academic interest is in patient safety and quality improvement addressing and optimizing potential gaps in postoperative care of vascular and cardiovascular patients.
Dr. Papia is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto and functions as a clinician-teacher. He also serves as the physician lead for the cardiovascular intensive care unit.
Dr. Papia serves as a vascular surgery and endovascular surgery consultant, and provides regular general vascular surgery outpatient clinics. His clinical interests include endovascular interventions for complex peripheral vascular disease, aortic disease and carotid disease.
He is also attending as a consultant intensivist in the critical care unit and in the cardiovascular intensive care unit.
Janine Davies
Special Advisor to the Board
Vice President, Corporate Communications & Marketing, Raymond James Ltd.
Danièle Perron
Advisor to the Marketing Committee
Consultant – Strategy, Management and Transformation
Biography
Daniele has more than 25 years of experience as a strategist and manager. Over the years, she has developed a solid expertise in marketing as well as strong general management skills, in context of growth or organizational transformations. She is a passionate team leader with years of experience coaching talents and maintaining high employee engagement through a strong vision and focus on business objectives.
Throughout her career, she held many senior management positions. Among them, from 2016 to 2019, she was Vice-President Marketing at Tourisme Montreal where she played an active role to grow international tourism of the metropole and led the ambitious digital transformation of the organization. Prior to joining Tourism Montreal, she was President at FCB/Montréal, leading the agency in her transformation and helped develop a new vision and positioning for the group in Montreal. Her past experiences also include the position of Vice-President and General Manager at Blitz, a subsidiary of Cossette, where for more 18 years she built the CRM practice and left her marks on prestigious brands.
Daniele has always been very active in the marketing and communications industry and is well-known for her strategic leadership, her integrated vision, her passion, and her ability to innovate.
Our Governors
Our Governors are a group of individuals who have made (and continue to make) extraordinary contributions to this organization over the years, as founding members and as past board directors.
France Chrétien Desmarais
Businesswoman and Philanthropist
Biography
After studies in law and economics at the University of Ottawa, France Chrétien Desmarais got involved in numerous companies and charitable organizations in areas as varied as health, sports, arts, education, heritage and support for youth.
She currently is President of the Society for the Celebration of Montréal’s 375th Anniversary and Vice-chair of the Board of Governors of the 375th. She is also Vice-President and founding member of both the Guy Laliberté Foundation and ONE DROP Foundation, as well as a member of the Executive Committee of the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation, the McGill University International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High-Risk Behaviors Board.
She was Founding Chairman of the Canadian Olympic Foundation; Member of the Canadian Olympic Committee and also Member of the Board of Directors of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). She has served on the Board of Directors of Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch since 1998. Recently, she was Vice-Chair of the Board of the non-profit organization Metropolis 2017.
A Member of the Order of Canada, she received an honorary doctorate from Concordia University in 2015.
Clint Forster
Founding Member
James McCoubrey
Founding Chair
Retired
Biography
A highly accomplished Chairman and CEO, James McCoubrey has extensive international and national senior executive experience with major advertising agencies and with media corporations. He is an acknowledged leader in advertising, public affairs, media, and broadcasting.
James McCoubrey spent 20 years (1969-1990) with an advertising agency, Young & Rubicam, in Montreal, Toronto, London (UK) and New York. During that time, he was CEO of Canada, General Manager of Europe, Worldwide Account Director on Colgate-Palmolive and Executive-Vice President and Director of Parent Company, Young & Rubicam Inc.
He served as President/CEO and a Director of Telemedia Inc. (1990-1997) and was Chair of the radio board of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. Jim went on to serve as CEO of Manchu-Wok in 1997 and turned operations from loss to profit.
He joined CBC/SRC in 1997 as Executive Vice-President and was President (ad interim) in 1999. He retired from CBC in 2000 and accepted the position of President of the Council on Drug Abuse. He served as a Director of PRIDE CANADA (Parent’s Resource Institute for Drug Education) and is a Founding Director of the Partnership for a Drug Free Canada.
Mr. McCoubrey is a Director of the Conservation Halton Foundation. He was also a long-serving Director of Reitmans Inc.
Mr. McCoubrey holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from McGill University where he was president of the Students Society and Chair of the Student’s Council.
Eloise E. Opheim
Founding Member
Richard W. Pound Q.C.
Chair Emeritus
Counsel at Stikeman Elliott and Honorary Member of the International Olympic Committee
