Speakers
Frank Monteleone
Frank Monteleone joined Rexall Pharmacy Group in 2008 and is the Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Corporate Relations at Rexall. As a member of the Executive Operating Committee, Frank oversees a diverse portfolio of strategic HR initiatives for Rexall, Claimsecure and Medicentres. He is responsible for all aspects of Employee & Labour Relations, Total Rewards (including Benefits), Talent Strategy and Acquisition, Organization Effectiveness, Learning and Development, and HR Shared Services for both the corporate office and over 400 retail locations. Frank also oversees the Communications and Corporate Relations functions for the organization.
In his nearly 20 years of human resources experience, Frank has distinguished himself as a trusted advisor, a change champion, and a devoted employee advocate – leadership qualities that help to unlock the potential of Rexall employees and strengthen the brand. Prior to joining Rexall, Frank worked for Indigo Books and Music Inc. and RONA in a variety of progressive HR positions. Frank has been involved with supporting key priorities critical to the success of the business, such as employee engagement, cultural transformation, leadership talent planning, and strategic total rewards. Under Frank’s leadership, his team is currently stewarding diversity and inclusion efforts to advance diversity and women in business.
Frank has completed his certified human resources executive designation (CHRE) from the Human Resources Professional Association, as well as being Prosci ADKAR certified in change management. He also has a Masters Certificate in Adult Training and Development from the Schulich Executive Education Centre. Frank holds a Bachelors of Arts, Mathematics for Commerce from York University in Toronto and also has a diploma in Human Resources Management from Humber College.
Frank is proud to be the President & Chair of the Board for the Rexall Foundation. Since 2002, the Foundation has been helping build strong and vibrant communities by supporting numerous charitable organizations.
Jesper Bendsten
Jesper brings nearly 20 years of proven recruiting experience, having built and managed high-level local and global recruiting teams for leading global brands including Uber and Salesforce. He most recently served as the first Chief People Officer of Top Hat, a higher education technology company, where he implemented new HR technologies, talent acquisition processes and performance management programs. Prior to Top Hat, he served as Executive Vice President of Operations at Wilson Human Capital Group, Inc, where he led an international team of 300 focusing on business operations and revenue generating strategies.
Under Jesper’s leadership, the next chapter of the Talent Acquisition team will emphasize building our talent bench to meet the future demands of a versatile, diverse, global organization positioned for growth. Jesper’s experience working in high-growth technology organizations with a focus on global customer impact will be invaluable as the team partners with the business to design and implement innovative recruitment practices aligned to our strategic growth and workforce planning.
Steve Knox
Mark Grimwood
Mark is a Sr. Director of Recruiting at Salesforce. He currently supports their Enterprise Sales organization for North America and their Global Customer Success business. He's been with Salesforce for 9 year and has led numerous projects around using data analytics to implement change, the creation and development of a new interview framework as well as recruiter training and enablement.
Kelly Trindel
Kelly Trindel, Ph.D. is Head of Industrial Organizational Science + Diversity Analytics at pymetrics, a gamified cognitive and neuroscience startup creating analytics-informed decision-making and performance-enhancement software for the human capital field. pymetrics has a proven track record of increasing diversity for our clients while selecting the best possible candidates with demonstrable ROI and validity. At pymetrics Kelly supervises an international team of Psychologists and Data Analysts who consult with clients and handle job analysis, adverse impact, validation, and return on investment outcome studies for the life of our SaaS engagements. Before joining pymetrics in February 2018, Kelly worked at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) most recently serving as Chief Analyst and Director of Research + Investigative Analysis. In this role, she led a group of Social Scientists located in district offices around the country in providing analytic support for systemic investigations and case development. While at EEOC Kelly served as the Commission’s expert on 'big data' issues, including changing human resource models and people analytics. She served as the Chair of EEOC’s Workgroup on Big Data and as a senior advisor on its Committee of Advisors on Systemic Enforcement. Kelly also co-chaired EEOC’s annual academic conference, EEODataNet.
Joe Cuscianna
Aamna Contractor
Aamna has worked with award winning recruitment agencies, tech start-ups and investment firms in Downtown Toronto. She has matched an abundance of talent with life-changing opportunities and delivered customized in-house solutions encompassing talent acquisition, organizational design, people analytics and HR technology throughout her career. She launched her own career consulting company in 2015 to help new students, newcomers and those looking for work in the Toronto Market with resume-writing, interview preparation, job search strategy & workplace conflict support. Having joined TELUS Digital as a Talent Partner in 2017 and now as a Product Owner, she is working on having her team burn brighter as they grow and tackle new digital initiatives. When she is not partnering with leadership to redefine their people strategy or leading her team of Talent Partners, she is working on strategically optimizing the candidate experience, analyzing/visualizing people data for her leadership team and building technical tools for her team to streamline day-to-day operations
Chelsea Howard
Born and raised in Newfoundland, Chelsea Howard began a career in journalism after completing a Bachelor’s degree in Honours English Literature. Working as a radio & web producer, she uncovered a love of leveraging transmedia to construct narratives and elicit a response from a targeted audience. Chelsea moved to Toronto in 2011 to pursue a Masters of Media Production at Ryerson University.
Upon completion, Chelsea dove into an emerging marketing discipline called employer branding. Applying methodologies ranging from traditional marketing to those born out of her own non-traditional career journey, she has worked with companies ranging from boutique marketing agencies to big brands like Canadian Tire and her current role as Director of Employer Brand at CIBC. Chelsea is an expert in identifying and profiling segmented talent audiences and delivering tailored content strategies that inspire people to think: what's the next step in my career journey?
Chelsea has also been involved in creating cross-platform strategies that speak to members of diverse demographics.
Noel Correia
Amar Grewal
Amar Grewal is a Director of Talent Acquisition at Scotiabank focusing on Digital Banking, Information Technology and creating an enterprise wide Sourcing Team at the bank. Prior to Scotiabank, he was a Global Director of Talent Acquisition at Hatch where he lead teams around the world in Australia, India, South Africa, Latin America, Canada and USA. Throughout his career, he has lead the development and execution of ATS implementations, recruitment messaging, global career websites, diversity focused global campus programs, employment branding to proactively source and recruit top talent in a fast changing world of metals, energy, infrastructure, digital, advisory, IT for the last 14 years and he’s now tackling similar challenges in the financial sector. Amar has been able to impact and influence how organizations structure and implement employment branding, talent attraction and selection methodology to build high performance teams..
Amar is a graduate from York University and Sheridan College, he believes that high performing organizations need to get the best, grow the best, and keep the best talent to be the best in all that they do. Outside of work, his life evolves appreciating simple things in life … he loves the outdoors, sharing laughs & sarcasm with his family and friends, married 13 years, proud dad of 3 kids, he’s loving every second of the van life … all day, every day!
Lorrayne Dusevic
Lorrayne is a born and raised Torontonian, who has a brown belt in Karate Martial Arts, and is an avid traveler. She graduated from the University of Toronto, Mississauga in 2012 with a BA. Lorrayne joined AIG Canada in August of 2018 and is responsible for Talent Acquisition in Canada and Bermuda, including the strategic oversight and leadership across their Early Career student program. With over six years of experience in Talent Acquisition, and four years leading campus and building early career programs within the US and Canada, in various industries, Lorrayne is continuously pushing the envelope in the evolution of the Recruitment, by leveraging her analytical, digital and creative background to create a stronger EVP and an exceptional candidate experience.
In February 2017, Lorrayne was recognized for her work in Early Career by Ryerson University and received their annual Industry Individual Appreciation Award. This award recognizes those who play an integral part in students professional development in the workplace.
Ross Johnston
As the Executive Director, Co-operative Education, Ross is accountable for ensuring an effective and appropriate work integrated learning journey for students. He ensures Co-operative Education meets and exceeds co-op employment rates (which was 98.5% last year), while maintaining and enhancing employer relationships with over 7,000 organizations across more than 60 countries. To meet employment targets, Ross oversees co-op best practices and continuous improvement of the co-op experience for students and employers. To ensure academic integration and learning outcomes within the pedagogical model of co-operative education, Ross manages the ongoing faculty and campus partnerships.
Ross joined the University of Waterloo in 2009 as Director, Employment Relations before becoming the Executive Director in 2017. Previous roles include Director of Attraction & Retention with MTS Allstream, founder of a talent management and career advice consultancy and CIBC Senior Director of Recruitment Operations across all divisions globally.
Prior to living in Canada, Ross was Head of Training & Development for a UK financial institution. Ross has extensive experience in Recruitment, Strategic HR, Change Management, Sales and Business Development and has an Executive MBA from Bradford University’s School of Management in the UK.
Ross has been a regular participant and presenter at CEIA conferences and has been a board member since 2017, where he currently serves as the Vice President, Global Network. In 2018, Ross was named President Elect for Education at Work Ontario (EWO) and is a past board member of Co-operative Education and Work Integrated Learning (CEWIL) Canada, formerly the Canadian Association for Co-operative Education (CAFCE).
Poonam Tewari
A proven leader with over 12 years of experience in strategic Human Resource Management, Poonam Tewari is passionate about establishing HR as a true progressive strategic partner within an organization. She specializes in employee relations, recruitment, selection, and training and development. Her passion is to provide a true customized individual experience to the employees for long term engagement.
In her role as Human Resources Director at Ubisoft Toronto, Poonam attracts and develops the best talent—building a culture of engagement, agility, and innovation that has become a trademark of the Ubisoft Toronto studio. Under her guidance, recruitment strategies and progressive HR programs, Ubisoft Toronto has grown from 150 talented creators in 2011, to over 600 in 2017, and is on track to grow to 800 team members by 2020.
Poonam has featured in 2018 hot list of the HRD magazine, Canada. Throughout her career, Poonam has established HR strategies and initiatives that have resulted in enhanced morale, retention, and employee motivation. A champion of talent development—she has introduced management learning, development, and coaching frameworks to strengthen effectiveness in organizations of varying sizes and maturity. Under her leadership, Ubisoft Toronto has been on Canadian Top 100 employers for 3 years consecutively.
A techie at heart, Poonam holds a Masters and Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Application along with a diploma and certification in Human Resources.
Mike Jackson
Jennifer Bolt
Jordan Beresford
Currently leading the Talent Marketing team at Scotiabank, Jordan oversees all of the recruitment marketing and employer brand activities for the bank, globally. With over 10 years of digital marketing and content experience, 4 of those years in Talent Marketing and Employer Branding roles, she’s been focused on driving talent attraction for enterprise organizations through employer branding, recruitment marketing, and content strategies, as well as through innovative recruiting solutions.
With a background in social media, graphic design, and content creation, she truly believes content is king, especially when it comes to attracting passive candidates.
Jay Zaidi
Jay Zaidi is currently the Head of Talent at Rangle.io, where he oversees talent acquisition strategy and operations, including international expansion.
Previously Jay was Head of Talent Acquisition for RSA Group, a 300-year old global insurance company and Head of Recruitment for TMX Group (Toronto Stock Exchange). In both roles, Jay oversaw strategy & operations in highly regulated, financially critical environment.
Jay draws inspiration and direction from over 20 years of experience, starting early in his career as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, specializing in communication before launching his tech career at IBM and several venture-funded tech companies.
It was a tap on the shoulder from a friend that lead Jay into the recruiting industry, where he spent many years at an IT recruiting firm before turning his eye towards solving complex corporate recruitment challenges.
Jay is uniquely positioned to tackle technical, business and people challenges with the ability to pivot all three skills to develop and create exceptional experiences.
