Shari Hughson is an entrepreneur, educator, social innovator, and extreme adventurer. She has lived a life of breaking barriers, from humble beginnings with a mentally ill mother, to a diverse career and personal life of saying “Yes, I can.”

She started her first business in her 20s & won CIBC Entrepreneur of the Year before the age of 30. Shari recently won Canada’s Top 50 Most Influential Business & Entrepreneur Female Leaders of the Year in 2021 by SME Canada. She also won a 2013 National Honour from the First Nations Health Authority for an innovative project that impacted the mental health of a remote Indigenous community. Shari is a serial entrepreneur, with a total of 8 companies, 2 successful national exits, and today is a Co-founder for three startup companies: Neuma Centre, Waking the Unconscious Tech, and the global social enterprise, Circle of Impact.

Shari was the Co-creator and Director for 5 years of the Master of Management in Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Queen’s University and continues to teach entrepreneurship as a side hustle.

Julie Millard is Vice President of Corporate Citizenship at OpenText, a global software company headquartered in Waterloo, Canada. With over 25 years of corporate responsibility and corporate communications experience, Julie leads a team accountable for ESG reporting and compliance, sustainability programs and community impact. She sits on the ED&I executive steering committee, with accountability for civic action in priority areas.

With a passion for doing meaningful and strategic work, Julie developed and launched the OpenText Zero-In Initiative to publicly share the organization’s ESG commitments to Zero Footprint, Zero Barriers, and Zero Compromise. She champions global and local initiatives that impact the communities where OpenText employees live and work, including the Waterloo Region. Julie is a Board Member of the Waterloo Region Food Bank and currently sits on the ESG Advisory Board at the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. She is based at OpenText headquarters in Waterloo, Canada. She holds an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University and a graduate diploma in social responsibility and sustainability from the University of Toronto.

With over thirty years of experience in the Canadian Financial Services Industry. Andrew McKinney's career experience spans Digital Transformation, Application Development, Infrastructure Operations, Architecture, Information Security and Relationship Management. 

Andrew Mckinney is currently the Senior Vice President of Architecture, Core Technology, and Information Security at IGM Financial, where he is responsible for managing the Company’s core Wealth and Asset Management platforms in support of its IG Wealth Management and Mackenzie Investments line of business. 

Prior to IGM, Andrew held the position of VIce President of Wealth Management Technology at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), where he was responsible for delivering and supporting Technology solutions for CIBC's Brokerage, Asset Management, and Private Wealth business. He has also held senior management roles at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Fidelity Investments, and Richardson Partners Financial Ltd. 

Steven is a highly-rated international speaker and facilitator with years of experience as a senior leader and executive in public and private sectors, as well as executive HR management and organizational behaviour. He is also a lead curator for an international wellness magazine, and has appeared on several podcasts and publications. 

As the Founder & CEO of Well By Design, Steven works with organizations to amplify their organizational wellness, design healthy workplace cultures, and empower teams to reach their optimal potential. Steven has a unique perspective on wellness and brings actionable strategies to create the conditions for a healthy workplace culture and sustainable personal and professional wellness.

To build wellness into his own life, he enjoys connecting with nature through hikes and off leash visits with his dog, as well as tennis, camping and sailing.

Kingston’s Arthur Milnes, an award-winning journalist, served as a speechwriter to Prime Minister Stephen J. Harper for three years. Previously, he was the Memoirs’ Assistant to former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney for five years on the latter’s best-selling memoirs. Along the way, he has assisted three American Presidents on addresses they have delivered in Canada, and one, President Jimmy Carter, even spent an overnight at Arthur’s downtown Kingston home while he was in town to receive an Hon. Degree from Queen’s.

Arthur’s books include Canada Transformed: The Speeches of Sir John A. Macdonald, a national bestseller in 2015, and Canada Always: The Defining Speeches of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: A Canadian Tribute, The Authentic Voice of Canada: R.B. Bennett’s Speeches in the House of Lords, and many others. His most recent book is 98 Reasons to Thank Jimmy Carter. Over the past 20 years, seven Canadian Prime Ministers, President and Mrs. Carter and other dignitaries of planted ceremonial trees in Arthur’s now famous backyard.