Eric Plato is a Chartered Professional Accountant who has worked in the nonprofit sector for over 20 years. He as delivered numerous workshops on budgeting and financial management to the sector. Eric is especially talented at making financial management clear and understandable for the non financial person. In recent years has also supported organizations implement social accounting and processes to measure the social impact of programs and services.

As Executive Partner Leadership Consulting & Search at The Portage Group, Jack Shand draws upon his expertise and stellar reputation in pragmatic consulting and association management to provide counsel to the volunteer leaders and executive staff of associations, other not-for-profits and NGOs, and to lead talent acquisition/search projects at the executive and management levels. Jack is considered the leading provider of executive search services for Canadian industry and professional associations, and has been provided those services since 1997. Prior to that, Jack was the President (Executive Director) of the Canadian Society of Association Executives, the umbrella organization for the sector.

Jane Garthson is one of Canada’s most trusted advisers on leadership and ethics, dedicated to serving not-for-profits since 1992. She consults, presents, coaches and writes extensively on leading edge and practical thinking in governance, visioning, strategic planning, decision-making and ethics. Jane also serves in hands-on leadership roles, particularly interim executive positions. Jane is a Fellow of Creating the Future, a dynamic international movement of senior consultants working as catalysts to transform our world. She holds honours certification in voluntary sector leadership from York. Past roles include regulatory Commissioner, professional association chair, and executive director.

Ricardo Ramírez is an independent researcher and consultant based in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. His consulting and research work includes communication planning, participatory evaluation and capacity development, both domestically, with First Nations, and internationally. Ricardo began his career in agricultural sciences that he followed with demonstration farm projects in Latin America. He switched to the field of adult education and rural development. He has worked with the Communication for Development group at FAO, Rome, with non-governmental organizations, and with consulting firms. For two years he was professor in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development at the University of Guelph where remains as adjunct. Together with Dal Brodhead they just published the book Utilization focused evaluation: A Primer for evaluators (Southbound, Penang 2013) – based on five practical experiences.

Dal Brodhead has variously been an activist community development worker, senior manager in the Federal Government and for the last twenty five years has operated a consulting firm based in Ottawa. The focus of his work has been on community-driven approaches to marginalization and poverty alleviation working from a range of perspectives as an organizer, project manager, policy advisor, evaluator, mentor and researcher.

He has continued to balance his interest in community focused international development with active involvement in Canadian urban and rural community development work through participatory approaches to program and project evaluation, monitoring, strategic planning, policy and research. In Canada, his firm, the New Economy Development Group has learned from its experiences in both urban and rural areas, as well as from extensive involvement with First Nations, Aboriginal and Inuit communities.

Internationally, his clients have included CIDA, IDRC, CARE Canada, the Aga Khan Canada Foundation, and the International Program of the Canadian Co-operative Association. Past international experience has included management of CIDA’s largest micro-finance and HRD program located in Bangladesh. The focus of his recent international work with IDRC has been on utilization-focused evaluation, participatory and developmental evaluation, monitoring and learning.

Trish Krause is an award-winning marketing and communications professional who coaches not-for-profit and corporate organizations in how to find the magic to create and tell compelling stories that click with their most important audiences.  Oxygen Consulting specializes in training, teaching, coaching and cajoling executives and organizational representatives to become effective spokespersons and storytellers for their brands.  

Samantha Jones has a track record of bringing profile and support to some of Canada’s most well-known nonprofit organizations including; Breakfast for Learning, Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and Pathways to Education. Currently working as an independent consultant, Samantha works with mid-sized charities during periods of change on strategic marketing, fundraising and leadership initiatives.

Suzanne Gibson has been “awakening the potential” of Canadian non-profit organizations for more than 20 years. As a consultant, she supports organizations to “dream big” and unite around an idea, strategy or plan to turn those dreams into reality. She has been an instructor at York University’s Schulich School of Business in the Non-profit Management and Leadership Program for executive education, as well as at St. Francis Xavier University’s Coady Institute. Suzanne has taken a leadership role on seven volunteer boards, and speaks extensively on fund development, leadership and other issues of importance to the non-profit sector.