exeQutive | The Forum for Toronto's LGBT Leaders

John Rider | Chief Innovator - Cognition LLP

John is a business, planning and innovation consultant working with clients to assist them in strategy, planning, process, product development and sales.He has a legal and business background of almost 25 years and has worked with a number of clients and employers to build their business, design and launch new products and to help them grow to the next level more profitably. He loves to help groups rethink and change for the better.

John F Clifford | Partner, Business Law Group of McMillan LLP (Toronto, Ontario).

John is a senior partner in the Business Law Group of McMillan LLP. His practice is focused on private company mergers & acquisitions transactions and complex commercial matters and reorganizations. He has extensive experience advising a diverse range of clients on domestic and cross-border matters across many industries. Recognized internationally for his expertise and experience, Who's Who Legal identifies John as one of the top M&A lawyers in Canada and states that John is "top notch by all accounts", "very client focused" and "always delivers".

In 2017, John was named to the prestigious global list of OUTstanding Leading LGBT+ Executives, as presented by the Financial Times, in recognition of his business achievements and impact on LGBT inclusion within McMillan and externally. Previously he received a Lexpert Zenith Award and an Out On Bay Street “Leaders To Be Proud Of” Award.

John founded exeQutive in 2007 with a group of friends and colleagues.

Al Ramsay | Associate Vice President, Sales and Strategy & Head LGBTQ2+ Business Development, TD

Al Ramsay is the Regional Manager, LGBT Business Development at TD Bank Group, supporting the GTA. He and his team of senior advisors are responsible for the growth of the LGBT personal, wealth and business portfolios by focusing on providing expert financial advice and delivering legendary client experience.

Al has a passion for advancing inclusiveness in the workplace and in the communities he serves; he’s held positions on numerous work committees and grass roots community organization boards, including: TD’s LGBTA Executive Committee, Community One Foundation and the Urban Financial Services Coalition.

Shawn Sheridan | Vice President, Information Technology, Numeris

Shawn is a senior executive with over 25 years experience in information technology. Now Vice President of Information Technology for Numeris, Canada's radio and television ratings experts, he has held VP and SVP positions at companies like AGF Management, Unisen, and Citigroup. Shawn specialises in helping businesses best use their technology, focusing on both business-aligned strategy and overall management of technology in roles such as CIO, and other 'Head of IT' roles.

Shawn is also chair of OutSport Toronto, a not-for-profit umbrella organisation serving and supporting LGBT sports organisations in the GTA.

Christopher Walker

Christopher began working in the financial sector more than 26 years ago at the Toronto Stock Exchange. During the past 25 years at Manulife Financial, some of the positions held have included Chief Operational Risk Officer (Investment Division), Vice President and CCO of John Hancock Distributors and President and CCO of Manulife Financial Securities LLC.

Christopher has chaired and presented at many conferences with respected to Canadian and US Securities and Insurance regulations. He is also published by the CLU.

Christopher is currently a Board Member and Finance Director of Casey House.

Greg Johns | Senior Negotiations Executive, IBM North America

Greg is Senior Negotiations Executive for IBM Global Technology Services. In this role, he leads the structuring and negotiation of IBM’s largest and most complex technology outsourcing transactions including infrastructure, application and business process outsourcing. As IBM Canada's first out executive, Greg is a member of IBM's GLBT Executive Task Force. He has actively supported initiatives of Blue Q - IBM's network group for its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.

Greg is a graduate of the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario and the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University. Greg is also a Trustee of the Bill 7 Award Trust, which provides scholarships to support LGBT youth in financial need who are pursuing a post-secondary education in Ontario, and was a founding member of exeQutive.

Bruce Lawson

Bruce Lawson is the Executive Director of The Counselling Foundation of Canada. His background is in providing meeting planning and project management services to a variety of clients, as well as having served as Interim Executive Director of Casey House Foundation.

Bruce is the past Chair of the Board of Casey House, and co-chaired Casey House’s largest fundraising event, Art with Heart for 3 years. He is also a director of several other non-profit organizations.

Daniel Holland | Vice President, Business Development

Daniel is an experienced business development and marketing professional with specialization in local/location-based traffic/lead generation for retailers and service-based businesses, CRM and large-scale loyalty programs, as well as professional services marketing (law, medical specialists).

Nadeem Mansour | Vice President, Enterprise Risk and Audit Services, George Weston Limited

Nadeem Mansour is a seasoned professional in Governance, Audit & Risk with 20 years of experience in professional services and industry. Currently, he holds the position of VP, Risk and Internal Audit at George Weston Limited.

Brad Berg

Brad was one of the founding members of exeQutive. He is very involved in the community, in addition to having a busy litigation practice at Blakes. Brad lives in Toronto with his spouse Brian Rolfes, partner and global director of recruiting for McKinsey & Company. Brad's full bio and more information can be found at www.blakes.com.

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