Facilitators
Gerry Lubanszky
President
Goto Market Solutions
Gerry is a leader in New Business Development in the Canadian consumer goods industry, known for his expertise in sales and marketing. With over 30 years of experience, Gerry has successfully launched new consumer products with major retailers, wholesalers, and industrial distributors. He has also trained executives and undergraduate business students on agile sales and marketing strategies for the past ten years. Gerry has recently become a certified executive and business performance coach. He has a passion for translating business segment strategies into storytelling roadmaps and initiatives, helping leaders implement successful go-to-market strategic plans.
Sophie Marai
Senior Director Account Management
Environics Analytics
Sophie brings 15 years of strategic retail leadership to support developing marketing leading initiatives. Her passion for problem solving has resulted in her leading initiatives across multiple areas of retail and CPG, focused on customer strategy, assortment optimization, store format development and marketing. Sophie specializes in market gap analysis, customer growth development and problem solving for End-to-End growth management.
Liezl van Rensburg
Strategic Consultant
Liezl van Rensburg, MBA CPA, is a seasoned executive and strategic advisor with extensive C-suite experience across multiple industries. Now as a strategic consultant with a global perspective, Liezl is dedicated to helping consumer brands achieve operational excellence, strategic growth, and competitive differentiation to dominate their markets.
John M Dawson
Vice President Global Human Resources Delivery
Scotiabank
With over 38 years of banking experience, John is a passionate and energetic HR leader who achieves results by developing high-performing teams and people. He has unique domestic and international experiences spanning 30 countries in leadership, HR strategy, relationship management, recruitment, employee and labour relations, talent management, and optimization and effectiveness. John is also a Fellow of the Institute of Canadian Bankers, a personal financial planner, and a former volunteer chair of the Oakville Waterfront.
Angela Moncada
Human Resource Business Manager
Angela Moncada is a Human Resource Business Manager/Partner with over 20 years experience. Her goal is to provide senior level human resources expertise that supports company short and long-term business strategies. She welcomes challenges that lead and shape the development, communication, implementation, and management of human resource policies and programs. She specializes in Legal Compliance, Policy Setting, Health & Safety, Rewards & Recognition, Compensation & Benefits, Labour Relations, Recruitment & Retention, and Talent Management. Angela is a member of the HRPA.
Elio Tremonti
Enterprise Account Executive
Elio is a recognized leader in the retail and ecommerce space with over 20 years of executive experience. After developing a $125+ million dollar drop ship program for a Fortune 100 company, he is now sharing his knowledge with retailers, merchants, vendors and brands. Elio previously served as VP of Ecommerce Merchandising at Staples, where he lead one of Canada’s largest online/omni-channel retailers. After Staples, he shifted gears to experience Sales ta a SaaS startup, joining as an Enterprise Account Executive, and migrating to Customer Success Management.
Katherine Yager
Chief Executive Officer
Pilot Solutions
Katherine left her corporate job to start her own marketing agency, Pilot Solutions. Her company has grown to include a small team of experts in web design, development, graphic design, search engines, and email marketing. Pilot Solutions is turning 5 this year and has received numerous awards.
Callum Pinkney
Co-Founder
Pilot Solutions
Callum is the co-founder of Pilot Solutions. Their goal is to use their Search Engine Marketing (SEM) knowledge to help businesses flourish digitally. By sharing his expertise in SEO, PPC, and data analytics, he helps firms broaden the range of services they can offer. Pilot Solutions collaborations are designed to help their clients become more visible online so they can expand in a market that is increasingly driven by technology.