Speaker

Carlo Dade, Canada West Foundation

As Director of the Trade & Investment Centre, Carlo Dade develops and leads research to promote growth and profitability in western Canada’s export economy. Carlo has a long history in international public policy most recently as Honourary Senior Fellow in the University of Ottawa’s School of International Development and Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He is also a member of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations (COMEXI).

Carlo has been a leading voice in debates on recent Canadian trade agreements, the importance of trade infrastructure to national prosperity, Canada-China relations with a focus on agricultural trade, and western state-provincial relationships in North America. He has a reputation for big-picture thinking and is a leading global expert on pan-Pacific trade, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Pacific Alliance trade blocs. He is one of Canada’s leading commentators on North American competitiveness and Canada-Mexico relations.

Panelist

Cheryl Hacking, Standen's

Cheryl is currently the President of Standen’s, an IMT Company.

A fixture in the Calgary community since 1924, Standen’s manufactures steel components for a wide range of industries including transportation and agriculture.

With extensive and diverse background in Manufacturing, Sales & Marketing, as well as Human Resources, Cheryl has a keen knowledge of strategic business operations paired with a focus on culture change. She has a fearless sense of adventure and a belief in the creativity of people, which act as drivers in her business strategies.

Panelist

Tom Jezersek, Pacific Western Group of Companies

Tom is the President and COO of the Pacific Western Group of Companies, Canada’s largest, privately-owned people transportation company with more than 5,600 employees and 45 maintenance shops across Canada. As the President and COO, Tom is responsible for leading and managing the four business units within the Pacific Western Group of Companies; Transit, Motorcoach, Student Transportation and Employee Transportation. Over the past 30 years, Tom has held several strategic positions within the company including General Manager, Vice President and Chair of the Safety and Business Development Councils. His experience across the business has enabled him to develop and deliver transportation solutions providing, safe, reliable transportation for all of our passengers.

Speaker

Chris Miles, YYC Airport Authority

Chris is the Vice President, Operations and Infrastructure at YYC Airport Authority. He responsible for The Authority’s day-to-day operations, engineering and construction portfolios. He is a senior aviation professional with over 25 years of progressive global experience having worked with airlines, airports and industry trade associations including the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, Airports Council International World, Air Canada, Abu Dhabi Airports Company and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Geneva, Switzerland. Chris holds an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Panelist

Shane Boschman, Parkland Corporation

Shane is the Vice President, Supply Operations and Logistics. In his role, he oversees the movement of over 7 billion liters of fuel and petroleum product annually by truck to over 2,500 destinations.

Shane has over 20 years of experience within the Downstream Oil & Gas sector.  He has worked for Parkland for 15 years, including assignments in Retail, Supply, Terminals, and Distribution.  Of note, he led the development of Parkland’s industry leading rail to truck import facilities in Ontario which are now a strategic part of Parkland's Supply and Trading infrastructure. 

Shane currently sits on the National Distribution Committee with the Canadian Fuels Association, and he holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta.

Panelist

Teresa Ehman, P.Eng., Air Canada

Teresa currently holds the position of Senior Director, Environmental Affairs at Air Canada with 28 years of airline experience, focused on environmental management and sustainability issues, and is responsible for the oversight of Air Canada’s Environmental Affairs Department.

She is currently a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Sustainability and Environment Advisory Council (SEAC), Chair of the National Airlines Council of Canada (NACC) Environmental Subcommittee, is a Member of the Airlines for America (A4A) Environmental Sustainability Council and the Air Canada Alternative Fuel Working Group. She has actively represented Air Canada at forums such as the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, the Responsible Travel and Tourism Forum, and the IATA Alternative Fuels Symposium. She is a professional engineer and member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia (APEGBC).

Speaker

Adam Waterous, Waterous Energy Fund

Adam is the CEO of Waterous Energy Fund, an oil and gas private equity firm headquartered in Calgary with offices in Houston and New York.

Adam has been active in many industry, community, health, arts, and education organizations. In 2017, Adam received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oil and Gas Council. Since 2019,  Adam has been Chair of the Board of Governors of Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, one of Canada’s foremost higher learning institutions and cultural destinations for fine arts, leadership development, mountain culture, and the environment.

Speaker

Jan Waterous, Liricon Capital Ltd.

Jan is the Managing Partner of Liricon Capital Ltd, her family’s holding company. Liricon, is developing the “Eco-Transit Hub” at the Station. The” Eco-Transit Hub” will be a multi-modal, green-transit arrival centre which will feature intercept parking, visitor and community services including supporting a new passenger rail service from the Calgary Airport to Banff.

Before Liricon Capital Ltd, Jan was an executive in the Public Relations industry where she held the position of President, Hill and Knowlton Canada Ltd. based in Toronto, and later, founder of her own firm, Waterous Communications, based in Banff.

Panelist

Ryan Collinge, Trimac Transportation

Ryan is the Chief Revenue Officer at Trimac Transportation, an asset-based logistics company focused on providing safe and efficient supply chain solutions to their customers. Overseeing all the commercial activities for Trimac, Ryan is responsible for guiding the strategy and execution of Trimac’s growth initiatives. With over 15 years of experience in transportation and logistics, Ryan is responsible for guiding the strategy and execution of Trimac’s growth initiatives. He has held increasingly senior roles in Operations and Sales in his time with Trimac as well as running all sales activities in Canada for the Kenan Advantage Group. He prides himself on rewriting what it means to be in sales in the modern business world and is relentlessly focused on technology driven and operationally specific solutions that improve the overall supply chain.

Panelist

Justin Spagnuolo, Walmart Logistics Canada

Justin is the Planning and Continuous Improvement Manager for Western Canada at Walmart Logistics Canada. Justin is responsible for initiating, leading, and executing projects to reduce the end-to-end enterprise cost to serve and plays a pivotal part of ensuring the effective and efficient operation of logistics services. This is done by developing best practices and strategic solutions, driving initiatives to reduce operating expenses and increase network capacity within the supply chain, overseeing continuous improvement initiatives, and supporting the startup of new infrastructure. His expertise and experience have enhanced Walmart's ability to optimize processes as they continue their Continuous Improvement journey to evolve the business for the future.

Moderator

Ken Keelor, Calgary Co-op

Ken brings passion and enthusiasm to his strategic oversight of the largest retail cooperative in N. America, providing 440,000 member-owners with exceptional shopping experiences, products & services. Since being appointed CEO of the $1.2Bn co-operative in 2014, Ken has led the development of a 10-year strategic plan, overseen the refreshment of pharmacies, investment in store redevelopments, construction of gas stations, acquisition of liquor stores, launch of Co-op Cannabis, and recent acquisitions of Community Natural Foods and Beacon Pharmacies, which companies Ken serves as the President of. Ken brings Canadian & international retail expertise including executive roles at Sobey’s and Rexall. He began his career with P& G India and has completed the Institute of Corporate Director (ICD.D) training. He serves on the Board of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Food Innovation Network. His first and always love is his wife of 31 years, Antara.

Speaker

Angela Avery, WestJet

Angela joined WestJet February 2020 as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. With more than 25 years’ legal and business experience, and an extensive regulatory and compliance background, Angela lands at WestJet from Athabasca Oil Corporation where she was General Counsel and Vice-President, Business Development and was responsible for legal, business development, human resources as well as marketing and transportation. Previously, she had various technical and leadership roles at ConocoPhillips and TC Energy.

Panelist

Neeraj Gupta, Attabotics

Neeraj is Chief Strategy Officer at Attabotics, Chief Advisor at Invest Alberta and an angel investor. He is an expert in Global Startup Ecosystem building, Strategy, Startup Investment, Intellectual Property & Innovation Management and Technology Commercialization. Neeraj is author of the book called “Creating & safeguarding a strong Intellectual Property Portfolio”. He has mentored 100+ startups globally and angel invested in a couple of the startups.

Panelist

Brian Reilly, Canada Infrastructure Bank

Brian Reilly is a Director on the Investment Team at the Canada Infrastructure Bank. His focus is on originating, analyzing, executing and managing investments primarily in the transit sector. One of his key responsibilities is managing the CIB’s pan-Canadian zero-emission buses initiative, which seeks to accelerate the transition to zero-emission bus fleets and has already committed financing for over 5,000 zero-emission buses. 

Prior to joining the CIB, Brian was a Director on the investment team at Canada Post Pension Plan where he was chiefly responsible for the investment and management of the Plan’s allocation to the infrastructure asset class. Previously, Brian held positions at Mercer Investment Consulting, Export Development Canada and Scotiabank.

Panelist

Connor Curran, Local Laundry

Connor Curran started Local Laundry back in 2015 after losing a fight with his washing machine. From then he's been on a mission to make everyone's laundry local. Now years later, Local Laundry is all about Canadian-made garments for social good. Having collaborated with organizations like the Calgary Flames, the CBC, Shaw Communications and many others. Local Laundry is on a mission to make clothing better and donate over $1 Million to local charities across Canada by 2030.

Panelist

Christine Gillespie, Nutrien

Christine Gillespie, ICD.D, MBA, B.Comm. has two decades experience in agribusiness in North America and Internationally.  Ms. Gillespie is currently VP, Transportation, Distribution & Logistics, overseeing over $1 billion in freight and distribution spend for Nutrien, the world's largest provider of crop inputs and services.  Ms. Gillespie’s cross-functional background spans general P&L management, operations, corporate development & strategy (including China, India, Africa & Europe), investor relations, and marketing. Ms. Gillespie has served on the Boards of Nutrien's European subsidiaries and JVs, including shipping companies and Neptune Bulk Terminals.  She is Chair and Past Chair of the Transportation Committees of the Canadian and U.S. Fertilizer Associations respectively. She also serves on the Boards of Calgary Economic Development and Highbanks Society.  Christine earned her B.Comm., with Distinction, and MBA from the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary.  She is fluent in English & French.