CEOs and Business Speakers

The road to real leadership is rarely a straight one. Among Canada’s most successful entrepreneurs, few have faced more obstacles than Zahra Al-Harazi. With a no-holds-barred attitude, Al-Harazi helps people and organizations realize their potential for succ...

Visionary, purpose-driven leaders recognize that there is untapped potential in their organizations. When this potential is left unrealized, it can lead to misalignment between an organization’s brand promise (external experience) and culture (internal e...

Few people understand the importance of the arts and cultural sector better than Cameron Bailey. The CEO of one of the world’s biggest and most important film festivals, he is responsible for leading the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) vision,...

Leonard Brody has been called “a leader of the new world order” and was recently named one of top 30 management thinkers in the world. Brody is an award-winning entrepreneur, venture capitalist, bestselling author, and a two-time Emmy-nominated med...

Marcus Buckingham is a global researcher and thought leader focused on unlocking strengths, increasing performance, and pioneering the future of how people work. He shows audiences the correlation between strengths-driven, engaged employees and business fundam...

Hockey legend Brian Burke is a dynamic figure in both the worlds of business and sport. He is the president of hockey operations for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and formerly held leadership positions in the organizations of the Calgary Flames, the Toronto Maple L...

Today’s digital world requires a new strategy for building great teams. For 30 years, Steve Cadigan has been at the forefront of global talent strategy and company culture. He is best known for scaling LinkedIn from a team of 400 to 4000 in just 3.5 year...

Ben Casnocha is an award-winning entrepreneur, investor, and author from Silicon Valley. Named “one of America’s top young entrepreneurs,” by Businessweek and “one of the top trendsetters in the human resources industry” by HR Magazine, C...

Drawing from his unique experience as both a world-class manufacturer and award-winning retailer, Donald Cooper delivers the “straight goods” on how to sell more, manage smarter, grow your bottom line…and have a life. With wisdom, humour, and...

Bruce Croxon wants to invest in the next Canadian wave. The co-founder of the wildly successful dating site Lavalife, and a former “Dragon” on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, Croxon shares informed insights into what it takes to succeed in today’s demanding entr...

If you dream of inspiring cult-like brand loyalty—the kind that involves mile-long queues and even permanent tattoos— then Johnny “Cupcakes” Earle is for you. The founder of the world-renowned tee-shirt brand Johnny Cupcakes, Johnny’s kno...

“The purpose of marketing is to deliver business results,” says Arlene Dickinson, renowned CBC “Dragon” and one of Canada’s most successful communications entrepreneurs. Whether explaining how to leverage marketing in even the tou...

A bestselling author, entrepreneur, CEO, and tech investor, Mandy Gilbert has been recognized as a United Nations Global Accelerator and ranked as one of Canada’s Top Female Entrepreneurs on Canadian Business’ Profit 500 list and Chatelaine’s W100 list. ...

Since launching Knix in 2013, Founder and CEO Joanna Griffiths has built it into one of the fastest growing intimate apparel brands worldwide. Through its mission to empower women and its focus on product innovation, Knix has become the sixth fastest growing c...

As the founding CEO of RISE, a breakthrough wellness company, Suneel Gupta has helped thousands of people build better habits for life and work. Now as a bestselling author and Harvard Medical School visiting scholar, Gupta has taken his mission one step furth...

The newest “Dragon” on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, Wes Hall is one of the most influential businesspeople in Canada. As the founder of Kingsdale Advisors and BlackNorth Initiative, Hall has orchestrated multi-billion-dollar deals for CanadaR...

Bruce Heyman served as the US Ambassador to Canada under President Barack Obama from 2014 until 2017. His leadership emphasized the importance of the Canada-US relationship and pushed for more collaboration and cross-border investments. Today, he continues to ...

In our rapidly shifting business landscape, serial entrepreneur and technology visionary Michael Hyatt equips leaders with the tools and strategies needed to face change head-on and prosper. Hyatt is one of Canada’s top entrepreneurs, having built and sold t...

Kaihan Krippendorff is one of the most in-demand business speakers in the world. A bestselling author, internationally recognized thought-leader, and a sought-after strategic advisor, Krippendorff is known for his ability to turn difficult concepts into easy-...

Josh Linkner is a creative troublemaker. He passionately believes that all human beings have incredible creative capacity, and he’s on a mission to unlock inventive thinking and creative problem solving to help leaders, individuals, and communities soar....

Preston Manning tirelessly championed the cause of democratic and political reform throughout his impressive career as one of Canada’s great political visionaries. His presentations provide an inspirational and substantive discussion of both current issues a...

A former “dragon” on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, Lane Merrifield is one of Canada’s leading tech entrepreneurs. He is the founder of Club Penguin, which was the largest children’s online social network. At age 28, he sold it to Disney for $350 million, whe...

Currently the President and Vice Chancellor of a large, multi-disciplinary post-secondary institution renowned globally for an ethos of trailblazing, Dr. Janet Morrison is an educator, thought leader, and change agent. She draws on her 35 years of experience l...

Lekan Olawoye is the founder and CEO of Black Professionals in Tech Network (BPTN) — the largest Black tech and business community in North America — and is a passionate advocate for organizational change and lasting progress. He was named one of Canada’...

Tech titan Michele Romanow is a serial entrepreneur who started six companies before her 35th birthday. A “Dragon” on CBC’s hit show Dragons’ Den, Romanow is the co-founder and CEO of Canadian unicorn, Clearco. Clearco has invested more than $3.2B into...

David Segal is an entrepreneur and retail thought-leader. He is best known for bringing radical innovation to a 5,000 year old product category with the launch of DAVIDsTEA, the company he co-founded in 2008. Segal takes audiences through the entrepreneurial j...

Peter Sheahan is internationally known for his innovative business thinking and thought leadership. A highly successful entrepreneur, he is the founder and CEO of Karrikins Group, a multi-million-dollar consulting practice that attracts clients such as Apple, ...

Barb Stegemann disrupted an entire industry from her garage, armed with only a personal Visa card and a dream to help people rebuild in war-ridden countries. Today, The 7 Virtues is an award-winning social enterprise and a leader in the clean and conscious bea...

As president and vice-chairman of the Toronto Raptors, Masai Ujiri has led the team through its most successful period in franchise history, including an NBA Championship. In June 2019, the Raptors won their first NBA title with a six-game victory over Golden ...

Serial entrepreneur Nicole Verkindt has a knack for finding industry gaps and building innovative companies to fill them. As the founder of OMX, she built one of the largest supplier tech platforms specializing in ESG metrics. Now, as the CEO of Buggy, she is ...

Before laptops fit into briefcases, tablets were as thin as magazines, and cellphones fit into pockets, computers were as big as vending machines and certainly not portable. In 1977, Steve Wozniak changed that by unveiling the world’s first personal computer...