Speakers & Panelists
CMI 2026 features a dynamic roster of moderators, panelists, workshop facilitators and speakers
Keynote | Ian Simpson
Ian Simpson (Yaatqumtun) is a proud citizen of the Snuneymuxw Nation and serves as Chief Executive Officer of Petroglyph Development Group, the Nation’s economic development corporation. Guided by Snuneymuxw values and worldview, Ian leads with the conviction that Indigenous economies are not emerging—they are resurging.
A graduate of Vancouver Island University and holder of an MBA in Indigenous Business & Leadership from Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business, Ian is part of a growing generation of Indigenous executives shaping a new era of economic sovereignty. His leadership is grounded in the principle that Indigenous participation in the economy is not an act of inclusion, but an expression of inherent jurisdiction and Nationhood.
Tracey Brown
Tracey has been a valued member of our leadership team since 2023, serving as Director of Philanthropy and bringing with her over 20 years of experience in the social profit sector.
Born and raised on Vancouver Island, including many years on Gabriola, Tracey brings both local insight and a deep commitment to building stronger, more connected communities. Known for her ability to foster meaningful relationships across the region, Tracey leads with both heart and vision. She believes deeply in the power of philanthropy to create belonging and resilience—a belief that aligns perfectly with the Foundation’s mission.
Laurel is the Research Manager for the Business & Finance Innovation research area at the University of Victoria’s Accelerating Community Energy Transitions (ACET) initiative.
She supports the Impact Investing Hub, an independent division of ACET, strengthening Canada’s impact investing ecosystem and advancing community-informed innovations that foster equity and long-term impact. A connector of people, ideas, and impact capital, she thrives on building partnerships and solutions that drive meaningful change..
Julie is a connector, entrepreneur, and community builder whose career spans international hospitality, small business ownership, and the nonprofit sector. She is driven by a commitment to creating opportunities and connecting people.
As a business owner and leader in diverse ventures, she has built a strong reputation for fostering partnerships that create mutual benefit and drive positive outcomes.
Since 2017, Julie has dedicated her work to the nonprofit sector, applying an entrepreneurial mindset to strategic management, economic growth, and community development. She is known for identifying opportunities and bringing together capacity and resources to execute.
Now with the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance, Julie is focused and aligned with the VIEA mandate of strengthening the regional economy by fostering collaboration, being active in reconciliation, supporting businesses, and turning ideas into action.
Kristi Riviat
Kristi Rivait (KR) brings 20 years of leadership experience in the non-profit sector, including 10+ years as an Executive Director.
Kristi is an expert at operational transformation, diversifying revenues, and partnerships that create systems-level change. Kristi co-founded Scale Collaborative to support the empowerment of the impact sector. She inspires leaders on how to find the right revenue for their missions, shifting their internal culture from a scarcity approach to abundance thinking. Inside the Scale family of organizations, KR is the Director of Partnerships and Programs and the Board President of Thrive Impact Fund.
Ben Geselbracht
Ben is a proud resident of the City of Nanaimo and privileged to live in Snuneymuxw First Nation territory. He works hard as an elected official, both at the municipal and regional level, and demonstrate leadership on responsible governance, climate action, circular economy, social equity and effective advocacy.
His work includes serving on the 2019–2020 UBCM Executive as a Director at Large, participating in the Vancouver Island and Coastal Community Climate Leadership Plan Steering Committee, the AVICC Special Committee on Solid Waste, and co-chairing the Climate Caucus Working Group on Zero-Waste and the Circular Economy.
Rebecca Hurwitz
Rebecca (she/her) is the Executive Director of the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust. Since 2005, she's championed participatory leadership and consensus decision-making in her work with the board and staff.
she strives to cultivate collaboration and partnerships in a region with diverse communities and interests, leading regional initiatives focused on sustainability, economic resilience, and community wellbeing. With her leadership, CBT has broadened its mandate to become a community foundation and delivered more than $6.2 million in local grants. She successfully guided the CBT through the UNESCO periodic review process and contributed to the growth of the Canadian Biosphere Region Association in her role as chair. Rebecca is currently spearheading development of the shovel-ready Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Centre, a major west coast infrastructure project focused on economic diversification, workforce development, innovation, and long-term regional prosperity.
Colin Stansfield
Colin spearheads the organization's mission to deliver a thriving and resilient economy at the forefront of innovation in community and economic development.
With a wealth of experience in both private and public sectors, Colin is renowned for developing and implementing purpose-driven strategies.
His holistic approach to business development, community wealth, and public policy ensures the realization of “win-win-win” outcomes, promoting shared prosperity, social justice, and environmental sustainability while instigating the necessary systemic changes to uphold them.
Kristi Fairholm Mader
Kristi has always worked in the social impact sector. After 10 years as a youth worker, she returned to school to complete a business degree, with a focus on social enterprise.
Jolynn’s hands-on experience assisting hundreds of small businesses from startup to expansion and her rich and diverse work experience combined with lifelong learning has created a business acumen steeped in business, human resources, project management, organizational development and nonprofit sector management.
Jolynn joined the team of Community Futures Central Island (CFCI) in July 2010 as Executive Director. Community Futures, is a federally incorporated not for profit, providing capital to businesses whether operated by an individual, corporation or not for profit. Jolynn also manages GrowthWorks Vancouver Island Society and their impact investment funds focused on community health and wellness.
Jolynn and her partner Tim reside in Nanoose. Together they have four children. They are proud grandparents of their granddaughter, Hannah, now eight.
Graham Bradley
Graham is a 1st generation farmer in his 14th season who grows vegetables on 3 acres of wonderful peat in a fen named Good Earth Farm in Snnuyemux Territory on Gabriola Island.
Alongside, he runs the Gabriola Food Hub, a small 9 year old business which helps connect island producers with island businesses and folks. A Human Geographer and Photographer by education this Francophyle ended up working on documentary films around the world for several years along side his farming career. He is an avid volunteer and served as the President of the Gabriola Chamber of Commerce for 5 years, as a director on the board of the Gabriola Agricultural Co-operative for 6 years and is 1.5 years into being a director for Coastal Community Credit Union. He has many years of experience working in and volunteering for Cooperatives, where gained strong governance and leadership skills. He is also a janitor, a bike mechanic, and figures we’re all a bunch of cosmological beans. He has lived on Gabriola Island for 10ish years.
Ernest Barbaric
Ernest Barbaric is a serial entrepreneur, strategic advisor, and EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence) supporting mission-driven founders and impact-oriented ventures across Canada.
With over 20 years of experience spanning digital strategy, innovation, and leadership development, Ernest has advised leaders at organizations ranging from global brands to health tech startups and non-profits.
Ernest brings a practitioner’s lens to the intersection of entrepreneurship and impact, having navigated the real tensions between building for financial sustainability and building for something that matters.
Erin Crampton
Erin Crampton is a farm kid from Manitoba who somehow turned a lifetime of supporting ecologically minded farmers into becoming a regenerative food systems subject matter expert.
She didn’t plan it that way — it just kept getting more interesting.
Erin’s work spans the full arc of what it takes to make regional food systems actually work: supply chain building, food processing, agricultural policy, conservation finance, and investment strategy. She has designed finance mechanisms, evaluated ecosystem service markets for Canadian farmers, and most recently has been deep in Alberta’s regenerative beef supply chain — learning, alongside producers and processors, what capital solutions the system actually needs before anyone tries to design them.
She is a co-architect of Learning From the Land Up, a producer-led investment design process across Western Canada.
She still thinks cows are the answer.
Alicia Medina
Alicia brings over 13 years of experience in impact investment, social purpose real estate, architecture, and entrepreneurship. She is committed to advancing social and environmental impact through strategic real estate initiatives, focusing on affordable housing projects that build sustainable, connected, and resilient communities.
Her approach integrates technical rigor with empathy and a values-driven perspective, aligning with Sacha’s mission to balance financial returns with impact.
Before joining Sacha, Alicia managed the Affordable Community Housing Program at Vancity Community Foundation, where she focused on fostering stakeholder relationships and ensuring financial sustainability while upholding the program’s mission and values.
Alicia holds a Bachelor’s in Architecture from UDLAP (Puebla, Mexico) and a Master’s of Advanced Studies in Architecture from the University of British Columbia. She practiced architecture for nearly a decade and worked as a development consultant non-profit affordable housing organizations. She co-owns a craft brewery and a kombucha company.
Alicia enjoys spending time outdoors in the local mountains and can often be found in Mount Pleasant or tending to her community garden with her partner, Michelle.
Michel Woolner
Michel (she/her) has been the Executive Director since August 2023. Michel has extensive Business Development, Finance, Executive Coaching and Human Resources portfolios, including working for organizations and businesses in various industries.
She holds both a Bachelor of Commerce and a Graduate Certificate in Strategic Human Resources Management from Royal Roads University in Victoria BC. Aside from these Diplomas, Michel holds certification in Disability Management and Bookkeeping/Finance. Michel’s philosophy is that there are no weaknesses, only areas of growth and development opportunities. Michel enjoys working with her PacificSport VI team to broaden the footprint throughout the region of Vancouver Island (less Greater Victoria Area) and to create community awareness of the wonderful physical literacy sports programs that PacificSport VI brings to all kids and youth through various programs, some free to a small fee.
Peter W. Ord is the Principal of Arkomark Solutions, a Victoria, BC–based consultancy delivering project management and business development services to NGOs, non-profits, and businesses.
Peter brings over 35 years of experience in strategic leadership and project development, with a focus on cultural resource management, heritage conservation and nature-based climate adaptation. A University of Edinburgh graduate, Peter has held senior roles at the Royal BC Museum and The Bateman Foundation, and has worked across more than ten countries on development projects. He is presently working the SĆIȺNEW̱ First Nations to create an Indigenous Protected and Conserved area on their traditional territory.
Ted has worked in the credit union sector across Canada for more than 25 years. He has served as CEO of three credit unions in British Columbia, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan.
Through his leadership experience and continued education, Ted has built a reputation as a transformational leader with a strong record of organizational success. He is known for building positive workplace cultures, strengthening relationships, and maintaining a clear, strategic focus. Ted leads by example and values open communication and mentorship, supporting teams to achieve a shared vision.
As a client relationship manager, Jill specializes in asset management and financial planning for clients.
She values honesty and transparency. Jill’s business is built on the understanding of our clients’ needs and objectives first and foremost. Trust is earned not granted and she strives to strengthen all relationships by doing the right thing. Continuing education throughout my career has been a professional accomplishment enabling me to reach my career aspirations.
Jill is an avid golfer and is looking forward to getting out on the course to try out her new driver. She also loves being with her family out on their boat exploring the Salish Sea or skiing up at Mount Washington. She is the proud mother to three amazing individuals and fortunate to have the love and support of her partner.
Kurt Johnston
Kurt leads Vancouver-based social enterprise CleanStart Property Services and is a director of CleanStart Franchising Inc. He has spent more than twenty years building and leading businesses across operations, sales, and growth.
These days he is focused on growing practical, people-centered enterprises that create good jobs and deliver strong services. At CleanStart, he leads a team working in cleaning, junk removal, pest control, and complex property services for social housing, non-profits, and healthcare organizations. The company’s model is built around living-wage work, supportive employment, and long-term stability for staff. Recently, he developed a franchising model for CleanStart, hoping to bring this model to other cities across Canada.
Kurt cares deeply about the role businesses can play in strengthening communities when they are built to be durable, fair, and rooted in the well-being of the people who work in them.
Faerlyn Marzoff
Faerlyn Marzoff, founder of Lady Faer Designs has dedicated nearly two decades to urban farming and sustainable landscape design. She strives to empower individuals and communities to grow their own food and flowers, thus connecting to their environment and each other.
An Organic Master Gardener and Agriculture Technician, Faerlyn works with several North Island communities to provide fresh produce to their residents through various projects. Her passion for building and establishing community gardens, supporting biodiversity and fostering natural connections drive her onward, toward a vision of food security for everyone.
Renea Hanuse
Nugwa'am He'kwagila'ogwa. He'man umpi Tłasutiwalis Tłakwagila 'Nagedzi. Gigamaya sa̱ 'Na̱mgis. He'man abampi T̓łi̱t̓łalaga, ga'yuł laxa 'Mamalilikala. I am Renea Dallas. My father is Chris Cook, a Chief of 'Na̱mgis Nation. My mother is Eva Dick from Village Island.
Renea discovered a true passion for growing through her work with the project. She travelled to Ottawa for intensive Growcer training and has since supported three Rootcamp cohorts in Alert Bay, helping to welcome participants from across the region while sharing her growing expertise.
On site, Renea is known for her dedication to keeping the plants healthy and her enthusiasm for learning every aspect of hydroponic growing. Outside the greenhouse, she channels her creativity into a passionate hobby of designing and printing custom apparel, bringing the same care and attention to detail into everything she does.
NBDC is grateful to have Renea as part of the team, helping advance local food production and building skills that strengthen the community.
Brian Roberts
Brian Roberts is the Founder and CEO of Ergo Eco Solutions Inc., a Vancouver Island-based clean technology company transforming food waste into high-performance industrial products that are safer for workers and the environment.
With more than two decades of experience spanning environmental science, renewable energy, and entrepreneurship, Brian has dedicated his career to turning environmental and resource challenges into economic opportunities.
Under his leadership, Ergo recycles waste cooking oil collected from hundreds of local restaurants and uses it as the feedstock for its Oil-ternative® platform – an IP-generating model that develops bio-based alternatives for petroleum-dependent industries. Through this approach, Ergo helps address multiple challenges at once, including food waste, worker exposure to hazardous products, environmental impacts, supply chain resilience, and local manufacturing capacity. Through Ergo’s strategic partnership with Malahat Nation, Brian is helping demonstrate how local resources can be transformed into lasting environmental, economic, and community benefits.
Alison Evans
Alison Evans is an Indigenous entrepreneur and business leader with over a decade of experience in aviation, operations management, and community economic development.
She is a passionate advocate for Indigenous inclusion in business strategy, investment, and leadership.
She is the co-founder, alongside her husband Sean Evans, of Gulf Island Seaplanes, where she plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s vision for sustainable, accessible, and community-focused air travel. Under her leadership, the company has expanded regional connectivity while supporting sustainable tourism and environmental stewardship across coastal British Columbia.
Alison has grown Gulf Island Seaplanes into a trusted aviation brand known for exceptional customer service, safety, and operational excellence. As an Indigenous woman, entrepreneur, and mother of four, she has built the company through resilience, purpose, and a commitment to surrounding the business with a highly skilled, dedicated, and values-driven team.
Hanna Hatherly
Hanna is a CPA, with over 13 years experience working in public practice accounting. Professionally, her background is in non-profit and public sector financial statement audits.
Hanna is passionate about environmental reporting and balancing finances with environmental sustainability. She has also worked in tourism and resort management in both the ski and dive industries. She enjoys diving, surfing, biking and snowboarding and lives in Victoria with her two sons.
Daniel Raab
Daniel is an avid surfer and environmentalist, the co-founder of the ReSurf program, and its program manager.
He began his career with the Surfrider Foundation in 2023, and in 2024 worked closely on the development of ReSurf from the ground up, designing the facility, building operations and partnerships, defining its sustainability scope, and shaping the growth and impact plan that guides the program today.
Paul Latour
As the General Manager of Your Place Victoria, a social enterprise by Our Place Society in Victoria, BC, Paul is committed to fostering entrepreneurial ventures that thrive economically and serve as powerful platforms for social change.
His role is to grow an ecosystem of social enterprises that provide empowering living wage employment for individuals coming out of longterm addictions recovery therapy and are now healthy, ready, and able to work. This is a new key piece for Our Place Society’s Pathway of Support, creating a foundation of self-worth and financial health that positively impacts the homeless and addictions.
Claire Lewis
Claire is an engineering leader with almost 30 years of contaminated sites and waste management expertise.
An experienced collaborator with government, industry, and peers, Claire specializes in operations, permitting, and risk management. Claire and the GRT team refuse to accept the cradle-to-grave status quo and are driven to keep GRT at the forefront of circular excess soil management in North America.
Josh Hunt
After more than 25 years working across international real estate development, infrastructure, manufacturing, and investment partnerships, Josh Hunt has come to a clear conclusion: solving the housing crisis requires more than building homes.
It requires reconnecting the systems that deliver housing, create ownership pathways, and deploy capital.
That conviction is the foundation of IGV Housing — a circular housing model built to address both sides of the housing equation: supply and access. IGV operates across three connected divisions: IGV Build Systems, an engineered delivery platform that helps developers build faster with greater certainty; IGVhope, a structured ownership-transition model where residents fix today’s home price and build toward ownership from day one; and IGV Capital, the financial architecture that aligns construction delivery, occupancy stability, and institutional capital deployment.
Pat Brady is Genome BC’s Executive Director, Industry Programs, focused on advancing genomic and other life science tools and technologies from the research stage through to commercialization.
For more than 30 years, Pat has been involved with growing innovative companies, in particular, life science firms. His experience as a venture capitalist and in operations provides hands‐on practice evaluating IP, product development and the market potential of life science technologies.
Pat spent six years in financial and operating roles with Inex Pharmaceuticals (now Arbutus BioPharma) and a clean tech company, DynaMotive Technologies. As a venture capitalist with Growthworks for 18 years, Pat served as a Board Director or Observer for over 13 life science firms. He has accumulated broad insight for many successful management practices and strategic issues encountered along the commercialization pathway.
Pat brings with him a deep life science and investor network across Canada and internationally. He was the co‐founder of the BIOTECanada Investor Summit (Whistler, BC) and has gained valuable exposure to the innovator community as an EIR with VentureLabs.
Niamh O’Sullivan
Manager of Social Enterprise and Networks, Buy Social Canada
Niamh O’Sullivan joined the Buy Social Canada team in 2020. Her work is focused on building business relationships that generate social benefits to communities across the country. In this work she manages the network of 250+ Certified Social Enterprises.
In this role she supports social enterprises to build their capacity and raise their business profile. Buy Social Canada also gathers feedback from the social enterprise sector to advocate at the Federal level.
Her experience includes; facilitation, managing the Social Procurement Professional Certificate, engagement, implementing and reporting on Community Benefit Agreements, supporting social purchasers to practice social procurement, as well as establishing a culture of trust in partner relationships and with social enterprises to achieve lasting impact.
Bruce Batchelor
Bruce Batchelor is a director of the Gabriola Island Community Investment Co-op. He merrily works/plays/writes/teaches across diverse sectors, including sustainable mobility, publishing, change/innovation in program delivery by government entities, credit union governance, etc.
Way back when he was a dog musher in the Yukon. Somewhat later he became a management consultant to federal, provincial and municipal agencies, and then CEO of a multinational book publishing enterprise. He loves and is grateful to be living on the unceded traditional territories of the Snuneymuxw people.
Emily Mercy
Emily Mercy is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Goparity Canada, leading the organization's investor relations, strategic partnerships, and community growth.
She has over six years of experience in investor relations and impact storytelling. Emily also is a Steering Committee member of the Canadian Coalition for Community Capital and represents for-profit impact investment institutions in federal policy conversations.
Michaela Arruda
Michaela Arruda is the inaugural Executive Director of the Campbell River Community Foundation and has helped transform the organization from a working board with a PO box to a governance board with a social enterprise operating out of its own fixed address.
Blending cash, philanthropy, strategy, commercial financing, a vision, grant funding, and a healthy dash of spite and determination, people can now work from “The Heart” in Campbell River – a space that generates mission-related revenue for reinvestment back into the Foundation.
Omar Mawji
Omar leads fundraising and capital deployment for Weave, former Venture Partner and Investment Manager at NorthX Climate Tech, managed +$400 M in cumulative assets under management, and holds an MBA from the University of Oxford
Blending cash, philanthropy, strategy, commercial financing, a vision, grant funding, and a healthy dash of spite and determination, people can now work from “The Heart” in Campbell River – a space that generates mission-related revenue for reinvestment back into the Foundation.
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