As Vice President, Strategy and HR Outsourcing for Canada, Ed leads the strategic planning process, partnership and acquisition programs, and key strategic initiatives for Canada. He is also accountable for growing our managed offering as the general manager of our Human Resources Outsourcing business.

Prior to ADP, Ed led Growth Strategy and Innovation for Mercer’s Career / Human Capital Management business in Canada and was a Principal Consultant, leading consulting engagements and providing advice to Boards and executive management of public and private companies, ranging from large TSX60 to pre-IPO start-ups. Before that, he worked in Corporate Strategy as a member of the Office of Strategic Management for the Bank of Montreal (BMO) focusing on the Wealth and Asset Management businesses.

Ed has an undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of British Columbia and an MBA from the University of Oxford.

Dr. Chitra Anand is an award-winning communications & marketing executive. With over 20 years in the technology industry, she has spent time as the Chief Brand and Communications Officer for Microsoft Canada, Director of Marketing at TELUS Corporation and Director of Operations at Open Text.

Projects she guided at Microsoft and TELUS have been awarded IABC Gold Quill Awards, Canadian Public Relations Society Awards of Excellence, the Corporate IT Hero award by the Information Technology Association of Canada, and the Business for the Arts Awards.

Currently, Dr. Anand is a Managing Director with Clariti Strategic Advisors™, a boutique Investment Bank. Her focus is on advisory mandates which have relevance in the environmental, social, governance (ESG) and social impact arenas, with particular emphasis on the technology and healthcare verticals.

Dr. Anand is at the forefront of an important new movement in the workplace: intrapreneurship. Intrapreneurs are the people within your organization who possess an entrepreneurial spirit, driving innovation, creative thinking, and new ideas.

She has keynoted several events, AGMs, and conferences where her talks reveal how to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship within organizations, as well as how to stay on the cutting edge of market trends, technology, and consumer behaviour. Her writing has been featured in The Globe and Mail and HuffPost, and she teaches several courses at Humber and Sheridan College. Dr. Anand is the author of the book “The Greenhouse Approach: How to Cultivate Deliberate Innovation in Organizations”, which is available on Amazon. This book is now a main source of reading for the Forbes School of Business MBA program.

In 2022, Dr. Anand was named a “Changemaker” by The Globe and Mail, Canada’s leading national newspaper, highlighting 50 prominent leaders who are bold and innovative, based on their ideas, accomplishments, and impact.

Dr. Anand has been named as a “bridge builder” for women in tech by The A-List; a yearly publication that features 50 prominent Indo-Canadians who through various career and community efforts have helped foster relations between Canada and India.

Dr. Anand earned her MBA from The Kellogg School of Management and completed her Doctorate at Bradford University in the UK.

Melinda Drexler, Vice President of Employee Experience, brings 20+ years of proven experience enabling HR strategy and leading HR teams in the delivery of organizational agility through art of the possible thinking, and innovative process and program redesign, enabled by emerging technologies.  Prior to joining Manulife, she worked at BlackBerry where she held progressive roles across the Global Talent Acquisition Delivery and Global Talent Acquisition Operations teams, before transitioning to her role as Global Director of HRIS.

An ambitious learner and authentic leader, Melinda strives to inspire, ignite passion and enthusiasm around designing experiences with the employee at the center of all solutions. Melinda is a member of the Manulife Global Women’s Alliance (GWA) Advisory Board and serves as a co-chair on a number of technology user groups including the Workday Global Onboarding Co Chair.  Melinda acquired her Bachelor of Arts from York University and a post grade Human Resources Management Diploma from Conestoga College.

Danielle Mika Nagel has held many roles in her adult life including Broadway musical performer, wedding singer, waitress, yoga teacher, and director of a global wellbeing company. She currently works for Vancity, a financial institution, as their Director, Leadership Development & Organizational Wellness. She leads a team of change makers designing, developing and delivering Leadership Development and Talent Management initiatives to their employees. She previously worked as the Director of Mindfulness and Leadership at lululemon implementing global wellbeing programs. Danielle has also taught alongside Deepak Chopra at the Chopra Centre for more than 10 years, leading yoga, meditation and talks on mindfulness. For more information on Danielle, visit www.daniellemika.com

Kate is a human-centred executive with deep expertise in organizational strategy and leadership development.  The Vice President of People at Technical Safety BC, Kate believes that recognizing and nurturing the strengths all team members is key to organizational success.

Kate has a proven track record of transforming HR practices across industries including mining, heavy machinery, and healthcare.  She holds a degree in Psychology and Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University and completed her graduate studies at UBC’s Sauder School of Business. Kate is a recognized speaker in the areas of leadership development, equity, diversity and inclusion, and cultural resilience.

A former ballet dancer, Kate now sits on the Board of Director of BalletBC.  In her free time, she can be found deep in the Coastal mountains or working with young women to help them develop and lead in from their authentic power.

An Executive Coach (CPCC, CNTC) and Storyteller, Kendra believes that leading with excellence begins with personal mastery. The more energy you invest in discovering, healing, and liberating the most authentic, daring, and conscious version of you – the more your capacity to live a Big Life grows.  

Drawing from positive psychology, coaching, neuroscience, somatics, modern spirituality, nature, the multidisciplinary science of sustainable high performance, and her journey recovering from CPTSD and building a successful business, Kendra engages people in thought provoking conversations that empower and help them dramatically expand and improve their leadership capacity, clarity, and confidence so they are better equipped to manage competing priorities and discover new and more efficient ways of delivering results.

Since 2008, Kendra has successfully launched and grown her coaching company, Blueprint Strategies Inc., authored the Executive Career column for the Financial Post online, coached hundreds of executives, and led and supported the design and delivery of leadership development programs in many sectors, including Financial Services, Automotive, Retail, Healthcare, and Government. Prior to that, she spent 4 years at LHH Knightsbridge Human Capital Solutions and 2 years at one of Canada’s most respected boutique executive recruiting firms.  

Kendra is a designated Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and Certified Neuroscience Transformational Coach (CNTC). She’s earned certifications in Solutions-Focused Brief Coaching, Somatics and Embodied Transformation, Social Psychology, Equine Assisted Leadership Facilitation, and Breathwork Facilitation. She has studied Organizational Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC), and is an advanced student at Leela Gurukl, an immersive spiritual school for modern leaders.