Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors brings decades of experience from various backgrounds to help guide our efforts and deepen the impact of our work.

Andy Chisholm - Board Chair

Andy is a member of the Board of Directors of Royal Bank of Canada and RBC Group Holdings LLC. Prior to that, he spent most of his career at Goldman Sachs & Co. which he joined in 1985 in New York. He served in a variety of progressively more senior leadership roles within the organization during his 30-year career, including as Senior Strategy Officer of the firm globally from 2012 – 2014, as Head or co-Head of the Global Financial Institutions Group in both London and New York from 2002 – 2012, and as co-Chair of the Firmwide Commitments Committee (primarily overseeing the firm’s equity underwriting activities) from 2011 – 2015.

 

He acted as a member of the Canadian Federal Government’s Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance and subsequently as a member of the Task Force for Resilient Recovery. He sits on the Advisory Board for the Institute for Sustainable Finance at Queen’s University and the Centre for Building Sustainable Value at the Ivey Business School, where he is also Chair of the Ivey Advisory Board. He is also a Board Member of Evergreen, which focuses on building sustainable cities. He is a founder of the Chisholm Thomson Family Foundation.

 

Andy sits on the Investment Committee of ArcTern Ventures, a cleantech venture capital firm, and acts as an advisor to Novisto and Riskthinking.ai. He also sits on the Board of MaRS, Canada’s leading innovation hub.

 

He holds a B. Comm. from Queens University (1981) and graduated with an MBA from the Ivey Business School at Western University in 1985.  He lives in Toronto with his family.

Andrea DelZotto - Vice Chair and Chair, Program and Capital Development Committee

Andrea DelZotto understands that building is as much about creating community as it is about construction. As a member of the founding family of Canada’s leading condominium developer, Tridel Group of Companies, Andrea has been immersed in the residential construction industry for most of her life. She also served as an executive at Tridel for 25 years and is currently a director on the Tridel Group Board.

 

Andrea has always been very focused on driving innovation and helping to re-imagine the way people live. This led her to start Concrete Cardinal, a research, innovation and investment group that champions the well-being of communities and the individuals who live in them, with special attention given to the experiences of women and youth. Concrete Cardinal supports the invisible aspects of community building, like belonging, engagement, opportunity, physical and mental health and resilience, which are becoming the new criteria for defining what a successful community looks like.

Tracey Sobers - Secretary and Chair, Governance and HR Committee

Tracey is Chief Operations Officer and Project Director at Curious Public. Over the course of her career, Tracey has served as a communications planner, strategist and executive advisor, where building and maintaining effective relationships have underpinned all of her work with key stakeholders and within organizations.

 

She has been a communications/senior advisor and project manager in government and in broader public and private sector organizations, including the Office of the Premier of Ontario, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, and Toronto Metropolitan University, where she used her outstanding people management and organizational skills to resolve issues and drive projects to successful completion. She has led numerous cross-departmental initiatives and projects, such as developing strategies and protocols for new external relations, patient and stakeholder engagement, and employee relations programs.

 

Tracey has a strong sense of obligation to the well-being of children and has brought her communications experience to a number of child-focused charities, including positions on the board of directors of the African Relief Committee in Canada and Mothercraft. She has also volunteered with Visions of Science, a non-profit focused on advancing the representation of African Canadian youth in the fields of science, mathematics and technology, the African Canadian Children’s Heritage Program, and more recently, with Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto.

Upton Jeans - Treasurer and Chair, Finance and Audit Committee

Upton is the Chief Financial Officer at OPTrust. He previously held senior positions at the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), Global Vice President Finance and Chief Accountant at Sun Life Financial, and progressively senior positions at General Electric, HSBC and PwC.

 

He also advises on a variety of finance issues and serves as a working group member of the Accounting Standards Board, reviewing pension plan standards.

 

Upton received his bachelor and masters from the University of Waterloo and has his CPA in both Canada and the United States.

Robert Lawrie - Board Director & Chair, Fundraising Committee

Robert Lawrie began his career with the Ford Motor Company in finance in Dearborn, Michigan and earlier in marketing in Brussels. He is an internationally qualified lawyer, having practiced privately in Canada and the U.S. and in senior corporate positions in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Rare in his profession, for 20 years, Rob practiced corporate, securities and administrative law for clients in the automotive, energy and airline sectors and later reinvented himself as a complex commercial litigator in Los Angeles. More recently, as an investment banker, he was a partner in Europe’s largest, headquartered private equity firm, CVC Capital Partners and now focuses on early-stage venture capital as an investor in clean, med and bio tech with his family office, Hawk Capital.

 

He is an independent director on Hitachi Limited boards in Canada and the U.S. and also has more than three decades of experience on not-for-profit boards, mainly in health, education and culture. He was board chair of the Canadian Cancer Society for six years, during which he led a strategic realignment resulting in amalgamations with the next largest charities in the sector. Rob is known for his effective governance and strategic leadership. In addition to the Evergreen board, he is currently a board director at the Ronald McDonald House in Toronto.

 

Rob’s degrees are from the University of Toronto. He is at home in Toronto and Erin.

Carole-Ann Hamilton - Board Director

Carole-Ann has dedicated her time and efforts making a socio-economic impact on a national level over the past several years. She contributed to the Ontario Trillium Foundation, where she sat on several panels, namely, Ontario Communities, Youths and Francophones. She is actively involved in the Children’s Aid Foundation as co-Chair of the Teddy Bear Gala, Fundraiser and member of the Brand Advisory Committee. Carole-Ann has also sat on the Evergreen Board of Directors since 2019, and is an active member of the compliance committee. She has also recently accepted an advisor role at the LEAP Pecaut Centre for Social Impact. She has been a member of the Québec Bar Association since 1992 and holds a Masters in Laws (LL.M.) and Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.). Her professional career encompasses executive roles at GE Capital, Bell Canada and Minnesota Power as Canadian legal counsel, strategy and business development.

Shabin Mohamed - Board Director

Shabin is a Chartered Professional Accountant and non-profit director. Shabin has volunteered on various non-profit boards over the past 15 years, including as a trustee of the Art Gallery of Ontario and a director of the Toronto International Film Festival. She currently serves as director of the National Gallery of Canada Foundation as well as the Writers Trust of Canada.

Tom Milroy - Board Director

Mr. Milroy is a director of Generation Capital Limited, a private family office located in Toronto. He is a director of APi Group, where he serves as a member of the Audit Committee and as chair of the Compensation Committee, and a director of Interfor Corporation, where he serves as chair of the Audit Committee and as a member of the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. Mr. Milroy previously served as a director of Restaurant Brands Inc. and one of its predecessors, Tim Hortons Inc., serving on the Audit Committee of both companies.

 

Mr. Milroy has sat on the boards of numerous not-for-profit organizations. He currently sits on the board of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Foundation (past chair), the Century Initiative, Evergreen, and the Pacific Parkinson’s Research Institute.

 

Mr. Milroy worked for BMO Financial Group from 1993 to his retirement in 2015. From 2008 to 2014, Mr. Milroy served as CEO of BMO Capital Markets, where he was responsible for all of BMO Financial Group’s businesses involving corporate, institutional and government clients globally. In 2014, BMO Capital Markets had revenues in excess of $3.7bn and net income of approx. $1.1bn and employed approximately 2400 people in Canada, the United States and international markets. Mr. Milroy was a member of the BMO Financial Group’s Executive Committee, Operating Committee, Management Committee, Risk Management and Reputational Risk committees, as well as various other oversight committees. For over 21 years, Mr. Milroy held progressively senior positions within the investment banking group. From 1988 to 1993, Mr. Milroy worked in the investment banking industry in New York and Toronto. He began his career practicing securities law in Toronto.

 

Mr. Milroy holds a Bachelor of Law and Master of Law from Cambridge University, an LLB from Dalhousie University, and a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University. He has completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School. Mr. Milroy is a member of the Law Society of Ontario.

Hibaq Gelle - Board Director

Hibaq Gelle is an award-winning tri-sectoral leader in the areas of community development, policy development, and stakeholder engagement.

 

Hibaq is passionate about equity and inclusion and is committed to improving outcomes for the most marginalized. She has a decade of experience working with various levels of government, the non-profit sector and private industry to advance equitable policies and community investments.

 

For her contributions to city building, Hibaq was awarded the CivicAction Emerging Leader Award, the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award, the Community Benefit Champion Award, and the Canadian Urban Leadership Award.

 

In her free time, she spends it investing in the next generation of young leaders. When she’s not at work or volunteering, you will find Hibaq enjoying her love of reading or discussing the next big system shift!

Chris Crowell - Board Director

Chris Crowell’s career has included leadership roles in startups and multinational corporations, focusing on alliances and ecosystems, business development and product management.

 

Chris has been at the forefront of developing several innovation clusters and partner ecosystems. Selected experiences include building the global third-party technology partnership program at OpenText, developing the launch strategy for The PIER at the Port of Halifax and developing the corporate innovation program at the Volta Innovation Hub.

 

Chris currently serves as a director in Deloitte’s consulting practice. He chairs the board of Ignite Atlantic and serves on the Innovation Centre Board Committee for TechNL. He co-founded Tidal Venture Partners, an emerging venture capital fund focused on disrupting pre-seed and seed-stage investing in Eastern Canada.

 

Chris holds a B.A (Honours) in Mass Communications from Carleton University and a L.L.B. and MBA from Dalhousie University. He is a graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business’s LEAD Corporate Innovation program.

Cindy Bush - Board Director

Cindy Bush is Chief Human Resources Officer at TMX Group, responsible for leading all aspects of TMX’s Human Resources function in support of the company’s corporate objectives, including strategy development and execution, workplace culture, performance management, and talent development and acquisition.

 

Ms. Bush joined the company in December 2020 after more than 25 years of international experience in human resources, talent strategies and culture transformation. Most recently, she served as Chief Human Resources Officer at Cineplex and had previously held leadership roles at companies ranging in size from 30 to 100,000 employees, including Foresters Financial, OMERS, and CIBC.

 

In 2008, she authored Project Managing Change: Practical Tools and Techniques to Make Change Happen, a global best-seller published by Financial Times Business Enterprises.

 

Ms. Bush holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University and a Masters of Education from the University of Toronto.

Akif Unal - Board Director

Akif Unal is the Vice President of North American Digital Marketing and Personalization Strategy at TD Bank.  With over 15 years of experience in marketing, analytics and digital, Akif has worked for distinguished brands such as RBC and Capital One. In his current role, Akif oversees the delivery of personalized, connected and legendary omni-channel customer experiences through relevant and timely marketing communication, as well as the development and execution of North American digital marketing strategies to drive customer engagement, increase brand awareness and generate revenue

Steve Mennill - Board Director

Steve Mennill is a planning, housing and policy consultant with a particular interest in promoting change in our financial and housing supply systems to improve climate compatibility, social inclusion and affordability.

 

Steve served in a wide variety of strategic and operational roles throughout a 30-year career with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), including executive positions in housing policy, leading the mortgage insurance business, chief risk officer, and his most recent role as chief climate officer. Steve has also worked as a consulting urban planner.

 

Steve serves on the board of directors of the Ottawa Food Bank, the advisory committee of the Intact Centre for Climate Adaptation and two community-based associations in Ottawa.

 

Steve holds an MBA from the University of Toronto (Rotman), a Diploma from the University of Waterloo, a Diploma in Urban Land Economics from the University of British Columbia and attended the Queen’s Leadership Program. He is a professional urban planner (MCIP, RPP), and holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Lindsay Walker - Board Director

Lindsay Walker is Director, Sustainability at Humber College – one of the largest polytechnic colleges in Canada. For over a decade, she has led the strategy to embed principles of sustainability into all of the College’s roles – within curriculum, operations and the local and global community. Now a leader in campus sustainability, the college holds a top rating across Canada in internationally recognized Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) for post-secondary institutions.

 

Recognized as a 2024 Clean50 recipient for her leadership and achieving significant results for sustainability education, engagement and operations, she contributes to advancing a sustainability mindset across Canada and North America. She sits on multiple institutional advisory boards including Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).

 

Lindsay has a deep knowledge and experience with balancing the physical and operational, with the critical behavior, education and engagement elements of sustainability. Everyone can use their skills to take on climate action! Prior to Humber, Lindsay taught communications to engineering students at Toronto Metropolitan University, helped small to large organizations across the GTA reduce and manage their waste streams as a Sustainability & Innovation Director, and worked as an environmental engineer in British Columbia.

 

Lindsay holds a Civil Engineering degree from McGill University and a Masters of Environmental Science and Management from Toronto Metropolitan University. When she is not thinking about how to connect every area at Humber to a sustainability mindset, you will find her outside, at an arena watching her kids play hockey, or learning to play herself!

Brent McCurdy - Board Director

Brent McCurdy is the Chief Legal Officer at the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). He has previously held various other positions at the AGCO, including Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Director of Policy, and Director of Corporate Affairs. Brent has also held various positions in the Government of Ontario, including Chief of Staff to the Ministers of Municipal Affairs and Natural Resources and Forestry, and Senior Policy Advisor to the Attorney General of Ontario.

 

Brent has a strong interest in environmental issues and developed a passion for city and place building during his time at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. Notable contributions included his involvement in the coordinated review of land use plans, including the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, the Greenbelt Plan, the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Plan, and the Niagara Escarpment Plan.

 

Brent holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from Queen’s University and a Bachelor of Laws from The University of Western Ontario.

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