Board of Directors
Executive Committee
Richard Maksymetz
Chair of the Board
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Principal at ALAR Strategy Group
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Former Chief of Staff to the Minister of Finance (Canada)
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Biggest Canadian fan of the University of Memphis Tigers
Muneeb Yusuf
Vice-Chair
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General Counse of League Inc.
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Formerly general counsel of Algoma Steel and Dundee Agriculture and attorney at Stikeman Elliott LLP
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Sits on a number of non-profit and public boards
Michael Klosevych
Secretary-Treasurer, Past Chair
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Chartered Professional Accountant
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Graduate of the University of Ottawa, McGill University and York University.
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Served as UNA-Canada’s Secretary-Treasurer for ten years (2007 – 2017)
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20 years of professional Public and Private Sector work experience, most recently as a Senior Analyst with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans
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15+ years of volunteer experience on condo and daycare boards
Directors
Vittoria Varalli
Past Chair of the Board
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Senior VP Business Development, Open Farm Pet
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Former VP Marketing, Sobeys Inc.
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Former Management Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group
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Former Corporate Attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom
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8+ years of volunteer experience on the boards of Camp Quality and the Pink Pearl Foundation
Anne Pearson
Regional Director, Ontario
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Former professor of Religious Studies, McMaster University
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author of academic and non-academic books and articles
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30+ years experience with community organizations and boards
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recipient of Hamilton World Citizenship and Order of Hamilton awards
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President of UNA-Canada Hamilton Branch
Appointment Pending
Regional Director, Quebec
Sameer Esmail
Regional Director British Columbia
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President of the Board of the Vancouver branch of UNA-Canada
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Analyst, Air Services at InterVISTAS Consulting
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Bachelor of Arts in International Relations & Master of Management from UBC
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Greater Vancouver Board of Trade Leaders of Tomorrow, 2023-2024
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Canada-Asia Young Professionals Fellow with the Asia-Pacific Foundation of Canada, 2023-2024
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Canada’s Head Delegate to the G20 Youth Summit, 2022
Jason Drysdale
Director-at-Large
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Executive Vice President, Retail and Commercial Risk, Royal Bank of Canada
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22 years of experience in financial services
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Bachelor of Engineering, Masters in Business Administration, and Chartered Financial Analyst
Mehreen Kapadia
Regional Director, Prairies
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Community Liaison - NPower Canada
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Former Project Coordinator with the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association
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Former CIDA Intern in India (in conjunction with the Shastri- Indo-Canadian Institute, University of Calgary and Tarun Bharat Singh)
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B.A International Development
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Member of the Calgary Branch
Abdelkarim Awwad
Director-at-Large
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Director of Marketing & Communication at Brian Jessel BMW
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Board member of the German Canadian Business Association (BC)
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President of the Canadian Academy of Protocol & Events management
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Former head of the disaster management unit (Qatari Red Crescent)
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Former advisor and consultant to several international organizations and embassies in the Middle East
President
Aki Temisevä
President & CEO
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20+ years experience as a C-level senior marketing executive and CEO across the nonprofit and private sectors
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Has led change at Procter & Gamble, World Vision, Children Believe, Right to Play and others
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Global Citizen, born in Finland, with experience across all continents and home now in Canada
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Results-based people leader, dedicated to crafting actionable solutions which build bridges and improve everyone's lives