speakers

Speakers

Craig Kielburger HeadshotWednesday, February 15 — 8:00am - 10:00am
Opening Plenary with Justin Kingsley

Justin Kingsley
Award-winning Storyteller and Creative Strategist | Bestselling Author


What does Justin Kingsley do? A better question: What doesn’t he do? A New York Times bestselling author, Justin is a storyteller, strategist, creative director, photographer and a former press secretary under Prime Minister Paul Martin. Named one of Canada’s most creative people by Marketing Magazine, Justin has turned the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises into global museum exhibitions, put a McDonald’s into the side of a mountain at a snowboarding competition, and developed award-winning communications strategies for UFC champ Georges St-Pierre and slogans for Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup.

Justin began his career in communications and crisis management, working as chief media relations and spokesman at Communication Canada before joining the Prime Minister’s Office in 2003 as the Press Secretary for the Right Honourable Paul Martin. 

Since then, Justin has thrown himself into the world of marketing and advertising, most recently as partner and chief socialist at Sid Lee, one of the world’s five best creative agencies. He developed the strategy and campaign idea for Adidas at the 2012 London Olympics, titled Take the Stage, which was named best global campaign of the Games. 

Justin also developed the brand identity and vision for the North American group (Canada, Mexico, and USA) bidding to host the FIFA 2026 World Cup; created the vision and slogan for the 2015 Women’s World Cup of Soccer: To a Greater Goal/Vers le grand but; and branded the 2010 Vancouver Olympics with the very first bilingual Games slogan: With Glowing Hearts/Des plus brillants exploits. He also wrote and co-produced four seasons of the nationally-televised 24CH (CTV, TSN, RDS), a weekly documentary about the Montreal Canadiens.

Justin is the author of two number one national bestselling books: The Way of the Fight, which looks at Georges St-Pierre’s life philosophy, and Weology: How Everybody Wins When We Comes Before Me, a book of ideas on leadership. He also joined an exclusive group of authors to publish original works in multiple languages in Le livre du don. Justin is also currently co-directing the feature documentary Where Sea and Land Meet: A Montreal Symphony Orchestra Story in partnership with Roger Frappier, a voting member of the Academy Awards. 

Fully bilingual, Justin is a proud Franco-Ontarian. 

Wednesday, February 15 — 10:30am-11:30am
State of the Association Address

Kevin Lee
Chief Executive Officer | Canadian Home Builders' Association


Kevin Lee is a Professional Engineer with a Master’s in Architecture, and has over 30 years of experience in the housing industry.  

Since taking the helm at CHBA in 2013, Kevin has worked continually with the Board and CHBA’s over 50 provincial and local constituent associations to strengthen CHBA as the “voice of the residential construction industry”.  CHBA’s national staff, committees and councils are contantly working to address the opportunities and challenges facing Canada’s residential construction industry, which represents over 1.2M jobs and $151B of economic activity.  Under Kevin’s leadership, CHBA is squarely on supporting its 9,000 member companies from coast to coast, and their ability to meet the aspirations of Canadians for housing affordability, quality and choice.

Among his many roles, Kevin is immediate Past Chair of the International Housing Association, a member of the Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes, a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on the Underground Economy, a member of the National Research Centre Construction Advisory Committee, and a regular presenter at House of Commons and Senate Committees on issues affecting housing. 

Kevin began his career in housing in the trades.  He then ran his own housing consulting business for 11 years and spent another 2 years as VP Operations of a NASDAQ e-learning systems company.  Following this he spent 9 years as an executive in the Federal Government, managing housing/buildings/communities research and development programs, and then directing housing programs like the $1 billion ecoENERGY Retrofit Homes Program.  

Kevin designed and built his own R-2000 Advanced Home on the banks of the Rideau River south of Ottawa in 1997, which was featured on the Discovery Channel, where he still lives today with his wife and three daughters.




Sue Wastell Headshot

Wednesday, February 15 — 10:30am-11:30am
Inaugural Address

Sue Wastell
First Vice-President | Canadian Home Builders' Association


Sue Wastell of Wastell Homes – an award-winning, family-owned home builder and developer in London, Ontario that is consistently recognized for their unwavering commitment to quality, design, service, and volunteerism within their community.  
 
Wastell Homes has over 43 years in business, and received top honours as “Builder of the Year” for six years by the London Home Builders' Association (LHBA).
 
As Co-President of Wastell Homes, Sue is responsible for overseeing every facet of the home building process, from sales and design to advertising and land acquisition.
 
Sue currently serves as Past President and Executive Member of LHBA, where she helps spearhead a number of important initiatives to improve the building industry, including housing affordability and the skilled trades shortage, acting as a conduit between the municipality and LHBA members.
 
In her tenure as Executive Member of LHBA, Sue makes important strides towards developing workable policies to deal with housing affordability, always reminding policymakers locally, provincially as well as federally of the impacts of their decisions. Sue makes this a major focus of her advocacy efforts; with her own children coming into adulthood, Sue wants to ensure that home ownership isn’t out of reach for Canada’s youth.
 
As incoming President and Chair of the Urban Council Committee at CHBA, Sue looks to continue her industry involvement on a national level. 

Thursday, February 16 — 8:00am - 10:00am 
Breakfast and Session with Nik Nanos

Nik Nanos, CMC, FCRIC, FRCGS


Nik Nanos leads Nanos Research, one of Canada’s most distinguished research companies.  The Nanos Research Group of Companies includes Ethic Strategies an affiliate of Nanos Research and Nanos-dimap Analytika, an analytics and targeting research practice which is a joint venture with dimap, one of Germany’s top research organizations.

He is the Chief Data Scientist and Founder of Nanos Research, a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC, Chair of Atlantik Brücke Canada which is a non-profit focused on advancing Canada-Germany relations and one of 20 Honorary Captains in the Royal Canadian Navy. He is also the Past Chair of Carleton University in Ottawa which has 30 thousand students and a budget of over $500M.

Nik leads the team behind the weekly Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index, considered a must-have resource for senior executives and is also featured in a weekly segment on CTV’s News Channel, Nanos on the Numbers, which focuses on the latest political, business and social trends.
 
He is the pollster for CTV News, Canada’s largest private broadcaster, the Globe & Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, Bloomberg News in Canada.

Craig Kielburger Headshot

Thursday — 10:30am - 12:00pm
Association Leadership Awards and Session with Seth Mattison

Seth Mattison
Internationally Renowned Expert, Author, and Trendspotter | Co-Founder and Chief Movement Officer of Luminate Labs.


Seth Mattison is an internationally renowned expert and author on workforce trends, generational dynamics, and business strategy. As Co-Founder and Chief Movement Officer of Luminate Labs, Seth advises many of the world’s leading brands and organizations on the key shifts happening around talent management, change and innovation, leadership, and the future of work.

His ideas have been featured in such publications as The Wall St. Journal, Forbes, The Huffington Post, and The Globe and Mail and was named to the Editors’ Picks for Speakers to Watch by MeetingsNet.

For the past decade Seth has shared his insights with thousands of business leaders around the world and has received accolades from many of the world's best brands including: MasterCard, Johnson and Johnson, Microsoft, Kraft Foods, AT&T, PepsiCo, GE Energy, Cisco, State Farm, Merrill Lynch, Dow, and Disney.

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