In her role as President and Chief Executive Officer of GE Canada, and through her many industry and community involvements, Elyse Allan demonstrates her passion for Canadian competitiveness in a global economy and creating a culture of excellence.

She was appointed to her post in October 2004, with a mission to grow GE's businesses in Canada, and to advance the company's leadership in technology, media, and financial services. The appointment marked Elyse's return to GE, where she began her career in 1984. She served in corporate marketing in the U.S. where she worked with a number of the industrial businesses, and held senior roles in GE Canada in corporate, lighting and appliances.

Elyse is active around many issues that influence Canada's productivity and competitive advantage. She is a strong advocate for advancing the country's science and technology base, competitive fiscal policy, and a strong cities agenda.

Aside from her work at GE, she contributes to these goals as a Director of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the C.D. Howe Institute, the Public Policy Forum, and the Ontario Investment & Trade Advisory Council. She has served on the Greater Toronto Marketing Alliance, and the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy.

Prior to her current position, Elyse was President and CEO of the Toronto Board of Trade and, before that, a senior executive at Ontario Hydro.

Elyse earned a Bachelor of Arts in Biology & Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth.

She has served her alma mater as a member of the Board of Visitors for Dartmouth's Rockefeller Centre for Public Policy and, currently, as an Overseer of Tuck Business School. Elyse also holds an honorary doctorate from Ryerson University in Toronto.

Elyse, husband Don and son Stuart reside in Toronto.

Jim Balsillie is Co-CEO of Research In Motion (RIM), a position he has held since 1992. At RIM, Jim is responsible for driving corporate strategy, business development, marketing, sales, and finance.

A native of Peterborough Ontario, Jim earned a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Harvard University, and is a Chartered Accountant.

The success of RIM and its flagship BlackBerry® wireless solution has provided Jim with the opportunity to give back to his community and country. In 2002, he announced a major endowment gift to establish the Centre for International Governance Innovation. CIGI is an independent, non-partisan think tank that addresses international governance challenges. In 2007 Jim founded The Balsillie School of International Affairs and later that year Canadian International Council, Canada's council on foreign relations.

In addition to his commitment to the new Institute, Jim is a founding donor of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and a patron of the Grand River Hospital where his leadership gift helped establish a new cancer care center. He is a major donor to RIM Park in the City of Waterloo and principal benefactor for the Balsillie Collection of Roy Studio Images in his native Peterborough. Most recently, Jim helped establish the Waterloo Regional Children's Museum, a unique facility where art and technology meet to stimulate creativity and motivate learning.

Jim's commitment to the community and innovation in business leadership is widely recognized. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and Dalhousie University, and was also elected a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario (FCA), the highest designation that the Institute confers.

Doug Cooper manages all aspects of Intel's business in Canada. His engineering background and knack for simplifying the inherently complex enable him to develop strong business relationships with the IT managers in top corporations. Mr. Cooper also frequently liaises with governments on policy and technology issues, educates the industry ontechnology trends, and answers media and analysts' questions on a frequent basis.

Mr. Cooper is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), whose mission it is to identify and lead on issues that affect the Canadian technology industry and to advocate initiatives which will enable its continued growth and development. He is also a member of the ITAC Board of Directors' ICT Value Committee, which actively promotes the enabling impact of current and emerging technology in all dimensions of Canadian business.

Colleen DeCourcy has worked at the forefront of digital technology and entertainment for most of her career and her areas of expertise range from digital postproduction and motion graphics design to creative campaign development and planning across digital platforms. Colleen is champion of innovative methods of persona development and implementation to develop experience touch points for online social networks, consumer activated branded entertainment, and word of mouth marketing.

Prior to joining TBWA, DeCourcy served as Chief Experience Officer at JWT where she worked to strengthen and grow the integrated, multi-platform storytelling capabilities of the network as well as work with the agency's executive creative directors on client business including, Unilever's Sunsilk, Kimberly-Clark, Cadbury Adams, Diamond Trading Commission and Ford.

Prior to joining JWT, DeCourcy was the Vice President and Chief Creative Officer at Organic, where she led the agency's Experience Design group. She was responsible for leading non-traditional creative for Organic client DaimlerChrysler, helping the marketer achieve award-winning status on campaigns for the Dodge Charger, "Unleash Your Freak" and the Jeep branded entertainment project, "The Mudds", the first commercial Google Map geocaching adventure.

Prior to Organic, Colleen was Director of Creative Strategy at ICE Integrated Communications & Entertainment in Toronto. She has also worked in London for Spafax WPP, an international marketing communications firm, where she was Chief Creative Officer, working for clients including British Airways, Reynard Racing, Virgin Atlantic, Air Canada, Cathay Pacific and The British Council.

Colleen was a Titanium and Integrated Jury Member of the 54th International Advertising Festival held in Cannes, France and in 2006 sat on the Cannes CyberLions Jury. In 2005, she served as the Internet Jury Chair for the Clios. In 2006, Advertising Age and the Advertising Women of New York association announced "25 Women to Watch," honoring the most savvy, empowered, accomplished and innovative women in the world of advertising, marketing and media; DeCourcy was named a member.

Robert J. Deluce is one of Canada's most knowledgeable and respected airline owners and operators. He brings to the industry over 50 years of Deluce family experience in successfully owning, financing, restructuring, operating and managing a number of regional airlines in Canada.

His involvement in the aviation industry includes White River Air Services, norOntair, Austin Airways, Air Creebec, Air Ontario, Air Mani- toba, Air Alliance and Canada 3000 Airlines.

He has been President of Deluce Capital Corp. since 1987, and is currently President and CEO of both Porter Aviation Holdings Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Porter Airlines Inc.

Richard Florida is one of the world's leading public intellectuals. Esquire Magazine recently named him one of the Best and Brightest in America. He is author of the international bestselling book, The Rise of the Creative Class. His ideas have been featured in major ad campaigns from BMW and Apple and are being used globally to change the way regions and nations do business. His new book, Who's Your City? takes a look at the way that people choose the places they live and how that affects everything from their real estate to their families.

He is regular columnist with the Globe and Mail newspaper and has written articles for the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times, and the Financial Times. He was a contributor to the 2004 Harvard Business Review's List of Breakthrough Ideas. He is founder of the Creative Class Group, a global advisory services firm in Washington, DC. He is Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. Florida has been a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT, and a visiting fellow of the Brookings Institution. Florida earned his Bachelor's degree from Rutgers College and his Ph.D. from Columbia University.

As President and CEO, Dave Mowat is responsible for the overall management and operations for ATB Financial. With $23 billion in assets and $4 billion managed in its Compass mutual fund family, ATB is one of the fastest growing financial institutions in Alberta. With an extensive network of 158 branches around the province ATB offers a complete range of personal, business, investment management and corporate banking services. He started in this role in June 2007 and he is excited to be back in Albertan Born in Calgary, Dave spent his early years in Sherwood Park. He moved to B.C., where he graduated from the University of B.C.

Prior to coming to ATB Financial, Dave served as Chief Executive Officer for Vancity, the largest credit union in English Canada, based in Vancouver, which like ATB successfully positioned itself to have a very customer oriented positioning in the marketplace. He has 30 years of experience in financial services and is looking forward to building on the ATB's history and culture to provide world class financial services focused on Alberta and delivered exclusively for Albertans.

During the last 10 years as an active CEO, he has also served as the Vice Chair of Visa Canada, a director of Visa International and the Chair of Citizens Bank of Canada, which gives him the relatively unique perspective of both independent director and as management.

Bill Buxton is a principal researcher at Microsoft Corp., and the author of the book, Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design. Mr. Buxton is a trained musician who began using computers over thirty years ago to further his art. This early experience led Mr. Buxton to work with the University of Toronto on digital musical instruments and novel interfaces in the late 70s.

Mr. Buxton’s work was soon on the radar of Xerox PARC, who approached him to participate in pioneering research on collaborative work, interaction techniques and ubiquitous computing. By 1994, Mr. Buxton joined Alias Research (and in 1995 its parent company SGI) where he had the opportunity to work with some of the top filmmakers and industrial designers in the world. He was Chief Scientist at Alias throughout the development of the animation package, Maya, which won an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement.

Kevin P. Dougherty is the President of Sun Life Financial Canada.

Mr. Dougherty joined Sun Life Financial in 1994 as Vice-President, Group Marketing & Sales. He was appointed Vice-President, Group Insurance in 1996, and Vice-President, Group Retirement Services in 2001. He was subsequently appointed Executive Vice-President of Sun Life Financial’s Canadian Group Benefits and Group Retirement Services businesses, and then President of Sun Life Financial’s Canadian business in September 2004.

Since assuming his role as President, Mr. Dougherty has focused on a number of key strategic initiatives including: strengthening its Career Sales Force model, overseeing the Company’s re-entry into the Wholesale channel, building on its partnership with CI Investments, investing in the development of Sun Life Financial Canada’s Rollover Products and Services for retiring group plan members, and continued investment and leadership in the Total Benefits arena.

Mr. Dougherty is the Chairman of the National Quality Institute’s Board of Governors, and serves on the Board of Directors of Assuris, the Canadian Life Insurance Industry's guarantee fund. He is an active member of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, and the Canadian Pension and Benefits Institute.

Mr. Dougherty holds an MBA (International) from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

From its start in 1967 with a single restaurant in Richmond, BC - and the first McDonald's outside the US - to more than 1,400 restaurant locations from coast to coast, McDonald's Canada has grown, evolved and continues to prosper, and help shape the face of the quick service restaurant industry today. President Louie Mele, a 35-year veteran of the company, discusses its history, its philosophies and his personal leadership approach to maintaining McDonald's Canada's competitive advantage.

Louie Mele began his career with McDonald's in 1972 as a crew member in his hometown of Windsor, Ontario. Through an unrelenting sense of dedication and commitment, he advanced through various managerial positions, eventually resulting in his appointment to Operations Manager in 1985.

In 1987, Mr. Mele took his Canadian experience overseas to Italy where he assumed the role of Director of Operations and in April 1990 was named President of McDonald's Italy.

Mr. Mele relocated to the United States in 1995 where he served as Regional Manager of the Southeast Division, a position he held until 2001.

Mr. Mele returned home to Canada in April 2001 where he took on the role of Executive Vice President of McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited. In August 2003, he added the role of Chief Operating Officer for the company.

In April 2005, Mr. Mele was appointed to his current position of President of McDonald's Restaurants of Canada. His international experience and passion for quality, service, cleanliness and value continues to bring a renewed focus to the Canadian System.

Mr. Mele is proud to serve on the Board of Directors for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Canada; The Canadian Restaurant and Food Services Association; The Brick and At Last. He is also Chair of the CRFA's Fitness and Nutrition Roundtable, a committee he was instrumental in establishing three years ago. Mr. Mele was honoured by the Caboto Club in his hometown of Windsor with the 2005 Italian of the Year award.

In November 2007, Waterstone Human Capital will release its 3rd Annual Canadian Corporate Culture Study^TM. Which companies consistently make the Top Ten? Marty parker will provide insight into what gives these companies the competitive edge. You'll also learn how creating a positive corporate culture in your business can drive profit.

Mr. Parker is the Managing Director and Founder of Waterstone Human Capital, a leading retained executive search firm based in Toronto.

Formerly, Mr Parker was Managing Director and Partner with the Caldwell Partners International. He also held the role of Canada's leading marketing communications group of companies. Mr. Parker's earlier career was with the Johnson and Johnson and Labatt Breweries where he held progressively senior sales and marketing positions.