David is one of the world’s most experienced corporate directors and educators. He has served on 39 different boards of directors in Canada, America, Mexico, Australia and England, and has been chairman of 11 public companies.

David was the founding Managing Director of the Canadian Coalition for Good Governance and he still oversees the Canadian Directors’ Education Program (DEP).

In 2013, he was inducted into the Order of Canada for his work in Corporate Governance – the only person ever to be so cited. In 1994, he was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for his services to Papua New Guinea. In 2018, he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN).

Canadian mountain guide, filmmaker and alpinist, Barry Blanchard, was born in Calgary, March 29, 1959. Twelve years later, three boys navigated the Bow River through the western side of the city on a raft nailed together railway ties. Barry was at the helm, steering the adventure. He found mountain climbing in the books of his high school library, some of which are still in his possession. A six-month trip to the French Alps in 1980 set the course of Barry’s life: to climb the steepest and most complicated faces of the world’s great glaciated peaks.

Barry has enjoyed some success: the first ascent of The Andromeda Strain, 1983; the North Ridge of Rakaposhi, 1984; the first ascent of the apocalyptic North Pillar of North Twin, 1985; the West Ridge of Mt Everest, 1986; surviving the Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat, 1988; a solo first ascent on the North Face of Kusum Kanguru, 1991; an attempt on K-2, 1993; first ascents in the St Elias mountains; M-16, a first ascent in winter on the East Face of Howse Peak, 1999; the third ascent of the Infinite Spur on MT Foraker, 2000; the first ascent of Infinite Patience on the Emperor Face of Mt Robson, 2002.

More importantly, Barry has enjoyed all of his outings, even the ones not included in the narrow definition of “success”. Barry moved to the mountains in 1982 to pursue his Mountain Guiding career (he is an internationally certified -UIAGM- mountain guide) which has included making Hollywood features such as “K-2”, “Cliffhanger” and “The Vertical Limit” in his professional life. Barry lives in Canmore, Alberta, with his partner, Nicole, and his two daughters, Rosemary and Eowyn and cat, Orion.

Devin specializes in the financial, organizational, and strategic aspects of family enterprise. He brings a background in corporate strategy, economic analysis and investment banking to his work with family businesses, family offices and family foundations.

He was raised in Toronto, Canada and holds a Master’s from the Kennedy School at Harvard with a focus in finance and economics, as well as a Bachelor of Business Administration from York University. He has worked with private and public sector leaders throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and teaches about family enterprise at Harvard and Kellogg.

Devin’s work with family enterprises focuses on continuity planning, governance design, enterprise risk, shareholder education and development, and strategic sustainability initiatives. He is also leading a global research project out of Kellogg on the resilience of family firms in emerging and frontier markets.

Susie Ellis is chair and CEO of the nonprofit Global Wellness Institute, the wellness industry’s leading research and educational resource. She is also chair and CEO of the Global Wellness Summit, an organization at the heart of the multitrillion-dollar global wellness economy focused on driving collaboration amongst industry leaders. Ellis is a leading authority on wellness trends and a popular speaker at industry events. She sits on numerous academic and industry boards, including the EHL – Swiss Hospitality Management School, the Aspen Brain Institute, the Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics and was a member of the World Economic Forum’s “Accelerating Health and Well-being Initiative.” She holds an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Matt Fullbrook is a corporate governance researcher, speaker and educator based in Toronto. Matt spends all his time either working with boards and executives on corporate governance stuff, or playing music. Find out more about Matt’s governance perspectives here, and more about Matt’s music here.

Will is one of the top adventure sports athletes in the world and has been at it for more than 30 years. He has safely led numerous large TV and research expeditions into highly dangerous — and rewarding — environments, climbed Niagara Falls and taught his kids (and doctors and oil sands workers) to positively manage risk with the direct, entertaining and effective tools he learned through a lifetime of living on the edge.

He speaks with personal humor and professional depth on effective and widely applicable tools to stay safe, build team resiliency, succeed in low-knowledge environments and do what the experts said was, “Impossible!”

He has presented more than 200 high-end presentations to groups from Exxon Mobil to incarcerated youth. Most recently, he and his teams found new life forms in glacial caves for a Discovery TV show and helped a planetary scientist sample the world’s oldest rocks in Canada’s Arctic.

Kathi Irvine, Co-Founder with her husband Geoff Powter of Watershed Inc., works with organizations in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. With over 20 years of leadership and training experience, she shares her extensive knowledge of change leadership, knowledge transfer, strategic planning and employee engagement.

She is a strong supporter of community engagement and is currently the vice chair of artsPlace Board of Directors in Canmore, as well as a board member of the Banff Canmore Community Foundation. Kathi lives in Canmore, where she takes advantage of the beauty of the Canadian Rockies skiing, hiking and cycling.

Rachel is a lawyer, humanitarian and advocate. As a thought leader on reimagining humanitarian health crisis response, Rachel promotes values of humanity, justice and solidarity in all aspects of global health. Unafraid to challenge the status quo, Rachel demonstrates how we can and must take a new approach in responding to health crises. The decolonized approach to humanitarian action she proposes is inclusive, participative, co-created and, most importantly, inspired and led by communities to address their health crises, their way.

Rachel has received several awards for her work, including the Women Y Foundation’s Woman of Distinction Award 2020, and was featured in the Canadian media in 2020 for her work. She also received Future of Good’s “21 New Founders to Watch” Award in 2020.

She has written extensively, most recently for The Lancet, CBC North and Medium. Rachel is known for her storytelling. She speaks frequently at international events, where she weaves together stories from her thirty years of firsthand grassroots experiences to engage audiences on core issues of community and female empowerment, decolonisation and governance, justice in access to medicines and the power of humanity and solidarity.

Mary-Anne Malleret is currently the Director of the Summit of Minds, an international series of high level gatherings. She also contributes regularly to the written content of the Monthly Barometer, a content platform focusing on macro issues. In 2020 and 2021, she collaborated closely on the writing of The Great Reset and The Great Narrative, and in 2017 co-authored with Thierry Malleret 10 Good Reasons To Go For a Walk, a book that conveys the vital message that walking can change our lives and our world.

Mary-Anne holds a degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford. In a former life, her career was in the commercial art world in London, Paris and New York. Then from 1991 to 1998, she served in the private office of HM King Charles III, when he was The Prince of Wales. Today, her treasured pastimes are hiking, cross country skiing, painting, gardening and keeping up with her four daughters – who are scattered across the globe.

Thierry is the managing partner of the Monthly Barometer, a succinct predictive analysis provided to private investors, global CEOs and some of today's most influential opinion and decision-makers. He and his partners also invest in adjacent businesses and run the Summit of Minds. He was, until 2011, a senior partner at IJ (Informed Judgement) Partners, an investment boutique for ultra-high-net-worth individuals based in Geneva, and prior to that managing partner at Rainbow Insight, an advisory boutique which he founded, providing tailor-made intelligence to investors. Previously, Thierry founded and headed the Global Risk Network at the World Economic Forum, a network that brings together top opinion and policymakers, CEOs and academics to look at how global issues will affect business and society in the short and long term. For a number of years in succession, Thierry conceived and put in place the programme for Davos and spoke at global, industry and regional events. His other professional experience includes: investment banking (as a Chief Economist and Strategist of a major Russian investment bank and as an Economist at the EBRD in London), think tanks and academia (both in New York and Oxford) and government (with a three-year spell in the Prime Minister's office in Paris).

Thierry has written several business and academic books, and has published four novels (two of which under a pen-name). In addition, he is a public speaker with some of the world’s leading agencies. He also sits on several advisory boards.

Jeffrey J. McCaig is Chairman of the Trimac Transportation group of companies. Trimac is one of the largest providers of bulk trucking services in North America and also provides complementary logistics services, including transload facility operations, distribution management and freight brokerage.

Jeff has been with the Trimac Group of Companies since August 1983. He became President of Trimac Corporation in 1990 and was Chief Executive Officer from 1994 to 2015. Prior to Joining Trimac in 1983, Mr. McCaig practiced law in Calgary, first as an associate of MacKimmie Matthews, then through Jeffrey J. McCaig Professional Corporation, focusing on corporate financing and securities. He continues to be a member of the Law Society of Alberta.

In addition to being a Director and chairing the Boards of the Trimac group of companies, Mr. McCaig is a Director and Chairman of MEG Energy, a Canadian oil sands company. He is also a Director and Chairman of Bantrel Company, an engineering, procurement and construction company in the energy sector and a Director and Co-owner of the Calgary Flames Hockey Club. He also serves as Chairman of the Flames Foundation for Life.

He obtained his undergraduate degree in Economics from Harvard; his law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Canada; and his Master of Science in Management degree from the Sloan Program, Stanford University.

Jeff is married with three grown children and resides in Calgary, Alberta.

Entrepreneur, trend-spotter, reputed public speaker (in Davos in 2012 on "Sensing Weak Signals"), Estelle Métayer is an expert in strategic intelligence. Her work focuses on working with CEOs and board members to strengthen their strategic oversight and avoid strategic blind spots. Her best work is done when businesses are facing drastic adaptation requiring a strategic action plan, need to drastically change the way they do business and/or grow aggressively.

A skilled and intuitive Board Director, she serves or has served with family businesses, publicly quoted and private companies’ boards globally - in luxury, food, retail, automotive, fintech and consumer goods.

Dr. Jack M. Mintz is the President’s Fellow of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary after serving as the Palmer Chair and founding Director from January 1, 2008, to June 30, 2015.

He also serves on the board of Imperial Oil Limited and Alberta Health Services. He is a Distinguished Senior Fellow, MacDonald-Laurier Institute, Senior Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute, and research fellow at International Tax and Investment Centre in Washington D.C., CESIfo Germany and Oxford’s Centre of Business Taxation. He is also a regulator contributor to the Financial Post and is a member of the editorial board of International Tax and Public Finance.

Dr. Mintz became a member of the Order of Canada in 2015 as well as receiving the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 for service to the Canadian tax policy community.

Geoff is the co-founder of the Watershed Inc. He trained as a clinical psychologist and has helped organizations, leaders and teams realize their fullest potential for more than 30 years.

Geoff has a deep personal and academic passion for the place of risk in our lives: He has been a committed mountain climber since his teenage years and is the author of award-winning books on risk and adventure. Both those experiences inform the work he does with leaders, helping them understand their own appetites for risk and their ability to lead others to take constructive risks.

Geoff has been widely recognized for his contributions to the adventure world — serving 13 years as the Editor of the Canadian Alpine Journal, receiving the President’s Medal from the Alpine Club of Canada and the Bill March Summit of Excellence Award for lifetime contribution to Canada’s mountain culture. Geoff also sat on the Board of Directors of Travel Alberta crown agency.

Carine is the Executive Director of the Alpine Club of Canada and is also actively involved in the local community, serving on some of the Bow Valley’s not for profit boards. She hails from Chamonix, France and has a diverse background with more than 25 years’ experience in executive management, corporate governance and leadership in the outdoors industry. A caring leader and mountain enthusiast, Carine’s professional background includes 15 years in the financial industry before starting an advisory firm and launching Mountain Path, a company aiming to develop responsible leadership within organizations through experiential learning activities in the mountains.

Chic Scott is a mountaineer, skier, guide, historian and author. He has dedicated his life to the mountains.

In 1967, with three companions, he made the first ski traverse across the icefields of the Continental Divide from Jasper to Lake Louise. Later that year, he and two companions made the first winter ascent of Mount Assiniboine. Since then, Chic has climbed extensively in the European Alps and was one of the first Canadians to climb in the Himalaya. He has continued to climb and ski in the Canadian mountains making several long ski traverses through the Columbia Mountains and climbing the east ridge of Mount Logan, Canada’s highest mountain.

For the last 30 years Chic has been researching, writing and producing books about the Canadian mountains. To date he has published about a dozen books — ski guidebooks, biographies and history books. In 2014, Chic published Mountain Romantics — The Whyites of Banff, the story of Banff’s leading family. His most recent book, Mount Assiniboine — The Story, recently won the John Fry Award for Excellence from the International Skiing History Association.

Chic and his wife Kathy live in Banff, where they continue to ski and hike. His current project is a history of the Alpine Club of Canada.

Eric provides counsel as an investor, director and advisor to a range of companies in the tech and financial space. He is Managing Partner of TwinRiver Capital, an Impact Investment firm with the dual goals of environmental and social impact and strong financial returns.

A seasoned investor, he previously led CPPIB’s Public Markets group, a platform of portfolio managers analysts and traders investing globally over C$180B. Prior, he was CIO, International at Fidelity in Boston.

He sits on the Boards of the TMX Group, IMCO, Enterra Solutions and Niyogin Fintech, and is a past director of the UN-PRI of the CFA Society Boston.

Ed is a public policy professional who advises clients on clean energy, climate change and industrial decarbonization. His past and present clients span the renewable power, heavy industry and cleantech sectors.

Ed is the co-host of Energy vs Climate, Canada's most popular podcast on how climate change is reshaping our energy systems. He is also a fellow with the Public Policy Forum and a mentor with the Creative Destruction Lab.

Ed is the former executive director of the Pembina Institute, a past director of the Alberta Energy Regulator, and a past member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the Future of Oil and Gas and Royal Dutch Shell’s External Review Committee. In 2016, Ed was named one of Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People by Alberta Venture magazine. His op-eds have been published in newspapers and magazines across Canada and internationally.