2008 speakers
Paul Born
In 2002, Paul Born co-founded and now directs Tamarack - An Institute for Community Engagement, a ten year journey and partnership with Alan Broadbent of the Avana Capital Corporation.
More than 10,000 subscribers engage in Tamarack's learning community. Vibrant Communities, in collaboration with the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and the Caledon Institute of Social Policy, is Tamarack's signature work and is active in 15 cities and has so far reduced the impact of poverty for more than 35,000 people in Canada.
Paul was the Executive Director and founder of The Community Opportunities Development Association (CODA) for 12 years (now Lutherwood), one of Canada's most successful community economic development organizations and Opportunities 2000, a millennium campaign to reduce poverty in Waterloo Region to the lowest in Canada, which received the United Nations' Top 40 Projects Worldwide in 1998.
A motivational, inspiring and informative speaker, Paul has extensive experience in helping organizations and communities to develop new and sustainable ideas that motivate people to collaborative action.
Paul holds a Masters degree in Leadership from Royal Roads University, is a Mennonite inspired by Yoga and Buddhism, and a dad who loves to cook.
Mark Cabaj
Mark Cabaj is the Lead Coach for Tamarack – An Institute for Community Engagement. He works with foundations, all levels of government, voluntary organizations and businesses to assist them with their specific community engagement efforts – particularly around complex community issues such as poverty, community safety, or homelessness. www.tamarackcommunity.ca
Mark joined Tamarack in 2002 and, for five years, served as the Lead for Vibrant Communities – a Canadian network of communities and national organizations that use a collaborative, comprehensive approaches to substantially reducing poverty.
www.vibrantcommunities.ca
As Lead Coach, Mark coordinates the activities of a group of experienced community builders who are hungry for transformational changes in community well-being, and are developing new approaches and strategies to support communities that are serious about tackling the most complex challenges and opportunities of our time – ecological resiliency, community safety, education, homeless, poverty and more.
In the 1990s, Mark served as the Foreign Assistance Coordinator for Grants in Poland’s Ministry of Privatization and was the Mission Coordinator for the United Nations Development Program’s first regional economic development initiative in Eastern Europe.
He was also the Coordinator of the Waterloo Region’s Opportunities 2000 project – an initiative that won provincial, national and international awards for its multisectoral approach to poverty reduction. He provided planning and evaluation support for community-economic-development and regional development organizations, and served briefly as the Executive Director of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet).
Mark lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with Leann and their children, Isaiah and Zoe.
Mike Dover
Mike Dover is the Vice President, Syndicated Research at nGenera. Over the past four years, Mike has been in charge of operations and participated in content development for five multi-client research programs including The Net Generation Strategic Investigation and Information Technology & Competitive Advantage. These programs delivered high value strategic content to Fortune 2000 companies as well as important public sector organizations. In 2008, Dover will be the project leader for the syndicated study Net Generation: Talent 2.0 which will investigate how youths operate as employees and consumers.
Dover has investigated the role of IT in business for thirteen years, spending the past ten at nGenera examining customer capital and business model innovations. He has consulted to such industries as consumer packaged goods, software and financial services as well as to provincial, state and federal government agencies.
Dover has authored more than thirty white papers and case studies, and been widely published in the business press including articles in Optimize, the National Post and the Globe & Mail. He also is regular commentator about technology and society in broadcast media including most major Canadian networks.
In addition, he has provided content and/or editorial support to the following business books.
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Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want, by James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine, 2007
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Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, 2006
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The Power of the 2 x 2 Matrix : Using 2x2 Thinking to Solve Business Problems and Make Better Decisions, by Alex Lowy and Phil Hood, 2003
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Digital Capital, by Don Tapscott, David Ticoll, and Alex Lowy, 2000
Dedicated to business education, Mike was named one of the top five mentors to young professionals in Ontario and contributes to the eBusiness curricula at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Richard Ivey School of Business. He holds two business degrees from the Richard Ivey School of Business, the University of Western Ontario.
David Webb
David Webb, Associate Vice President of Ipsos Forward, has a wealth of expertise in market research stemming from his educational background and six years experience as a consultant. David has provided both qualitative and quantitative research consulting services to clients in a variety of sectors including agriculture, food and animal health. His work has included market analysis, brand positioning, customer satisfaction and loyalty, communications testing and market potential and needs analysis for products and technologies still in development. David has a B A. in Economics, to go along with a MSc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Guelph.
David works with Ipsos, the largest market research company in Canada. He works specifically with Ipsos Agribusiness, Food and Animal Health division which is dedicated to the advancement of animal health and acting as a strong communications link between the many stakeholders in the animal health and veterinary fields. |