PRESENTERS

Brent Barootes is the founding partner of the Partnership Group - Sponsorship Specialists™ and has been engaged in the sponsorship and sports marketing industry for over two and a half decades. Brent has worked in the industry on both the brand buying sponsor side as well as the property sponsorship selling side. His experience ranges from sports and sports broadcasting to local, national and international charities and non-profits along with municipal, government and member association sponsorship marketing.

In 2001, Brent created the Partnership Group - Sponsorship Specialists™, a Calgary based national sponsorship consulting firm. In addition to his role as President and CEO with the firm, Brent is actively involved in sponsorship mentoring with clients. He leads his team of professionals in providing sponsorship valuations and audits, inventory/benefit development, package development, prospect development and mentoring of staff and volunteers for both corporations engaging in sponsorship as well as selling properties. Brent also is an accomplished public speaker delivering over 50 presentations last year for events such as the SMCC Western Sponsorship Congress™ and other national and regional conferences, events and meetings.

 

Bruce is a strategist, speaker, productivity coach and MC. His passion over the past 20 years is working with individuals and organizations to enhance leadership results and individual productivity through strategic planning sessions and interactive workshops in business acceleration that improves bottom lines, increases market share and employee and customer loyalty and retention. As a former business owner and having been involved in 4 businesses from a good cross section of industry, Bruce brings a hands on approach to the challenges we all face from time to time. Each presentation includes a variety of additional resources and tools after to support the training and measure skill levels.

To learn more, visit www.bruceleespeaker.com

 

Christi Cruz is one of 33,000 proud team members at TELUS, a company known for delivering innovative telecommunications solutions to Canadians.

Christi has presented at international conferences and has taught at Mount Royal College University. You can often find her engaged in heated discussions about the importance of creating models of shared value.

For the past sixteen years, Christi has helped shape TELUS’ reputation as a recognized leader in community investment. A self described creative problem solver, she enjoys working on complex projects, the most memorable being the 2010 TELUS Go Pink campaign, a milestone cause marketing and social media campaign that raised $2.45M for eleven leading breast cancer charities in Canada.

Although passionate about her work, she is most proud of her championship status as an award winning storyteller and internationally renowned grilled cheese maker.

 

Randy Sageman brings over 20 years of experience and passion for developing partnerships, generating revenue and building organizational capacity for organizations. For over a decade Randy worked with the MS Society of Canada where he was instrumental in developing and driving their national corporate partnership program. Prior to his fundraising career, Randy gained valuable experience through professional golf and soccer and several amateur sport and mass audience events. Randy was a member of the national Diving Team representing Canada at numerous international competitions including the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

 

With a passion for sponsorship marketing and more than a decade of diverse industry experience from Film, Fashion, Figure Skating and Music, to Motorsports, Football, Soccer and Hockey, Tyler has built successful, strategic partnerships with some of Canada’s biggest brands across the sport and entertainment landscape.

In his current role as Director, Business Development, for the Canadian Football League, Tyler oversees the development of the league's corporate sponsorship strategy including the iconic 100th Year of the Grey Cup.   Since joining the league in early 2011, Tyler has developed and negotiated a number of new partnerships including Sun Life Financial, Nestle, Cisco Systems, and Whirlpool.

Prior to joining the CFL, Tyler worked as the Senior Director, Corporate Partnerships for IMG Canada.  There he cultivated partnerships across a vast array of properties with tier-1 companies like Audi, CIBC, Ford, Kraft, Molson Coors, Samsung, and Visa.  He represented a diverse mix of properties including FIFA World Cup, Red Bull, LG Fashion Week, Stars on Ice and the Canadian Soccer Association; and such high-profile athletes as Mike Weir, Steve Nash, and Alexander Ovechkin.

Tyler’s career portfolio also includes Molson Sports and Entertainment, where he created and sold integrated partnerships for a number of top properties including Molson Indy Toronto/Vancouver, Bell Making the Cut, National Lacrosse League and Molson Canadian Snow Jam; RBC Financial Group; The Toronto International Film Festival; and Arts & Communications.  

Tyler is an active member of the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada (SMCC) .  In addition to sitting on the Board of Directors for the SMCC, he’s a selection committee judge for the 2012 Sponsorship Marketing Awards.  Tyler sits on the ABC life literacy business development committee and the George Brown College Sport and Event Marketing 20th Anniversary committee where he helped to create and launch Canada’s first ever Sports Business Awards: 5 to Watch and Leadership in Canadian Sports Business.   Tyler resides in Oakville, Ontario with his wife and three kids.  Follow Tyler on twitter @sponsoralliance or sign-up for his blog on sponsorshipalliance.com for more on his perspectives of the sponsorship industry.

 

Erin Armstrong is the Manager of Donor Development and Corporate Relations for CARE Canada, a position she has held since January 2010. In this role, she is responsible for securing support and working in collaboration with individual major donors, corporations, and foundations. Erin has 10 years experience in the non-profit sector helping organizations in the health, social, and international development sectors. Erin lived and volunteered in Nairobi, Kenya several years ago working with vulnerable children and she continues to support several children today by assisting with their college education and vocational training. Seeing the impact that can be made through training and skill development is what brought Erin to the CARE family. She believes firmly believes that together through partnerships with the private sector, civil society, communities and government we can create solutions to global poverty challenges.

 

Christi Cruz is one of 33,000 proud team members at TELUS, a company known for delivering innovative telecommunications solutions to Canadians.

Christi has presented at international conferences and has taught at Mount Royal College University. You can often find her engaged in heated discussions about the importance of creating models of shared value.

For the past sixteen years, Christi has helped shape TELUS’ reputation as a recognized leader in community investment. A self described creative problem solver, she enjoys working on complex projects, the most memorable being the 2010 TELUS Go Pink campaign, a milestone cause marketing and social media campaign that raised $2.45M for eleven leading breast cancer charities in Canada.

Although passionate about her work, she is most proud of her championship status as an award winning storyteller and internationally renowned grilled cheese maker.

 

Ilan Clemens is a dynamic communications professional with a bold approach to life and business. She puts the pillars of honesty, integrity, passion and results behind every project and utilizes her keen instincts and 20 years of media and business experience to achieve excellence. Her company Loud Mouth Communications works with leading entertainment properties and many of Canada’s top companies. Ilan believes people are the foundation of a strong community and feels everyone should be willing to step up, give back and help others. She donates time to many charitable causes. She is also an accomplished recreational endurance athlete.

 

Since 2007, Georgia Dahle has served as the Director of Corporate Communications for Mr. Lube Canada, where she oversees the Mr. Lube Foundation and its charitable giving programs. To this role, Georgia brings over fifteen years of experience in strategic marketing, communications and event management. She successfully combines this expertise with her in-depth knowledge of corporate social responsibility and community building and outreach.

Before joining Mr. Lube Canada, Georgia was the Founder and Principal Director of Method Event Planning. After forming the successful event management and strategic marketing company in 1999, she had the opportunity to work with numerous blue-chip brands and public sector organizations.

In the years prior, Georgia has demonstrated a proven track record in project management, complex negotiations, strategic planning and operational analysis, which led to numerous consulting and leadership roles with all levels of government. In this capacity she managed large-scale conferences and programs locally, nationally and internationally.

Active in the marketing community at large, Georgia has held senior roles in the online advertising and marketing fields. Among them, Georgia joined the Board of Directors for the BC Chapter of the American Marketing Association in 2004, culminating in her role as President in 2009/2010. Today, Georgia is a guest lecturer at the International Internet Marketing Association, Kwantlen University and Capilano University, where she graduated in Business Administration.

 

Jerilynn Daniels is the Sr Manager, Community Investments and Marketing for RBC, Alberta and Territories. In 2006 after more than 12 years in not-for-profit working in roles ranging from front line support to Director of Fund Development and Communications, Jerilynn made the move to the “other side” of the funding equation. She now works at her dream job, fulfilling her love of community with the desire to work in a corporate environment.

A passionate community supporter, Jerilynn is the co founder of the Calgary Chapter of Room to Read, Board member for the Children’s Wish Foundation of Alberta and NWT, and Board member for the United Way of Cochrane and Area.

A graduate of the University of Calgary, Jerilynn has been fortunate to have worked her entire career in Calgary.

In 2010, Jerilynn was the recipient of the Hazel Gillespie Community Investment Leadership Award, the first Community Investment professional to receive the award after Hazel herself.

Jerilynn resides in Cochrane with her husband Mike, 2 wonderful children, and slightly overweight cat.

 

SHARON GROOM is a Partner at McMillan LLP in Toronto where she regularly advises clients on sponsorship agreements as part of her practice in the areas of Intellectual Property, and Advertising and Marketing law. Prior to joining the firm, Sharon practiced in house with Harlequin Enterprises Limited where she was Director of Legal Affairs, Thomas Cook Group where she was General Counsel for the Americas and Newbridge Networks Corporation where she advised on various technology issues. Sharon is also an adjudicator for .ca domain name disputes. Sharon received her B. Mus. in piano performance and LL.B from Queen's University.

 

Enigma is a market research firm specializing in sponsorship and event marketing. Enigma is an International corporation with offices in Canada and the United States and one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of event sponsorship. Since 1993, the firm has conducted sponsorship-related research at over 500 events, including virtually every type of festival, fair, sports event, trade show, and consumer show.

Corporate clientele includes many of the world’s largest event marketers, including auto manufacturers, financial institutions, airlines, and telecoms. Michael is regularly invited to be a guest lecturer at major colleges and event-related conferences, has studied statistics and marketing at Carleton University in Ottawa and developed sampling techniques to obtain accurate cross-sections of event attendees. Beginning in fall 2012, he will be a part-time professor teaching sponsorship development at a Toronto-area college.

Michael resides in the Toronto region with his wife and three young children and is fundraising chair for the local school council. Hobbies include restoring classic cars and playing in a rock band.

To learn more about Enigma Research, visit www.enigmaresearch.com

 

Mark Jackson, the founder of Promotion Resource Group has worked extensively in the promotional product industry for over 22 years. Mark focuses on activities that will add value and enhance client relationships by use of technology, research and process management. Mark is active on the North America Technology and Operations Board of ASI, which represents over 25,000 promotional distributors.

 

Ian has been working in the advertising and communications field for 30 years - first through the eyes of account management at various advertising agencies and most recently as the head of Panasonic Canada’s Corporate Brand Management department.

Ian’s path began at Cockfield Brown advertising in 1981 where he worked on the Esso and Sony accounts at the agency’s sales promotion division. That led to a similar career opportunity at McCann-Erickson where Ian worked on Coca-Cola, Rogers Communications and Labatt Breweries. After a two year stint at FCB/Ronalds-Reynolds on the Mazda account, Ian moved client side with Panasonic Canada Inc.

In 18 years at Panasonic, Ian has risen from Director of Corporate Communications to his current title of General Manager, Corporate Brand Management. Along the way Ian has been responsible for overseeing Panasonic’s advertising and PR budgets as well as Panasonic’s sponsorship of various environmental, cultural and sporting events.

Ian, a graduate of Ryerson’s Radio & TV Arts program, is married and has two children

 

Melinda Kretz has been a marketer in the IT industry for over 10 years and has experience in a broad range of disciplines, including events, direct marketing and advertising.

Melinda’s current role of National Sponsorship Manager at IBM allows her to keep a foot in the marketing camp while working directly with the sales organization, helping them to achieve their goals by delivering amazing customer experiences. She is responsible for developing programs that demonstrate IBM’s desire to make the world work better through technology.

Originally from Alberta, Melinda is a graduate of the University of Lethbridge and holds degrees in Arts and Management. A true Canadian, she splits her time between the west, Ontario - where she currently resides, and the beautiful east coast.

 

Lucie Lamoureux is the Corporate Director of Sponsorship and Social Comitments at Loto-Québec since 2003. Created in 1969 to set up a public lottery, the Corporation has since been entrusted by the Government of Québec, with various new mandates that have led to a considerable diversification of its business activities over the years.

Prior to joining Loto-Québec, Lucie was General Manager of Corporate Sponsorship for Bell Canada, the Country’s largest communications company. She has progressed through a number of assignments in Multi Brand Consumer and Business Communication strategies, Sponsorship, Philanthropy, Advertising, Customer Relations and Community investments programs. She is a frequent speaker on sponsorship and activation programs.

Lucie is well known in Canada for her passion and expertise in the Sponsorship field where she brings more than 20 years of experience.

 

Bruce is a strategist, speaker, productivity coach and MC. His passion over the past 20 years is working with individuals and organizations to enhance leadership results and individual productivity through strategic planning sessions and interactive workshops in business acceleration that improves bottom lines, increases market share and employee and customer loyalty and retention. As a former business owner and having been involved in 4 businesses from a good cross section of industry, Bruce brings a hands on approach to the challenges we all face from time to time. Each presentation includes a variety of additional resources and tools after to support the training and measure skill levels.

To learn more, visit www.bruceleespeaker.com

 

With ten years of professional experience in the marketing industry, Tim Maloney currently holds the position of Director – Brand Marketing at Purolator Inc.

In his role, he has the responsibility of leading Purolator’s brand management, advertising, corporate sponsorship, events, hospitality, field marketing and association sales. Most recently, Tim was the project lead of Purolator’s Vancouver 2010 Winter Games sponsorship, while also launching the company’s new brand advertising campaign. Prior to joining Purolator, Mr. Maloney was Manager of Marketing Properties at Canada Basketball.

A native of Halifax, NS, Mr. Maloney attended Dalhousie University for his undergraduate studies in Kinesiology where he played both varsity basketball and soccer. Following his undergraduate work, he completed his MBA at the University of Alberta with a focus in marketing.

 

Derek Martin is the founder and leader of Sports & Entertainment Atlantic. Since launching in 2006, S|E|A’s services have continued to expand and today focus on not only creating unique sport properties but also sponsorship activation and event management.

S|E|A has contributed to a number of high profile sporting events throughout Canada including the Vanier Cup, Touchdown Atlantic, Uteck Bowl, Saint Mary’s University Football, Football Canada Cup, Canada Winter Games, Tall Ships Nova Scotia Festival, Canadian Open (Volleyball Canada) and the successful 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch Junior World Championships on the Halifax Waterfront; This visionary event involved trucking 2,000 tons of sand and 2,000 temporary seats into a downtown parking lot to create a world class beach volleyball stadium.

In addition to creating and producing unique sport properties, S|E|A also works with a number of brands to help bring their sport sponsorships to life. Most recently, they have worked with Rogers (CIS Uteck Bowl), Pepsi (CIS Final 8), Molson (Touchdown Atlantic), and the Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation (2011 Canada Games) creating unique, targeted activations to help their clients achieve their goals.

 

With 20 years experience fundraising in Canada and internationally Ross Marsh has worked with over 120 clients on campaigns with goals from $500,000 to $200 million, as well as a myriad of other projects spanning the education, health, religious, arts and culture, sports and social service sectors. His work has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades from industry groups, fundraising professionals and others. He leads a team of 12 Associates with approximately 250 years combined experience in development, corporate sponsorship and non-profit management.

Ross has a diverse fundraising and management background with a solid track record of success in many types of development projects. From 1990 to 2004, Ross was with DVA Navion, an international fundraising consulting firm. Starting as a consultant, Ross progressed all the way through DVA Navion's ranks to become President of the Canadian division, overseeing all aspects of client services and management of the business. In 2004 Ross established Ross W. Marsh & Associates to provide the charitable sector with something new; personalized, senior-level, hands-on service in collaboration with other senior practitioners to organizations in Western Canada and Ontario.

In addition to being an award-winning fundraiser, Ross has become known for his particular expertise in strategic planning, major gift development and helping clients to build comprehensive, integrated, high-performance development programs.

A graduate of the University of Toronto, Ross has sat on a number of for-profit and not-for-profit boards, including the Beta Theta Pi Foundation of Canada, Hillandale Corporation, LinkAGES Foundation (where he chaired the fund development committee), Sage Theatre (where he currently chairs the fund development committee) and is a founding trustee of the Dave Williams Leadership Fund at the Edmonton Community Foundation. He is a sought-after presenter and facilitator, has been a guest lecturer at Conestoga College in Kitchener, Ontario, Mt. Royal College in Calgary, Alberta and Swinburne University's Graduate School for Entrepreneurship in Melbourne, Australia. Ross is also a regular speaker and presenter at conferences and workshops for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Association of Healthcare Philanthropy, Canadian Association of Gift Planners, Canadian Association of Independent Schools, Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education, Alberta Association of Fundraising Executives and others. He is an active community volunteer, is a mentor through the AFP Calgary chapter, and has authored a number of published articles on industry issues.

 

Norm O’Reilly is an accomplished scholar and active business professional. He is full-time, tenure-line associate professor at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Health Sciences, specializing in sport business. He teaches courses in both English and French related to sport management, sport finance, and sport marketing. Dr. O’Reilly is also a Senior Advisor with TrojanOne, a Toronto-headquartered marketing agency with offices in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal.

Since first teaching at the university level in 2000, Dr. O’Reilly has taught more than 4,000 students. Prior to coming to the University of Ottawa, he previously taught at the David Falk Center for Sport Management at Syracuse University, the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, the School of Sports Administration at Laurentian University, and the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University.

A former School Director and Director of a Research Centre (the Institute for Sport Marketing) at Laurentian, Dr. O’Reilly is an active researcher and he has published 4 books, over 50 articles in refereed management journals and more than 100 conference proceedings and case studies in the areas of sport management, tourism marketing, marketing, risk management, sport finance, and social marketing. His research has been funded on two occasions by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). At conferences, he has won 8 Best Paper awards. Dr. O’Reilly is the lead researcher on the Canadian Sponsorship Landscape Study, a highlight of the annual Canadian Sponsorship Forum since 2007, currently in its 6th edition.

Dr. O’Reilly holds a PhD in Management from the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, a MBA from the Telfer School of Management at the University of Ottawa, a MA in Sports Administration from the University of Ottawa, and a B.Sc. (Kinesiology) from the University of Waterloo. Dr. O’Reilly also holds the CGA Accounting Designation.

Dr. O’Reilly has considerable experience as a volunteer Board Member and Executive Board Member of multiple organizations (including the Canadian Olympic Committee, Diving Canada and Triathlon Canada), employee, and consultant. He has further been active with a number charities, including the Ad Astra group who fund-raised over $150,000 to build a school for kids at a Nepalese orphanage and the Garnier FindingLife Africa 2011 Expedition which provided the opportunity for 6 Canadian High School students and 3 Canadian University students to collaborate, in Africa, with Kenya students on the building of classrooms in schools, a safari and a summit attempt of Mount Kenya.

Dr. O’Reilly is former North America Regional Editor of the Journal of Sponsorship. Dr. O’Reilly sits on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Sport Finance, the International Journal of Sport Communications, and is a Regional Editor for the Sport, Business, and Management Journal. Dr. O’Reilly has also been involved with a number of major research projects including projects with Gatorade, the Golf Association of Ontario and ParticipACTION.

Prior to joining academia, Dr. O’Reilly had involvement as an administrator, including Senior Policy Officer at Sport Canada, Team Manager & Office Manager at Triathlon Canada, and Event Manager for the 2008 Toronto Olympic Bid. He has been a member of the 2004, 2008 and 2010 Mission Staff for the Canadian Olympic Committee at the Olympic Games.

Dr. O’Reilly is an active athlete, who still competes in triathlons, long-distance runs, cross-country skiing events and ice hockey leagues/tournaments. He is former captain of the University of the Ottawa Gee Gee’s swim team (1999-2000) and a member of the University of Waterloo OUA champion Nordic ski team in 1996. He has completed 6 Ironman triathlons and represented Canada at 5 long distance World Triathlon Championships in his age-group, finishing as high as 17th in 1997. He has taken up mountain climbing, where he recently climbed to the summit of Mount Aconcagua, at 7,000m the highest mountain in North and South America, and Mount Kenya, Africa’s second highest point.

 

Neil Parekh leads the corporate development team at World Vision Canada, specializing in corporate giving, employee engagement, and corporate sponsorship. Prior to joining World Vision 6 years ago, Neil worked in various finance, program management and business development roles during his 9 years at Celestica Inc, a Canadian-based multinational in the electronics manufacturing industry. Neil holds an MBA from the University of Ottawa and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

 

Daniel has worked for Triple Five Group of Companies and West Edmonton Mall since 1999. He started his career in Marketing and Promotions and, in 2003, took on the exciting and challenging role as the Vice President, Specialty Leasing and Partnerships.

Daniel and his team manage West Edmonton Mall’s Specialty Leasing Portfolio consisting of 227 Tenants. They’re also responsible for developing new revenue streams for the Corporation focusing on innovative partnership strategies. Their work has enabled brands like Coca Cola, Kodak, Microsoft, LG, and many others, to engage the 32 Million Visitors that the iconic shopping centre receives each year.

Daniel’s goal is to create systematic measured campaigns that help brands touch visitors in a profound way and make the experience even more memorable.

Daniel draws creativity and strength from his experience as a father to four amazing kids, who constantly remind him that he needs to work on his negotiating skills, and what is most important in life. He volunteers as Co-Chair of the Safeway Father’s Day Walk/Run for Prostate Cancer Edmonton, and having completing his fourth event this year. With his extra time, he spends weekends fishing and enjoying the outdoors.

 

Laurie Rooksby joined RBC in 2005 and since 2009 has held the position of Advisor of Sponsorships & Marketing. Within the Alberta & the Territories region, Laurie is responsible for leading the planning and activation of national and regional sponsorships that enhance the RBC Social Brand.

Previous to RBC, Laurie worked for the Terry Fox Foundation and the David Thompson Health Region where she was involved in the planning and execution of various regional and provincial special events and projects.

Laurie holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of Calgary and certificates in Event Management and Public Relations from Mount Royal University.

In her spare time, Laurie continues to pursue her Olympic dream on the OLHL (Old Ladies Hockey League.)

 

Danielle is the Manager of Fund Development at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (SAAG) – a leading contemporary art gallery located in Lethbridge, Alberta. Danielle has been in this position since 2009 and is responsible for grant writing, audience development, individual giving, fundraising events, and corporate sponsorship. Sponsorship has become an integral part of SAAG’s Fund Development program and Danielle enjoys working with corporate partners on a variety of programs, events, and initiatives.

Danielle grew up in Lethbridge and graduated from the University of Lethbridge. She is involved with a number of volunteer organizations in the community and is a board member for both the Rotary Club of Lethbridge Urban Spirits and the Association of Fundraising Professionals – Southern Alberta Chapter.