Thinking Inside the Box

Mari Ryan is an Award-Winning Author, Speaker &  Workplace Well-being strategist that creates healthy, thriving workplaces. Based in Boston, Mari regularly speaks on topics related to employee productivity, well-being strategy, and engagement. The author of The Thriving Hive: How people-centric workplaces ignite engagement and fuel results, Mari is uniquely qualified to discuss well being - ho...

By her own admission, Jay-Ann Gilfoy, CEO, Vancity Community Investment Bank, has always been passionate about leading people and businesses to generate benefits for employees, shareholders, and the broader community culture. She has a gift for entering into complexity and applying systems-thinking to achieve tangible business outcomes. In this insightful conversation, she shares her unique journe...

Amanda Hobson is an award-winning strategic and results oriented finance leader with more than 20 years’ experience in large and international public companies specialising in finance, treasury, investor relations, foreign exchange and interest rate risk management. She is presently the SVP, Investor Relations & Treasury at Finning International.  In this episode, Amanda shares the experiences...

‘I can't motivate my people, but I can architect the support systems that create the conditions for that to occur.’  Teresa Duke is a consultant, leadership coach and writer. She comes from a family of teachers, storytellers, and great listeners. Helping to develop others and sharing knowledge is a gift and an honour.  Teresa works with clients around the globe in some of the largest companie...

James Hancock leads North American operations for mwah (Making Work Absolutely Human) – a people consulting and technology platform designed to make work work better for more people. He believes inclusion, diversity, belonging, flexibility, and other workforce dimensions cannot be dismissed as afterthoughts. Rather, they must be fundamental to the way we approach our relationships with one another...

Mumtaz Chaudhary is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Pragilis, a Vancouver-based boutique change management firm she launched with her husband, Shaheen, in 2006. She has over a decade of experience working with senior executives to develop effective strategies and tactics that help teams and organisations transform.  And against the backdrop of the covid19 pandemic, the most trans-formativ...

Michelle P. King , is a leading global expert in gender and organisations, Director of Inclusion at Netflix and the author of, The Fix: Overcome the Invisible Barriers That Are Holding Women Back at Work. Previously she was head of the UN Women’s Global Innovation Coalition for Change.  Michelle has spent her career advancing women in innovation and technology, leading global diversity and inclusi...

Christopher Lind is a bold, digital-first learning & development leader with 15 years’ experience leading digital learning strategies for some of the world’s largest organizations.  He’s also the Host of Learning Tech Talks, a digital series that evaluates the latest in learning technology.  In this episode, we discuss learning strategies, infrastructure, including technology, and translate it...

Enrique Rubio is an Electronic Engineer, Fulbright Scholar and holds a graduate degree in Public Administration. Over the past 20 years he’s worked in technology & human resources, exploring workplace digitisation, and the intersection of the future of work, technology & HR. His passions led him to found HackingHR, an online global community of HR & business leaders, practitioners, con...

Matt Parson spends a lot of time thinking about how you learn best.  As the Founder of Toronto-based Benji, he’s creating a new category of learning; one that is collaborative, immersive & scalable. He was the COO & Partner of RED Academy, Canada's fastest growing Design & Technology school, and helped launch their Toronto campus.  And suddenly, against the backdrop of the largest...

Nick Wagner is an Organisational Development Consultant who supports team effectiveness, organisational design, and change leadership for Cigna, the Bloomfield, Connecticut-based Fortune-20 health insurance organisation. Though his professional experience spans many disciplines, including information technology, project management, podcasting and several forays into entrepreneurship. And its diver...

In more than 30 years acting as a corporate counselor and advisor to technology professionals, executives, CEOs, CFOs and COOs, Robin Borough has developed a world-class reputation as a career strategist, helping individuals identify and build on their strengths while developing and nurturing a leadership mentality.  Part of that mentality includes reinvention. Each of us have a unique opportunity...

Lorie Corcuera is the Co-Founder and CEO at SPARK Creations & Company Inc., a Vancouver-based training and development organisation that inspires people and companies to create meaningful cultures and workplaces.  Lorie is a strategic business partner and culture leader with over 20 years of experience in culture strategy and implementation, executive coaching, leadership alignment, organisati...

Adam Schorr helps organizations become more innovative. In his own words: ‘I bring with me a strategic mind, a passion for challenging the status quo, an ability to imagine a world that looks different from the one we have today and a fascination with new ideas and the cultures that create them.’ Adam is the Founder of NYC-based Rule No. 1, a consultancy dedicated to helping leaders shape organiza...

Mark Metry, the author of ‘’Screw Being Shy’, believes that communicating your authentic self to others is crucial to achieving success, and counts himself among the 40%-60% of people who report being uncomfortable in social situations. My anecdotal research tells me the number is closer to 100%.   Tackling a difficult subject, social anxiety, head-on, Mark has curated over 50 scientific reference...

Dr. Kelly Tremblay is an audiologist, neuroscientist and newly-retired Professor who’s on a mission to enable the aging workforce to ensure connection and productivity. Notably, she led a team of authors that published recommendations for healthy hearing and aging in the World Report on Aging and Health, and co-authored the WHO’s latest guidelines for the integrated care for older people. In this...

An experienced HR executive, innovative community builder and diverse, talent strategist come together to share their early thoughts on the covid-19 pandemic that’s swept over our planet.  In our present circumstances, we find it hard to distinguish reality from hyperbole. The 24 news cycle, social media & an increasingly-connected world conspire to inundate our senses. In contrast, our presen...

Catherine de la Poer is the founder of Halcyon, a London, UK-based management consulting firm that emphasises the importance of emotional intelligence. With individuals, small teams and organisations, Catherine’s practice addresses both the professional and the personal, helping clients to strengthen their self-awareness to realise happier employees and better performing teams. In this episode, Ca...

An experienced HR executive, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and transformational change champion, Tonille Miller has a breadth of experience that includes roles with some of the world’s leading consultancies, including PwC and KPMG.  And I couldn’t wait to pick her brain on the topic of communications strategy.  Corporate Marketing functions architect strategies that segment consumers us...

In light of recent global events, our content continues to reflect only the most-relevant topics. Bob St. Jacques is a Vancouver-based business executive, consultant and educator. He’s done stints in the C-Suite at multiple global organisations, has led the successful launch of multiple digital transformation consultancies, and is a strategic advisor to HR technology organisations.  Bob holds an u...

In light of recent global events, our content continues to reflect only the most-relevant topics. Nick Hobson is an accomplished scientist, researcher, and entrepreneur, based in Toronto, Canada. With an undergraduate degree in Psychology from McMaster University, and both a Master’s degree and Doctorate in Behavioural Brain Sciences from the University of Toronto, Nick brings a wealth of experien...

In light of recent global events, we wanted to accelerate the release of this episode to assist organisations facing real challenges in ensuring operational continuity.  It is definitely not business-as-usual, though many organisations, including those tasked with serving the public, have real staffing challenges.  Carrie Chitsey is an accomplished entrepreneur. Launching 8 technology businesses,...

Brian Sowards thinks about problems differently. His experiences as a start-up founder, in private equity, venture capital & as a strategist for some of the world’s leading technology organisations, have granted him a broader view of traditional opportunities. Now as a Global Talent Strategist & Head of Partnerships at Ph. Creative, a Liverpool-based employer brand agency, Brian is respons...

Planes, trains & automobiles - such is the life of a professional speaker. Eric Termuende has graced over 250 stages in the past 6 years speaking professionally, asking a simple question: ‘how should we talk about work?’  A best-selling author, entrepreneur & speaker, Eric preaches self-awareness as a pillar of branding - in both the personal and broader organisational (employment) sense....

Jill Katz had everything. An HR Executive at a prestigious NYC-based fashion retailer, a loving husband and two beautiful children, Jill had a life most can only dream of. Though something was missing - impact. In an era where entrepreneurship and the now-(in)famous ‘side hustle’ is romanticised, Jill took the proverbial leap of faith & left her corporate career behind. It hasn’t always been e...