Jennifer He (jenniferhe.com) is a design-driven innovator, seasoned marketer, and business strategist with close to 30 years of international experience, with expertise in insights research, strategic planning, branding, growth strategies, and execution.

 

She started her career at the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and Intel Corporation in Asia. After moving to Toronto in 1999, she became a multi-media designer at a marketing agency and later chief designer and operations officer at a digital media start-up with partners from Alias Research Inc.  From 2004 to 2015, Jennifer worked at BMO Financial Group, from training to senior managerial roles in digital marketing, eBusiness, and strategy, covering various lines of business including retail banking, asset management, and wealth management.

 

These days, she typically works with visionary founders, owners, and C-suite executives of small to medium-sized businesses, leading scale-up teams to get clarity on 3 functions: Brand, Marketing, Sales, what to do, and the skill sets required in each domain. 

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She also works on incumbents' innovation, incubator/accelerator training, and consulting projects. 

 

 As an expert Design Thinking (an innovation method) trainer and facilitator, her secret sauce is "Design Methodologies". "Design" creates things that don't exist and therefore has an innovation component baked into it. Companies, be it small or big, have to do something new once in a while to be sustainable. They need to build the culture and "know-how" to do so.

 

Jennifer is a business mentor of several incubators and a career mentor of the Career Accelerator program at the American Marketing Association (AMA). She holds an MBA from Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and a BA from Shanghai International Studies University.

Polaris Zhao is a client relationship expert with a strong product design and retail management background. She has an academic foundation in Arts and History, Media Studies, and is a professionally trained fashion designer, having graduated from one of the world's top design institutes. Polaris brings over 10 years of professional experience in serving and developing business relationships with high-value clients in the retail sector.

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With her expertise as a luxury women's ready-to-wear designer, combined with her experience in the investment industry and luxury retail management, Polaris possesses an innate understanding of high-ticket sales conversion and client relationship building. She has a unique ability to bridge the gap between clients' needs and high-end retail products, effectively meeting their expectations.

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Polaris previously served as the Client Relationship Manager for Nordstrom Canada Flagship, where she developed the pilot customer retention program into the #1 ranked customer relationship management program across all Nordstrom stores in North America.

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Her specialty lies in driving business growth while strengthening client relationships, endorsing the best products and designs from the retail industry. Polaris’s unique approach involves starting from scratch—thinking like an engineer, operating like a business analyst, innovating like a designer, communicating as a sales expert, and delivering excellence in operations.

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Polaris holds an MBA from the Rotman School of Management and an Honours Bachelor of Arts (HBA) in Art History and Media Studies from the University of Toronto. She also earned a Master of Arts in Fashion Design from Domus Academy in Milan and a certificate in Leadership and Negotiation from Harvard Law School. Additionally, Polaris is a fully licensed investment broker in Canada and has completed qualifications in the Canadian Securities Course (CSC), Conduct and Practices Handbook Course (CPH), and Diploma in Financial Operations and Leadership (DFOL).

Elena Fordham is a marketing communications and event specialist with 15 years' of experience creating strategic programs that build customer awareness, strengthen brand loyalty, and drive revenue. Her most recent work includes an online campaign launched for AI tech startup, Orbiseed. She also edited the English version website for the Chinese Cultural Centre. She provided the earned and paid media strategy for the retail offerings, and negotiated ad buys for Toronto's iconic Union Station retail events. Her portfolio also boasts the marketing and PR launch of a Schedule I bank, Wealth One Bank of Canada. 

 

Elena has created profitable customer demand for SMEs and startups spanning finance, retail, AI, HR, law, and hospitality, both for consumer and B2B brands. In her spare time, she has imparted her in-field experience to the marketing communications students at Yorkville University.

Dennis Pang is a marketing & branding leader specializing in Chinese start-ups and international business expansion into China. He has helped many businesses from their start-up or market entry strategies to execution tactics and programs.

 

Dennis started his marketing career as a global content provider in the advertising and media industry back in 2012 , as a key player in setting up new standards for China’s new media industry and the subsequent multi-media revolution. Since then, he has served over 30 brands through new media marketing and e-PR, 7 traditional manufacturing businesses in their branding and e-commerce transformation. Embracing the fast-evolving e-commerce and digital marketing eco-system, he has established high conversion marketing and sales programs and created the first profit-sharing marketing program in the film & TV entertainment industry in China. He specializes in high conversion marketing strategies integrating IP and ACG (Anime, Comics and Games) components. 

 

Dennis also helps clients with their supply chain and retail distribution channel needs.

 

Dennis holds a Master of Financial Economics from University of Detroit Mercy and a Bachelor of Commerce from University of Toronto.

Kevin is a seasoned finance & technology professional with extensive working experience in financial institutions including Investment Banks. Kevin has profound knowledge of Capital Markets trading activities, particularly on derivatives, and structured products. He also has extensive experience in Fintech, including software platform modernization to enhance productivity while dealing with stringent regulatory requirements. Besides, he also has in-depth knowledge about financial management, project investment, and project management.

 

Kevin started his career as an engineer and business development associate for a world class European Manufacturer’s Asian headquarters in Tokyo after graduating from Japanese graduate school. During which, he led multiple successful deliveries of large scale turn-key projects to Japanese, Chinese and Korean customers. He also successfully closed first historical business deal in Chinese market.

 

In late 1999, Kevin moved to Toronto, and since he has focused his career in Finance area. He was responsible for overall financial activities for Mitsui & Co. (Canada), one of largest Japanese conglomerates’ Canadian Subsidiary.  He led/involved in multiple multi-million dollars investments in a variety of projects, Joined Ventures, SPVs in Canada. After graduation from Rotman School of Management, Kevin had worked at various senior positions in Investment Banks, including BMO Capital Markets. In recent years, Kevin has started his own consulting practice serving financial services industry, including Banks, Insurance Companies, and Startup companies etc. in areas of IT business consulting, change management, process optimization, trading products support, project management, etc. helping clients maximize their returns with minimum investment.

Mr. Blundell has over 35 years of senior executive management and consulting experience in the global environmental services and technology sectors.  His experience includes operations management, corporate and market development, mergers and acquisitions, new business initiation, and consulting.  Mr. Blundell’s international experience includes running businesses in East and West Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia (12 countries from India to China).  

 

He has significant experience in new business creation and management of growth-stage businesses in global markets. He has completed over $500 million in combined corporate M&A transactions and private equity funding for early-stage companies. From 1989-2004, Mr. Blundell held senior leadership positions with Laidlaw Inc., Canada’s largest waste management company, as Director of European Business Development; SGS SA, a global company in inspection, testing, and certification services as SVP of the Global Environmental Services Division; and Hagemeyer Cosa Liebermann, a technology marketing company in Asia Pacific as EVP of the Technology Division.  During this period and since 2004, Mr. Blundell has held founder and/or executive management positions in eight early-stage, clean-tech companies, including a number of Board of Directors appointments.  

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He is an Executive-in-Residence and Adjunct Professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.  He joined the Rotman faculty in 2016, where he teaches MBA and Executive MBA courses in sustainability strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship. 

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Mr. Blundell holds a BSc from the University of Toronto and an MBA from IMD, Lausanne.