Melinda Rogers-Hixon, Chair of the Board

With a strong desire and belief of giving back to the community and local youth Melinda Rogers-Hixon is proud to serve as Chair of the Board of the Jays Care Foundation since 2003.

In addition to her role supporting the foundation Ms. Rogers-Hixon currently serves as Deputy Chair of the board of directors of Rogers Communications Inc., as well as Vice Chair of the Rogers Control Trust. Ms. Rogers-Hixon brings over two decades of experience with Rogers to the company’s leadership team as it continues to serve over 10 million Canadian consumers.

Ms. Rogers-Hixon founded Rogers Venture Partners in 2012, based in Palo Alto, California and went on to Chair the Board of Texture by Next Issue Media which was acquired by Apple in 2018. She is particularly focused on innovation, strategy, inclusion and cultural cohesiveness, and speaks to audiences regularly balancing these issues with those of governance and the role of oversight.

Ms. Rogers-Hixon is a founding partner of Generation Trust Advisors, a global consultancy with a specialty in family enterprises, serves as a Director of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, Bombardier, Rogers Bank, and Huron University College.

Ms. Rogers-Hixon holds a Bachelor’s degree from The University of Western Ontario, an MBA from The Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto and lives with her husband and four children in Toronto, Canada.

Stu Hutcheson, Vice Chairman, Secretary & Treasurer

Stu Hutcheson spent his entire career of more than 32 years with Labatt Breweries (now AB-Inbev) in progressively more senior financial positions from New Westminster, British Columbia, to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In July 1999, Hutcheson joined the Toronto Blue Jays baseball club as senior vice president, finance & operations. He became a member of the Management Committee, reporting to the Board of Directors. Initial responsibilities included re-energizing the organization, improving financial results and upgrading communications and customer service. He then played a critical role in concluding the sale of the club to Rogers Communications. Since that time he has remained associated with the club in a volunteer capacity as vice chairman, secretary and treasurer of the Jays Care Foundation Board of Directors.

Following the completion of the sale of the Blue Jays, Hutcheson returned to Inbev as director, internal audit, North America, where he had audit responsibility for the Canadian, U.S. and Cuban operations of the company prior to retirement in 2005.

Charlie Angelakos, Director

Charlie Angelakos is Vice President, Global External Affairs & Sustainability at McCain Foods. In this role, Charlie leads the company’s external communication, public affairs and sustainability strategy across 160 countries. Before joining McCain, Charlie worked at Labatt Breweries of Canada for 18 years, most recently as Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs. He also spent time in Canadian politics, working as an advisor to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. Charlie is actively involved with the Jays Care Foundation and the Harbourfront Centre, along with several other charitable endeavours in the community. He currently serves on the National Advisory Board of the Walrus, an award-winning independent news outlet. In 2012, Charlie received the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for his support of the True Patriot Love Foundation.

Patrick Bliley, Director

Patrick Bliley is based in Spencer Stuart's Toronto office and leads the firm's technology, media & telecommunications practice in Canada, where he focuses on communication services and technologies and information technology services.

Prior to joining Spencer Stuart, Bliley led Accenture's communications, media and technology management consulting practice in Canada. He also established the Accenture management consulting development program in Canada and was a member of the local executive leadership team. He joined Accenture in the United Kingdom, where he led organization restructuring, culture assessment and infrastructure optimization engagements for clients in Europe and Asia.

Bliley brings telecommunications operating experience from his tenure at Bell Canada, where he held line management, strategy and business development positions. He began his career at the Mitchell Madison Group, where he conducted consulting engagements in the financial services, retail and telecommunications industries in the U.S. and Canada.

Bliley received his Bachelor of Commerce from Queen's University and his M.B.A. from INSEAD.

Rick Brace, Director

Rick retired from Rogers in 2020, where he was President of the Media division. He was responsible for driving strategy and overseeing operations for the company's robust portfolio of media assets, which included 42 TV stations, 51 radio stations, digital media, subscription-based content services, the Toronto Blue Jays and Rogers Centre.

He is an accomplished business leader and innovative pioneer with more than 40 years of experience in the media industry. He has a strong reputation for building brands, changing perceptions, and attracting and mentoring top talent.

Prior to joining Rogers, Rick was with Bell Media/CTVglobemedia for 13 years in senior leadership roles of increasing responsibility, including President of CTV and President of Specialty TV. Rick also played a founding role at TSN, joining the network in 1984 as Deputy Head of Sports and eventually becoming President its President

He began his career in 1975 at the CBC, working as a technician followed by roles in TV production. He stayed with the public network until 1984.

Rick resides in Collingwood Ontario and sits on the board of A Dollar A Day Foundation and ESE (Electronic Sports and Entertainment).

Jim Bunting, Director

Jim has been lead trial counsel in a number of complex and landmark cases. He is a skilled advocate and regularly represents large international companies in complex litigation, including Google, Freshii and Stingray.

Jim is consistently named one of Canada's leading litigators by legal directories. His recognitions include being named in the Report on Business/Lexpert special edition Canada's Leading Litigation Lawyers, in Chambers Canada as an up-and-coming lawyer in Dispute Resolution, in Lexpert as a Rising Star: Leading Lawyer Under 40 and in Benchmark Canada as a Litigation Star in Class Actions, Commercial Litigation and Securities.

Jim believes deeply in giving back to the community. He was awarded the 2016 Lexpert Zenith Award for Diversity & Inclusion to recognize his pro bono work with global athletes. He is representing South African-born 800-metre Olympic champion Caster Semenya (and before her Dutee Chand) in appeals seeking to strike down regulations that require certain women to lower their naturally occurring testosterone levels as a condition of participation in women's sport. He also served as Athlete Ombudsperson to the Canadian Olympic Committee during the Olympic Games in Rio, is a former volunteer counsellor and Chair of the Board of Camp Oochigeas and is currently a member of the board of the Jays Care Foundation.

Joe Canavan, Director

Joe Canavan is an icon in the financial services industry with extensive experience as an executive, entrepreneur and venture investor. His most recent venture includes the ideation and creation of LOGiQ Asset Management. Joe has held the positions of Chairman and CEO of Assante Wealth Management and United Financial Corporation and CEO of Synergy Asset Management, a company he founded in 1997 (now part of CI Financial). Before Synergy, Joe launched GT Global (Canada) which quickly grew to a multi-billion dollar asset management company and Fund Company of the year before being sold to AIM Trimark. As Vice President, Director of National Sales, Joe helped build Fidelity Investment Canada from $60 million to $6 billion. Prior to founding LOGiQ Asset Management, Joe was Interim CEO and Chairman of the Children's Aid Foundation, overseeing its restructuring and highly successful turnaround. Joe is a Board Director of the Fraser Institute, the National Arts Centre Foundation, Kids & Company, Brand Protect, Trails Youth Initiatives and the Next 36.

His outside investment interests are primarily focused on digital ventures including Wealthsimple, Borrowell, MILQ (a machine learning company), Itsme (a virtual reality company), Brand Protect (a cyber security firm) and Kira Talent, to name a few. Joe was awarded "Person of Influence of the Decade" during the 2004 Canadian Investment Awards, was honoured as Concordia University's "Alumnus of the Year" in 2006, and was also the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee II Medal in 2012. Joe completed a Bachelor of Business Administration, Business at Concordia University and holds an OPM, Business from Harvard Business School.

Ron Carinci, Director

Ron Carinci is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Urbacon Data Centre Solutions Inc., a provider of data centre infrastructure to global cloud computing operators. Prior to being named CEO, Ron served as Chief Operating Officer of the Urbacon Group of Companies which constructs and develops major commercial, industrial, infrastructure and public sector projects. Ron is the Vice-Chair of CreateTO which manages the City of Toronto's real estate portfolio consisting of more than 8,000 properties and develops City buildings and lands for community and economic purposes. He was the former chair of the board of the Toronto Public Library and former board member of Ontario Lottery & Gaming. Ron has a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School.

Peter Dawe, Director

Peter Dawe joined McCain Foods Limited in August 2019 as Chief Strategy Officer, responsible for Venture, Corporate Development and implementation of the Company’s Sustainable Share Growth (SSG) Plan).

Originally a Chemical Engineer, Peter spent over 18 years with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and held successive positions from Associate (post-undergrad) through Managing Director and Senior Partner. While at BCG, Peter’s practice was focused in the Food sector; working with global food producers and grocers on topics across the value chain. Within his practice, Peter worked with McCain on a consulting basis from 2011 before joining the company as a member of the Senior Leadership Team.

While with BCG, he held several leadership positions. He previously served as the lead for Operations topics within the Consumer Practice in North America - and at the time of his departure he was the Lead of the Consumer Practice in Canada and the head of the Canadian Career Development Committee.

Peter holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Chemical Engineering) from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He lives in Toronto with his wife, Samantha, and two boys.

Peter is a member of World 50, a private community for CEOs and C-level executives at globally respected organizations to discover better ideas, share valuable experiences and build relationships that make a lasting impact.

James Dodds, Director

James Dodd

Based out of Toronto, James is a senior executive who has been involved in the financial services industry for over 17 years. He has the responsibility of driving enterprise-wide business development at TD Bank Group, particularly in the areas of commercial banking, wealth management, and corporate banking. He is also the co-head of the TD Wealth Family Office. James is the Bank's strategy officer for the World Economic Forum (WEF) and has represented TD internationally in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe. Known as a strategic thinker and active community leader, James has a strong track record of business development, and has built an extensive international network of contacts within business, politics, and the community.

James is actively involved in the community. He is a philanthropist with a strong passion for organizations that are dedicated to the well-being of children locally and globally. He has served on numerous boards who relied on him for his fundraising, community building, and leadership capabilities. In 2012, as a member of the Right to Play board, James successfully led a mission of eight business leaders and Canadian Olympians up Mount Kilimanjaro.

In 2011 James was the recipient of the Children’s Aid Foundation Guardian Award and in 2012 received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Award. In 2019 he was awarded the Significant Sig Award by the Sigma Chi Fraternity, the highest award given to alumni for exemplary achievements in their fields of endeavor. In 2019 he also received the annual Spirit Award from the Ontario Rett Syndrome Association.

As a well-known political fundraiser and organizer, James has chaired numerous municipal, provincial, and federal political campaigns. He currently serves as the Chair of the Conservative Fund Canada.

James completed a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance (Magna Cum Laude), both from Saint Mary’s University (Nova Scotia), as well as a Master of Business Administration with Distinction from the University of Bath (England).

John Macintyre, Director

John is a Principal of Cresa Toronto, a boutique strategic real estate advisory and brokerage firm where he leads the Strategic Real Estate Consulting and Development practice groups for his clients located across the country. Previously, John spent five years as Senior Vice President of Build Toronto, the City of Toronto's real estate and development corporation where he was responsible for a range of transactions and development projects.

John is very active in the Toronto Community serving as a Director and Chair of the Grants Committee for the Jays Care Foundation, Director and Officer of the Governor General's Canadian Leadership Conference and is Governor of the Ontario Branch of the Royal Life Saving Society of Canada. He is also active with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation where he serves on the National Government Relations Committee.

John is a graduate of York University with a B.A. and is a graduate of the Directors College with a Chartered Director Designation from McMaster University, and the Human Resources Compensation Committee Certification Designation also from McMaster Univeristy.

Dan Nowlan, Director

Mr. Nowlan is a Vice-Chairman and Managing Director in Equity Capital Markets group at National Bank Financial and has over 20 years of investment banking experience across a broad number of industry groups. During this time, Dan worked on structuring, leading and executing many of the largest and most successful initial public offerings in Canada. Dan has worked as a lead advisor on over 75 IPO’s raising almost $14.5b. With this experience, he has developed a very strong reputation for his integrity, teamwork and the quality of his advice.

Prior to joining National Bank Dan was most recently a Managing Director & Vice-Chairman of Global Investment Banking at CIBC World Markets and also served as Co-Head of Equity Capital Markets for a number of years.

Dan’s career has further been distinguished by his contributions to Canada in public service. Most recently, Mr. Nowlan was the Chief of Staff to the Minister of Finance of Canada and led the 2015 Federal Budget process. Previous public service included stints as Special Assistant to the Canadian Minister for International Trade and as a Special Assistant to the Minister of Human Resources and Labour.

Mr. Nowlan holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Mount Allison University and a Masters of Business Administration degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business.

Mark Shapiro, Director

Mark Shapiro is one of Major League Baseball's top executives, with more than 20+ years of front office experience. Shapiro spent 24 seasons with the Cleveland Indians organization prior to joining the Toronto Blue Jays as President & CEO in November 2015.

Among Shapiro's long list of professional accomplishments, he was named Sporting News Executive of the Year following both the 2005 and 2007 seasons, was named to the elite "40 under 40" by Sports Business Journal, as well as being listed on Baseball America's "10 to Watch" list in 2007.

The Baltimore, MD native played four years of football for the Princeton University Tigers, and graduated in 1989 with a degree in history. His wife Lissa is an accomplished artist, who owns an art gallery in Cleveland. The couple have a son and daughter, Caden and Sierra.

Peter Sisam, Director

Peter Sisam is a graduate of the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree.

From 1972 to 1982, Sisam was the vice president of All Canada Radio and Television. Upon leaving, he became the vice president of director of sales and marketing for CTV Television Network. Sisam remained with CTV until 1993, when he made the move to IMG Media. He is currently the vice president of IMG Media for IMG Canada.

Melanie Teed-Murch, Director

As Chief Executive Officer, HK Travel ONroute, Melanie Teed-Murch leads a team of 23 Ontario-based travel stops across the 400 and 401 series highways. She is obsessed about building corporate culture rooted in customer experience and transformational change. Melanie started her journey in retail and hospitality in 1998, as a retail store manager and spent the next two decades with Toys R Us and Babies R Us Canada. Her last post was as President, guiding the company through CCAA and eventually Canadian division stand-alone carve out and sale to Fairfax Financial. As a purpose-driven leader, she is known for building powerful mission and purpose focused teams that foster an environment of collaboration, trust and innovation. Melanie is a proud recipient of Women's Executive Network (WXN) Top 100 Women in 2019.

Melanie is mom to two fantastic children, Zachary and Mikayla, and married her high school sweetheart Paul, and live in Puslinch, Ontario where they focus on cooking, gardening, kayaking, paddle-boarding and their family. Their 3rd furry child, Junior Jack "JJ", is a 9-year-old Yorkie and is the most work out of their 3 children.

Salim Teja, Director

Salim Teja is a Partner with Radical Ventures where he leads the firm’s Velocity Team. Radical Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in entrepreneurs applying deep technology to transform massive industries. With a primary focus on artificial intelligence, Radical Ventures partners with exceptional entrepreneurs to build enduring global technology companies.

Salim brings over 20 years of experience in the technology sector as an entrepreneur, venture investor, corporate innovator and innovation ecosystem builder. Prior to Radical Ventures, Salim served as President, Venture Services for MaRS Discovery District, the world’s largest urban innovation centre. Salim led the strategic direction of the MaRS Venture Services Program which engaged a portfolio of over 1200 high growth technology start-ups across sectors including Energy & Environment, Financial Services and Healthcare. These ventures raised over $1.3B in capital and generated over $1.4B in revenue to position Canada as a leading global technology hub.

Prior to MaRS, Salim held innovation leadership roles with Indigo Books & Music, CX Digital and b5media. He also served as Partner with early-stage venture capital firm Brightspark Ventures, where he was the driving force behind investments including Radian6 which was acquired by Salesforce.com. Salim started his career as Co-founder and Vice President of Sales and Business Development for San Francisco-based MobShop Inc, a pioneering e-commerce venture funded by GE Capital, Visa International, Mayfield Fund and Marc Andreessen.

Salim is a graduate of the Ivey Business School at Western University.

Ali Leung, Director

Ali is a purpose-driven marketer and a leader on the Global Marketing team at Shopify, where she helps support the mission to make commerce better for everyone. Ali’s team focuses on creating content that helps businesses succeed, building an active and supportive community of entrepreneurs, identifying and building partnerships to acquire new merchants at scale, and making successful entrepreneurship more accessible for Black and Indigenous communities.

Prior to joining Shopify in May 2021, Ali held roles at WW where she was the VP, Marketing, helping to inspire healthy habits for real life. At Facebook, she was the Head of Consumer Packaged Goods and Government, strategically supporting her clients’ business objectives using Facebook and Instagram campaigns. As Marketing Director at Unilever, Ali helped grow purpose-driven brands like Dove, Hellmann’s, and Becel.

Ali holds an HBA from Ivey Business School at Western, and an MBA from Schulich School of Business at York. She also sits on the boards of Canada Learning Code and Royal St. George’s College.

Outside of work, Ali is married with two kids, an avid cook, baker, and enjoys long walks and cuddles with her Goldendoodle, Quincy.

Colette Watson, Director

As President of Rogers Sports & Media, Colette Watson is responsible for the company’s $2 billion business and approximately 3,500 employees across Canada from a variety of sports and media properties, consisting of 23 conventional and specialty TV channels including Sportsnet, 29 local TV stations, 54 radio stations, 3 OTT services, 2 podcast networks, TSC (Today’s Shopping Choice), a multiplatform content studio, and data offerings.

A highly respected trailblazer in the Canadian broadcast industry, Colette has been with Rogers for 30 years in a variety of senior roles across the Media, Regulatory, and Cable divisions. She first joined Rogers in 1990 as the company’s Ottawa Bureau Chief and went on to transform the Rogers TV community channel business and revamp programming affiliations & pay-per-view operations. Most recently, Colette led TV & Broadcast Operations for five years where she set the strategic direction for non-sports conventional, specialty, and community television while innovating the viewer experience with compelling content across multiple platforms.

Passionate about public affairs, policy, and the future of objective journalism in today’s media landscape, Colette left Rogers in 2020 to focus on her role as President & GM of CPAC, a not-forprofit, commercial-free specialty television channel where she directed her efforts to ensure that Canadians have access to unfiltered and unbiased coverage of politics, parliament, and public affairs. Colette re-joined Rogers as President of Rogers Sports & Media in January 2022.

A driving force behind industry change, Colette is a past recipient of the esteemed Trailblazer of the Year award by Canadian Women in Communications.

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