2023 National Manufacturing Conference & AGM

JANE TABER,

Senior Vice President, NATIONAL Public Relations

Jane Taber is a former Globe and Mail political journalist and co-host of CTV’s Question Period who spent more than 25 years covering Parliament Hill and Queen’s Park. She’s interviewed the country’s main political players, covered leadership contests, trade deals, international summits and the important issues of the day, and has coached CEOs of major Canadian companies, the heads of national law firms and senior cabinet ministers and MPs on media relations. Jane is a graduate of Carleton University’s journalism program and was appointed to the Carleton University Board of Governors.

DENNIS DARBY,
President & CEO, Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters

ELISE MAHEU,
Chair of CME’s National Board of Directors

Head Government Affairs United States and Canada, Global Government Affairs, 3M Canada

DAVID L. COHEN,
US Ambassador to Canada

Before his appointment by President Biden and unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate as U.S. Ambassador to Canada, David L. Cohen served as Senior Advisor to the CEO at Comcast Corporation as of January 1, 2020. He was previously Senior Executive Vice President at Comcast, where his portfolio included corporate communications, legal affairs, government and regulatory affairs, public affairs, corporate administration, corporate real estate and security, and community impact. Cohen also served as the company’s first chief diversity officer.

DAN BREZNITZ,
Munk Chair of Innovation Studies and author of Innovation in Real Places – Strategies for Prosperity in an Unforgiving World

Dan Breznitz is the Munk Chair of Innovation Studies, the Co-Director of the Innovation Policy Lab, and a professor of global affairs and political science in the Munk School and the Department of Political Science of the University of Toronto, as well as a Fellow of CIFAR where he Co-Directs the program on Innovation, Equity and the Future of Prosperity. He is the author of numerous papers, chapters and edited volumes as well as several award winning books on Innovation and the State.

ALAN ARCAND,
Chief Economist, CME

CHAD BRICK,
President,  The Eastside Group of Companies

PATRICK GERVAIS,
Vice-President,  Trucks & Public Affairs, Lion Electric

Lion Electric is an innovative manufacturer of zero-emission vehicles. The company creates, designs and manufactures all-electric class 5 to class 8 commercial urban trucks and all-electric buses and minibuses for the school, paratransit and mass transit segments. Lion is a North American leader in electric transportation and designs, builds and assembles many of its vehicles’ components, including chassis, battery packs, truck cabins and bus bodies.

JOEL RICHARDSON,

Vice-President, Public Relations, Cooke Inc.

Joel leads public and government relations for Cooke Inc. — a vertically integrated family seafood company based in New Brunswick with global operations in 13 countries and nearly 13,000 employees – 2,300 are in Atlantic Canada. The company began in 1985 in Blacks Harbour, NB, and has expanded salmon farming operations in Atlantic Canada, the United States, Chile and Scotland as well as seabass and seabream farming operations in Spain. Cooke ships fresh, sustainable True North Seafood Company branded products globally.  Cooke has been identified by the Atlantic Economic Council as one of the top private sector investors in the region with capital project plans to spend $350M over the next 5 yrs.

THE HON. MARY NG,

THE HON. RANDY BOISSONNAULT,

THE HON. LISA RAITT, P.C.

Co-Chair, Coalition for a Better Future. Vice Chair, Global Investment Banking, CIBC Capital Markets

The Honourable Lisa Raitt joined CIBC Capital Markets in January 2020, with a focus is on the energy, infrastructure and industrial sectors, which align closely with her deep expertise. Previously, Ms. Raitt was the President and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority. She was elected into the House of Commons in 2008, where she went on to hold three senior portfolios serving as Minister of Natural Resources, Minister of Labour, and Minister of Transport. Most recently, Ms. Raitt was the Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition and the Conservative Party of Canada.

ALTHIA RAJ,

Award-Winning Journalist & Political Columnist

Althia Raj is a multiple award-winning journalist, ranked as one of the top 100 most influential people in Canadian politics by The Hill Times since 2015. She is a national columnist with the Toronto Star; the host/producer of the podcast, It’s Political; and a regular weekly panelist on CBC’s At Issue panel. Prior to the Toronto Star, Raj was a national political reporter for Postmedia News and an Ottawa bureau reporter for QMI/Sun Media. She also worked as a network producer for CTV and an associate producer for CBC Radio’s The House before joining Huffpost Canada as their senior editorial manager and Ottawa bureau chief. Raj has moderated provincial and national leadership and election debates. Having worked at the heart of Canadian politics for more than a decade, Raj shares a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of Ottawa, the state of politics, and what it means for her audience.

LAUREL C. BROTEN,

CEO of Invest in Canada

Laurel Broten is the CEO of Invest in Canada, the federal corporation responsible for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) opportunities into Canada. With a focus on positioning Canada on the world stage as a place to do business, Laurel seeks to propel the country’s economic growth from coast to coast to coast, prioritizing green initiatives, accelerating innovation, and finding the best global companies to invest.

DR. DAVID LLEWELLYN

Chief Commercial Officer of STEMCELL

SYLVAIN RIENDEAU 

Senior Director Montreal Operations, business transformation and Telesat Lightspeed, MDA