DIGINITYVANCOUVER: Celebrating the interconnectedness of Vancouver Connecting local businesses, leaders, and ideas

• The opportunity to bid on mentorship hours with local leaders and connect in creative spaces.

Speakers:

Heather O’Hara, Social Entrepreneur & Executive Director of Potluck Café Society

Heather O’Hara is a passionate champion for social enterprise and social entrepreneurship as a powerful tool for building inclusive, sustainable communities. For over 7 years, Heather has led Potluck Café Society which owns and operates Potluck Café and Catering in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a low income community with highly complex socio-economic challenges. With an innovative and entrepreneurial approach, Heather and the Potluck team have built a successful business while creating jobs for people facing barriers and improving access to healthy food across the neighbourhood. Heather is also leader of the DTES Kitchen Tables Project and Board Chair of the Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association, known as Vancouver’s social innovation BIA.

Steve Rio, Founder and CEO of Briteweb

Steve Rio is a digital visionary, entrepreneur and strategist, passionate about community and social change. Steve is founder and CEO of Briteweb, a digital communications agency with offices in Vancouver and New York. Briteweb works with game-changing leaders and organizations helping them engage audiences, convert customers and build team culture. Steve is dedicated to Briteweb’s continued growth as an industry leader in the impact sector and as a leader in team culture.

Outside of the digital space, Steve is working to create programs that increase opportunity and capacity for men to have meaningful dialog around interpersonal issues. He is also focused on the exploration of how to fill the void of mentorship, role models and eldership for young men and women in a modern society.

Some of the mentors include:

Gilad Babchuk, Co-founder and Director of Groundswell

Gilad Babchuk is a co-founder and director of Groundswell, he is an educator and social entrepreneur who was named one of the 50 most influential people in the field of education in Israel (Ha’aretz, 2009). Gilad has extensive experience establishing, developing and running a whole range of enterprises ranging from businesses and non-profits to social enterprises. Among Gilad’s many ventures, he  was a director of “Ravidim LTD” an industrial factory, the founder of “Hameorer” a consulting company, as well as the founder of numerous schools and educational institutions.

In addition to Groundswell, Gilad is a consultant for several international companies working in the fields of E-Learning and progressive education in India, Germany, Singapore, Argentina and Israel.

Before moving to Canada in 2011 Gilad was Executive Director of the Institute for Democratic Education, an organization that supports and advises administrators and educators in hundreds of public and independent schools across Israel. In this position he led a training program for principals, was a strategic adviser for several mayors, and head of the social studies department in Kibbutzim College of Education Technology & Arts in which he established a B.Ed. program in democratic education and entrepreneurship.
Joel Solomon, President of Renewal Partners and Chairman of Renewal Funds

Joel Solomon is Chair of Renewal Funds, Canada’s largest social venture capital firm, with $98m assets under management. Renewal Funds invests in organic food, green products, and environmental innovations.

With Renewal Partners co-founder Carol Newell, Joel spent eighteen years using integrated capital for social change as an activist family office.

Joel is a Senior Advisor with RSF Social Finance, a 2012 TEDxVancouver speaker, founding member of Social Venture Network (SVN), Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), the Tides Canada Foundation, and is board chair of Hollyhock. With a Lifetime Achievement Award from SVN, Joel was inducted with Carol Newell into the SVN Hall of Fame in 2012.

Karm Sumal, CEO and Co-founder of Vancity Buzz

Karm Sumal is the CEO and co-founder of Vancity Buzz. A site that in 5 short years has amassed a monthly readership of 1.2 million unique visitors, one of the most visited sites in the city. What was once a hobby started out a basement in East Vancouver, Vancity Buzz is now force in the digital media scene in Vancouver.

Along with fellow Vancity Buzz members, Karm wants to bring more of everything to the city. So they decided to use their influence to bring back a FREE New Year’s Eve celebration with fireworks, performances and more. He currently sits on the board as the vice president of the New Years Eve Celebration Society. This is just part one of many in the future to bring more vibrancy to the city he loves so dear.

Madeline Shaw + Suzanne Siemens, co-founders of Lunapads

Madeleine Shaw and Suzanne Siemens are multiple award -winning social entrepreneurs known for their longstanding commitment to progressive business practices and gender equality. These longtime business partners are the co-founders of Lunapads, a Founding Canadian Benefit Corporation (BCorp) manufacturer and ecommerce retailer of natural feminine hygiene products, and Pads4Girls, a non-profit society that supports girls’ education in the developing world. Lunapads are used in over 40 countries, and are responsible for diverting over 1 million disposable products from landfills every month. Pads4Girls programs and products have helped over 150,000 girls in 17 countries to attend school every day of the month. Madeleine and Suzanne’s latest project is G Day, a global social movement anchored by day-long events that celebrate and empower girls ages 10-12 as they enter adolescence. Learn more by visiting Lunapads.com, UnitedGirls.org and GDayforGirls.com

Maninder Dhaliwal, Vice-President of Philanthropy at Pacific Autism Family Centre Foundation

Maninder is the Vice-President of Philanthropy at Pacific Autism Family Centre Foundation and previously served as the Executive Director of Tradeworks. Maninder currently serves on the Board of Directors at Vancouver Board of Trade, and Ballet BC. She is also a member of the UBC Alumni Advisory Council. Her past governance roles include the Board of Directors of Big Sisters of BC, Vancouver Chapter Chair for Women in Leadership Foundation, and President and Board Chair of the Pacific Club.

In 2012, Maninder was nominated for a YWCA Woman of Distinction Award. And in 2013, she was recognized as one of Business in Vancou­ver magazine’s “40 under 40” top business achievers. She graduated from UBC with a Masters’ degree in Electrical Engineering and attend­ed Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Program.

Maninder believes three things passionately – if you are not living on the edge you are using up too much space, stereotype is never the person, and that human potential is a terrible thing to waste.

Sam Goldman, Chief Customer Officer & Founder of d.light

Sam co-founded d.light in 2007 and served as the company’s founding CEO. During his tenure as CEO, he raised over $11 million in funding, started the India sales and marketing division, and oversaw multiple launches of products, including the award-winning S250 and S10. Sam has been selected as an Ashoka Fellow and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader; he was also recognized by Forbes as one of the world’s top 30 social entrepreneurs. Prior to d.light, he founded and managed multiple ventures in Africa, including improved agriculture and construction businesses, a for-profit NGO cultivating the miracle tree Moringa oleifera, and the distribution of low-cost latrines, cook stoves and rain water catchment cisterns. Sam has lived in Cameroon, Mauritania, Pakistan, Peru, India, Rwanda, Canada, Hong Kong, and the United States. After graduating with degrees in Biology and Environmental Studies from the University of Victoria, Canada, he earned an MBA from Stanford.

Steve Rio, Founder and CEO of Briteweb

Steve Rio is a digital visionary, entrepreneur and strategist, passionate about community and social change. Steve is founder and CEO of Briteweb, a digital communications agency with offices in Vancouver and New York. Briteweb works with game-changing leaders and organizations helping them engage audiences, convert customers and build team culture. Steve is dedicated to Briteweb’s continued growth as an industry leader in the impact sector and as a leader in team culture.

Outside of the digital space, Steve is working to create programs that increase opportunity and capacity for men to have meaningful dialog around interpersonal issues. He is also focused on the exploration of how to fill the void of mentorship, role models and eldership for young men and women in a modern society.