About Our Presenters

Below are descriptions of presenters who will be speaking at the SEMM Forum in Toronto

Ron Byrne

Vice President, International & Student Affairs
Mount Allison University

Ron Byrne has more than 25 years of professional experience in Student Affairs across a broad spectrum of institutions in Canada and internationally, including the University of Regina, Dalhousie University, St. Thomas University, and the University of New Brunswick. In his current position as Vice-President, International & Student Affairs at Mount Allison University he has primary responsibility for recruitment and retention of students and for engaging the campus community in the pan-institutional priority of SEM. Ron has been professionally involved in recruitment and retention efforts for most of his career and actively involved in developing SEM strategies for approximately the last 10 years.

Ron holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland and a LL.B. degree from University of New Brunswick. In addition, he has been certified as a trainer with the Institute of Leadership and Management and is a graduate of the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University. He lectures regularly in Commercial Law at the University level and has been a Research Fellow at the Atlantic Human Rights Centre.

His presentations combine both theory and practice in a blend that provides participants with practical tips and tools that can be applied to their own institutional priorities. Utilizing an interactive style to solicit practical examples and challenges from participants, he points out the advantages and pitfalls inherent in moving institutional cultures to a SEM focus.

Robin Brown

Senior Vice President
Environics Consumer Insights

Robin leads Environics’ Consumer Insights and Cultural markets Groups. He has over 20 years of research experience and 12 years of senior management experience in market research agencies, previously managing Synovate’s offices in Taiwan and Toronto.

His area of expertise is branding and consumer behaviour, especially in retail and packaged goods. He has a particular expertise in shopper behaviour and understanding and has worked for many international retailers. He also has also leveraged his ten years of Asian research experience to develop a strong track record on conducting research into the needs of Canada’s visible minority communities – especially South Asian and Chinese Canadians.

He is widely regarded as one of Canada’s leaders in understanding Canada’s ethno-cultural markets and the implications for businesses. He has helped with a range of clients connect with Canada’s diverse communities including Unilever, Kraft Foods, Smucker Foods and Canada, RBC Royal Bank, TD Bank and General Motors.

Fiona Deller

Research Director
Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario

Fiona is a Research Director at HEQCO where she focuses on translating research into public policy options, creating and facilitating partnerships with the sector, and thinking broadly about issues of access, quality and accountability and what the next interesting research question might be. Prior to coming to HEQCO, Fiona worked as the post-secondary education coordinator at the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) where she focused on federal/provincial/territorial relations in post-secondary, quality assurance, government funding of PSE, student financial assistance and credit transfer, among others. Fiona has also worked for both the provincial and the federal governments in PSE-related positions. Previously, she held advocacy positions with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations.

Graham Donald

President
Brainstorm Strategy Group, Inc.

Graham Donald is Canada’s leading expert on campus recruiting and career services management.

Over the past 20 years he has advised dozens of the country’s major employers and developed a national network of university and college clients. In the past several years he has worked with numerous US employers and colleges as well.

As a co-author of the annual From Learning to Work Report, Canada’s benchmark study of student attitudes towards careers and employers, he has developed a unique understanding of tomorrow’s workforce. He uses this expertise and his extensive experience in the campus recruitment marketplace to advise major employers when developing programs to attract, recruit, retain, and manage new student hires.

His primary role as a consultant with career centres and other student services is to facilitate the strategic planning process or external reviews to help support student engagement and success.

He was Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers (CACEE) for seven years. In 1996, he conceived and launched Campus WorkLink, which quickly became Canada’s largest job posting site for students and graduates. Campus WorkLink was sold to Workopolis.com in 2001 where he worked as part of the senior management team until starting Brainstorm Strategy Group, Inc. in 2003.

Through Brainstorm Strategy Group, Inc., he has developed a series of Campus Recruiting Forums in cities across North America for employers of post-secondary students and graduates. He also created The Canadian Institute for Career Centre Management – a management training program for campus career centre directors – and the Career Services Summit for leaders of campus career centres. More recently, he launched the Strategic Enrolment Marketing & Management Forum (SEMM Forum).

Earlier in his career, he was owner and president of Turl Street Publications Ltd.; a founding director of the Career Edge National Internship Program; and a founder, past president, and life member of the Young Entrepreneurs Association of Canada. He is also a former owner and director of a children’s canoe tripping camp, Camp Temagami. He received both his BA and MBA from the University of Toronto.

Darren Evans

Director, Brand and Creative Strategy
Calabash Creative Engagement Inc.

Darren started his career in London, UK where he worked his way up through the ranks in advertising, branding and marketing agencies. After moving to Canada in 1999 he joined TMP Worldwide as National Creative Director and Senior Brand Consultant before taking the helm as Director of RIM Brand at Research In Motion.

Darren’s experience has included developing brand architectures and assets for CMHC, Canon Canada, RIM, RBC, CPP (HSBC), Converse UK, CNT, UK, McGill University and Kinross Gold Corporation.

Darren believes in a holistic approach to building brands – focusing on both the internal and external expressions of a brand. This belief, along with his experience on both the agency and client side of the equation and strong creative thinking gives Darren a unique perspective on what brands need to succeed.

Darren is passionate about branding and has shared these insights with audiences across Canada for the HRPA, IPMA, and Brainstorm Strategy Group.

Gary Fretwell

Senior Vice President and Principal
Noel-Levitz, Inc.

As a senior vice president and a consultant for Noel-Levitz, Gary Fretwell has been a strong catalyst for enrolment success on hundreds of campuses throughout North America. His recommendations and guidance have helped institutions establish strategic and tactical enrolment plans, train staff and faculty in enrolment management practices, and coordinate comprehensive enrolment management initiatives for both graduate and undergraduate programs.

Mr. Fretwell has launched comprehensive enrolment initiatives on more than 350 campuses. He has consulted with institutions such as Wake Forest University (NC), Babcock Graduate School of Business (NC), American University (DC), Carleton University (ON), and many others. In addition to providing consulting services, Mr. Fretwell frequently delivers presentations on such topics as strategic enrolment management, developing a campus-wide retention program, graduate and professional school recruitment, and mobilizing your campus to achieve enrolment success. Mr. Fretwell has conducted hundreds of workshops and presentations at international, national and regional conferences in higher education, including the International Roundtable of Residential Colleges in Oxford, England.

Mr. Fretwell has served as vice president for enrolment and student affairs and dean at Millsaps College (MS) and held a variety of administrative posts at Tulane University (LA) and the University of South Florida. In 1995, his retention program at Millsaps received a Retention Excellence Award from Noel-Levitz in honor of the best-retained class in Millsaps 105-year history. Mr. Fretwell holds an M.A. from Stetson University (FL).

Adam Hopkins

Aboriginal Enrolment Advisor
Trent University

Adam Hopkins is Lunape and Anishnaabe from the Delaware First Nation, near Chatham, Ontario. A graduate of Trent University, he¹s been working in undergraduate student recruitment since his graduation in 2007. Upon graduation, he took a job as a Liaison Officer at Trent University and then in February 2010, successfully acquired the recently created position of Aboriginal Enrolment Advisor.

Adam is a member of the Aboriginal Post Secondary Information Program (APSIP), a collective of Aboriginal post-secondary recruiters in Ontario and Quebec. He has been chairing a movement to formalize the group and to raise awareness of the work it does throughout Ontario and Quebec.
Through the community-based recruitment and innovative marketing initiatives, APSIP is stronger than ever and well on its way to improving the representation of Aboriginal learners in post-secondary education.

Adam is a member of the Trent University Aboriginal, Recruitment, Retention and Graduation Committee; Aboriginal Education Council; Peterborough Nogojiwanong Friendship Centre Board of Directors and APSIP. His work focus equally on our local First Nations¹ communities, and both local and regional urban communities. Any successful strategic plan involving Aboriginal learners requires a genuine balance of outreach and relationship building from all of our communities.

Kirk Kelly

Partner
CRi Inc.

Kirk studied medicine for a few years at U of T before falling in love with marketing. Ten years ago, he helped create CRi to provide clients with insights generated from in-depth statistical analysis that could be used to solve complex marketing and operational problems. As head of product development, he has overseen the creation of a set of diagnostic and predictive tools tailored to the particular needs of the post-secondary sector.

Michael Mahoney

Consultant
Talent Formula &
Social Media Manager
Mosaic Sales Solutions

With a background in a range of fields as diverse as HR, marketing, strategy, and mobile application development Michael Mahoney has a unique and broad perspective on how social media is changing business today. Michael’s passion is creating effective strategies that leverage social tools and other cutting edge technologies to achieve measurable results. Michael has helped organizations like KPMG, Drake International, Mosaic Marketing, Talent Formula and more connect to top talent using targeted social media strategies. Additionally, Michael volunteers with AIESEC International to help students develop their leadership skills and reach their full potential.
Due to his passion for social media, Michael has been featured in HR Professional Magazine and is regularly asked to comment on industry news. Michael is a regular blogger and consultant for Talent Formula helping readers create their socially engaged online presence to drive two-way dialogues with their target markets. Michael can be found on Twitter @imamike, and always welcomes new connections.

Chelsea Newton

President
Talent Formula &
Senior Talent Management Advisor
Athabasca Oil Sands Company

Chelsea Newton is a dynamic and engaging talent consultant and professional speaker. As an executive coach, passionate speaker, and teacher, Chelsea works with organizations to help them recruit, train, develop, and motivate top talent using cutting edge communication techniques and social media. Chelsea has over ten years of experience in the fields of marketing, talent acquisition, and talent management. Chelsea is the President of Talent Formula, a speaking and consulting company that works with organizations and universities specializing in recruiting and engaging millennials.

Chelsea has worked in a breadth of fields from developing top talent in the oil sands to high volume young adult recruiting within experiential marketing. She has been credited with developing best in class employment branding, recruiting, training, and marketing campaigns. Her expertise in talent matching includes Fortune 500 companies such as Labatt, DaimlerChrysler, Procter&Gamble, Sony BMG, and Coca-Cola. Additionally, Chelsea has over six years experience consulting globally with Anheuser-Busch InBev on campus recruiting, new grad hiring and social media employment programs in Canada, the United States, Western Europe, South Korea, China, Russia and Ukraine. Chelsea has spoken at top tiered universities including the University of Alberta and Carleton University educating young adults on best practices using social media for employment networking and personal branding.

Chelsea is a social media expert and is an active user both personally and professionally. She can be found on twitter at @chelsea_newton and runs a group of over 700 members on LinkedIn called Campus Recruiting & Social Media: Recruiting and Onboarding Millennials. Chelsea formed Talent Formula to facilitate her passion for consulting and create a hub for guest bloggers to discuss cutting edge information in the ever-changing space of finding and keeping top talent.

Barry Naymark

Manager, Liaison and Student Recruitment
Seneca College

Barry Naymark originally comes from the University of Ottawa where he began his student recruitment career conducting presentations in English and French across the province of Ontario. In the evenings, he project managed the first call campaign for the University. Afterwards, he moved on to Seneca College’s Student Recruitment team and was introduced to Edge’s Easy Recruit CRM for phone calls and emails. For the last 4 years, he has project managed the calling of prospective students amongst many other portfolios in Student Recruitment that is now part of Marketing.

Bonnie Neuman

Vice-President, Student Services
Dalhousie University

Dr Neuman is one of Canada’s most experienced and innovative enrolment managers. As Vice-President, Student Services at Dalhousie University since 2005, she has taken a leadership role to rebuild Dalhousie’s enrolment strategy and campus life experience for students. In a provincial context of stagnant growth and strong regional competition, Dalhousie’s student numbers have grown by 13% since 2005 and the international undergraduate student population has almost tripled. In previous roles as Vice-President, Students at York University, Associate Vice-President, Student Services at Brock University and Director of Admissions and Awards at the University of Alberta, she has consistently achieved enrolment outcomes in an increasingly competitive world wide environment.

Jonathan Parsons

Manager of Institutional Research
Mount Allison University

Originally from Ottawa Ontario, Jonathan Parsons finished his degree from Trent University before starting in the technology field as an software engineer. Opportunity presented itself shortly after moving down to Los Angeles California, as Jonathan moved from the engineering trenches to project management for IdeaLabs!, a startup incubator. 5 years later, Jonathan took up new challenges by switching to the field of Enrollment Analysis by taking up the position of Manager of Institutional Research at Mount Allison University.

Suzanne Tyson

President
Studentawards Inc.

Suzanne Tyson has more than 20 years of experience in publishing, mobile communications and loyalty marketing. Suzanne is President of Studentawards Inc., Canada’s leading conduit to the thinking and intentions of students nationwide. Based in Toronto, the company operates www.studentawards.com, www.boursetudes.com and www.uthinkonline.com and for more than 13 years it has developed long term relationships with students, their parents and educators. The Studentawards member community numbers more than 500,000 and is highly responsive to the innovative, digitally-driven marketing, scholarship and grants programs and the market intelligence studies Studentawards develops for clients.

Suzanne received her BA from the University of Western Ontario in 1987 and returned there to do her MBA in 1996. She counts her lucky stars because her graduating MBA class was the first to boast the Ivey name—and the second last to benefit from tuition under $3,000 per year! Since success at college or university is often dependent upon financial factors, it is Suzanne’s mission to help as many people as possible find money for school through studentawards.com.

Yolanda Wanakamik

Aboriginal Outreach/Recruitment
Office of Aboriginal Initiatives
Lakehead University

Yolanda is a member of the Whitesand First Nation and a graduate of Lakehead University. As the Aboriginal Outreach/Recruitment Officer she is responsible for the overall coordination of community outreach activities and recruitment of Aboriginal students. As the Outreach/Recruitment Officer Yolanda works closely with Admissions and Recruitment, Aboriginal Cultural & Support Services, Aboriginal Program Coordinators, Aboriginal Education Counsellors and Directors to promote educational opportunities and to develop culturally appropriate recruitment & retention strategies.

Yolanda is the co-chair of the Aboriginal Post Secondary Information Program (APSIP) a collective of Aboriginal post-secondary recruiters in Ontario and Quebec. With First Nation, Métis & Inuit (Aboriginal) student recruitment on the forefront of recruitment strategies for post secondary institutions it is necessary to develop, implement and plan culturally relevant strategies to reach out to prospective Aboriginal learners.

Yolanda comes with a diverse background in areas such as Aboriginal governance, health, social services and in addition marketing and tourism. With that experience she is also a member of several community committees such as National Aboriginal Day committee, Thunder Bay Police Service Aboriginal Liaison committee, Aboriginal Employment Resource committee, Thunder Bay Urban Aboriginal Strategy committee and the Lakehead University Achievement Fund planning committee. Community centered, shared learning is a model for success and we all have a role to play in the success of Aboriginal learners.

Chris Wilkins

President & CEO
EDge Interactive

Chris Wilkins, company founder, is a dynamic and spirited entrepreneur with extensive experience in media and technology. His industry knowledge stems from fifteen years working with leading international companies such as Canal+ in Paris, France; Reed Business Publishing, Electronic Publishing and Sony in London, England; and Webcom in Toronto.

Before launching EDge Interactive in 1995, Chris graduated with an MBA from the highly acclaimed London Business School in England where he distinguished himself by winning the European Business Plan of the Year competition at the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD).

Working with students and educational institutions around the world, Chris has developed a keen understanding of the needs and demands of the education marketplace.

Toronto, ON

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