Exclusive event for Canadian staffing industry professionals!

Event Speakers & Panelists

Host & Moderator

Suky Sodhi

Award-winning staffing industry Coach and Trainer, helping recruitment businesses around the globe scale like never before

Topic: Staffing Industry Survey Report

A true revolutionary, Suky Sodhi has been disrupting the staffing and recruiting industry for over twenty-five years. She’s an award-winning industry coach and trainer who has helped recruitment leaders around the world build stronger businesses through her events, masterminds, programs, and courses.

Suky is highly respected in the recruitment space and is becoming a globally recognized expert for businesses and consultants who want to take their earning potential to the next level. A serial entrepreneur, she has founded numerous businesses and her clients include global staffing brands, start-ups, mid-sized agencies, and European recruitment businesses growing into the North American market.

CEO Panel

Janelle Bieler

President, Adecco Canada

Janelle Bieler was appointed as Adecco Canada’s President in 2020, following her role as Senior Vice President for Adecco Staffing in the U.S. In that role, Janelle was responsible for Adecco USA’s retail organization, encompassing more than 150 branch locations and over 200 sales leaders. She led and helped to accelerate the focus and growth within this important area of business.

Janelle joined Adecco in 2014 as Regional Vice President, Los Angeles region. A passionate sales leader, Janelle developed and implemented new sales strategies to drive results. Prior to joining Adecco, Janelle worked in market leadership and sales with a large car rental company, a technology company and a large staffing firm. She earned her undergraduate degree from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Mark Coetzee

International Business Transformation, High Impact Performance Improvement & Company Turnaround Specialist | Global Executive, Drake International

25+ years at executive/board level constantly achieving excellent returns for shareholders with a

a proven track record of formulating, advising & assisting in execution of chosen strategy, resulting in high impact performance improvement, business transformation & company turnarounds in multicultural environments.

"Hands on” performance improvement engagements working within organisations across 5 continents; including Europe, Africa, Asia Pac & North America - start up, mid-sized, & large/multinational organisations - including growth or merger and/or acquisition &/or international expansion, including Private Equity, Private Equity/ Venture Capital type environments.

Including but not limited to being part of lead team in 3 successful exits: 2 x PE events, 1 x listing on stock exchange. several 100% business transformation gigs from major loss making situations to full profitability, and turnaround delivering restructured business on behalf of major bank.

Craig Brown

Chief Executive Officer - Agilus Work Solutions

A strategic leader with more than 25 years of experience within the staffing and retail industries. Craig has focused on building outstanding teams with a focus on service excellence. Recognized for his consultative approach to sales and marketing, Craig believes in asking questions and the importance of being an avid listener.

His knowledge of the staffing industry spans the workforce ecosystem with experience across all specialties and skill sets within temporary and permanent staffing including Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), Managed Service Programs (MSP) and consulting. Known for his creativity and strategic mindset, Craig has successfully integrated acquired businesses, opened new divisions, brands and markets across Canada. A solution-oriented thinker, he has also worked on multi-national recruitment programs across North America and Europe.

Craig has an MBA in Strategy and Marketing from the University of Calgary and a B.Sc. from the University of British Columbia. His life and career have given him the privilege of working in every province and of living in New Brunswick, Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario. A passionate sports fan, he continues to regularly play competitive tennis and enjoys reading, technology and travelling with family. Craig is actively involved in the community and has served on the board of youth sports associations and supports various not for profit organizations.

Craig lives in Oakville, Ontario with his wife Colleen and two kids, Hailey and Bradley, and two dogs.

Client Panel

Allison Haynes

HR Services Core Operations Leader at Capgemini Canada Inc.

Allison has over 25 years of HR Operations expertise in the consulting, technology, and professional services sectors specializing in developing HR operations strategies and supply chains across the North American market.

Allison works for a top global technology company as their Core HR Operations Leader providing strategic oversight and management of multiple HR functions. Along with her team across the US, Canada, and India, she is focused on driving business value and enhancing the employee experience.

Rami Thabet

Senior Vice President, Digital Products RBC

Rami Thabet is the Senior Vice President of Digital Sales and Advice. In this role Rami is accountable for the digital sales distribution across Personal and Commercial Banking and leads the team responsible for envisioning, building and shipping industry leading digital sales capabilities. He is also responsible for the digital components and platforms including identity and security, and open banking.

Rami has been with RBC for over 8 years and held various roles in Marketing & Channel Strategy, Technology & Operations, Payments & Cards and Digital. Most recently, Rami led the mobile, tablet and wearables organization and delivered on a number of key capabilities and Canadian firsts in payments, identity and the NOMI Artificial Intelligence platform as well as the creation of RBC’s J.D. Power award winning mobile platform. His team has been awarded Celent’s Model Bank of the Year award in 2020 for delivering personalized client engagement, creating exceptional customer-focused experiences and building digital literacy among employees.

Prior to his time at RBC, Rami held a number of roles across business, technology and consulting in the financial, technology and public sectors including BMO, CIBC, Manulife, Cancer Care Ontario, Ontario Government and CGI.

Rami graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence. He also holds a MBA from Cornell University.

Els Schaefer

VP Talent Acquisition FGF Brands

Els is a Talent Management Leader with over 20 plus years’ experience in recruiting leadership for a variety of global industries. Her background with leading companies such as Manpower and Manpower Talent Solutions provided her with opportunities to work with large global organizations on creating leading talent strategies in the world of work.

She believes success lies in building a great team and a strong authentic Talent Brand. Els is a graduate of the Toronto Metropolitan University, loves travel, is an avid reader and lives in Aurora with her husband.

Tracey Both

Co-Founder and Managing Partner - The Mirillion Group

A seasoned recruitment professional, Tracey chose to leave the large, global recruitment firms behind to build a forward-thinking, people-first firm that believes that relations comes first. Thoughtful, yet direct, Tracey brings transparency, responsiveness and a little bit of humour to her client and candidate relationships.

Session Speakers:

Investing in technology: a checklist for success

Skip Hilton

VP Alliances & Channel Sales - JobAdder

Skip Hilton is the global lead for partnerships and alliances at JobAdder, and is responsible for the commercial aspects of all partnerships secured at JobAdder such as integrated technology partners, referral relationships and reseller channels.

Skip has over 25 years of experience working in a variety of Channels, Sales, Alliances and Partnerships roles in the US and abroad. Prior to JobAdder, Hilton served as VP Strategic Alliances and Channels at all-in-one hiring platform Fountain, where he focused his efforts on strategic partnerships that complimented the company’s core capabilities and provided
customer and market expansion opportunities. Hilton was also the Vice President of Alliances at Jobvite for 6 years, where he designed and built a partner ecosystem of more than 50 robust, enterprise-grade partnerships with leading HR technology vendors, as well as initiated and managed key relationships with LinkedIn, Indeed, Facebook, Google, Ultimate Software, Saba Software and ADP.

Tony Restell

Director - Social-Hire

Tony Restell is the Founder of Social-Hire, a leading social media marketing agency that helps recruitment businesses turn social media into a consistent source of client leads, interest and candidate flow. Before starting Social-Hire, Tony built and sold Top-Consultant, a successful job board business that worked with the world's leading management consulting firms and the recruitment agencies serving this sector. He is also a guest speaker at dozens of leading business schools across Europe on how MBA students and alumni can leverage social media to further their careers or launch thriving businesses.

BJ Blumenthal

Country Manager - Daxtra Technologies Canada

With almost 20 years' experience spanning multinational recruitment organisations, BJ Blumenthal got his start in the recruitment industry as a recruiter at the Hong Kong-based firm, Top Executive, where he stayed for more than a decade. He then moved to JAC Recruitment, one of APAC’s largest recruiting groups. Advancing through the company and picking up skills along the way, BJ ended up as the corporate head of strategy and business development. As a Daxtra customer, it was at JAC that BJ became familiar with the powerful AI solutions which led him to eventually becoming Daxtra’s APAC Client Services Manager in Hong Kong.

As Canada Country Manager, BJ spearheads Daxtra operations in Ottawa. His extensive experience in the staffing industry means he has a thorough understanding of recruiting workflows and pain points. This has made him very successful at helping his clients solve their challenges with Daxtra’s innovative recruitment solutions.

Individual Session Speakers

Jaime Alvarez

RPO Director - Americas at Brunel

Topic: Recruitment Process Outsourcing

I get excited easily when I see an opportunity to help and influence companies improve their talent acquisition process and subsequently see fast improvement in their business.

I am passionate about people, about their careers and what we do, as a company, to support them.

In this fast moving world I adapt fast, build teams and solutions that represent a need today or anticipate the one for tomorrow.

Brian Kennedy CPC

Senior Advisor, R.A. Cohen Consulting

Topic: Mergers and Acquisitions

In March 2023, Brian will be celebrating his 42nd anniversary in the staffing industry.

He joined the industry in 1981 as a full-cycle, direct-hire (“perm”) IT Recruiter, but before long added contract/temp, employee leasing and retained search to his resume. Brian’s managerial, leadership and ownership journey began in 1996 and his staffing industry career now includes launching, growing and managing third-party staffing companies with revenues as high as $40 million.

In 2012 Brian joined R.A. Cohen and today works with Sam Sacco to help staffing company Owners chart their course towards an exit and sell their companies.

His passion for the staffing industry coupled with an entrepreneurial outlook and demonstrated contributions in several start-up ventures, both large private and public corporations, gives Brian first-hand and in-depth insights into our client’s businesses. His hands-on and M&A staffing sector experience includes IT, Light Industrial, Healthcare, Accounting & Finance, Clerical/Administrative, Engineering, Sales & marketing and Supply Chain Management.

As a passionate advocate for the staffing industry, Brian was instrumental in the creation of NACCB Canada (National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses) in Canada and served for years as a National board member of ACSESS. Brian and his wife Robin make their home in Toronto, Canada.

Michael O’Rourke

Senior Immigration Lawyer and Director of the Latin American Practice Group at Pace Immigration in Toronto

Topic: Update on New Upcoming Licensing for the Canadian Staffing Industry

Michael works diligently with clients to develop strategic talent and immigration plans that meet their short-term and long-term needs. He understands how confusing it can be to navigate the immigration systems in Canada and the U.S. and provides his legal services with compassion and dedication to his clients.

Michael provides his legal services to corporate and individual clients on a wide variety of Canadian immigration matters including Intra-company transfers, NAFTA/CUSMA and other free trade agreement work permits, Labour Market Impact Assessments, and Federal Skilled Worker and Canadian Experience Class permanent residence applications through the Express Entry System.

He frequently liaises with the various government officials of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), as well as U.S. and Canadian Consulates globally.

Keynote Speaker

William Branum

Navy Seal Leadership Coach

“Lead your business with a Navy Seal mindset”

He is a retired Navy SEAL with 26 years of service.

He has served on both traditional SEAL Teams, taught as a SEAL Sniper Instructor and served on Teams that specialized in undersea operations who’s missions must be approved by the President of the United States.

He led major combat operations ranging from protecting the interim Iraqi elected officials to Direct Action missions in Baghdad and across Ambar province.

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