SPEAKERS
Nominate Canada’s Top Staffing Leaders & Agencies
Recognize the leaders, agencies, and innovators delivering real results — growth, impact, and progress for the industry.
Nominations take 3–5 minutes.
Suky Sodhi
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 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.
OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKER
SPONSORED BY:
Bill Boorman
Bill Boorman brings 42 years of experience in and around recruiting, blending hands-on industry practice with deep market analysis. A long-time recruiter and developer of people, he now serves as an analyst with the AIM Group, where his work focuses on emerging hiring technology, market shifts and the changing economics of talent. Bill sits on boards shaping practical applications of AI in recruiting and advises companies on how tech, process and human capability come together. His perspective is grounded in real-world experience and informed by continuous research, giving staffing leaders clear, actionable insight into what’s coming next.
Mark Coetzee
Mark, the winner of the 2024 Canadian Staffing Summit Leadership Award, brings over 30 years of executive/board level experience across five continents, achieving excellent returns for shareholders with a track record of formulating, advising, and assisting in execution of chosen strategy, resulting in high impact performance improvement, business transformation and company turnarounds in multicultural environments. Working within organisations across 5 continents – including start up’s, mid-sized, and large/multinational organisations – typically within Private Equity, Private Equity/ Venture Capital type environments. Mark has played a pivotal role including but not limited to 3 successful exits: 2 x PE events, 1 x listing on a stock exchange, several 100% business transformation gigs, from major loss-making situations to full profitability.
Kevin Gill
Kevin Gill is the Founder, President & CEO of the Staffmax group of companies. Kevin was born and raised in Winnipeg. He is a graduate and current Governor of RRC Polytechnic and is an inductee in the Canadian Staffing Hall of Fame. Under his leadership and vision, he has grown Staffmax into one of the largest Staffing & Recruiting firms in Canada and led expansion into the USA, Australia, and Europe. He has added service offerings to include Travel Nurse & Healthcare Staffing and EOR services.
Craig Brown
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.
Travis O'Rourke
Travis setup and established Hays' outsourced talent solutions business and played an integral role in building Hays’ temporary and contract divisions throughout Canada. Initially joining Hays with a deep background in Technology, he holds extensive cross functional knowledge to provide clients with talent solutions in Financial Services, Energy, Mining, Manufacturing, Retail, and the Public Sector.
Londa Burke
Londa Burke is a seasoned staffing industry leader with over 30 years of experience driving recruitment excellence and operational success. She has managed major client accounts, built high-performing teams, and led the expansion of recruitment operations across Canada. Currently serving as Director of Professional Services at Bevertec CST Inc.,and BITS Recruitment, Londa oversees the operations, focusing on service delivery, profitability, issue resolution, and continuous improvement. She holds a Certified Personnel Consultant (CPC) designation through ACSESS and a Bachelor of Science from Mansfield University in Pennsylvania. Londa’s strategic insight and deep industry knowledge continue to make a strong impact across every client engagement.
Kelsey Burt
Kelsey Burt is an Account Executive at Loxo with over eight years of experience spanning recruitment and recruitment technology. She began her career in in-house recruitment before moving into agency environments, where she implemented multiple ATS solutions and saw firsthand how the right, or wrong, tech stack can directly impact productivity and revenue. Driven by those experiences, Kelsey transitioned into the technology space and now partners closely with recruitment teams to help them streamline workflows, automate processes, and scale more effectively through modern recruiting technology.
Janelle Bieler
Janelle Bieler is President of Akkodis US a division of The Adecco Group, a global staffing company. Ms. Bieler has comprehensive experience in Leadership, Strategy, Sales, Operations, Marketing, and Financial Management. Her areas of expertise include turnaround endeavors, building new markets and revenue streams, P&L management as well as leading, driving, and developing high-performing teams. Ms. Bieler has over a decade of leadership experience in the staffing industry. Prior to Akkodis, she most recently served as President of the Western Division at Employbridge where she led a total business transformation and market leading results.
Carolyn Levy
Carolyn Levy is a people-first, growth-minded leader whose purpose is to spark joy while helping leaders and teams unlock their best work. She builds clarity, connection, and momentum to strengthen culture, accelerate execution, and scale results. Carolyn is known for driving transformation that creates sustainable impact for organizations and the communities they serve. Recognized in the SIA Top 100 in North America, recipient of the SIA DE&I Influencer Award and the WXN ED&I Award and the SIA. Carolyn also dedicates her time as the National Board Chair for Women in Communications & Technology.
Hunter Reid
A serial entrepreneur, Hunter is the founder of Faithshire Corporation, Payroll Funding Canada, WorkForce Capital and a founding member of TheMCLS.com (Multiple Career Listing Service). Hunter’s businesses operate in full support of the Staffing Industry, providing staffing firms with human resources and recruitment support, payroll funding and growth capital as well as full service back-office support. As an honours graduate of Sheridan College with additional studies in business and psychology at the University of Toronto, Hunter is community focused and was one of the founders and directors of the Milton Christian School and the non-profit Milton Christian Education Association, he has held Trustee roles in both Churchill Meadows Christian Church, where he was active as Vice Chairman, and past trustee of Westcoast Christian Church in Surrey, British Columbia. He has served on several boards and advisory boards for not-for profits and has participated at the board level for both public and private companies believing in the philosophy that we all have opportunity to give back to our communities through our time, talent and treasure..
Sami Boubertakh
As an entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Leap Recruitment Partners, Sami is obsessed with the future of work and the innovation required to navigate it. Over the past decade, he has solved complex recruitment challenges by bridging successful models from across various industries. Sami has moved past the "seat-filling" mentality by building strategic talent infrastructure for his clients that empowers them to out-innovate their competition. At Leap, he has replaced reactive, transactional hiring with agile frameworks designed to drive measurable business growth.
Michael Wolford
With over 18 years in talent acquisition and stops at NPR, Capital One, Twitter, and Claro Analytics, I’ve seen every side of the hiring game. From the war for talent to the leadership lessons learned in storms, one thing’s always been clear: recruiting isn’t broken—it’s just behind. That’s why I write. That’s why I build. That’s why I teach. As CEO of Lex Duo, I lead the development of tools like The AI Recruiter and the Talent Intelligence Agent, products built not for HR, but for the humans in HR. I’m also the co-author of The AI Recruiter: Revolutionizing Hiring with Advanced GPT-Powered Prompts, written with GPT-4, in just three weeks. The book isn’t theory. It’s templates, prompts, and battle-tested strategies for real recruiters. My work has been featured in RecruitingDaily, ERE, and on stages like Talent42. Whether I’m writing about lessons from old farmers, unpacking Google's success, or calling out LinkedIn’s blind spots, my goal is always the same: tell the truth and raise the bar.
David Sweetman
David Sweetman is a seasoned executive in human capital solutions with over 18 years of experience helping organizations around the world identify, attract, and retain top talent. Specializing in the engineering, construction, manufacturing, and IT sectors, David leads with a deep understanding of the industries he serves — and a clear commitment to people-first recruiting. Having led high-performing teams for some of the largest brands in the industry, David provided strategic guidance, supported critical delivery needs, and coached leaders through strategic designs to uncover blind spots, build confidence, and enhance performance. His coaching-based leadership approach fosters a culture of collaboration, accountability, and agility — key pillars that drive success for both clients and candidates. David partners closely with both emerging Canadian SMEs and global enterprises with Canadian operations, ensuring talent strategies are tailored to the unique needs of each client across the country’s dynamic engineering and technical landscape.
Francis Larson
Francis Larson is the founder and CEO of Ascen, a back-office platform and employer of record for staffing firms expanding into the US, providing payroll, onboarding, and funding for US placements. Ascen was funded by Y Combinator and was acquired by Lifted, an Upwork company, in 2025. Before Ascen, Francis founded and exited a fintech lending platform.
Nik Gandhorkia
With over a decade of international recruitment and executive search experience, Nik Gandhorkia co-founded Foresight Recruitment Group in 2024 to bring high-impact hiring solutions to Canada’s real estate industry. Now based in British Columbia, he partners with clients nationwide, blending global perspective with local market insight. An active contributor to industry development, Nik serves on committees with BOMA BC and ICSC Vancouver. Under his leadership, Foresight has become a national partner with BOMA Canada, recognized for its people-first, tech-enabled approach to recruitment.
Michael Leacy
With almost 30 years of experience in the Professional staffing industry, Michael currently serves as Chief Sales Officer and EVP with Raise (formerly Ian Martin Group), one of largest, progressive and technologically advanced staffing companies in North America. He has in-depth knowledge of the industry’s best practices, especially in terms of strategic growth strategies, market trends, the regulatory landscape, and corresponding compliance issues. He has a trusted reputation in the broader staffing industry, acting as a strategic partner to Raise's enterprise clients. His strong executive leadership, strategic thinking, and visionary account planning continue to result in significant value for Raise’s clients
Huruy Tewelde
Huruy Tewelde is the VP of Sales with StaffUpApp. He has been helping companies with their tech stacks for 7 years. In his current role he guides staffing agencies leaders to better plan for the future of staffing.
Sabashan Ragavan
Sabashan R is the founder of HeyMilo AI, a platform rethinking how high-volume recruiting is done using applied AI. He previously worked at Meta and Microsoft, where he built large-scale recommendation systems and helped scale data labeling and human-in-the-loop teams. As a hiring manager, he experienced firsthand the inefficiencies and breakdowns in high-volume recruiting—manual screening, inconsistent evaluation, and tools that didn’t reflect how teams actually hire. These experiences led him to build HeyMilo, focused on bringing reliable, practical AI systems into real-world hiring workflows. His interests center on deploying AI that operates at scale, integrates with human decision-making, and delivers measurable operational impact.
Laura Boivin
Laura is the Director of Enterprise Partnerships at Cartwheel. She is an accomplished entrepreneur, computer scientist, and sales professional with a proven track record of driving business growth and implementing transformative solutions in the technology sector. She is passionate about empowering staffing organizations to grow by transforming their accounts receivable process.
Tracey Both
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.
OTHER SPEAKERS
TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON...
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