Upkar Arora is a seasoned organizational leader and board director with a proven track record of delivering results. He is committed to systems change to create a more just and equitable society, using financial, human and social capital.

Upkar is currently the CEO of Rally Assets, Canada’s leading impact investment management and advisory firm. Rally is a purpose-driven organization, and an award-winning B Corporation, committed to using business as a force for good. 

Prior to Rally he worked in finance and leadership roles with some of Canada’s most successful organizations for more than 25 years - building, operating and advising companies of varying sizes, stages and sectors, domestically and globally, private and public.

Upkar has extensive governance experience, having served on boards of several for profit and not-for-profit organizations including Meridian Credit Union, Vancity Community Investment Bank, Metrolinx, University of Waterloo, Institute for Canadian Citizenship, Why Not Theatre and several early-stage startups. He holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors, has completed the Competent Boards Climate Competent director certificate and is actively engaged in governance best practices.

He is an FCPA, FCA having been awarded the accounting profession’s highest honour (the “Fellow”) in 2017. Upkar is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Waterloo where he received the Distinguished Teacher Award in 2022. He is also a BMW Foundation Global Responsible Leader. He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in accounting and economics from the University of Waterloo.

Narinder is an award-winning innovator, Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 and a BMW Foundation Responsible Leader. Her work spans across sectors and silos, she brings depth and rigour to drive social impact in North America and the Global South.

She is the President of the Sonor Foundation, Executive Lead and Co-Founder of New Power Lab, and a gender lens investor.  Over the last decade, she built, designed and scaled social ventures including: in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) she led a venture philanthropy fund, LEAP | Pecaut Centre for Social Impact, and alongside Sandra and Joseph Rotman at the University of Toronto, Narinder was the founding Executive Director of Rise, a microfund for entrepreneurs with mental health and addiction challenges.

In the Global South, she worked in microfinance across Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali at La Première Agence de Microfinance (PAMF) and in impact investing in Ghana & Nigeria with Acumen. She is a lecturer at Ryerson University and the University of Toronto.

Narinder serves on multiple boards including the Community Foundations of Canada, Venture for Canada, The Circle, and CAFIID and is an investor in social ventures across Canada.

Kat (she/her) is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Environmental Stewardship (FES). Kat’s main focus is building The Youth Harbour, a youth-for-youth climate support system focussed on supporting youth climate leaders with financial, technical, and networking support to amplify and scale their work, so far raising $1.5M dollars for the project.

Kat is a Future of Good Young Impact 2022 Leader, Clean50 nominee, and Corporate Knights Top Sustainability Leader 30 under 30. Kat is passionate about activating in the local community, whether that be organizing grassroots campaigns and clothing swaps, volunteering at the University of Calgary as an Advisory member or the local foundation. She has worked on a diversity of projects from volunteering at Calgary Legal Guidance, presenting systems research on the national pharmacare, or co-founding literacy campaigns.

Kat is passionate about empowering youth to take impactful action on sustainable development, strengthening and amplifying the youth *force* in the Canadian climate movement. 

Kristi Fairholm Mader (KFM) has always worked in the social impact sector. After returning to school to complete a business degree, Kristi began exploring social enterprise and enterprising approaches to social change and founded several social enterprise initiatives.

In 2014, Kristi co-founded Scale Collaborative to support the growth of the social economy sector on Vancouver Island and beyond. Within Scale’s family of organizations, KFM is the Managing Director of Thrive Impact Fund and Scale Institute. She also is the Project Manager for the BC Social Procurement Initiative. Kristi lives in Victoria with her husband, 2 children and a very lazy husky.

Nejeed Kassam is the proud father of a rambunctious boy and husband to an amazing wife. He serves as the CEO of Keela - an impact technology company, dedicated to empowering nonprofits with powerful, data-driven software. Nejeed is also the co-founder of Fundraising KIT, a world leading AI-powered predictive analytics tool, built exclusively for nonprofit fundraisers. Nejeed was educated at McGill University (B.A.) and Osgoode Hall Law School (JD).

Called to the Bar in Ontario in 2015 and in British Columbia in 2017, Nejeed focuses his legal work on charitable and nonprofit law. Nejeed is also the founder of the Better Canada Institute, a public policy organization. He has spent decades working in-and-around the nonprofit sector and is the former executive director of both End Poverty Now and Conversations for Change.

Nejeed is a global innovator with experience working for the United Nations and the Senate of Canada. He is the author of the book ‘High on Life’ (foreword written by former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien) and the co-producer of the documentary, ‘Conversations for Change’. Today, Nejeed sits on a number of corporate, Crown corporation, education, and non-profit boards, speaks at conferences around the world, and is an alumnus of the Global Shapers Community (World Economic Forum) and a former fellow at the Royal Society of the Arts in the UK. In 2012, Nejeed received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal for his contribution and service to Canada. In 2022, Nejeed was named 40 under 40 by BIV.

As an advocate for social equity, Lee works to challenge norms and practices in the charitable sector that are barriers to social justice.

Lee works with community partners, foundations, corporations, and philanthropists to advance systems change in the pursuit of social, economic, and environmental equity.

Kevin McCort is President and CEO of Vancouver Foundation. With more than 30 years of service to the non-profit sector, both in Canada and around the world, he has earned a reputation as a smart, strategic leader who always puts community at the heart of his work.

Kevin has led Vancouver Foundation through a period of significant transformation with a sharpened focus on donor service, community inspired grant-making, and world-class endowment management. Since he joined in 2013, strong growth in new funds and assets enabled the foundation to contribute over $650 million to towards building healthy, vibrant, equitable and inclusive communities across BC.

As the scale of Vancouver Foundation has grown, Kevin has also worked to expand its impact, pioneering new initiatives and innovations that create meaningful change at a community level. Kevin has led his team in a transformation of Vancouver Foundation’s approach to community granting, focusing on supporting systems change work that address root causes of pressing social, cultural, and environmental issues. The Foundation is committed to further shifting and sharing power in service to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Before joining Vancouver Foundation Kevin worked with some of Canada’s leading humanitarian aid organizations, including six years as President and CEO of CARE Canada. He co-founded The Humanitarian Coalition in 2005 and currently serves on the boards of Friends of Vancouver Foundation and the B.C. Unclaimed Property Society. He is also a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and is a member of the federal Advisory Committee on the Charitable Sector, advising the Minister of National Revenue and the Canada Revenue Agency.

Kevin graduated from the University of Toronto in 1989 with a B.Sc. (Specialist/Honours), and an MBA from Queen’s University in 2005. In 2013, he was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal and is currently working towards his ICD.D designation.

At Tapestry, Ryan supports organizations across Canada to raise community bonds. Community bonds are a powerful way for non-profits and charities to finance capital projects by raising investment from their supporters. They allow citizens to invest locally in meaningful projects. Right now at Tapestry, he has active projects financing affordable housing, a historic rowing club, an arts charity, and an international youth hostel. Ryan is inspired to help communities develop spaces that make our country happier, healthier, and more equitable. He holds an HBA with from the Richard Ivey School of Business and sits on the Social Purpose Real Estate advisory group with the United Way of Greater Toronto.