Board Member

Shivani Patel

Executive leader with 10 years management of nonprofits and social enterprises. Shivani’s focus on SME development and investment is to stimulate positive social and economic gains for developing markets. 
 
With over a decade worth of experience working and living in sub-Saharan Africa, Shivani deeply believes that market driven interventions are the most scalable and sustainable solutions to some of the core challenges present on the continent. Over the years Shivani has seen many local entrepreneurs who have started innovative, life changing businesses fail. Many of these failures were unrelated to their business model, but were rather linked to a lack of access to the knowledge, resources, capital, and network they need to succeed. Through Anza and EWB, Shivani has been working to provide the support and resources these entrepreneurs need to grow sustainable, impactful businesses in this challenging environment.

Board Member

Joan Hertz

Ms. Hertz is an executive, lawyer and strategic consultant who has served as Interim President and CEO as well as Vice President, External Affairs and Corporate Counsel for NorQuest College. She built and practices in her own private practice of law and strategic consulting; served as Corporate Counsel, Strategic Affairs for Capital Health, as well as in private practice at McCuaig Desrochers LLP. A proven executive comfortable in the private and public sector, she has a passion for innovation and the building of winning strategies in transforming enterprises

She has a diverse professional experience in leadership positions, private law, in-house corporate counsel, strategic consultancy, and board experience which combine to make her a strong advocate and strategic thinker. She has worked with many organizations in the establishment, development, and execution of successful strategies and governance structures.

Ms. Hertz is the Chair of ATB Financial Board of Directors, and previously served as a director at ATB Financial from 2008 – 2018, and as Chair of the Governance and Conduct Review Committee. She currently serves as Chair of the Board for Edmonton International Airport and former Chair of the Audit Committee and Governance Committee.  She is Vice Chair of Covenant Health and chairs the Growth and Innovation Committee.  She also sits as a public member on the national CPA Canada Board, a private company board, Silvacom Ltd., and on the Board of Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (AMII).

She teaches Legal and Fiduciary Duties of Directors at the Institute of Corporate Directors, and for over 25 years has provided governance, legal, and strategic advisory services to private sector and crown clients ranging from small to large institutional firms.

She has served as a public member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta Council, the Alberta Accountants Unification Agency and the Provincial Judicial Council.  She is the former Chair of the Provincial Court Nominating Committee. She has also served on Alberta’s Promise and was formerly with Kid’s Kottage Foundation, and Edmonton Catholic Cemeteries Board, as well as numerous other boards.

Joan graduated from University of Alberta Law School with an LL.B., and Georgetown University in Washington D.C. with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree (Magna Cum Laude) in International Politics, Law and Organization.

She’s also a wife, mom and a soccer player who believes whatever we do, we should have fun every day.

Board Member

Tom Ogaranko

Tom Ogaranko leads transformational change with high performing teams focused on complex challenges. Over his 26-year career, he has founded, built and exited multiple technology companies in advanced technology industries. He has advised the Governments of Canada and France and several Canadian Provincial Governments on innovation policy and has been involved in structuring the three crown agencies involved in research, innovation and technology development. Tom has assembled and structured $1B of investment funds for stimulating and growing innovative capacity for public and private clients. Tom is a frequent advisor to the Government on policies to grow ICT, biotechnology, genomics and cleantech sectors. Tom has also actively advised some of the leading innovative companies in Canada’s pharmaceutical, energy, mining, telecommunications and technology sectors.

Tom is presently involved in the development of a test and demonstration centre in Edmonton for bio industrial innovations, advises the Foresight Cleantech Accelerator Centre in Vancouver on its Industrial Challenge Program advancing pre-commercial innovations to market faster and serves as the Chief Innovation Officer for TrustBIX, a Canadian Agrifood Traceability and Sustainability company, with operations in Canada, USA, Mexico and China.

Tom is a Practitioner for the Challenge Dialogue System® (CDS®) Network — http://www.challengedialoguesystem.net/. The CDS Network is a community of practitioners – a community of practice – that is trained, accredited and have the rights to use the CDS® methodology for their own professional work or offer it as a service to their own clients. The CDS Network is overseen by a Practice Council that provides guidance to the Network on foundational values and principles, learning, accreditation, and the evolution of CDS. The Network also develops and makes available marketing and practice support materials. The Practice Council includes Keith (Victoria), Tom Ogaranko (Edmonton) and Don Simpson (Toronto).

Board Member

Raseel Sehmi

Raseel is a global citizen and leader with 15+ years of experience in the sustainable development and technology sectors. Her expertise lies in strategy, public-private partnerships, ecosystem engagement and policy advocacy.

She has a track record of driving growth for organizations that are revolutionizing sectors, promoting larger social movements and enabling adoption of nascent technologies. She has also played a role in enabling social change and digital innovation across Canada.

Her contributions include generating interest in social impact investing at Acumen; improving the effectiveness of funding for poverty-eradication programs at UNDP; transforming social communication at Hootsuite; shaping policies that enable tech companies’ global competitiveness at BC Tech; managing self-sovereign identity and open finance/open data pilots at ATB Ventures; and advocating for psychedelics-based solutions for healing at Numinus.

She holds an MSc in International Development Studies from SOAS University of London, and a BA in Political Science & Sociology from UBC. She is a Board Member of BCCIC and CAIN, an alumnus of the Governor General’s Canadian Leadership program, a CTI coach, a public spokesperson on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, an investor and engaged member of her communities.

Board Member

Stacey Wallin

Stacey Wallin is the Founder and Executive Director of CAIN with a background in founding and growing companies and in the investment banking industry. Through her role as Director of Venture Programs for the BC Tech Association, she led the team developing accelerators for companies in BC with a mandate of solving the largest ecosystem and policy-related challenges facing growth and scale stage technology companies.

Stacey herself has founded three organizations, including CAIN. The first was LifeBooster, a tech startup now helping Fortune 100 clients detect and proactively respond to workplace injury risks. Stacey was also the Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of Numinus, a publicly traded company on the TSX-V creating an ecosystem of health solutions centred around developing and supporting the safe, evidence-based, accessible use of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and at the forefront of addressing the growing prevalence of mental health issues and the desire for greater wellness.