Cristelle Basmaji
Director of communications, Boutique Jacob, Montreal
Cristelle serves as Jacob’s spokesperson, and is responsible for raising the profile of the brand in Canada. She is also responsible for internal communication efforts with the company’s 2,600 employees, and for managing Jacob’s corporate social responsibility program. Cristelle began her career at Jacob as marketing advisor, helped launch the Jacob Connexion brand, managed the development of the company’s website and handled public relations initiatives. She sits on the boards of several non-profit and academic organizations, including Public Relations Without Borders, Free The Children (Quebec), Hope & Cope’s Young Adult Division, and the Dean’s Advisory Board at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business.
Karen Lewis
Sustainability and human resources manager, Burt’s Bees, Toronto
Karen joined Burt’s Bees, an earth-friendly, natural health and beauty products manufacturer, in November 2007. As sustainability manager, she works to help steward the brand’s longstanding collective sense of conservation toward more measurable methods of working for the environment and supporting positive social change in the community. Internally, this includes energy conservation/efficiency, recycling and waste reduction, employee green benefits and policies as well as developing and delivering a broad range of sustainable initiatives.
Susan McGibbon
Partner, Chemistry, Toronto
Susan is a founding partner of Chemistry, a brand management consultancy with offices in Toronto and Munich. Chemistry has been actively involved with clients including Cadillac Fairview, SaskTel, Reitmans Canada, Vodafone and the Canadian Film Centre. Before co-founding Chemistry in 2004, Susan was director of Taxi High Beam, the strategic and brand planning group of Taxi Advertising. Previously, she was VP group client service director at Cossette Communications. Susan also served as director of marketing for Ikea Canada, where she was responsible for external and internal marketing.
Lynn Patterson
Director of corporate responsibility, RBC, Toronto
Lynn oversees RBC’s global corporate responsibility strategy, including programs, communications and reporting. She has been the managing editor of RBC’s annual Corporate Responsibility Report since 1999, and is responsible for strategy and communications for the RBC Blue Water Project. Prior to her current position, she managed corporate employee communications for RBC. Before joining RBC, she was manager, communications and fundraising with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Library Division. Lynn is a member of the Board Advisory Committee on Sustainability for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games.
Nathan Rosenberg
CMO, Virgin Mobile Canada, Toronto
Nathan considers his marketing life to have really begun 10 years ago, when he joined the launch team at Virgin Mobile Australia as head of customer relationship management and services development. He led a marketing team in charge of developing the brand, communications activity, and channel marketing strategies. Despite the lack of climate similarity except for one week in July, Nathan leapt at the chance to launch Virgin Mobile Canada in 2004. Nathan has also worked on a number of other business launches here including Virgin Festival, Virgin Radio and Virgin Unite – the group’s charitable foundation, which was recognized in strategy’s Cause + Action awards in 2008.
Peter ter Weeme
principal, Junxion Strategy, Vancouver
As one of the strategic counsel and client leads at sustainability and communications consulting firm Junxion Strategy, Peter’s clients span North American corporate, government and non-profit organizations. Previously, he served as VP communications and marketing at Mountain Equipment Co-op [Editor’s note: Peter abstained from voting on the MEC case in this year’s C+A awards]. He is an advisor to Sustainable Life Media, a U.S.-based enterprise that inspires and supports innovation for sustainability, and to Spud, North America’s largest organic home delivery service. He is a regular contributor to independent media org Worldchanging Canada, and serves as co-chair of the Vancity Community Foundation. He also chaired Canadian Business for Social Responsibility for over four years.
Chelsea Willness
Assistant professor of human resources and organizational behaviour, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ont.
Chelsea studies the influence of corporate social responsibility on stakeholders such as consumers and potential job applicants. Recently, she co-authored an article in the Journal of Consumer Psychology (White & Willness, 2009) looking at the potential for negative backfire effects of CSR campaigns, which cautions firms against promoting their CSR initiatives in a way that highlights incongruence with the company’s core goals. Prior to returning to graduate school, she enjoyed a 10-year career with the Canadian Tourism HR Council, where she was heavily involved in training and education for the industry.
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