Speakers and Presenters

Dana is the founder and CEO of Canadian Girls Baseball & the founding VP of American Girls Baseball. Awarded a 2021 Meritorious Service Medal by the Governor General of Canada for work with CGB & listed as one of the 100 most influential in Canadian baseball by the Canadian Baseball network. A strong advocate of empowering girls through sports and giving them the soft skills to become future leaders.

Heather Bruce is Director of Coaching at North York Aquatic Club. During her 9 years with NYAC she has coached all swim levels. She has a love for grassroots swimming and coaching
development and is proud of NYAC’s successful pre-competitive program, Waves. She has been Director of Coaching since 2019.

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Heather is Vice Chair of TPASC Sport Council and is a mentor for coaches in other sports with Changing the Game. She is an avid masters swimmer and runner and has competed at the Provincial, National and World levels. Swimming

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Tim Cestnick enjoys a reputation as one of Canada’s most respected experts and public speakers in the areas of tax and personal finance. Tim is Co-Founder & CEO of Our Family Office Inc., one of Canada’s leading wealth advisory firms to affluent families.

Tim consults and speaks in all areas of personal finance. In addition to his CA designation, he is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), Certified Public Accountant (Illinois), a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), and a Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP).

Tim’s national speaking profile is confirmed by his position as a personal finance columnist for the Globe & Mail’s Report on Business, Canada’s national newspaper. He has authored 18 best-selling books, and is a regular contributor and on-air personality on radio and television. He appears regularly on CTV, CBC Newsworld, BNN, and the best-known money programs in the country.

Tim and his wife Carolyn have three children and two dogs. All are hockey fanatics – especially the dogs.

Gord Grace is the leader of Ontario University Athletics OUA.  The OUA includes 20 Ontario Universities, across 23 sports, 41 championships, and over 9,600 student-athletes.

Gord has played a leadership role in University sport for over 25 years.  This includes positions at U Sports, the University of Windsor,  Mount Allison University, and the University of Michigan. 

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Born and raised on Vancouver Island B.C., Allison began her competitive ski career at 5 years of age. Progressing quickly up the ranks and qualifying for the National Team at 17, she then competed exclusively on the World Cup Circuit of Alpine skiing for 11 years, maintaining a top 15 World Ranking for the entire length of her career. She is an 8 time Canadian Champion, has 5 World Cup podiums, and earned a bronze medal at the World Championships in 2003. She also competed for Canada in two Olympic Games, 2002 and 2006.

After retiring due to injury in 2008, she took her experience in sport marketing and elite sport, and started her career in brand, marketing, and corporate communications. Now in Ontario, Allison is a partner in ITP Sport, a Safe Sport agency. ITP is Canada's only full service Safe Sport programming and consulting agency. Through living through her own sexual abuse in the sport system, Allison became an advocate for change and has used her voice, skills, and passion to lead critical changes in the Canadian sport system. She is a proud board member of AthletesCAN and an advisory Committee Member of the SDRCC. She also supported the CCES in the development of the Universal Code of Conduct, and acted as an athlete advocate in the development of the CAC Safe Sport training and education. Allison aims to make sport a safe, positive place for athletes of all levels, driven by her experience and her commitment for a better future in sport for her three young children. 

Jermain Franklin is an anchor for SPORTSCENTRE, Canada’s #1 sports news and information program. 

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Franklin joined TSN in September 2003 and covered the Calgary Flames and Stampeders, as well as other sports stories from around the Calgary area.

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Prior to joining TSN, Franklin spent three years reporting for The FAN 590 in Toronto, covering the Toronto Maple Leafs, Blue Jays, Raptors, and Argonauts.

Tara Hahto is the U SPORTS Director, Compliance & Eligibility. Her main responsibilities are leading policy development, member education, and compliance with respect to eligibility, recruiting, and Athletic Financial Awards (AFA) portfolios. Additionally, she works with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) to manage U SPORTS’ efforts in anti-doping, and oversees the development and implementation of U SPORTS Central. Tara works extensively with the membership to develop and enhance U SPORTS’ work in these areas in order to provide outstanding environments and opportunities for student-athletes.

Tara was a Canadian Olympic Trials qualifier and NCAA Division I student-athlete, competing for four years with Boise State University’s swimming team. Following her undergraduate degree in Idaho, she completed her master’s degree at TCU while working as an assistant coach for the Horned Frogs swimming and diving team.

A respected sports industry executive with over 30 years of professional experience who is inspired by the power of sport and fully understands the developmental process of playground to podium. Misley is known as an architect who has the proven ability to lead the design, development and implementation of sport performance excellence.

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Before Ontario Soccer, Misley held executive positions at Hockey Canada, Own The Podium, and Canadian Tire Corporations' Jumpstart Charities. 

Brian Levine has 20 years of experience working with leading brands, professional sports leagues, athletes, event properties, national sports federations and all levels of government. Brian founded Envision S&E in 2012 with the goal of helping clients transform BIG ideas into reality. Nearly a decade later, Envision S&E has become a leading Canadian athlete sports marketing agency with a growing consultancy practice. Brian’s infectious enthusiasm in helping clients envision success and mobilize the necessary resources to realize goals is what drives him to this day.

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Prior to founding Envision S&E, Brian worked in the Canadian office of IMG, one of the world’s leading Sports & Entertainment agencies, with clients including the Canadian Soccer Association, Stars on Ice and Toronto Fashion Week.

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Retained by Athletics Canada in 2010, Brian helped pioneer the creation of a new National Track League. He was also the driving force behind the Toronto International Track & Field Games, having led corporate sponsorship, government relations, marketing, communications and community engagement for the meet from 2010 to 2013. In 2009, Brian led sponsorship and the TSN partnership for the Usain Bolt headlined Festival of Excellence Track Meet at Varsity Stadium.

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Brian also worked at the Canadian Football League and Wakeham & Associates Marketing, a sponsorship and venue naming rights consultancy boutique. Brian is married with two daughters and as such he may not have the time he once did to train and compete in triathlon across Canada and around the world but there’s a good chance that on your next call with him, he might be cruising on his bike while he mulls over the next big client project.

Kishan Mistry is currently the Senior Manager of Social Content & Graphic Design at UNINTERRUPTED Canada.

During his career so far, Kishan has worked in the social media content space for TSN/Bardown, and Yahoo Sports Canada. Along with his work at these companies, he has freelanced for the likes of MLB as a photographer and graphic artist, as well as a plethora of clients in the photography space. 

Over the past 20 years, Kim's worked with over 8000 players, 1000 coaches and 150 teams, from novice to National teams, on how to take their on-ice performance to the next level through on and off-ice player development.

Kim is passionate about every aspect of player development and love teaching on-ice skills, working on strength & speed off the ice, teaching players & parents about the scholarship process, and helping players with their mental game.

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Callum is the Director of Social & Branded Content at UNINTERRUPTED Canada. His road to UNC included digital content stops at Team Canada, CBC, and the IIHF while
also enjoying a little sports broadcasting time at Sportsnet 590 The Fan & the Ontario Hockey League.  

Callum once spent a lot of time at the pool, including a stint on the Canadian National Swim Team while also competing for the UBC varsity swim team.

One of Canada's top basketball coaches, Ro Russell has helped over 500 athletes reach NCAA Division 1 schools.  This includes 9 former athletes who went on to compete in the NBA.  This includes Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph, Andrew Wiggins, and Dwight Powell.  

Currently Basketball Director for Crestwood Prep School Ro is working with top player prospect Elijah Fisher.

For the past three decades David has been heavily involved in the strategic direction, design and implementation of programs for not-for-profit sporting organizations in both Australia and Canada, with specific expertise in the areas of operations and administration, grassroots development, and high performance.

David currently serves as the head Cricket Professional for The Toronto Cricket, Skating & Curling Club where he oversees all aspects of coaching and administration.  

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A 30-year veteran in sport, David notably held leadership positions with the New South Wales Institute of Sport and Cricket New South Wales.  During his tenure, he over oversaw and actively coached in programs that produced hall of fame cricketers like Michael Clarke, Brett Lee, Steve Smith, David Warner, Brad Haddin, and Nathan Bracken. 

Ed Podivinsky competed in three Olympic Games highlighted by a bronze medal performance in Lillehammer 1994. He competed for 13 years on the national team and secured six World Cup Titles and multiple podium finishes on the World Cup circuit. Ed was Canada's first world junior alpine champion in 1989 and began training with the national team at the age of 15. 

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Following his ski career, Ed focused his efforts on finance and became a senior executive with RBC.   

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Bio on its way.

Liam Power played youth soccer with Renmore AFC in Galway, Ireland and went on to captain the Galway and District U16 Schoolboy’s team who competed nationally.  He played Senior Amateur in the Galway District League - Premier Division and signed for Galway United (League of Ireland) in 1986.  He competed at Nationals with St Joseph’s College High School ( the “Bish”) and after studied Marketing at the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology.  At GMIT, Liam received the Digital Award for Excellence in Business Studies and captained of the Varsity soccer team which reached the National Finals. Liam attended the National University of Ireland at Galway while completing the AnCO Executive Management Program with Westinghouse.  
 
Liam immigrated to Canada in 1988 and coached at club level before forming Power Soccer in 1996 as a training program for youth players.  At that time Liam was a Coaching Instructor for Ontario Soccer and delivered technical courses as part of the National  Certification Coaching Program (NCCP).  Power Soccer evolved to include training camps as well as soccer schools and the Power FC Academy team program was formed in 2005.  Competition for the Academy was in the Soccer Academy Alliance of Canada (SAAC) program, which was formed by ANB, Bryst, 1 V 1 and Power.  Liam worked as a club Technical Director as well as a consultant to several clubs delivering coach and player education programs.  Currently, he is CEO and a Coach with Power Soccer while mentoring coaches and learning himself, every day. 

Double-arm amputee, three-time Paralympian, gold medalist and World Record holder, Jeff Tiessen is founder and president of Disability Today Publishing Group and Executive Director of ParaSport Ontario. As a book and magazine publisher, Jeff’s work focuses on providing individuals with physical disabilities with tools and ideas for healthy, active living. With ParaSport Ontario, Jeff works to ensure that there is a sport or active living opportunity for everyBODY, regardless of physical ability, age or stage in life. An award-winning journalist and inductee into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame, the Windsor-Essex County Sports Hall of Fame, and the University of Windsor Sports Hall of Fame, Jeff is a respected advocate and highly sought-after public speaker.

Bio on its way.

Larisa retired from her professional ski racing career in May 2016 ranked 3rd in the world.  She represented Canada for over 10 years but became internationally known as Team Larisa in her final seasons as an independent, doing everything from fundraising her six-figure budget to managing her staff.  Larisa has since completed her MBA and sells real estate in the Collingwood area.  Having received the highest award at Chestnut Park (Chairman's Award) in 2020 & 2021, she is enjoying the challenge of helping others achieve their goals.