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A native of Toronto, Anne Sado has been President of George Brown College since 2004. Her impact on the vision, direction and culture of the college has resulted in significant growth at George Brown, and has activated a critical public discussion on the value of college education in Ontario’s economic development.

Beyond her leadership at the college, she is Chair of the Board of ORION and the Toronto Region Board of Trade, and past Chair of the Board for Polytechnics Canada and Trillium Health Centre. Anne also serves on the boards of Legacy Private Trust and Mount Pleasant Cemetery Group. In the past, Anne has served as Chair of Colleges Ontario’s Committee of Presidents and on the boards of the Toronto Financial Service Alliance, YWCA of Greater Toronto, Junior Achievement and the Canadian Hearing Society Foundation. These volunteer efforts have given her a 360-degree perspective on the social and economic challenges facing the GTA.

Anne’s areas of focus in education have been the development of a workforce with the right balance of skills for the knowledge economy, innovation in learning and the transition of new Canadians into productive careers to drive economic growth. A strong advocate of experiential learning, Anne has emphasized the importance of deepening partnerships with industry across the GTA.

Anne was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in June 2013. She was recognized as one of Canada’s Top 25 Women of Influence in 2014, a YWCA Woman of Distinction in 2012 and one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women by WXN over four years, leading to her induction in the WXN Hall of Fame in 2014. She was inducted as a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 2015, inducted into the University of Toronto’s prestigious Engineering Hall of Distinction in 2010 and awarded the Ontario Professional Engineers Gold Medal in 2007. She has also received the Queen’s Diamond and Golden Jubilee Medals, the Professional Engineers Ontario Citizenship Award, and an Arbor Award from the University of Toronto. Anne holds an MBA from the University of Toronto as well as a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering. Anne was also awarded a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from the University of Toronto in June 2011.

Don Drummond is the Stauffer-Dunning Fellow in Global Public Policy and Adjunct Professor at the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University. In 2011-12, he served as Chair for the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services. Its final report, released in February 2012, contained nearly four hundred recommendations to provide Ontarians with excellent and affordable public services.

Mr. Drummond previously held a series of progressively more senior positions in the areas of economic analysis and forecasting, fiscal policy and tax policy during almost 23 years with Finance Canada. His last three positions were respectively Assistant Deputy Minister of Fiscal Policy and Economic Analysis, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister of Tax Policy & Legislation and most recently, Associate Deputy Minister. In the latter position he was responsible for economic analysis, fiscal policy, tax policy, social policy and federal-provincial relations and coordinated the planning of the annual federal budgets.

He subsequently was Senior Vice President and Chief Economist for the TD Bank (2000-2010), where he took the lead with TD Economics’ work in analyzing and forecasting economic performance in Canada and abroad. For Canada, this work was conducted at the city, provincial, industrial and national levels. TD Economics also analyzes the key policies which influence economic performance, including monetary and fiscal policies. He is a graduate of the University of Victoria and holds an M.A. (Economics) from Queen’s University. He has honorary doctorates from Queen’s and the University of Victoria and is a member of the Order of Ontario.

Gerry Connelly is Adjunct professor at York University and Director of Policy and Research for The Learning Partnership. She is the former Director of Education of the Toronto District School Board and Director of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Branch, in the Ontario Ministry of Education.

Gerry’s career includes teaching and administration in both rural and urban environments in Alberta, the Northwest Territories, the United States and Ontario, at both the secondary and post-secondary levels. She has also worked in China, South Africa and Estonia providing advice on curriculum development and second language learning.

Gerry is the recipient of many awards including the Distinguished Educator Award from OISE/University of Toronto, the Government of Ontario Teacher Dedication Award by the Royal Conservatory of Music, Learning Through the Arts, the Ontario Supervisory Officers provincial award for Leadership in Public Education. Several other awards have acknowledged her commitment to equity, and community engagement. These include the City of Toronto Bob Marley Award, the Fraser Mustard Award and the University of Toronto Arbor Award. She is the recipient of the Science Teacher of the Year Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award as a Leader in Science and the University of Toronto PDK Leadership award.

Gerry is active on the Board of Directors of many organizations including OISE/UT Advisory Counsel, the Children’s Aid Society, Humber College, Free the Children, Science Teachers’ Association, Learning for a Sustainable Future and Education, Quality and Accountability Organization (EQAO)