Sid Bildfell, CEO, SaskCentral

Sid Bildfell is the Chief Executive Officer for SaskCentral. In addition to this responsibility, he is chairman of the board of directors for Credit Union Electronic Transaction Services Inc. (CUETS), a national card-payment organization serving hundreds of thousands of Canadians. He is also vice-chair of the board of directors for the Credit Union Deposit Guarantee Corporation (CUDGC), the organization that protects the deposits of Saskatchewan’s 530,000 credit union members.

Sid continuously demonstrates his leadership skills on many national, provincial and local initiatives. He is actively involved with various organizations such as Credit Union Central of Canada. He is a member of Canadian Central’s Special Strategy Committee and the national CEO’s Advisory Committee. Sid is also a member of the CUPS management committee, the Celero management committee and the board of Credential Financial Inc. and Everlink Payment Services Inc.
SaskCentral is a provincial co-operative organization that provides trade association, corporate liquidity services and development support to its 75 credit unions. As part of its support strategy and to ensure the ongoing availability of new products and services for Saskatchewan credit unions, SaskCentral has made investments over the years in key supplier organizations and entered into a number of joint ventures with other credit union centrals. Examples of these investments include Concentra Financial, Ethical Funds, CUETS, CUPS, and Celero Solutions.

Sylvia Lyon is president/CEO of the Credit Union Association of New Mexico, the trade association that represents New Mexico's 53 credit unions. Sylvia worked for the Association for 9 1/2 years before being named CEO in October 2003.

Sylvia has a B.A. from the University of Kansas in Political Science and a B.A. from the University of Missouri in Journalism. She is a graduate of the Credit Union National Association's Management School and a certified credit union compliance expert. Before she began working at the League, Sylvia was Director of Marketing for West Shell Realtors in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was the Marketing Director at U.S. New Mexico Federal Credit Union from 1992 to 1994.

In 1994, she began working at the Credit Union Association of New Mexico as a field representative. Since then she has been promoted four times. Until her most recent promotion to CEO, Sylvia was Vice President of Credit Union Services and oversaw the education department along with consulting and compliance.

As part of SaskCentral’s senior management team, Curt provides overall leadership to the MarketSolutions team in delivering product and service support and consultative services to credit unions and member co-operatives. These areas include Retail Business Solutions, Consulting, Promotions Plus and Contract Management Services.

With more than 20 years in the credit union system, Curt’s career in the financial services sector has spanned 23-years.

A Fellow of the Credit Union Institute of Canada designation, Curt has lent his talents to the Leadership Regina program where he contributed to the development of community leaders in Regina and surrounding area.

As Vice-President of Corporate Development, Darcy leads the Strategic Planning, Community Councils, Legislative Affairs and Business Expansion disciplines within Community Savings.

Darcy began his career in the credit union system in 1995 and spent several years working in a number of different management roles and disciplines including Human Resources, Training, Marketing and Communications.

In 1998, Darcy assumed management responsibility for a joint venture project between Credit Union Centrals of Saskatchewan and Alberta in providing consulting services to Alberta Credit Unions.

Darcy’s commitment to the credit union system, combined with his broad experience, led to his identification in the Credit Union System as future leader both by Credit Union Central of Canada (2005), and by the World Council of Credit Unions.

During her tenure at SaskCentral, Linda has acquired a diverse set of skills and a wealth of experience in research and development, personal financial planning and project management.

Linda has worked extensively with credit unions across the province in human resource related activities that have included conducting organizational and structural reviews, and strategic planning.

Her current role is focused on innovation and development of new products and services that will support credit unions in market growth. Linda has championed a youth strategy framework to support credit unions and has been actively involved in sharing the framework with other Centrals and credit unions.

Max is one of Canada’s foremost experts on youth culture and marketing. He is founder and President of Youthography, which is Canada’s leading youth-focused communications agency, managing market research and marketing programmes for all variety of clients and organizations.

Max’s varied expertise makes him one of the most sought after speakers on youth and pop culture in Canada today. He has been featured in virtually every national media outlet in Canada. He is the author of numerous industry related articles, and was recently named one of Canada’s most influential marketers by Marketing Magazine.
Jennifer Corriero
Co-founder and Executive Director, TakingITGlobal

Jennifer’s passion for working with youth has made for some amazing successes, including being one of the co-founders of one of the world’s most successful youth-oriented not-for-profit organizations – TakingITGlobal.

TakingITGlobal is an international organization - which involves over 130,000 members in more than 200 countries, and provides a platform, a resource and a network for today’s global youth.
Jennifer has been involved in conferences around the world and was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Global Leader of Tomorrow in 2002 and as a Young Global Leader in 2004.

Jennifer’s passion for working with youth has made for some amazing successes, including being one of the co-founders of one of the world’s most successful youth-oriented not-for-profit organizations – TakingITGlobal.

TakingITGlobal is an international organization - which involves over 130,000 members in more than 200 countries, and provides a platform, a resource and a network for today’s global youth.
Jennifer has been involved in conferences around the world and was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Global Leader of Tomorrow in 2002 and as a Young Global Leader in 2004.

Michelle is currently the Executive Director of Youth Action Network (YAN); a national organization dedicated to youth activism and empowerment and has been a social justice advocate since her teen years, and has founded and lead several award-winning organizations and programs.

As a media commentator on youth culture issues, author, keynote speaker and workshop leader Michelle inspires individuals to do something about the problems surrounding their communities by teaching them how to create solutions that are sustainable, inclusive, and focused on positive change.

Michelle’s high profile work also lead to MacLean’s magazine calling her "one of the Top 25 Leaders under 30" and being named one of Canada’s Top 100: Most Powerful Women by the Globe and Mail and the Women’s Executive Network.

Dr. Reginald Bibby is a well known Canadian author and academic. For the past three decades, he has been monitoring Canadian social trends of adults and teenagers, in the process gathering pioneering and historic data on religion and youth.

Dr. Bibby is the Research Chair for the Department of Sociology at The University of Lethbridge, where he has taught since 1975. He has presented his findings to audiences around the globe. He is the author of ten best-selling books and some seventy journal articles. To date, more than 130,000 copies of his books have been sold.

In 2003, he was acknowledged as one Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People and in 2006 was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada by the Governor-General in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the nation.

Dean runs a western Canadian strategy company specializing in marketing and research techniques for influencers, particularly in the fields of youth and young adults.

A pioneer in the concept of Youth Advisory Panels (YAP) and Youth Ambassador Marketing (YAMTM), which uses a combination of product seeding and online and in-person techniques to monitor ongoing changes within youth perceptions, intentions and behaviours towards products/services.

Dean will address modern marketing and research techniques used for constantly tapping into Cool Kids and their ideas and culture.

Don Bell is the Executive Vice-President, Culture and one of the four founders of WestJet. He joined the WestJet start-up team in 1995, after 18 years as President and owner of a Calgary-based computer company with offices throughout western Canada.

In 2000, Don and his team of co-founders won the award for Canadian Entrepreneurs of the Year, and went on to win an International Entrepreneurship Award for Outstanding Teamwork in 2001. WestJet was named Canada’s most respected corporation for customer service in 2005.

Don is also a certified Boeing 737 WestJet Captain and takes great pride in the successes of WestJet and its people.

Dave is President of WonderGroup, the largest independent U.S. agency specializing in marketing and advertising to today’s moms and their kids.]

Dave has spent the past 30 years immersed in youth and family marketing, advising some of the country’s top corporations in such fields as: Food & Beverage, Household Cleaning Products, Health and Beauty Aids, Toys, Entertainment, Clothing, Retailing and others.

A well quoted author and speaker and Dave has spoken at or chaired dozens of conferences throughout the world on youth marketing, marketing to moms and new products marketing, recently returning from Singapore and Australia where he delivered keynote addresses to those regions’ Youth Marketing Forums.

Bruce is an internationally recognized expert on young people in the workplace. He is an advisor to business leaders and a sought-after keynote speaker and seminar leader. Bruce is the author or coauthor of sixteen books and has also written for dozens of publications, including The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today.

In his newest book, It's Okay To Be the Boss, Bruce challenges managers to "fight the undermanagement epidemic" and offers a step-by-step guide to taking charge and becoming the strong manager employees need.

Mel is the Vice President of Operations for League Savings and Mortgage Company and has been involved in the financial services industry since 1965. He has been with the credit union system since 1984.

In 2004, Mel took a leadership role in the development of a Youth Strategy for the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia. Since then he has been actively involved in the development and implementation of the various components of the strategy.

Mel has had numerous opportunities to deliver motivational and inspirational messages over past years. His passion is assisting other people deal with their fears of public speaking and has successfully organized and facilitated several speech craft clinics.

Carolyn is Marketing Manager at Bergengren Credit Union in Nova Scotia and has been employed at Bergengren for 21 years. She has worked in a variety of positions with the credit union over the years.

She is member of the Provincial Marketing Committee for Atlantic Canada and a member of the Provincial Youth Strategy Committee that is working on a strategy to position credit unions as the first choice financial institutions for youth.

In addition to helped implement and support the School Savings Program at Bergengren Credit Union she has been involved in the adaptation and implementation of a Financial Literacy Program to all high schools in their school district.

Bob has charted the direction of CUETS’ Human Resources and related functions for more than 10 years and is focused on ensuring CUETS is among the top Canadian companies in employee engagement.

He has previous related experience in both the provincial and federal public services and a strong academic background from the University of Regina. Bob has completed his Bachelor’s degrees in Arts and Administration, a Certificate in Public Relations and is currently completing a Masters in Human Resource Management.

Bob is active in the community as a Board Member with the United Way of Regina.

Dan is CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation, an internationally recognized speaker, entertainer, songwriter/ recording artist and New York Times Best Selling author.

Mr. Clark is the primary contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and author of 20 of his own best selling books. Clark has been published in more than 30 million books in 30 languages worldwide!

Clark is one of the most in demand speakers in America and recognized expert on Managing Change, Building Winning Teams and Taking Life to the Next Level! Since 1982, Clark has spoken to more than 3 million people in over 4,000 audiences, in all 50 states, and in 30 foreign countries.

Kelly has been involved with the financial services sector since the early 1990s and has been in the role of Manage of Segment Marketing with Vancity since 1999.

She leads the development and implementation of integrated segment strategies that contribute to Vancity's new member acquisition objectives, specifically on the retail side. Kelly's most notable claim to fame is her success in leading the development and implementation of Vancity's groundbreaking "coming out" strategy to the Lesbian and Gay market in 2002.

Her current focus is creating a presence in the multicultural and youth markets in Vancity's market area in British Columbia.

Michael has been with Vancity for 13 years over which time he has held various positions including Branch Manager, and Financial Services Manager. In 2004, Michael was nominated for the Credit Union National Young Leader award.

Michael has participated in numerous strategic projects and assignments. In 2000, he was part of a task force that developed Vancity’s Statement of Values and Commitments. In 2002, he was a key member of the team that developed Living Leadership, a program designed to develop the leaders within Vancity.

In 2005, Michael led an enterprise wide project focused on strengthening the referral culture within Vancity and improving the member experience by promoting closer working relationships between business units.

As the Executive Manager of Finance, Sean currently has executive responsibility for the credit union’s finance, accounting, internal audit and information technology functions. Over the past five years, his executive oversight responsibilities have also included the lending operations, deposit operations and quality assurance functions.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Saskatchewan, and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University. In addition, he has earned his Chartered Financial Analyst, Canadian Securities Course and CUIC Associate designations.

Sean was recognized by Credit Union Central of Canada as the National Young Leader award recipient for 2006.

Danny Elder is doing it. He is the youth that we research and speak about. He successfully launched his retail business, OffAxis, 5 years ago. OffAxis is a leader when it comes to devising marketing strategies that focus primarily on youth (aged 12-25).

His approach is unique and cutting edge as he caters to the extreme sports market as well as offering popular brands of clothing and footwear.

OffAxis has recently expanded into a youth event marketing company delivering such events as the SaskTel Jibfest Snowboard Rail Jam and the SaskTel Summer Invasion Wakeboarding Championships.

RMC Theatre Arts offers a wide variety of intensive programs designed to provide top-of-the-line theatrical training to artists who not only want to dedicate their time to their respective crafts, (acting, singing, dancing), but also want to incorporate a sense of higher purpose in their educational journey.

Our programs are practical in nature and are geared toward uncovering true artistic talent and developing professional actors/performers. RMC offers 2 Year Acting Intensive Programs, Six-Week Summer Intensive Program, Junior Theatre Schools and evening and weekend courses.

Braced with the simple truth “everybody should have a home” Hannah Taylor is Canada’s youngest advocate for this country’s homeless community.

By all accounts Hannah is a regular little girl who loves to go to school, sings, reads, rides horses, and loves all that the outdoors has to offer … especially bugs. But at age five her life took a dramatic turn as one cold winter day Hannah saw a man eating from a garbage can and her great gift of mercy and compassion took hold of her heart.

Over the past six years she has spoken to anyone who will listen. That list includes politicians from every level of government, including former Prime Minister Paul Martin. Hannah has helped raise over $1,000,000 through a variety of creative campaigns. Through all the events, her favourite time is still spent at homeless shelters and missions where her passion to help others is fuelled.