Maya Roy, CEO, YWCA

Maya Roy is a diversity specialist with 20 years of experience in a variety of sectors in public policy development, public health, adult education and social work. She has extensive experience working in marginalized and disadvantaged communities, and is skilled in human resources, financial management, grant writing and project planning as well as in strategic communications and marketing.

Maya is proficient in English, French and Bengali. Her work has taken her to Thailand, Brazil, India and the UK where she worked with NGOs to support human rights and violence prevention. Her essays have been published in Going Beyond the Journey (2013) by Insomniac Press, and she is the winner of the 2013 CASSA Gender Advocate Award and the Toronto Community Foundation’s Vital People award in 2014. She has a Bachelor of Social Work from the Ryerson School of Social Work, and has a Masters in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics.
Maya was a member of the Gender Equality Advisory Council for Canada’s G7 Presidency

Michael Kaufman

Michael Kaufman, Ph.D., is a writer, advisor, and speaker focused on engaging men and boys to promote gender equality, encourage more involved fatherhood, and end violence against women. Over the past three-and-half decades, he has worked in fifty countries with the United Nations, governments, NGOs, women’s organizations, universities, and businesses.

He is the co-founder of the White Ribbon Campaign, the largest effort in the world of men working to end violence against women. He is a Senior Fellow with Promundo based in Washington D.C. and Rio de Janeiro.

Michael was the only male member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council and has been appointed to President Emmanuel Macron’s G7 Gender Equality Advisory Council. He has been awarded Canada’s Meritorious Service Cross.

He is the author or editor of eight books, including two novels. His articles have been translated into sixteen languages.

His latest book is titled, The Time Has Come. Why Men Must Join the Gender Equality Revolution was released in January 2019.

Michael is married with two grown children, he lives in Toronto.

Ayman Chowdhury, Global Compact Network Canada
Head of Secretariat, Global Compact Network Canada

Ayman is a sustainability professional with a strong focus on corporate sustainability management. Prior to being appointed as the Head of Secretariat for Global Compact Network Canada, he worked with the organization as a Senior Sustainability Consultant to provide consultation reviews, prepare project concept papers and proposal, and deliver project contracts. In addition, he was also supporting the organization to manage partnerships and government relations. He specializes in the SDGs reporting and providing guidance to companies on how to embed sustainability into their core strategy. He co-facilitated multiple workshops to communicate the emerging practices, guidelines, and resources that are available for sustainability strategy mapping and SDGs reporting. He has also provided feedback and input to a number of consultation requests from the government of Canada including the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy. Ayman is currently spearheading the GCNC project titled as, “Gender Equality Leadership in the Canadian Private Sector”. This three-year project is being funded by the Federal Status of Women for engaging the private sector as a responsible accelerator to eliminate barriers faced by women in the workplace. Ayman also engages regularly as a Speaker with corporate professionals and young leaders through workshops and conferences to share experience and equip them with up to date knowledge on tools and resources available for improving sustainability performance and effectively pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals.

Prior to joining the GCNC, he worked for the B.Accountability as a Senior Consultant and worked on sustainability projects to assess performance and industry benchmarking. Prior to that Ayman worked at e.Gen Consultants Ltd., an international management consulting firm based in Bangladesh, as a business development expert to pursue and manage development projects funded by the multilateral and bilateral agencies including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the United Nations Development Program. He led the preparation of a number of successful project proposals that primarily focused on sustainable development in a number of countries including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Bangladesh, Maldives, and Cambodia.

Ayman obtained his MSc in Sustainability Management (MScSM) from the University of Toronto with a specialization in Management and a bachelor’s degree in business administration (Finance) from the United International University.

Jos Schmitt, NEO Exchange
Jos Schmitt, President and CEO, NEO Exchange

Jos Schmitt is one of the founders and President & CEO of the NEO Exchange, a stock exchange he formed with the support of a number of blue chip financial institutions.

Prior to NEO and in the role of President & CEO, Jos formed together with a number of blue chip financial institutions the Alpha Group of companies, including the Alpha Stock Exchange. This followed his role as EVP Head of the Americas and Global Head of Capital Markets for a global professional services company focused on the financial services industry. During his tenure at this professional services company, where he was part of the original partnership group, he acted as strategic advisor and director of operational and/or technology programs for some of the largest stock and derivatives exchanges and clearing houses, alternative markets, data vendors and broker-dealers around the globe. Some of his other previous roles include: President and CEO of a European Derivatives Exchange and Clearing House, President and CEO of a pan-European Indices Publisher, Chairman of a Derivatives SRO, and Head of Strategy and Business Operations at a European Stock Exchange.
Jos has a strong commitment to community as a member of the Sunnybrook Hospital Foundation Board and through his active involvement with Free the Children.

Eric Arthrell, Manager Consulting Group, Deloitte

Eric Arthrell is the leader, Future of Men in the Workplace at Deloitte and works with senior executives and men throughout the organization to define new valuable and meaningful roles for men at work and home. In April 2019, he co-authored and launched The Design of Everyday Men report, Deloitte’s perspective on men’s relationships with work, family, and masculinity in a world where default gender roles are changing. He developed the report concept when he was trying to figure out how he could best support his wife once their first child was born and felt there was opportunity for men to be more positive and active participants in gender equality. Outside of Deloitte, he frequently speaks and writes on men’s role in gender equality and shares his personal thoughts at MateModern.com. A design-led corporate strategist by training, Arthrell has been with Deloitte since 2013 and has split his time between the corporate strategy consulting practice and the human-centered design and innovation consulting practice. Before Deloitte, he worked in commercial banking and earned a BBA from the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University. In March 2018, his wife and he had their first child and he loves sharing the load with his wife while they both succeed in the workplace.