Chief Darcy Bear has been dedicated to the betterment of his community and Canada since his election to Council in 1991 at the age of 23. Just two years later, in 1993, he was elected Chief of Whitecap Dakota First Nation (WDFN), a role he continues to serve in today, marking over 27 years of leadership.

As Chief, he has championed community development, fiscal accountability, transparency, and good governance. His vision and leadership have earned widespread recognition, with numerous awards highlighting his achievements in economic, business, and community development.

Under his guidance, Whitecap has become one of Canada’s most successful communities in investment attraction and job creation. With more than 650 jobs now located in Whitecap, the Nation is seen as a highly desirable joint venture partner. Central to this success is Chief Bear’s philosophy of “progress through partnerships,” working closely with federal and provincial governments, neighbouring municipalities, and regional communities.

For Chief Bear, the true measure of sustainable economic growth lies in its impact on people — enabling Whitecap to expand services and opportunities for its citizens.

Arlene Dickinson is a visionary entrepreneur and leader with a remarkable track record of success. She is the Founder and General Partner of District Ventures Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in innovative companies in the food & beverage and health & wellness sectors. Under her leadership, District Ventures Capital has become a leading force in the industry, with a portfolio of ground-breaking companies that are transforming the way we live and eat.

Beyond her business ventures, Dickinson is a sought-after speaker, three-time best-selling author, and philanthropist. She is widely recognized for her role as a Venture Capitalist on the hit television series, Dragons’ Den, where she currently has starred for over 15 seasons.

Dickinson's leadership and entrepreneurial prowess have earned her numerous accolades over the years, including induction into the Southern Alberta Business Hall of Fame, the Marketing Hall of Legends, recognition as one of Canada's Most Powerful Women Top 100 Hall of Fame, and the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Diamond and Platinum Jubilee Awards. Dickinson served as an honorary captain of the royal canadian navy for over 10 years visiting our troops overseas numerous times.

With her unwavering commitment to excellence, her passion for innovation, and her deep dedication to her community and country, Arlene Dickinson is a true Canadian icon and a shining example of what can be achieved through hard work, determination, and vision.

Justin Hartlen is the CEO and co-founder of Virtual Hallway, a Canadian healthtech company transforming how physicians access specialist insight to improve patient care. By enabling timely, clinician-to-clinician collaboration, Virtual Hallway reduces unnecessary referrals, shortens wait times, and strengthens continuity of care across more than 50 specialties. Under Justin’s leadership, the platform has supported over 100,000 peer-to-peer knowledge exchanges and has been recognized by Nova Scotia Health and the CAN Health Network as a model for scalable innovation with measurable impact.

With nearly 20 years of experience working alongside physicians and health systems across North America and Europe, Justin brings deep insight into how care decisions are made and how technology can support better outcomes. He holds an MBA from the University of Oxford and is committed to building solutions that serve both providers and the broader healthcare ecosystem.

Kathy Malas is the Director of Quality, Innovation, AI and Value at the University Health and Social Services Integrated Center of West Central of Montreal. Kathy led Research, Innovation and Learning Officer at CISSS Montérégie-Ouest, the Pole of Innovation, Artificial Intelligence and Projects at the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) from September 2018-2023, and the Innovation Platform at CHU Sainte-Justine from 2014-2018. Kathy Malas is a leader who drives organizational transformations through innovation and knowledge as a source of value creation and tangible benefits for patients, teams and organizations. She cocreated the first two innovation and AI teams in Quebec amongst the first in Canada within a University Hospital Center. She encourages open innovation with partners from all horizons to better meet health needs.

Graduated with a master’s degree in speech language pathology from the University of Montreal and a graduate certificate in health management from McGill University, Kathy implemented an organizational strategy of innovation and responsible AI and she facilitates the sharing of knowledge and the development of skills in these areas. The teams she has led received three innovation awards in Quebec and the CHUM ranked the smartest hospital in Canada in 2021 thanks to the responsible AI strategy.

She is an adjunct professor at HEC Montréal and researcher at the CRCHUM. Her research interests and publications are around health innovation, AI and transformation management. She is a board member of the Health Innovation District, the Quebec Council of Innovation and CAN Health Network. She deploys concrete mechanisms to foster a culture, an organization and an open ecosystem of innovation to create value: improving health and wellness for all!

Dr. Dante Morra is a visionary leader and innovator in Canadian healthcare, recognized for transforming systems and driving impactful change. As the Founder and Chair of the CAN Health Network, Dr. Morra has created an integrated marketplace that is revolutionizing how Canadian medtech companies enter and succeed in the healthcare sector, fostering economic growth and innovation.

Previously, Dr. Morra served as the Chief Clinical Innovation Officer and President of THP Solutions, where he was instrumental in advancing technological solutions and operational efficiencies. He also founded Insight Health Solutions, a groundbreaking initiative generating $45 million annually and giving a portion back to support hospital operations. During his tenure as the inaugural Chief of Staff at Trillium Health Partners, one of Canada’s largest academically affiliated hospitals, he oversaw 1,400 physicians and professional staff. He was instrumental in the merger of the Mississauga hospitals, Canada’s largest hospital merger, creating a unified system that redefined care delivery and system integration.

Dr. Morra’s leadership extended to the implementation of EPIC, a transformative digital health solution that fundamentally changed the way healthcare is delivered, improving patient outcomes and operational workflows. Additionally, he founded the Institute for Better Health in 2014 to drive practical, solutions-focused research addressing systemic challenges in healthcare.

A specialist in internal medicine and a Professor at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Dr. Morra holds a Master of Business Administration and is an acclaimed educator. His course on leadership, systems change, and quality has earned him prestigious awards, including the W.T. Aikins Award, the highest teaching honor from the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

Dr. Morra’s dedication to advancing Canadian healthcare has positioned him as one of the country’s most influential innovators. His work has been recognized in The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Magazine’s Top 50 Executives for his ability to turn visionary ideas into real‑world solutions that create lasting impact. Most recently, Dr. Morra was honored with the King Charles III Coronation Medal, celebrating his significant contributions to Canada’s public service and healthcare sector. In 2025, he also received the Design, Science and Culture Award at the ICCO Canada – Italian Chamber of Commerce of Ontario’s Business Excellence Awards – recognizing leaders that are redefining the landscape of the Italian-Canadian business community in Ontario and Canada.

Mary Ng is a globally respected voice on international trade, inclusive growth, and business leadership. From 2018 to 2025, she served as Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business, and Economic Development—the country’s longest-serving trade minister.

Mary led major trade negotiations, including agreements with the UK, Indonesia, Ukraine, and Ecuador, and advanced Canada’s engagement with ASEAN and the UK’s accession to the CPTPP, which she chaired in 2024. As a principal architect of Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, she deepened ties across Asia-Pacific and strengthened partnerships through CUSMA, CETA, and emerging markets in Africa and the Americas.

At home, Mary turned trade deals into real opportunities—leading global trade missions and supporting entrepreneurs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she delivered critical supports for small businesses and championed programs such as the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy and the Black Entrepreneurship Program. She represented Canada at the G7, G20, WTO, and APEC, promoting Canada as a reliable, bridge-building partner. After retiring from politics in 2025, Mary is pursuing new leadership opportunities, including corporate boards and advisory roles. She continues to share her expertise globally on trade, leadership, and inclusive growth.

Born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada, Mary’s roots in her family’s small business shaped her lifelong commitment to entrepreneurship and community. Elected in 2017 as MP for Markham–Thornhill, she became the first Canadian-Chinese woman to serve as a full Cabinet minister. Before politics, she spent over 20 years advancing education, innovation, and women’s leadership at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she helped launch the Digital Media Zone (DMZ) and major city-building initiatives.

Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg is President and CEO of the Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal (West-Central Montreal Health). Before assuming this position on April 1, 2015, Dr. Rosenberg had served since 2013 as Executive Director of the Jewish General Hospital (JGH). After joining the hospital in 2007, he spent six years as the Chief of Surgical Services.

Dr. Rosenberg is Professor of Surgery and Medicine at McGill University, where he earned a Master of Science degree and a doctorate in experimental surgery. He also completed post doctoral studies and a surgical fellowship in transplantation at the University of Michigan, and went on to earn a Master of Engineering degree—the equivalent of an MBA for scientists and engineers—from the University of Waterloo.

Before coming to the JGH, Dr. Rosenberg served as Director of the Multi-Organ Transplant Program at the Montreal General Hospital, inaugurating McGill’s Pancreas Transplant Program and leading the team that performed the first successful liver transplant at McGill.

A widely acknowledged expert in the field of islet cell regeneration, Dr. Rosenberg has received many career awards, including a Chercheur National Award from the Government of Quebec. He remains the only Canadian to have received the prestigious American Surgical Association Foundation Fellowship, and he has served as a consultant to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Canadian Diabetes Association, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the National Institutes of Health.

Since 2017, Dr. Andy Smith has been the President and CEO of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre where he leads over 12,000 staff, physicians, researchers and learners and an annual budget of more than $1.4 billion. Prior to his current role, Dr. Smith served as Sunnybrook’s Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Executive.

With a long-established career as a surgeon and a recognized leader in the management of colorectal cancer, Dr. Smith is intensely passionate about improving healthcare. He has been involved for many years in quality improvement initiatives in Ontario and is passionately interested in healthcare leadership, innovation and the evolution of the healthcare system in Canada. Dr. Smith is on the Board of Directors for ORNGE, Public Health Ontario (PHO), HealthCareCAN, Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP) and is an active member of Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network (TAHSN).

Seven World Championships; Six Olympic appearances; Five Olympic medals; Four Olympic Gold medals, and now Medical Doctor and NHL leader – Hayley Wickenheiser is a titan of sport both on and off the ice.

A first-ballot Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, Hayley’s hockey IQ is highly-respected in both the male and female game. She has played in, or coached at, four NHL development camps the Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers and the Toronto Maple Leafs – having accepted a permanent full-time role of AGM of Player development for the Leafs in 2018.

Alongside her career in the NHL, Hayley is currently a practicing medical doctor of family and emergency medicine in the Toronto-area – a pursuit she had dreamt of her whole life and began in 2017 following her retirement from her 23 years on the National Women’s Team.

Prior to her retirement from hockey, a career she began at just 15 years old - she was the first in the world to notch a point in a men’s professional game while playing in Finland and held the record for the most assists, points and goals for the Canadian Women’s National team.

Her Olympic netted her five Olympic medals across two sports, as she also competed in softball in Sydney 2000. In 2014 she was Canada’s official flag bearer and she served on the IOC Athletes Commission.

She is a dedicated mom to her adult son, Noah.