keynotes
Leonard Brody
An Emmy nominated business and technology visionary, and highly respected entrepreneur and author. Leonard joins us at the Power Breakfast speaking to how technology has fundamentally changed us as a society and what these changes mean to our bottom line.
Leonard Brody has been called “a controversial leader of the new world order.” He is a highly respected entrepreneur, venture capitalist, bestselling author and a two time Emmy nominated media visionary who has been through one of the largest internet IPOs in history.
Leonard currently sits as the President of the Clarity Digital Group, a company responsible for overseeing one of the largest online news conglomerates in the world including Examiner.com and NowPublic.com, which between them share over 20 million unique visitors a month and host over 200,000 contributors. In 2004, NowPublic was named one of the top 50 websites in the world by Time magazine and inducted into the Newseum in Washington, D. C.
Leonard also acts as an advisor to venture capital funds in the US, Europe and Asia, and has also advised several companies including, the Associated Press, Alliance Atlantis, and MTV Enterprise. Leonard has also served as a Senior Advisor to the Canadian Ministry of International Trade, and as a Director of Canada’s largest technology association, CATA.
A highly sought-after public speaker, Leonard has lectured at institutions such as Stanford, the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai and the United Nations. His insight has been requested by companies such as Forbes, and Warner Music, as well as to the governments of countries such as India,Israel, Ireland and South Africa. Leonard’s work has been featured in such publications as Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, the BBC and The New York Times, and he is the co-author of the bestselling books, Innovation Nation: Canadian Leadership from Jurassic Park to Java and Everything I Needed to Know About Business…I Learned from a Canadian.
Leonard holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts from Queens University, a law degree from Osgoode Hall and is a graduate of the Private Equity Course at the Harvard Business School.
Dani Reiss
As President & CEO of Canada Goose and Ernst & Young’s 2011 Entrepreneur of the Year, Dani Reiss joins us over lunch to share how he has grown Canada Goose into an internationally recognized brand of extreme cold weather, high quality outerwear.
Dani Reiss has Canada Goose in his DNA.
For three generations, Dani’s family has owned and operated Canada Goose, a Canadian manufacturer of the world’s best and warmest parkas and extreme outerwear. Under Dani’s guidance, Canada Goose has developed into one of Canada’s fastest growing companies. A vocal advocate of “made in Canada”, Dani has earned a reputation for his ongoing commitment to authenticity by refusing to move the company’s production outside of Canada’s borders.
Dani not only understands the needs and challenges of outerwear manufacturing, he excels at strong brand management. His passion and commitment to developing superior quality, and authentic and functional products has truly made Canada Goose an iconic brand. His strategic approach to marketing has earned Canada Goose a strong-hold in the North American, European and Asian marketplaces, beyond scientists, explorers and outdoor enthusiasts. In fact, Canada Goose has become a staple in contemporary fashion, as fashion and lifestyle retailers answer the call of consumers who seek strong, authentic, heritage brands that refuse to compromise.
Besides serving as President and C.E.O. of Canada Goose, where he has worked in every department of the Toronto-based factory—including the down-filling, linings and assembly departments—Dani is Chairman of Polar Bears International; a Director of the Down Association of Canada; Canada’s 2011 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year; a member of YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization); recipient of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for 2008 and is on the advisory board of Queen’s School of Business Centre for Responsible Leadership.
In his spare time, Dani is an avid reader and enjoys travel, politics, and sports such as tennis, hockey and basketball.
Tod Maffin
Renowned speaker, tech entrepreneur and one of North America’s leading digital marketing experts will close off the conference by sharing his comprehensive knowledge on Generation Y and how to attract, inspire and retain talent from the ‘Facebook generation’.
Tod Maffin specializes in viral and ROI-based marketing campaigns for sectors from human resources to real estate to education. As COO and Senior Strategist at tMedia Strategies, he is one of the country’s go-to commentators on the impact of accelerated technological change and innovation on the business and economic environment and can speak to every aspect of technology and resulting implications for the world in which we live.
One of Canada’s podcasting pioneers, Maffin writes a blog that is followed by thousands of people in the media, technology and business communities around the world. He continues to report on national technology trends on CBC Radio and is the past host of todradio dot com and Real Life Chronicles.
Maffin is recognized as a thought-leader in business innovation and strategy to trend-spotting and technological advancements. In January 1999, he launched MindfulEye, an artificial intelligence firm that developed the patented Lexant technology to perform syntactic analysis on public opinion comments posted on the Internet and aired in the media, thus providing a “mood monitor” of stocks. The launch of MindfulEye precipitated a meteoric rise in his popularity as a technology futurist.
Maffin’s comprehensive understanding of Generation Y, high-velocity change and competition, hyper-innovation, and the accelerating pace of the world around us offer audiences an insider’s viewpoint of what the world holds in store and what lurks around the corner — whether it’s six months, a year, or ten years away.
His energetic, upbeat, jargon-free and highly entertaining presentation style ensures that audiences are not only captivated and engaged, but entertained and motivated. Maffin has addressed audiences around the world — from Stockholm to Berlin and from Romania to Australia — and is one of very few speakers capable of bringing an audience to their feet in a standing ovation at 7am.