With our 30th annual Business Dinner commencing tonight at 5:30pm, we thought we would bring you a deeper look into a handful of the companies and individuals that will be present at the event.
If you haven’t yet registered for the event, you can do so for FREE here!
Tracey Clark - Bridgehead Coffee
Tracey Clark transitioned to being Chief Culture Officer of Bridgehead Coffee in January 2020, following the sale of the company for which she was President & CEO and Founder since 2000. Bridgehead works with small scale farmers to bring exceptional coffee experiences to its customers in community-oriented coffeehouses, online and in select grocery channels. Bridgehead operates a landmark Roastery, scratch Bakery and Kitchen and nineteen coffeehouses in Ottawa. Tracey holds an MBA (Concordia, 1992) and was an AKFC Fellow (1993, Bangladesh). She is currently establishing a pottery studio on Fogo Island, NL which will be a platform for workshops, art and design residencies as well as produce functional ceramics for sale to individuals and commercial clients. Her voluntary work is extensive and includes serving as the Past-Chair of Impact Hub Ottawa, (following five years as founding Chair), as a Director of the Ottawa Community Foundation, where she also chairs the Impact Investment Committee and is a member of the Advisory Board of the soon-to-be-minted Ottawa Carbon Action Fund, a project of OCF. She also serves as a Director of Ottawa Riverkeeper, and as a Director of Shorefast Social Enterprises Inc., the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Shorefast Foundation.
Prior to Bridgehead, she was a Store Manager and Special Projects Manager for Mountain Equipment Coop, Program Director, ‘Certified Advanced Technology Manager’ program at Newbridge Networks, and various positions including COO at the Ritz Restaurants. Her MBA research paper was on best practices in microcredit with a focus on Bangladesh, where she later spent nine months as an AKFC Fellow. She is also an accomplished facilitator. She enjoys travel, outdoor pursuits, reading, writing, and cooking and spends her time between Fogo, NL and Ottawa, ON. She is a Mom to two children.
Michael Barrett - Gay Lea Foods Co-operative
Michael Barrett is currently the President & CEO at Gay Lea Foods Co-operative – the largest Dairy Co-operative in the province of Ontario.
Gay Lea Foods is a farmer owned organization that provides nutritional bovine and goat dairy products to both the Canadian and international markets. With multiple acquisitions and investments Gay Lea continues its growth trajectory returning profits back to our community. With 13 facilities across Canada their commitment to rural sustainability and social responsibility is an ingrained value.
Michael has been with Gay Lea Foods for over two decades. Michael has served in many different roles within Gay Lea Foods and within the broader co-operative sector both nationally and internationally. He is a governance “geek”. Michael also serves his community by serving as a School Trustee for the Durham District School Board representing the city of Oshawa for the past 18 years.
Michael, in his spare time, besides helping to parent his now grown family of six children, grand parenting six, he likes to spend anytime that he has left enjoying his farm located in the rolling hills of Selwyn Township.
Liam Demond – Cage Side Management
“My name is Liam DeMond, I am the President and founder of Cage Side Management, a sports management company dedicated directly to the sport of MMA. I’ve been doing this now for about 3 and a half years, it was literally an opportunity that fell right into my lap and I had to go with it. Not many people get an opportunity to be involved in something like, working in an industry they love so much. I’ve been involved in management overall since I was 20. I had one of my best friends who was ready to turn Pro as an MMA fighter, between being already involved in management and my die-hard love for the sport of MMA, I was presented with the opportunity to become his fight manager. Now here we were just over 3 years later since starting this company, we currently have 13 fighters to our name, our team has been featured on national television such as ESPN +, NBC Sports and AXS TV and we have the privilege to represent some of the absolute best up and comers out there”
Gwenaël Malbec – FreightPath
Gwenael is the founder and CEO of FreightPath. Gwenael works primarily with North American Distributors, Manufacturers and Third Party Logistic companies and equip their logistic/traffic coordinators with state-of-the-art technology to automate the full shipping cycle, bringing automation, advanced visibility and collaboration to their entire logistic network.
Gwenael and the FreightPath team has built a solution that connects to all the North American transportation companies regardless of their technological maturity. This brings our clients with a unified experience to deal with all their inbound/outbound and warehousing needs.
As a result, we help de-risk supply chain operations, increase your profitability, promote your brand and help you develop stickier business with the partners you serve.