Community Development & Regional Equality: Speakers

From 1981 to 1984, Dr. Axworthy was Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Pierre Trudeau. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Queen's University in 1970 and 1979 respectively and was a visiting student at Nuffield College, Oxford University, in 1972-73.

Dr. Axworthy is also the author and editor of several books and articles including Our American Cousins: The United States Through Canadian Eyes (Toronto, Ont.: James Lorimer & Co., 1987), Marching to a Different Drummer: An Essay on the Liberals and Conservatives in Convention (Toronto, Ont.: Stoddart, 1988) and Towards a Just Society: The Trudeau Years (Markham, Ont.: Penguin Books, 1990).

Jean-Guy Bigeau

Jean-Guy Bigeau has been the Executive Directory of Katimavik since 1999. His involved with this national youth service program began in 1978-79, when he joined as a member of its field staff. Shortly thereafter, Jean-Guy became the Assistant Regional Director of Katimavik’s Prairies and North-West Territories regional management team. In that position, he was entrusted with the planning and managing of regional operations and developing and implementing Katimavik’s learning programs. He was also instrumental in planning and managing Katimavik’s expansion which attained the participation of 5,000 young Canadians annually and a national budget of CDN $ 40 million.

Jean-Guy left Katimavik in 1986. Between then and 1999, he held a number of progressive senior management positions, directing several professional teams oriented toward youth education, community and international development. These positions include: Executive Director, Carrefour (Le Centre des Jeunes Inc.); Executive Director, Association for Canadian Studies (ACS); and Executive Director, Canadian Crossroads International (CCI).

Over the years, Jean-Guy has gained much experience in working with Boards of Directors, developing and managing strategic planning initiatives, fund-raising campaigns, consolidating and innovating program delivery, organisational review and extensive government relations.

Jean-Guy Bigeau graduated from Laurentian University in 1977. From 1980 to 1985, he pursued his graduate studies at the University of Saskatchewan in executive management focusing on public administration and strategic planning.

Patricia Doyle-Bedwell

Patricia Doyle-Bedwell is a Mi'kmaq woman, originally from Bangor, Maine. She has a B.A. (Hons) in Sociology and Social Anthropology, an LL.B. and an LL.M. from Dalhousie Law School. She currently serves as the director of the Transition Year Program at Dalhousie and the Indigenous Black and Mi'kmaq Program at Dalhousie Law School. Patricia is the Past Chair of the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women. She had the honour of serving on the Canadian NGO team to the United Nations in Geneva on international women's rights. Patricia also participated, in May 2000, on the Governor General's Canadian Study Tour, where she traveled throughout the Northwest Territories.

Her LL.M thesis focused on Mi'kmaq education policy and compensation for residential school survivors. Her areas of interest are aboriginal women’s and environmental issues as they relate to self government and land claims. She has published in the area of Mi’kmaq people and the environment. She has served on countless committees/boards dealing with such issues as equity, human rights and aboriginal issues. She has been appointed to the National Association of Women and the Law Board. She has also done many public speaking engagements on Aboriginal women’s issues. She is currently teaching “Indigenous Peoples and Natural Resources” in the School of Resource and Environmental studies. Patricia is married with one son.

Chosen in 1999 by Caldwell Partners and the Globe and Mail as one of Canada’s Top 40 Leaders under the age of 40, Robert Greenhill has been President and Chief Operating Officer of Bombardier International since October 2000.

Subsequent to joining Bombardier Inc. in 1995, Robert has occupied a number of increasingly senior posts, most recently as Senior Vice President Strategy for Bombardier Inc. Prior to this, he worked with the strategy consulting firm McKinsey & Company. He sits on the Board of Canadian Policy Research Network, Couchiching Institute, Héritage Montréal and he chairs the Advisory Council of the Bombardier Chair in Transnational Management at Université du Québec à Montréal.

Robert received a BA in International Relations from the University of Alberta in 1984, an MA in International History from the London School of Economics in 1986, and an MBA from INSEAD in 1987. Bombardier International was created in 1998 to pursue growth opportunities for Bombardier in non-traditional markets, particularly in Asia, Latin America, Eastern and Central Europe, and in Russia.

Bombardier Inc., a diversified manufacturing and service company, is a world leading manufacturer of business jets, regional aircraft, rail transportation equipment and motorized recreational products. It is also a provider of financial services and asset management. The Corporation employs 56,000 people in 12 countries in North America, Europe and Asia.

David Hawkins

David Hawkins, along with his wife Lorrie Bell Hawkins, co-founded Hawk Communications Inc. in 1978 in a small town in southeast New Brunswick. Over the years, Hawk moved its headquarters to downtown Moncton and went on to become one of Atlantic Canada's "top three" advertising and public relations firms with 75 employees, offices in 6 cities and tens of millions in billings. Judith Irving purchased the firm in the fall of 2001. While David maintains a role as Senior Counsel to the company, he has at the same time diversified his professional interests and involvements to include strategic consultation "to those individuals and organizations with a dedication and commitment to personal, economic and community development".

David is a firm believer in the credo that business has a duty to contribute materially to the improvement of society. "At their best", he maintains, "companies stand in service to economic and community development". His own track record is a compelling testimonial to the power of that point of view.

In 1979, just a year after launching his company, in the Town of Sackville, New Brunswick, David played a key role in founding the Sackville Economic Development Commission, the forerunner of today's Greater Sackville Chamber of Commerce. He subsequently co-founded the Tantramar Tourism Association and played a key role in the conception and creation of Renaissance Sackville.

From the early 1980s onward, he committed the company to working proactively, first with Moncton Industrial Development Inc. and, subsequently, with the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Moncton Economic Commission (now Enterprise Greater Moncton) in order to help the former railroad community to renew its economic perspective and its faith in its own future. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was deeply involved with "Symposium 2000", "Creating Tomorrow Together" and "Vision 20/20", three economic planning conferences that helped to shape the current success of southeast New Brunswick. He extended that interest across provincial and national boundaries as an advisor, sponsor, and speaker at the "Partnership Conferences" between New England and the Maritimes. A strong believer in the value of post-secondary educational institutions in helping to weave the economic fabric of society, he has sat on the Board of the University of New Brunswick and has acted as a special advisor to Mount Allison University, the Atlantic Baptist University and to l'Université de Moncton.

David has served as a Director of the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce, a Director and Member of the Executive Committee of the Atlantic Provinces Chamber of Commerce, and a Director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce as well as many other business and community organizations. Currently, he is the Chairman of Goose Lane Editions Inc. and is a Director of EPC (Pollycello) Industries Inc. and Canada World Youth.

More than once, David Hawkins has been described as one of Canada's leading experts on the role of marketing communications in the promotion of economic development. He, himself, is more modest.

"Economic development results from good partnerships," he maintains. "It takes a team to make it work, to make it successful. I've been lucky to have had the benefit of being a member of some very good teams."

Dr. Hunt has published a number of articles in the fields of political leadership, the challenge of new technologies, and the changing role of the media in international politics. He is the head of an international study looking at the evolving role of the media in North America and in Russia. He has also been active in partisan politics and has stood as a candidate for the Liberal nomination in the riding of Algoma-Manitoulin.

With a firm belief that government could be a positive force in the lives of Canadians, John Manley was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1988. Since that time the voters of Ottawa South have reaffirmed their confidence in him by re-electing him in 1993, 1997 and 2000.

In 1993, he was appointed Minister of Industry, a position that he held for seven years. In October 2000, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and in January 2002, became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Crown Corporations, as well as Minister with political responsibility for Ontario. On June 2, he was appointed Minister of Finance.

During his time in Parliament, Mr. Manley has worked hard to reflect the concerns and needs of his constituents. His achievements include facilitating the transfer of lands between the N.C.C. and the City of Ottawa to safeguard greenspace and provide alternatives for better transportation corridors away from local communities. He also secured the establishment of a U.S. pre-clearance facility at the Ottawa International Airport.

Mr. Manley has worked to provide opportunities for youth by hosting conferences designed at matching young people with potential employers. As well, he established an annual scholarship for local high school graduates to recognize academic achievement and community involvement.

He and his wife Judith have four children.

Wade MacLauchlan

President, University Prince Edward Island

Charles McMillan

Professor of Policy, Schulich School of Business, York University

Robert Pace

Chairman of the Board, Maritime Broadcasting System.

Wanda Severns

David Wheeler

David Wheeler is Director and Erivan K Haub Professor in Business and Sustainability at the Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto. The Business and Sustainability Program is international in scope and specializes in graduate level education, research and executive development. Executive Development is offered through he Sustainable Enterprise Academy, north America's premier offering on senior executive learning for sustainability. In November 2001 the Schulich School of Business was ranked joint first among business schools worldwide for its integration of management and sustainability. David Wheeler is an advisor to the Governments of Canada and the UK, is Visiting Professor in Sustainable Enterprise at Kingston University Business School (UK), and is a member of the boards of Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (Vice Chair), the European Foundation for Business and Society, and the Laidlaw Foundation.

David Wheeler's current research two SSHRC funded projects on the Sustainability of Canadian Business in the New Economy ('Sustainable Canada'), and Leadership for Sustainability, CICA funded research on measuring the business value of stakeholder relationships and CIDA funded research on the role of business in development. David has published more than 50 articles and book chapters in a wide variety of academic journals, books and parliamentary inquiries, and written or presented more than 80 popular magazine articles and conference speeches. He has written or edited three books and has done numerous television and radio broadcasts on environmental and social issues and business. David was principal author of The Stakeholder Corporation - the first business text to be endorsed by UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He was an advisor to the UK Government on governance aspects of the Company Law Review and was a member of the UK Government Advisory Committee on Consumer Products and the Environment and the Reference Group for Canada's National Report to the World Summit on Sustainable Develeopment (Rio+10). He was co-founder of the UK business-led Committee of Inquiry - A New Vision for Business that reported directly to Prime Minister Tony Blair in November 1999.

Prior to his current appointments, David was a member of the Executive Management team of The Body Shop International for 7 years overseeing a business operating in 50 countries with worldwide retail sales of $1 billion. As Executive Director of Environmental and Social Policy David had strategic oversight of sustainability issues and non-financial auditing and reporting. In addition to these duties he was responsible for Human Resources and Learning for the group. In his time with The Body Shop, David oversaw the publication of five Environmental Statements in line with the European Union Eco-Management and Audit Scheme. In January 1996, The Body Shop published its first comprehensive and independently verified social, environmental and animal protection audit statement - the Values Report. A second Values Report followed in January 1998. Both reports were rated top in a worldwide ranking by SustainAbility for the United Nations on environmental and social reporting.

David started his career in the water industry where he specialised in water pollution control. Later as a Senior Research Fellow at the Robens Institute of the University of Surrey he became a leading researcher and commentator on standards of drinking water and recreational water in the UK, achieving World Health Organization Collaborating Centre status for the Robens Institute. During his time at Surrey University David was a frequent consultant to United Nations and other development agencies working in water and sanitation programs in less developed countries. He supervised development projects in twelve countries in Africa and Latin America an co-developed the DelAgua drinking water test kit which is now used by development agencies in more than fifty countries worldwide. The invention won a national award, presented by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1990.