CHAIR
Jamie Cunningham
ActionCOACH business coaching
Jamie
is a managing partner for ActionCOACH
business
coaching with offices in
both
Burlington and Cambridge.
Jamie’s
passion is people and business.
His
experience with marketing and building teams has enabled Jamie to create
significant results for his clients.
With
a strong head for finance, Jamie brings a well-rounded approach to
building businesses.
He
currently owns
three
businesses and maintains a well balanced life enjoying
the outdoors, travel and extreme sports.
Jamie has been a member of the Chamber's Programs
Committee for several years, the last two as that committee's Chair.
VICE CHAIR
Tamer Fahmi
Hearth & Home Realty Inc., Brokerage
Tamer E. Fahmi is the Broker
of Record and President of his company, HEARTH & HOME REALTY INC.,
BROKERAGE founded in 1989. He has been a resident of the Burlington area
since 1970, a practicing REALTORŪ since 1976 and a business owner since
1989. Tamer has served on a number of boards and committees over
the years, most recently as a Former President of the Ontario Real Estate
Association as well as the REALTORSŪ Association of Hamilton-Burlington. He is currently serving on the Burlington Downtown
Association's Board of Management. Tamer resides in the Tyandaga
area with his wife and business partner Janet; they have been married
since 1985 and are proud parents of two young Burlington citizens.
SECOND VICE CHAIR
Philip
Evenden
Integrity Wealth Management
Phil
has been involved in the financial industry since 1983 where he started
with a major Canadian insurance firm. He has held positions in
sales and management and has served as President of an Agents' Marketing
Advisory Council. Phil started Integrity Wealth Management in 2001 and focuses
on helping entrepreneurs avoid personal cash crises through proactive
planning. Phil is very active with the Burlington Chamber and
chaired the Programs Committee in 2005 - 2006. He has lived in
Burlington since 1981 and is married with four children.
DIRECTOR OF FINANCE
Jason
Safar
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Jason
Safar is a partner in the Tax Services practice. He specializes in high
net worth taxation, working exclusively in the area of tax planning for
Canadian private companies and their shareholders. He has a wealth of
experience dealing with entrepreneurs in all stages of their
professional and personal lives. Jason has taught several levels of the
CICA In-Depth Tax course to tax practitioners across the country. He has
also taught introductory tax courses with the McMaster University
Continuing Education Department. He
is a Chartered Accountant who received a Bachelor of Commerce degree
from the University of Toronto.
PAST CHAIR
Francis
Mackan
Horne LLP Chartered Accountants
After
joining Horne LLP, a Burlington based accounting firm, in 1998, Francis
became a Partner in 2006. With over 20 years of Public Accounting
experience,
Francis' expertise is in advising owner managed businesses, and he has a
strong expertise in personal and corporate income tax planning for
family owned businesses. He is currently serving as Treasurer of the
Board of Museums Burlington and Treasurer of the Board of the Hamilton
Philharmonic Orchestra. He is an active member of the Burlington Chamber
of Commerce where he has acted as Chair of the Membership Committee and
Board Liaison of both the Political Action and Health Advocacy Committees. Francis graduated from Brock University with a Bachelor of Business
Administration Degree. Francis and his wife Aimee and their family are
long time residents of Burlington.
DIRECTOR
Nigel Jacobs
Taylor Leibow LLP Accountants and Advisors
Nigel Jacobs is the CEO of
Taylor
Leibow LLP Accountants and Advisors, a full service accounting firm.
Nigel is an acknowledged expert in the practice management of
professional services firms and continues to be involved in various
speaking engagements. Nigel
serves on the editorial advisory board of CPA Practice Management Forum,
for which he writes articles on a regular basis.
He is only the second Canadian to win the highly prestigious ACE (Achievement, Commitment and Excellence) award
for the management of an accounting firm in 2004 from the Association of
Accounting Administration (“AAA”).
Nigel was elected by his peers to the Board of Governors of
CMA Ontario in 2006 and is presently fulfilling his
term of office. He is also the
Director of Education of the AAA based in the USA and is the only Canadian on this
Board. Nigel is an active member
of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce and has served as a member of the
Business Awards Task Force for the past four years.
He is a Certified Management Accountant and received his Bachelor
of Commerce degree from the
University
of Cape Town.
DIRECTOR
Sharon Jackman
Service First Forwarding
Sharon
Jackman is President and C.E.O of Service First Forwarding. She started
in the freight forwarding business in 1981 in
South Africa where she grew up, moved
to Canada in 1986
to raise her two children. She has been an active member of The
Burlington Chamber of Commerce.
Sharon
has served on the New Membership Committee for the last three years, two
of those as Co-Chair. She has co-chaired Party in Pink; a fundraiser for
Breast Cancer Support Services (BCSS) for the last two years. She has
been involved in the Burlington
community as a volunteer and event organizer since residing here for the
past 20 years. Continuing success in her own business reflects her
vision for the growth of the
Burlington
community.
DIRECTOR
Jean
MacKinnon
CMA
Canada, Certified Management Accountants
Jean
MacKinnon currently holds the position of Regional Director of Marketing
for the Certified management Accountants of Canada. She is
responsible for all marketing and communication activities in Midwest
Ontario. Previously, Jean worked for ten years at a Burlington
industrial distribution firm as the financial controller. For the
past year, jean has been the Chair of the Chamber's Environment
Committee. Jean is a graduate of the University of Guelph and is a
Certified Management Accountant.
DIRECTOR
Shelley McQuade
SalesFertilizer.com
Shelley’s
career in sales and marketing goes back 25 years. Her
keen
understanding of what influences customer behaviour propelled her into
leadership positions where she played an integral part in the
exponential growth of organizations working with the likes of HP, Kodak,
Mazda, Motorola and LG. She also taught as an adjunct professor in the
School of Business and Entrepreneurship at Niagara College.
Most
recently, she was a partner at a training and consulting company where
she turned their highly effective, yet intangible services into a
tangible, systemized approach with a technology component. Now she’s off
exploring new frontiers with the start up of SalesFertilizer.com.
Shelley sits on the Business Excellence Awards
Task Force
and
is the founding Chair of the Value Accelerator Group.
DIRECTOR
Bruce
Nicholson
BDO
Canada
Bruce
is a partner in the Burlington office of BDO Canada LLP, chartered
accountants and advisors.
He has over 30 years of experience in many
industry sectors.
Bruce specializes in audit and accounting in
the mid-market sector with a significant interest in the not-for-profit
sector including education and healthcare. Bruce is a recognized
author and presenter on the subject of family business succession.
He has counselled
entrepreneurs in the succession planning exercise to maximize their
personal net worth.
As a life-long resident of Burlington and
surrounding area, Bruce has been active in the Aldershot Lions Club,
Burlington Oldtimers Hockey Club, and youth minor sports.
His Burlington Chamber committee experience
includes Communications and Health Advocacy.
He is Treasurer of the
Burlington Art Centre Foundation and a member of the Education Committee
of the Hamilton Halton Construction Association and the Lillian Parsons
Bursary committee of Halton Healthcare.
Bruce is a graduate of McMaster University with a
Bachelor of Commerce degree.
DIRECTOR
Jeremy
Okolisan
Byrne
Engineering Inc.
As
the Vice President for Byrne Engineering, a Burlington-based consulting
engineering company, Jeremy Okolisan brings 15 years of management and
consulting experience to the Board. Previously, Jeremy was a
Manager at Deloitte Consulting, providing management-consulting
solutions to Canada's largest companies. He is active in the
community serving as director for the Burlington Museum Board and as
chair for several Burlington Chamber Task Forces. Jeremy is a
Professional Engineer who received his MBA from Queen's University and
his Bachelor of Applied Science, Mechanical Engineering from the
University of Toronto.
CHAMBER
OF COMMERCE PAST PRESIDENTS
The Chamber is strongly supported by the Past Presidents of the Burlington
Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber's Past Presidents are a group of
business leaders who have the best interests of business in Burlington at
heart. The Chamber is proud to have these individuals as representatives
and ambassadors of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce.
To
learn more about the newly established Past Presidents Council, go to
our Past Presidents page.
