The first big business-minded gathering of the new year took place recently in Toronto. It was an evening that celebrated business in Canada’s largest urban centre, and out were some of its key players, including ministers, mayors and the mover-shaker set.
Kicking it all off on Jan. 18 was a reception held for a select few, among them political players like Premier Kathleen Wynne; members of parliament Adam Vaughan and Julie Dabrusin; mayors John Tory and Bonnie Crombie; and Toronto business types including Tridel’s Leo Delzotto, FedEx’s Lisa Lisson and Odgers Berndtson chairman Carl Lovas. Post cocktails and catch-up, the group joined 1,200 or so inside Toronto’s convention centre, where trade, transportation and talent were top of mind for Board of Trade CEO Jan De Silva, who welcomed guests and spoke about the Toronto Region Board of Trade’s priorities for the coming year.
Later, for the first time in the dinner’s 128-year history, a woman delivered the keynote address (it wasn’t until the 1973 annual meeting that the organization passed a resolution to admit female members). With staunch, history-steeped shoes to fill – past keynote speakers include Governor General Earl of Aberdeen back in 1894 and Frank McKenna in 2010 – Linda Hasenfratz, CEO of Linamar Corporation, took to the stage (in leopard-print Christian Louboutin pumps, no less) to deliver her address, marking a major moment for Canadian women in business. Hasenfratz, who was appointed Linamar’s CEO in 2002, spoke of the $4.3-billion global manufacturing company’s tremendous success, noting that the company’s productivity in its Canadian facilities (headquartered in Guelph, Ont.) is the highest of all its plants in the world. Later, she spoke of the TransPacific Partnership and urged government leaders to quickly adopt it. On hand to share in the moment was Linamar’s founder and Hasenfratz’s father, Frank Hasenfratz (who was celebrating a birthday), and her husband, Newton Group president Ed Newton.
The evening concluded with the Toronto Region Builder Award, which this year was presented to Ed Clark, TD Bank Group’s former president and CEO, who attended the event with his wife, Fran Clark, who helped make TD Bank the international force that it is today, spoke of his love for Toronto and its diversity, while noting the need for the city to adapt and evolve to ensure its future prosperity. Also on hand for the 128th annual dinner: Air Canada’s VP of global sales Duncan Bureau; Senator Art Eggleton; Canada Post’s president and CEO Deepak Chopra; CPA Ontario’s president and CEO Carol Wilding; lawyer David McFadden; deputy minister of Training, Colleges and Universities Sheldon Levy; Toronto Foundation president and CEO Rahul Bhardwaj; and George Brown College’s president and chair of Toronto Region Board of Trade, Anne Sado.
