Volunteers
Since the age of 13, Dana has been a part of Zara Baladi Food Products, her family's 25-year-old business supplying Ontario with authentic Middle-Eastern food ingredients. Her experiences in family business led her to study entrepreneurship. She holds a degree in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Strategy from 91影视. As the Innovation Manager at Zara Baladi, she leads special projects and new product development.
Dana is also a Business Innovation Program Manager, Product Manager, Educator, Consultant, and Digital Marketer. She has experience across various sectors, helping organizations harness innovation. Her passion lies in food entrepreneurship and family business dynamics.
Bill has been a champion of family business throughout his career. He firmly believes family-owned businesses are the real backbone of our economy. He is passionate about supporting and nurturing business families through all their challenges to ensure they achieve success and thrive across generations.
Bill brings a unique combination of skills and experiences to the family business field gained through his professional career as a partner with Grant Thornton LLP and then as President & CEO of Family Enterprise Canada. His expertise encompasses being a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), a Family Enterprise Advisor (FEA) and an accredited Director (ICD.D). With this blend of financial, executive management and governance expertise, Bill is well suited to support family-owned businesses with succession, ownership transition, NextGen development and governance matters.
Outside his professional work, Bill enjoys spending his time and energy with his amazing family.
Ehab James is a law student at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law and the founder of MapleMark Media, a communications and marketing firm. Before law school, Ehab served as a public servant across the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, and the City of Mississauga, including leading modernization initiatives within a department of over 10,000 employees. He has worked on political campaigns across Canada and the United States, and served two terms as an elected Governing Member of the University of Toronto, where he was a recipient of the University of Toronto Student Leadership Award.
Today, Ehab is helping advise the Family Business Institute, connecting its research and student programming to the public funding and policy conversations already underway around Canada's family business succession crisis.