Gillian Morrison provides leadership, strategic direction, and priority setting to the University’s centrally managed fundraising programs, enhancing their performance, their support of divisions, and their effectiveness in support of the University’s highest strategic priorities. Her portfolio includes Principal Gifts, Annual and Leadership Giving, Corporate and Foundation Relations, Stewardship, Campaign Planning, and International Advancement. 

Gillian joined the University of Toronto in 2009 in the role of Assistant Vice President, Divisional Relations and Campaigns.  In this portfolio, she played a key role in the success of the Boundless campaign, which reached its original $2 billion goal early and is on track to exceed the expanded goal of $2.4 billion. 

Prior to joining the University of Toronto, she served as a Vice President with a national consulting firm, providing fundraising counsel to a broad range of universities, hospital foundations and charities across Canada. She began her career with the Government of Ontario where she held positions with the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Colleges and Universities.

Gillian holds a B.A. (Honours) and a Master of Public Administration, both from Queen’s University. She is the incoming President of the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education, and serves on the board of the Junction Famers Market in her local neighbourhood. 

Since 2007, David has served as vice-president, advancement for the University of Toronto, Canada’s largest research-intensive university, with 88,000 students on three campuses, 21,000 faculty and staff, and 562,000 alumni in more than 180 countries. David has led the planning and execution of the University’s ambitious Boundless Campaign, publicly launched in November 2011 with an original goal of $2 billion, which was increased in December 2016 to $2.4 billion. Boundless is the largest campaign in Canadian university history—an ambitious and necessary undertaking to help prepare the next generation of global citizens and to address today’s defining global challenges.

From 1999 to 2007, David served as President of the Royal Ontario Museum Board of Governors (originally the ROM Foundation) where he led Renaissance ROM—a transformational campaign that re-defined the Museum’s financial resource base, its public brand, and its position as a major international cultural destination. Recognizing the Museum’s mandate that encompasses both world civilizations and natural history, he made a priority of reaching out to Canada’s Japanese, South Asian, Chinese, Ukrainian, Italian, Greek and other communities locally and nationally. The Renaissance ROM Campaign, unique in Canada for its inclusiveness, generated an enormous sense of pride and engagement among these diverse communities, exemplified by a landmark gift from Michael Lee-Chin to name the Museum’s new building.

David Palmer is a Senior Fellow of Massey College, an executive committee member of the National Council of Foundation Executives, and a director of the Earth Rangers Foundation. He earned his Master of Fine Arts in musicology from Princeton University and began his career as a Lecturer in the Faculty of Music at The University of Western Ontario, his undergraduate alma mater. After his first foray into development and marketing at Orchestra London, David would return to Western to lead a ground-breaking campaign for the University of Western Ontario’s School of Business Administration. These efforts resulted in it being renamed the Richard Ivey School of Business, ushering in a new era in professional-faculty fundraising in Canada.

For his strategic and principled approach, for his contributions to the advancement of higher education, and for his impact on redefining the fundraising potential of multiple charitable sectors in Canada, David was recognized with the 2016 Outstanding Achievement Award by the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE), and with the 2011 Outstanding Fundraising Professional Award by the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Feridun Hamdullahpur was appointed president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo on March 11, 2011.

A professor of mechanical engineering, Dr. Hamdullahpur earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Istanbul, Turkey and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at the Technical University of Nova Scotia.

Throughout his career spanning over 35 years, Dr. Hamdullahpur has been an active researcher in thermo-fluids and energy engineering, a passionate teacher and an academic administrator. He has authored hundreds of scientific and academic publications and supervised over 50 graduate students. He was named a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in June, 2014.

President Hamdullahpur’s central motivation is ensuring that the impact of university education, research and scholarship on our broader society is maximized through constant reform and innovation in the higher education sector. He is a leading advocate for the value of basic research and its relevance to educational excellence and economic prosperity.

His current focus at the University of Waterloo is expanding its lead in innovation, building on Waterloo’s long-standing and emerging strengths in co-operative education, research, entrepreneurship, and equity. The University of Waterloo has dominated Canadian university innovation rankings for 26 consecutive years. Its goal is to be recognized as one of the top innovation universities in the world.

In 2015 President Hamdullahpur was appointed chair of the new Leadership Council for Digital Infrastructure, an ambitious initiative to build a world leading digital infrastructure ecosystem for Canada. He is also proud to have been one of ten global university presidents appointed to the United Nation’s HeforShe Impact 10x10x10 campaign to engage boys and men in the cause of gender equity. In acknowledgement of President Hamdullahpur’s leadership in education and innovation, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in January, 2013.

Joanne has been in advancement leadership positions at INSEAD (Business School in France), the University of Guelph, and in a variety of fundraising, marketing and administrative leadership roles at Western University and Ivey Business School, and was based in Hong Kong for a few years.  A presenter and volunteer with CCAE and CASE in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia; her international perspective offers unique insights to the alumni experience and effective change management. 

Throughout her career, Banks has enjoyed deep experiences across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Sandra Banks leads the University’s Marketing, Communications, integrated Government Relations and Community Relations teams.

As chief executive officer of the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Banks led a three-year strategy of renewal and growth for this prestigious national showcase of world-class agricultural and equine competitions.

Banks spent 15 years at Coca-Cola Canada as vice-president, Public Affairs and Communications and was responsible for the company’s brand communications, stakeholder, media and government relations, corporate social responsibility and internal communications.

Banks also worked in the public sector, serving as assistant deputy minister in the food industry division of Ontario’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs in 1996 and 1997, and as press secretary in the Office of the Minister of State for the Canadian Wheat Board in Ottawa.  

Banks has served on a variety of public and private boards and co-chaired the 2014 Toronto Garrison Ball.

A graduate of Carleton University, Banks holds a Bachelor of Arts (Mass Communications).

After starting her career in communications with the Canadian Federal Government in Ottawa, Ingrid pivoted to working in the not-for-profit world where she developed a love of philanthropy.

Recently promoted to the role of Associate Vice President, Advancement Strategy at the University of Waterloo, Ingrid facilitates and drives the major and principal giving advancement strategy and activity of the President and Vice Chancellor in close collaboration with the Vice President Advancement.  Ingrid leads a specialized team that includes the Director of the University’s Hong Kong Foundation and works closely with all faculty fundraising teams across campus.

Prior to accepting this role, Ingrid was Director of Advancement for the Faculty of Mathematics and the School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo where she and her team were successful in raising more than $54M over the course of six years.

Ingrid has gained more than 20 years’ experience as a professional fundraiser in the areas of social services, health and post-secondary education.  Before joining the University of Waterloo in 2011, she served as Chief Development Officer and President of the Cambridge Memorial Hospital Foundation. Her experience also includes working as Associate Director of Development for the School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University and as the inaugural Executive Director of Development and Alumni Relations at Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. 

Ingrid has an honours BA in English Literature and has held the CFRE designation since 2003.  She is fluently bilingual, and committed to life-long learning.  She has been an active volunteer in the areas of women’s leadership, technology, community safety, aging, and within the francophone school system.  She also enjoys mentoring newcomers to the profession to help them achieve success in the philanthropic sector.

Patrick Deane is the seventh president and vice‐chancellor of McMaster University, a position he has held since 2010. As president, Dr. Deane is focused on promoting and supporting research, strengthening the connections between the University and the local and global communities that we serve and ensuring a distinctive, personalized and engaging experience for McMaster’s students.

Dr. Deane was born and raised in South Africa, where he read English and Law at the University of Witwatersrand. He immigrated to Canada in 1978 and undertook graduate studies in English Literature, receiving both an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Western Ontario.  He taught English Literature at the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario and subsequently undertook a variety of progressively more senior academic administrative roles at the University of Winnipeg and Queen’s University prior to his appointment at McMaster.

Dr. Deane is also a professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies and has published two books and many articles and other publications. His principal research interest is British writing of the period 1914‐1945, with a particular focus on the relationship between literature and politics on a national as well as an individual level. He has been honoured with many awards for his academic work, including the first John Charles Polanyi Prize for Literature, which he received in 1988.  He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

As McMaster University's vice president of University Advancement, Mary Williams leads one of Canada's strongest advancement teams with a stellar reputation for delivering strong results to the University in the development of its reputation and resources. At Mac, University

Advancement broadly includes the University’s communications and marketing activities, interface with government, alumni relations and fundraising. Williams has played a number of roles at

McMaster since she joined the team over 25 years ago.  She was one of the leaders of The Campaign for McMaster University, which recently raised $474 million for the University, surpassing its goal of $400 million.

In 2015, Mary was recognized by her professional organization, the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE), with their Outstanding Achievement Award which recognizes individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the field of educational advancement over a number of years.  

As an active volunteer, Mary is a past-­‐president of CCAE, and has been actively involved in many boards in the broader Hamilton area, including: Ronald McDonald House, the Hamilton District Health Council, the YWCA, YMCA of Hamilton, Burlington & Brantford and the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce. She is also a member of the Conference Board of Canada’s National Council of Foundation Executives. 

Mary, a McMaster graduate herself, who grew up in Hamilton, is married to Rob Forbes (also a McMaster graduate) and together they are proud parents of Liam Forbes (hopefully soon to be a Mac grad!).