Theme: The Change Makers

We are the Wild Ones. The Rule Breakers and Risk Takers. The Envelope Pushers and Idea Generators.
We are Creators. Artists. Entrepreneurs. Philanthropists. Designers. Coders. Musicians. Poets. Scientists. Thinkers. Doers. Caregivers.
We believe that the world CAN be a better place and that change starts right here. Right now.
We come together to collaborate, to share fresh ideas and to find inspiration. We believe that Chatham-Kent is a great place to live, work, and play, and an even better place to stay.
We are respectful of our past, grateful for this moment, and optimistic about our future. We believe our best days are still to come.

Chatham Capitol Theatre
238 King Streeet West
Chatham, Ontario, N7M 1E7
Canada

Benjamin Patient

Benjamin’s driving mission is to help people achieve their individual goals so they can make a greater contribution to their team. After ranking in the top 5 at a world championship martial arts competition, he achieved his childhood dream of working as a stunt performer, performing internationally in live stunt shows and becoming a stunt trainer. Benjamin became interested in healthy teams after experiencing how passion and hard work led to trust and results for his entertainment teams. After making the transition from entertainment to the traditional work environment, he was inspired to create tools to make it easier for teams to connect and communicate. He is creator of the REDI method to achievement, and lead creator of the Conxtd app for iPhone and iPad to transform conversations into meaningful connections.

Boris Cherniak

Speaker, comedian and Motivational Hypnotist Boris Cherniak is author of “You Can Do Anything.” He is a multiple award-winner, twice named Global Leader and Canadian Special Events Entertainer of the Year. In an interactive presentation that empowers, and includes useful take-aways for a successful future, Boris perdforms comedic skits coupled with a message of positive thinking that ensures an unforgettable experience. Boris has appeared on The Robert Irvine Show, is a regular guest-expert on Maury (helping eliminate phobias), The Howie Mandel Show, The Vegas Show, and Comics, and has appeared at the Just for Laughs Festival and at the Boston Comedy Festival. He has entertained troops in Afghanistan and inspired attendees at the Women Global Leaders Conference in Dubai.

Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger

Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger is a popular speaker who invites her audiences to explore history and discover fun and dysfunction with Shakespeare and the Tudors. At the Smithsonian and other venues in Washington, DC, Carol Ann brings the voices of the past to life with programs about Shakespeare, Henry VIII and His Wives, the Wars of the Roses, Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, and life in Tudor times. As Manager of Visitor Education at Folger Shakespeare Library, Carol Ann gave workshops and tours about Shakespeare and Early Modern England to visitors of all ages and levels of interest. She is an expert in personal and professional communication, and offers workshops and lectures to nonprofits and other organizations in the Washington, DC area. Her programs invite interaction; one sold-out crowd found themselves engaged in a Shakespearean insult debate! Infused with humor and scholarship, Carol Ann’s programs bring the latest scholarship to her audience in an entertaining, memorable way.

Crissi Cochrane

Crissi Cochrane combines the heart of an East Coast singer-songwriter with the soul of Windsor-Detroit, living, and writing, since 2010, just a stone’s throw away from the birthplace of Motown. Native to the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Crissi fashions a sultry and soulful brand of popular music, jazz, and R&B. Silky vocals, reminiscent of Billie Holiday and Norah Jones, glow atop the purr of her Fender Jaguar electric guitar. Crissi’s songs reveal a decade of experience first gained as a young girl growing up in Atlantic Canada, studiously writing, recording, and performing. Her most recent album “Little Sway” has garnered more than 12 million listens on Spotify, a song placement in the ABC television show Nashville, and a national reputation as an emerging artist to watch.

Delaney Brooklyn

Delaney is a fifteen-year-old self-taught singer/songwriter and musician. She plays four instruments: guitar, piano, ukulele, and trumpet. She has performed and placed in Canada-wide competitions, and adores performing. She has been on the stage performing in front of people since she was just three years old, and hasn’t gotten off since. Delaney loves photography and sports, writing and songwriting in her spare time… and of course singing!

Harriet Riddell

Harriet Riddell is a Textile Performance Artist. She grew up in Oxfordshire, England (With Canadian parents) Since graduating from the University of Hertfordshire in 2012 with BA(Hons) in Contemporary Applied Arts, Harriet set up and established her own freelance business called ‘InStitchYou,’ which specializes in stitching portraits of people from life with a sewing machine. In addition to markets, art shows, and festivals in the UK, she has traveled with her sewing machine, and stitched people and landscapes in India, Kenya, Canada, Hong Kong, and Switzerland. Harriet has won various awards. She has exhibited her work at the Indian High Commission in London, held artist residencies in Kenya and England, and self-published a book documenting her artistic adventures around India.

Jennifer Kranenburg

A Chatham native, Jennifer is an Elementary Teacher and Math Learning Coach with the Lambton Kent District School Board. She is passionate about following student voice in order to address relevant social justice issues. She believes that when students are engaged in authentic, meaningful tasks they learn best. She is committed to continual growth and is currently taking courses through the University of Windsor. Jennifer’s greatest accomplishment is being Mom to 3 fantastic teenagers.

John St. Augustine

Since his first radio broadcast in 1997, John has hosted over 24,500 shows along with interviewing 11,500 authors, world leaders, athletes, and others of name and note. In 2007 The Visionary Project (UK) compiled an international list of 500 people who have been deemed “visionaries” in the arts, sciences, politics and other areas of human achievement. The list includes names such as President Jimmy Carter, Oprah Winfrey, Nelson Mandela, and … John St. Augustine. In June of 2006, St. Augustine put his microphone on hold to help create and launch the “Oprah & Friends” XM Satellite Radio network. He was the Executive Producer of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and is the Executive Producer of “Earth Matters with Bill Kurtis.” John presented at the prestigious TEDxNASA conference in 2009 and is the best-selling author of “Living an Uncommon Life” (2006) and “Every Moment Matters” (2009.) John is a graduate of Northeastern Illinois University and is a veteran of the United States Coast Guard.

Manal Fakhoury

Dr. Manal Fakhoury is President and CEO of Fakhoury Leadership International, with over 30 years of non-profit and leadership experience, she serves on many community and national boards. Manal is also a consultant pharmacist, inspirational speaker, coach, trainer, and mentor. Undergraduate, and doctorate from the University of Southern California, an MBA from Webster University. Manal has been recognized with many professional and community awards including Person of the Year, Pharmacist of the year and recently Communicator of the Year. Manal was honored to participate in the Climb of Hope and summit Mt. Kilimanjaro in January 2014.

Manuela Dal Borgo

Manuela was born in Brazil to a Chilean father and Austrian mother. She grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil until her early 20s believing she would become a sculptor and painter. She then moved to Italy for a year working menial jobs whilst traveling to research, and to read as many of Leonardo da Vinci’s Codices as possible (this was ten years before the da Vinci code). Thereafter, she moved again to care for her Yugoslavian grandparents who lived in Florida, and there she attended the local university, where she discovered Thucydides and ancient history. She was steadily supported by Florida State to speak at conferences all over the world, such as Paris, Cape Town and London. She was naturally good at it and was offered a place at UCL in London. There, she completed a PhD in Classics and Economics, all fully funded by the British government and UCL. Last year, she received a British Academy Fellowship as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge and joined Newnham College.

Matthew Knarston

Matt is the definition of adventurous. His wild adventures have seen him helicopter rescued from the New Zealand wilderness after a canyoning trip did not go to plan, race across India in a rickshaw and scale some of the highest mountains in the world. His thirst for extreme challenges has taken him on epic trips in North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. Tramping and skiing were gateway sports for Matt into the world of mountaineering and, coupled with New Zealand’s rich climbing history, it was fate that this weekend warrior would be drawn to the sport. Many people would have been turned off climbing after a fatal accident occurred during Matt’s introduction to mountaineering with the New Zealand Alpine Club. Unfortunately for his mother, Matt was hooked! As a Chartered Accountant and Management Consultant with The Poirier Group, Matt has the opportunity to apply on a daily basis the lessons he learns from the mountains to drive the performance of his clients’ businesses.

Ricardo Palomeres

Ricardo is a keynote speaker, leadership coach, and author. He immigrated to the United States from Mexico City after graduating from photography school with the singular focus of building a career that would allow him to explore the world. Later he earned a Film degree at the University of Texas at Austin, then went on to create documentary work in Mexico and China, and to make the famous Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain. His most recent project, Pedal South, entailed leading a team on a two-year cycling expedition from Alaska to Argentina. The purpose was to create a documentary that would give a perspective of the people and landscape of the Americas today. His goal is to spread compassion, knowledge, and wisdom gained through overcoming inconceivable obstacles so people can unlock their potential, achieve what seems impossible, and find contentment.

Roxana Radulescu

Born and raised in Bucharest, Romania, Roxana immigrated to Canada in March 2017. After being raised during communism until she was almost 13, when communism ended in 1989, she adapted to both being a teenager and being ‘free’ at the same time. She went to University to study foreign languages and literature, while working as a translator for a human rights organization, and teaching English private lessons to kids. Upon graduation, she started working at an international law firm, where she learned to adapt to ‘corporate culture’ in a country where that term was relatively new. To her, “Learning is movement from moment to moment.” As a Learning & Development professional, she studied and specialized in personal skills, which she observed in both herself and others. Her certifications in Learning & Development, Human Resources and Coaching Practice helped her to increase her knowledge, and to observe the learning process, and the use of our own personal skills, especially in the face of change.

Simon Bailey

Simon T. Bailey is a compelling instigator who wants to know how educational leaders transform schools and to create an environment where everyone thrives. He co-authored Releasing Leadership Brilliance – Breaking Sound Barriers in Education with Dr. Marceta Reilly. The book introduces a proven framework to empower schools to flourish across America and the world. This new book builds on his earlier work, Release Your Brilliance, published by HarperCollins. Its premise is that every person is a diamond in the rough with their potential locked in a vault. Readers learn the combination to their hidden genius and how to reveal it to the world. His most recent book, Shift Your Brilliance: Harness the Power of You, Inc. teaches individuals and organizations how to take control of the steering wheel of uncertainty and create the future. Simon is a former sales director for Disney Institute and one of America’s Top 10 most booked Corporate and Association Speakers.

Vanessa Shields

Vanessa has been writing and reading since she was a child, and doing so passionately and dedicatedly. Her published books exemplify her love for storytelling with honesty, vulnerability, and comedy. Her first book, ‘Laughing Through A Second Pregnancy – A Memoir’ (2011), chronicled in personal essays her journey pregnant for the second time, while her books of poetry, ‘I Am That Woman'(2014) and ‘Look At Her'(2016) are fierce, funny, feminist collections that have each sold hundreds of copies. Shields created and hosts Mouth Piece Storytelling, a storytelling competition that is thriving in its second year and she has recorded over 150 stories. She has read her work as close as Chatham and as far as Paris, France. As a teacher, workshop leader and writing retreat organizer, Vanessa has gathered writers of all ages and backgrounds to engage in various forms of creative writing. Currently, she is finishing her YA novel, and working on a full-length book of ‘The Original Stories’.

Zach Fisch

Zack Fisch is the CEO of Dash MD, a healthcare start-up based in Toronto. Dash MD’s mobile personal health manager is live in a number of health systems across the province and is in the process of scaling across Canada. Zack put his full-time JD/MBA studies at Osgoode Hall Law School and the Schulich School of Business at York University on hold to pursue his vision for a more patient-centred healthcare system. He is a 2x start-up founder, proud bandwagoner of Toronto sports-teams, and a massive Game of Thrones fan.