Seun Olowolafe is a corporate/real estate lawyer in Toronto having established his practice after years of real estate investment and management consulting. Seun brings international experience on the importance of social impact investing including presenting as the keynote speaker at the Nigeria-Canada Investment Summit (NCIS) in Abuja on the importance and opportunity of clean energy initiatives in the real estate industry.
Seun is actively engaged in navigating the legal world of non-for profit while bringing deep understanding of implementing charity initiatives. A focal point in Seun’s community work is collaborating to develop the Black Innovation Fellowship at Ryerson University.
Acquiring his Bachelors in philosophy at the University of Toronto and law degree in the UK, Seun brings his global perspective and experience on advocating for the importance of economic development and social enterprising within underprivileged communities.
Lise Birikundavyi is the deputy country director and impact finance investment manager for the TRECC program in Côte d’Ivoire, an initiative started by the Jacobs Foundation. In this role, she is in charge of identifying and driving value from investments in the education technology space that can improve the quality of education in Côte d’Ivoire.
Lise began her career in the hedge fund industry and her interest in the emerging world is what inspired her to transition to the impact finance sector. She has experience across the investment spectrum: from funds of funds and VCs, to being the transition CEO of a tech start-up.
Lise is a CFA charterholder; she also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, where she wrote her thesis on impact investing, and a trilingual BBA from HEC Montreal. Lise is fluent in French, English and Spanish, and has a conversational level of Mandarin. She is a firm believer in using market driven initiatives as sustainable poverty alleviating solutions.
Lin Ferguson is currently the Executive Director for the Rhema Foundation Canada, a global charity that approaches the human condition from a holistic approach. Lin was recently recognized for her leadership by her local MP, Michael Levitt, for her leadership in February during the Black History Month of this year.
Paul Green is a community leader, with over 35 years of experience working at a grassroots level in many of the communities across the Greater Toronto Area. He has developed a network of relationships throughout the education, entertainment and business sector.
Paul is also a founder of B.S.A. (The Universal Black Students Association), B.L.O.C.K. Headz (Building Links On Community Korners), and Rush The Vote (a national youth voter turnout initiative), spearheading many projects and initiatives that focus on developing young leaders to see themselves as agents of social change. Paul is currently an educator with the TDSB and a founding member of ONABSE (Ontario Association of Black School Educators), specializing in “edutainment” programming;
an arts and entertainment approach to education with a focus on civic and media literacy.
With expertise in youth and community civic engagement, Paul has developed programming for youth, from adolescence to early adulthood. This programming promotes the importance of involvement in the political system as a key and vital component to building prosperous communities and teaches how the political system and government work.
Mr. Green’s previous experience includes working with young offenders in both open and closed custody facilities, developing educational resource material as well as counseling, mentoring and coaching. Most recently, Paul has served as the Vice Chair and Acting Chair for Caribana Arts Group.
Warren G. Salmon founded Black Board International, a software company, in order to provide a variety of technology-based products and services with culturally inclusive content. Black Board currently offers programs that are used by thousands of children and adults in educational institutes and homes around the world.
Ike Okafor works at the Office of Health Professions Student Affairs as the Senior Officer, Service Learning and Diversity Outreach. A central focus of his work at the University of Toronto has been working collaboratively with university divisions, student groups and community organizations to promote access to post-secondary education, particularly the University of Toronto.
Alexander Sinora sold his first small marketing agency by the end of his bachelor’s. Currently, he is a technology consultant specialized in the Financial Services industry at Deloitte. He is also a research assistant at McGill University in entrepreneurship & social innovation. He also sits on the youth advisory board at Desjardins.
Involved in his community; he sits on an advisory board as a federal policy advisor at the Black Canadian Youth Approach within the Heritage Department. He also cofounded the black wealth club, where he leads a cohort of 50 young black leaders. Furthermore, he started a community project called MTLGiveback, where he enables the youth to be active in their community. He also hosts a podcast called “Les Généralistes.”
Alexander is a recipient of a BComm in accounting at John Molson School of Business.
Father, Husband, Community builder, Networker, project and event coordinator, Sales and marketing specialist.
Founder of the OneFullCircle Melanated Community Network (The OFC). The OFC was in October 2011, and currently serving a network of over 15,000 members consisting of Individuals, Families, business owners, entrepreneurs and organizations.
Under Pharaoh direction The OneFullCircle Network is created for hosting the United Nations (UN) delegates conducting the study on people of African in Canada, raising over $40,000 for a collective investment project and hosting the 2020 Peace protest that mobilized 150,000 people.
Pharaoh Hamid-Freeman Rouse currently sits on the board of directors for; Afro Summit (VP), International Black Economic Forum (FEIN) (Director), South Shore Black Community Association (Director).
Chris Emergui founded BAM Strategy, one of Canada’s first digital marketing agencies, in 1996. BAM has been named one of Canada’s Top Employers multiple times and won several awards for their work. Chris was a winner of the 2000 BDC Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Through “BAM Aid”, BAM has also helped over fifty charities through volunteering time for initiatives like “Shore Clean Ups” as well as donating over 125,000 meals to Breakfast For Learning. He is heavily involved in various charities including Montreal Community Cares where he sits on the board and the OFC on various committees. He also coaches many sports teams in his community.
Isaac Olowolafe Jr. is a entrepreneur, business owner, and philanthropist. He established The Dream Maker Realty/Olowolafe Family Scholarship Award at the University of Toronto, the largest endowment for African Studies in any Canadian University.
Monique Asuquo is the President of the Dream Legacy Foundation. In this role, she is in charge of identifying and driving initiatives for the foundation that bridge the relationship between instruction and community.
Monique began her career in the Education sector and spent significant time teaching English to newcomers to Canada. She has extensive community experience supporting adults and children that do not speak English as a first language. A graduate of University of Toronto TESOL program, she possesses firsthand knowledge of the significance of community support immigrant communities. More recently, she has transferred her education and operations skills to various projects in the real estate and development space.
Monique is a member of the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) and holds a Master Degree in Second Language Education from the University of Toronto. She wrote her thesis on the difficulties of community assimilation in a second language. She is passionate about helping newcomers as well as underrepresented child and youth.
Babatunde (Babs) Olorunfemi is the Executive Director of the Dream Legacy Foundation. He has over 20 years experience in banking, professional services firm and social enterprise covering diverse areas as audit, compliance, credit control, corporate governance, risk management, internal controls, investigation, finance, and consulting.
Prior to this role, he oversaw the Enterprise Risk Management function at Centre for Education and Training (now Achev) where his responsibilities included providing support for continuous alignment between risk management and strategic business objectives. He has held other senior roles including Regional Manager at First Bank Ltd; one of the largest banks in sub-Saharan Africa.
Babs possesses a Master in Financial Accountability (MFAc) from York University, an MBA from University of Ilorin – Nigeria. He is also a fellow and member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and associate member, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, USA.
Preferred skills, competencies and assets
