Hugh Black
Communications strategy, media relations, project management

Hugh has more than 20 years of communications experience. He has considerable "market-build" experience for clients in the technology, HR, aerospace and other industries, as well as brand building, corporate positioning/reputation management, channel marketing, trade show support, and executive outreach and visibility programs.

As a specialist in media relations, communications planning and implementation, Hugh has led campaigns at local, regional, national and international levels. At the VP level, he previously built various sector practices at several top-tier Canadian PR agencies.

His business-to-business experience includes working with industry leaders, including TELUS, Bell Canada, Nortel, FraserMilner CasgrainLLP, Federal Express, Sun Microsystems Inc. and Sun Microsystems of Canada, Communitech, AGRA Industries, and GE Mortgage Insurance, among others. His business-to-consumer activity includes work with Boston Pizza and Boston Pizza Royalties Income Fund, Amazon.com, Canon Canada, Nintendo of Canada, Bell Canada, HotJobs, AstroDairies, and Autobytel.ca.

Hugh is a graduate from the University of Western Ontario with a B.A. (Honours) in English and History and has a post-graduate public relations certificate from Humber College.
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Dana Dramnitzke
Internal/employee strategy and communications

Dana started her Human Resources career over 16 years ago with global packaging manufacturer, Tetra Pak. Since then Dana has worked at the Senior Director and Vice President level in Human Resources across a range of industries including manufacturing, health care (private and public) and consumer services - encompassing growing organizations in the corporate and not-for profit sectors with both non-union and unionized employee groups.

As a consultant ( www.hrtransformations.com ), Dana relies on her ability to understand the people needs of a business and identify the strategies that will create alignment of people with the organization's objectives. She has accumulated particular expertise in change management, organizational development, employee communication, coaching, facilitation and compensation.

As a consultant, her clients have included DuPont, Sun Life Financial, Junior Achievement of Central Ontario, Bank of Montreal, TD Meloche Monnex, Revera Inc., Amex and the Nova Scotia Pension Agency.

Dana holds an undergraduate degree in Commerce and Employment/Labour Relations from the University of Toronto, the CHRP designation, and is a certified compensation professional.
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Larry Jackson
Message development, media training and presentation coach

Larry is one of Canada's foremost media trainers and presentation coaches. His background is broadcasting. At Global Television he was in front of the camera for more than 15 years. During his tenure at the national broadcaster he also produced numerous network shows and series, including 1000 editions of Global's "News at Noon" and 800 editions of "World Tonight".

In 1995 Larry shifted to business where he quickly established a reputation for excellence as a trainer, a writer and a communication strategist. His clients have included banks, technology firms, health and pharmaceutical companies and associations. The company roster is exhaustive: ATI Technologies (an AMD firm), CANARIE, The Chartered Accountants of Ontario, Pacific & Western Bank of Canada, Right Side Capital Corp, PreventSure Health Services, PrimeLink Insurance, the Toronto Venture Group, The Canadian Science and Technology Growth Fund, Kumon Canada and many more.

Larry's strength as a trainer is his ability to show his clients how to improve the presentation skills they already have. His clients have been interviewed by all of the national media, both print and broadcast.
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Mark Evans
Social media and online communications

Mark provides companies with strategic and tactical services so they successfully use social media that meets their business needs and objectives. At the core of Mark's approach to social media is working closely with clients to identify their strategic goals in using social media, who's going to implement and operate social media programs, and what platforms and services are going to be used. Mark provides companies with tactical insight into best practices and the tools that help increase social media efficiency and productivity, as well as hands-on training.

Mark's experience includes more than 10 years as an award-winning technology newspaper journalist and three Internet start-ups - Blanketware (a natural language search service that he co-founded), b5media (one of the world's largest blog networks) and PlanetEye (online travel planning). Mark is one of Canada's leading social media experts, an entrepreneur and enthusiastic blogger.

Mark writes several blogs, including Mark Evans Tech and Twitterrati, as well as a regular column for the Globe & Mail. Last year, he was named one of Canada's best technology bloggers by ComputerWorld Canada. He's also one of the organizers of Canada's leading Web conference, mesh, and its sister events, meshU and meshmarketing. Mark's professional experience also includes 15 years as a technology reporter for the National Post, Globe & Mail and Bloomberg News.
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Michael Stokely, RDG
Visual design

A design communications professional for over 20 years, Michael has created and produced award-winning communications for a diverse group of clients, including Agilon Financial, Allstate, Ariad Custom Communications, Baan World Users, Canadian Arthritis Network, Chatelaine, Fidelity Investments, Franklin Templeton, ING Insurance, HomesAway, Hydro One, Maclean's Magazine, One Financial, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Today's Parent Magazine, Toronto Life Magazine and Wish Magazine.

He has been the recipient of numerous awards for excellence in art direction and design throughout his career. Michael is a member of The Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario.
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Brian Chadderton
Senior Agency Counsel

Brian is Principal of Communications Associates. He has provided senior public and media relations, marketing communications and internal and external communications counsel to Canada's largest corporations for more than 25 years. Brian has served as vice president for one of Canada's largest advertising/PR firms, the Ogilvy group, and has acted as senior public relations and communications director for a number of leading companies and organizations, including ATI Technologies (now AMD) and Ontario's chartered accountants.

Brian has worked in a variety of industries, from high tech to financial to food service and the transportation sectors. In the high tech area, Brian was the chief architect of the launch of cellular telephones in Canada, devised and implemented the introduction of Sega video gaming consoles and directed the public and media relations program for the graphic card revolution of ATI. Financial consulting has spanned the launch of BCE Inc. to the collapse of Confederation Life Insurance to the media and industry relations programs for IPOs of many of the country's widest publicly held companies. Consumer goods companies for which he has consulted include Duracell, Nestles, Campbell's and Midas. Pharmaceutical clients have included Smith Kline/Glaxo, Bristol Myers and Purdue Frederick. Transportation sector clients have included Canada Post, Purolator and TNT.

A graduate of Carleton University's School of Journalism, Brian spent a decade as an Ottawa-based journalist, including Parliament Hill correspondent for the Thompson newspaper chain, before relocating to Toronto. He is principal of Strategic Communication Consultants.
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About Rick Hall

Rick Hall is Principal of RICK HALL PR, Communication Consultants. Rick has acted as strategic counsel for the implementation and team performance of public relations strategies for a wide range of clients, including SAP Canada, DMR Consulting, Innovations Foundation of the University of Toronto and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.

Rick handled product publicity and corporate communications assignments for ATI Technologies, the world's largest computer graphics hardware vendor, during a time when the company grew from $600 million to $1.5 billion in revenues.

He has also held positions with the Canadian government. He worked as senior policy analyst for Industry Canada in Ottawa, and spent four years seconded as Director of Projects for a London UK-based, international membership organization in the field of communications.

Rick holds several degrees, including a PhD in communications from McGill University, Montreal, in addition to Masters in Sociology and Bachelors in Social Science from McMaster University. He has held the position of 1st Vice President Canadian Public Relations Society (Toronto), the largest national CPRS chapter. Currently, he is Chair of the Cabbagetown Heritage Committee, an advisory group that reports to Toronto City Hall, on preservation issues related to the downtown Cabbagetown neighbourhood, the largest collection of Victorian homes and buildings in North America.
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