Team | Excellence Canada

Allan N. Ebedes

President and CEO
Excellence Canada

Since 2005, Allan Ebedes has led Excellence Canada, formerly known as the National Quality Institute. Working with the Board of Directors, he is responsible for setting the strategic direction of Excellence Canada and delivering on its business plan and mission.

Allan began his business career as a Chartered Accountant (CA) at Coopers & Lybrand, now PWC. He then became a partner at a small furniture and appliance chain, which grew significantly during his ownership, and was subsequently sold to The Brick. In 1979, he started a private career college called the Toronto School of Business, a division of International Business Schools, which grew to become the largest career college in Canada, with 50 locations coast to coast. Allan took the company public on the NASDAQ exchange.

In 2002, Allan founded Management Mentors International, a company dedicated to corporate training and development, coaching and mentoring. He was also appointed as President of the Academy of Learning, a chain of 100 computer learning centres across Canada.

Allan is a CA, CPA and earned an MBA from the University of Toronto (now Rotman School of Management) and an LLM law degree in Global Business through an evening program at the Faculty of Law. Allan is an ICD.D with the Institute of Corporate Directors and is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and a group leader with the CEO Global Business Network.

Sean Slater

President
Excellence Canada

Sean Slater was named President of Excellence Canada in July, 2024. Prior to joining Excellence Canada, Sean held executive leadership roles at Homewood Health, Solareh, VPI Inc., and Ceridian Canada.

Sean is passionate about growth and success and is a transformative leader dedicated to defining and driving positive results and business evolution.

His 25 years of experience extends to executive management, sales leadership, business development, quality and process improvement, workplace health and wellness, treatment, and technology-enabled health products and programs. He has collaborated closely with private, public, and not-for-profit organizations of all sizes, across all sectors of the Canadian business landscape.

Sean is committed to helping organizations achieve and sustain their success.

Adam Stoehr

VP Educational Services
Excellence Canada

Adam Stoehr has overall responsibility for Excellence Canada’s educational services, including the development and deployment of training and certification. He is one of Excellence Canada’s primary facilitators and speakers. He researches and typically speaks about strategy, employee happiness, organizational excellence, customer experience, leadership, process improvement and all forms of quality management.

Adam has delivered talks for more than 25,000 adults and has conducted more than 20 Canada Awards for Excellence award verifications since 2000.

He has a PhD in Business Strategy from the University of the West of England, Bristol Business School. His published thesis explores the relationship between a strategic approach to quality and employee happiness. He also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and French degree from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Catherine Neville

Strategic Advisor,
Organizational Excellence Programs
Excellence Canada

Catherine Neville is a senior executive who has worked in both private and not-for-profit sectors. She has extensive knowledge of quality management systems, including Excellence Canada’s Healthy Workplace Standard and Excellence, Innovation and Wellness (EIW) Standard (which she co-developed) as well as ISO 9001:2015.

Catherine is an active coach in strategic management planning and related scorecards, Excellence Canada Standard implementation (from planning to done including preliminary assessments and mock verifications), and process management including process mapping, lean principles and continual improvement. She also teaches the verifier training program and is a member of Excellence Canada’s Adjudication Committee for the Canada Awards for Excellence.

Catherine is one of the leads for verifications and benchmark assessments for organizations she does not coach.

Her credentials include a Bachelor of Science degree, Excellence Canada Certified Lead Assessor and Lead Verifier (EIW, and Healthy Workplace), Excellence Canada Certified Excellence Professional, and Excellence Canada Certified Trainer.

Jennifer Elia

Future of Work Advisor
Excellence Canada

Jennifer Elia is an HR and Group Benefits executive with over twenty years experience leading award-winning best practices in organizational health and performance. Her niche expertise is innovating top-tier health, wellness, mental health, and disability strategies for Canadian employers so they can attract talent and optimize performance.

As Future of Work Advisor with Excellence Canada, Jennifer helps organizations future-proof their workforce. By teaching organizations how to foster employee health, performance and sustainability, Jennifer helps organizations amply arm themselves against today’s relentless pace of social, digital and economic change.

Jennifer holds an honours degree in Health and Psychology from Queen’s University and is a graduate of the Workplace Wellness and Health Promotion program at Centennial College. A lifelong learner, she obtained a Workplace Mental Health Leadership certificate from Queen’s in 2020 and is pursuing her CHRL designation in 2021.

Jennifer currently serves on the Ontario Shores Foundation Board of Directors and the Centennial College Program Advisory Committee. In 2016, she was nominated for the Premier’s Award for social and economic contribution in the Health Sciences category.

Karen Jackson

Senior Advisor, Health Workplace Strategies
Excellence Canada

Karen Jackson is a seasoned professional with over 25 years of experience in the health care and not-for-profit sector, as both a healthcare professional and leader. Karen’s background includes serving in progressive leadership roles in corporate services management and providing strategic direction to organizational health and wellness.

Understanding the impacts that all aspects of an organization ultimately have on its ability to be successful, Karen’s passion is to create cultures of excellence through a strategic focus on exemplary healthy workplace practices, including mental health. Karen’s specialties include change leadership, employee engagement, performance management, leadership development, organizational development and support services management.

Karen is a lead Verifier for organizational assessments and an active member on the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Civic Action Champions Council for Mental Health in the workplace. She has an undergraduate science degree from the University of Washington and a Master’s degree in Leadership from the University of Guelph.

Kathryn Cestnick

Strategic Advisor,
Certification Programs and Standards Development
Excellence Canada

Kathryn Cestnick has worked extensively in both the private and not-for-profit sectors. Her background is in senior administration, finance and human resources. She has conducted and led hundreds of verifications and assessments across Canada, and has consulted with all sizes of organizations. Her expertise includes writing the Excellence Canada Standards; she is co-lead developer for the Excellence, Innovation and Wellness, Healthy Workplace, Mental Health at Work and Financial Health standards.

She is a partner with The Advisors Group, a management consultancy. In addition to her consultancy practice, she has held senior positions including vice president at two Ontario community colleges and chief operating officer at one of Canada’s largest law firms.

Kathryn has been with the Excellence Canada since 1999.

She holds a Bachelor Administrative Studies (BAS) from York University, and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA, CGA) and a Certified Excellence Professional (CEP).

Ruth Mojeed

Founder and Chief Equity Officer
The Inclusion Project

Ruth Mojeed Ramirez is the Founder & Chief Equity Officer of The Inclusion Project and curator of Employment Equity Co-lab. She brings extensive lived experience and grounded expertise to her work in racial equity, diversity and inclusion (REDI). Her research and solutions design focus on an intersectional and inter-generational approach to address complex issues of racial equity, decolonization and gender equality. She leads organizational EDI strategy development, readiness assessment and coaching among multi-level stakeholders in public and private sectors.

Ruth is indigenous to the Yoruba tribe from western Nigeria. She migrated to Canada to pursue a master’s degree in Intercultural & International Communication at Royal Roads University (2017). She also holds certificates in Community Organizing & Leadership (Harvard University); Community-based Participatory Research (University of Victoria); Executive Leadership (Oxford University).

She has contributed to and led many research projects; facilitated REDI competency sessions and; regularly advises and coaches many notable leaders on equity-related issues. Ruth serves on many boards and advisory committees, including Vancouver Foundation’s grants advisory. She is a director on the national board of the Canadian International Council where she leads efforts on inclusive policy development; director on the board of Excellence Canada and; director on the board of Camosun College.