Board of Directors

Practice Leader, Strategic Human Resources Consulting
Stratford Managers Corporation

Neil Crawford is currently Practice Leader of HR Strategic Consulting at Stratford Managers Corporation responsible for the financial performance and growth of the practice across a wide range of content areas including Human Capital Strategy, Change Management, Culture, Engagement, HR Effectiveness and Talent Management.

Prior to joining Stratford Managers, Neil was a partner of Aon Hewitt and led its Canadian Talent, Rewards and Performance Practice. For fifteen years, he also led the annual Best Employers in Canada study, conducted by Aon Hewitt and published nationally in Canadian Business Magazine.

Neil has worked extensively with many national and international organizations to define business-aligned people and rewards strategies, measure and improve employee engagement, track cultural change and improve the effectiveness of their HR functions. He is a frequent speaker on employee engagement, leadership, aligning people and reward strategies with business strategy, and creating great workplaces.

Neil is a mathematics graduate of the University of Waterloo and is a qualified actuary. He is also a Chartered Professional in Human Resources.

Laura Nashman

Chief Executive Officer
British Columbia Pension Corporation

Laura is the chief executive officer of BC Pension Corporation, one of the largest pension administrators in North America.

BC Pension Corporation provides pension services for five pension plans in British Columbia, with assets in excess of $160 billion. It serves over 685,000 plan members, 1,000 participating employers, and pays out more than $5.5 billion per year.

Under Laura’s leadership, the Pension Corporation received Canada Awards for Excellence® (CAE) Platinum certification in Excellence, Innovation and Wellness in 2022 and has been named one of BC’s Top Employers for four consecutive years.

Laura is an active mentor for emerging leaders who look to her for guidance and direction on their leadership practice and career development. Laura participates in the Women’s Executive Network Mentorship and the Women in Leadership Programs and is the inaugural sponsor of the Pacific Pension Institute’s Leadership Lab.
Laura has the designation of Director with the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D) and serves on several other boards including Gustavson School of Business International Advisory Board, Excellence Canada, the Conference Board of Canada, Pension Pacific Institute and Canadian Sport Institute Pacific.

Laura is also a PhD candidate at the University of Victoria where her area of research is the impact of sports on women’s career success.

Some of Laura’s recent accolades include being named one of BC’s most influential business leaders in 2022 by Business in Vancouver magazine; the public sector BC CEO of the Year in 2018; one of the Influential Women in Business in 2017; and one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women by the Women’s Executive Network.

Richard Perri

Senior Vice President, Finance
Spark Power Corp.

Richard is Spark Power’s Senior Vice President, Finance, with over 20 years of financial and leadership experience across various industries, including mergers and acquisitions. He oversees the organization’s financial reporting and accounting and has extensive experience in growth strategy development, along with finance, operations, and IT.

Prior to joining Spark, Richard served as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at ADP Canada, Senior Vice President & CFO at Ricoh Canada Inc., and Vice President, Finance, at Pitney Bowes Canada. He is a team-oriented leader, focused on operational excellence and execution, who strives to ensure consistent, high-quality financial services within Spark. Richard serves as Director on the Board of Excellence Canada and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto.

Shirlee Sharkey

President & CEO, Saint Elizabeth
Chair of Excellence Canada

Shirlee Sharkey is recognized as one of Canada’s foremost experts on home care and healthy aging. As a registered nurse and the longtime CEO of SE Health, a unique not-for-profit social enterprise, she has dedicated her career to empowering people, championing compassion, and advancing social innovation to forever impact how people live and age at home. In May 2022, Shirlee stepped down from SE Health following 30 years of breakthrough leadership.

Shirlee shares her passion and expertise as a thought leader, speaker, author, and mentor. In 2020, she collaborated with a range of experts to co-author The Future of Aging, a book that has been described as “a brilliant and powerful challenge to locked-in ageist mindsets, policies and service models.” Naturally curious and committed to lifelong learning, Shirlee regularly engages with students, entrepreneurs, and business leaders from other industries. Academically, she is cross appointed to the University of Toronto’s Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation as an adjunct professor.

Shirlee’s commitment to public service is evident in her leadership and involvement on many boards, including University Health Network, the Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation, and BAYADA Home Health Care. She also serves as senior fellow of Canada’s top think tank, the CD Howe Institute. Internationally, Shirlee is a Healthcare DENMARK ambassador. Committed to global influence, she has gained and shared health system insights through her experiences in the Middle East, Australia and northern Europe.

John Wilson

Founder & CEO
CEO Global Network Inc.

John Wilson leads an exclusive CEO peer group organization that creates opportunities for learning and development through monthly group meetings, targeted one-to-one mentoring, and focused learning events. Over the years, John has coached hundreds of high-performing CEOs to greater success and is dedicated to fulfilling the mission of CEO Global Network: “To significantly improve the success and lives of CEOs and executives, their families, and their companies.” He also wrote the acclaimed business book GREAT CEOs and How They Are Made.

John began his career with Ultramar Canada where he worked for 18 years, initially as VP of Sales and Marketing, and then as CEO of Ultramar Ontario Ltd., before moving to California to run a billion-dollar business as part of the Ultramar team in the United States. In 1993, John started his own business that developed a network of fleet fueling sites across the southwestern United States. He and his partners built the business up from zero into a multimillion-dollar company before selling it in 1998.

John has an MBA from the University of Western Ontario.