HR LEADERS AGENDA

 This agenda is exclusive to HR Leaders pass holders. Content is designed for senior HR professionals. Every HR Leaders pass also includes the full HRFest Canada experience, but general HRFest passes do not include access to this track. 
9:00am

Registration Opens

10:00am

Welcome to HR Leaders!

10:10am - 10:50am

Inside the Boardroom: What the C‑Suite Really Wants from HR Now

Transformation & the Changing Landscape

A CEO/CFO and CHRO lift the curtain on the real pressures around growth, productivity, cost and risk and what they need from senior leaders. In this candid, off‑the‑record conversation, you’ll hear how HR priorities land in the boardroom, which conversations change capital allocation decisions, and where HR is still seen as “support” rather than “critical infrastructure.” Expect direct insights you can use to reposition your agenda with your own CEO and board. 

Manuelita Cherizard

Chief Human Resources Officer, Royal Ontario Museum
Moderator

Lawrence Hughes

CPO, Porter

Tanja Fratangeli

CPO, IKEA

Marco Dube

EVP People & Culture, Hydro Ottawa

11:05am - 11:40am

The Operating Model Reset: What's Actually Working Under Pressure

Transformation & the Changing Landscape

A senior CHRO walks through a real before-and-after operating model redesign; what they changed, what it cost, what it actually delivered in terms of cost efficiency, execution speed, risk management and clearer ownership. We'll work through the operating model archetypes that are holding up under pressure in 2026: headcount, spans of control, shared services, COEs and where work genuinely gets done. A quick self-assessment will help you locate your own structure on the same map and identify where it's enabling strategy versus quietly working against you. 

Christie Rall

Partner, Marsh
Moderator

Anna Filice

CPO, WSIB

Elizabeth McSavaney

SVP, Chief People Officer, Zurich Canada

11:45am - 12:15pm

Bargaining in 2027: Labour Relations as a Strategic HR Function

Legal, Risk & Compliance

Strikes are more frequent. Unions are more confident. Public sector settlements are setting precedents the private sector can't ignore. Two senior HR leaders join us for a candid conversation on what's actually shifting in Canadian labour relations — and how senior HR leaders are repositioning the function inside their organizations. Expect a conversation that moves between the strategic and the practical: bargaining as a commercial conversation with the C-suite, the union as a partner in employee experience, the financial framing senior leaders need to bring to the table, and the wider shift in how labour relations sits within HR strategy. The conversation senior HR leaders need to be having before the next round lands.

Larysa Workewych

Senior Associate, Dentons Canada LLP
Moderator

Matt Hopkins

Executive Director, People, Toronto Transit Commission

Travis Titley

Head of HR, Communications & Communities, Burgundy Diamonds

Alison McBratney

VP, Human Resources, CAA North and East

1:30pm - 2:10pm

The People Side of the Deal: How HR Realizes (or Destroys) M&A Value

Transformation & the Changing Landscape

Major transformations and deals are often sold on spreadsheets but delivered (or derailed) through people. In this panel, senior executives share real cases where HR was central to realizing value from transformations and M&A: from due diligence and workforce modelling to leadership selection, culture integration and tough calls on roles and locations. You’ll see how they quantified people‑related risks and synergies, how they reported progress to the board, and what they would redesign next time. 

Lorna Thompson

VP & HR Executive Advisor, SAP Success Factors
Moderator

Carina Vassilieva

CHRO, Apotex

Jennifer Bouyoukos

Chief People Officer, PureFacts Financial Solutions

2:15pm - 2:55pm

Termination Risk Reimagined: Severance, Strategy, and Reputation in 2026

Legal, Risk & Compliance

Letting people go has never been riskier — or more public. This session unpacks how termination risk has shifted in 2026: changing notice periods, climbing damage awards, and rising exposure from bad faith conduct and reputational damage. We'll compare the executive exit, the mass reduction, and the "quiet exit" — and give you the language to brief your board before the next call lands.

Claudia Desjardins Bélisle

Managing Partner, Montréal, Miller Thomson LLP

David Tsai

Partner, Miller Thomson LLP

3:00pm - 3:40pm

The AI Implementation Files: Case Studies in Ethics, Risk and What Got Paused

AI & HR Tech

AI is no longer new but the lessons from real implementations are only just becoming clear. This focused session walks through detailed case studies of AI in talent acquisition, listening/analytics and learning, highlighting where ethics, bias, privacy and adoption challenges emerged in practice. You’ll see what governance models and contracts looked like, when leaders chose to pause or stop an initiative, and how they now evaluate ROI, value creation and risk in AI‑enabled HR tools. 

Dr Kalifa Oliver

Executive Advisor, Author, & Sr. Director of Technology, Lowes
Moderator

Michelle Loo

Chief DEI Officer, Linde

Diana Valler

CHRO. TravelBrands

4:40pm - 6:00pm

Networking Drinks