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Board of Directors - Member Profiles
Jehad Aliweiwi, Chair
The Chair of the Board of Directors is Jehad Aliweiwi, the Executive Director
of Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office, a social and economic development multi
service organization serving the Thorncliffe community for over 25 years.
He is a strategic thinker with more than 15 years of experience in senior
management positions in social, settlement and community service
organizations. He has extensive training and background in policy
development, implementation and evaluation.
Aliweiwi has planned and organized numerous national conferences, facilitated
dozens of workshops on human rights, empowerment, skills training, race and
ethnic relations, media and government relations, and refugee and immigration
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issues. He has extensive community volunteer experience and is a
passionate advocate of greater accessibility for newcomers and ethno cultural
communities into the cultural, social and
political landscape of Canada.
Formerly executive director of the Canadian Arab Federation and a regional
director of Catholic Cross-cultural Services, Metro Region, Jehad currently
serves on the Board of the Ontario Science Centre, Ontario Council of Agencies
Serving Immigrants and Fred Victor Centre.
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Afshan Bye, Director
Afshan Bye has over 20 years of management experience in a variety of sectors
including the financial services, airline, direct marketing, telecommunications
and e-commerce industries.
Today she works in partnership with Bruce Simpson and Winston Siegel at
SwitchGear Consulting. SwitchGear focuses on Sales and Service Operations with
a niche in Call Centres. They are most frequently engaged to assist in
the area of revenue generation, improving customer loyalty and service, and
"un-complicating" operations. "We know that the front-line is the only place
that drives revenue so that's where we focus our clients to build productive,
results-oriented organizations that over-achieve revenue targets."
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Former positions include SVP of Sales and Service at ING DIRECT Canada where
she was responsible for two service centers, one in Toronto and one in Ottawa
and all retail outlets. Past positions include President, of eOS
Consulting Services and a number of key management positions including
Vice-President of Customer Service for Sprint Canada.
Her experience in managing full service centers is comprehensive and
diversified, with time spent managing all aspects of a full service center
including inbound telephone sales, field sales support, outbound loyalty and
telemarketing campaigns, customer service, technical support and ancillary
areas that support customer service. Her focus on the people side of
business has led to the formation of relationships with some of the industry's
most noteworthy members, and allowed her to maintain an ongoing, valuable
perspective on the field.
Afshan believes the key to creating an impressive customer experience starts
with a well-defined strategy supported by a strong team who can implement
simple but effective processes that leverage technology to follow through on
the marketing service promise. With these building blocks in place, the end
result is strong customer and employee relationships, which drives profit and
delivers a positive impact on a company's success.
With her systematic approach to problem solving, well-honed organizational
skills, and ability to implement a plan of action, combined with her people
friendly approach, Afshan has the skills, vision and enthusiasm that will
provide your next project with the leadership and thrust it needs to meet and
exceed your expectations.
Other achievements include co-authoring "Call Center for Dummies" published in
April 2010.
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Gordon Chu, Treasurer
Gordon Chu has served as Vice President of Finance, as well as Treasurer, with
Toronto Community Housing Corporation ever since the organization's formation
in January, 2002. In September 2004, he also took on the role of Chief
Financial Officer within the same organization.
Mr. Chu's past experience includes serving as Treasurer for the former Toronto
Housing Company from 1999 to 2001. Prior to that, he was at the former
Metropolitan Toronto Housing Company Limited from 1991 to 1998.
Mr. Chu has over 20 years of experience in the housing sector and has served in
a variety of senior operating and financial
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positions.
Mr. Chu currently serves on various advisory committees of the Social Housing
Services Corporation. He has also participated in provincial working
groups with the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association (ONPHA) which focused on
the design and implementation of social housing operating benchmarks.
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Dena Forbes, Director
Dena Forbes, originally from Jamaica, moved to Canada in 2002. Her passion is
working with under-housed and homeless youth. Dena strongly believes that
everyone deserves adequate and safe housing in a community that provides the
immediate resources and services they need to make it their home.
Dena Forbes is an honours graduate from the Community Worker Program at George
Brown College. Dena has been on the Dean's list every semester and
graduated with the Dean's award. As a student, she took on the role as a Peer
Leader, helping new students navigate their way through college. She is
currently volunteering with Toronto Community Housing, after completing her
internship as assistant to the Youth Engagement Coordinator in the Community
Health Department.
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Dena's first year internship was with the Gun Court Maximum Security Men's
Prison in Jamaica, teaching life skills classes to 40 prisoners and
motivational sessions with 40 women prisoners at the Fort Augusta Women's
Prison.
Forbes also taught life skills to students between the ages of 14-18 at the
Jamaica Foundation for Life-Long Learning School. She was a volunteer
with Black Youth Coalition Against Violence for the Umoja presentation last
December to promote unity among Toronto's black youth and their communities and
she was recently a chaperone on the YMCA Canada Youth Exchange Program with
Newfoundland for 23 youth from Toronto Community Housing.
Dena Forbes graduated from Lennon High School and Excelsior Community College
in Jamaica, as well as Broward Community College in the United States.
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Ruby Lam, Director
Ruby Lam is a Diversity Consultant who specializes in organizational planning,
policy development and training on issues related to equity and inclusion.
She has provided strategic advice to health and social service agencies,
helping them translate the needs of immigrants, racialized communities, and
other marginalized groups into inclusive policies and programs. Her
clients include the United Way of Greater Toronto, Centre for Addiction and
Mental Health, Mount Sinai Hospital, Ministry of Children and Youth Services,
Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network, and the Ontario Disability
Support Program.
Ruby's work experience includes service as the Deputy Director of the White
House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific
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Islanders (under the Clinton Administration), and
Senior Consultant to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Office
of Minority Health.
Ruby holds a Master's Degree in Health Policy from Johns Hopkins School of
Public Health. She is a Fulbright Scholar with research in immigrant and
minority health policy.
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Filsun Mahamed, Director
Filsun Mahamed is in her final year of a Bachelor of Honours in Political
Science and Equity Studies at the University of Toronto. She is currently
doing an internship at the City of Toronto under Councillor Shelley Carroll for
the City of Toronto Regional Champion Campaign.
Mahamed is passionate about equity issues especially concerning women,
children, poverty, and homelessness, policy development and the environment.
Having worked on several initiatives in marginalized communities has heightened
her desire to work towards bringing about policies and programs to benefit
impoverished communities.
Filsun put her passion about community and the environment
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to work as a project manager for Evegreen for the Take
B.A.C. 13 Project (beautiful and clean) in 2009. She was a member of
the Somali Student Association at the University of Toronto and served as
secretary for two years from 2007 to 2009. Filsun was also the
Coordinator/Facilitator for the Somali Youth Association of Toronto from 2006
to 2009.
Mahamed has been a member of various student and community groups such as The
Pulse, a community Somali youth group, the Black Students Association and the
African Students Association.
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Keiko Nakamura, Director
Keiko Nakamura is the Chief Executive Officer for Toronto Community Housing.
She is responsible for the second largest social housing company in North
America with 58,000 social housing units, tenant and community services for
more than 164,000 tenants in 2,500 buildings across 300 communities, and for
managing $6 billion in assets. She is responsible for 1,400 multidisciplinary
staff.
Keiko has extensive experience in the public sector. She joined Toronto
Community Housing in 2005 as its first Chief Operating Officer, and served as
acting Chief Executive Officer from May 2009 to January 2010. Keiko
served as Director, Facilities Services and as Director, Financial
Administration with the City of Toronto, from 2001 to 2005. Her
experience also includes 10
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years in the health care sector, namely the Centre for
Addiction and Mental Health and Addiction Research Foundation where she served
in several progressive capacities including Administrative Director of
Addiction Medicine and Concurrent Disorders, and
Director of
Clinical Services.
Keiko has extensive public sector experience and in particular with large,
complex, organizational mergers and restructuring efforts. Her commitment
to building healthy communities stems from strong community engagement
principles, building on individual and community assets and ensuring service
culture is embedded in every form of planning and delivery of service.
She brings strong skills in financial and program administration,
organizational development, customer service administration, process
reengineering, technology and research, and strategic planning.
Keiko also sits on the board of Ontario's Youth Challenge Fund, DiverseCity,
Social Housing Services Corporation, and Housing Services Incorporated.
She is an active member on various steering and advisory groups,
including the Mayor's Panel on Community Safety.
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Angus D. Palmer, Director
Angus D. Palmer is the General Manager of Wigwamen Incorporated, Ontario's
oldest and largest, urban Aboriginal non-profit housing provider. Prior to
joining Wigwamen in 1998, he was a development consultant for fifteen years and
assisted in the development of 24 non-profit, co-operative, and Aboriginal
housing projects totalling over 800 units throughout northern and central
Ontario.
At Wigwamen he took a lead role in the development of "Wigwamen Waabnong"
(Houses in the East), its award winning 92 unit affordable and transitional
housing project in Malvern, and he has been Wigwamen's principal representative
in its
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partnership with the YWCA in the development of the
YWCA Elm Centre.
Active in his community, Angus has served on a variety of Boards of Directors,
including the Native People of Sudbury Development Corporation; the Sudbury
District Housing Authority; and Agincourt Community Services Association.
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