Read how volunteers like Craig Lund our talented February Rockstars have an impact on our community.
One of the most rewarding aspects of being an AMA Toronto volunteer is the impact that we can have on others and specifically the larger marketing community. Craig Lund, our longest serving volunteer, and VP Mentorship, has had an immense impact on the AMA community for more than 15 years. He’s an inspiring leader who has helped AMA Toronto succeed operationally. He was president for 3 years! But his dedicated and innovative work with our mentorship programs has added a new program to our chapter and has helped empower marketers both in Canada and within our international network. We’re excited that Craig has just won AMA International’s Volunteer of the Year award. He earned this award through his many contributions. Here are some of the ways he’s made a difference.
- New life for existing programs. Craig’s innovative work with AMA Toronto’s Marketing Hall of Legend’s program in 2010 was the first step to our current Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends year long program and spawned our mentoring programs.
- Leadership in mentoring programs. Craig pioneered AMA’s mentoring programs for marketers and raised its profile within Canada and beyond. He now runs 2 mentoring programs: Mentor Exchange and Career Accelerator and introduced a new executive coaching program in 2021. Since 2010, more than 650 mentees have built their leadership potential through these programs, and each year more than 80 volunteer business leaders sharpen their mentoring skills and nurture the talent of future leaders. Craig’s work on AMA’s international Mentorship Task Force has shared best practices across North America. Craig is an expert speaker on mentorship and also helped publish Alan Middleton’s book: “Mentorship Matters: Now More Than Ever”.
- New revenue streams to build more valuable programs for marketers. More revenue allows AMA Toronto to do more for its community. Craig was the first to realize and build on the importance of cash sponsorship of events for AMA Toronto. Revenues from mentorship and coaching have also helped improve those programs with technology, community networking events, and Schulich Executive Education support.
- Champion of DEI. Craig sits on AMA Toronto’s DEI committee. He’s a leader in the LGBTQ+ community and has purposefully introduced more diversity into our mentorship programs. His company, Marketing Talent Inc., has also funded scholarships for diverse mentee applicants.
Craig’s efforts have made a difference for countless marketers and we’re very proud of his achievements.
We’re also very proud of our February Rockstars. Ikram, Jermaine, and Julia have helped make a difference for our community through their ideas and commitment to excellence.
Ikram Nagdawala: Manager E-commerce
Since joining our Digital Marketing team in November, Ikram has already had a major impact. He’s migrated remaining web pages from former AMA sites to our new website and completed outstanding digital projects for Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends. He’s quickly handled new requests including adding mentor profiles for our upcoming Career Accelerator 2022 program. He’s currently finishing WordPress documentation and will be hosting a series of training sessions for our volunteer base.
Ikram is a Digital Marketing Specialist for Activa Clinics. He has completed Digital Media training and has an MBA from the University of Greenwich and a Bachelor of Commerce.
Jermaine Wellington: Director Onboarding
Jermaine is a proactive leader within the Volunteer team and consistently raises his hand to help. He ensures that volunteers are efficiently onboarded through comprehensive list management and technology improvements to our processes. He extensively revised the “About AMA Toronto” volunteer onboarding PPT. He helped run volunteer “Ask Us Anything” events to share information about our volunteer teams. Jermaine also recently drafted our commitment statement for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Jermaine is a senior digital marketing strategist with Social Currency Marketing and has a BA in Human Resources Management and designation in Business Marketing and Management.
Julia Shisgal: Director Strategy and Insights
Since joining the Strategy and Insights team, Julia has done an amazing job on two major projects. She synthesized the results of our large and complicated AMA 2021 Membership Study to make the results more concise, insightful and actionable for our teams. She has also been an intelligent and proactive lead in developing the AMA 2022 Volunteer Study.
Julia is the Business Development Director for software and advisory company Maru/Matchbox. She has a BA in Psychology and is currently a mentee in AMA’s Career Accelerator program.
If you’re interested in learning more about our talented volunteer community and opportunities, please contact me at [email protected]
