Behind the Scenes with AMA Volunteers

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Many thanks to our Board, our June Rockstars and the many volunteers who have contributed to AMA Toronto’s success.

 

Behind the Scenes with the Board of AMA Toronto

 

June and July are very busy months for the AMA board as we launch our new fiscal year on July 1. It’s a time for evaluation and planning. It’s a time of of board changes as we say goodbye to some board members, but welcome new ones and others move to new positions. It’s hectic but also exciting.

 

New President Tina Portillo is now officially in charge. She and our new President-Elect Barbara Boyd are off to a roaring start, leading us through our annual strategic planning work. Past-President Miglena can now hopefully catch her breath before applying her energies to some new projects. 

 

Several Board members have left their roles and deserve our special thanks!

 

  • Past-President Michelle Flynn, after many years as a volunteer, will be supporting us from the sidelines. Thank you Michelle for your many important contributions as President and VP and Director of the Membership team. You helped set us up for success. 

 

  • Mike Muyal will be moving to special projects. Mike was most recently the VP overseeing our International portfolio but also deserves many thanks for his years as VP and Director of Marcom.

 

  • Jennifer Jones, as VP Business Development, led our ACCES Employment and collegiate outreach programs. She’s stepped away from the board but will continue to advise on business development matters. 

 

Several board members are taking on new roles: Wendy Greenwood is moving from VP Thought Leadership to become co-VP of Marcom with Santo Ligotti. Christopher Stathousis is moving from VP Strategy and Insights to take over the International team. 

 

I’d also like to specifically recognize 6 other Board members who either joined us or took on new responsibilities part way through last year:

  • Christine Andrew who returned as an AMA board member and is now VP of our DEI team
  • Christy Varicat who joined as VP Digital Marketing to spearhead our new website launch
  • Malaika Palmer who stepped seamlessly into the critical VP Events role
  • Matt Chong who exercised his skills in operations and budgeting as VP Finance
  • Steve Simkus who was promoted to the important role of VP Partnership/Sponsorship and now also oversees the Business Development team  
  • Vincent Mok who was promoted to the new VP Technology role

 

We also welcome our newest board member, Darko Rakin, a veteran market research professional who joined us in June to replace Christopher as VP of Strategy and Insights.

 

Our many thanks to all the dedicated and passionate Board members past and present who have contributed to an outstanding year in FY 20/21 and are already helping us move forward into FY 21/22.  

 

Meet our June Rockstars

 

Our June Rockstars finished off our fiscal year with a bang. They join the ranks of 28 outstanding leaders selected as Rockstars since we launched this new recognition program in September of 2020. 

 

Kat Kostic: Marcom Director Content

Kat Kostic is the behind-the-scenes force that oversees content and helps produce our monthly digest newsletter. Since launching last Fall, our digest has consistently brought our community important and relevant information about AMA Toronto. Kat was promoted from Content Manager to Content Director this last year and continues to be a great member of the Marcom team. 

 

Noha Diab: Marcom Social Media Manager

Noha has taken a strong role in helping to establish and execute our social media calendar. This has included setting up Hootsuite and supporting all the areas for social media. She was also keen to take on other projects as required, such as supporting our DX3 sales and marketing conference partnership. Noha is a pleasure to work with.   

 

Dan Murphy: Membership Director Member Engagement

After a hiatus from his AMA volunteer role as Director of Insights and Analytics, Dan Murphy returned as Director of Member Engagement.  Since then, Dan has collaborated with the Marcom and Membership teams to launch Toronto’s first renewal and win-back journeys to improve our member retention rate. After realizing promising engagement results, he is currently working to continuously optimize conversion by building on AMA International best practices.

 

A Big Thank You to All Our Volunteers!

 

AMA Toronto runs on volunteer power!. We have more than 90 board and committee volunteers who roll up their sleeves to make a difference at every level of our organization and across our many teams. We also have another 90 mentors who volunteer their time to help our mentees develop their leadership potential. Thank you to the many volunteers who help lead the Toronto Chapter. We couldn’t do it without you! 

 

If you’d like to learn more about our volunteer community and opportunities, please contact me at debbie.bolton@ama-toronto.com

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