As I close my term as president of AMA Toronto this year, I’m filled with pride at all the things our Board, Advisory Council and Volunteer teams have accomplished this year. I’m also excited to pass the torch to incoming president Barbara Boyd, who will continue AMA Toronto’s work to empower leadership potential. While this is my last presidential blog, I will continue to support the AMA Toronto Board on the Executive team, sharing insights, content and conversations with leading marketers, our community, and AMA Toronto members.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
This year AMA Toronto worked hard to amplify our brand promise – to empower leadership potential through our content, events and programming, winning AMA Chapter Excellence awards with a DEI Response recognition from AMA Headquarters and also offering new executive coaching opportunities for the AMA Toronto community. Our vision and ‘north star,’ has validated, and created focus to fuel the work we do, with a deep sense of purpose and clarity. I couldn’t be more proud to have worked with such a fabulous team and want to acknowledge all the help and support – it truly takes a team and a village to make the AMA Toronto chapter run!
Though we started the year off connecting virtually, I’m thrilled the AMA Board and our Advisory Board were able to meet up in person to exchange ideas and plan for a stellar year together. Huge thank you to my Executive Director of Communications Meaghan Clark, and to our Board of Directors: Miglena Nikolova, Barbara Boyd, Christy Varicat, Christine Andrew, Craig Lund, Debbie Bolton, Christopher Stathousis, Darko Rakin, Jacob Kessler, Malaika Palmer, Matt Chong, Oscar Rank, Rob Maclean, Santo Ligotti, Steve Simkus, Vincent Mok, and Wendy Greenwood who worked tirelessly to deliver an outstanding year – from our signature events like our Digital Agency Panel, CMO Panel, Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends Gala, Legendary Leadership Series to our Career Accelerator, Mentorship Exchange and Executive Coaching programs, and our monthly Marketing Networking Group (MNG) – None of them would have happened without your input and hard work.
Our Advisory Council was also extremely busy and helpful leading the charge with their guidance and input on AMA Toronto’s strategic plans with quarterly meetings of which involved many jam boards, flow charts and interactive online brainstorming sessions. All to deliver on an even better AMA Toronto – Dare I say we even had fun while and had some wine together? Thanks again to our advisory team, previously co-chaired by David Kincaid and currently co-chaired by Arthur Fleischmann, along with Gallant Law, Matt Mckenzie, Alan Middleton, Yasmin Pallan, David Pullara, Trinh Tham, Eric Tang, Chantal Butler and Fatima Israel – your contributions and support this year is so appreciated and unparalleled – thank you!
Of course none of our programming or events would be possible without sponsorship and partnership support from some of our most ardent supporters such as the Globe and Mail, Scotiabank, Tangerine, IBM, Porter Novelli, Empathy, Hello Fresh, Mission Hill Family Estates, Walmart Connect, KPI Digital, Cision, SiteCore, Balmoral Multicultural Marketing, CorelDraw Graphics Suite, Seneca College, Score Promotions, Canada Goose, Radke, Zulu Alpha Kilo, Gowlings, Lapse Productions, FCB, and many more. Thank you for ensuring that AMA Toronto continues to offer excellence in all we do. A very special thank you to our partners at the Schulich School of Business for their continued empowerment and assistance within our Mentor Exchange program.
Leading the Way
One of the great privileges of my term as president has been the opportunity to speak with some of Canada’s marketing leaders about their career journeys and the tenets of their leadership in a new series called “Leadership Conversations.” Luminaries such as COC ‘s Jacquie Ryan, Love Good Fats Founder Suzie Yorke and Chatter That Matters Podcaster, Tony Chapman all shared insightful, funny and honest stories about their struggles and successes. You can find all of these on the AMA Toronto website under the News tab, with more to come from Salah Bachir, Diane Brisebois and Zabeen Hirji.
Speaking of luminaries, Tony Chapman was gracious enough to host our AMA Toronto’s Canadian Marketing Hall of Legends (CMHOL) 2022 Gala held in person at the Palais Royale on May 12th, the first face to face event for many AMA Toronto members and our broader marketing community this year. It was a sold out and hugely successful night in which several of our 2020-2022 Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends were recognized and celebrated. Tony is also the host of our new CMHOL video content series that will launch later this year called “Legends Journey” – an initiative close to my heart and one I’m very excited to see come to life. Tapping into the leadership and knowledge of some of our past Marketing Hall of Legends is such an honour – stay tuned as we share the Legends Journey of Angus Reid, Joe Mimran and Arlene Dickinson.
Speaking of Leadership – this year also saw the launch of the new Empowered Podcast series with Craig Lund and past Legends like Alan Middleton, Arthur Fleischmann, Sharifa Khan, and many others. Check them all out on our AMA Website if you haven’t already.
Empowering Leadership through Mentorship & Coaching
So many of our AMA Toronto board members and volunteers have benefitted from our industry leading mentorship programming and have experienced firsthand the significance it has made in their lives, which is why this year it’s with great excitement that we were able to expand our mentorship programs to now include a new executive coaching program to truly empower your leadership potential and to continue to deliver value to our AMA community. Another exciting milestone this year for AMA Toronto was publishing its first book on Mentorship, authored by the esteemed Dr. Alan Middleton – a long time AMA Mentor and previous Executive Director at Schulich School of Business. And we’re thrilled to be publishing a second book written by Alan Middleton launching later this year, in support of Small and Medium Enterprises – stay tuned for more!
Passing the Baton
Transitioning into next year brings the excitement of what a new year has to offer including more great things from AMA Toronto. I am thrilled and honoured to have inherited such a strong team from past president Miglena Nikolova and now, as I pass the baton over to incoming president Barbara Boyd, I’m excited to see her continue to elevate AMA Toronto as we empower leadership potential under her AMAzing leadership. It has been an absolute pleasure to lead and learn from so many hard-working AMA volunteers this year and to have the opportunity to connect with many of you in our AMA Community – I am thankful for all your support and excited for the year ahead! I look forward to continuing to support AMA Toronto and am grateful to each and everyone for a tremendous year. Barb – over to you!
Cheers,
Tina
