PowerUp Summit

Alisha Esmail, Founder and CEO, Road Coffee Co.

Alisha Esmail is the founder and CEO of Road Coffee Co., a Canadian coffee company redefining how impact and business intersect. After years working on development projects in Haiti, Nepal, Jordan, and South Africa, Alisha witnessed firsthand how traditional systems fail to empower communities. Inspired to create lasting change, she turned her focus to using business as a force for good.

Her journey led her to the coffee farms where she saw the deep inequities holding farmers back. Determined to rewrite that story, she launched Road Coffee to build a better, more transparent coffee industry—one that uplifts farmers and inspires consumers to make every cup count.

Through Road Coffee’s BeyondFair sourcing model and micro-loan program, Alisha has created a system that pays farmers above cost of production and helps them break cycles of debt. Her work has positioned Road Coffee as both a purpose-driven brand and a fast-growing player in Canada’s specialty coffee market.

A bold and passionate leader, Alisha is dedicated to empowering others to pursue purpose through entrepreneurship, innovation, and ethical business.

View Alisha on LinkedIn

David Molesky, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Rock & Bloom

Passionate, creative, perceptive. David Molesky is co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Rock & Bloom, where he is the innovative force behind brand identity and design. Rock & Bloom was launched as a full-service design firm, born of the idea that design, innovation and strategy should never take a backseat. David lives these principles, his passion and pioneering nature drive a growth mindset through Rock & Bloom.

View David on LinkedIn

Steven Langer, Founder and CEO, Well by Design

As a trusted international keynote and TEDx speaker, Steven is known for cutting through the noise and shifting the mindset on wellness. He combines compelling stories, thought-provoking data, and practical insight to inspire real change.

Steven leaves audiences with more than inspiration. He equips them with tools to move forward in ways that feel clear, authentic, and achievable. Whether he is speaking to executives, frontline workers, or leadership teams, people consistently say the same thing: they feel seen, understood, and ready to lead, live, and connect with intention.

View Steven on LinkedIn

Ryan Townend, CEO and Owner, WJ Agency

As CEO and Owner of WJ Agency, Ryan Townend leads a full-service marketing and branding firm that serves clients locally, nationally, and globally.

With over three decades of experience, Ryan is known for blending bold strategy with creative execution to drive meaningful business growth for clients in vast number of industries. He is a trusted voice in the Canadian marketing landscape, having been a marketing expert on Global TV for over 10 years where he offers insight into branding, advertising, and consumer trends. Ryan is also a sought-after keynote speaker, regularly presenting at national conferences, industry panels, and business growth summits.

Beyond his professional accomplishments, Ryan is a passionate community builder. He hosts Ryan’s Roundup, a monthly corporate social that brings together business leaders, entrepreneurs, and the broader public to spark connection and collaboration. He actively supports numerous charities and nonprofit initiatives, helping them elevate their profile and impact. Ryan also lends his expertise as a board member and advisor to a range of organizations across sectors. Ryan’s leadership at WJ is defined by a commitment to innovation, collaboration, and elevating brands that are ready to grow. His work continues to shape how businesses across the globe communicate, compete, and connect.

View Ryan on LinkedIn

Rosalie Hughes, Founder & CEO of Hughes Recruitment & Strategy Collective; Co-Founder of Catalyst Talent Solutions

Rosalie Hughes is an entrepreneur, strategist, and trusted advisor who helps organizations scale with clarity and momentum. As Founder & CEO of Hughes Recruitment & Strategy Collective, and Co-Founder of Catalyst Talent Solutions, she has built companies that go far beyond recruitment; partnering with leaders on HR strategy, succession planning, employer branding, and organizational design to create workplaces positioned for sustainable growth.

With nearly two decades of experience in human resources, leadership advisory, and talent strategy, Rosalie has worked with start-ups, scale-ups, and established market leaders to build high-performing teams and equip executives with the tools and clarity to lead with confidence. Her work bridges the gap between people and business strategy, aligning leadership, culture, and brand to accelerate growth.

Known for her bold yet practical approach, Rosalie challenges conventional thinking by reframing HR and recruitment as strategic levers for success. She is passionate about helping organizations unlock the potential of their people while shaping environments where both leaders and teams thrive.

Rosalie holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Human Resources Management and professional designations as a Registered Professional Recruiter (RPR) and Chartered Professional in Human Resources (CPHR).

View Rosalie on LinkedIn

Jill Sauter, Partner, Bench Strength Marketing

Jill Sauter is a Saskatoon-based marketing consultant with over 30 years of experience helping businesses achieve clarity, focus, and measurable growth. With thousands of consultations to her name, Jill delivers practical, results-driven strategies grounded in both data and real-world insight. Her career began in sales with multinational corporations, later transitioning into marketing – giving her a unique perspective on aligning marketing with business development.

Jill and her business partner, Carla Trobak, operate their consulting practice: Bench Strength Marketing where they planning and fractional marketing support to B2B companies building their marketing function. They aim to create processes and systems that make marketing a revenue source for the company.

Jill specializes in combining sales data and organizational knowledge to craft actionable plans that drive sustainable growth. She brings big – picture thinking and creative problem – solving skills to every engagement, helping clients uncover new opportunities and make marketing a core business function.

Known for her collaborative and straightforward style, Jill empowers teams to make confident, strategic decisions.

Alisha Esmail, Founder and CEO of Road Coffee Co.

Alisha Esmail is the founder and CEO of Road Coffee Co., a Canadian coffee company redefining how impact and business intersect. After years working on development projects in Haiti, Nepal, Jordan, and South Africa, Alisha witnessed firsthand how traditional systems fail to empower communities. Inspired to create lasting change, she turned her focus to using business as a force for good.

Her journey led her to the coffee farms where she saw the deep inequities holding farmers back. Determined to rewrite that story, she launched Road Coffee to build a better, more transparent coffee industry—one that uplifts farmers and inspires consumers to make every cup count.

Through Road Coffee’s BeyondFair sourcing model and micro-loan program, Alisha has created a system that pays farmers above cost of production and helps them break cycles of debt. Her work has positioned Road Coffee as both a purpose-driven brand and a fast-growing player in Canada’s specialty coffee market.

A bold and passionate leader, Alisha is dedicated to empowering others to pursue purpose through entrepreneurship, innovation, and ethical business.

Nancy Healey, Commissioner for Employees, Canada Employment Insurance Commission (CEIC)

Ms. Nancy Healey has been appointed as the Commissioner for Employers at the Canada Employment Insurance Commission for a three-year term, effective July 26, 2023. Ms. Healey was first appointed to the CEIC as Commissioner for Employers in July 2021.

Ms. Healey is an award-winning chamber executive with 20 years of strategic and innovative leadership as a champion for business. From 2008 to 2020, she was the chief executive officer of the St. John’s Board of Trade, where she helped businesses succeed through advocacy work at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. Prior to that, Ms. Healey served as the executive director of an industry sector association dedicated to growing the hospitality and tourism industry.

Ms. Healey has served on the Board of Directors of the Newfoundland and Labrador Credit Union, was a past president of the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Canada, where she was named Executive of the Year in 2018 and past director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Healey completed the Director’s Education Program from the Rotman School of Management and has achieved the designation of ICD.D.

Iliana Oris Valiente, Futurist, Corporate Executive, ‘Digital Twin’ Innovator

Iliana Oris Valiente, CPA, CA, is a recognized authority on AI, future of work strategy, and global talent mobility. She has been featured in various media outlets, including television, radio, and print, from The Financial Times to Bloomberg and beyond, for her experience as a Fortune 500 executive, board member, and VC investor. As Managing Director and Head of North America Innovation Centers at Accenture, Iliana has built and scaled innovation hubs delivering over $500 million in client impact by leading multidisciplinary teams in design, data, and technology across emergent areas like AI and cross-industry transformations. She serves on the boards of directors at Sunnybrook Hospital and CPA Ontario, advises venture-backed startups, and regularly shares her investor insights with family offices and emerging fund managers. Iliana’s lived experience as a global citizen—working and living across many countries—drives her thinking on flexible-location strategies and has inspired her signature frameworks. She’s the creator of The Potted Plant Theory, a neuroscience-based leadership framework shared with over 1,000 executives, and Iliana is one of the first people to clone herself by building Laila, a fully interactive AI digital twin that she demos on stage.

Iliana translates complexity into human-centered strategy and teaches leaders to:

• Understand the AI landscape and how to use it as a growth engine to capture measurable ROI with her three-layer framework (Foundation → Applications → Human Experience). Her framework has become a go-to playbook in C-suite offsites, investor forums, and board retreats worldwide.
• Embed rapid-pilot AI initiatives across functions to build a culture of experimentation at scale.
  Surface the “silent majority” of hidden digital-nomad talent within organizations and decode global policy signals in visas, taxes, and benefits, and how to harness this trend to maximize opportunity in a global talent market.
• Tackle big questions of philosophy and ethics, identity and agency in an era of agentic AI—designing a future world humans truly want to live in.

From C-suite offsites and all-hands employee townhalls to HR summits and investor forums, audiences leave inspired, equipped with signature frameworks, and ready to act on the trends reshaping work, mobility, and human-machine collaboration.