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Seminar: "Connecting Diversity to Performance: Why Diversity Matters"
At 10th of March 2008, International Cultural Centre Caisa / Mikonkatu 17 C / Helsinki At 14:30: Afternoon Coffee/tea, the courtesy of the Canadian Embassy (at Caisa's lobby, 2nd floor) At 15:00: Welcoming speech by Mr. Veikko Kunnas, Head of Division City, Helsinki Cultural Office At 15:10: Opening words by HE Mr. Scott Fraser, Ambassador of Canada At 15:20: Ms. Yasmin Meralli, Vice-President, Diversity & Workplace Equity, BMO Financial Group At 15:40: Ms. Cindy Chan, Co-founder and CEO of InfoSpec Systems Inc.
At 16:00: Mr. Elie El-Khouri, Project Manager, Helsinki Region Business Services fo Immigrants - Project At 16:05: Questions from the floor and discussion At 16:20: Summary and closing by Mr. Veikko Kunnas We kindly ask you to confirm your participation to Mr. Peter Lönnberg, Embassy of Canada. Email: peter.lonnberg@international.gc.ca Cindy Chan, is the co-founder and CEO of InfoSpec Systems Inc., a software development company specia- lizing in point-of-sale systems for the hospitality and retail industries since 1985. InfoSpec is a leader in these solutions under its flagship brand Profitek, with a client base spread throughout Canada, USA, China and South East Asia, including national and international chains. InfoSpec has been ranked one of the top 100 technology companies in B.C. by T-Net since 1999.
Cindy was the recipient of the 2003 Ethel Tibbits Business Woman of the Year Award, the 2005 BC New Ca- nadian Entrepreneur Award; and the 2006 Chinese Woman Outstanding Achievement Award.
In August 2005, she was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Business Development Bank of Canada. She was also Co-Chair of the International Business Committee of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce (2003-2006), and Chair of the Diversity Fundraising Committee (2004-2006) of the Canadian Cancer Society Yasmin Meralli, Vice-President, Diversity & Workplace Equity, Bank of Montreal Financial Group In her role as Vice-President, Diversity and Workplace Equity, Ms. Meralli is accountable for renewing and strengthening Bank of Montreal's leadership position in diversity and workplace equity in both Canada and the United States. Ms. Meralli is leading the diversity agenda to the next level of performance by fully integ- rating diversity into workforce planning, recruitment, and talent strategies enterprise-wide.
She began her career in 1983, articling with Thorne, Ernst and Whinney. Subsequently, she held a series of auditing and consulting roles with companies including: Boots Drug Stores, B.C. Rail, and Eastern Electrici- ty in England. Ms. Meralli has an MBA and holds a CA from British Columbia, as well as a Certified Internal Meralli's presentation covers the key reasons for supporting diversity: the search for talent, increasing diversity of customers, and the linkage between diversity and performance. A fact base supporting the busi- ness case for diversity in the Canadian and U.S. context is presented, from the perspective of BMO Financial Group, Canada's first bank and one of the largest financial institutions in Canada.

Source: http://kulttuuri.hel.fi/files/programme.pdf