John MacRitchie, President
John MacRitchie is the Senior Director, Business Development & Strategic Planning at Ryerson University. Reporting to the Vice-President of Research and Innovation, leading research strategies development to support new partnerships and market opportunities to transfer knowledge and apply research findings quickly and effectively to provide clear economic benefit. Managing development of I-INC, a national network of university-linked incubators and innovation hubs in Canada supporting start-ups, scaling of ventures and access to talent and research. connections with funders. John is very well connected with government, government policy on innovation at the Federal level in Canada; His expertise in innovation research funding, tri-council funding and public research funding policy and brings tremendous value to the Board. in terms of policy directions and sponsorship. opportunities.
Mike Henry, Past President
Dr. Henry is the Dean of the School of Business and Economics at Thompson Rivers University. Prior to joining TRU he was the Associate Dean of the School of Business at MacEwan University where he developed the school’s Bachelor of Commerce degree, including initiating an outcomes-based Assurance of Learning research project. He has a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) in human resources management from the University of Southern Queensland, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Alberta.
Rafik Kurji, Treasurer
Rafik began teaching at Mount Royal in the Faculty of Continuing Education and Extension. He began teaching for Bissett School of Business as a part-time instructor in 1996, and joined the Faculty as a full-time tenure-track instructor In September 2001. Rafik has also taught computer accounting and other software courses for the Faculty of Continuing Education at the University of Calgary. In 1993 and 1994, he marked exams for three courses for the Society of Management Accountants. Rafik has been nominated for the Mount Royal Teaching Excellence Award on two occasions. In 2002, he received the E- Award for Teaching Excellence presented by the Students’ Association of Mount Royal. He also teaches jointly with another instructor, an entrance exam preparation course leading to the CMA designation.
Howard (Xiaohua) Lin, Editor-in-Chief- Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship
Lin is Professor of International Business & Entrepreneurship at the Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University. He currently serves as Vice President (research) of the Canadian Council for Small Business & Entrepreneurship is the former Chair of the Academy of International Business’ Canada Chapter. His publications have appeared in journals such as Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Management International Review, Journal of World Business, and Journal of Business Ethics. He is the founder of the Canadian Entrepreneurship & Innovation Platform, a non-for-profit organization whose objects are to promote the development of entrepreneurship for the purpose of enhancing Canada’s innovation and economic performance.
Joyline Makini, CCSBE Board Member at Large
Joyline Makani, Assistant Professor, School of Information Management at Dalhousie University brings a wealth of experience as a researcher. Her research interests include Effectuation, innovation and performance of SMEs, Information and society (innovation, knowledge systems); Information organisation and representation (information systems, social tagging, taxonomies); Data, information and knowledge management; Human information interaction (e-learning, group/collaborative information interactions, information needs and behaviours, organizational learning).
Chris Holt, CCSBE Board Member at Large
Christopher Holt, Lecturer & Associate Director, Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology (MBET) Program at the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business, University of Waterloo brings a wealth of experience to the CCSBE Board. In addition to Chris’ current academic role, he is a former consultant and entrepreneur with experience in the technology, media and finance industries. Chris oversees the University of Waterloo’s graduate business degree in entrepreneurship and serves as a senior advisor to the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association, a non-profit global educational body co-founded by a University of Massachusetts research center. Prior to entering academia, Chris was the managing director of the Global Absolute Return Congress, a series of conferences that brings together institutional investors, academics and public figures to discuss the intersection of economics, capital markets and geopolitics. During his career in industry, he was a founder or manager at several new ventures including one of the world’s leading institutional investment blogs, an investment trade magazine, a web development firm, an e-business research firm and an angel-backed fintech start-up. Chris has been a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Alternative Investments and a consultant at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the World Bank and a UN-affiliated NGO based in Costa Rica. In 2005, he was one of eight recipients globally of Duke University’s highest award for alumni service.
Donna Heslin, CCSBE Board Member at Large
Donna Heslin is the Manager for Small Business, Entrepreneurship & Innovation for the City of Mississauga. In 2015 she founded ICUBE, University of Toronto Mississauga’s entrepreneurship hub. Donna has over to 20 years of experience in higher education and government in roles related to innovation, external relations, experiential learning, entrepreneurship and international executive education. Donna holds a PhD with a focus on Entrepreneurship in Higher Education from the University of Toronto,