Plenary Speakers

The International Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organizations will feature plenary sessions by some of the world’s leading thinkers and innovators in the field of business and organization management, as well as numerous parallel presentations by top researchers and practitioners. This year's plenary speakers include:

jill beresford

Jill Beresford is a Senior Associate of Barbara Annis & Associates, Inc., and has over 25 yers of Executive Management and advisory experience. She has worked with Procter & Gamble, General Foods, Beecham, and many other large, international packaged-goods companies.

Her experience includes being CEO and Board member of a publicly held corporation during the 1990's - in 2010, only 16% of Fortune 500 corporate officers were women and less than 3% had attained the position of CEO. Jill laments that she sure wishes she knew then what she knows now about Gender Intelligence.

Jill has also worked as President, CFO, interim "C" level work, and Chief Restructuring Officer. She has worked in a wide array of corporate environments including private, public, interntaional, start-ups, family-held businesses and turn-around/bankruptcy situations; demonstrating a unique ability to adapt and be successful within a wide variety of industries as well as the unique elements of each assignment she takes on.

Ms. Beresford brings a great sense of skillful calm, order, productivity and pragmatism to every situation that she has managed from start-up to wind-down. She has outstanding operations skills; superb marketing skills which were written about and taught at Harvard Business School in a HBS-initiated case study; situation seeking, and usually finding, the "win" for all involved in the process. Her ability to create, define, communicate and implement the plan is exceptional and her communication and motivation skills, unparalleled.

Jill's M.B.A. is from Boston University. She is a volunteer mentor at the YMCA Training Inc., Treasurer of the Kerry Jon Walker Fund, and an Altar Guild volunteer at St. Stephen's Church. She lives in Boston, MA with her daughter, husband and dogs.

Gervase bushe

The Professor of Leadership and Organization Development in the Segal Graduate School, at the Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Gervase Bushe’s career spans three decades of working with organizations to transform their structure’s, culture and processes away from command and control  toward more collaborative work systems. He has published over 50 papers and three books in the areas of organizational change, leadership, teams and teamwork, and his work on organizational change is cited in all contemporary Organization Development textbooks. He is internationally recognized for helping develop the Appreciative Inquiry approach to change, and more recently expanding that into the Dialogic OD method.  His bestselling book, Clear Leadership, has been translated into 6 languages. He has a B.A. from Concordia University, a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve in Organizational Behavior. He is also a graduate of the five year trainer development program from the Sir George Williams Centre for Human Relations and Community Studies in Montreal and a certified T-group facilitator. He is on the editorial boards of both scholarly and practical journals. His writing has won multiple awards including the prestigious Douglas McGregor award twice.

As a clinical researcher and a person interested in practical scholarship, Dr. Bushe has a wealth of experience consulting to organizations. Prior to joining Simon Fraser University in 1983 he was employed in the Organizational Research and Development Department at General Motors in the US where he focused on developing better union-management relations in the transition to team based manufacturing. Past consulting clients have been as diverse as Shell Oil (Energy), American Airlines (transportation) Business Objects (software), Ensign Management (financial products), PeaceHealth (US health care), MacMillan Bloedel (wood products), Citizenship and Immigration Canada (government), BC Research (R&D), Telus (telecommunications) Novellus (hi-tech manufacturing), Fraser Health Authority (Canadian Healthcare) and the Vancouver Art Gallery.  He has given talks and courses on leadership and organizational change methods in Canada, the US, Europe, Australia and Africa.  He is an associate with consulting firms in Ausralia (NCompasHR), Asia (The Gritti Group) Europe (Provins Fem AB) Mexico (VeMejor S.C.) and the US (Centre for Creative Leadership, The Big Rapids Group).  He is a member of the NTL Institute of Applied Behavioral Science.

For the first twenty years of his career Dr. Bushe focused on the design of collaborative organizations and the change processes needed to transform large command and control organizations. Over the past 15 years he has been studying the leadership and organizing processes needed to make these new organizational structures function effectively and the transformational change processes required for real cultural change. His training and development company, Clear Learning Ltd. (www.clearlearning.ca) is dedicated to supporting managers who want to lead highly collaborative teams and organizations through the evolution of a partnership based theory of organizational design and leadership.

vivian smith

Vivian is the president and founder of Liberty Quest Enterprises and has been achieving outstanding results for her non-profit clients for 28 years. Presented with APF Vancouver’s award for Outstanding Professional Fundraiser in 2012, a peer award that recognises her accomplishments within the industry and her dedication to shaping its future, Vivian embraces philanthropy and its ability to make profound change in the world.

Proficient in all facets of fundraising counsel, she is equally skilled at guiding the development of annual fund development plans and capital campaigns as she is at facilitating focus groups, workshops and board development seminars or managing relationships with major donors, volunteers and staff.  She understands the importance of building strong relationships and uses that philosophy as a basis for managing Liberty Quest.

An integral participant in all of LQE’s projects, Vivian applies her experience and expertise to each organisation’s unique situation to create innovative solutions and practical strategies that result in the most successful outcomes. Her clients represent causes that include education, social services, sports, arts and culture and health, and range from small grass-roots organisations with limited resources to well-recognised national agencies.

A lifelong learner, and a teacher at heart, Vivian’s quest for knowledge has taken her around the world and positioned her as one of the most respected and sought after speakers, educators and consultants in Canada. Enthusiastic about everything she learns, Vivian’s greatest reward comes from sharing her knowledge with others - whether that be with organisations, boards or individuals - as a trainer, educator, mentor, coach and counsel. 

Vivian has always been active as a volunteer, lending her time, talent and treasure to numerous organisations over the years.  Most recently her volunteer activities have been focused with the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She is immediate past-chair of AFP Canadian Council and was recently elected to the AFP International Board of Directors. Through this involvement, Vivian has helped shape key aspects of the fund development industry from best practices and policy-making to educational standards.