Item - 2023.CA10.2

Appointees' biographies:

Laura Isidean

Laura is a Financial Services Leader with 20 years of experience, most recently at Scotiabank. She is now fully dedicated to building healthy and resilient communities as a non-profit Board Member and Advisor. She serves on the Board of Wellspring Cancer Support Foundation and several Canadian Red Cross advisory committees. Laura recognizes the vital role nature plays in wellness, enjoys long walks in Toronto's ravine system and wants to protect these valuable resources for future generations.

Joseph Ogilvie

Joseph (Joe) Ogilvie is the Founding Principal at Archangel Ventures, an innovation advisory practice focused on the real estate and construction sector. Joe spent 10 years leading sustainable, high-performance building development and construction projects across Canada, and is founder of the Urban Lab at the Brookfield Centre for Real Estate and Infrastructure at Schulich School of Business. He is a board director at Habitat for Humanity for the Greater Toronto Area, a member of City of Toronto Climate advisory Group (TransformTO 2040) and co-founder of the Black Opportunity Fund.

Barry Warner

Barry Warner is a wetland scientist, teacher, and retired professor. He brings research experience with natural, restored and created wetlands and service contributions to the wetland profession, for which he has received national and international awards and recognitions, that match well the management and conservation mission of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority related to water, watersheds, and climate systems. He is a hiker, values Toronto's green spaces, and works to increase knowledge in all its forms to the public. Currently, he is a sessional instructor at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Carissa Wong

Carissa Wong is a Toronto lawyer and dispute resolution professional with expertise in environmental law and integrated water resource management. Initially conducting transboundary watershed governance for the World Wildlife Fund based in Washington District of Columbia, she has two decades of experience and over a dozen lead-authored publications for Cambridge University Press, World Wildlife Fund, and the United Nations Environment Programme on inclusion, community engagement, watershed protection, and natural resources law and policy.

The Civic Appointments Committee recommends that:

1. City Council appoint the following candidates to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority Board, at pleasure of Council, for a term of office ending on December 15, 2027, and until successors are appointed:

Laura Isidean
Joseph Ogilvie
Barry Warner
Carissa Wong

2. City Council direct that Confidential Attachments 1, 2, 3, and 4 remain confidential in their entirety as they relate to personal matters about identifiable individuals being considered for appointment to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

Candidates' Biographies:

Laura Isidean

Laura is a Financial Services Leader with 20 years of experience, most recently at Scotiabank. She is now fully dedicated to building healthy and resilient communities as a non-profit Board Member & Advisor. She serves on the Board of Wellspring Cancer Support Foundation and several Canadian Red Cross advisory committees. Laura recognizes the vital role nature plays in wellness, enjoys long walks in Toronto's ravine system and wants to protect these valuable resources for future generations.

Joseph Ogilvie

Joseph (Joe) Ogilvie is the Founding Principal at Archangel Ventures, an innovation advisory practice focused on the real estate and construction sector. Joe spent 10 years leading sustainable, high-performance building development and construction projects across Canada, and is founder of the Urban Lab at the Brookfield Centre for Real Estate and Infrastructure at Schulich School of Business. He is a board director at Habitat for Humanity for the Greater Toronto Area, a member of City of Toronto Climate advisory Group (TransformTO 2040) and co-founder of the Black Opportunity Fund.

Barry Warner

Barry Warner is a wetland scientist, teacher, and retired professor. He brings research experience with natural, restored and created wetlands and service contributions to the wetland profession, for which he has received national and international awards and recognitions, that match well the management and conservation mission of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority related to water, watersheds, and climate systems. He is a hiker, values Toronto's green spaces, and works to increase knowledge in all its forms to the public. Currently, he is a sessional instructor at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Carissa Wong

Carissa Wong is a Toronto lawyer and dispute resolution professional with expertise in environmental law and integrated water resource management. Initially conducting transboundary watershed governance for the World Wildlife Fund based in Washington District of Columbia, she has two decades of experience and over a dozen lead-authored publications for Cambridge University Press, World Wildlife Fund, and the United Nations Environment Programme on inclusion, community engagement, watershed protection, and natural resources law and policy. 

The Civic Appointments Committee will conduct interviews and recommend four candidates to City Council for appointment to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority Board.