Presenter: Sarah Sugiyama - APR, Executive Director, Fraser  River Sturgeon Conservation Society

As a ‘360 degree’ strategist, Sarah creates integrated PR strategies in organizations committed to social, health and environmental change.  With prior positions at the Rick Hansen Foundation and at the Occupational Health and Safety Agency, Sarah is the Executive Director of the Fraser River Sturgeon Conservation Society.  She is a graduate of Royal Roads University, and an active member of the Board of Directors for the BC Wheelchair Basketball Society.

Bob Joseph, the President of Indigenous Corporate Training Inc., has provided training to help individuals and organizations to work effectively with Aboriginal Peoples since 1994. His clients include all levels of Government, Fortune 500 companies, Financial Institutions, including the World Bank, small and medium sized corporate enterprises, and Aboriginal Peoples.  He has worked on training projects in Guatemala, Peru, Switzerland  and New Caledonia in the South Pacific.  

Bob has worked as an associate professor at Royal Roads University in the Indigenous Corporate Relations program.  He is a certified Master Trainer who in May of 2001 was profiled in an annual feature called, "Training: the New Guard 2001" by the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) in their prestigious Magazine, "T + D". Bob was one of nine trainers selected for the feature from over 70,000 members who come from more than 100 countries and 15,000 organizations.

Bob is an aboriginal person, or more specifically a status Indian, and is a member of the Gwa-wa-aineuk Nation. The Gwa-wa-aineuk is one of the many Kwakwaka'wakw tribes located between Comox and Port Hardy on Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland of British Columbia. He is an initiated member of the Hamatsa Society and the son of a hereditary chief who will one day in accordance with strict cultural laws become a hereditary chief.

Rick Petersen, Partner and Senior Vice-President, Corporate Responsibility, NATIONAL Public Relations

Rick Petersen is head of the Corporate Responsibility practice of NATIONAL Public Relations – Canada’s largest communications consultancy – and he was described in a recent issue of Marketing magazine as “one of the world’s leading experts in corporate responsibility”. Rick and his team provide strategic counsel, including stakeholder research and engagement, benchmarking, product stewardship, sustainability policy and program development and a full range of communications services such as media, marketing, investor, community and government relations, climate change disclosure, sustainability reporting, ethical marketing, and organizational change management.

NATIONAL’s Corporate Responsibility practice was recently ranked among the Top 10 in the world for communications firms by Corporate Responsibility Officer magazine Articles by Rick have appeared in Corporate Governance Quarterly, Marketing, and the book, Sustainable Development & Communications and he gives numerous speeches on the subject.

Solange Tremblay is a founding member of the Chair in Public Relations and Marketing Communication at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Solange created in 2003 the Centre for Social Responsibility, Sustainable Development and Ethics, a research group examining the role of communications in sustainable development, as well as ethical questions in PR practice. She is the lead author of Développement durable et communications – Au-delà des mots, pour un véritable engagement (PUQ, 2007).  The conference she co-organized in 2006 in Montreal on this topic is acknowledged as the first contribution of communication professionals to the implementation of Québec’s sustainable development plan.

Solange’s participation in numerous research studies in the field of public relations, communications, corporate responsibility and sustainable development gives her a unique insight into the challenges faced by today’s communicators. In addition, she has more than 20 years of experience in communications as a practitioner, manager and consultant, and is a frequent contributor to industry forums and publications.