BUILD York Campaign Launch

Join York Region Leaders and Help BUILD York

This event is open to business leaders and business owners in York Region.

For several months, a group of York Region business and community leaders has been working with TRIEC to develop a campaign called BUILD York – Business Utilizing Immigrant Skills and Leveraging Diversity. The campaign will connect local employers to successful strategies to help their business access the skills, knowledge and experience of skilled immigrants.

At a special breakfast event on December 5th, 2008 hosted by American Express Canada in Markham, leading York Region employers will address how to leverage the skilled immigrant talent pool as a key to success in uncertain economic times. Speakers will be on hand to tell you about their experiences with proven solutions for connecting to immigrant talent and about the new initiatives BUILD York is launching.

Speakers include (in order of appearance):

• Elizabeth McIsaac, Executive Director, TRIEC
• Denise Pickett, President, American Express Canada
• Ratna Omidvar, President, Maytree
• Hon. Michael Chan, Ontario Minister of Citizenship & Immigration
• Reza Moridi, MPP, Richmond Hill and Parliamentary Assistant to the Ontario Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities
• Mayor Frank Scarpitti, Town of Markham
• Mike Hortie, President, Motorola Canada
• Young Park, Sector VP, Consulting Services, CGI

Other local leaders who will be present include:

• Karen Rubin, Vice-president & Group Counsel, AMEX Canada
• Dave Gordon, Manager HR, State Farm Insurance
• Daniele Zanotti, CEO, United Way of York Region
• Richard Cunningham, President, Markham Board of Trade
• Diane Horton, Partner, HCM Service Leader, IBM Canada
• Patrick Draper, Director, Economic Development, York Region

At this event you’ll have an opportunity to learn about:

• The Mentoring Partnership – exposing employees to cross-cultural training and leadership skills, and exposing business to immigrant talent
• Career Bridge – linking employers to immigrant professionals through internships
• How-to HR Workshops – practical approaches to the cultural complexities of successfully recruiting, hiring and integrating skilled immigrants
• BUILD York – IT Working Group – a group of York Region employers and other key stakeholders, including CGI and IBM, who will be providing input on the kinds of recruitment, on-boarding and retention supports that would help them access and integrate skilled immigrant talent to meet the labour market shortages in York Region

This is an opportunity for local business leaders to learn how to leverage immigrant talent. If you are a business owner in York Region, please join us in taking the lead and showing that York Region’s top employers are ready to BUILD York.

If you would like more information on this event, please contact Lillian Manea at TRIEC at 416.944.1946 x 240 or lmanea@triec.ca.

This event is funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.