OCAD U Board welcomes new members

Since June 2024, OCAD University’s Board of Governors has welcomed six new external members, including Aly Damji, Managing Partner, Real Estate at Forum Asset Management; urban planner, designer and Principal at Saffy Nadia Galati; and senior investment advisor and financial planner Samantha Sykes.

Damji was elected in June 2024 along with Samantha Sykes as external Board members. Corporate director and consultant Brian Davis was appointed to the Board in June while data and technology executive Glenda Crisp was appointed in October – both are also external Board members. All are serving three-year terms.

Visual artist, writer and educator Maggie Broda began her three-year term in June 2024 following her election by the OCAD U Alumni Association while Galati began their three-year term in July 2024. Galati was also elected by the association. 

Internal Board members

In September 2024, two new student members were elected for two-year terms: Stephanie Holko, elected by graduate students and Jugraj (Jug) Khinda, elected by undergraduate students.

In October 2024, Annie Yan was elected to the Board by permanent staff. She is currently the Student Engagement and Records Coordinator in the Faculty of Arts and Science. Her term ends in June 2025.

Also in October 2024, two representatives from Senate were appointed to the Board for two-years: Associate Professor Neal Prabhu from the Faculty of Design and Associate Professor Nancy Snow also from the Faculty of Design.

OCAD U’s 28-member Board of Governors is responsible for governing the affairs of the University, including approving the budget and establishing policies and institutional priorities. Its members include 18 external members, which include six appointees from the Government of Ontario, 10 elected by the Board and two elected by the OCAD U Alumni Association.

The remaining 10 members are drawn from the OCAD U internal community, including three faculty members who are appointed by Senate, two staff members elected by permanent managers and staff, respectively, and three students (two undergraduate and one graduate). The President and Chancellor are ex-officio members of the Board.

MEET THE NEW BOARD MEMBERS

Pictured above left to right: Aly Damji, Brian Davis, Glenda Crisp, Samantha Sykes, Maggie Broda and Nadia Galati.

External members elected by the Board

Aly Damji

Term: June 2024 to June 2027

As Managing Partner, Real Estate at Forum Asset Management, Damji leads Forum’s largest business. This includes a $1.5B+ development pipeline with over 3,000 units of student housing and micro-units, as well as Forum’s flagship fund, the Forum Real Estate Income and Impact Fund, valued at over $500 million and holds 2,900 rental housing units including 1,693 student housing beds.

Damji is active in the advocacy of student housing and is in frequent dialogue with Ontario’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing as well as the Ministry of Colleges and Universities Ontario. He works closely with Bonard, the world leader in student housing research and sits on University of Guelph’s Lang School of Business Advisory Board as well as its Real Estate Alliance Advisory Board.

Before joining Forum, he was Executive Vice-President of Investments and Asset Management at Hullmark, a private urban real estate investor and developer in downtown Toronto. He is also a board member of NAIOP Greater Toronto Chapter, one of the commercial real estate industry’s largest advocacy groups, and served as president in 2022.

Brian Davis 

Term: June 2024 to June 2027

Davis has had an over 40-year career in corporate law and banking, and retired from full-time employment at the end of 2023. For nearly 20 years, Davis was part of the executive management team of the National Bank of Canada, spending the last 10 years as Co-Chairman, Co-CEO and Co-President of National Bank Financial Inc., the investment dealer subsidiary of the bank. 

Prior to that, he was a Corporate Securities and Mergers and Acquisitions lawyer for the Torys law firm in Toronto, where he was the lead relationship partner for National Bank, Brookfield and Manulife, among others.

He continues to consult for National Bank and has taken roles in support of community initiatives for United Way of Greater Toronto. He attended University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School.

Glenda Crisp 

Term: October 2024 to October 2027

Crisp is a seasoned data and technology leader with over 35 years of experience.  She has hands-on experience with the development and execution of enterprise data and analytics strategies, leading technology and enterprise architecture functions, and driving remediation of data breaches and ransomware attacks.

She has worked primarily in the financial Services industry both directly for large financial institutions and as a consultant.  She is an independent board member for the Globe & Mail, volunteers at the Vector Institute and has prior experience on not-for-profit boards and advisory groups. Most recently, Glenda was the Head of Data and Analytics for Thomson Reuters (TR), responsible for defining and driving the enterprise data and analytics strategy focused on delivering high-impact commercial outcomes. 

Prior to joining Thomson Reuters, Glenda was the Executive Enterprise Data and Architecture at National Australia Bank responsible for shifting the technology portfolio to a multi-cloud architecture, building cloud-native data hub and advanced analytics/AI platforms and operationalizing a Privacy and Data Ethics function.  

In 2022 and 2023, she was named a top 100 Global CDO (Corinium's Business of Data Global Leaders in Data and Analytics Top 100) and in prior years, recognized as one of the top 100 CIOs in North America by CIO Magazine.

Samantha Sykes 

Term: June 2024 to June 2027

Sykes is a Senior Wealth Advisor and Financial Planner at Raymond James Ltd. With over 20 years working with executives, established business owners and creative talent on their unique investing and planning needs, her expertise is continuously recognized by her peers and top industry and mainstream publications, in both print and news media. She has held progressively senior wealth advisory positions in several top banks, before accepting an offer at the number one independent full-service brokerage firm in Canada.

She currently serves as a founding Board Member of the Concussion Legacy Foundation of Canada, on the Investment Committee of OCAD U as well as Vice-President of the South Leaside Monday Group. She obtained her B.Sc. in Economics and Math from the University of Toronto, and has acquired numerous industry designations, alongside leadership training. Samantha is an active member of several professional associations promoting diversity, equity and inclusion and supports women in capital markets.

External members elected by the OCAD U Alumni Association 

Maggie Broda 

Term: June 2024 to June 2027

Broda, BFA, is an associate of the Ontario College of Art (OCA), visual artist, writer and educator. Her paintings are in private collections throughout Canada and the United States. She is President of the OCAD U Alumni Association and currently serves as Past President of The Women’s Art Association of Canada. She is also a member of the Muskoka Arts and Craft Group, Executive Director of the John B. Aird Gallery and Vice-President of Ignite Art, a grassroots art organization for seniors and youth.

Broda was represented in Toronto by the Elaine Fleck Contemporary Art Gallery, Queen St. W. in Toronto, where she provided input as catalogue interviewer/writer/ artist. She is a practising studio artist. A systems thinker, Broda’s career and dedication to art and culture has woven creativity permanently to the fabric of countless artists and institutions. She is in high demand for her painting workshops, The Art of Loving Nature, which were a regular feature in Algonquin Park for many years.

Nadia Galati

Term: July 2024 to June 2027

Galati has over 10 years of experience as an urban planner, designer, strategist and engagement specialist. They are dedicated to using innovative methods to support public, private and non-profit actors through urban, cultural, and policy challenges using sound analysis and actionable recommendations. Galati has managed multi-disciplinary and complex teams and projects from start to finish, emphasizing public and interested parties' engagement. Their expertise includes qualitative and quantitative research, human-centered design, strategy, placemaking, evaluation, and policy development.

Some of Galati’s work includes the City of Kingston's Arts Fund Review, Kingston's Official Plan Update and Integrated Mobility Plan; the City of Toronto's Circular Economy Road Map and Mayor Chow's Citywide Budget Consultations; and the City of Vaughan's North Maple Regional Park – the largest park project underway in North America.

Internal member elected by graduate students

Stephanie Holko 

Term: September 2024 to September 2026

Holko (she/they) serves as the Director, Project Development at Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen). NGen is the industry-led, non-profit organization leading Canada’s Global Innovation Cluster for Advanced Manufacturing and is one of five national networks supported by Canada's ambitious Global Innovation Clusters Initiative. They are currently enrolled in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation M.Des. program at OCAD U.

Prior to joining NGen, Holko held engineering and management roles in the steel industry. She loves connecting emerging technologies with existing manufacturing problems and believes the future of manufacturing is in the adoption of new ways of working.

Holko holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, and a Master of Business Administration, specializing in the Management of Innovation and New Technology, from McMaster University. Holko is a licensed professional engineer in Ontario.

Internal member elected by undergraduate students

Jugraj Khinda 

September 2024 to September 2026

Khinda is a fourth-year Industrial Design Student who served as the student Senator for the Faculty of Design, President of the Student Association of Industrial Design (SAID) and currently serves as the Interim Executive Director of Academic Affairs at the OCAD Student Union.

Internal member elected by permanent staff

Annie Yan 

Term: October 2024 to June 2025

Yan is the Student Engagement and Records Coordinator at the Faculty of Arts and Science, where she focuses on student engagement and retention strategies. She believes that every student’s journey is integral to the long-term success and growth of the institution. 

She earned a BA in Philosophy and Cognitive Science from the University of Toronto and deepened her expertise in higher education with a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Outside of work, she enjoys climbing and currently serves on the Ontario Climbing Federation High Performance Committee.

Internal members appointed by Senate

Neal Prabhu

Term: October 2024 to September 2026

Prabhu is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Design and is a licensed architect, registered interior designer, and Co-Director at nkArchitect, a Toronto-based Architectural and Interior Design practice. 

Since 2008, Prabhu has contributed to more than 100 architectural and interior design projects, garnering numerous awards and accolades, as well as featuring in various publications and exhibitions.

In addition to his design work, Prabhu actively engages with the profession through jury participation for architecture and interior design competitions and awards at both industry and academic levels. He has represented the Ontario Association of Architects as an expert witness at the provincial level and serves as a director on the board of the Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario.

Prabhu teaches in the Environmental Design program at OCAD U and coordinates the CIDA-accredited Interior Design Specialization Curriculum. He is involved in several governance committees and serves as the University and program liaison for both the Interior Design Professional (ARIDO) and Academic (IDEC) governing bodies in Ontario and North America.

Neal remains dedicated to University initiatives and professional practice while serving as Vice-President of the Leaside Baseball Association and co-owner of GRIT Athletics Toronto and the Ontario Blue Jays Baseball Club. 

Nancy Snow

Term: October 2024 to September 2026

Snow, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Design, has practised graphic design, predominately in government and higher education, for over 25 years. Since completing her M.Des. (Listen to your body: designing for type 2 diabetes) at York University in June 2015, she has presented her work on design pedagogy, food studies and knowledge exchange at multiple conferences across North America, in Australia and Europe. 

Currently, her research and writing focus on graphic design in a variety of contexts: the beginning design student, Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), rhetoric and social semiotics, human-computer interaction, and food insecurity (food studies). Her making practices focus on knowledge exchange/mobilization, form as narrative and interactivity.

Pictured below (left to right): Board members from the OCAD U internal community: Stephanie Holko, Jugraj Khinda, Annie Yan, Nancy Snow and Neal Prabhu.