United Way of Peel Region is a volunteer-driven organization. United Way volunteers play an important role in every facet of our organization.

• Board of Directors
• Campaign Cabinet
• Community Investment Cabinet
  

A volunteer Board of Directors comprised of leading community members governs all United Way decision-making. The Board oversees how donor money is used, shapes the strategic vision and plan, and monitors organizational performance.

Board Chair
Michelle Cole
Senior Vice President
GE Commercial Finance

Vice Chair
Carl Oxholm
Partner
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Treasurer
Norma Trim
Chief Financial Officer and Commissioner of Corporate Services
Regional Municipality of Peel

Secretary
Bobby Sachdeva
Partner
Pallett Valo LLP

Past Chair
Joseph Palumbo, MBA, CMA
Executive Director
Career Development Centre,
The Schulich School of Business

Harold Brathwaite
Executive Director
Retired Teachers of Ontario

Charles Courneyea
President
Brampton-Mississauga and District Labour Council

Savino DiPasquale
CIO and Vice President, Information Technology
GlaxoSmithKline Inc

Kamal Jolly, LL.B
Associate
RZCD Law Firm LLP

Robert Johnson
President & CEO
Purolator

Snigdha Malik
Branch Manager
Advent Financial Group

Shaila Mehta
Partner
Deloitte & Touche LLP

Louroz Mercader
Program Coordinator
Youth Can Move the World

Monika Platek
Sports Broadcaster and Host, Leafs TV and mapleleafs.com

Dr. Colin Saldanha
Saldanha Health Centre

Narendra Shah
Chief Operating Officer
Mississauga-Halton Local Health Integration Network

Don Taylor
Principal
Taylor Consulting Services

Bonnie Waterfield
Administrative Assistant
Family Transition Place

Shelley White
Chief Executive Officer
United Way of Peel Region

A long time resident of Mississauga, Harold Brathwaite spent his formative years in Barbados. He earned an Honours B.A. in French from the University of West Indies/London and obtained his M.A. in French, from McMaster University. He is fluently bilingual. Mr. Brathwaite began his Ontario teaching career in the early 1970's. His experience has included elementary, secondary, public and Catholic schools, as well as post-secondary education. His varied roles saw him move from teacher, department head, vice-principal to secondary principal with the Halton Board of Education. In the mid-1980's he accepted a superintendent position with the Toronto Board of Education. In 1991 he became their Associate Director of Education: Human Resources. From 1994-2002 Mr. Brathwaite served as Director of Education with the Peel District School Board. His first "post-retirement" job beginning in January 2003 was with Seneca College as Senior Advisor to the President. In September 2004 he joined the Retired Teachers of Ontario (RTO/ERO) as Executive Director.

Mr. Brathwaite is Chair of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund (Canada), and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Harold is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Education Association, and a past Chair of the OISE/University of Toronto Advisory Board. Harold also served as a member of Premier McGuinty's Transition Team.

Michelle Cole is a Senior Vice President with GE Capital Solutions. She joined GE in 1997 under their management-training program. During her 3 years on program she worked for GE Corporate, GE Global Exchange Services, Camco and GE Commercial Equipment Finance, now Capital Solutions. She was then appointed Managing Director of GE Commercial Finance, Enterprise Client Group. In her current role she is responsible for the leading the Capital Solutions business for Central Canada.

Ms. Cole attended the University of Ottawa, graduating in 1996 with her BSS, then going on to complete her MBA with the University of New Brunswick. During her masters program she spent 8 months on exchange with the Limburg Universitair Centrum in Belgium and completed her Certificate in International Business.

Ms. Cole received GE Canada’s Leadership Award in 2004, GEFF 2004 President’s Award, and the CEF Canada Award for Growth in Emerging Markets in 2003 and the Capital Solutions Canada Organic Growth Award in 2005. She is a member of the steering committee for the Mississauga Summit and is the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of United Way of Peel Region.

Savino DiPasquale was appointed Vice-President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer at GSK Canada in June, 2002. In April 2005, he became chairperson of GSK's Global IT Emerging Technology Council (ETC) responsible for GSK’s emerging technology agenda including the evaluation of new information technology opportunities.

Mr. DiPasquale joined GSK Canada in 1996 as Director, IT Infrastructure. He has also held the positions of Director, IT R&D and Technical Operations and was appointed in November 2000 to Director, eBusiness in GSK's Marketing Division. In this role, he was responsible for championing the use of Internet technologies to improve and transform key GSK business processes.

Additionally, Mr. DiPasquale now oversees the Canadian company’s strategic Priorities Management Process ensuring a balanced approach to implementing change affecting employees and business processes. In September 2007, he added responsibility for the company’s Reporting, Forecasting & Analysis (RFA) Centre of Excellence to his role. The RFA CoE is responsible for the acquisition, management, reporting and analysis of data to aid in making the best possible commercial business decisions.

He is a founding member of the CIO Executive Council and is known for his passionate belief in the strategic use of information technology to drive business value. In 2006 he was honoured to be named “CIO of the Year” by the Canadian Information Productivity Awards and CIO Canada. He is also a director of the Kids’ Health Links Foundation charged with connecting, through technology, children in health care facilities across Canada.

Mr. DiPasquale is a computer science graduate from the University of Toronto. He began his career in Information Technology more than 20 years ago at Canadian Pacific Limited.

Robert C. Johnson joined Purolator Courier Ltd., Canada's leading overnight courier, as President and Chief Executive Officer on July 16, 2001. Mr. Johnson is proud to lead Canada’s premier provider of integrated distribution solutions.

Since his arrival, and with his visionary expertise, Mr. Johnson has led Purolator to complete its most successful period, continuously improving operating profits, streamlining processes and improving operational efficiencies through major investments in technologies. Mr. Johnson’s vision is for Purolator to sustain growth and profitability while focusing on the future - growing in new areas to maintain competitive advantage in the Canadian marketplace and continuing to add value for customer supply chains through enhanced products and services.

Before coming to Purolator, Mr. Johnson spent six years with TNT Post Group in Europe. Most recently, he was Managing Director, TNT Benelux, responsible for all TNT Express activities in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Prior to his employment at TNT, Mr. Johnson was a valued member of the executive team at Canada Post Corporation for 12 years and held progressive positions including Senior Vice President in charge of the marketing, sales and customer service functions.

Mr. Johnson holds a degree in Economics from the University of Winnipeg, Manitoba and attended the Queens University Executive Program. Mr. Johnson lives in Mississauga, has four children and enjoys golf, racquet sports, the theatre and symphony and reading.

Snigdha believes that the only way to grow professionally and personally is by contributing to the community that supports our business and us.

Snigdha is a Director on the Governing Council of the Brampton Board of Trade (BBoT). Is a Liaison between Governing Council and Brampton Business Network, an initiative of Brampton Board of Trade. She is an ambassador for the BBoT and mentors new Members to maximize the benefits of their membership. She has liaised between Multicultural Committee for Brampton Board of Trade and the Governing council.

Current President of the Business and Professional Women’s (BPW) Club of Brampton, a women’s Advocacy group, Snigdha has co-chaired the BPW provincial conference in Brampton and helped in raising funds for organizations that support women in many aspects of their lives. Snigdha supports Big Brother and Big Sisters of Peel, Peel Committee on Sexual Assault, Rape Crisis Centre of Peel and Canadian Cancer Society through volunteer work. Snigdha has supported the North Park Secondary School’s International Co-op program since its inception in 1996, and is an active member of her own church.

Snigdha has gained her leadership skills through her work and volunteer opportunities.

Snigdha is a certified Yoga Teacher and has been teaching Yoga for 5 years. Practicing and teaching Yoga has given Snigdha a balanced perspective on life and business.

Shaila Mehta is a Partner in Deloitte’s Assurance & Advisory practice. Throughout her career, she has developed over 15 years of experience in providing audit and advisory services to clients. Her focus is in the manufacturing industry, however, she has served clients in a number of different industries over the years.

Over the past few years, Ms. Mehta has served large and small, public and private audit clients. She has significant experience in both Canadian and U.S. GAAP reporting and also in IFRS reporting. In addition, she is the Partner in Charge of Learning and Growth for the GTA audit practitioners at Deloitte.

Ms. Mehta is a Chartered Accountant with a Bachelor in Business Administration from York University. She was a Board Member and Treasurer of the Mississauga Board of Trade from 2004 – 2006.

Louroz Mercader is currently the Program Coordinator for Youth Can Move the World; an organization dedicated to promoting environmental, social and economic sustainability to young people in the Region of Peel. With a public relations background, Mr. Mercader previously served as a Communications Strategist for a local Member of Provincial Parliament.

As a passionate advocate for youth issues he has played a leading role over the last 10 years in the development of numerous youth engagement programs. As a Past-Chair of the Mayor's Youth Advisory Committee, he founded Mississauga Youth Week; an annual celebration of the talents and achievements of the city’s young people. More recently, he founded the Mississauga Youth Games; a program that offers young people an artistic and sporting experience that encourages participants to live healthy lifestyles.

Mr. Mercader has served on the Board of Directors of Heritage Mississauga, the Healthy City Stewardship Centre, the Peel Halton Dufferin Training Board and Square One Youth Centre. He is presently a Director on the Board of the United Way of Peel Region, the Young Leaders Council, Safe City Mississauga and the Canadian National Exhibition Association. He is also the founder of the Institute for Youth Citizenship; an organization dedicated to engaging youth in local government. Mr. Mercader was a recipient of the Canada Day Youth Award in 2000.

Carl is a partner in the Tax Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Most of Carl's clients are Canadian subsidiaries of multinational corporations that require assistance with inbound/outbound tax planning. Carl's primary focus involves bringing PwC services (across all areas of tax) to his clients - most of whom are in the Consumer and Industrial Products & Services (CIPS) industries. Carl has led the Canadian firm’s training in relation to the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation and its impact on the internal controls over tax functions in major public companies. To this end, he has contributed significant amounts of time as a key-note speaker for the Federated Press.

Carl also holds the position of HR partner for the Mississauga Tax Practice and is thus involved in numerous recruiting/retention initiatives. As an extension of this role, he is the Champion for the PwC Charitable Foundation within the Mississauga office. Carl also spends a considerable amount of his time as the Coaching Champion for PwC (a national role that encompasses specific initiatives around the development of the coaching culture within the firm).

Carl started in the firm’s Mississauga office in 1992, after obtaining his Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Toronto, and then qualified as a Chartered Accountant shortly thereafter. He completed the CICA In-Depth Tax Course in 1996 - after which he acted as one of the CICA's Group Study leaders/instructors for 5 consecutive years. In 2006 he was recognized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario with the "ICAO Award of Distinction" for his demonstrated leadership and performance within the profession and his community. Carl has Chaired numerous committees in the non-profit sector and within the Mississauga office itself. Most notably his recent role as the Chair for the United Way of Peel Region's Campaign Cabinet.

Joseph Palumbo has the rare knowledge of what organizations desire from their future leaders and what tomorrow’s leaders want from their organizations. With a keen eye for assessing and motivating talent, he has successfully built teams for many of the world’s top organizations on a global basis. Joseph is an executive coach, a leadership trainer, a leader and motivator.

As an Executive Director for The Schulich School of Business of York University, a premier global business school, Joseph is the main corporate, government and organizational relationship executive next to the Dean of the school. Mr. Palumbo develops on a global basis, new relationships and cultivates existing relationships with diverse firms at the most senior strategic, operational and human resource areas. He has 26+ years of diverse business experience and has held Executive Board positions for 12 years. Mr. Palumbo is also an Executive Coach for several organizations and CEO of the America’s division for one of India’s largest, independant and most prestigious Executive Search firms.

A life-long learner, Mr. Palumbo obtained a marketing degree from York University, a CMA designation, and his MBA from The Schulich School of Business. He has recently completed certificates in: CEO and HR Alliance (Harvard) and Strategic Decision Making and HR (Wharton). He is certified in both Business Career Assessment & Counseling and Emotional Intelligence (EQi) Testing and Facilitation.

Mr. Palumbo is an active member of a number of organizations including: The International Coaching Federation, Human Resources Professional Ontario, Society for Human Resources Management, MBA Career Services Council, The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Toronto, Canadian Professional Sales Association, Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (Professional Member), Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers and The Certified Management Accountants of Ontario. He was elected the Vice-Chair of United Way of Peel Region’s Board of Directors in 2007 and elected Chair in 2008. He lives in Mississauga with his wife and two children.

When Monika Platek discovered her passion for broadcast journalism, she never looked back. As a recent graduate from Ryerson University’s Journalism Program, Monika is busy creating an exciting career in Sports Broadcasting.

She has been a professional speaker for the past few years, and she announces in front of an audience of almost 20,000 people on a weekly basis. Monika is the NHL Game Night Host at all Leafs Home Games at Air Canada Centre. She also hosts a new show called "Leafspace" on Leafs TV and mapleleafs.com. With a busy schedule of hosting, reporting and producing, she always finds time to connect with Leafs Nation. She hosts school visits with Leaf players and interacts daily with Leaf fans around the world on almost every social networking site out there. After all, people are her passion.

She spent almost four years volunteering as a host, reporter and producer for Rogers Television in Peel and Toronto. In 2006, she fore fronted a new show called “Me-TV”, focusing on the community’s good news. It was ideal to connect her passion for broadcast with her interest in community events and groups.

When she's not at the rink, Monika is busy volunteering for various organizations including the United Way. Since the age of 15, Monika has been involved in planning, executing and hosting several community events including Carassauga, Relay for Life, and various Youth Fairs. She has recently hosted a variety of events hosted by The Centre for Education and Training and Peel Children’s Aid Foundation. She is currently the Vice-Chair of the Young Leaders Council for the United Way of Peel. In 2004, she received a Mississauga Youth Achievement Award for contributing over 2,000 hours of volunteer work in one year. She is committed to being a life-long volunteer.

With a true love for people and a keen interest in their stories, Monika will continue to reach new heights in her personal and professional life.

Narendra Shah joined Mississauga Halton LHIN (MH LHIN) in 2006 and is presently the Chief Operating Officer responsible for the overall operation of the MH-LHIN with respect to planning, performance, integration, funding and risk management.

Prior to joining the MH LHIN, Narendra has held several senior health care executive positions including regional director for Central South and Central West Regions of the Ministry of Health and long Term Care; where he was responsible for $3.8 billion in public funds spent by over 400 diverse health care agencies. As a senior executive in the health ministry, he successfully managed several high profile provincial and regional initiatives, including a third-party review of Ontario hospitals in 2003. He was a member of the Ministry/hospitals working committee on "ED Overcrowding & Ambulance Offload Delay” in 2005.

He was seconded to the Health Services Restructuring Commission in 1997-1999 where he was involved in the development of comprehensive health services restructuring plans for two academic health sciences centres (Hamilton and Kingston).

He has held senior management positions in Toronto and Ottawa-area hospitals.

Narendra has served on the Board of Hospital Shared Services Inc. (Ottawa), a multi-hospital not-for-profit corporation and the Southeast Ottawa Community Health Centre.

Narendra has been recognized as a leader with a reputation for successful development and execution of major strategies including leading implementation of new organizations and complex regional and provincial initiatives.

He holds a Master of Health Science in Health Administration from the University of Toronto where he was the recipient of the Canadian Liquid Air Award for top academic achievement. Narendra is also a Certified Health Executive (CHE) with the Canadian College of Health Service Executives (CCHSE) since 1986.

Don is a human resources executive with over 20 years experience in healthcare, commercial services and child welfare organizations. Previous to his career in human resources, Don worked in government and telecommunications as an economist and strategic planner. Currently, he leads his own consulting company, Taylor Consulting Services.

He is a member of the leadership for a national association of senior human resources leaders, where he is responsible for the association's strategic planning. His other volunteer work has included several years of coaching house league soccer and canvassing for the Ontario March of Dimes. Don holds a Bachelors degree in economics from the University of Regina and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario. He recently completed the Institute for Corporate Directors Not-For-Profit Governance program.

He and his family have lived in Mississauga since 1991.

Don was elected to the United Way's Board of Directors in 2005 and served as co-chair of the Peel Learning Institute development committee, part of the United Way's Capacity Building initiative. Currently, he is a member of the Board's Governance Committee and Community Investment Cabinet.

Bonnie Waterfield is a resident of the Town of Caledon and is employed as an Administrative Assistant at
Family Transition Place in Orangeville.

Ms. Waterfield began volunteering for United Way of Peel Region in citizen review in 1989 and became a panel chair in 1990. She was elected to the Board in June 1997 and became the Chair of Community Investment Cabinet in 1997. Ms Waterfield completed two three year terms on the Board until 2002.

In 2002, she Chaired the Priorities Review Working Group to develop UWPR’s five year investment strategy. Under Ms. Waterfield’s leadership and vision, UWPR developed its funding priorities for the very first time, solidified its role as a key community partner and identified the vision for building capacity in the sector. In 2003 she Co-Chaired the Capacity Building Sub-Group of the Paving the Road Committee. This work led to the development of the outcomes measurement initiative, the Strengthening Organizational Effectiveness Fund and Peel Learning Institute.

Ms. Waterfield has continued as a valued member of the Community Investment Cabinet until now. In 2007, she participated as Chair of the Review Committee for the Neighbourhood Development Funding Stream.
As well, she participated as a member on the Advisory Group for UWPR’s and the Region of Peel’s joint review of the Community Investment Strategy.

Shelley is an active leader in the community as a member of the Mississauga Healthy City Stewardship Centre, Fair Share Peel, Trillium Health Centre Community Advisory Board, Mississauga Halton LHIN Integration Advisory Group, Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council Board of Directors, a member of the Council of Champions and a mentor with the Mentoring Partnership, Co-Chair of the Peel Newcomer Strategy Group and Co-Chair of the 2007 Mississauga Summit.

Shelley resides in Mississauga with her husband Gord and their two daughters Caitlin and Lauren.