Board of Directors

During his extensive career in the Ontario Public Service, David Lindsay served as Deputy Minister in half a dozen portfolios including Energy and Infrastructure, Northern Development, Mines and Forestry, Natural Resources, and Tourism and Culture. He also served as the Principal Secretary and Chief of Staff to the Premier of Ontario from 1995 to 1997 and was President and CEO of the Ontario Jobs and Investment Board from 1997 to 1999.

As the founding President of the Ontario SuperBuild Corporation, Mr. Lindsay oversaw provincial government infrastructure planning from 1999 to 2003. He has also served as President and CEO of the Council of Ontario Universities and President and CEO of Colleges Ontario.  

Over the past 25 years, Mr. Lindsay has served as a director on the boards of many government agencies, cultural and not-for-profit organizations, and private businesses including the Ontario Innovation Trust, Ontario Realty Corporation, the Public Policy Forum, and the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. He is currently is a Distinguished Fellow of the Queen's University School of Policy Studies, Vice Chair of Ontario Parks Board, and sits on the Ontario Greenbelt Foundation Board.

Bashar Alrehany has over 25 years’ experience as a CEO and board member in the financial services, technology, and health care sectors.

Currently, he is a Non-Executive Director of MCI Onehealth Technologies, which owns and operates one of Canada’s leading primary care networks demonstrating how insights from data can be translated into effective treatments. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Veritas Investment Research, an independent equity investment research firm. 

Mr. Alrehany earlier led the Investment Research Division of Euromoney Institutional Investor Plc, which is comprised of two globally leading investment research brands: BCA Research and Ned Davis Group. He became CEO of BCA in 2003 and Executive Chairman of NDR in 2017, positions that he held until 2021. He served as a member of the Euromoney board of directors from 2009 to 2016.

Before joining BCA, Mr. Alrehany spent six years as CEO of Dow Jones Markets Canada and Bridge Information Systems Canada, and 13 years at Reuters plc in various management roles in Canada and the Middle East.

He has a diploma in Mathematics and Computer Science from Teesside Polytechnic.

Carmine Francella brings over 30 years of experience leading teams that focus on lease negotiations, property development, and lease audits. He is currently the SVP of Leasing for First Capital REIT and oversees a portfolio in excess of 22million square feet, serving 150 communities across Canada.

He was previously the head of lease transactions in his role as Vice President, Leasing of Scotiabank. Prior to Scotiabank, he was the head of real estate for Walmart Canada in the role of Senior Director, Real Estate and Development. Mr. Francella is a Harvard Business School alumnus whose studies focused on professional leadership.

Lynn A. Kennedy is a senior real estate executive who has been involved in all facets of real estate investment: acquisitions, dispositions, development, transaction structuring including joint ventures, and financing across major product types for four major Canadian financial institutions.

Ms. Kennedy has served as a board member and executive committee member of Pensionfund Realty Limited, a private corporation, held by a number of North American defined benefit pension plans. Ms. Kennedy also served on the board of Build Toronto (now CreateTO), a corporation whose mandate was to maximize the value of underutilized assets, some contaminated.

Ms. Kennedy has an undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto, as well as a certificate in Negotiation and the Corporate Director Certificate from Harvard Business School. Ms. Kennedy is a member of Women Execs on Boards, a global network of highly qualified, board ready women with C-suite and senior executive experience.

As CEO of the Ontario Financing Authority, Gadi Mayman is responsible for the Province’s capital market activities, including borrowing and debt management, corporate and electricity finance projects, and its banking and investor relationships. He is also CEO and Vice-Chair of the Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation.

Prior to joining the OFA, Mr. Mayman worked at Export Development Canada and in the International Division of the TD Bank.

He received a Bachelor of Applied Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario.

Mr. Mayman is also on the board of Invest Ontario and is Co-Chair of the Joint Nuclear Funds Investment Committee, a joint committee of the OFA and Ontario Power Generation.

John McDonald, a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA), began his oversight career as an internal, external, and comprehensive auditor serving domestically and internationally, in both the public and private sectors. John joined the Treasurer’s Department of the International Monetary Fund for the next seven years, later developing his career as an officer and director of two Canadian investment dealers. Subsequently, he became the CEO of a global investment management firm he founded in 1990. From 2009 to 2017, he managed the Province of Ontario’s Move Ontario Trust, a special purpose vehicle which provided distributions for a heavy rail inter-regional public transit infrastructure expansion project.

John was awarded a BBA degree from the University of New Brunswick, followed by a Certificate of Achievement from UNB in 1994. In 2004 he completed the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD) Directors Education Program (DEP) at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. In 2019, the ICD granted John the ICD.D designation recognizing a lifelong commitment to excellence in the boardroom. 

Amit Monga has over 20 years of capital markets, venture capital, and corporate governance experience in the technology, media, telecom, and life sciences sectors. Most recently, he was Managing Director, Technology and Innovation, Global Investment Banking at CIBC Capital Markets.

Dr. Monga also serves on the board of University of Toronto Press and is a member of the External Project Advisory Panel of Ontario Centre of Innovation. He has previously served on the Innovation Council at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and the boards of both the Canadian Medical Foundation and Alberta Innovates Technology Futures.

He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta, where his research focused on solving complex reliability-based design problems using genetic algorithms. An expert in artificial intelligence and data analytics, his research has been published in top peer-reviewed academic journals.

Carol Pennycook is a partner of the law firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg with a diverse corporate, transactional practice including financings, complex corporate reorganizations, plans of arrangement, going private transactions, CCAA reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, and public-private partnership transactions.

Ms. Pennycook was formerly a member of the firm's Management Committee and a director on the board of PPP Canada (P3C), a federal Crown corporation. She was Chair of the Commodity Futures Act Advisory Committee in 2005.

She is an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University and is recognized as a leading lawyer by Chambers Global, IFLR 1000, Lexpert, Best Lawyers, and others and received Canada’s Most Powerful Women Top 100 Award.

Mark Romoff is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships. Established in 1993, CCPPP’s mission is to collaborate with all levels of government, Indigenous communities and the private sector to enable smart, innovative and sustainable approaches to developing and maintaining public infrastructure that achieves the best outcomes for Canadians.

Previously, Mr. Romoff was founding President and CEO of the Ontario Centres of Excellence, Canada’s leading innovation, technology commercialization, and entrepreneurship development organization.

Over his 25 year career with the government of Canada, Mr. Romoff served as Executive Director in the Department of Industry and as a senior diplomat in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (Global Affairs Canada), serving in Nigeria, Mexico, Malaysia, Japan, and the United States.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Canadian Public Television Association (PBS-WNED), Australia-Canada Economic Leadership Forum, i-CANADA Board of Governors, and is Vice-Chair of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Working Party on Public-Private Partnerships Governing Council. He also served as Chair of the Canadian Smart Cities Challenge Jury.

He earned a Bachelor of Science from McGill University, a Masters in Applied Science from the University of Waterloo, and is a graduate of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Senior Executives Program and the Directors Education Program of the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors. Mr. Romoff is also a recipient of the 2012 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

David Shiner is an experienced business professional with extensive expertise in the private and public sectors. Having owned and managed private corporations and served as a Toronto City Councillor from 1997 to 2018, Mr. Shiner understands well how business and governments operate.

He chaired city committees responsible for planning and development, finance, public works, and government management and served as Chair of Build Toronto and Vice-Chair of CreateTO, the City of Toronto's real estate and development corporations.  He was also appointed to numerous public and not-for-profit boards including Enwave District Energy, Toronto Hydro, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto Transit Commission, Eva's shelters for homeless youth, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the Canadian Film Centre.

Mr. Shiner is a graduate of the Canadian Institute of Corporate Directors - Rotman School of Management Directors Program and a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal for his exemplary contribution to his community.

Jeff Wesley is a lawyer with the Anderson Law Group with offices in Wallaceburg and Chatham, Ontario.

For over 30 years, Mr. Wesley worked within the Union Gas Major Projects Group, where he developed and implemented a groundbreaking Indigenous Relations Program and was instrumental in achieving timely approvals for large diameter pipe installations with specific accountabilities for municipalities and the Niagara Escarpment Commission.

He was also an elected official for over two decades, serving the community of Wallaceburg as Mayor and as a Councillor in the amalgamated Municipality of Chatham-Kent. He chaired the Public Utilities Commission and local hospital board and led the Save Our Sydenham Committee, which was instrumental in saving the local hospital.

Mr. Wesley has a Honors B.A. from Western University and a LL.B from the University of Windsor . For his work on behalf of his community, he was honoured with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.