Who We Are

Gale M. Kelly is a Partner with KPMG’s Department of Professional Practice, specializing in the accounting for complex transactions. She is also an SEC Filing Reviewing Partner and Canadian Securities Engagement Partner. As a partner, Gale has been involved with KPMG’s largest and most complex clients for over 20 years. She is a member of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions’ Deposit-taking Institutions Auditors Advisory Committee and a past member of the OSC’s Disclosure Advisor Committee, as well as a CPA Canada’s Accounting Standards Board and IFRS Discussion Group.

Gaylen Duncan is Managing Director and Country Operating Officer for Bank of America’s platform in Canada. Gaylen has over 20 years of experience in capital markets working for both Canadian and US banking institutions with areas of focus including finance, risk management, operations and governance. He has a Bachelor of Commerce from Ryerson University, a CFA Charterholder and most recently a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Directors Education Program and is a holder of the Institute of Corporate Directors designation (ICD.D).

Gaylen is actively involved with the firm’s philanthropic efforts and chairs the country’s charitable committee while leading the firm’s initiatives with local charitable organizations. He has actively volunteered at Daily Bread for over 10 years and is excited to be part of the extended Daily Bread team to help fight hunger in the City of Toronto.

JT Badiani is the President of Focused Improvement Consulting. JT has consulted to the public sector, and non-profit organizations and has advised executives on a range of issues from operational improvement, supply chain/logistics optimization, information technology implementation and management, to business strategy. JT holds a Bachelor of Engineering Science (Chemical) from Western University, Master of Business Administration from Ivey School of Business and is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt.  Prior to Focused Improvement, JT has held leadership positions at PwC, Dunkin Brands, Bombardier Aerospace, and GE.  JT is involved with the Daily Bread to contribute to the fight against poverty and hunger in the City of Toronto.

Maheen Merchant is a lawyer with close to 10 years of wide-ranging experience in several areas of law. Currently, she is a lawyer with the in-house legal department of LIUNA, Local 183 practising labour and civil litigation. Maheen also holds a Masters of Law from Osgoode Hall Law School. Maheen strongly believes in the protection of socio-economic rights and is excited about bringing her skills and experience to the Daily Bread Food Bank in its fight against food insecurity and poverty.

Prior to retiring in 2021 as Principal and Practice Leader, Research for Avison Young Canada, Bill had a long and successful career in commercial real estate as a market insights professional that spanned 33 years. Bill was and is highly respected amongst his peers as one of Canada’s leading market specialist and subject matter expert, often quoted in the media. While his professional career speaks volumes, his philanthropy, and his unwavering efforts to help others less fortunate than him in his community give him the greatest gratification. Food insecurity is Bill’s greatest cause - a problem he sees growing before his very eyes as a regular volunteer at Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank. Other volunteer endeavors include the Canadian Red Cross, GlobalMedic, Princess Margaret Hospital and the Canadian Cancer Society. His tireless efforts and dedication earned him the Community Service Award at the 2023 NAIOP Greater Toronto Chapter’s Real Estate Excellence Awards Gala. The award recognizes service rendered unselfishly within the community but outside of the real estate industry.

Nicole is the Chief Financial and Administrative Officer at MaRS Discovery District, a role she relocated to Toronto from Winnipeg. She received the CPA Manitoba Early Achievement Award and was featured as a Top 40 Under 40 by CPA Canada. She holds both the Chartered Professional Accountant and the Certified Human Resources Professional designations, completed an MBA from Laurentian University, and a BBA from SAIT. Nicole has worked in senior leadership roles within finance and operations for over 20 years and is the founder of two start-ups. Nicole has spent many years volunteering on not-for-profit boards and is most excited to contribute to her new community of Toronto by joining the Daily Bread Board.

Jamille Clarke-Darshanand is a public policy professional focused on social policy and income insecurity issues who has worked in both the public and not-for-profit sectors. Currently, Jamille works on creative placemaking and community engagement at Artscape, a non-profit development company. Previously, she contributed to the development of policy to enhance income security at the Province of Ontario and as an independent policy consultant for Toronto-based non-profits. Jamille is passionate about community development and helped start a non-profit organization aimed at connecting, promoting, and renewing her hometown, Scarborough.

Karen Hsiung is Vice President and Senior Client Partner at Gallagher Executive Search & Leadership Advisors where she is focused on Not For Profit and private sector recruitment. She has worked with NFP boards of directors to hire CEO and Executive Director positions, and is passionate about helping organizations attract high impact, diversified talent. Previously, she spent 25 years building brands in various marketing leadership roles in the consumer goods sector.  Karen has a Bachelor of Commerce from McMaster University and holds the Chartered Marketer (CM) designation . Prior to Daily Bread, she was a Regional Officer with NextUp (formerly Network of Executive Women), whose mission is Advancing All Women in Business. 

Emmy Kelly is Chief Operating Officer at Blue Door where she has worked to expand services for those experiencing homelessness and poverty. With 16+ years in poverty alleviation and non-profit leadership, both internationally and within Canada, Emmy has operationalized 150% growth for Blue Door and works strategically to ensure visionary ideas are integrated and executed within the organization in a thoughtful, sustainable way. Emmy holds an MBA from the University of Liverpool and leveraged her learning to develop a trades-based employment social enterprise called Construct, now operating in the regions of York, Durham, and Peel.

Boafoa Kwamena is a seasoned executive in the Ontario Public Service with over 14 years of public policy experience. She is currently Director of the Project Implementation at the Ministry of Infrastructure. Previously, Boafoa was Director of Child Care Quality Assurance and Licensing Branch at the Ministry of Education and Director and Executive Assistant to the Secretary of the Cabinet and Head of the Ontario Public Service.

She has held progressively more senior roles in several ministries including Treasury Board Secretariat, Ministry of Infrastructure, Cabinet Office. 

Boafoa is also on the Board of Directors of Rise, which is a national organization dedicated to empowering people with mental health and addiction challenges to achieve greater social and economic inclusion through entrepreneurship. Boafoa is the Secretary of the Board as well as Chair of the Governance and Nominating Committee.

Boafoa is the volunteer coordinator at Grace Pascoe Food Bank, a Daily Bread member agency in the upper beaches area of Toronto.

Boafoa holds bachelor’s degree in science from the University of Waterloo and master’s Public Administration from Dalhousie University. 2019 marked 10 years in the Ontario Public Service. She loves travelling, her Peloton bike and sewing! 

Anthony Santilli is Managing Director of Just Boardrooms Inc., a marketplace for on-demand boardroom rentals. With the growing need for #workfromanywhere, Just Boardrooms is offering both gig and corporate business professionals an easy, frictionless platform to book professional meeting spaces by the hour. Previously, Anthony led marketing and sales, and helped grow Bullfrog Power into Canada’s leading 100% Green Energy Company. Anthony brings 20+ years of progressive marketing and business experience in small start-ups and large international businesses, with emphasis on innovation, marketing, and growth. Anthony holds a Science degree from McGill University and a joint MBA from McGill and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Anthony has been a dedicated supporter of the Daily Bread Food Bank both in his professional and family life.

Amos Sarwan is currently the Lead Pastor of Grace Place Church and Director of Grace Place Food Bank, He holds a PHD in Philosophy in International Mission/Counseling and a Doctorate Of Divinity. Before devoting himself full time to ministry, Amos was an IT and Engineering specialist for a large pharmaceutical company.  While he had a broad area of responsibility, his main focus was the technical operational efficiency within the company.

He is a ‘builder’ who understands what it takes to build from ground zero and believes in doing so with excellence as well as innovative and ‘outside of the box’ thinking.  His philosophy in life is to do whatever it takes to build bridges.

Amos believes in creating structure through physical organization, planning, and teamwork.  He has demonstrated this throughout his career and more recently through the re-organization of the layout of Grace Place building to meet the needs of operating one of the largest foodbank in Toronto.  This foodbank supports the community as well as over 20 agencies and organizations across Ontario.

He is also heavily involved in humanitarian causes overseas and is continuously expanding partnerships across various organizations to meet a wide range of needs in the community here in Canada and abroad.

Rajiv Sujan is a supply chain strategy and transformation professional with career experience across a broad range of industries, and a primary focus over the past several years in the food sector. He has worked with organizations in the Retail and CPG industries (primarily food producers, distributors, retailers) on developing procurement and supply chain strategies, roadmaps, and business cases and has helped with improvement initiatives that have involved process and organizational change, technology implementations and organizational capability building. Rajiv is keen on bringing his experience and high degree of passion for the cause to help eliminate food insecurity.

Ben Wise is the Head of Programmatic Media at Google, where he manages online advertising and develops new programs to expand Google product delivery. He has spent 10 years in progressive roles in consulting, marketing, and sales. Ben has co-founded and acted as President for SpringTern, a website connecting students and small business for volunteer work projects, and founded and acted as Executive Director of Step By Step Africa, a grassroots organization that plans and implements HIV/AIDS testing and treatment programs in Ghana and Uganda. He has an MBA from the Ivey School of Business.

Christine Yip is the Senior Manager of the Policy Innovation Hub in the Ontario Government’s Cabinet Office. Previous to this, Christine operated her own consultancy working with for profit and not-for-profit leaders helping to build safer, healthier and more inclusive workplaces. She has held management positions in both Accenture and KPMG’s change management practices, as well as social policy analysis positions at University of Toronto’s Mowat Centre and the London School of Economics Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE). She holds a Masters Degree in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics and a Masters in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Guelph.

Samantha Cooke is a forward-thinking, driven fundraising executive with over 15 years' experience building donor, volunteer, and partnership support for physical and mental health causes. An inspiring leader and doer, Samantha brings a positive presence to organizations and promotes an inclusive and collaborative culture. At work Sam is known for building strong teams, inspiring people to bring their whole selves to work and achieve results they can be proud of. Samantha cares deeply about her community and neighbours and will apply her fundraising leadership capabilities and robust fundraising expertise to address food insecurity and issues of poverty here in the GTA and make a meaningful impact here in our community. Sam will work to enhance the Daily Bread Food Bank’s current strengths and introduce new programs to lift philanthropic achievements and reach new heights to end hunger in our city.

Gretchen Daniels is a finance professional with over 15 years of progressive experience in the accounting field.  Gretchen started her career in the assurance and advisory group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, where she worked with clients in the technology, not-for-profit, manufacturing, and distribution industries. After leaving PricewaterhouseCoopers, Gretchen  spent a number of years working as a Controller, VP Finance and consultant, focusing on controls improvement, regulatory compliance, board, management and investor reporting.  For the past three years, Gretchen has served as the CFO of Dixon Hall Neighbourhood Services.  Gretchen is a Certified Public Accountant, licensed in the state of New Jersey, and holds an MBA in Professional Accounting from Rutgers University.

Neil Hetherington joined Daily Bread Food Bank as CEO in January 2018. Neil began his career in project management at Tridel Construction, Canada’s largest condominium developer. In September 2000, he made a career change by joining Habitat for Humanity Toronto, at the time as the youngest CEO of a Habitat affiliate in the world. Neil’s non-profit experience includes 16 years as CEO of Habitat for Humanity in Toronto, and then New York City, and two years as CEO of Dixon Hall, a multi-service agency with 240 staff serving thousands of people in Toronto through its social programs, shelters, seniors’ programs, youth initiatives and community revitalization efforts.  Neil holds degrees and certificates from the University of Western Ontario – Huron College, Seneca College, Harvard Business School, and the University of Virginia – Darden Business School. He obtained his MBA from the University of Western Ontario’s Ivey Business School in 2013. He is an active pilot and sailor. He enjoys furniture making and in his spare time plays tennis terribly, snowboards poorly, and bikes slowly.

Charles Jergl is the Vice President of Programs and Services at Daily Bread Food Bank. Charles became involved in food security issues in 2005, when as a food bank client, he participated in a Community Based Research Project on poverty organized by Daily Bread. This led to him volunteering in the Advocacy Program at Daily Bread in 2006, where he provided information and referral, informal counselling and other supports to food bank clients. In 2008, Charles was hired by Daily Bread to manage several food bank locations across the GTA. Subsequently he has served as the Manager of the Agency Relations department, and in his current role oversees training, program support, and development of around 170 food programs including meal programs and food banks. Charles also oversees Daily Bread’s commercial kitchen which produces prepared meals. Charles’ focus has been to increase the quality and nutrition of foods distributed by Daily Bread, as well as developing a rights-based, anti-oppressive approach to programs and services.

Eva Molina has been in the communications and marketing field for over 12 years, contributing to prominent media outlets such as The Toronto Star. Deeply committed to food security and equity, Eva is now contributing her skills to eradicating hunger and impacting long-term change in the city. Since joining Daily Bread Food Bank in 2018, she has led several initiatives to increase brand awareness and strengthen communications with the organization’s supporters through media relations, social media, email marketing, and content creation.

Heather Valentino joined Daily Bread Food Bank in February 2022 as VP, Operations. Her career spans 28 years of supply chain leadership roles in CPG with great Canadian companies such as P&G, Kraft, Maple Leaf Foods, Indigo, and Spin Master. Heather’s extensive experience in local and global supply chains, make her an impactful leader for our Operations, Production, and Supply Chain teams as we deliver best-in-class services to our member agencies and clients.

Jeff Wong is the Vice President, People and Culture at Daily Bread Food Bank. Many years ago, Jeff graduated from Ryerson with a B. Comm specializing in Hospitality & Tourism Management and Human Resources. As a professional, he spent several years working in market research before deciding to switch careers and follow a lifelong passion for food and food issues. The switch resulted in Jeff volunteering at several non-profits across Toronto and finding his community at Daily Bread. Jeff volunteered in the kitchen and on-site food bank before being hired as a Kitchen Assistant coordinating volunteers and preparing food. From there, he became the Volunteer Coordinator, then Volunteer Manager and most recently in September 2018 took on his current role. Jeff is a lifelong Torontonian, avid disc golfer, and a strong believer in that strong community involvement educates the young and helps strengthen us all.