Richard Joy is the Executive Director of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Toronto. Since his arrival as the first full-time Executive Director in 2014, the organization has more than tripled its membership – now the largest chapter in the global network.

ULI Toronto’s multidisciplinary professional network extends across the private and public sectors to advance the global ULI mission to “shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide.”

Prior to joining ULI, Richard served as the Vice President Policy and Government Relations at the Toronto Region Board of Trade (2008-2014) following a tenure as Director of Municipal and Provincial (Ontario) at Global Public Affairs, a leading Canadian Government Relations firm.

Richard’s extensive public policy knowledge and experience comes from over a decade of service at Toronto City Hall and Queen’s Park, where he was the Senior Policy Advisor to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing responsible for the public policy development for the City of Toronto Act (2006).

Richard received his Bachelor of Arts in History from Carleton University, and currently sits on the Advisory Committee at the Toronto Metropolitan University Centre for Urban Research and Land Development. He has previous served on the Premier of Ontario’s Community Hubs Advisory Panel, the City of Toronto, TOCore Advisory Committee, and the Greenbelt Foundation, Places to Grow Advisory Board.

Jennifer Keesmaat is an urban planner passionate about creating places where people flourish. Named one of the “most powerful people in Canada” by Macleans, one of the “most influential” by Toronto Life, and one of the top Women of Influence in Canada, she spent five years as Toronto’s Chief City Planner, where she was celebrated for her forward thinking and collaborative approach to city-building.

A Distinguished Visitor in Residence Emeritus at the University of Toronto, Keesmaat continues to share her vision for cities of the future, and her belief in the importance of public sector leadership through a variety of publications including The Guardian, Macleans, Foreign Affairs, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and on her two podcasts, Invisible City and Within Reach. Keesmaat is on the Advisory Board of the Urban Land Institute, Toronto, and is appointed to the International Panel of Experts, Singapore Urban Redevelopment Authority. Jennifer is on the President’s Planning and Growth Advisory Board for Ohio State University.

Over the past fifteen years, as a founding partner of the Office for Urbanism and subsequently Dialog, Keesmaat worked in municipalities across Canada and around the world on urban design guidelines, official plan reviews and strategies for creating dense, walkable cities. Her planning practice is characterized by an emphasis on collaborations across sectors, and broad engagement with municipal staff, councils, developers, business leaders, NGO’s, and residents associations. Keesmaat has been recognized for her expertise in transit planning, heritage preservation, strategy development, communications, sustainable economic development and the creation of walkable, complete communities.

Keesmaat has a Combined Honours degree in Philosophy and English from the University of Western Ontario, and a Masters in Environmental Studies, Politics and Planning, from York University.

The Honourable Lisa Raitt joined CIBC Capital Markets in January 2020, having previously worked in both the public and private sectors. Ms. Raitt’s current focus is on senior client coverage and business development with clients in the energy, infrastructure and industrial sectors, which align closely with her deep expertise. Prior to her current role, Ms. Raitt was the President and CEO of the Toronto Port Authority.

She was elected into the House of Commons in 2008, where she went on to hold three senior portfolios serving as Minister of Natural Resources, Minister of Labour, and Minister of Transport. Most recently, Ms. Raitt was the Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition and the Conservative Party of Canada.

Ms. Raitt holds a Bachelor of Science degree from St. Francis Xavier University and a master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Guelph. She possesses an LL.B from Osgoode Hall Law School and was called to the Ontario bar in 1998.

In 2020 Ms. Raitt was named a Woodrow Wilson Center Global Fellow of the Canada Institute.

He joined The Globe in 1991 as an editorial writer; over a career of more than 30 years he has also served as editor of The Financial Post Magazine, managing editor of Maclean’s and a TV news anchor on BNN (now BNN-Bloomberg). He returned to The Globe in 2013 to become the paper’s editorials editor and remained in that position until 2022.

Originally from Montreal, he’s a graduate of Duke University and Yale Law School and has also been a visiting fellow at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and the Wilson Center in Washington D.C. He’s been nominated three times for the National Newspaper Award for editorial writing, winning in 2016.