Board of Directors

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Board of Directors

Marion Annau, is the President and Founder of Connect Legal. Marion began her career as an associate in Toronto at McCarthy Tétrault. She then moved to New York City where she worked as a corporate associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and then at Kirkland and Ellis, where her practiced focused on financing of intellectual property assets. Marion also provided pro bono services to clients of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. She left private practice to become Vice-President of Strategic Development for New Leaders for New Schools, a non-profit organization seeking to improve the performance of inner-city schools through the recruitment, training and placement of exceptionally talented and trained high school principals.

Marion serves on the Board of Advisors of the George Brown College Institute of Entrepreneurship and Community Innovation. She also teaches Business Law at Centennial College.

Marion holds a B.A. (with honours) from McGill University and an LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School. She also studied at Columbia University School of Law in New York, where she was named a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Marion was admitted to the Ontario Bar in 1996 and the New York State Bar in 1997.

Gordon Baird is a Partner with McCarthy Tétrault and is the Chair of the National Pro Bono Committee. His practice is focused on lending and secured transactions. Gord acts for bank syndicates, non-bank lenders and borrowers on domestic and cross-border loan transactions with a particular focus on the energy, hospitality and communications industries. Recent transactions include acting for the providers of the margin funding facility in connection with the restructuring of the Canadian non-bank asset backed commercial paper market, acting for a syndicate of lenders in connection with the construction of an ethanol plant and acting for a syndicate of lenders in connection with the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool acquisition of Agricore United.

Gord serves as Chairman of the Board of Opera in Concert, is a member of the Regent Park Economic Development Advisory Board and the CBA. He holds a B.A. from and an LL.B. from the University of Toronto and was admitted to the Ontario Bar in 1991.

Rob Collins is a mergers and acquisitions lawyer based in Blake, Cassels and Graydon's Toronto office. Rob is also a member of the firm's pro bono committee, responsible for developing non-litigation pro bono initiatives. In addition to his M&A practice, Rob acts for Canada's largest accounting firms on a variety of professional issues, including professional liability and auditor oversight. He developed most of the structures used by large Canadian pension funds for their non-portfolio investment activities.

Rob received his B.A. from the University of Toronto and his LL.B. from the University of Ottawa. He is admitted to the Ontario Bar and the Alberta Bar.

Mo Ettehadieh is the President and CEO of METTKO. He is an experienced executive, compassionate entrepreneur and professional engineer who serve on the boards of companies, charities and institutions. As an entrepreneur, Mo established and successfully sold a consulting and project management business in the construction industry. Mo served on the board of the acquiring company from 2002 and was part of the team responsible for the 2006 floating of the company on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Mo is now the CEO of METTKO, a firm specializing in leadership and management of infrastructure construction projects.

As an engineering and construction professional, Mo has led teams that have built some of Canada's iconic and heritage buildings, such as the Ryerson University Campus Development from 2001 - 2004, the Canadian War Museum and Ottawa's Lebreton Flats revitalization. Mo is very active in early planning of projects with the policy makers and loves building and working with great teams of professionals of diverse backgrounds. He is a frequent speaker and presenter at colleges, universities and events for Canadian Newcomers.

Mo earned his B.Eng at the University of Westminster, UK and is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario and of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

David Miller, is Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary of Rogers Communications Inc. and Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary of Rogers Wireless Communications Inc. In 1987, Mr. Miller joined Rogers Communications Inc., Canada's national communications company with interests in cable television, wireless, telephony, radio and television, and sports as Vice-President and General Counsel and in 1991, he became Vice-President, General Counsel and Secretary of Rogers Wireless Communications Inc. In February, 2007, his position title was changed to Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. Prior to working at Rogers, David worked for 2 1/2 years in private practice in Toronto, after which he joined Lavalin Inc. in 1980, one of the world's largest international engineering and construction companies, and subsequently became its General Counsel.

David holds a B.Comm. from McGill University, and a B.C.L. and LL.B degree from McGill University. David was admitted to the Ontario Bar in 1978. He is based at Rogers Communications Inc.'s headquarters in Toronto.

Marcia Moffat. As a Vice-President at Royal Bank of Canada, Marcia currently runs the Home Equity Financing business, where she is responsible for managing and setting the strategy for RBC's residential mortgage business in Canada. Her background is diverse. From 2006 to 2009, she led RBC's Investor Relations team and set the overall communications strategy with RBC shareholders, research analysts and rating agencies. From 2000 to 2006, she was an investment banker with RBC Capital Markets where she worked closely with companies on their financing needs. Before this, Marcia practiced corporate securities law in the New York and Paris offices of a major NY-based law firm.

Marcia holds an MBA and LL.B. from the University of Toronto, and a B.Sc. from McGill University. She is also a member of the New York State Bar.

Ratna Omidvar is President of Maytree, a private foundation that promotes equity and prosperity through its policy insights, grants and programs. Under Ratna's leadership, Maytree has gained international recognition for its expertise in developing, testing, and implementing programs and policy solutions related to immigration, integration and diversity in the workplace, in the boardroom and in public office.

Ratna also serves as a director of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, the Chair of the Board of Directors of The Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC), and a director of ConnectLegal.

Ratna is a Fellow of Centennial College, and received an honorary diploma from George Brown College. In 2006, Ratna was appointed to the Order of Ontario. In 2010, the Globe and Mail profiled Ratna as its Nation Builder of the Decade for Citizenship.

Tamara Rebanks is the Vice President of Community Affairs at George Weston Limited, Canada's largest private employer. Active in community service, Tamara volunteers with the Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation and is a director and past Chair of The Reta Lila Howard Foundation and the Reta Lila Weston Trust for Medical Research in London, UK, and a past director of the Institute of Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum, and The W. Garfield Weston Foundation.

Tamara has recently completed the ICD's Director Education Program at the Rotman School of Management.