Faculty
The Caribbean Governance Training Institute utilizes the expertise of governance experts to address the underlying challenges related to the governance of local organizations in the Caribbean.
Read more about our faculty
Dr. Chris Bart | FCPA, F.CIoD, RCC, HRCCC, C.Dir
Principal and Lead Faculty
Dr. Chris Bart is the Chairman and Co-Founder of the Caribbean Governance Training Institute and Co-founder and Chairman of the Caribbean Institute of Directors.
He is also the Founder of The Directors College of Canada, where from its inception in 2003 to 2013, he served as its inaugural Principal and Lead Professor. Currently, Dr Bart is the CEO of Corporate Missions Inc – an international consulting firm dedicated to helping organizations excel in the execution of their strategies.
He has also authored several books including the 10 year Canadian business best seller, “A Tale of Two Employees and the Person Who Wanted to Lead Them” as well as the widely acclaimed publication: “20 Essential Questions Corporate Directors Should Ask About Strategy” – 3rd Edition”.
A retired Professor of Strategy and Governance, Dr. Bart currently serves as Associate Editor of the International Journal of Business Governance & Ethics and he continues as a Research Fellow of the Asian Institute of Corporate Governance at Korea University.
He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his service to Canada. Dr. Bart is listed in Canadian Who’s Who.
He is a Top 50 Governance Professional (NACD Directorship 100 Awards 2024).
Marcel D. Mongeon | BCom, LLB, BCL, MBA, MSc, LLM, CMed
He is a lawyer qualified in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec (now retired) as well as New York State in the USA. He is a Registered Patent and Trade-mark Agent in Canada. Marcel is also a deputy judge in Ontario, often sitting in courts outside of his home community of Hamilton because of his fluency in French.
Marcel runs and is principal instructor for ezCPD.ca, his own firm offering online Continuing Professional Development for legal professionals. He is an experienced international speaker and seminar leader in many areas, including governance, mediation and arbitration, negotiations, business strategy and IP management.
As a Chartered Mediator (C.Med.), Marcel brings his more than 30 years of experience negotiating and mediating solutions to the table as faculty at the Caribbean Governance Training Institute. His practice focuses on complex cases involving corporate and commercial matters, real estate, technology and insurance disputes. He is known for his principled, adaptive approach to the mediation and arbitration process.
Binu Mathai | MAcc, CPA, CA, CBV, CIA, CFE
He is currently an Associate Vice President at TD Bank Group, a top 10 North American bank. Previously, he held roles in the professional services, investment management and consumer packaged goods industries.
Binu holds a Master of Accounting and is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA), Chartered Business Valuator (CBV), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).
He has taught and created finance courses at the undergraduatand graduate levels, including teaching in the Master of Financial Accountability program at York University (Canada), which is focused on governance, accountability and risk management.
He has a wide range of experience spanning external auditing, internal auditing, taxation, investor relations, business valuations, financial planning & analysis, business case development, expense governance, and policy creation & management. He has also served as a board member and faculty of a non-profit organization providing programs and resources for youth, families and community members.
Heather Laxton
She is a seasoned governance professional with over 23 years of governance, corporate secretarial, and securities regulation experience with a focus on the mining sector. She is currently Chief Governance Officer and Corporate Secretary with Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd. and during her career, she has served in several senior management and executive roles for companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, London – AIM and NYSE AMEX including Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd., European Goldfields Ltd., Northern Gold Mining Inc., and High River Gold Mines Ltd.
Heather has been involved in numerous transactions and financings, and has extensive experience working with management teams and boards of directors on both simple and complex governance matters. She has led the evaluation, design, implementation and monitoring of governance programs for several companies, and specializes in governance crisis recovery.
Heather began her career as a professional corporate and securities law clerk in multi-national law firms. She obtained an honors diploma from the Law Clerk Program at Seneca College, completed the Canadian Securities Course (CSC) in 2000 and will complete a Master’s Degree in Law (Business) at Osgoode Hall Law School in 2021. Heather is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors and the Governance Professionals of Canada (GPC), and is a member of the faculty with the GPC Education Program. She is an active public speaker, faculty, course lecturer and passionate governance advocate.
Sylvia Groves | FCG, Acc. Dir.
She created Governance Studio from her award-winning work with one of Canada’s foremost governance leaders. The firm is dedicated to Adding Value to Every Seat at the Boardroom Table ™. Sylvia’s no-nonsense practical advice has helped thousands of corporate secretaries and directors enhance the effectiveness of their boards and their organizations.
Private, public, co-operative, crown, charitable, hybrid and not-for-profit boards appreciate working with Sylvia to enhance their governance programs for the benefit of their stakeholders. Sylvia listens to each client’s unique needs and applies her decades of expertise to build the right systems and processes for each individual organization. “There is no one size fits all here – to be effective, governance has to fit the specific company and its particular culture and operations,” notes Sylvia.
A self-proclaimed “governance nerd”, Sylvia has spent over two decades honing her craft. She has a special affinity for helping Governance Professionals and Corporate Secretaries, who are often the unsung heroes of implementing good governance.
Governance Studio focusses on practical governance solutions:
Developing and implementing governance programming that adds value for each unique organization working with boards to find new members with the right skill profiles Building programs to orient new directors so they can hit the ground running confidentially evaluating boards and providing concrete recommendations for improvement
Auditing complete governance programs to streamline processes and enhance practices selecting the right-fit best practices for an organization and implementing them preparing transparent public disclosure that tells the organization’s governance story to stakeholders teaching staff the fundamentals of great minute writing and the role of the Corporate Secretary
Sylvia is a judge of the Excellence in Governance Awards, an Accredited Director and a fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute of Canada. She is also a recipient of the Excellence in Governance Distinguished Contribution Award from the Governance Professionals of Canada. She is the author of the highly acclaimed book: AAA+ Minutes™ – The Three Must-Do Fundamentals And 100s Of Practice Tips For Writing Minutes That Protect Your Organization and Its Directors.
David Pasieka | MBA, BSc, CDir, RCC, CEC
He has extensive experience sitting on Boards as a member and as a committee chair. He’s currently the Chair of the Finance & Audit committee of Oakville Hydro, a member of the Board of Aleafia Health. He’s also sat on the Boards of Liberty Utilities, IseeMedia, and Luxell Technology.
David is a highly-regarded, trusted, and focused visionary who has served in senior officer roles, including President, Chief Operating Officer (COO), and Chief Transformation Officer (CTO), for privately held and publicly traded companies based in Canada, the U.S. and Internationally. In his 30+ year career, he has been recognized not only for his resourcefulness, determination, and financial acumen, but also his highly adaptive, innovative and inspired leadership.
During a term at the MaRS Discovery District Innovation Hub, as Entrepreneur-In-Residence, he helped over 240 Cleantech startups establish all aspects of their businesses – from securing funding and establishing operating protocols to hiring staff.
Life-long learning is one of David’s tenets. He completed undergraduate work at the University of Waterloo, earning a Bachelor of Science.
He holds a Master of Business Administration in International Business from the Schulich School of Business at York University. After becoming a Chartered Director through the Directors College at McMaster University, he was invited back as a guest lecturer on Succession Planning and Climate Change.
David recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching from Royal Roads University, Sustainable Corporations Programme at the University of Oxford and Cyber Security at Harvard University.
Peter Ostapchuk | CPA, CA, ICD.D, ACC, CITP
He is President of icorp.ca, a Corporate Director, and executive financial advisor for pre-IPO preparedness of innovation and scaling companies, and large organizations ranging from $1.0M – $10.0B in size.
An expert in corporate governance, business strategy, public company regulatory disclosures, M&As negotiating exits, and enterprise risk management.
Recent corporate directorships included: OSFI regulated public financial institution Boards of Alterna Bank and Alterna Savings, with funds under management exceeding $5.0B, as Chair of the Finance | Audit | Risk Committees; OSC regulated financial institution boards as Chair of the Audit Committee, with FUM approaching $1.0B.
Peter specializes in board and audit committee governance, corporate financing and reporting, and supporting shareholder value creation. Peter also sits on a number of private company Boards.
David J. Collie | FCMA, FCPA, C.Dir., MBA
He is the President and CEO of the Electrical Safety Authority of Ontario. ESA licenses and regulates over 15,000 electrical contractors and Master Electricians and is known for its advanced approach to modern risk-based oversight. ESA conducts over 500,000 electrical inspections per year.
David is also a faculty member of the Directors College of Canada, their Energy Executive-in-Residence, and has written a number of articles, books, and cases on regulatory governance practices, including his most recent book, “Real-Time Regulation: In Search of the Modern Regulator”. He is also a guest lecturer at the Strategic Management of Regulatory and Enforcement Agencies program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He has been a frequent-invited speaker on the topic of regulatory excellence for the health, education, and finance sectors.
David is the Chair of the board of directors of Plug ‘n Drive Ontario, Vice Chair of the Energy Council of Canada and Board Member of Hamilton Health Sciences, where he is also Chair of the Governance Committee. He is a Public Board Member of the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities and the Canadian Welding Bureau.
Professionally, David has been an active member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada and has participated in numerous committees, including Chair of the National Certification Committee. He was recognized for his commitment to the profession with the award of distinction as a Fellow of the Society.
David Kunsch | PhD.
He received his PhD. from the Richard Ivey School of Business focused on corporate governance and deviance. His research centres upon risk attitudes and processes at the board level and what drives prudent board behaviour. Dr. Kunsch is a faculty member at the Caribbean Governance Training Institute, where his ongoing studies and research focus on areas like risk process compliance and the cognitive biases that interfere with appropriate risk responses among board members.
Dr Kunsch conducts research into critical thinking and performance both at the individual and the team levels. Also, Dr. Kunsch is conducting research into risk attitudes, emotional intelligence and negotiating practices and effectiveness.
Dr. Kunsch regularly lectures internationally on corporate governance, specifically in the areas of strategy, risk, board performance, structure and effectiveness.
Prior to his PhD., Dr. Kunsch received his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University), his LLB. from Osgoode Hall Law School and his Masters in Hazardous Waste Management from Wayne State University.
He has been a litigation lawyer in private practice as well as senior counsel to a Dow 30 Canadian subsidiary and managed several of the company’s businesses. Dr. Kunsch’s experience is heavily concentrated in the legal, environmental, and business risks of large multinational organizations.
Dr. Kunsch is committed to understanding the treatment of risk by boards and their individual members and conducting research that will be of practical value to board members and the stakeholders they serve.
Christopher Chen (C.Dir)
Christopher Chen is the Managing Director of Compensation Governance Partners, headquartered in Toronto. With a distinguished career spanning over 25 years, Christopher specializes in aligning organizational strategy with executive compensation and governance to support stakeholder value. As both a lawyer and an in-house advisor, he brings deep technical expertise and industry knowledge, making him a trusted advisor to boards and management teams across various sectors.
Areas of Expertise
Christopher has extensive consulting experience, having worked with HR advisory firms, accounting firms, and law practices. His expertise includes:
- Compensation committee governance and strategy
- Competitive benchmarking
- Incentive design
- Providing tailored advice to public and private sector clients across Canada
Academic and Professional Accomplishments
Christopher is a faculty member and holds the prestigious Chartered Director (C.Dir) designation from The Directors College. He has earned:
- A Bachelor of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall Law School
- An Honours Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University
- Completion of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants’ In-Depth Tax Course
Christopher’s extensive knowledge and leadership have solidified his reputation as a key authority in the fields of executive compensation and governance.
