Meet our Sponsors
Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation
Shoppers Drug Mart Corporation is one of the most recognized and trusted names in Canadian retailing. The company is the licensor of full-service retail drug stores operating under the name Shoppers Drug Mart (Pharmaprix in Québec). With more than 1300 Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix stores operating in prime locations in each province and 2 territories, the company is one of the most convenient retailers in Canada. The company also licenses or owns 46 medical clinic pharmacies operating under the name Shoppers Simply Pharmacy (Pharmaprix Simplement Santé in Québec) and 4 luxury beauty destinations operating as Murale. As well, the company owns and operates 43 corporate Shoppers Home Healthcare stores, 2 new Wellwise by Shoppers Drug Mart stores and an ecommerce site Wellwise.ca, making it the largest Canadian retailer of home health care products and services. In addition to its retail store network, the company owns Shoppers Drug Mart Specialty Health Network Inc., a provider of specialty drug distribution, pharmacy and comprehensive patient support services, and MediSystem Technologies Inc., a provider of pharmaceutical products and services to long-term care facilities. Shoppers Drug Mart is an independent operating division of Loblaw Companies Limited. For more information, visit shoppersdrugmart.ca.
AbbVie Corporation
AbbVie is a global, research-driven biopharmaceutical company committed to developing innovative advanced therapies for some of the world’s most complex and critical conditions. The company’s mission is to use its expertise, dedicated people and unique approach to innovation to markedly improve treatments across 4 primary therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, virology and neuroscience. In more than 75 countries, AbbVie employees are working every day to advance health solutions for people around the world. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.ca and www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvieCanada and @abbvie on Twitter or view careers on our Facebook or LinkedIn page.
Meet Our Speakers
Keynote Speaker: Mary Walsh
Acclaimed comedian Mary Walsh is best known for her multi–Gemini-Award-winning work on CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, the long-running satiric current events program she created and that showcases her dynamic range of hilarious characters. Outside of her work in television and film, Mary is also a respected mental health and addiction awareness advocate who shares her prior experience with alcoholism in an effort to create change in the lives of others. Mary wrote, produced and starred in the Gemini award–winning show Hatching, Matching and Dispatching, and was nominated for 2 Genie Awards for her performances in the feature films Crackie and New Waterford Girl. Her recent television credits include appearances on Republic of Doyle, Rookie Blue and on HBO Canada’s Sensitive Skin, which garnered her a 2017 Canadian Screen Award nomination. Mary is also known for appearing in the films Mambo Italiano; The Divine Ryans with Pete Postlethwaite; Violet, in which she played the title role; and most recently in The Grand Seduction and Closet Monster, which were official selections at Toronto International Film Festival 2014 and 2015, respectively. Among her many awards and honorary doctorates, Mary is also the recipient of the Order of Canada and the Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award in the Performing Arts.
CPJ 150 Keynote Speaker: Jesse Hirsh
Jesse Hirsh owns and operates Metaviews Media Management Ltd., which focuses on research and consulting around new media business models, big data and the strategic use of social media. He is also a co-founder of the Academy of the Impossible, a peer-to-peer lifelong learning facility. Because of the impact technology has on our relationship with the world, Jesse believes that it should be used in responsible and creative ways. He encourages audiences to use technology as the catalyst for collaboration, education and growing thriving organizations.
A speaker who brings excitement and curiosity to technical topics, Jesse is able to synthesize abstract concepts into digestible and actionable pieces of information. His insightful presentations feature valuable unique strategic insights relative for each audience. For 2 years, he was the host of an interfaith show on the Rogers and OMNI networks called 3D Dialogue. The show explored all the world’s religions and spiritual paths through interviews with practitioners, gurus, holy people and cynics regarding their rituals, scriptures and beliefs (or lack thereof). Jesse was educated at the McLuhan Program at the University of Toronto and also recently completed a master’s degree focusing on algorithms and predictive analytics at Ryerson University.