"Your innovation is our motivation!"

Strategy, innovation, and advancement: these are the cornerstones of Dave Augustyn’s approach to life and work. Driven by his longtime passion of helping others improve their quality of life, Dave has worked with charities and communities to achieve their mission and goals for decades. Being an accredited Professional Innovation Advisor since 2015 and a professional fundraiser since 1995, he offers invaluable expertise on change management, innovation, strategy, and fundraising.

Now president of AEI, Dave served his community as the Mayor of Pelham (pop. 18,000) and as a Niagara Region Councillor (pop. 432,000) from 2006-2018 and helped raise millions in capital campaigns for the Alzheimer’s Society of Niagara and St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo. True to his nature of making a difference, he also served as Development Director to both Family & Children’s Services Niagara, the children’s aid society, and Gillian’s Place, the women’s shelter in St. Catharines.

As the Mayor of the Town of Pelham for 12-years, Dave provided strategic leadership to the Council, staff, and community. He collaborated with various community partners, including MPs, MPPs, Ministers, and fellow Mayors, to achieve community goals. Notably, he played a pivotal role in the overall development of the Meridian Community Centre – delivering the project on-time and under-budget. In addition, Dave built relationships and collaborated to secure significant Federal and Provincial funding for lasting projects. One can also look to our successes in enhancing environmental protections of the Fonthill Kame, in approving an award-winning East Fonthill Secondary Plan (+7,500 new residents), and in donating two-acres of land to Wellspring Niagara, as further examples of Dave’s collaborative and innovative leadership style.

Using innovation and change management techniques that he now shares with all AEI clients, Dave serves as a Policy Consultant with TOES Niagara on a joint, Federally-funded project with Brock University for Human Trafficking Prevention. He collaborates with various partners – including the Niagara Regional Police Service, the Tourism industry, Municipal leaders, and community partners – to develop policies and best practices to prevent human trafficking in all forms across Niagara. This consulting role demonstrates his policy focus, strong interpersonal skills, and collaborative nature.

These and other successes demonstrate his ability to build strong relationships with key subject matter experts and influencers, while clearly defining the matter at hand, understanding the various impacts and constraints – especially in community building – and creatively determining the optimal solution.

Dave holds an Honours BA (Co-operative Education) in Political Science from St. Jerome’s University (University of Waterloo) and a Professional Innovation Advisor (PIA) accreditation with Basadur Applied Innovation.

Dave also serves as a Director of Welland / Pelham Chamber of Commerce.

As the Founder and Principal of ThinkSpot since 2009, Debra brings over 20 years of experience in the financial services sector. Her educational journey includes an MBA in Executive Management (Leadership) from Royal Roads University, complemented by programs in Strategic Change Management and Human Resources from Rotman School of Management, and a BA in Social Sciences (minor in Economics) from McMaster University.

Combining her work and educational experiences and being an accredited Professional Innovation Advisor, Debra is committed to fostering collaboration, creativity, and innovation within organizations.

When facilitating, Debra adeptly employs methodologies like Innovation 360, Ideation 360, the Basadur Applied Innovation Process™, and LEGO™ Serious Play™ to guide teams in navigating opportunities and challenges creatively.

Debra holds Professional Innovation Advisor (PIA) accreditation of Simplexity Thinking with Basadur Applied Innovation. 

Over the last decade, as an independent consultant and co-founding partner at B Corp Social Impact Advisors, Lynn Fergusson worked with nearly 200 charities, nonprofits, foundations and institutions, typically on strategic projects with a focus on the organization’s impact. She developed a Theory of Change, strategic plan, and/or impact measurement, using a collaborative co-creation approach that allows the organization’s expertise to come through and ensure participant engagement, leading to support for the final plan.

Lynn has been a Senior Coach/Facilitator in the McConnell Foundation’s Innoweave program, delivering coaching engagements to nonprofits across Canada in Impact & Strategic Clarity, Impact Measurement and Collective Impact. She strengthened these Innoweave offerings as a mentor to new coaches, coach Community of Practice lead, and content developer.

Housing and homelessness are areas of particular interest for Lynn, having worked with a variety of organizations and collectives in that space, including Kingston’s Ending Youth Homelessness Initiative led by United Way Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington, Youth Without Shelter, Raising the Roof, Support House, Blue Door, and The Home Depot Canada Foundation. She has worked on broader housing issues, serving as a Board Director for more than a dozen years with Habitat for Humanity Halton Mississauga Dufferin, where she currently serves as Board Chair.

Prior to helping in the nonprofit sector, Lynn held corporate leadership positions and led corporate volunteer efforts. Among other roles, she led Six Sigma Quality at GE Canada, which paved the way for using data to gain insights and make improvements in her consulting work, and to pay attention to the change management process that any good solution requires.

Lynn Fergusson holds an undergraduate degree in business from the Ivey Business School, and an MBA from York University.