Meet the Board of Directors

Vanessa Manroop is a recent Concordia graduate, having completed a BComm in human resource management. She is currently working at Canadian National (CN) in its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department.

During her time at Concordia, Vanessa was a student ambassador for the Black Perspectives Office (BPO), where she continuously shared needed and specialized campus resources with Black students. Vanessa also piloted the BPO x Homeroom collaboration, where she fulfilled the role of student facilitator for an all-Black student group, creating a safe and culturally intentional space for Black students on campus to make friends. Through this role, Vanessa helped these students navigate the university experience and co-develop new skills.

Vanessa highly values giving back to her community; she is currently a volunteer at the West Island Black Community Association (WIBCA) where she serves as social media coordinator and treasurer of its book club, Black Girls Gather. Vanessa also helps at her local church, organizing youth events, putting together fashion show fundraisers, and collecting donations and assembling care packages for people experiencing homelessness.

Over the past year, Vanessa’s community contributions have been recognized with numerous awards and accolades such as CBC Black Changemaker, CVA’s Emerging Leader (Quebec), the Lieutenant Governor’s Bronze Medal and the O’Brien Medal (Concordia convocation).

During her free time, Vanessa enjoys reading romance novels, listening to soca and RnB music and spending time with family.

Fatou is a thoughtful leader in the spaces of inclusion, equity and belonging. She combines her lived experience with her academic and professional qualifications to foster a welcoming and intersectional culture in workplaces and schools. Deconstructing unconscious and internalized biases, Fatou promotes respectful spaces where creativity can thrive.

Her love for building meaningful lasting relationships and dismantling career barriers led her to pursue a career in HR and Inclusion. She is currently the senior HR manager for IG Wealth Management Eastern Canada offices. In this role Fatou creates organization wide presentations, working documents and toolkits to address unconscious biases and help leaders engage in difficult conversations around social justice. Fatou is the recipient and nominee of multiple awards including Canada’s 2022 Top 100 Black Women to Watch, Prix Femmes d’affaires du Québec 2022 and Concordia University Alumni Association Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion award.

In 2015, Fatou founded the Black-led non-profit Young Athletes of Montreal. The organization seeks to promote inclusion and excellence through sports in young Black high school students in Montreal. The organization has held a series of seminars inviting young participants to gain knowledge on financial literacy, personal development as well as workshops on inclusion and belonging in schools.

As the French designate for the Black Professional in Tech Network Fatou facilitates group training programs on inclusive leadership. She also plays an advisory role for Canadian companies who seek to attract, hire and retain black talent.

Fatou provides mentorship to self-identifying Black, Indigenous and women of colour on career advancement through Accelerate Her Future. In her spare time she is also a steering committee member of the Montreal chapter of She Said So, a global community of women and gender minorities in the music industry. Fatou brings an intersectional lens to the organization’s mission to connect and empower underrepresented communities towards a more equitable industry.

Fatou is an energized diversity, equity and inclusion champion. She loves to work with teams to solve problems that others find overwhelming.

Susannah Tam has always been active in promoting Canada-China trade and knowledge exchange. From 2016-20, Susannah oversaw all financial & tax issues at Montdorex Pharma Inc as their chief financial officer. Susannah was prevously managing director of Financial Advisory Services (China focus) at Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, after spending four years as CFO at Metafoam Technologies, based in Canada and China.

Susannah sits on advisory council for fund-raising for Contemporary Norman Bethune Fellowship Endowment Fund, an initiative of MUHCF and Montreal’s Chinese community. In 2014, Susannah founded Canada China Heart to Heart Foundation whose mission is to promote medical knowledge exchange between Canada and China.  Susannah holds an MBA from Concordia, specializing in finance and operations research.

David is a partner in Gowling Canada WLG’s Montreal office. He practises corporate and commercial law with particular emphasis on secured lending, project finance, aviation finance, real-estate finance and acquisition and asset-backed financing.

Among other activities, David has acted for financial institutions with respect to mortgage loan investments (both term and construction financing), equity investments in real estate, disposition of assets, and structured financing transactions involving aircraft, public and para-public infrastructure programs. He is a member of both the Canadian and the American Bar Association. David has been recognized for professional competence in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory 2021 and Best Lawyers in Canada 2022.

Bhavna began her accounting career at PwC in Montreal and then relocated to New York City and has worked at not-for-profit companies for the last 15 years. Bhavna’s ability to communicate with ease and connect with people of diverse backgrounds in countries all around the world has led to a successful career in internal audit. Along the way, the work trips fed her passion for personal travel and she continues her journey at 70 countries and beyond.  

Bhavna was actively involved in several of Concordia’s student associations, from organizing and winning the first accounting case competition to wrapping up her final year as president of Concordia’s accounting association. Her commitment and involvement with the Concordia community continues as an active team member of the Concordia University Alumni Association – New York Chapter. 

Born in England, raised on Montreal’s South Shore, based in the United States, and having lived more than five years in Africa for work, Nichola Dyer is a seasoned international economic development professional with experience spanning the non-profit, public and private sectors. 

In 2021 she began serving as senior advisor to what is now the Global Seaweed Coalition, providing advice on strategy and governance, designing and moderating events and chairing key meetings. She now also leads its Secretariat. 

Concurrently, Nichola wrote a research paper on women in the seaweed sector for a United Nations organization and helped an international non-profit organization develop its climate resilient food systems strategy. 

After 26 years of service, she retired from the World Bank Group in 2019. Highlights of her bank career include managing the $1.5-biliion Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, developing greenfield operational engagements on excluded minorities and disability, leading the ethics office, and establishing the Gabon office. 

Prior to joining the World Bank Group, she worked as senior consultant at KPMG’s Policy Economics Group.  

She is passionate about giving back and volunteers in a variety of roles. These include serving as board member for the Concordia University Alumni Association, where she founded its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Task Force, and for the innovative Tonic Theater Company in Washington, D.C. She also chairs the Margaret McNamara Education Grants South Africa Program. 

In 1987, Nichola obtained her MSc in Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and continued her doctoral studies there before moving to the Washington, D.C. area in 1991. 

Beyond having graduated from Concordia’s very first economics Co-Op cohort, where she gained early work experience in the Canadian public and private sectors, Nichola holds fond memories of hosting a weekly music show at the Sir George Williams Campus radio station CRSG.

Away from her desk, Nichola enjoys gardening, nature, Gyrotonic exercise and music.

Hussain is an experienced government relations and public affairs professional with a passion for solving complex public policy issues. He brings nearly a decade of experience navigating complex regulatory, political, and procedural aspects of government decision-making at all levels of government.

Currently, Hussain is a senior associate, Government Affairs at Invenergy. He communicates the company’s corporate positions on government legislation, regulation, and procurement policy across Canada. Previously, he worked at a government relations firm and within the Government of Canada as a trusted advisor to senior executives.

Hussain holds a B.A. in Political Science and Journalism and an M.A. in Public Policy and Public Administration from Concordia. As a student, Hussain actively promoted Concordia and was the vice-president of Finance of the Political Science Student Association and President of TEDxConcordia.

Hussain currently volunteers as a board director for the Government Relations Institute of Canada.

Hanna is the Canadian leadership talent acquisition manager for Reitmans Canada Limited, a leading Canadian fashion retailer. A key business partner to the leadership team, talent team and employees, her mission is to enhance Reitman's employer brand, talent acquisition best practices and methods and to engage with exceptional talent building a high performance organization.

Before that she worked for Randstad Canada as the vice-president of Strategic Markets. In her spare time she works toward advocating, educating, and empowering parents, children and young adults with learning disabilities. Since 2010 she has held a position as the vice-president of the board of the Montreal Center for Learning Disabilities.