We have a seasoned team to help you build your Legacy of Giving.  We are as excited as you are about the future of philanthropy and the power to give back to our family, friends and communities.  Here are the people that will work for you to make it all come together.

 

Board of Directors

James Burn


An English born entrepreneur with a business and branding background, James founded and served as CEO of a large specialty packaging and distribution company in the UK and then a successful 3D animation studio prior to becoming a founding partner of BrandActive over twenty years ago. Here, he has played a central role in shaping the company’s consulting services.

James is recognized globally for his unparalleled experience in large-scale rebrand transition costing and scenario planning, and has led the planning and management of rebranding projects for some of the largest and best known national and global organizations including Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Caterpillar, Johnson & Johnson, Unify, and Verizon. He has also engineered the rebrand transition of many major U.S. hospital systems such as Ascension, MedStar Health, and Mercy Health.

Based on this experience, James has defined rigorous consultant training processes for the BrandActive team, ensuring that every client receives the highest quality of service. He is very passionate about the firm’s corporate culture based on BrandActive’s core values of Trust, Agility and Growth, and devotes considerable time split between the company’s New York and Toronto offices to ensure each team member’s professional growth.  

An avid proponent of social justice and education, James has been a strong supporter of many not for profit organisations including amfAR, CANFAR, AllOut, and The Maple Leaf Trust, and is a proud board member of Veritas Foundation.

Edna Chu


Edna Chu is a highly accomplished Wealth Management Compliance Executive with expertise in designing and implementing robust Compliance Risk Management programs in large, complex, matrix financial institutions. As a Subject Matter Expert and adept Agent of Change, she has been instrumental in delivering key strategic initiatives, including business acquisitions and integrations, internal business reorganizations and significant regulatory implementations. 

Edna is currently an Executive Regulatory Compliance Consultant and is Chair/member of three mutual fund Independent Review Committees (NI 81-107).  She has formerly held the posts of Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at Sentry Investments, Vice President and Deputy Head of Wealth Management Compliance at Scotiabank, and Associate Vice President of Compliance at MD Financial Management.

Edna has a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B)/ Juris Doctor (JD) from the Windsor Law and Detroit Mercy Law Dual LL.B/JD Program, a Masters of Business Administration (MBA), also from the University of Windsor, and a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics at Wilfred Laurier University.  She is a member in good standing with the Law Society of Ontario.
 

Lou Fabiano


Secretary

Lou is Senior Strategic Advisor to Veritas and will provide direction and support on the firms long term strategy.  Lou joined Veritas as COO in 2014.  Prior to joining Veritas, Lou was an executive with TD and Scotiabank (HollisWealth) focused on research, products, strategy, and marketing in both wealth and asset management.

His experience and education are cross-border having worked in both Canada and the United States.  Lou graduated with a BA from The University of Western Ontario and an MBA from Clemson University.

Sam Labell


Treasurer

Sam is an Advising Representative and Director at Veritas Asset Management Inc., helping to structure and execute portfolio strategies. Prior to moving to VAM, Sam spent five years as Veritas Investment Research Head of Research and 11 years as the lead analyst covering the Oil & Gas sector. 
 
In 2006, Sam was the first analyst to highlight Canada’s stock option backdating problem, which triggered a review of option filing practices by the Canadian Securities Administrators. Backdating problems were subsequently discovered at BlackBerry Ltd., Ensign Energy Services and Penn West Petroleum Ltd., among others. From 2004 to 2020, Sam served on the Veritas Investment Committee to select the firm’s V-List, a model portfolio of Top Buy ideas.  As well as conducting teach-ins for Veritas’ clients, Sam has been a featured speaker at CPA Canada conferences and on Business News Network. Sam is a CFA Charterholder and holds a BA in Economics from the University of Toronto, an MA in Economics from the University of Ottawa, and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business.

Joe Mauko


Joe Mauko is currently working as a cybersecurity consultant for Awake Security (recently acquired by Arista Networks).  He is a former Olympic contender who brings discipline coupled with 12 years cyber security sales experience and strategic account management.
 
One word that defines Joe best, professionally & personally is: athlete. 
 
The “athlete” in Joe is apparent in all aspects of his life & career – from his personal & professional development with a passion to grow and win and giving back.  He is not afraid of hard work as he has fought many hard-won battles with numerous records broken.... on-and-off the track.
 
Joe is happily married 15years to Claudine; together they have two beautiful children, Gavin (13) and Camille (10).
 

Dina Palozzi


After a long career in the Ontario Public Service in senior capacities such as Deputy Minister, Insurance Commissioner and Superintendent of Pensions, Dina moved to BMO Financial Group in 2001 as Executive Vice President of Client Relations and Chief Privacy Officer before retiring from full time work in 2008. Today Dina is an independent consultant providing a range of services including governance training for Boards of Directors, succession planning for executives, executive coaching and mentoring. She has a wide range of not-for-profit board experience. She has served on the Board of Directors of Hospice Vaughan since 2018, was Chair and Board Member of Mackenzie Health (2010-2019), and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Toronto Centre For Financial Sector Supervision (2007-2019).

Ms Palozzi brings a wealth of business and community experience to the Board of The Veritas Foundation. From 2002 to 2013, she served in several roles with the Canadian Automobile Association’s South Central Ontario Club including Chair of the Board, Governance, and Human Resources Committees. A member of the Board of Directors of ResMor Trust Company (sold to RBC Financial) from 2011 to 2013, Dina was also the Chair of the Recycling Council of Ontario from 2004 to 2009. She was a Board Trustee of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario from 2002 to 2008, serving as a public representative. She has served as a Board Member of both the Vaughan Healthcare Foundation and Providence Healthcare Foundation.

Anthony Scilipoti

FCPA, FCA, CPA (Illinois)
Chair

Anthony co-founded Veritas Investment Research in 2000 and launched Veritas Asset Management Inc. in 2016 as a way to action the research ideas. He is a Fellow Chartered Public Accountant, a Fellow Chartered Accountant, a Certified Public Accountant (Illinois) and a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. He is a licenced portfolio manager. Anthony also serves as a member of the Ontario Securities Commission's Continuous Disclosure Advisory Committee since 2006. In 2019, Anthony was appointed to the Board of the Capital Markets Advisory Committee of the International Accounting Standards Board.

Anthony has been very active in accounting standard setting since 2003. He is a former member of the Canadian Accounting Standards Board, the CICA's Emerging Issues Committee, and was the Chair of CPA Canada's Users Advisory Committee.

Anthony began teaching in 1997 as a part-time accounting instructor at York University's Schulich School of Business in the MBA and BBA Programs. He was nominated for the Teaching Excellence Award in 1997 and 2003.

Several of Anthony’s cases have been published in Cases in Financial Accounting: A Principles Based Approach, First Edition, 2006, and In Search of the “Right” Numbers – an Ivey Case that profiles Bombardier Inc. in 2001, published July 2020. While he no longer teaches full courses, Anthony guest lectures at the undergraduate and graduate levels and runs custom training programs on financial statement analysis and business valuation for Canadian and U.S. analysts and portfolio managers, regulators, accountants, as well as financial and non-financial professionals.

As an advocate for investors’ rights, Anthony is a frequent media commentator and public speaker on financial accounting and disclosure issues and is considered an industry expert in special situations related to accounting.  Anthony has also served as an expert witness for securities regulators and other civil disputes. 
 

Management

Mark S. Bonham

M.Sc. (Economics), ICD.D, B.Comm.
Executive Director

Mark S. Bonham, a veteran of the Canadian financial industry, is very excited to lead the team at The Veritas Foundation.  Prior to joining The Veritas Foundation, Mr. Bonham operated his consulting company Bonham & Co. Inc., prior to which he was a founder and Chief Executive Officer of two successive mutual fund entities, BPI Financial Corporation and Strategic Value Corporation.  Under his leadership, both companies grew to be publicly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and were later sold to rival organizations. 

 

A Senior Fellow of Massey College, University of Toronto in Toronto, Canada, Mark received his M.Sc. (Econ) with a focus on Capital Markets Theory from the London School of Economics (1986), a B.Comm. from the University of Toronto (1982), and is a  Fellow, Life Office Management Association (1982).  Mark successfully became a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD.D, 2023)

 

Mark is the author of five books to date, including the books Trade-Offs: The History of Canada-U.S. Trade Negotiations (2018) and Becoming 150: 150 Years of Canadian Business History (2017).   He is a contributor on the financial industry to The Canadian Encyclopedia.  

 

A co-founder and former Board Member the Canadian Business History Association, Mark is the past Board Chair of the Toronto Botanical Garden and has endowed the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto.  Active at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, Mark has provided scholarships and endowed the Bonham Chair in International Finance.  Among his many community projects, Mark has co-chaired the capital campaign for Toronto’s new LGBTQ youth homeless shelter and was the lead donor and co-Chair of the Casey House Hospital Capital Campaign. 

 

Mark was included in the Financial Times of London (UK)OUTstanding Global Business Leaders list in 2017 and was recently named the 2018 Outstanding Philanthropist of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP).  He is the recipient of the inaugural Alumni of Influence Award from the University of Toronto (2012), the Clarkson Laureateship in Public Service (2016), and is a Member of the Group of 175, being the 175 most influential graduates of the University of Toronto. 

Giselle Saati

MBA
Associate

Giselle was most recently a Business Development Representative at affiliated company Veritas Asset Management. After 20 years in the luxury jewelry industry, Giselle completed a BComm in Finance at Toronto Metropolitan (formerly Ryerson) and an MBA at IE Business School in Spain. Since then, Giselle has gained a breadth of experience in different industries from commercial real estate lending to automotive.  In her spare time, Giselle trains in Olympic weightlifting and powerlifting.

At The Veritas Foundation, Giselle assists in Administration, Marketing & Promotion, and Research activities.  

Partners


Investment Manager

Veritas Asset Management was founded in February of 2016 and is an independent employee owned research driven investment manager.  Veritas Asset Management (VAM) was founded on the belief that superior research leads to better investment decisions.  VAM sources its investment ideas from Veritas Investment Research (VIR), an award-winning equity research organization whose fundamental research is based on forensic-accounting principles.  Together, VAM and VIR offer a unique investment solution that diversify and add value to any portfolio.


Administration Services

Veritas Charity Services Inc. (VCSI), a subsidiary of the Veritas Group, is the Veritas Foundation's charitable administration service provider.  The administration covers operating tasks such as account administration and servicing, marketing, advertising and promotion, grant administration, application reviews and account setups.

VCSI also provides to donors, charities and others independent, fair and respectful research into Canadian registered charities to help them in evaluating and choosing their favoured charities.  VCSI conducts comprehensive reviews of Canadian registered charities, all within a unique VScore program framework.  It regularly publishes these in reports for select groups and the public.


Auditor

Deloitte provides audit & assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax and related services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. Deloitte serves four out of five Fortune Global 500® companies through a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries and territories bringing world-class capabilities, insights and service to address clients' most complex business challenges. Deloitte LLP is the Canadian member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, which is a network of member firms, each of which is a legally separate and independent entity.