Nabeela Elsayed

Nabeela Elsayed has over twenty years of leadership across operations, HR, and strategy at Walmart, IKEA, and Starbucks. Her most recent role was Chief Operations Officer at Walmart Canada, where she was responsible for over 100,000 associates. She has been recognized among the Top 50 Executives by the Globe and Mail, the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada by WXN, and the Top 100 Global HR Leaders. Nabeela sits on several boards, including Canadian Innovation Leaders Against Racism and the Miracle Foundation. She is a certified executive coach, a Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coach, and a Faculty Member of Competent Boards. She holds a bachelor’s in marketing and supply chain management from Indiana University and a master’s in industrial and organizational behaviour from the University of Texas.

Lina Kanawati

Lina Kanawati is an HR professional who has built her career in non-profit organizations. She is currently HR Manager at Nisa Foundation, where she leads organizational development, performance management, succession planning, policy development and coaching for senior management. Before joining Nisa, she spent four years at Islamic Relief Canada, starting as HR Coordinator and later becoming HR Specialist. There she led full-cycle recruitment, engagement and recognition programs, and professional development planning.

Lina holds a BA in Psychology from Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) and studied Human Resources Management at McMaster University. Outside work, she mentors young people as a facilitator with Seeds of Leadership and a counselor with Muslim Youth of North America.

Saima Hassan

Saima Hassan has more than two decades of experience in people and culture leadership, organizational effectiveness, and change management across faith-based, education, and corporate organizations. She currently leads leadership development, training, and talent development strategy at America’s largest natural gas distribution utility, and serves as a Change & Implementation Consultant leading HR and organizational transformation for faith-based nonprofits. Her work has been recognized with Sempra’s Build the Future Award and D&I Shape the Future Award, and she has been a featured speaker at the DevLearn Conference. Saima has served on the boards of several Islamic organizations, including Muslim American Society, Islamic Relief, and Young Muslims. She holds certifications in PROSCI, Lean Six Sigma, and eLearning Instructional Design, and a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Claremont Lincoln University and a Bachelor of Arts in Education.

Ishma Zahur

Ishma Zahur is an executive leader and coach with nearly two decades of experience in strategy, operations and organizational transformation, mostly in the public sector, regulated industries and mission-driven organizations. Most recently she was Principal of the Industries and Government Practice at Optimus SBR. There she led more than 15 executive-level engagements and founded the firm’s EDI Centre of Excellence. Before that, she was Director of Business Optimization at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), where she led process redesign for a multi-year modernization program affecting more than 3,000 employees. She also served twice as Vice-Chair of WSIB’s EDI Council. Earlier in her career she held roles with the Ontario Public Service, PwC and Deloitte.

Ishma sits on the Board of Directors of YouthLink and is a Contributing Visionary with The Prosperity Project, which works to advance women’s economic empowerment. She holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California and an Honours BA in Economics from Queen’s University. She is completing a Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching at Royal Roads University.