Partner Profiles

Robin is currently the Leader of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada Foundation. This corporate foundation focuses on supporting the interests and volunteer involvement of the firm’s staff and partners through time-off to volunteer, recognition awards and grants to charities where employees dedicate their volunteer efforts. The Foundation also provides annual capacity-building grants to 100 charities nationally to fund professional development for their leaders.

Prior to joining PwC in 2004, Robin completed her MBA at Harvard Business School where, in addition to studying general management, she took courses related to nonprofit management. Outside of the classroom she led efforts to educate her classmates about Venture Philanthropy. During business school, Robin served as a Summer Associate at Blue Ridge Foundation New York, a nonprofit incubator in Brooklyn.

For the four years prior to business school, Robin worked in the learning and education department of Goldman Sachs New York. Since returning to Toronto, Robin has been an active volunteer with Future Possibilities for Kids, a leadership development program for kids ages 8-14. Robin’s interests in business, philanthropy and education naturally lead her to being compelled by the power and possibilities of the SVP model in Toronto.

Rohan is a Consultant in the Corporate Strategy practice at Deloitte Consulting. He previously worked in the Merger & Acquisition group at PricewaterhouseCoopers Toronto and owned his own wireless business prior to that.

Rohan is also actively involved as the Project Delivery Lead for Deloitte’s ACT Group – Advising the Community Together. ACT is a pro-bono initiative, providing consulting opportunities for socially minded junior practitioners to serve boards of local youth-oriented non-profit organizations.

Jessica Goldberg is a Senior Manager in Deloitte's Strategy and Operations Consulting practice, where she focuses on financial services. She has led many major initiatives with North American and international banks in areas such as strategic planning, M&A, enterprise transformation, process improvement and IT strategy. Her clients include HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Scotiabank, CIBC and ABN AMRO.

She returned to her home town of Toronto a few years ago after spending time in Deloitte's London, UK office. Jessica recently joined the Board of Directors of Rotman NeXus, a nonprofit management consulting service established to assist nonprofit organizations. She has an MBA from Rotman, an MA in Psychology from U of T and a BA (Hon) from Queen's.

Lia Grimanis has worked in the technology industry for almost 10 years with direct experience in both Canada and the US. Lia is currently a Technology Sales Executive at SAS, a global Business Intelligence and Predictive Analytics technology company. At SAS, Lia manages relationships with some of Canada’s largest financial institutions.

Lia is also deeply involved in her community, particularly in the areas of poverty, homelessness, shelters and social justice. Having lived in a shelter when she was in her late teens, Lia is now dedicated to educating the public about the necessity for shelters and crisis intervention as well as breaking the stereotypes around shelters and homelessness. To achieve this end, Lia does speaking engagements, media appearances and developed a website www.upwithwomen.com.

A committed philanthropist, Lia donates over $15,000 a year to support causes including The Canadian Women’s Foundation, Future Possibilities for Kids (a leadership coaching program for children in underserved communities), the YWCA, Nightwood Theatre (a feminist theatre company). She is an advocate for philanthropic tithing and hopes her commitment will inspire others to develop a philanthropic budget of their own. Lia is also an active volunteer with several of the organizations where she gives.

Lia is fluent in French and English. She sings, plays the harp, races motorcycles, scuba dives, hang glides and occasionally flies helicopters

Jordy Koski is currently the Director of Marketing for ExtendMedia, a leading software startup enabling digital video businesses. Jordy brings 10 years of high-tech experience in marketing & strategy to this role. He is responsible for shaping and executing ExtendMedia's marketing strategy. Before joining ExtendMedia, Jordy worked in India for a CIDA-funded development project – CIIILP - implementing an online learning system on behalf of the Indian & Canadian Government. Prior to working abroad, he was responsible for Marketing and Business Development at a nascent startup in Vancouver in the online commercial real-estate sector. Previously, he worked in the Technology Solutions divisions of both Wells Fargo & the Bank of Montreal managing online information systems.

Jordy began his career with Eduprise (now SunGard Higher Education) - an online learning software provider - helping to shape their digital video strategy. He has also run his own consulting company providing online strategies and tools for small-business proprietors. Jordy holds a BA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and an MBA from McGill University.

Joanne Kviring is currently a Grants Officer for the National Grants Program at SickKids Foundation, the largest non-governmental granting agency in child health in Canada. She previously held grantmaking roles with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and RBC Financial Group.

Joanne is a member of the Grant Award Committee for the Ontario Power Authority’s Conservation and Technology Development Funds, chairs a volunteer panel of reviewers for the United Way of Greater Toronto and serves on the United Way’s Allocations System Review Advisory Committee. She also volunteers with Community Matters, a grassroots charity providing education and training in life skills for recent immigrants, and the Framework Foundation, which empowers young Canadians to build stronger communities through volunteer involvement.

Richard is a Project Leader at The Boston Consulting Group in Toronto. He has over ten years experience consulting to top executives in over a dozen international markets. While his primary focus is on the financial services industry, he maintains strong cross-industry capabilities in corporate strategy and business development. Richard has also led a number of pro bono and non-profit oriented consulting efforts.

Prior to joining BCG, Richard was Senior Manager in the Corporate Strategy practice of Deloitte Consulting in Toronto. Before that Richard completed his MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he led and contributed to various social and community-oriented activities, including being one of the school’s delegates to Net Impact’s 2001 Corporate Social Responsibility Conference.

Before business school, Richard founded and led Profesionales Proactivos, a volunteer-based nonprofit professional services firm that provided multi-disciplinary services to charities in Quito, Ecuador. He had overall responsibility for all aspects of the organization’s establishment and for growing the organization to 12 staff and numerous clients.

In addition to being a founding partner of SVPT, Richard is active in the Toronto non-profit sector. He has served as the Board President of Shakespeare In Action and as an advisor to Social Enterprise and Development Innovation (SEDI).

Richard is a Founder of SVPT and serves on the Leadership and Investment Committees.

Daniel Tisch is President and CEO of Argyle Communications, one of Canada’s most respected public relations firms.

Dan’s clients include major consumer brands, financial services leaders, technology firms, public companies, all three orders of government in Canada, and several foreign governments. His public relations campaigns have earned him more than 40 awards from the International Association of Business Communicators and the Canadian Public Relations Society.

Before joining Argyle, Dan was vice president of Environics Communications, Canada’s largest management-owned public relations firm. Earlier, he held senior roles in the Canadian government, including serving as Executive Assistant and Senior Policy Advisor to Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Born in Madrid, Spain, and raised in Toronto, Dan speaks English, French and Spanish. He holds two degrees from Queen’s University — a Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies and a Master of Business Administration. Dan has been a regular guest lecturer at Queen’s School of Business for 12 years. In 2007, Report on Business magazine named him one of 16 ‘star alumni’ from Canada’s leading executive MBA programs.

Dan is a member of the Queen’s University Council, a governor of Toronto’s North York General Hospital and a founding partner of Social Venture Partners Toronto.

Ted White joined IBM Canada in 1958 and held various technical and sales management positions. By 1966, he had responsibility for all of IBM’s business in the Data Processing Division from Toronto to Victoria. In 1968 he was a founder of AGT Data Systems, which became one of Canada’s first publicly traded data processing service companies. In 1976, he was the founding president of Amdahl Canada. In 1982, he re-located to California as president of Trilogy Systems. From 1986 to 1991, he was a General Partner of Ventures West Management, one of Canada’s largest independent venture capital companies. In addition, from 1986 to 1997, he was a director of Tandem Computers (Canada) and served as Chairman from 1995 until the merger of Tandem and Compaq Computers in December 1997.

Ted was an elected trustee and served as Vice Chair of the Board of Education for the former City of Etobicoke.

Ted has served as a director for over 30 companies and presently is a member of the Dorothy Ley Hospice Capital Campaign Committee and a founding partner of Toronto Social Venture Partners.

Ted has been married to his wife, Shirley, for over fifty years and they are the proud parents of five children and the grandparents of thirteen wonderful grandchildren.

He holds Bachelor of Applied Science and MBA degrees from the University of Toronto.

Kathryn Wortsman has worked in the private equity industry for over 10 years with direct experience in both Canada and the US. She is currently Vice President and Principal with Succession Capital Corporation, a boutique private equity firm that focuses on acquiring 100% ownership of companies that are involved in retirement succession planning. She selects targets, analyzes financial opportunities and leads the post-transaction work. Prior to Succession, Kathryn held several senior positions at eVentures at MetLife Inc, where she led investments in technology companies, and at Constellation Ventures, a New York based $350MM venture fund that focused on early stage media technology investments.

Investing in the community is a big priority for Kathryn. In 2001, she became a founding partner of Social Venture Partners New York City. In this role, she not only contributed financially, but joined the grant-making committee and volunteered directly for the grantee agency. Kathryn continued to stay actively involved with SVP New York City until leaving the City in 2004. In 2004, Kathryn spent a number of months in Telluride, Colorado. While in Telluride, Kathryn consulted to the Telluride Foundation to improve the granting and reporting processes. Specifically, Kathryn assisted in creating and leading the marketing campaign for a new community Fund focused on investing in local programs for early childhood development. Kathryn also developed a new community philanthropic program which encouraged local businesses to be strategic in their giving.

Upon returning to Toronto, while volunteering for various charities, Kathryn searched for an opportunity that combined her desire to make an impact on the community and develop a network that could provide a platform for a new generation of philanthropists. As a result, she has recruited a team of young professionals to launch SVPT.

Kathryn holds a BA in Economics from the University of Western Ontario and an MBA from Columbia University in New York.