Founder, Principal, and Board Chair, Art of Life-ing & Precision Marketing Group Inc. (+CERIC)
Keka DasGupta is a 20-year award-winning PR and communications strategist, a TEDx speaker, executive trainer and an entrepreneur. Keka began her career at IKEA and served with the company for seven years, managing all national PR and communications programs. She also served as the company’s media and crisis spokesperson. She then moved onto the reputed PR firm, DDB Public Relations (DDB PR). After becoming a new mom (she now has two boys), Keka established her own boutique consulting firm, Precision Marketing Group Inc.
Keka continued to consult with DDB, as a freelance VP of their PR division. In 2016, Keka and her DDB team were awarded the Oscars of the PR industry with the Agency of the Year designation in the global Gold Quill competition, by the International Association of Business Communicators. Keka has worked with such globally recognized brands as: IKEA, Nike, Disney, American Express, Schwarzkopf, Johnson & Johnson and many other Fortune 500s. She has worked in recruitment marketing for over a decade, co-founded a corporate L&D company, Enkompass Consulting, and served as an instructor at the Schulich Executive Education Centre (SEEC), York University.
As her passion project, Keka also delivers keynote speeches and runs interactive Gratitude workshops for corporations across North America, focused on increasing employee productivity, happiness, loyalty and retention. Keka has also created a program for school students (Grades 7 to 12), focused on using gratitude to proactively tackle bullying environments. Keka is a professional member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS).
Every day, someone sits across from you unsure of what they have to offer. By the time they leave, they can see it, because you saw it first. You notice the strengths they’ve stopped noticing, the potential they can’t yet name. And you do it wearing more hats than any job description lists: coach, mentor, labour market guide, a steady presence during someone’s hardest time. Yet, when was the last time you got to turn that gift on yourself?
This hour is your turn.
Keka DasGupta has spent 25 years helping the world see brands clearly. Now she’s inviting you to come back to yourself the same way, so you can keep doing the work that matters so deeply.
Together, let’s:
Every great career story begins with someone who saw it first. This is your hour to be seen: your future is calling.
Para Ice Hockey Star | Cancer Survivor and Advocate
Growing up in Forest, Ontario, like many Canadian boys, Tyler McGregor had dreams of one day playing in the NHL. Unfortunately, those dreams took an unexpected turn following a leg injury in a hockey tournament. When looking at his leg, doctors discovered that McGregor had Spindle Cell Sarcoma. In an effort to save his life and remove the cancer, doctors amputated his left leg. Luckily, the cancer was contained, but for McGregor, life as he knew it was changed forever.
Rather than giving up in the face of adversity, McGregor decided to shift those dreams, channelling his energy into para ice hockey. Now, he is a celebrated Canadian Paralympic athlete known for his remarkable contributions to para ice hockey, where he has earned recognition for his skill and leadership.
The captain of Team Canada, McGregor, has taken home three Paralympic silver medals and one bronze medal, most recently leading Canada to silver at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics. Beyond his para ice hockey career, he has used his story to help inspire others – speaking openly about his story and encouraging other people to find strength in the face of adversity.
When he isn’t competing, McGregor works with companies and organizations to ensure buildings and events are accessible for people with disabilities like him.
Physician | Expert on Authentic Leadership and Inclusive Wellness | Best-selling Author
Dr. Samra Zafar is passionate about helping people live and lead with courage to become agents for change. She is an award-winning international speaker, best-selling author and resident psychiatrist who specializes in authentic leadership, belonging and inclusive wellness. In her captivating keynotes, Zafar shares valuable, science-backed tools and insights to help leaders build authentic connections and inclusive workplace cultures that foster high-performing, resilient and agile teams for transformational results.
After escaping a decade of abuse as a child bride in Canada, Zafar pursued her education and became a global advocate for progress. Her bestselling memoir, A Good Wife: Escaping the Life I Never Chose, shares her journey while her second book, Unconditional: Break Through Past Limits to Transform Your Future, details science-based strategies rooted in lived experience to help readers unlearn limiting beliefs and live fuller, unconditional lives. It was named one of Forbes’ 2025 “Best Books for Personal Growth by Women Authors”.
Previously a leader in financial services, Zafar is currently completing her residency in psychiatry at the University of Toronto. She is also the founder and Executive Director of Brave Beginnings, a registered charity that provides mentorship to survivors of abuse. Her work has been featured in several national and international media outlets, including The Huffington Post, Harvard Medical School’s Primary Care Review, CTV, CBC, Global News, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and more.
A four-time TEDx speaker, Zafar has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women, Top 25 Most Inspirational Women and Top 25 Canadian Immigrants. She is a trailblazer, spearheading inclusion and wellness in organizations across the world. Past speaking clients including RBC, TD, Manulife, Deloitte, CPA, Yale University, Adidas, Art of Leadership, Canadian Psychiatric Association, UNICEF, and several other corporations, associations and universities. Her keynotes combine scientific research with hard-earned life lessons to share courageous strategies that lead to bold results.
Zafar earned her medical degree from McMaster University. She also holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics from the University of Toronto. Formerly a governor at the University of Toronto, Zafar currently sits on the board of Women’s College Hospital Foundation. She also served as chair of the University of Toronto Mississauga Campus Council.
In a world of constant change and uncertainty, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by fear, self-doubt, and the limits we believe define what’s possible. Yet within each of us lies an extraordinary capacity to adapt, grow and transform adversity into opportunity. What if the greatest barriers to our potential are not the circumstances we face, but the beliefs we hold about ourselves?
Drawing from her remarkable journey of being a child bride in a forced marriage as a teenager to becoming an economist, bestselling author and physician, Dr. Samra Zafar blends powerful storytelling with insights from neuroscience and psychology to explore the science of resilience, emotional agility and human potential.
Through an inspiring and thought-provoking exploration of how our brains respond to uncertainty, Dr. Zafar reveals how we can work with our emotions, challenge limiting beliefs, and cultivate the confidence and courage to pursue new possibilities. Whether navigating our own personal and professional transitions or supporting others through change, we have the power to move beyond fear, embrace our humanity, and redefine what is possible.
Audiences will leave with renewed inspiration, a deeper understanding of their own resilience, and actionable strategies to thrive through uncertainty with confidence.
Award-Winning Indigenous Journalist and Author
An award-winning broadcaster, author and professor, Duncan McCue is a masterful storyteller and celebrated leader in decolonizing journalism. Throughout his distinguished 25-year career with CBC, he was best known as the host of CBC Radio’s Cross Country Checkup and as a longstanding correspondent with The National. Honest and insightful, McCue is a sought-after trainer and educator in helping to build respectful relationships with Indigenous communities to spark social change and reconciliation.
From climate change to residential schools and violence against Indigenous women, McCue has tackled some of the most complex issues facing Canadians and Indigenous Peoples. Most recently, he was the driving force behind CBC’s award-winning investigative podcast series, Kuper Island. In 2023, the Canadian Association of Journalists presented McCue with its highest honour, the Charles Bury Award, for his “efforts to inspire change in how Canadian journalism covers Indigenous stories.”
McCue is now a guest host, trainer and Indigenous advisor for CBC and a Professor of Indigenous Journalism and (Story)telling at Carleton University. He has spent decades training journalists across Canada and the world on how to respectfully share Indigenous stories and perspectives. He developed the innovative online resource, Reporting in Indigenous Communities, which inspired his textbook, Decolonizing Journalism: A Guide to Reporting in Indigenous Communities. McCue is also the author of Shoe Boy: A Trapline Memoir.
Before becoming a journalist, McCue studied English at the University of King’s College and completed his law degree at the UBC. He was called to the bar in British Columbia in 1998. His educational journey also includes a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University and a Southam Fellowship at Massey College/University of Toronto.
McCue is Anishinaabe and a member of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation in southern Ontario. In recognition of his public service, he was presented with an Indspire Award and an honorary doctorate from the University of King’s College.
What happens when we stop asking Indigenous learners to fit the system and start transforming the system to meet them where they are? Sharing lessons learned from newsrooms and classrooms, Duncan McCue explores how relationships, community partnerships and Indigenous ways of knowing can create pathways to student success.