Cynthia Burton - President, BigDog Solutions
Cindy Burton is the President of Big Dog Solutions, a consulting company that specializes in helping both non-profit agencies and start-up companies reach their fullest potential. Cindy Burton graduated in 1987 with a BA (Hons) from Queen’s University in Kingston. She began her career at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver in 1988 working on the hospitals’ $5 million capital campaign. During her work on that campaign, she recognized that there existed a lack of industry specific information for the non-profit sector and upon completing her work with the hospital, she founded Rainforest Publications in 1990. Over the next nine years, Cindy continued to grow Rainforest Publications and in March 1999, renamed the company iWave.com and took it public. Cindy initially served as Executive Vice-President, Operations for iWave.com until taking on the position of President and CEO in July 1999. Over the next two years, Cindy raised over $4 million dollars for the company, doubling revenues for each of those years.

Cindy left iWave in 2001 and launched her consulting practice, Big Dog Solutions, where she works with entrepreneurs to help them reach their goals and dreams. Today she specializes in helping start up companies go from concept to opening their doors.

Along with being named one of Canada's 40 Under 40 for 2000, Cindy was named one of Atlantic Canada's Top 50 CEO's in both 1999 and 2000. Cindy is a member of the board of directors of the PEI Business Women's Association (www.peibwa.org), Chair of Manhattan based Pop Sustainability (www.popsustainability.org), and a member of the University Council for Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. She has also been profiled in various regional and national media including The National Post, Canadian Business Magazine, Profit Magazine, ROB TV, Report on Business, Atlantic Progress and Atlantic Business.

Cindy is an accomplished speaker presenting at numerous local, provincial and national organizations and events including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce Annual Conference, the Atlantic Provinces Economic Council Annual Conference, the New England Development Research Association, and the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Annual Convention.

Over the years, Cindy has had the privilege of being actively involved with a number of other projects and events. With the World Summit on Sustainable Development, she participated in the United Nations Regional Roundtable for Europe and North America on Sustainable Development held in Vail, Colorado in June of 2001 and the Thematic Roundtable on Promoting Sustainable Development in a Globalizing World held in New Delhi, India in February 2002. She has also been fortunate enough to be involved with the Millennium Scholarship Foundation on the organizing committee for their annual conference and has served on numerous other committees. In her past life, Cindy was a national champion in rowing and was fortunate enough to coach to the provincial and national team levels.

Joy DiBenedetto - Vice President, Network Booking, CNN News Group
In this capacity she is responsible for all live interviews and associated research across the CNN domestic and international networks including CNN-US, CNN International, CNN Headline News, CNN En Espanol, CNN.COM, CNN-FN, CNN Sports Illustrated and CNN-Turk. She is responsible for all special projects and programming that arise such as political conventions, global summits, and news specials; and oversees a staff of 52 in Atlanta, Hong Kong, London, Miami, New York, and Washington, DC.

Ms. DiBenedetto is a member of the Atlanta Press Club Board of Directors, the largest press advocacy group in the South, since 1996. She is a 1991 graduate of Marymount Manhattan College, NYC; holding a BA in Speech Pathology/Audiology; with a special focus counseling certification in Gerontology. Her free time is spent on film/video/internet projects.

Robert M. Johnston, President Executive Council of New York
Bob Johnston is president and founder of the Executive Council of New York. Prior to this, Johnston spent ten years in the software and technology arena as director of market development at Course Technology, a Thompson Publishing Company; director of marketing at Logal Software, a pioneer in Web-based science and math simulation software; and held various sales and marketing roles at Apple Computer in Austin, TX and Boston, MA.

Bob earned his B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and holds a J.D. from Suffolk Law School in Boston, with a focus on high-technology and intellectual property law. He has been quoted in The New York Times, Newsday, Internet World Magazine, and the San Jose Mercury News, among others.

Bob serves on the leadership group of the Institute for Electronic Enterprise at the University of Massachusetts (IEE); is an advisor to the Business Council for the United Nations (BCUN); a director of the Information Technology Council of New York (ITCNY); on the advisory board of Internet World Events; is a director of Pop Sustainability; and is a co-chair of the Friends of Belfast, which is a non-profit organization devoted to fostering business relations between Northern Ireland and the US. Johnston is a mentor for the NYU Stern School's Venture Mentor program as well as Columbia Business School's Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs. Bob was also a finalist for the Harvard Business School 2002 Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Mark Kamin - President, Mark Kamin & Associates
Mr. Kamin is President of Mark Kamin & Associates, a management consulting firm specializing in the transformation of corporate cultures through effective communication. The firm has major U.S. corporations as clients, and also operates in Israel. Mr. Kamin has an extensive and successful background in human resource management and development. He has given seminars and courses for over 100 corporations. Two important elements in the development of Mr. Kamin’s methods and approach were his study of management and labor practices in Israel, and his education, in particular, a course offered by Landmark Education called the Forum. His business continues to grow exponentially; Mr. Kamin believes this is because quality makes a difference. Since starting Mark Kamin & Associates in 1983 he has recruited a team including some of the world’s most experienced consultants. Collectively he and his team have lead workshops and seminars for over 200,000 people.

© 2002 POP SUSTAINABILITY