2024 Event Speakers
Saurabh Arora
Fervent Founder | New-Age Tech Enthusiast, University Living
Haydar Al Dahhan
President & CEO, Design Works Engineering Ltd.
Andrew Arifuzzaman
Chief Administrative Officer, University of Toronto Scarborough
Amal Awini
Director of Housing Services, York University
Bill Blais
President & CEO, Maclab Development Group
Rudy Bocchicchio
Real Estate Investment Advisory, Stormont Partners
Anthony (Tony) Cupido, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Research Chair, Sustainable Building Technologies, Mohawk College
Murtaza Haider
Professor of Real Estate | Columnist, Ryerson University | The Financial Post
Peter Johnson
Director, Sustainable Finance, Scotiabank
Scott Johnston
Associate Dean, Office of the Dean of Students, Victoria University in The University of Toronto
Rylan Kinnon
CEO, SpacesShared
Steve Lafleur
Independent , Public Policy Analyst and Columnist
Ian Murray
Executive Advisor - Strategic Initiatives, Acadia University
Henry Morton
President, Campus Suites
Josh Morton
Vice President, Campus Suites
Mike Porritt
Vice President – International, Advisory Services, The Scion Group
Mark Richardson
Chief Technology Officer, Rich Analytics
David J. Roberts
Director of the Urban Studies Program; Associate Professor, Teaching Stream; Academic Director, Multidisciplinary Urban Capstone Project; Faculty Advisor, Access & Inclusion Peer Programs, University of Toronto
Charlie Simpkins
Director, Strategic Initiatives & Business Enterprise Office of the Vice-President, Finance and Operations, University of Windsor
Lyle Scott
Principal, Footprint
Warren Yee
Managing Partner, Altmaven Capital
A visionary entrepreneur and digital pioneer, Saurabh Arora has reshaped the landscape of student accommodation. Born and raised in Meerut, he moved to New Delhi at 17 to pursue his education. An exchange program in Nottingham, UK, became the defining moment of his entrepreneurial journey, revealing a significant demand-supply gap in global student housing. This insight led to the inception of Unilodgers in 2012 and University Living in 2015. Under his leadership, University Living has experienced meteoric growth, achieving a 3x year-on-year growth and doubling in size even amidst the pandemic. Today, University Living is a vertically integrated and horizontally expanded global student housing managed marketplace.
As President, Chief Executive Officer, and co-founder of Design Works Engineering, Haydar Al Dahhan has been instrumental in taking the firm from a small, two-person operation in Northern Alberta to a highly respected, multi-national engineering powerhouse in just eight years. Under his leadership, the company has grown to employ over 120 experts in various fields, becoming known for its innovative and integrated approach to engineering and its focus on human-centric teams.Haydar was born in England and raised in several major international cities, which have provided him with a unique perspective and understanding of the global engineering industry.
Experienced, results-oriented, and strategic professional with over 20 years of experience in leading and building Housing and Conference operations in various institutions and provinces. A successful leader of diverse and achieved teams; and an effective driver of institutional change initiatives that enhance the student experience and support the University’s academic mission. Proven ability to build community relations, collaborate with partners, increase service quality and value, and enhance business processes efficiency in an educational environment with a focus on student success.
Bill Blais is the President and CEO of Maclab Development Group, an Edmonton based real estate company. His 26 year career has always focused on real estate development, including mixed use multi family development, land development, office conversion, and hotel development.
Rudy is responsible for idea generation and execution of Stormont’s investment and advisory mandates. Since joining Stormont, Rudy has focused on the residential sector, both domestically and abroad, with coverage spanning: conventional multifamily, seniors housing, student housing, and land development. Prior to Stormont, Rudy spent four years at CPP Investments, where he focused on the US residential sector, including CPP’s national student housing investment program.
Murtaza Haider is a professor of Data Science and Real Estate Management at Toronto Metropolitan University. He also serves as the research director of the Urban Analytics Institute. Professor Haider holds an adjunct professorship of Engineering at McGill University. In addition, he is a Director of Regionomics Inc., a boutique consulting firm specializing in the economics of cities and regions. Dr. Haider is the author of Real Estate Markets: An Introduction (2020) and Getting Started with Data Science: Making Sense of Data with Analytics (2016).
Rylan is CEO and co-founder of SpacesShared. Rylan has spent a decade working in postsecondary advocacy, policy, program administration, and technology in the public and private sectors. As a partnership and consensus builder, Rylan believes in engaging as broad a base of stakeholders as possible when developing solutions to complex problems. Rylan has experience managing large teams and scaling technology companies.
Steve Lafleur is a public policy analyst with over a decade of experience working for Canadian think tanks. He is a former Senior Policy Analyst at the Fraser Institute. He holds an M.A. from Wilfrid Laurier University. His work has appeared in most major Canadian media outlets including the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and the Toronto Star.
Josh has been with Campus Suites in varying capacities over the last five years, rising from a project coordinator to Vice President. He is responsible for running due diligence programs, contract negotiation and underwriting prospective investments to determine feasibility while taking an active role in the development process. During the design stage of new projects, Mr. Morton provides insight into the lives of the students to help resolve issues before they even arise. He has also proven his worth as an asset manager, helping to strengthen both leasing efforts and property profitability through the use of proptech.
Mike Porritt has 15 years of Executive Director or Director level experience in student housing at institutions in the United States and Canada as well as purpose-built off campus student housing in Waterloo and London, Ontario. His work includes the development of academic integration programs now in place today within residential programs at McGill University (Quebec), Trent University (Ontario), Winona State University (Minnesota) and Appalachian State University (North Carolina). Combined with his experience in market analysis, planning for new construction and major renovations, he contributes a wealth of knowledge both in the Canadian higher education and residential landscape and the US student housing sector.
Mark J. Richardson is the Chief Technology Officer at Rich Analytics, and the volunteer Technical Lead at HousingNowTO.com. He has 20+ Years of consulting-experience with public-sector clients at all-levels of Government in Canada, and was part of the City of Toronto’s Open Data Advisory Group which helped define the City’s first official Open Data Master Plan in 2018.
David Roberts is the Director of and a professor in the Urban Studies Program at UofT. He completed his undergraduate degrees in business administration and political science at the University of Washington and worked as a social worker with homeless and refugee youth in Seattle before coming to UofT as a graduate student in the geography department.
Charlie leads the University of Windsor’s business enterprise and alternative revenue generation strategy, including oversight of real estate and development, capital project procurement, commercial deal negotiation and risk management. Charlie brings a diverse background from the private sector, having held progressively senior roles at A.C. Nielsen in Montreal and Movati Athletic in Toronto. As a Senior Analyst at A.C. Nielsen, he led a client service team that supported consumer packaged goods manufacturers in eastern Canada and the northeast United States, including MolsonCoors, British American Tobacco and L’Oreal.
With more than 25 years of experience in sustainable design, development, and operations, Lyle has a broad (and trusted) perspective on the best sustainability strategy for his clients. A trained mechanical engineer specializing in energy efficiency, facilities management, and sustainable development, Lyle is the founding and managing Principal of Footprint. Providing leadership to the growing Footprint team, Lyle’s greatest strength is collaborating with architects, engineers, and developers to create the most appropriate sustainability solution. Having worked as both a facilities manager at the Hospital for Sick Children and as a developer and contractor, Lyle’s well-rounded experience is very valuable for clients.
