Coffee Chat with Dr. Saini and Special Guests

Event Details

Start your day with an inspiring conversation on leadership. Dalhousie President Deep Saini will be joined by The Hon. Frank McKenna (LLD’02), PC, OC, ONB, QC, F.ICD; Deputy Chair, Wholesale, TD Bank Group, and Karen Hutt, Executive Vice President, Business Development & Strategy, Emera Inc. They will discuss what they have learned about leading through unprecedented circumstances, and how these experiences are shaping their future focus.

Dr. Saini is a respected post-secondary leader, educational visionary, and distinguished researcher who has worked at four of Canada’s leading research universities. Prior to joining Dalhousie in January 2020, he served as vice-chancellor and president of the University of Canberra in Australia.

Join the conversation to gain insight on how leveraging challenging situations can strengthen your approach to leadership.

Register and Watch Live

Register to receive event reminders and details on how to join the event, which will be streamed live on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. We invite attendees to participate in the discussion by posting questions and comments during the live event. Although we hope you can watch live, you will also be provided access to the recording following the event.

Guests

Frank McKenna, Deputy Chair, Wholesale Banking, TD Bank Group, is one of Canada’s most respected political and business leaders. He has been an executive with TD Bank Group since 2006 and joined TD Securities in January 2020. As Deputy Chair, he is focused on supporting the continued expansion of TD Securities’ global footprint.

McKenna is a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University, Queen’s University and the University of New Brunswick Law School. He was awarded a prestigious Lord Beaverbrook Scholarship in Law and has practiced in courtrooms all the way up to the Supreme Court of Canada. He achieved widespread acclaim for his successful defence of Canadian boxing legend, Yvon Durelle.

He was elected Premier of New Brunswick in 1987 in a historic victory that left him with all 58 seats in the legislative assembly. His time as a Premier was marked with widespread acclaim for balanced budgets and unprecedented job creation. He was the only politician in Canadian history to ever be named as Economic Developer of the Year and was inducted into the Canadian Technology Hall of Fame. McKenna retired ten years ago to the day of his original election, keeping his promise to the people of New Brunswick that he would only serve ten years.

Since leaving public life, he was in widespread demand as a Corporate Director and acted as Counsel to two national law firms. He was named by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to the Security Intelligence Review Committee. He was also inducted into the New Brunswick Business Hall of Fame and the Canadian Business Hall of Fame. In 2005 he accepted an invitation from Prime Minister Paul Martin to become Canadian Ambassador to the United States of America. Upon completing his time as Ambassador, he resumed his corporate career with TD Bank Group, one of North America’s largest banks. He also became the Chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, a global asset manager with $500 billion in assets. Additionally, he became a Director of Canadian Natural Resources (CNRL), Canada’s largest oil and gas producer.

McKenna has a School of Public Policy named in his honor at St. Thomas University and the Frank McKenna Leadership Centre at St. Francis Xavier University. Also bearing his name are the Frank McKenna School of Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Mount Allison University and the Frank McKenna Leadership Centre – L’alUMni at Université de Moncton. His charitable work, particularly in Haiti, was rewarded with the Red Cross Humanitarian of the Year award. Mr. McKenna is a Queen’s Counsel, Member of the Queen’s Privy Counsel, a Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Directors, a Member of the Order of New Brunswick and a Member of the Order of Canada. He is the recipient of 15 Honorary Degrees.

He and his wife, Julie have three grown children.

Karen Hutt is Executive Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at Emera Inc., and is responsible for the organization’s business development and strategy efforts, playing a lead role in the company’s next growth phase.

Karen most recently served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Nova Scotia Power Inc. – a role she held from August 2016 until October 2019. Her passionate leadership as President and CEO of NSPI was felt inside and outside of the organization. Under her guidance, the team heightened its focus on customers, safety and delivering results.

Karen joined Emera in 2001 and, through progressively senior roles, has led a range of customer, strategy, business growth and regulatory initiatives in markets as diverse as Canada, New England, New Mexico and Florida. Previously, as Emera’s Vice President, Mergers and Acquisitions, Karen was part of the team that executed the TECO Energy transaction; a transformational deal that doubled the size of Emera. Prior to that, she served as Emera Energy’s Executive Vice President, Commercial, and President, Northeast Wind. In all her roles, Karen has demonstrated a strong focus on building strategic relationships, achieving results through teamwork, creating growth, and applying innovative thinking to meet customer needs.

An active supporter of the local community, Karen currently serves on the Acadia Board of Governors. Karen is a past Chair of the IWK Health Centre in Halifax and has served as a Trustee of the IWK Foundation Board. She is Past-Chair of the Junior Achievement of Nova Scotia Board of Directors. Karen has degrees from Acadia University and Mount Saint Vincent University, and has an ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors.

In November 2019 Karen was named one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada for 2019 by the Women’s Executive Network.