Andrew Cardozo

As Executive Director of Future Borders Coalition, Laura Dawson works with a binational coalition of government and industry leaders in order to build better borders for travel and trade. Prior to her appointment to FBC, Dr. Dawson led the North America office of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Institute, facilitating public sector digital transformation. Other posts include director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., founder of Dawson Strategic, and senior economic advisor at the U.S. Embassy in Canada. Dr. Dawson holds a PhD in Political Science from Carleton University. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Bob Rae is the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in New York. Rae served as Premier of Ontario from 1990-1995, and interim Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada from 2011-2013. He was elected to federal and provincial parliaments 11 times between 1978 and 2013. Ambassador Rae received his Honours B.A. in Modern History from the University of Toronto, an M.Phil in Politics as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1977. He was named a Queen’s Counsel in 1984.

Sean Strickland serves as the Executive Director of Canada’s Building Trades Unions. Drawing on more than 40 years of experience in the construction industry, Sean started his career in the field with LiUNA as a Bricklayers Labourer at age 15. He was raised in a construction union household where his father was a business manager for Bricklayers Local 12 in Kitchener. Sean has also served as an elected official for more than 25 years, first elected to public office in 1993 as a trustee with the local public school board, and won election six times as a regional councilor representing Waterloo.