Clare M. Gaudet is a strategic financial services executive and lawyer with experience in financial, consumer, and professional services focused on managing stakeholder relationships and ensuring that enterprise risk management is relevant, practical and enables value creation. Over the course of her career, Clare has previously held positions at TD Bank, CIBC, and KPMG. Clare has also served as a board member for the Pine River Foundation, Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, and Humber College.

Christian Wray is a co-founder and the Chief Executive Officer of JCM Capital. In addition to providing the strategic vision for the company, Christian also focuses on the evaluation and approval of investment opportunities and the initiation of the company’s strategic partnerships and alliances. Prior to his current position, he was the Director of Finance for Ozz Solar International, a Canadian solar energy development company focused on rooftop solar development in Ontario. Christian is a graduate of University of Toronto (B.Comm.) and is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant, having worked in the Toronto and UK offices for PwC in their Banking and Capital Markets Group.

Kevin Latimer is a Partner at Cox & Palmer, Halifax office, and a recognized professional in Administrative and Public Law, Corporate and Commercial Litigation, and Labour and Employment Law. A graduate of Mount Allison University (BA), with a Master of Arts from Carleton University, and a Law Degree from Dalhousie. Kevin is passionate about the transformative power of music and the arts. He serves as a Governor of the Atlantic School of Theology (AST) and is a former Governor of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

Sharman King has been actively involved in music throughout his life. He is the bass trombonist of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra and has recorded over 300 TV programs in international distribution. Sharman is a sessional instructor at the University of British Columbia and is a member of many community and professional boards including the Vancouver Musicians’ Association, UBC Library Advisory Board, Performing Artists Lodge and the City of Vancouver’s Arts & Culture Policy Council.

Laurel Malkin holds senior governance and volunteer leadership positions with a variety of top Canadian not-for-profit organizations. Professionally, she has made career contributions in the field of education, bringing special expertise in teaching and learning for gifted students to positions in both the United States and Canada – as a middle school teacher, community college instructor, and sessional faculty advisor at Brandon University. Based in Winnipeg, Laurel is now President of the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg, President of the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg, and a member of the Asper Jewish Community Centre Board of Directors, among many other appointments.

A seasoned cross-functional executive, she brings to NYO a track record of transforming and innovating in areas of customer experience design and implementation, operations, product development, and digital strategy and execution. A graduate of York University in Social Studies and Psychology, Sarah also completed an EMBA from the Richard Ivey Business School at Western University. She resides with her family in Waterloo, ON.

Dr. Darius J. Bägli, MDCM, is a pediatric surgeon specializing in urology and reconstructive surgery at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, a scientist at the Sickkids’ Research Institute, and deputy chief surgeon of SickKids. A native of the United States and raised in Montreal, he trained in physiology and medicine at McGill, and in urology at Harvard Medical School and the University of Washington. In addition to being a pediatric surgeon, Darius is also an accomplished pianist, having studied under Dorothy Morton and graduating in music (piano performance) from McGill University.

Fred Gorbet has extensive experience in public policy, the private sector and academic and community service. Following a 25-year career in the Canadian public service, where he served as Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr. Gorbet held senior executive positions in the life insurance industry and in academia.

He also has an active career as a corporate director and independent consultant on public policy, serving as Executive Director of task forces on the future of the Canadian financial services sector; corporate governance; and as Chair of a task force on Auto Insurance Fraud in Ontario.

Mr. Gorbet was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2000 and promoted to Officer of the Order in 2014.

Ms. Toporowski joined VIA Rail in November 2014, first as General Manager for Central Canada and then as Vice-President Customer Experience. In August 2022, she was promoted to Chief Customer Officer and currently oversees all activities related to our customers’ journey from booking to destination and to their experience on board our trains and in our stations. Her mandate entails providing overall direction and strategic leadership to the Customer centric teams, including the development of new business opportunities and initiatives relative to marketing, product, and customer service.

Prior to joining VIA Rail, Ms. Toporowski was Vice-President, Corporate Planning and Development at Second Cup, where she was responsible for leading the Strategic Planning process; cross-functional process improvement; procurement and supply chain; and the development and negotiation of new product channels. She also spent 16 years at Air Canada where she held various senior positions, including President of Air Canada Vacations and Senior Director Six Sigma.

She holds an MBA from Concordia University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from McGill University.

Bruce Craig grew up in Los Angeles California where he began playing French horn in high school. He attended the California Institute of the Arts youth music program and while in college regularly performed with six area community orchestras. Bruce entered the job market as a National Park Service ranger though after receiving his doctorate in history from the American University, he embarked on a career as a non-profit manager. Subsequently, he served as the executive director of four national park/history related non-profit organizations.

After immigrating to Prince Edward Island in 2007 he accepted an appointment as a professor of History at the University of Prince Edward Island. Throughout his career Bruce had obtained extensive board member experience; he joined the PEI Symphony Orchestra board of directors and for eight years served as its president; he also served a stint on the Orchestras Canada board from 2016-2020.

In 2014, Bruce and his wife Patricia became the founding donors of the ACCLERANDO Classical Music Performance Fund through the Confederation Centre of the Arts Foundation in Charlottetown. This is the only Centre fund devoted exclusively to supporting classical music appreciation and performance. In 2023, during the appearance of the National Youth Orchestra in Charlottetown, the Craigs announced a $250,000 legacy gift to that fund.

Christine serves as the Chief Accounting Officer for Manulife Canada, where she leverages her expertise to drive the finance strategy.  Prior to her tenure at Manulife, Christine held the positions of VP, Finance at Orvana Minerals and Senior Manager in the assurance practice of PwC. Her diverse experience includes time as a sessional lecturer at the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce.

Christine is a graduate of the University of Toronto (B. Comm) and is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA). Christine lives in Toronto with her husband and two daughters. She’s an active tennis player and has completed her grade 9 piano examination from the Royal Conservatory of Music.

Yeganeh Sotudehnia is a Persian-Canadian musician and educator who grew up in Toronto/Tkaronto and is currently based in Edmonton on Treaty 6 territories. She is passionate about human rights and creating human connections in all aspects of her life, and by extension, through her life-long passion for music. Yeganeh has performed with orchestras in the Greater Toronto Area and the prairies, but particularly enjoys small-ensemble collaborative music-making, and is interested in taking part in projects that explore culture through music. For years, she has connected to her roots with numerous collaborations with Persian artists and ensembles. More recently, she had the opportunity to explore the music of other cultures as a string quartet member for the Intercultural String Exchange in Regina– a grant-funded initiative that aimed to learn from experts currently based in Canada, who specialize in their respective cultural music. The quartet put on a series of free public shows in hopes of engaging with the broader community in Regina, including a final concert to spotlight their guest artists and showcase their journeys.

Yeganeh has over a decade of teaching experience, and is proud to be part of organizations that serve equity-seeking communities such as Sistema Toronto, and more recently, YONA-Sistema in Edmonton. At YONA, she has had the privilege of building musical skills, confidence, and community with her class of young elementary students every day after school, and is eager to continue this line of work in addition to her love of performing. Having spent three formative summers at NYO, Yeganeh is honoured to share her insights and values as a Board member at