Board of Directors

Petra Kuret was the Head of Partnership at SkyHive – a for-profit, social impact B Corp that provides an AI end-to-end reskilling platform aimed at addressing unemployment in the world. Previously, Petra was the Senior Vice President of Business Transformation, driving innovation across the enterprise to ensure Vancity continues to deliver the greatest impact – to its members, communities, and employees in order to deliver the business results. Petra brings passion and energy to deliver strategic planning, innovation, operational excellence and change management in pursuit of transformation.

Petra enjoyed a successful 25-year career at Accenture as the Managing Director for British Columbia and serving clients across North America from both a consulting and outsourcing capacity. Petra has been recognized in Canada by being named one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada in 2016 and 2017.

Petra dedicates many hours to organizations making contributions to the community. She currently serves as the Board Chair for the German Canadian Care Home overseeing the building and delivery of a new innovative care model for seniors. In the past, she has had leadership roles with Minerva, BC Women’s Hospital and BC Children’s Hospital as well as at her children’s school. Petra enjoys antiquing, cooking, travelling and exploring the outdoors. She is also trilingual.

Serena Mawani is a Faculty Member at KPU’s Melville School of Business. She is passionate about education, from the early years to adult and lifelong learners. Serena has spent much of her career in the financial services industry, leading various projects around change management and client acquisition and retention.

An avid community volunteer, Serena has experience with various levels of community service, including with the City of Burnaby, the Children’s Heart Network of BC, and as the Honourary Secretary for the Aga Khan Education Board for BC.

Serena holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia, a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from Simon Fraser University, and a Master of Professional Education from Western University. 

Emilie Roy is a Provincial Director of Business Planning at the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) where she provides leadership and strategic financial planning, budgeting and financial advisory to the Information management and Technology Services portfolio.

Prior to PHSA, she has held progressively senior positions in public and private sectors such as Information Technology and Mining industry. She has experience in financial planning, analysis, reporting, and leading organizational projects and change with multiple stakeholders. She also worked at EY as an Assurance Manager where she led the audit team for an initial public offering and audited multiple organizations.

Emilie’s past volunteer experiences include serving on the Board of Directors of the Plein Milieu, a non-profit organization which focused on building trusting relationships with people who are drug users, homes or at risk of homelessness.

Emilie is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CA) with dual bachelors in Computer Science and Mathematics from Laval University and Commerce from HEC Montreal.

Sylvia Ceacero has over 25 years of executive experience in non-profits. She has extensive experience in strategy, finance, HR, risk management, change management, governance, fundraising and more. Her experience expands from local non-profits, to national ones as well as charitable organizations with a focus on fund development.

Sylvia has a passion for volunteering her expertise on non-profit Boards and committees. She is currently a Board member for the Vancouver Communities Arts Council; a Committee member with the Laurier Institution as well as a member of the Civic Affairs Committee of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. Recently she served on the Board of Vantage Point and previously served as Co-Chair of the Tri-Cities Local Immigration Partnership and as VP of the TC Social and Communities Co-op.

Sylvia holds a Master’s of Business Administration from HEC Montreal, a Master’s in Political Science from McGill University, Executive Certificates in Strategy and Governance from Queen’s University as well as a Master’s Certificate in Risk Management.

Marie comes to MOSAIC with a rich not for profit experience, and a versatile professional background. In 2016, she founded an organization which was focused on women and youth empowerment in her home country, Nigeria. Shortly after arriving in Canada, Marie served as an Ambassador for Nanaimo Tourism in 2018. Since then, she has gone on go to serve at other organizations in various positions including Ambassador, Dress for Success, Vancouver, and Treasurer, Parent Advisory Council of Burnaby North Secondary School. She is a currently a Board Member of the Women’s Economic Council. Being a woman of colour with impactful lived experiences, Marie is equally passionate about advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) causes in Canada. She has written many articles advocating for greater DEI advancements within Canadian organizations, one of which was featured in the MoveUp Union’s magazine.

Professionally, Marie was appointed as a Fellow into Canada’s foremost and prestigious Fellowship program in 2021 – the Impact Canada Fellowship. Prior to this, she worked with the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia and supported its transformational business model. Before coming to Canada, Marie spent more than 12 years in the Nigerian Banking sector working in increasingly leadership positions to support the participation of indigenous contractors and host communities within the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

She has completed graduate academic work in Canada and the United Kingdom, earning a Master of Business Administration with Distinction from the Vancouver Island University, and a Master of Science in International Management from the University of Hertfordshire. She is also a certified Canadian Risk Manager and is currently applying her expertise and education in supporting Canada’s federal priorities to benefit all Canadians. You can catch Marie on most weekends at Burnaby Parks engaging with youths and women to help inspire them towards achieving their vision and greatness. She is a momma bear of three and loves to try new things, meet people, and chill.

Matthew is a Vancouver based real estate development professional who focuses on helping institutional and not for profit landowners redevelop underutilized properties. Originally from the UK, he moved to Vancouver in 2002. He has managed real estate development projects for UBC Properties Trust, Great Northern Way Campus Trust, Simon Fraser University, the Resort Municipality of Whistler, Polygon, the United Church of Canada, and the Jewish Community Centre for Greater Vancouver. He has a strong interest in affordable housing issues and was a founding member of Catalyst Community Developments Society – a not-for-profit development group. Matthew lives in East Vancouver with his wife and 3 teenage children.

Alex is an experienced accounting and finance professional with over ten years of public practice experience. He is a Chartered Professional Accounting (“CPA”), Chartered Accountant (“CA”), Chartered Public Accountant (Illinois), and Chartered Business Valuator (“CBV”) specializing in financial reporting, assurance and valuations. Alex has also co-authored expert reports submitted to the Supreme Court of British Columbia and the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta.

He is currently an Associate Director, Inspections at CPAB, an Instructor for various professional education programs, and an MBA Candidate at the University of British Columbia. He was previously a Principal at a mid-sized accounting firm and his past volunteer experiences include serving on the Board of Directors of the Stroke Recovery Association of B.C. and Family Montessori School Society.

Indra Guha came to Canada as an International student at the UBC Sauder School of Business and after graduating from the MBA program, he decided to embrace Canada as his home and lives in beautiful Burnaby.

Since Feb 2023, Indra has been in the executive role of Market Lead & VP at Canadian Western Bank (CWB). Prior to that, he was with RBC Royal Bank for 16 years, with the last RBC role as Vice President of Commercial Banking, leading the flagship Vancouver Downtown team. As a committed and passionate leader, Indra leads with empathy & authenticity and spends considerable time mentoring talents inside and outside the organization.

With deep community involvement, Indra is involved in the Board of non-profit organizations and served as an advisor in multiple organizations. He loves to travel, watch home & garden shows, and is an avid follower of multicultural events.

Mehran Kiai is the Principal of K&L Unity, a group of privately held companies that actively acquire, develop, and manage commercial properties throughout the metropolitan Vancouver area. Previously, he was the Dean of Lifelong Learning at BCIT and the Director of Enrolment Service at Simon Fraser University. His extensive experience in teaching engineering and higher education leadership spans over 25 years.

Previously, he served on the MOSAIC Board from 2009 to 2019 and he is now re-engaging for another term, drawn by Canada’s prominent position in global immigration and refugee efforts. An immigrant himself, having arrived in Canada more than four decades ago, he holds a deep sense of appreciation and commitment to contributing to the country. Mehran actively invests his time in various community-based boards and organizations, prioritizing non-profit initiatives.

Mehran’s educational background includes degrees in Bachelor and Master of Science in Civil Engineering, Doctor of Education in Management and Change from Fielding Graduate University and Executive Development from Queens University.

Synthia is a proactive, driven business leader who has achieved tremendous success for global organizations in several industries, including technology, logistics, finance, real estate, and, most recently, law. Synthia’s career accomplishments in business strategy and leadership earned her recognition as one of Canada’s Best Executives in 2021 by the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business Magazine.

In her current role as Chief Operating Officer at Clark Wilson LLP, Synthia works closely with the executive committee and partnership to optimize organizational processes and deliver both the firm’s short and long-term strategic plans. She is also responsible for ensuring day-to-day decisions and the firm’s overall direction are aligned with its core values and empowering her reports to fulfill their potential through mentorship sessions.

Throughout her career, Synthia has been a passionate champion of Equity Diversity and Inclusion. She is the co-chair of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade’s Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Advisory Committee. Since 2019 Synthia has mentored new immigrants to Canada as part of the Workplace connections mentoring program for MOSAIC.

Tina Leung has over 2 decades of experience working at large law firms and multinational corporations in Hong Kong and Vancouver, holding several senior management positions. Her international legal experience included providing business and legal advice in different countries and industries. This has allowed her to travel to different areas of the globe and experience different local practices and cultures. Prior to her recent retirement from law, she was a member of both the Law Society of Hong Kong and the Law Society of British Columbia. She has a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from UBC and a JD from the University of Toronto.

Tina believes strongly in the importance of giving back to the community and in particular, in the areas of education and immigration. She’s currently a board member of Learning Buddies Network and Dunbar Community Centre.

Fariba is a passionate leader and strategic thinker with over 25 years’ combined industry and advisory services experience, in corporate leadership roles as well as on non-profit boards.

As a skilled, business-focused, and multi-cultural leader in project governance and Information Technology, she has a consistent track record in building the best practices and processes for programs, projects, and cross-functional teams to deliver strategic initiatives and tactical business solutions.

She has provided governance and insights on successful delivery of large and highly regulated programs such as Cannabis (building wholesale, retail, e-commerce and new operation for BC government) as well as $450M value Merger and Acquisition (Bucyrus business for Finning International) besides her involvements as Board Member, President, Chair, Co-Chair and Advisory Council for well recognized and credited non-profit organizations;

Fariba’s strengths reside in her ability to provide teams with vision, values and guidelines to enable them making the best possible decisions to advance the organization’s objectives. She is able to identify risks before they become issues and recommend creative ways to mitigate them.

Her background in technology and leadership roles enables her to stay alert to the disruptive landscape and ensure the business is ready to respond to rapid changes in the industries and cultural shifts while keeping a laser-sharp focus on strategic objectives.

Fariba has honed her passion for continuous improvement as an advisor and employee to organizations engaged in strategic planning and transformation, business model design, operating model and organization design, and change management.

In her current role as Director of Corporate Projects, Fariba chairs ‘Capital Projects Investment Committee’ and provides governance and oversight for all new initiatives and major projects at BC Liquor Distribution Branch spanning from $200K to $100M  in size. She played a critical role in delivering the Cannabis program successfully in 2018 and a variety of challenging and complex portfolio of the projects and programs such as Modern Workplace, Cybersecurity, Digital Foundation, Supply Chain systems as well as enterprise Risk Identification and Mitigation.

Fariba also serves as the Chair of BCIT School of Computing and Academic Studies PAC (Program Advisory Committee) from 2017; BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) is one of British Columbia’s largest post-secondary institutions with more than 48,000 students enrolled annually.

Fariba’s mandate as PAC Chair is to position BCIT School of Computing to adopt and evolve as rapidly as evolving BC tech industry to retain its reputation and strengthen its place by providing strategic advice and assistance on related programs.

Gary is an Associate Portfolio Manager at Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel. He works closely with a diverse group of pension plans, government entities, universities, not-for-profits, corporations, and professional organizations on their investment strategies, as well as day-to-day client servicing. Prior to Leith Wheeler, he was an Investment Management Associate at a boutique hedge fund that specializes in derivative strategies designed to mitigate market volatility and generate additional portfolio yield.

Gary attained a BCom with Honours from the University of British Columbia and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (“CFA”) designation. He currently serves as a Board Member for Pain BC and previously co-chaired the CFA Society Vancouver Mentorship program.