From June 7th-11th, UCFB and GIS will be hosting the Virtual Toronto Global Sports Summit and giving students, alumni and staff the chance to hear from some of the leading names in Canadian sport.
From ice hockey to soccer to basketball, Toronto is home to North American sporting instititions such as NBA’s Raptors, MLS’ Toronto FC and NHL’s Maple Leafs. Keep on reading to find out who’ll be talking and what to expect from day four of the summit...
Social Issues in Sport
Justin Morrow – Toronto FC player and Executive Director of Black Players for Change
Morrow was originally selected in the second-round of the 2010 MLS SuperDraft (28th overall) and made 73 appearances, scoring two goals and added one assist for the Earthquakes.
Morrow has earned one cap for the United States Men’s National team. The appearance came during a friendly against Canada in January, 2013. Morrow was also an unused substitute for the U.S. National team during a pair of FIFA World Cup qualifying matches against Costa Rica, and Mexico in March of this year.
Morrow spent his entire collegiate career at the University of Notre Dame. In four seasons, he appeared in 89 matches for the Fighting Irish, scoring seven goals and added seven assists. He was named to the All-Big East second team in 2009 and made four NCAA Tournament appearances during his time at Notre Dame.
Morrow is the executive director of Black Players for Change,[1] which in 2020 won the MLS Humanitarian of the Year Award.
Media, Mental Health and Transitioning from Off the Ice
Carlo Colaiacovo – former Toronto Maple Leaf player and current sports radio personality
Born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Carlo Colaiacovo began his NHL career with the Toronto Maple Leafs after being selected by the Blue & White in the 1st round (17th overall) in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.
Colaiacovo would make his professional debut with the Maple Leafs early in the 2002-03 season and would pick up his first assist in his first NHL game on October 23, 2002 vs the Florida Panthers on a goal scored by Nik Antropov.
The defenseman struggled with injuries over the next few seasons and would spend his time split between Toronto and St. John’s of the American Hockey League (AHL) before taking a more permanent role on the NHL blueline during the 2006-07 season. After 111 total games with Toronto over parts of six seasons, Colaiacovo was traded along with Alexander Steen to the St. Louis Blues for Lee Stempniak early in the 2008-09 season.
Colaiacovo would spend the next four seasons in St. Louis and set a career high in points (32) during the 2008-09 season. He would then sign with the Detroit Red Wings as a free agent prior to the 2012-13 season but would return to St. Louis as a free agent a year later after an injury plagued season kept him out of all but six games played with the Red Wings and two games played with the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL.
After the 2013-14 season, he would sign on with the Philadelphia Flyers for the 2014-15 season and the Buffalo Sabres for the 2015-16 season before moving overseas and continuing his career with the Manheim Eagles of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL).
At the conclusion of the 2017-18 season, Colaiacovo would hang up his skates and moved back to Toronto to begin his post-playing career with TSN Radio and now hosts a morning show, First Up, every weekday morning.
In 470 career NHL games with the Leafs, Blues, Red Wings, Flyers and Sabres, Colaiacovo recorded 34 goals, 123 assists, 157 points and 231 penalty minutes.
On the international level, Colaiacovo enjoyed some great success representing his country. He won a silver medal with Team Canada at the 2002 U20 World Junior Championships, a silver medal and a first team all-star award at the 2003 U20 World Junior Championships, was a member of Team Canada’s 2011 World Championships team and won the Spengler Cup with Team Canada during the 2012-13 NHL lockout season.
Carlo is now the co-host of Toronto sports radio’s show First Up with Michael Landsberg and Carlo Colaiacovo every weekday on TSN 1050.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion – Panel Discussion
Teri Dennis-Davies – Senior Vice President, People & Inclusion, MLSE
Teri Dennis-Davies is the Senior Vice President, People & Inclusion at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE). As a member of MLSE’s Executive Leadership Team, Dennis-Davies portfolio includes oversight of Talent Strategy, Total Rewards, Learning & Development, Internal Communications, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Workforce Management and Scheduling and Office Services. She joined the organization on October 19, 2020.
Dennis-Davies is a seasoned executive with more than 20 years of experience in senior leadership roles in human resources, which included diversity, inclusion, culture and employee advocacy.
Dennis-Davies joins MLSE from Royal Bank of Canada where she served 14 years for the company in a variety of senior roles in the Caribbean and Canada, most recently as Vice President, Employee Relations. She is widely respected within the Bank as an active champion and advocate on matters of diversity and inclusion. At RBC, Dennis-Davies led a global employee relations team responsible for managing workplace issues including diversity, inclusivity and respect, discrimination, harassment, health and safety, accommodations and performance management, while also advancing the company’s conduct and risk culture.
During her tenure at RBC, Dennis-Davies launched and chaired the functional Diversity Leadership Council for Human Resources, Corporate Communications, Brand and the Employee Ombudsman where she developed a diversity strategy focused on driving awareness, representation and engagement using metrics and data to measure and report on progress.
Prior to RBC, Dennis-Davies held senior roles in a number of diverse organizations in the USA and the Caribbean including Hyatt Hotels, Merrill Communications, LLC, Fortis Fund Services, and KPMG.
Justin Bobb – Director, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion – Team Strategy
Bobb supports the Maple Leafs, as well as a number of other MLSE teams, in developing and executing on their Equity, Diversity and Inclusion strategies. With the Maple Leafs, Bobb supports the players and advancing the club's work, and impact in the community, in this important area. He brought years of frontline experience in the community.
Bobb took on this new role after serving as Director, Sport and Operations for MLSE LaunchPad since 2016 where he has assisted in bridging the gap, using sport as a tool of engagement for communities facing barriers.
In addition to his leadership experience within the not-for-profit sector for organizations including Toronto Community Housing Corporation, Fillactive/FitSpirit and Toronto Sport Council, he currently holds Board of Directors roles for Canada's National Ballet School and the Coaches Association of Ontario as well as strategic committee roles with City of Toronto Sport Reference Group, the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) and Canadian Paralympic Committee's Ontario Parasport Collective.
Roisin Wood – former CEO of Kick It Out
Roisin has recently finished her role as CEO at Kick It Out after nearly 10 years. During that time she offered strategic direction and leadership to the organisation. She worked closely with the Board of Trustees and was responsible for the programme delivery, campaigning activities and the financial and personnel management of the organisation. A key aspect of her role was to develop and manage stakeholder relations across the government, charity, football, corporate and community sectors.
Throughout the last 15 years and currently Roisin has also served in the Northern Ireland Judiciary Service as a Lay Magistrate specialising in Youth and Family law.
Working in the Canadian Sports Industry
Jordan Clements, UCFB alumnus and founder of Revolution Soccer
Jordan studied BA (Hons) International Football Business at UCFB Wembley and initially wanted to become a football agent. However, following several months of networking he decided to start Revolution Soccer Canada, with the aim being to bridge the gap in coaching between England and North America. In the same month as setting up Revolution, Jordan signed his first deal with a soccer club in Canada for the summer. After his second year at UCFB Jordan quadrupled the number of players at Revolution to around 1,500 per week and had five coaches working for him. Jordan moved to Canada full-time after graduating from UCFB.
Revolution currently sees over 4,000 different players per week and are the leading private coaching service in Niagara Falls, Canada. In 2020/2021 they continued a number of partnerships with local communities and secured a deal with one of the leading sports apparel in the world. Revolution have eight full time staff members and over 15 casual staff member. Jordan’s ambition is to be the largest private coaching company in Canada by 2024, and to hold a market leading position going into the 2026 World Cup which will be hosted in Canada, the US and Mexico.
