CIC Waterloo Branch Leadership Biographies

Laszlo Sarkany
President
Laszlo attained a Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Western University where he focused on the work of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). His research interests deal with international criminal justice, the nexus between justice and politics in regards to the work of the Court, and the Court’s institutional design. Laszlo teaches at King’s University College, the University of Waterloo, and at the main and Brantford campuses of Wilfrid Laurier University, and has taught courses in political science, social justice and peace, environment and business, sustainability management, human rights and human diversity, and criminology. He attended professional development courses in mass atrocity prevention offered at Concordia University in Montreal, and in social science methodology offered at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and at the University of Vienna in Austria.
Laszlo is a member of delegation of ‘No Peace Without Justice’ – an nongovernmental organization registered with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations – during the annual Assembly of States Parties of the International Criminal Court.
Outside of the academe, Laszlo works at the YMCAs of Cambridge and Kitchener-Waterloo where he co-leads a year-long program on Youth Leadership Development, and will coordinate the Leaders-In-Action program for the local YMCA during the summer of 2019.
If not teaching, researching or leading youth and teens, Laszlo may be found serving as a board member of Southwest Soccer, ‘managing conflict’ on the soccer field as a match official, or assessing soccer match official performance as an assessor accredited with Ontario Soccer.

John Tennant
Vice President
John Tennant heads his own strategic consulting firm, W2N2 Partnership, which focuses on economic development, innovation, and international trade, investment and economic policies. He is also a Co-Founder and Partner in the Global Investment Attraction Group. From 2002 through 2008, John was CEO of Canada’s Technology Triangle Inc. (CTT Inc.) Earlier, John served in Canada’s foreign service. His career culminated as Canadian Consul General in the US Mid-West based in Detroit (1998 to 2002). Earlier assignments were in New York, Chicago, Tokyo (twice), West Africa, Central America, the Eastern Caribbean and Australia. John also served in Ottawa as Director General for Asia Pacific.
Keenly interested in Canada’s role in the world, John has been a CIC member since his return to Canada in 2002. During 2009 and 2010, John served as Special Advisor on the African Initiative at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

Melissa Knox
Secretary
Melissa N. Knox is a practising civil litigation lawyer, specializing in the areas of employment, human rights, personal injury, and sports law.
As a student-athlete, Melissa majored in Human Rights and Law at Carleton University while playing varsity soccer, achieving Academic-All Canadian status each year of study and graduating with the Highest Honours distinction.
Melissa obtained her juris doctor from Windsor University, Faculty of Law and was called to the Ontario bar in 2012. Subsequently, Melissa completed a Master’s degree in International Sports Law in Spain and thereafter spent time working in the field of international sports arbitration in Switzerland.
Melissa is particularly interested in matters of public international law and enjoys anything and everything related to football (soccer).
Melissa enjoys being actively involved in the community and contributed to the revival of the current CIC Waterloo Branch.

Basheer Habib
Executive Member-At-Large
Basheer Habib is an Organizational Consultant with more than 30 years’ experience working with private and international civil society organizations, in the areas of Business Performance Optimization and Capacity Building.
He has Masters degrees in Management and Organizational Development & Consultancy and a Post Graduate Certificate in Cross-Sector Partnerships.
In 2017, he received the Mayor’s City Builder Award from the City of Kitchener .

Daniel Safayeni
Daniel Safayeni is Director, Policy at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce (OCC) where he is responsible for leading the Ontario Economic Report and managing a portfolio that covers a broad range of public policy issues. Prior to joining the OCC in 2018, Daniel held senior-level positions at the U.S. Department of State and the C.D. Howe Institute. He holds a Master of International Public Policy degree from the Balsillie School of International Affairs and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Ray Simonson
Mr. Simonson is an experienced tech CEO and start-up founder. He has extensive experience with large capital project management and construction software, building high performing teams, start-ups, fund raising, and selling enterprise software internationally.
He led the October 2010 MBO of Coreworx, closed the deal in three weeks with the help of his strong management team. They grew revenue by 4 times over 3 years despite running with very little operating capital.
He has served on and both private and public boards

Dana Fox
Dana Fox is Vice President Global Enterprise Sales at Athena Software responsible for delighted clients and global business development. Athena’s technology provides human service organizations with a mobile, integrated case management solution.
Dana Fox is also the founder of the Institute for Smarter Government using big data and predictive and prescriptive analytics to help human service organizations (health, social services, education and justice) create transformational strategies that deliver better outcomes for less. Founder and author of Export Ignition and Mentorship with applied intelligence using predictive and prescriptive analytics for SME’s worldwide.
A TEDxUW speaker on how Smart Government can shift from transactional to transformational services, Dana was recently asked to speak at the European Identity Conference 2019 in Munich Germany on GDPR risks and opportunities, anonymisation and pseudonymisation of data.
Dana was the founder and visionary of ClevrU, an online education platform. He was an Adjunct Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in strategic business development. Dana is an advisory board member at the Centre for Global Enterprise: Schulich School of Business and member of the Canadian International Council.