Advisory Board

Dr. Merchant is the Site Chief of the Division of Neonatology at the Ottawa Hospital, Civic Campus and the Medical Director of the Rich Little Special Care Nursery for nearly 25 years. He has dedicated his professional life to the health and well-being of mothers and their infant children. In addition, he has devoted his personal time to truly significant and highly successful volunteer efforts in the community, across the nation and around the globe. He has served the Local Health Network as a thoughtful and collaborative representative of his units and a strong leader in the development of regional and provincial health strategies. In the current challenging COVID-19 Pandemic, he continues his efforts as a leader and a front-line worker in creating the policies and procedures for the safety of mothers and babies and providing a safe and respected environment for all the healthcare workers to provide intensive medical care for the most vulnerable. Dr. Pradeep Merchant has been appointed to the prestigious Order of Canada for his lifetime of achievement and contributions on November 16, 2021. As an active member of the Board of the Ottawa Hospital Foundation, Dr. Merchant has engaged with business leaders and philanthropists to develop a modern and progressive new Civic Campus at the Ottawa Hospital. He was a founding volunteer in establishing the Indo-Canada Ottawa Business Chamber (ICOBC) in the nation’s capital. Wishing to make a global impact, Dr. Merchant joined forces with a Canadian charity and sought to help the village of Kalthana in Rajasthan, India. Dr. Merchant has engaged with business leaders and philanthropists, has arranged fund raising galas raising over two million dollars for various causes. Along with other like-minded Canadians from across the country, he founded the Canada India Centre for Excellence (CICE) in Science, Technology, Trade in Policy at the renowned Carleton University in Ottawa. As founding Chair and member of the Governing Council Board of the Canada India Centre for Excellence, Dr. Merchant played a key role in helping establish student and faculty exchanges among Canadian and Indian universities and Institutes for Technologies.

Mr. Di Santo is a graduate from the University of Toronto in Inorganic Chemistry, graduate from Brock University in Mathematics, and graduate from Brock University College of Education. After graduation he spent a number of years as a staff accountant and auditor at Deloitte – Toronto. He was a founder and president of an OSAP designated private career college for 17 years, after which he went on to manage multiple career college campuses and corporate training institutions in the Toronto area. Peter has accumulated over 35 years’ experience in the career college sector as an owner, a manager and as a Dean. During this time his focus was on developing business processes and procedures, government compliance, developing new diploma program curriculum, and overseeing student recruitment and retention.

Prof. Shashi is the Director of Master of Science in Sustainability Management (MScSM) Program at University of Toronto. Shashi is also Professor of Forest Resource Economics and Management at the Faculty of Forestry in University of Toronto, with emphasis on economics of sustainable forest management. He has published five books and more than 100 refereed journal articles and book chapters. He is leading a Global Research Initiative called New Frontiers of Forest Economics (NEFFE). He is editor-in-chief of a book series, Sustainability, Economics and Natural Resources, published by Springer. He is Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research and Journal of Forest Economics. He has guest edited three special volumes of Forest Policy and Economics. He is a member of the selection committee for the Soren Wibe Prize in Forest Economics. On February 27, 2018, Dr. Shashi Kant was awarded the Order of Ontario, the province's highest honour. The Order is bequeathed by the Lieutenant Governor, and is reserved for those whose contribution has left a lasting legacy in the province, Canada, and beyond. Shashi was awarded the 2016 Life Science Award from the AI Global Media Ltd, International Publishing Group. He is also the recipient of many awards: Queen’s Award for Forestry (2008), the Scientific Achievement Award of Canadian Institute of Forestry (2007), the Scientific Achievement Award of the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) (2005), and the Ontario’s Premier Research Excellence Award (2004) for his research. He has also received International Students Excellence Award, City of Toronto, (2012). Shashi has presented many times at scientific meetings and seminars and conducted workshops all over the world on Sustainable Forest Management, Evolving Paradigms of Forest Management, Natural Resource Conservation, and many related topics.

Mr. Joshi is the founder and CEO of TheAppLabb, a leading product innovation firm focused on strategy, design and development of mobile apps. With global offices in Toronto, New York, Hong Kong, Melbourne and India, TheAppLabb has created over 500 apps for clients ranging from leading enterprises, like Unilever, Samsung and Dell to exciting start-ups. Kundan is also the founder of 15 other companies including StartupLabb, an accelerator for tech start-ups, and InnovationLabb, an R&D lab for emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, IOT, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Blockchain. Joshi is a sought-after motivational speaker, well-known community leader, avid youth mentor, passionate start-up advisor and active advocate for new immigrants. Kundan serves as an advisor on several boards such as Centennial College, George Brown College's Digifest, among others. Joshi was recently awarded the Technology Achievement 2017 Award by Indo-Chamber of Commerce and Innovator of the Year award at Transformation Awards 2016. Kundan has a software engineering degree from Western University.

Mr. Kanetkar holds a BE from VJTI Mumbai in 1985 and M.Tech. from IIT Kanpur 1987. Yashavant is a well-acclaimed author of 43 Programming Languages and Computing Technology books. His book "Let Us C" is perhaps the most popular programming book. So far 13 editions of Let Us C have been published. Many of his books are published in India, USA, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Dubai and China. His books have been translated into Hindi, Gujarati, Chinese, Korean and Japanese languages. Almost all Engineering, MCA and IT students throughout India use his books not only during their graduation but also while pursuing their IT careers. His books are globally acclaimed and are recommended in many Universities of the world. Recently IIT Kanpur honored Yashavant with Most Distinguished Alumnus award for his exemplary contribution and dedication towards IT education and for betterment of society. In recognition of his immense contribution to IT education in India, he has been awarded the Best .NET Technical Contributor and Most Valuable Professional awards by Microsoft for 5 successive years. Yashavant has spoken at and trained students at Davenport University, Michigan, USA. Yashavant’s books and Embedded System Board designed by him has been adopted for teaching students at Netherlands University. Yashavant’s Quest eLearning Videos have been adopted by University of NewYork, Tirana, Albania for teaching their students.

Ms. Sadia is the owner / operator of Little Folks Montessori. Sadia has vast experience as a Montessori educator. After moving to Canada, she acquired the credentials to work in the early childhood education sector. Little Folks Montessori is a product of Sadia’s vision, where children are taught and cared for keeping the Montessori philosophy as guide. Little Folks under the leadership of Sadia and her dedicated staff grew and now operates in Brampton, Mississauga and Guelph. Her guidance as an advisory member is valuable in maintaining the standards of ECA department of the college