University of Guelph-Humber

Dr. Martha Batiz has taught at the University of Guelph-Humber since 2018. She is an award-winning writer whose creative work has been published not only in Mexico and Canada, but in the United States, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Peru, Spain, Ireland, and England. Her short-story collection Plaza Requiem: Stories at the Edge of Ordinary Lives won the 2018 International Latino Book Award in the category of Best Popular Fiction in English. Her novella “Boca de lobo” won the Casa de Teatro International Award and is available in English as “Damiana’s Reprieve” and in French as “La Gueule Du Loup.” In 2014, Dr. Batiz was featured in Latinos Magazine among the Top Ten Most Successful Mexicans in Canada. In 2015, the Hispanic-Canadian Congress and the Hispanic Business Alliance chose her as one of the Top Ten Most Influential Hispanic-Canadians.

David Birkett has been teaching in the business program at the University of Guelph-Humber for twelve years. Since 2004, Birkett has been a financial consultant to the Toronto Region Board of Trade, preparing financial forecasts and funding options for major infrastructure projects. His main non-academic work experience was as Director of Budgets and Finance at the Regional Municipality of Halton from 1981 to 2004. He was directly responsible for Operating Budgets ($450m) and Capital Budgets and Forecasts ($1.1 b). He also managed an actively traded bond fund ($500m), maintained Halton’s AAA credit rating, managed bond issuance and developed strategies to finance development projects. Prior to this, Birkett was employed in the private sector as a Senior Investment Analyst at Sun Life, where he assessed the credit position of Canadian province and their major crown utilities. His professional affiliations include the Past Chairman of the Municipal Finance Officers Association of Ontario and member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants–Public Sector Accounting Liabilities Task Force.