DeGroote School of Business

Adam Felesky graduated from McMaster with Bachelor’s degrees in both civil engineering and political science and has since built a nearly three-decade career defined by his remarkable success in financing innovative financial technology ventures.

Mr. Felesky is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Portage Ventures where he oversees Portage’s investments in leading fintech and financial services opportunities globally. Concurrently, he serves on the boards of ZILO, LoanStreet Inc., Socotra, TheGuarantors, Alpaca, Boosted.AI, Hellas Direct, Integrate.ai, Borrowell, Clark, KOHO and Grayhawk Investment Strategies, where he is that company’s executive chairman. Previously, he was a member of the Wealthsimple board. Mr. Felesky is also a member of the executive committee with Sagard Holdings, a multi-strategy alternative asset manager.

Mr. Felesky began his career in investment banking at CIBC World Markets before joining JPMorgan’s derivatives group in New York and then Bradbrooke Capital Inc. as a portfolio manager. In 2005, Mr. Felesky founded and began serving as CEO of Horizons Exchange Traded Funds Management Canada Inc. where he pioneered leverage and inverse exchange-traded funds in Canada. The company grew rapidly and sold a decade after its founding in a multibillion-dollar transaction. He was also a director and founding investor of BetaShares Exchange Traded Funds in Australia.

A former member of the Fintech Advisory Committee for the Finance Minister of Ontario and a two-term member of the Ontario Securities Commission, Mr. Felesky has also established a significant legacy as a volunteer and philanthropist. He was a member of the board of directors for the Immigration Access Fund and has made a particularly significant impact in the DeGroote School of Business, where he has contributed vital gifts to the development of the Ron Joyce Centre and the Horizons Exchange Traded Funds Investment Decision Centre (HIDC) as well as to the annual Insight Lecture event and the Adam Felesky MBA Scholarship.

A McMaster Bachelor of Commerce graduate, Mary Lou Maher is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) who recently retired from KPMG Canada where she was global head of inclusion & diversity and Canadian managing partner of quality & risk. Previously, she had been chief human resources officer for KPMG Canada and business unit leader for the consumer market GTA audit practice. She served a seven-year term as chief financial officer of KPMG Canada and then became the firm’s first chief inclusion and diversity officer. She also created KPMG Canada’s National Diversity Council, was the executive sponsor of pride@kpmg and played a key leadership role with the KPMG Foundation for more than a decade.

Beyond KPMG, Ms. Maher was a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario’s governance council and became a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 2009.  An in-demand corporate director, she is a board member with iconic Canadian companies including CIBC, CAE Inc. and Magna International. That commitment to leadership extends to the not-for-profit sector as well where she has been a member of the World Economic Forum focused on Human Rights, chair of the board of Women’s College Hospital and has served on the board of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund.She is currently a member of the Canadian Public Accountability Board, Canada’s indepedent audit regulator. As an engaged Mac alumna, she has served on the University’s Board of Governors, been part of the Alumni Business Advisory Group, participated in Knowledge@DeGroote panel discussions and established the Mary Lou Maher DeGroote Experience Fund.

In 2005, Ms. Maher was named a Trail Blazer for Women Chartered Accountants and inducted into the Hall of Fame for the WXN Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada. She has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Start Proud and the Senior Leadership Award for Diversity from the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion. In 2019, she was inducted into the McMaster Alumni Gallery and received the Wayne C. Fox Distinguished Alumni Award from the DeGroote School of Business.

Ben Villamere is a fifth-year Honours BCom with Internship student at McMaster’s DeGroote School of Business. He served as Human Capital Strategist for Greensuits, DeGroote’s business orientation program, where he led the recruitment and development of over 110 orientation leaders across four years. He also served as a Teaching Assistant for DeGroote Student Experience and Development, supporting and mentoring first-year students through their transition into university. Across both roles, Ben focused on meeting people where they were on their journey and providing them support to grow. Outside the classroom, and through his university experience Ben has continued to volunteer with the Aurora Food Pantry for nearly nine years. He will be pursuing a Master of Science in International Business at Ivey Business School this winter.

Paneet Hans has played an active role in strengthening student engagement and access to opportunity across the McMaster community. As a Game Day Supervisor with McMaster Intramurals, she has helped foster an inclusive and welcoming environment for hundreds of students each week, contributing to one of the university’s most accessible spaces for connection.

Beyond intramurals, Hans played a key role in developing the High School Business Heroes initiative, which connected secondary school students with university mentors and brought financial literacy programming to students across Ontario. The program helped bridge the gap between high school and
university, creating opportunities for students to build confidence and engage with post-secondary pathways.

She also helped strengthen McMaster’s connection to the broader finance community by supporting Women in Capital Markets panels in partnership with VersaFi, connecting students across Canada with women in finance and helping create opportunities for mentorship, industry insight, and professional connection.

 
As the director of McMaster’s IBH program since 2022, Dr. McKnight has revitalized the program by clarifying its pillars of social entrepreneurship, global mindedness, community engagement, and leadership. Under his leadership, the program has exceeded enrollment targets and strengthened its faculty community, promoting collaboration across departments. His development of the *Generative Conversations Card Game* exemplifies his commitment to innovative pedagogical tools that empower students to lead discussions on ethical and societal issues.

Dr. McKnight co-founded the Interdisciplinary Minor in Sustainability, which has inspired similar programs across faculties, fostering cross-campus collaboration. His mentorship extends beyond the classroom, having supported numerous students in their academic and professional journeys, including mentoring McMaster’s first PhD student in Strategic Management.

In addition to his teaching, Dr. McKnight’s research on social innovation, community-engaged learning, and interdisciplinary program development has contributed significantly to McMaster’s educational landscape. His leadership of the Social Impact Hub and his work in social impact education have further solidified his role as a catalyst for change.