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People & Companies News for Week Ending July 4, 2025
- David Blyth has joined GWL Realty Advisors as vice-president of corporate development and investor relations. Blyth brings more than 20 years of experience with expertise in institutional sales, relationship management, and investor engagement to Toronto-based GWLRA. The company said Blyth is taking on a newly developed role and will lead lead its capital-raising and client-servicing efforts, support the development of new product offerings, and help deepen client relationships—starting with the GWLRA Residential Value Fund.
- GWLRA has also appointed Namit Bhasvar as vice-president of residential leasing and marketing. He has 18 years of experience in real estate and hospitality and is known for building strong teams, fostering partnerships, and driving results through collaboration and innovation.
He will lead GWLRA’s residential leasing and marketing strategies, supporting the company’s vision for growth and excellence in the multi-residential space.
- Ravelin Properties REIT has appointed Calvin Younger as chair of its board. Meanwhile, George Armoyan as resigned as board chair but will continue to serve as a member. Armoyan is the majority owner of the REIT through his family-owned firm G2S2 Capital. Younger had been a member of the board since March. He has held real estate-related senior executive roles with CIBC, Ernst & Young and a subsidiary and Deutsche Bank Canada. He is also an executive-in-residence and adjunct professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.
- Mattamy Homes CEO Peter Gilgan has made a record $60-million to St. Joseph Health Centre. The funds will be used to fund a new patient tower at the hospital in Gilgan’s name. Gilgan was born in St. Joseph’s and has made previous contributions worth millions of dollars. The new tower’s construction is slated to start in 2028.
- LaPrairie Group has promoted Cliff LaPrairie to CEO. He joined the firm 17 years ago and has spent the past 12 years as a board director and chief operating officer for the Calgary-based company’s mining and industrial-minerals businesses. Family-owned LaPrairie provides full-service crane and rigging, heavy hauling, bulk-materials hauling, light- and heavy-duty fleet maintenance, highway and bridge maintenance, civil infrastructure construction, ready-mix concrete and aggregate products, and industrial mineral mining and distribution services to customers across Western Canada and the U.S. Northeast.
- Avison Young Controller Jennifer Kosloski is the new president-elect for Toronto CREW. Vera Gisarov, founder and principal of Studio Athena was elected as this year’s president.
- Avison Young has appointed Hadley Duncan as a principal and senior director of the valuation and advisory services team in Toronto. He will lead a team specializing in industrial, office and land valuations. He will focus on the Greater Toronto Area but also support clients across Ontario.
- Dan Wolfrom, the founder of Wolfrom Engineering, has retired. Wolfrom contributed significantly to Canadian engineering during his career that spanned more than four decades, furthering the development of skylines and communities across Canada, said the company. He became known as “the architect’s engineer,” enhancing the building-design process. He launched the Winnipeg-based structural-engineering firm in 1981.
- JLL has launched its 2025 campaign with Breakfast Club of Canada and reached a fundraising milestone to support school breakfast programs across Canada. JLL and Breakfast Club are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their partnership.
- Alex Petre has been promoted to CEO of Deep Sky. Petre moved up from her previous position of chief operating officer. She replaces the highly praised Damien Steel who stepped down for personal reasons. Montreal-based Deep Sky is developing a series of carbon-removal facilities.
- JLL has expanded its valuation and risk advisory practice. Charles-André Latour and Sébastien Samuel were both appointed as vice-presidents of Canadian valuation and risk advisory. Latour has more than 20 years of experience in the field, while Samuel has 15.
- Nicola Real Estate‘s Lightworks office building in Vancouver has garnered the Outstanding Building of the Year award from BOMA BC. Lightworks won in the Office Under 100,000 Square Feet category.
- Benjamin Shinewald, president and CEO of BOMA Canada has been awarded the prestigious King Charles III Coronation Medal. He was nominated by the Rick Hansen Foundation. The honour recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to Canada.
- JLL has appointed Scott Barras to oversee business operations and drive growth as the firm’s Work Dynamics group lead. Barras will help clients primarily based and operating in Canada drive maximum value from their real estate portfolios. He has 18 years of experience in corporate real estate and has focused recently on with a recent focus on workplace strategy, portfolio transformation and project management across Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
- Clark Wilson has promoted Pavneet Grewal to associate with in the law firm’s real estate group. The promotion comes after she completed her commitments as an articling student. Her practice encompasses a wide range of commercial real estate and corporate legal matters, including residential, retail, office, industrial, hotel, and mixed-use development.
- Jamie Read has been promoted to vice-president of people and culture at Townline Homes. She previously served as director of people and culture.
- Avison Young Principal Jeff Flemington has completed his 4,340-kilometre cycling journey along the largely unpaved Great Divide Mountain Bike Route to Banff, Alta., in support of cancer research. Flemington has raised more than $63,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society, exceeding his original goal. He cycled to Banff from New Mexico. The five-week solo journey, dubbed Project 55 paid tribute to Flemington’s colleagues, Sarah Campbell and Kiana Kasaei, and their personal battles with cancer. His initial goal was to raise $55,000 to support research into brain cancer and breast cancer, the respective diagnoses that have affected Kasaei and Campbell. The fundraising project has secured a 50% matching program through Toronto’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute. People wishing to contribute funds can donate through the Project 55 website.
- Phil Brown has joined XXIII Capital as chief operating officer. Brown brings about two decades of Canadian and U.S. commercial real estate industry experience to the firm.
- Decisive Dividend Corporation has appointed Chris Goodchild as chief operating officer. Goodchild moved to the company from Magna International, where he most recently served as general manager. Decisive Dividend focuses on acquisitions of manufacturing companies and their real estate assets.
- Iain Stewart will retire from his position as president and CEO of Genesis Land Development on June 30. He will be succeeded by Parveshindera Sidhu. Stewart was appointed president and CEO in 2018. He joined the Calgary-based company’s board in 2013 and will continue to sit on it. Sidhu has been with Genesis since 2005, taking on increasingly senior roles. He most recently served as president and chief operating officer.
- John Bosco-Agbasi has been appointed as Fengate Real Estate‘s managing director. He will oversee Toronto-based Fengate’s commercial and residential property portfolios. Bosco-Agbasi moved to Fengate from Carttera, where he served as director of asset management.
- RBC Capital Markets has promoted Yasmin Nassar to managing director and COO of global research. She has been with the company for two decades.
- Amanda Feduc has been named managing director of Colliers‘ North York district office in Toronto. She has returned to the company, where she began her commercial real estate career in 2011 before moving to CBRE. In her latest role at CBRE, she served as managing director for Southern Ontario.
- Altus Group has elevated Heather Globush to associate director. She has served as a senior project manager for the past three years.
- Evan French has joined Marcon as director of development after three years at Wesgroup, where he was a senior development manager. Before joining Wesgroup, he was a planner with Sherman Brown.
- Realstar has appointed Randy Hoffman as its new CEO. Hoffman moved to Realstar from Oxford Properties, where he most recently served as the head of the company’s U.S. business. He spent about two decades at Oxford, starting as an investment analyst and advancing to increasingly senior executive positions. Realstar invests in multi-residential, hospitality and alternative assets.
- Anthem Properties has promoted Jacqueline Lau to marketing director. She served as the company’s senior marketing manager for the past six years. In another move, Anthem promoted Charmaine Liang to senior manager of investment. She previously served an investment manager and real estate acquisitions analyst with the firm.
- Hyvve Canada has appointed Saira Somani as the company’s fractional CFO. She previously served as director of finance and controller at Kenota Health. Before moving to Kenota, she spent about a decade with TD in assistant vice-president and senior manager roles.
- Heather Murphy has joined Kingsett Capital as director of real estate asset management. She moved to Kingsett from the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario, where she held analyst positions.
- Starlight Investments served as the presenting sponsor for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation‘s Journey to Conquer Cancer for the fourth consecutive year. The event, held Sunday, June 15 at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, invited participants to walk or run distances of 1 km, 3 km, or 5 km to raise funds for cancer research at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Starlight has been a dedicated partner of this initiative for over a decade, contributing more than $250,000 through contributing more than $250,000 through employee participation/fundraising, in addition to annual sponsorships. Marlee Kohn, Starlight’s vice-president of ESG, told Connect that this year’s event exceeded its fundraising goal with donations from the company’s employees playing a large part.
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