Robyn Dalton
Chair
Robyn Dalton first got involved with The Depot as a volunteer for the Emergency Food Baskets program. She was elected to the Board of Directors in 2010, and then elected president of the Board in 2015. Robyn is Executive Director of the CURE Foundation, a national foundation that strives to explore all possible avenues in the fight against breast cancer, and previously worked for Pathways to Education Canada, a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing high school dropout in low income communities. She and her husband live in NDG and have two young boys.
Pierre Zariffa
Treasurer
Lorne Granofsky
Secretary
Having lived in NDG since Peter Mansbridge anchored The National from outside his home on Wilson Avenue during the 1997 Ice Storm, Lorne Granofsky parlayed degrees in Marketing, Communications and Business Administration into a career that spanned community newspapers, media communications, trade associations, franchising, and academic fundraising before becoming Managing Editor for his own company, a trade magazine for the Canadian home entertainment industry. Lorne is a donor to the Depot’s Emergency Food Basket program, and works with young entrepreneurs as a mentor and angel investor.
Susan Clarke
A long-time resident of NDG, Susan Clarke is an experienced businesswoman, having occupied managerial positions at Bell Canada, CBC/Radio-Canada and MTSAllstream. She previously volunteered as a member of the Depot’s Food Needs Committee and is a founding member of The Depot’s board. Susan was elected School Board Commissioner for her area and Montreal city councillor for western NDG, and has also served as Chairman of the Quebec Division of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind as well as on the boards of several NDG community organizations.
Robert Fiori
Robert Fiori is a program manager in the Business Aircraft Division of Bombardier Aerospace and has been with the company since 2010. With a bachelor’s degree in Finance and a Masters of Business Administration degree from the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University, Robert was selected to represent the school at their 2012 business case competition. Robert joined the board of the The Depot in 2012 as treasurer of the Executive Committee and has been an active member of the Food Drive and Human Resources Committees over the past 4 years. He lives in NDG with his wife and two young sons.
Peter Guay
Peter Guay is an active member of the Montreal community. He currently serves on the board of the Loyola High School Foundation, and previously was a founding member of the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation’s Emerging Leaders Committee, and President of the Montreal branch of the Canadian International Council. Peter has 14 years of experience as a Portfolio Manager and Financial Planner at PWL Capital, and enjoys helping clients optimize their investments and organize their financial lives. On weekends, Peter can be often be found in one of NDG’s many parks, playing with his wife and two young kids.
Susan Kessler
Susie Kessler has been volunteering at The Depot for the last 3 years, mostly at intake and occasionally cooking up a storm in the kitchen. It is the best part of her week. She is a Montreal native who was a Senior Marketing Executive at a Fortune 500 Cosmetics company for 34 years, and has lived and worked in numerous international locations including Canada, South Africa, China, Poland, the Philippines and New York City. Having been an early retiree for the past 4 years, she now enjoys being a new grandmother along with nurturing a life-long passion for cooking and for good food.
Naomi Kogan
Naomi Kogan has lived in NDG for more than 30 years. In her 40 years as a social worker she was guided by the idea that people’s inherent resourcefulness and resilience enables them to face adversity, so she focussed on building clients’ strengths, while helping to provide needed services. In retirement she volunteers for the International Community Action Network at McGill, and is on the Board New Hope Seniors’ Centre. She has been a board member of the Depot for the past two years and enjoys volunteering for a variety of Depot projects.
Mina La Rocca
Mina La Rocca is a chartered accountant and Chief Strategy Officer at Milgram, a logistics company that ranks among Canada’s Best Managed companies. Prior to joining Milgram, Mina worked at Richter as a business management expert for North America. Mina joined the board of directors of The Depot in 2013 and has taken on a number of key responsibilities. For Mina, volunteering for The Depot is a family affair, as she and her husband and two children make it a tradition to take part in our annual Food Drive, collecting food door to door in NDG.
Rachel H. Renaud
Rachel Renaud is President of the Roasters Foundation. Montreal born and raised, fully bilingual, she is dedicated to educating and empowering individuals, businesses and government agencies on the importance of charitable giving. She advises in the not for profit sector at both the organizational and board levels, is an active member of several associations, and over the last nineteen years has served on numerous not for profit boards dedicated to health and education. Rachel’s personal mission of UNITING people to share, exchange and grow is evident in every project in which she is involved.
Peter Riddell
Peter Riddell is a corporate lawyer and a partner in the Montreal business law group of Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP (formerly Ogilvy Renault), one of Canada’s largest and most prominent law firms. He has also practiced in Toronto and New York. Peter and other members of his firm have assisted The Depot on a pro bono basis with its partnership with Action Communiterre and the recently announced partnership with Community Food Centres Canada.
Philippa Woolley
Philippa Woolley grew up on a farm in the beautiful Peace River Country in Northern B.C. Her involvement with urban agriculture started in the 1990’s in Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY where she was a member of a Community Garden. In 2005, she moved to NDG and began supporting the NDG Food Depot. She later began gardening with Action Communiterre and joined the Board in 2013, becoming a Depot board member when the organizations merged. A yoga teacher, dancer and choreographer, Philippa is the founder and owner of Anakkara Summer Camp in NDG. She works as a kindergarten teacher at Ecole Rudolf Steiner in NDG.
Lynda Porter
Immediate past president
Lynda Porter started volunteering at the Depot in 2000; doing deliveries and organizing the Christmas food drive, which she ran for over 15 years. She joined the Food Needs Committee the following year, and then a task force that was mandated by the NDG Community Council to examine the pros and cons of making the Depot a separate organization. In 2003 the Depot became its own entity and she served as Secretary on the Board, until taking over as President in 2008. She served as President until 2014. She continues to sit on the board as Past-President.