Peter Guay
Chair
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
Vice-Chair
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.
Carolyn Della Rosa
Treasurer
Carolyn is a CPA who has worked in the field of professional services for over 17 years in Ontario and Quebec, specializing in the field of Canadian corporate tax compliance and cross-border advisory work. Carolyn is a CPA and a partner in the Business Tax service line at Deloitte LLP.
Carolyn is a strong supporter of community engagement and has volunteered at various organizations throughout NDG, where she lives with her family. Carolyn enjoys spending time hiking, biking and taking in the great outdoors.
Jan MacDonald Burtch
Secretary
Jan Macdonald Burtch started volunteering at The Depot in the spring of 2020. Even with such a short tenure at The Depot pre Covid-19, she knew this was the organization with which she wanted to focus her energy. She is on the Empty Bowls committee for 2020, has volunteered in the kitchen and helped with the Bôite à Lunch program. Jan, a retired project manager with an architectural firm, has served as the Marketing Coordinator for the Ontario Sheep Marketing Association, as a township representative on The Victoria County Board of Education and five community education boards in Vermont. Jan grew up in the Town of Mount Royal where she met her late husband, Peter. After getting married they moved to Ontario and operated a 300-ewe sheep farm near Peterborough for 15 years. After hanging up the wool sheers they moved their family to Vermont in 1995 where Jan started, owned and operated a gourmet chocolate shop in Woodstock, Vermont. She returned to Montreal in 2018 and now lives in Westmount. She is obsessed with playing pickleball, bike riding, getting to know people within her community and exploring the city of Montreal she left decades ago.
Philippe Arnold
Philippe Arnold hails from Vancouver but moved to Montreal in 2001 to study philosophy and law. Phil works as the Vice-Président of Human Resources for a Securitas Aviation, where he strives to maintain harmonious working relations and improve working conditions for all employees. When not at work, he enjoys spending time with his family, both in nature and in the kitchen.
Bernicy Fong
Bernicy Fong is a Product Manager in the Microelectronics group at CMC Electronics Inc. She is responsible for business strategy and growth of a product line which supports many NATO allied countries’ defense and security systems. She has volunteered at Half the Sky Foundation for orphan care in China, the Canadian Chinese Cultural Society of Montreal for scholarship and grants, and UNESCO’s World Heritage Site project in Kaiping China. She is very interested in all projects involving cooking and food. Her family have been partaking in many of The Depot’s programs over the years. She lives in NDG with her husband and two teenage children.
Momen Hassan
Momen Hassan is a Chief Executive officer of Monde de la Mode international with 18 years of experience in leadership. Momen has been volunteering in the NDG council Bienvenue à Notre-Dame-De-Grâce and an active participant in the Depot since moving here in 2013. Furthermore, he worked at Bienvenue à Notre-Dame-De-Grâce as a community worker for one year, and now, he is running a new project called PAPA ET MOI by NDG Council. Finally, he is doing a Master’s degree in Business administration at Fredericton University in global leadership.
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.
Ronald Rudin
Ronald Rudin has come to know NDG well, living here for over forty years, running through its streets for most of that time, and volunteering at the Depot in the kitchen since June 2022. He was a long-time professor of Canadian History at Concordia University, publishing eight books and producing eight documentary films. In his retirement, he continues to do research that touches on the lives of people who often experienced food insecurity.
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.
Quynh Vu
Quynh Vu is a chartered accountant and the Director of Finance at PWL Capital. She started her accounting career as a financial auditor at Richter and has had exposure to a wide variety of industries, including not-for-profit organizations. Drawing on her expertise in finance and her previous career as a journalist, she brings a unique blend of keen attention to detail and a strong commitment to ensuring transparency and accountability in financial matters. She is very passionate about the issues of food safety, racial inequality, financial literacy, and community building. Quynh lives in NDG with her partner and their two daughters.