Industry Breakfast & ISSA Hygieia Network Panel Discussion

Giselle Chartrand is the president of Balpex Inc., a not-for-profit co-operative group serving B2B distribution for the cleaning and hygiene, food packaging, and industrial packaging markets. Under Giselle’s leadership Balpex has strived to be an indispensable business partner to all of its stakeholders.

Before being named Balpex president in April 2013, Giselle was the Canadian marketing manager at Kimberly Clark professional. In her 13 years at Kimberly Clark, she also worked as a regional manager, national account manager and capabilities development. Giselle played a vital role in the development of strategic distribution relationships in central and eastern Canada.

Candace Elford is Executive Vice President of Procurement & Risk Management at Scandinavian Building Services Ltd., a family-owned commercial cleaning and maintenance enterprise based in Alberta’s capital. Starting as a small janitorial company in Edmonton, AB, in 1956. Today, Scandinavian is a second-generation family-owned and operated business. Candace oversees all procurement, insurance, and bonds, along with leading a team responsible for investigating all claim submissions nationally. Providing an innovative approach to the role of Scandinavian’s EVP of Procurement, Candace is well-versed in Account Management, sales, and procurement in both service and manufacturing industries. With a focus on aligning best practices of internal policies and procedures, Candace is dedicated to mitigating risks and delivering fair outcomes for both her customers and company.

Judy Gillies, President & Founder of The Surge Group Inc., has worked in the janitorial and building services industry for more than 15 years, and thrives in a changing environment. Known for her passion and focus, Judy is a highly motivated, results-driven professional, offering proven skills with a “get-it-done” attitude and record for helping her clients achieve results.

When Facility Management Professionals began reaching out to Judy to find solutions to challenges with their janitorial programs, she recognized her calling as a cleaning consultant and subsequently founded “The Surge Group Inc.” a national janitorial consulting company to accommodate this growing need, and address the radical changes she saw in the industry.

Following her MBA, Manon Larose, joined the family business founded in 1954 by her father and grandfather – Larose et Fils Ltée. – a distributor and manufacturer of cleaning chemicals. Although that was not her career plan at the time, Manon soon discovered an affinity for the people, and the scope and importance of the jansan industry. A strong believer in growth through collaboration with peers, she enjoys every opportunity to share ideas and shape her vision through exchanges with other entrepreneurs, customers, partners and industry leaders. She has been actively engaged in various organizations, namely as president of then CSSA’s Quebec Chapter for over 10 years. She was also the first woman to be elected as Canadian Director on the ISSA Board. Manon is currently president of ADICQ, an association devoted to the development of Quebec’s chemical sector. She is also serving on the Balpex board of directors. Above all, Manon finds joy and inspiration with her team members and many long-term employees, and enjoys sharing her passion with new talent.

Armanda Sousa started her career with Modern Building Cleaning as a cleaner in 1982. Today, with more than 41 years in the cleaning industry and working for several cleaning companies during that time, she is currently Director of Operations for Bee-Clean Building Maintenance at Billy Bishop Airport.

Armanda has been tasked with delivering results when it comes to high performance, excellent customer service and client relations. With her refined skill-set, she brings customer-centric mindfulness that enables firms to innovate and thrive in the cleaning industry and gain the trust of customers, employees and employers. In fact, Billy Bishop Airport was recently ranked among the Best Airports under five million passengers category in the Best Regional Airports (North America) category by Skytrax World Airport Awards for eight years now.

Brock Tully has led Bunzl Canada’s cleaning and hygiene business since 2017, operationally and strategically aligning seven acquired businesses to create Canada’s largest cleaning and hygiene specialist supplier.  Brock completed a master’s degree in accounting at the University of Waterloo in 2000. He then joined KPMG’s financial institutions practice in downtown Toronto, where his client base included a broad spectrum of insurance, banking and brokerage institutions.  In 2002, Brock left the public accounting field and spent the next six years facilitating M&A transactions with Pitney Bowes, VicWest and Grand & Toy.

In 2010, he joined Bunzl Canada as vice president of finance, where he actively participated in the acquisition and integration of 13 businesses while overseeing all finance and accounting activities across Canada.  In 2017, Brock left his financial leadership role and moved into commercial business leadership as vice president, Bunzl Cleaning & Hygiene.  Brock holds both CPA (2002) and CFA (2006) designations.