Lea Parrell: President, Harmony Marketing

Known throughout the industry as an "opportunity broker," Lea Parrell brings over 25 years of diverse experience in every area of marketing. Over those years, Lea has been responsible for creating some of the most successful and unique marketing strategies, partnerships, sponsorship properties, events, broadcasts and cause-related marketing projects in both Canada and abroad.

Lea is currently contributing to the rebranding and marketing of Toronto’s Waterfront, including corporate and media partnerships for its signature event, “Redpath Waterfront Festival/Great Lakes United TALL SHIPS Challenge® 2010.”

In addition, Lea and her company, Harmony Marketing, have been engaged in a wide range of distinctive projects. These include creating strategic marketing plans and overseeing their execution on behalf of the Canadian Association of Community Living; valuating and assessing current inventory and developing structured sponsorship programs for the Toronto Nautical Festival, Santé International Wine Festival and the Jazz Performance & Education Centre (JPEC); creating sponsorship activation programs for Luminato: Toronto Festival of Arts & Creativity; and working on sponsorships sales for The SONY Centre, Dancap Productions, Tourism Whistler and The Apollo Theatre in New York City.

Prior to launching her company, Harmony Marketing, Lea gave over 15 years to various divisions of Special Olympics Canada, including 6 highly productive years as Vice President of Marketing & Development. Her wide ranging roles at Special Olympics Canada allowed her to use her expertise in the areas of marketing, sponsorship, branding, events, communications and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

In 2005, Lea was invited by Special Olympics Incorporated to speak at the organization’s North American Summit in Washington D.C. on the topic of sponsorship, marketing and events. She also traveled to China to present Canada's partnership programs to both the Games Organizing Committee of the 2007 World Summer Games in Shanghai and Special Olympics East Asia in Beijing.

At home, Lea spearheaded the creation and implementation of Special Olympics Canada's National Sponsorship program. As a result of those efforts, Provincial Chapters now receive over $1 million annually directly from the Special Olympics Canada budget – Funds that would not have otherwise been available.

Lea didn’t limit herself to the marketing and sponsorship areas during her tenure at Special Olympics. In the event area, Lea built the Sports Celebrities Festival from a single provincial event to one that now features over 20 annual events across the country. She also acted as Executive Producer for two annual national broadcasts on TSN as well as the annual Sports Celebrities Festival Day in Toronto.

Lea began her marketing career in the television world, producing numerous entertainment and drama shows, many of which were sold in worldwide syndication.

Chris Rotolo: Fundraising & Development Consultant, Harmony Marketing

Chris has over 12 years experience in fundraising and marketing, in a wide range of internal and external positions. He has helped fundraising and development campaigns exceed expectation, in some cases helping charities launch their original fundraising efforts. Chris has worked with teams who have won Bessies, Cannes Lions, Strategy Magazine RSVPs and many other prestigious Canadian and International awards.

The fast-paced, data-intensive environment of fundraising and development has taught Chris how to turn data into a story. Chris is a data expert: determining its value, monitoring its integrity and managing its performance. Chris has planned and managed special projects for several national charities. These projects exceeded goals and significantly impacted future fundraising and marketing plans by first taking an in-depth look at the data.

Chris has focused his passion and experience on helping organizations build positive, long-term relationships with their funders. At Public Outreach Chris co-developed several new direct response fundraising sources and tripled direct response fundraising revenue for the Canadian Cancer Society. At Telecare his team was assigned Sick Kids’ entire fundraising campaign due to the phenomenal success he achieved increasing donor participation, revenue and retention. Most impressively, he led the only third-party team to have handled major gift work for Sick Kids. They were entrusted with this task because of Chris’ focus on cost-effective donor stewardship, including incorporating market research into telefundraising activity to help his clients gain donor insight. A love of the sector makes Chris the perfect ambassador.

Recent community work that Chris has been involved in include membership on the Youth Advisory Committee for Prostate Cancer Canada and the Communications Committee for the Toronto Central Ontario Region of Hemophilia Ontario. Chris is Vice-President of Communications for the Executive MBA Alumni Association at the University of Ottawa and continues to create, revise and teach a range of courses at the Centennial College Centre for Creative Communication.