About Us

Ann’s consulting background includes over 30 years of managing large projects across various industries ranging from health services, banking, pension & investment management, education, research & development, manufacturing, distribution, transportation, public utilities, food, property development & management, publishing, human resources, and not-for-profits and telecommunications. Ann’s global business continuity, emergency management, and pandemic planning experience with people, culture, environments and risks includes working with teams in numerous countries across Europe and Asia, Canada, USA, Australia, Mexico, Brazil and The Bahamas. Ann worked as the pandemic planning consultant to numerous critical infrastructure providers, all levels of government and type of industry and managed actual incidents through SARS and H1N1 internationally supporting numerous clients.

Ann was a member of the Disaster Recovery Institute Canada’s Board for 6 years, was a President and past President of the Toronto Disaster Recovery Information Exchange for many years and was a member of the Advisory Board to the World Conference on Disaster Management. Ann chaired the Emergency Management and Public Safety Institute at Centennial College (guiding them through the development of a degree program in Emergency Management and Business Continuity) and the Great Toronto Incident Management Exercise (GTIME). Ann also assisted George Brown College in development of their IT Network and Systems Security Program.

Ann works with large global corporations, all levels of government, small businesses, critical infrastructure, numerous business sectors, and charitable organizations on business continuity, emergency planning, and IT DR plans.

Ann Wyganowski is an instructor for DRI Canada.

The DRI CANADA Builder award was presented to Ann for her significant contribution to the development and growth of DRI CANADA

Diana Mann is an accomplished consultant and project management resource with 20 years of business experience. She thrives on helping clients to meet their continuity planning requirements in the most effective manner, listening and leveraging her experience to deliver optimum client experience. As a consultant, she has provided business process analysis and recovery, risk assessment, business continuity management, IT disaster recovery, and systems implementations.

Currently, Diana consults on Business Continuity and Emergency Management with particular attention to business process and disaster recovery, emergency procedures, and infectious disease planning.  She has assessed disaster recovery capabilities and risk mitigation and prevention strategies in compliance with DRII best practices.

She has led numerous workshops and plan exercises, as well as individual information sessions to complete Business Impact Analysis and Business Continuity Plans.  She has also worked with a large telecommunications service provider on DR plan development for critical Central Offices and Data Centers.

Earlier in her career, project management responsibilities spanned finance, supply chain management, and human resources systems. She held progressively senior roles, successfully melding understanding of technology applications with business requirements. She has a detailed understanding of IT environments, transaction processing, associated business processes, compliance requirements, and continuity aspects.

Diana consults and supports a wide variety of assignments with clients over both the public and private sector both in a hands-on role and as a senior project manager.  She has also been an active volunteer with Disaster Recovery Information Exchange Toronto and GTIME initiatives.

Joe has over 25 years of experience in Business Continuity/Resiliency program planning, training, auditing, and exercise. Joe’s background was initially in IT management including system programming, application maintenance and testing, developing comprehensive IT DR program and plan development and testing. Joe has senior level knowledge, experience and thought leadership in Business Continuity/Resiliency Management, Crisis Management, IT Disaster Recovery, Risk Assessment, Resiliency strategies, Plan development and implementation, training, exercise and program/plan maintenance. Joe has provided consulting services to multiple industries such as financial services, legal, manufacturing, retail, mining, health services, realty and not-for-profits.

Recently, Joe has acquired knowledge and experience in developing, training and exercising a response plan for major public library to deal with ransomware, and other cyber breaches; an area of great concern currently to many organizations.

Joe Senior level consultant in the GTS Division Commercial BCM consulting practice providing consulting services to clients in various industry sectors. He was a dedicated IT DR Program Manager and trusted advisor to a major financial services/insurance organization.  During his time with IBM, Joe also was an Agile coach and leader/facilitator for Enterprise Design Thinking.

Joe was an Assistant Vice President at Marsh Risk Consulting – Marsh Canada. There he worked in the Business Continuity Consulting practice within the Marsh Risk Consulting division of Marsh Canada. Provided senior level consulting services in Business Continuity planning, auditing, training and exercising, IT Disaster Recovery planning and testing, Crisis Management planning, communications and exercising, providing these services to multiple medium to large organizations. Joe developed a standards-based (ANSI, ITIL, COBIT) IT DR program maturity assessment tool for use in assessing clients IT Disaster Recovery Programs. Used this tool on a large financial services support company, resulting in an IT DR Maturity assessment report that was extremely well received by the client. He also developed best practices templates for BCP and IT DR plan development based on DRII, BCI professional practices and BS2599, ANSI, COBIT, ISO 22301 and CSA 1600 standards.

Joe has professional certifications: Certified Business Continuity Planner (CBCP), and Certified Business Continuity Auditor (CBCA), through the Disaster Recovery Institute Canada.

Joe is currently President of the Resiliency Information Exchange (formerly the Disaster Recovery Information Exchange) – Toronto Chapter. Joe has led the other DRIE chapters across Canada into adopting a resiliency based title, mandate and re-branding to bring the associations in line with where the profession has been heading.

Fred is a 32-year IT Operations veteran, Business Continuity (BCP) and Disaster Recovery (DR) consultant. Fred is well-versed in current DR strategies and technologies including cloud-based technology. In his 12 years as Manager of IT Contingency Planning with Canadian Pacific Railway, Fred shifted DR planning from a part time, back-room activity to a fully funded, ITIL-guided, integral Service Delivery function.

He is a strong proponent of the People / Process / Technology mind-set, incorporating it into his methods as he conducts Business Impact Analysis and develops business continuity and IT DR plans and exercises. With more than 100 Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan exercises to his credit, Fred’s position is “effective exercises do not just happen, they are orchestrated” and they have clear objectives. Great exercises are plausible, engage the participants and push them and their plans to the limit.

Seeing business continuity and disaster recovery plans as living entities, Fred ties the regular exercising of those plans to identification of changing business needs, processes and enabling technologies, resulting in plans that evolve, improve and keep pace with the business.

For the last 14 years, as a consultant Fred has developed Business Continuity / Disaster Recovery Plans in many fields including Banking, Education, Government, Health Care, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Transportation, and Utilities.

Leo is a highly skilled professional with over 15 years of experience developing, implementing, and managing Resilience Programs covering all risk areas such as Business Continuity, IT Disaster Recovery, Cyber Security, and Emergency Response Planning. Leo has both business and technical skills including wireless and wireline data networking, voice over IP services, cyber security, computer programming, and product and project management. He possesses a bachelor of mathematics degree in computer science from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario.

Leo recently oversaw London Hydro’s IT Disaster Recovery and Incident Management Program. He previously managed Sentryx’ portfolio of business continuity education and consulting solutions, including awareness and training, BC plan and program development, assessment, and review. He has managed a team of consultants, instructors, and operational staff. Leo is also the author of BRCCI’s (Business Resilience Certification Consortium International) Business Resilience Model.

Leo is the author of two resilience related books, including:

• Business Continuity Planning Methodology. This book outlines detailed steps used to develop, test, and maintain a business continuity plan. Key topics include risk management; business impact analysis; strategy development, plan development, testing and maintenance, and
• Pandemic Planning Handbook. This book provides guidance on how to manage pandemic risks and develop pandemic influenza plans, and is a reference for business continuity, emergency management, human resource management, facilities management, security, and health and safety professionals. Key topics include pandemic influenza risks; infectious diseases; workplace management, medical, safety, & operational mitigation strategies; occupational health & safety; human resources; communications, facilities management; and operations planning.

Stephen has 10 years of experience in Business Continuity, IT Disaster Recovery Management, Project Management, Enterprise Risk Management and Emergency Management for organizations ranging from small businesses to large corporations.

He has developed and tested many business continuity and emergency response plans as well as facilitating/evaluating table top exercises based on a wide variety of scenarios in various industries. Stephen has been a crisis management leader for numerous disaster declarations including the British Columbia/Alberta wildfires, British Columbia flooding, New Brunswick flooding, Ontario heat wave and Ottawa tornado over the last four years. He was a key leader ensuring a client’s BCP program attained ISO 22301 Societal Security Business Continuity Management Systems certified on a very short timeline.

He is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario with a bachelor of Mechanical Engineering Science and has a Project Management (PMI) certification from the University of Toronto. Stephen is a Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP) and has an ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management.

Catherine Milos is a business and communications professional with fifteen years experience. Since 2009, she has contributed to various projects as coordinator, administrative support, and communications expert including program/project support for SaskTel’s Business Continuity Management Program and the associated five projects related to Disaster Recovery (DR), Emergency Response (ER), and Business Continuity Planning, joining HZX later that year. Catherine has also contributed to digital and physical product management projects involved at every phase of the product life cycle. Between 2012 and 2018, Catherine was instrumental in the development and implementation of psychological health and safety and wellness initiatives promoting workplace preventative measures, employee and employer awareness and response, and education at a number of organizations.

Catherine has acted as speaker, panellist, and contributor for numerous conferences, workshops, and events. Her expansive background includes business ownership and management, office and executive administrative management, book and digital publishing and editing, marketing and communications, human resources, legislative compliance, employee relations, occupational health and wellness, and sales and customer service, providing expertise to clients around the globe.

• World Conference on Disaster Management
• Greater Toronto Incident Management Exercise
• Canadian Payroll Association
• Human Resources Professional Association
• Ontario Risk and Insurance Management Society
• International Facilities Management Association
• CGA of New Brunswick
• Government of British Columbia’s Pandemic Preparedness Business Forum
• DRIE Toronto, Ottawa, Atlantic
• EDIST
• Emergency Management and BCP
• Government Security and BCP
• Canadian Society of Custom Brokers
• Canadian Association of Mutual Insurance Companies
• Infonex Risk Management
• Investment Dealers Association of Canada
• Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada
• Investment Counsel Association of Canada

• Enbridge Gas Workshop
• Mount Sinai Hospital
• Conference Board of Canada
• Healthcare Network Round Tables
• Eastern Ontario District One Metering & Service Association
• Business Continuity Awareness Week
• Investment Dealers Association
• CAMIC / ACCAM
• Barrie Hydro
• Human Resources Professional Association of Ontario
• Canadian Society of Custom Brokers
• Toronto DRIE, Is Toronto Ready?
• Course Leader, Emergency Management & Corporate Security
• Pacific Pandemic Business Forum Dec
• Ottawa DRIE
• Workplace Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning
• Government Security and Business Continuity Planning
• Business Continuity and Crisis Management
• Chair, ITAC CIO Roundtable on Healthcare and BCP
• 14th World Conference on Disaster Management

• Business Continuity without a budget
• BCP Best Practices
• BCP for Pandemics
• Lessons learned from real events
• Developing & executing effective BCP exercises
• Emergency Management
• Benchmarking & Testing Emergency Response Plans
• Developing an Effective Incident Response Plan
• Leadership Skills for Emergencies, Crises, & BCP
• Why should I prepare for a pandemic?