Panel Discussion
Time: 9:35 AM
Location: Loyola Conference Hall
This panel brings together leaders from IBM, GS1 and Reposit to explore how innovation, data, and collaboration are transforming packaging into a driver of sustainability and circularity. Together, they’ll discuss how responsible design and technology can reduce waste, improve transparency, and create value across the entire retail ecosystem.
Mark Kardos, Associate Partner and Global Offering Leader for Sustainability, Resilience and Circularity at IBM Consulting, based in Ottawa, Canada. With almost 20 years of experience in sustainability consulting and operations management, Mark specializes in facilitating circular transformations across organizational value chains leveraging closed-loop business models and agentic workflows.
rior to IBM, Mark worked in the certification and standards development space for over a decade, contributing to the worlds first standards for Zero Waste and Circularity, developing ESG assurance programs and circular economy Saas solutions and platforms. His past success stories facilitating zero-waste/circular supply chains include industry leaders like, Apple, Google, and Walmart.
Mark holds a B.A. in Economics from Carleton University.
Fran莽ois Bouchard currently serves as Co-President of GS1 Canada, a bilingual, purpose-driven, not-for-profit organization that helps industries share trusted, accurate data through global standards and collaboration.
Having served on GS1 Canada's Board of Governors from 2004 to 2018, Fran莽ois joined the organization as Senior Vice President of Subscriber Engagement. Since then, he has held progressively senior leadership roles, most recently as Executive Vice President, overseeing healthcare, public affairs, and community engagement.
A respected leader in governance, Fran莽ois has chaired numerous industry associations, including the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG), and has earned accolades such as the Ottawa Business Journal's Top 40 Under 40 and the Telfer Young Achiever's Award.
Proudly bilingual and a sought-after speaker, Fran莽ois is known for his results-driven, people-first leadership and his dedication to innovation.
Outside of his professional life, Fran莽ois is a committed community leader, mentor and advocate for underprivileged children.
Stuart is a circular economy expert and co-founder of Beauty Kitchen & Reposit with his wife Jo. They are obsessed by circular design and collective action to deliver the innovation that鈥檚 needed to achieve a triple bottom line.鈥疕aving launched indie beauty brand Beauty Kitchen, which is one of the highest scoring B Corporations in the world, with cradle to cradle certified products in returnable packaging, they have now developed Reposit. Reposit is a cross-category returnable packaging platform for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Dr. Chantal Hervieux is an Associate Professor of Strategy, Ethics, and Social Entrepreneurship at the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary's University (SMU). She is the Program Co-Director of the Master of Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the Director of the Centre of Leadership Excellence, and the founder of the Impact Lab at SMU.
Her research experience includes corporate social responsibility, sustainability, systems thinking, impact assessment, social entrepreneurship, and social innovation framing, as well as work done on community collaboration, and stakeholder engagement. Publications include works published in the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, the Journal of Business Ethics, and the Social Enterprise Journal where her paper receive the Highly Commended literary award in 2020. She has done research and lectured internationally in Guatemala, Kenya, Morocco, and Martinique on sustainability, social systems assessment and change, impact assessment, social innovation, collaboration, community engagement, and social entrepreneurship.