Meet our founders

Mark Edgar and Naomi Titleman Colla created future foHRward to support HR leaders who are committed to making work better. They believe in innovative, human centered leadership, and have dedicated themselves to delivering relevant and thought-provoking content, events, and partnerships, to inspire their community.

  • Mark Edgar

    CO-FOUNDER

    As Co-Founder of future foHRward, Mark's global experience and deep industry knowledge allow him to bring a fresh perspective to the current challenges of Human Resources (HR) leaders.

    Mark has experience working in senior HR roles both in the UK and Canada and is currently Chief People Officer for Wajax. Previous experience includes working for RSA Canada for over 8 years in the role of CHRO & Senior Vice President, Human Resources with overall responsibility for HR and Communications and in the UK in Head of Human Resource roles for Centrica Plc and BSkyB.

    He has also run his own consulting business where he supported organizations and leaders to thrive in the new world of work by taking a human approach.

    Outside of the HR profession that Mark loves, you'll hear him talking about his family (of the two and four-legged variety), his favourite sports team (Manchester United!) and his RV (Rsmsay!).

  • Naomi Titleman Colla

    CO-FOUNDER

    As Co-Founder of future foHRward, Naomi brings an unmatched wealth of experience and perspective to developing leading-edge content, events, and thought leadership for HR Leaders. She is also the Founder of Collaborativity Inc., a Toronto-based consultancy focused on driving progressive talent strategy in the new world of work and a contributor to the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business.

    From 2010-2016, Naomi held multiple HR roles at American Express, most recently as VP and Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) of Amex Canada, responsible for all aspects of the end-to-end employee experience for the Canadian business. Prior to American Express, Naomi spent 10 years consulting with Financial Services Institutions, as a member of Deloitte’s Enterprise Risk Services and Human Capital practices, in New York.

    Naomi holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a bachelor of commerce degree from McGill University. She's the winner of the 2016 HR Leader of the Year award (Canadian HR Awards), the 2016 HR Professional of the Year award (National HR Awards) and was named one of HR Reporter’s 2016 Top 25 HR Professionals of the Year.

future foHRward is for HR, by HR

future foHRward founders, Mark Edgar and Naomi Titleman met at a CHRO peer forum in 2015 when Mark was CHRO of RSA Canada and Naomi was CHRO of Amex Canada. Through this community, they recognized the importance of connection with other like-minded CHROs - the CHRO role can be a lonely one! They discovered their mutual passion for building community and their enthusiasm about the future of work, specifically CHROs’ role in leading it. future foHRward was born, off the side of their desks, with an inaugural CHRO conference at Rotman School of Management. And, through thought leadership, events and partnerships, they’ve been building community and capability within the HR function ever since.

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