Employer Panel - Jonathan Feindel, Kathleen Jay, Victor Zhu

Employer Panel
Jonathan Feindel, Kathleen Jay, Victor Zhu

Join us for an interactive discussion with 3 local employers as we explore the opportnities and challenges employers have faced in the post pandemic era in the world of Talent Scarcity and the impact on the IT Professional for today and the future. Learn about approaches and strategies they are taking and lessons learned as they move forward in in our new era of transformation.

Jonathan Feindel
Jonathan is a key part of the Leadership team at CGI in Atlantic Canada where he has worked for the past 18 years in various leadership roles encompassing Management Consulting, Delivery, Business Engineering, and Business Development. A key part of his current role at CGI is focused on developing a modern Diverse Talent Development Ecosystem for CGI in Atlantic Canada. In this role, Jonathan is focused on thinking forward toward the future workforce at CGI and creating strong relationships with Universities, Colleges, and community organizations to significantly increase the number of new graduates and provide more opportunities for women and underrepresented groups to acquire their first technology work experience and then ultimately become permanent members of CGI.

Jonathan is also an Executive Management Consultant and at CGI providing strategic consulting services to private and public sector Clients. Prior to CGI, he was the Director of E-commerce and Emerging Solutions at Manulife Financial and Maritime Life and a Marketing Manager at Bell Aliant. Jonathan brings a highly diverse business and industry background to his clients and frequently leads strategic projects that balance both strong business acumen and a strong knowledge of technology

Jonathan’s recent work with the region’s Universities and Colleges has been highlighted by the creation of one of the region’s leading COOP Programs for Computer Science and Technology students. In just the last year, Jonathan’s efforts have helped over 80 students gain their first work experience and exceeded the program’s diversity mandate with more than 60% of the participants being women and 60% visible minorities.

Jonathan holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Dalhousie University and is a proud, lifelong, Nova Scotian and lives in Halifax with his wife and 2 teenage children.

Kathleen Jay
Kathleen is an energetic leader with a background in business operations, project management and coaching high-performance teams, and is devoted to bringing together technology and people. As Maplewave's Senior Vice-Present of Operations & Delivery, Kathleen oversees the business operations of Maplewave, as well as Maplewave's technical, development and delivery teams, ensuring the successful delivery of their client solutions. With employees all across Canada, the US, United Kingdom, Kenya and South Africa, Kathleen gets to be a part of an amazing employee culture and work with the best and the brightest.

Kathleen was recently awarded the 2022 Halifax Chamber of Commerce Business Leader of the Year award for her professional and community contributions, and is most passionate about leadership and community give back initiatives. Kathleen proudly served for 4 years as a board director for Techsploration, a non-profit organization committed to empowering young women to consider careers in science, engineering, trades and technology. A double grad from Mount Saint Vincent University with a Bachelor of Applied Arts (IT) and a Master of Education, Kathleen is a proud Haligonian and dedicated sports fan of her 2 athletic children.

Victor Zhu
Victor Zhu, Certified ITIL Expert, is an enthusiastic digital innovation leader and Service Management practice owner at Nova Scotia Power. With his forward-looking vision of Enterprise Service Management and digital transformation, Victor leads an exciting ESM journey, specifically focusing on enterprise workflow automation and connected employee experience of technologies. He built and expands a diverse, high-performance Service Delivery team to execute on many strategic priorities amongst digitalization, operational excellence and cyber security. Victor’s leadership contributes to the broader digital value streams being realized at NS Power, Emera and its affiliated companies across North America.