John Bernard, Chairman
John Bernard is a Maliseet from New Brunswick's Madawaska, Maliseet Band and is the owner and CEO of Donna Cona Inc., Canada’s leading Aboriginal business consulting and information technology services firm with offices located in Ottawa and Vancouver. Donna Cona’s success has established Mr. Bernard as one of Canada’s leading First Nations entrepreneurs.

Among Donna Cona’s major contracts is implementing the computer network system for the territory of Nunavut. Donna Cona also manages the network system for the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. Donna Cona enjoys revenues of over $12 million annually and has over 100 employees and associates.

John Bernard received a National Aboriginal Achievement Award in the category of business in 2000 in Vancouver and is co-owner of Bell & Bernard Limited.

John Kim Bell, CEO
John Kim Bell is Mohawk from the Kahnawake reservation in Quebec. He started his career conducting major Broadway musical productions in New York working with notables including Sonny Bono, Bernadette Peters, Gene Kelly, and Vincent Price. He traveled as a conductor for the Bee Gees and Redd Foxx, among others. He is also attributed with starting the career of Shania Twain having presented her in her first concert events and productions in Toronto.

After a career on Broadway, Mr. Bell became the first ever Aboriginal symphony conductor when he was appointed to the Toronto Symphony in 1980. In addition to guest appearances with many orchestras in Canada, U.S. and the Royal Philharmonic in London, U.K., Mr. Bell has composed the music for several movies including Divided Loyalties for CTV and the Trial of Standing Bear for PBS in the U.S., and the first ever CBC Aboriginal dramatic television series, The Four Directions. In 1988, Mr. Bell produced, directed, and co-composed In the Land of Spirits, a $1 million Aboriginal dance production which toured Canada in 1992.

Mr. Bell is best known for the establishment of the Canadian Native Arts Foundation which became the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (NAAF). Over a period of twenty years, Mr. Bell built the Foundation into Canada’s largest Aboriginal charity and is attributed with building unprecedented corporate support for an Aboriginal cause. In addition to awarding over $16 million in post-secondary education scholarships during Mr. Bell’s twenty-year tenure as the CEO, he also founded and produced the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, a $3.5 million annual television special.

In 1996, he established Blueprint for the Future, an annual career fair held across Canada where 1600 to 2000 Aboriginal high school students would enjoy presentations from leading Canadian corporations on career development opportunities.

In 1992, Mr. Bell also mounted Beyond Survival, an international indigenous cultural conference of over 400 participants from 12 countries including Lapland, the Soviet Union, Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, the U.S., Japan, Guatemala, Colombia, Argentina, Nicaragua, and El Salvador.Among his numerous awards are the Order of Canada, Order of Ontario, and Royal Bank Award for Canadian Achievement and five Honorary Doctorates. In 2003, he was awarded the Keith Kelly Award as the sole national recipient for cultural leadership from the Canadian Conference of the Arts. Mr. Bell was recently appointed one of five Canadians to serve as special advisors to His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales. Please visit johnkimbell.com for more info.

©2007 Bell & Bernard Limited