Our Board

Yazmine Laroche

Chair of the Board

Yazmine Laroche, ICD.D, was Canada’s first Deputy Minister for Public Service Accessibility and the first person with a visible disability to become a federal Deputy Minister. She has significant leadership experience, having delivered major initiatives in transportation, infrastructure, arts and culture, and human resources. In addition to service as the inaugural Chair of the DSO Board, she is a Director on the National Arts Centre Board of Trustees, where she chairs the HR Committee.  She also serves on the Advisory Committee to the Auditor General of Canada and is a former Chair of the Board of Muscular Dystrophy Canada. In recognition of her accomplishments, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Carleton University, in 2019, and received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

Rayhan Azmat

Treasurer

Rayhan Azmat, CPA, CA is a senior finance executive in media, advertising and entertainment. He currently serves as Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis at Cineplex Entertainment and brings over 20 years of financial expertise in various mediums from out of home, television, digital, eSports and theatrical exhibition. Rayhan obtained his chartered accountant designation while at PwC where, as an experienced manager, led engagements at Canwest, IMAX, Sony, CBS and Alliance Atlantis. He held various financial positions at Cineplex Media from Controller to Vice President, Finance. As a wheelchair user himself, he is committed to advocating for disability rights and inclusion, working on the Board of Directors as Treasurer for DEEN Support Services – a Canadian charity championing inclusive support services for those living with physical or intellectual disabilities.

 

Kenneth J. Fredeen

Secretary

Mr. Fredeen served as Deloitte’s General Counsel and Secretary to the Board from 2000 to 2020. In June 2020, he was appointed General Counsel Emeritus and Senior Partner, Reconciliation and Accessibility, before retiring from the firm in June 2021. He is now Managing Director, Return on Disability Group.

A recognized leader in the legal profession, Mr. Fredeen was selected as one of Canada’s most influential lawyers and judges in 2013 and in 2018 he was named Canada’s Outstanding General Counsel. In 2021, Mr. Fredeen was honored with the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association R.V.A. Jones Award which recognizes exceptional contributions to the legal profession, and later in the same year he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Canadian General Counsel Awards.

Mr. Fredeen has received many awards including: the Queens Jubilee Medal (2012), the King Clancy Award for his work supporting Canadians who live with disabilities (2014), SABA Diversity Award (2015) and the David C. Onley Award (2017) for his work related to creating a more inclusive Canada for people with disabilities. In November of

the same year, he was recognized by Catalyst Canada Business Leader Award for his leadership in diversity in Corporate Canada. In October 2021 he was recognized by Leaders to Be Proud Of with the Leading Executive Ally Award.

Mr. Fredeen is married with three children and volunteers as a coach for Special Olympics basketball in Oakville and serves on the Board of the Disability Screen Office.

 

Sasha Boersma

Board Director

Sasha Boersma is Co-Founder/Producer at Sticky Brain Studios where she leads business affairs, including human resources, accounting, and funding proposals. Since 2013, Sticky Brain Studios has created original games and apps, and developed over 70 others with partners like TVOntario and the Responsible Gambling Council. Sasha also works as contract faculty at Centennial College’s Story Arts Centre, where she has developed and taught post-graduate-level business courses for creative professionals for over ten years.

Sasha applies her lived and professional experience with diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility advocacy to every aspect of her work, including user experience design, marketing, teaching, and business strategy. She uses strategic foresight to identify patterns and develop a humanistic, inclusive approach to her business practices. She understands the nuance of individual experiences for players, users, students, and employees alike, examines systems and processes, and analyzes human behaviour to build happy and effective teams.

Sasha excels at using her cultural intelligence to think globally, finding opportunities to develop products that resonate with Canada’s diverse markets and strategically exporting them to global audiences. Her work with game studios, television producers, funding agencies, and academia informs her specialized understanding of the interrelationship between budget, story, design, and technology and how to balance each area’s idiosyncrasies when developing and producing compelling user experiences.

Rachel Desjourdy
Board Director

Rachel Desjourdy is CBC/Radio-Canada’s national Accessibility Lead, driving the development and implementation of Canada’s public broadcaster’s first national accessibility plan. Rachel has a M.A. in Critical Disability Studies from York University and a bachelor of science from McGill University. In addition to volunteering on the Board of Directors of the Disability Screen Office, Rachel is also a founding member of Cap, the employee resource group for French-speaking employees with disabilities and their allies at CBC/Radio-Canada. Rachel has experience leading strategic accessibility work in the media industry, higher education, and non-profit settings. She combines her professional expertise, her educational background and her lived experience as a disabled woman to drive her personal vision of building a more accessible and inclusive world.

Prasanna Ranganathan
Board Director
Prasanna is a producer, lawyer, diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging (DEIB) and accessibility consultant, speaker, author, and arts correspondent. Prasanna leads his own DEIB and accessibility consultancy and previously served as the Head of Diversity and Belonging at Shopify, and as a human rights lawyer with the Government of Canada, the United Nations, a corporate law firm, and the Independent Street Checks Review. Prasanna is a Consulting Producer on the 2021 docuseries Born for Business about entrepreneurs with disabilities (airing on Crave Canada and NBC Peacock), an Associate Producer on the documentary film Dream, Girl about women entrepreneurs which premiered at the Obama White House in 2016, a speaker at the Toronto International Film Festival Industry Conference, and a Guest Lecturer at the University of Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. Prasanna was a syndicated screen time columnist on CBC Radio, a social media correspondent for the 2019 Academy Awards red carpet for etalk, and the co-author of a South Asian vegetarian cookbook with his mother called Made with Prema raising money for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Proudly claiming his identity as a disabled (blind), South Asian, queer person, Prasanna is a founding board member of the Disability Screen Office and a past board member of Inside Out.

Anna-Karina Tabuñar
Board Director
Anna-Karina Tabunar is an award-winning communicator, strategist and disability advocate. She is a trusted advisor to senior leaders on issues and crisis management, stakeholder engagement and strategic communications in multiple sectors. As the founder and principal consultant of Talent Untapped Group, Anna-Karina leverages the power of strategic storytelling and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to drive business objectives. Clients include IBM, RBC, Rotman School of Management, HSO – Health Standards Organization, Canadian Cardiovascular Society, Royal Canadian Mint, Health Canada, United Way Centraide Canada and more.
Before launching her independent consulting agency, Anna-Karina had a successful 20-year career in broadcast journalism and corporate communications. As a communications executive, she has worked with teams across Canada and internationally in crisis and reputation management, executive and employee communications, and media and stakeholder relations. As an award-winning journalist, Anna-Karina filed stories for CBC, CTV and CNN. She hosted Canada in Perspective, the country’s first TV current affairs series exploring issues surrounding disability and aging. Anna-Karina also produced and directed the acclaimed documentary film Talent Untapped about the value of hiring and developing people with disabilities. Her work has been honoured with a Canadian Screen Award, a Community Builder Award from Citizen Advocacy, and a Gold Quill from the International Association of Business Communicators. For her advocacy work for people with disabilities, she was named among the Top 100 Most Influential Filipinas in the World in 2017.