About Us

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Santa Comes to Bay Street holds an annual Santa's Work Shop which uniquely partners shoppers with families and recipients that are in need of support from shelters in the Greater Toronto Area. Gift givers select families or individual recipients and help make their holiday dreams come true by putting together a Santa's bag for each recipient. Bag's contents includes everything from basic necessities to gifts requested by the recipients. In this way we have created a very personalized process where individuals can help those who are in need around the holidays.

The first Santa's Work Shop was held in 2003, it set the foundation for the creation of a charity - Santa Comes to Bay Street. Over the last 19 years the event has grown substantially with the 2019 event providing gift bags to over 1750 recipients. The 2021 bagging event was cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions; however, over 700 gift bags were still distributed to recipients in shelters.

The SCTBS Team

The Board of Directors

Robert Cancelli, Chairman

Robert is a Managing Director with the Prime Services Group at CIBC World Markets Inc. He has been with CIBC for the past five years. Prior to CIBC, Robert worked as an institutional salesman and trader on both the buy and sell side in New York and Toronto. A graduate of Dartmouth College in the US, Robert has spent his entire career in the financial services industry.

Robert in his role as Chairman has widened the reach and broadened the depth of SCTBS. As the Chairman, Robert has been instrumental in raising funds and awareness for SCTBS.

Stephanie Orloff, President and Co-Founder

As a Co-Founder of Santa Comes to Bay Street, Stephanie plays a vital role on the Santa team. She has spent her career in Sales and Account Management at Thomson Reuters (now Refinitiv), TMX Group in Equity Trading, Linedata and MuleSoft. Stephanie is also on the fundraising committee for Frontier College's Scrabble Night in Canada and was a True Patriot Love Expeditioner, Baffin Island, in 2019.

Dave Keggin, Vice-President

Dave started volunteering with SCTBS in 2015, helping organize an impressive contingent of Elves at RBC Capital Markets. He’s been involved in shopping, fundraising, event organizing, and has now joined the Board of Directors as Secretary in 2020.

Dave has been in the Financial Services industry for 20 years, moving from the UK to Toronto in 2009. Over his 10+ year career at RBC Capital Markets he has held management roles in Technology, Business and Operations.

Mary Matthews CPA, CA, ICD.D, Co-Founder and Past President

During her career, Ms. Matthews held numerous senior positions with both public and private corporations in the financial sector, most notably VP CIBC, Global Cost Cutting and EVP Sprott Asset Management, sales and marketing. Mary was also very active in the charitable sector, holding the position of both Treasurer, and subsequently, President of Ontario Special Olympics.

In addition to her role on the SCTBS Board, Mary is also a Director of AirBoss of America (BOS/T), a public company.

Chris Wilkinson, Treasurer

Chris worked for several financial institutions and held a number of different management roles before retiring in 2019 after 25 years in the industry. During his career, Chris led many community and charitable initiatives that included hands-on team activities and fundraising. Chris is currently developing projects to help others learn to code.

Carol Elmalem, Secretary

Carol has volunteered with SCTBS for 10 years and is responsible for purchasing all essential goods distributed by the charity. She began her career in the financial industry over 20 years ago and has held several product management roles at BMO, TMX and most currently CIBC. She is currently the Sr. Director of Infrastructure Project Delivery at CIBC.

Brian Tsang, Shelter Liaison and Financial Advisor

Brian has helped with Santa Comes to Bay Street since its launch, over 18 years ago, doing all odd jobs necessary to deliver on the wishes of moms and children for this Charity. He took on a more formal role 10 years ago, as Shelter Liaison,  communicating with all the shelters, managing the wish lists and distributing them among all the volunteer shopping elves helping to ensure that everyone who sent in a wish list gets a gift bag!

On the Financial Advisory side, Brian also helps manage in-kind stock donations and cash management, and overall, counsels the Board regarding its financial assets.

Brian joined RBC Capital Markets in 2004 starting on the institutional trading desk before moving to the RBC Dominion Securities in 2009 as an Investment Advisor. Brian is currently a Senior Portfolio Manager and Investment Advisor with RBC DS.

To see past board members click here

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE	FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE
NICK ABE, CHAIR KRIS BACKUS BRYAN BLAKE JANICE KOSHIDA	JANICE KOSHIDA, CHAIR SHOGHIG KULIDJIAN BRYAN BLAKE JUSTIN PORTER ROBERT CANCELLI STEPHANIE ORLOFF