Team Bios - ProfitPATH

Jim Stewart

For the past 13 years Jim has worked with entrepreneurs and business owners who want to increase profits and improve the value of their company.  A number of the companies with whom he has worked have received Business Achievement Awards.

Prior to that Jim was CEO of the Canadian subsidiary of a multi-national corporation. During a 25 year career he held positions as a Marketing and Sales Executive with major companies (including subsidiaries of Pitney Bowes, Xerox and ITT corporations) in Canada and Internationally and spent much of his time starting and growing new or existing businesses.

Jim has been interviewed for Television and regularly speaks and publishes articles on growth related topics such as  “Business Planning In Uncertain Economic Times”, “The Four Laws Of Effective Implementation” and “Improving Margins and the Bottom Line”. He has served on several Boards, taught Marketing and Organizational Behavior courses and volunteers in programs which help young people develop their practical business skills.

He has an MBA from the Executive Program at the University of Toronto, and holds the CMC (Certified Management Consultant) designation, the highest professional standard in management consulting and the profession’s only international certification mark.

You can book Jim as a speaker by emailing him at jimstewart@profitpath.com or by calling either 416-487-0276 or 416-258-9610.

Deborah Swail

Deborah is currently on a long term assignment as a Senior Executive at an International Insurance company, where she is responsible for IT Strategy and Governance.

Prior to that she was Vice President in a Canadian Commercial Bank. During a 30 year career she gained experience in Strategy Development, Change Leadership, Project Management, Contract Negotiation and Human Resource Management.

Deborah is an innovative, strategic thinker – a catalyst for change. A number of senior executives at the Bank considered her a trusted advisor, seeking her guidance and advice. She has a passion for developing people and coached a number of individuals who moved on to jobs with increased complexity and scope.

She was a sought after key-note speaker at several Information Management Forum (IMF) conferences. IMF is a peer-driven knowledge sharing organization for senior Information Technology and IT Human Resources executives from globally successful companies.

Deborah has an Executive MBA from the University of Toronto and attended Wharton’s Strategic Human Resource Management program and Michigan’s Change Leadership program. She is a member of the International Coaching Federation.

She sits on the Ontario Advisory Board of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) and is a fund raiser for Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build initiative. She was a Founding Co-Chair of the Scotiabank Sunflower Golf Tournament, the National Ovarian Cancer Association’s largest single fund-raiser in its inaugural year.

Deborah is currently on a long term assignment and is not available.

Peter Birss

Peter worked at Shell Canada Limited in a wide variety of assignments for over 30 years.

Line management roles in three subsidiaries provided experience in a small business environment while holding executive responsibility for the Finance and Administrative functions. Peter was responsible for developing and implementing all business processes required to support ongoing growth, ensuring key controls and performance indicators were established and, ultimately, for overall company performance.

He also held senior management positions in Financial Accounting and Administration (where he was responsible for the preparation of monthly and annual profit/loss statements), Information Technology (I.T.) and Internal Audit.

Most recently, he managed the Canada-wide logistics activities for Shell’s Lubricants Distribution department. Peter was responsible for warehousing; transportation of raw materials and finished products for Shell’s 2 manufacturing centres in Canada and contract negotiations with rail and trucking companies. His key focus was in meeting customers’ expectations for service and on-time delivery.

Peter attended many training programs focused on leadership; employee management; motivation techniques; adapting peoples’ skill to work activities; developing and implementing effective business processes and diversity/respectful workplace concepts and implementation.

He holds a B.Comm from Carleton, with majors in accounting and economics.

Peter’s strengths focus on business transactions process design; business controls; identifying and adapting individual and group/team skills to the business challenges at hand; and implementation of appropriate change management approaches to meet clients’ objectives.

You can contact Peter at growprofits@profitpath.com or by calling 416-487-0276.

Carolyn Hamill – Associate

For more than 25 years, Carolyn has focused on supporting entrepreneurs as they struggle with the challenge of growing a well managed and profitable business.

As President of Hamill-Best & Associates Inc. Carolyn has assisted owners and management understand and rely on the financial information generated by the accounting systems of the company in a productive and profitable way.

Education is critical to the success of any project. With the objective of “understanding before being understood” Carolyn learns about the unique features of the business and identifies the critical strengths and weaknesses that drive success. Then, using the information contained in the financial systems, Carolyn develops a reporting package that supports and enhances these aspects of the business. Staff training programs are designed and implemented as needed to ensure that the financial information is prepared accurately and on a timely basis for management.

In keeping with the education process, Carolyn works with the management team teaching them how to use this new information to monitor the results of the business – building on past successes and rectifying potential problem areas. The process is enhanced through regular meetings with the management team which empowers them to not only rely on the information contained in the financial reporting systems but to assist in the strategic planning and goal setting functions needed to manage and build a profitable organization.

Carolyn, as Senior Manager for Ernst & Young, managed the Microcomputer Consulting service for the Greater Toronto region.

As a Consultant Reseller for the complete range of Adagio® Accounting packages by Softrak Systems and the Quickbooks® accounting series, Carolyn can support the industry’s broad solution set including software packages such as BusinessVisions®, Club Systems®, Sage ACCPAC®, and Simply Accounting® among others.

Carolyn is a Member of the Sponsorship Committee for the Aurora Mardi Gras supporting the commitment to donate $75,000 to the Southlake Regional Cancer Centre. She has also served as the Treasurer for the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, Treasurer for the Grow Your Mind Campaign; to build a library in Aurora, Ontario and is a Member of the York District Chartered Accountant’s Association.

You can contact Carolyn by emailing her at chamillbest@bellnet.ca or by calling her office at 905-841-3033

Tina Perricone – Client Support and Research

Tina has over 6 years’ experience in client support, project management, executing promotional activities, and gathering market and competitive  intelligence. She has strong organizational, interpersonal, and planning skills and has worked with entrepreneurs and executives. Tina has developed data management systems and maintained client and prospect databases. She also led the organization and planning of a national research showcase where the participants included a federal cabinet Minister and federal, provincial and municipal government officials.

Tina is responsible for maintaining and updating ProfitPATH’s web site and social media activities.  She manages our email campaigns and sources input for our blog, LinkedIn group and Twitter feed. Tina researches articles for, edits and publishes our electronic newsletter.

You can contact Tina by email at tinaperricone@profitpath.com or by calling 416-487-0276 .