ABOUT CAFA
CAFA was created to celebrate, support, and promote the Canadian Fashion Industry. Mandated to grow a stronger appreciation of Canadian talent both at home and abroad, the goal of CAFA as a national platform is to foster the next generation of Canadian talent through an annual awards show and year-round economic development initiatives.
Vicky Milner, President
& Co-Founder
Vicky Milner is a distinguished entrepreneur with extensive experience in an array of industries including fashion retail, music, entertainment, and nonprofit management. An avid philanthropist with over 10 years experience in the event business; Vicky has founded and executed many large-scale events for notable brands, including Universal Music Group and the Herbie Fund. Vicky’s strong business acumen, passionate outlook on the fashion industry, and belief in celebrating Canada and its amazing talent makes her an exceptional leader for CAFA.
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Donna Bishop, Director of Programming
Donna Bishop is an accomplished entrepreneur, dedicated consumer and producer of engaging content, and passionate advocate for the fashion industry. Her background spans the fashion, beauty and media industries. In 2009 she founded Green Beauty, Canada’s first online boutique dedicated to skincare and cosmetics that were made with natural ingredients yet had the performance of professional products. She has been featured as a expert in beauty or entrepreneurship in numerous media outlets including: The Marilyn Denis Show, E! Canada, Best Health Magazine, NOW Magazine, Green Heroes (TVO), Coming Clean (Smithsonian Channel), Cosmo TV, The Globe and Mail, InStyle Magazine, The MomShift (Random House) and numerous blogs. In 2010 Donna founded and was executive editor of Bamboo Magazine. She is also a trained focus group facilitator, is a board member of the Toronto Chapter of Fashion Group International and holds a BA from Queens University in Film Studies and Art History.
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ZOÏ Agency – Strategic PR Planning and Media Relations, Maria Varvarikos, President and Founder
Founded in 2000 by Maria Varvarikos, ZOÏ (‘life’ in Greek) was established with the vision to help bring brands to life in creative ways. With offices in New York, Montreal and Toronto, this boutique agency offers each client full North American support and global public relations services.
Maria Varvarikos has more than 20 years of public relations and marketing experience. Prior to founding ZOÏ Agency in 2000, Maria served as the Director of Promotions for Ocean Drive Magazine. Inspired to establish her own enterprise in order to fully engage her passion for brands, Maria launched ZOÏ Agency to great success.
Maria and her team have been an integral part of the successful launches and branding initiatives behind top fashion, beauty, travel and lifestyle brands such as, WANT Les Essentiels, Maison Kitsuné, H&M, Tiffany & Co., KORRES, and more.
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Deborah Lau-Yu, Director of Graphic Arts
Deborah Lau-Yu is a passionate storyteller and award-winning graphic designer. She holds a Masters of Design (MDes) and is the founder & art director of PALETTERA Custom Correspondences, a boutique design firm & production studio specializing in luxury event invitations and identity design, servicing an exceptional global clientele. Deborah’s passion for establishing Canadian cultural sovereignty in design & art has led her team to create iconic designs for many great events: the David Foster Miracle Gala, the launch of the Canadian Arts & Fashion Awards, Toronto Fashion Incubator’s 25th Gala, Ford Lincoln’s MKZ launch, Bayer’s 150th anniversary, and Suzanne Rogers Presents.
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Lisa Kisber, Director of Video Content and Style Correspondent
While Lisa Kisber’s career started in law (she has dual law degrees from McGill University) her love of fashion, marketing and content has come to the forefront with a focus on digital content, journalism and branding.
Lisa has a passion and an acumen for all things related to content and digital marketing, having worked with national and international clients like the FDCC, tiff, Boxycharm, GLOSSYBOX, Marcelle, Annabelle, Boxing Fan Expo, Liquid Nutrition and more. She has also recently taught digital marketing at Seneca College.
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She has appeared regularly as a style and beauty expert on television and radio, such as E! Talk, Rogers Daytime, The Shopping Channel, and Virgin Radio Toronto. She has written for major publications, such as the Toronto Star, Men’s Health and Maxim, and created extensive digital content for clients like Le Chateau and Askmen. She appears monthly as the Style and Beauty Correspondent for Global Montreal and has a weekly on-air segment as the Style Expert on Virgin Radio.
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Qasim Mohammad, Innovation Advisor
Qasim Mohammad is a Toronto-based technology entrepreneur with an expertise in the psychology of how people buy and sell. Previously he was a member of the investment team at OMERS Ventures – the venture capital division of OMERS, one of Canada’s largest pension funds with over $85 billion in net assets. While at the firm, he focused on software deals and the digital commerce sector, and supported such portfolio companies as Shopify, Jobber, Hootsuite, and Wattpad. Prior to joining OMERS Ventures, Qasim was a member of the operations team at Pivotal Software, where he worked directly with startups and Fortune 500 businesses on their strategic mobile app development, PaaS, and big-data initiatives. Qasim enjoys supporting organizations and programs that foster the discovery of scientific and creative arts talent in Canada, and frequently contributes his thoughts on the latest trends in technology and entrepreneurship to such publications as The Globe and Mail, Canadian Business, TechCrunch, and The Business of Fashion.
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The CAFA award was commissioned to recognize and honour the nation’s most promising designers, stylists, image makers, models and business leaders. Designed to embody the creativity of Canadian fashion, this perennial award is a symbol of industry excellence.
An original and striking design created by celebrated Canadian industrial designer Karim Rashid, the CAFA Award is a true work of art. Karim Rashid is one of the most prolific designers of his generation. Over 3000 designs in production, over 300 awards and working in over 40 countries attest to Karim’s legend of design.
Clear Reflections and Prestige Glass, both Canadian companies, proudly collaborated on the making of the Award resulting in a Canadian made piece of art. This flawless, colourless, and unleaded crystal is a material of permanence and substance. The CAFA logo and personalizations are discretely located on the award, essentially invisible when the award is viewed face-on. The CAFA award is a freestanding block of pure optical crystal and weighs 5 pounds.
Late in 2011, Brittney Kelleher was working on Oceana magazine (in support of the Herbie Fund) with Jackie Gideon when the idea to create a national awards show for Canadian fashion came to them. A creative producer and makeup artist; Jackie had introduced Brittney, a capital markets professional and philanthropist, to the world of Canadian fashion. Jackie also introduced Brittney to communications and branding professional Susan Hart, who had volunteered as managing editor of the magazine.
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Over the next few months, Jackie, Brittney and Susan worked together on preliminary ideas for the concept and design of an awards show and launched an early CAFA model to the industry on February 2nd 2012 at The Ritz-Carlton, Toronto. Shortly after this event, Jackie departed the team as Creative Director to focus on the growth of her successful Jackie Gideon Beauty brand and boutique and Brittney and Susan continued on as partners; working to refine and expand the CAFA concept and brand.
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Early in 2013, entrepreneur and philanthropist Vicky Milner joined CAFA as senior partner and managing director. Vicky successfully engaged the industry, further streamlined the concept and pulled together an outstanding team of Ambassadors, committee members, designers and event producers to make CAFA a reality. Vicky, along with Brittney, Susan and the entire CAFA team proudly launched CAFA to the world at our inaugural event on February 1st 2014 at The Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto.