Juliet Dunn

Executive Director, TD Niagara Jazz Festival

Cosmopolitan doesn't even begin to describe the formidable and talented Juliet Dunn. Juliet’s lineage is Jamaican/English being born in the UK before emigrating with her family to Vancouver, BC Canada. As a young woman she returned to Europe and settled in Paris, France.

It was here that she put out her first CD single and was the lead in the French film, "L’Amerloque" (The Yankee). After 13 years in France, Juliet returned to Canada and performed in for film and television productions as well as in 2 seasons with the renowned Shaw Festival Theatre. After having relocated to Ontario, Juliet formed her own jazz band (Juliet Dunn Quartet) and started to perform around the Niagara Region. Later, with her husband and musical partner Peter Shea, Juliet performed as a lead jazz vocalist all over the world in both French and English.

Today, Juliet is very active in the Niagara region; along with her husband Peter Shea, Juliet has been running the Twilight Jazz Series in Niagara for 6 years (www.twilightjazz.ca) bringing together both local and international jazz musicians. She also performs regularly in festivals and at various venues and after her 3 years as the radio host of ‘SUNRISE’ on JAZZ.FM91.1 she decided to focus her energy on the TD Niagara Jazz Festival full-time.

Juliet and Peter are proud to bring this new and exciting summer Jazz Festival to the Niagara Region featuring preeminent Canadian and internationally acclaimed jazz musicians via concerts, educational initiatives, activities and free events.

Juliet Dunn works tirelessly to keep jazz alive and it is exciting to anticipate where her energy, efforts, and talents will take her in the future. Without a doubt, Juliet Dunn is vital to the Jazz scene of Niagara and beyond.

Dan Lynch

Senior Technology Advisor - Spark Niagara

 Dan Lynch was Special Advisor, LINC, Office of the Vice-President, Research at Brock University (2018 - 2020) and formerly founding Manager of BioLinc (2012-2018), Brock’s business and technology incubator. Dan brings a strong and career-long commitment to assisting SMEs and academic researchers, mentoring entrepreneurs, facilitating commercialization, and industry liaison.

Prior to joining Brock he served as the founding Industry Liaison Manager for Innovation York, York University; Dan was also the Vice President Commercialization and Chief Operating Officer of HTX, Ontario's Health Technology Exchange, a leading catalyst for accelerating the growth of Ontario’s medical and assistive technologies industry cluster; and for many years he was an Industrial Technology Advisor in the National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program across Southern Ontario including more than five years at the University of Western Ontario.

He has worked to develop many innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystems both on and off campuses and with many innovative Ontario companies to assist in developing new entrepreneurs and technologies that resulted in new businesses and the commercialization of new products, services, processes, and markets.

Kevin Bourne

CEO and Creative Director

Toronto-native Kevin Bourne, also known as "KB The Boss" or simply "KB", is a Canadian arts and culture journalist, media personality, and branding and marketing strategist. As CEO and Creative Director of the PR, content marketing and branding firm SHIFTER Agency Inc., KB has worked with everyone from New Balance to CBC.

The former political staffer is quickly becoming a staple in Canada's cultural landscape as both a commentator and freelancer, writing and commenting on music, film/television and fashion. He has appeared nationally on CBC News Network and locally on CTV, CBC Radio, CityNews, and 580 CFRA and has been published in ByBlacks, the Ottawa Citizen and Ottawa Business Journal.

Doubling as editor-in-chief at SHIFTER magazine, Kevin has covered some of Canada's top red carpet events, from the Juno Awards to the Canadian Screen Awards and has interviewed everyone from Kevin Hart and "Fast and the Furious" star Tyrese Gibson to Orange Is The New Black star Dascha Polanco. He is also the former host of CBC Ottawa's digital series "In The Loop", a former music columnist on CBC Radio One, the co-producer of the SHIFTER x CBC mini-doc series "OT Rising" and is one of the hosts of CBC Music's national Polaris Prize radio series "The Ten".

He is currently a board member at the Ottawa Film Office, part-time TV Broadcasting professor at Algonquin College, and was recently named to Ottawa Life Magazine's Best of Ottawa: Activists & Changemakers list.