Our Team

Executive/Corporate Team

Dayna Spiring

Dayna Spiring President & CEO

P: 1 204 954 1988

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Economic Development Winnipeg Inc. (EDW) is the lead economic development agency for Winnipeg, encompassing EDW, YES! Winnipeg and Tourism Winnipeg. Dayna directs all aspects of the corporation’s activities. She provides leadership and strategic direction, collaborates with key stakeholders and is a driving force behind making Winnipeg a compelling choice for business and tourism. She also sits on the board of directors for Winpak Ltd., a Winnipeg-based plastic-packaging pioneer, and previously served on the board of Manitoba Hydro (a provincial Crown corporation).

As the former chief strategy officer and general counsel of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), Dayna was charged with leading a group of senior-level employees, financial advisors and lawyers in preparing the federally controlled entity for privatization, which sold for $550 million in 2015 (the CWB was valued at just $100 million in 2012). Dayna’s supplemental responsibilities during her 10-year tenure at the CWB also involved facilitating government and stakeholder relations during a period of intense public scrutiny and debate. As well, Dayna spearheaded all marketing and communications efforts at the CWB and served as its corporate secretary.

In addition to Dayna’s extensive professional experience, which includes five years as an associate at Aikins, MacAulay & Thorvaldson LLP in the early 2000s, she is a passionate Winnipegger with a drive to volunteer. She led the team that brought the Gold Medal Plates competition to Winnipeg.  Currently the Chair of the Winnipeg Football Club’s board of directors, she is the first woman to have her name engraved on the coveted Grey Cup, after the Winnipeg Blue Bombers historic win in 2019. She is only the second woman to serve on the Canadian Football League’s board of governors.

Dayna earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Manitoba. Earlier, she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree (honours) from the same institution, majoring in political science. In 2015, Dayna participated in the Directors Education Program within the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, obtaining the ICD.D designation.

Ryan Kuffner

Ryan Kuffner Vice President of Sales & Business Development

P: 1 204 954 1962

Ryan directs all business development strategies for Economic Development Winnipeg. He also leads the YES! Winnipeg initiative to attract new business and works with local companies to facilitate their expansion, increase their market potential and grow their network.

Jason  Travis

Jason Travis Vice President of Business Intelligence & Marketing

P: 1 204 954 1982

Jason is responsible for the development and execution of marketing plans and market intelligence strategies to support EDW’s efforts to attract new investment, skilled talent, job growth and new visitors to the city.

Natalie Thiesen

Natalie Thiesen Vice President of Tourism

P: 1 204 954 1978

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Natalie leads the Tourism Winnipeg team in attracting and servicing business events and sports & special events across all markets, as well as group travel to increase Winnipeg’s tourism economy. She is also responsible for the strategic development and growth of partnership opportunities to attract, retain and engage tourism stakeholders to help further initiatives led by Tourism Winnipeg.

Marissa Zurba

Marissa Zurba Director of Finance

P: 1 204 954 1980

Marissa responsibilities incorporate all aspects of the day-to-day financial management duties of the corporation, as well as directing all finance-related administrative activities.

Abayomi Ganiyu

Abayomi Ganiyu Finance Coordinator


Ilona Niemczyk

Ilona Niemczyk Director of Corporate Partnerships

P: 1 204 954 0992

Ilona is responsible for developing and implementing the strategy and necessary activities to attract, retain and engage corporate partners to sustain funding to further the initiatives of Economic Development Winnipeg.

Daniel Gurevich

Daniel Gurevich Business Development Manager, Corporate Partnerships

P: 1 204 954 1966

Daniel is responsible for developing and stewarding private sector partnerships to sustain funding to further the initiatives of Economic Development Winnipeg.

Tiffany  Creaghe-Harder

Tiffany Creaghe-Harder Executive Assistant to the President & CEO

P: 1 204 954 1998

Tiffany assists Dayna with issues management including such aspects as scheduling, event planning, meeting management and communications-related tasks. She also serves as the primary liaison for EDW's board of directors and coordinates all board-related activities germane to the organization.

Shannon Hamilton

Shannon Hamilton Administrative Assistant

P: 1 204 954 1985

Shannon provides primary administrative support to the EDW Executive Team including calendar management and travel coordination. She also supports the Executive Assistant to the President & CEO in organizing office-wide projects and events.

Andrew Cundill

Andrew Cundill Receptionist & Administrative Assistant

P: 1 204 954 1970

Market Intelligence Team

Roxana Ibañez

Roxana Ibañez Director of Research & Market Intelligence

P: 1 204 954 1986

Roxana leads a team of Market Intelligence professionals collecting and assessing the best, accurate most relevant information about Winnipeg to support companies considering a relocation or expansion into Winnipeg. Providing leadership through reliable data and industry expertise, the MI team supports EDW as a knowledge based data driven organization.

Chris Ferris

Chris Ferris Senior Economist

P: 1 204 954 1987

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Chris conducts in-depth research and analysis on the Winnipeg regional economy to identify trends and key economic indicators. He delivers valuable information to our business community in the form of commentary, insights, forecasting and economic modeling.

Amit Saini

Amit Saini Senior Data Engineer

P: 1 204 954 0994

Amit is responsible for growing and maintaining EDW’s data infrastructure. He engages and collaborates with EDW's business development teams to convert complex data into usable insights that improve business operations and outcomes.

Cheryl  Hooper

Cheryl Hooper Market Researcher

P: 1 204 954 0998

Kristy Halischak

Kristy Halischak BI Systems Administrator

P: 1 204 954 1983

Eden  Cheng

Eden Cheng Market Intelligence Coordinator


YES! Winnipeg Team

Alberto  Velasco-Acosta

Alberto Velasco-Acosta Director of Foreign Direct Investment

P: 1 204 954 1972

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Alberto leads YES! Winnipeg's Foreign Direct Investment team to proactively identify and attract new companies to Winnipeg. He develops strong relationships with global site selector consultants, provincial and federal partners to promote Winnipeg's strong value proposition. He also represents YES! Winnipeg on international business missions, facilitates and oversees all incoming international delegations.

Christine Perrin

Christine Perrin Senior Manager, North America

P: 1 204 954 1973

Christine leads the North America Foreign Direct Investment team and drives overall strategy in the United States market, the largest source of foreign investment in Manitoba.  Christine works with US site selectors, Trade Commissioner Service offices, and other FDI multipliers in-market to promote Winnipeg as an investment destination for U.S. companies. Christine speaks English and French.

Frederic Chieux

Frederic Chieux Manager, Europe

P: 1 204 804 3357

Fred spearheads our business development initiatives within the European markets, capitalizing on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and leveraging relationships with the European Union and the United Kingdom.  Fred is fluent in French, English and Spanish.

Shyam Narayan Moorthi

Shyam Narayan Moorthi Business Analyst, FDI Team

P: 1 204 954 1976

Shyam leads the critical analysis and prioritization of leads within YES! Winnipeg’s investment attraction funnel (Foreign Direct Investment & Business Development). Shyam assesses and validates investment opportunities as these relate to Winnipeg’s value propositions for foreign investors. Shyam speaks English, Tamil, Hindi and some Thai.

Veronica Fierro

Veronica Fierro Officer, Mexico and Mid-Continent

P: 1 204 954 1994

Veronica supports investment attraction and partner relationships in Mexico and the North American Mid-continent to maximize opportunity from this strategic trade and investment corridor. She leverages her extensive expertise in the Canadian global commercial network in Latin America and beyond. In addition to English, Veronica speaks Spanish and French.

Wendy Sharon  Sathan

Wendy Sharon Sathan Business Development Coordinator, North America

P: 1 204 954 0776

Wendy supports investment attraction efforts internationally with a focus on the North American market. She utilizes market intelligence tools to identify business opportunities, develops relationships with foreign-owned businesses, and coordinates site visits for international delegations. In addition to English, she is fluent in French and Creole.

Yvonne Kinley

Yvonne Kinley Director of Talent & Workforce Development

P: 1 204 954 0997

Yvonne leads YES! Winnipeg’s Talent team, helping local companies and potential investors in the city to retain, attract, and develop the talent they need to help grow the economy.

Annie Henry

Annie Henry Senior Manager, Talent and Workforce Development

P: 1 204 954 1990

Annie manages and executes YES! Winnipeg’s talent attraction and retention strategy. Through strong relationships with a network of local talent services partners, Annie drives business expansion and investment by helping companies source and attract the talent they need.

Yelena Petrukhina

Yelena Petrukhina Talent Services Manager

P: 1 204 954 1975

Yelena is responsible for YES! Winnipeg talent partnerships and initiatives.  She works closely with EDW’s business development team, and YES! Winnipeg to ensure businesses have access to deep talent pools.  Yelena is also responsible for leading the coordination of talent events and missions.

Wynne Au

Wynne Au Talent Program Manager

P: 1 204 954 0995

Wynne is responsible for the planning and building of talent services, including the Talent Hub, YES! Winnipeg Job Connections Portal, and international missions.

Patricia Paez Montalvo

Patricia Paez Montalvo Talent & Workforce Development Officer

P: 1 204 954 0772

Patricia is responsible for operational administration of the Work In Manitoba job portal. She manages inquiries for training and demos, and questions related to the platform from employers and job seekers.

Alison Ng

Alison Ng Talent & Workforce Development Coordinator

P: 1 204 954 0990

Alison supports the planning and execution of international recruitment missions to attract qualified talent from around the globe.

Naomi Wang

Naomi Wang Talent & Workforce Development Coordinator

P: 1 204 954 1970

Naomi supports the planning and development of talent services and tools, including the Talent Hub, Work in Manitoba job portal, and international missions.

Amanda Macdonald

Amanda Macdonald Director of Business Development

P: 1 204 954 1984

Amanda leads the YES! Winnipeg’s Business Development team, and works with the team to proactively identify new prospects and advance each opportunity to a successful conclusion by supporting the team in understanding what assistance the client requires and engaging appropriate collaborators to deliver what the client needs.

William Findlater

William Findlater Senior Manager, Strategic Projects

P: 1 204 954 1971

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William is responsible for managing and executing on strategic development projects, including sector cluster building and infrastructure projects that will have major economic impacts on the City and Province.  Other priorities include business opportunities related to Manitoba’s clean energy, sustainability, local adoption of productivity related technologies, and more.

Brenden Lawrence

Brenden Lawrence Business Development Manager

P: 1 204 954 1974

Sectors: Life Sciences, Agribusiness, and Transportation & Distribution

Brenden proactively identifies new prospects in the life sciences, agribusiness, transportation & distribution sectors. He engages and collaborates with clients to better understand their specific needs and remove any barriers to their development and growth in Winnipeg.

Adam  Vitt

Adam Vitt Business Development Manager

P: 1 204 954 0991

Sectors:  Technology & Financial Services

Adam proactively identifies new prospects within his sectors of responsibility and advances each prospect to a successful conclusion by understanding what assistance they require and engaging appropriate collaborators to deliver what the client needs.

Keri  Zeghers

Keri Zeghers Business Development Manager

P: 1 204 954 0771

Sectors: Advanced Manufacturing and Aerospace

Keri proactively identifies new prospects within her sectors of responsibility and advances each prospect to a successful conclusion by understanding what assistance they require and engaging appropriate collaborators to deliver what the client needs.

Jessie Rew

Jessie Rew Business Development Officer

P: 1 204 954 0993

Sector:  Creative Industries

Jessie proactively identifies new prospects in the Creative Industries sector. She engages and collaborates with clients to better understand their specific needs and remove any barriers to their development and growth in Winnipeg.

Damian Crowley

Damian Crowley Business Development Officer

P: 1 204 954 0774

Damian proactively identifies new prospects in the life sciences, agribusiness, transportation & distribution sectors. He engages and collaborates with clients to better understand their specific needs and remove any barriers to their development and growth in Winnipeg.

Alyssa Ward

Alyssa Ward Business Development Coordinator

P: 1 204 954 0996

Alyssa works closely with EDW's business development team, YES! Winnipeg to support local company retention, expansion and attraction of new investment to the city.

Maria Tan

Maria Tan Business Development Coordinator


Maria works closely with EDW's business development team, YES! Winnipeg to support local company retention, expansion and attraction of new investment to the city.

Tourism Winnipeg Team

Sarah Robinson

Sarah Robinson Business Development Manager

P: 1 204 954 1995

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Sarah is responsible for selling and promoting Winnipeg as the destination of choice for the travel trade market.

Lynnea Adrian

Lynnea Adrian Business Development Manager

P: 1 204 954 1992

Lynnea is responsible for attracting business events to Winnipeg through national and international associations, third party meeting planners as well as the key economic sectors of Life Sciences, Transportation & Distribution and Education.

Maria  Paletta

Maria Paletta Business Development Manager

P: 1 204 954 1981

Maria is responsible for attracting business events to Winnipeg through national and international associations, third party meeting planners as well as the key economic sectors of Agri-Business, Financial Services, and Energy & the Environment.

Crystal Seman

Crystal Seman Business Development Manager, Sports & Special Events

P: 1 204 954 1989

Crystal is responsible for attracting sports and special events and meetings and conventions to Winnipeg through the sport federations, event rights holders and provincial sports organizations as well as the key economic sectors of Advanced Manufacturing, Aerospace, Creative Industries and Information and Communication Technologies.

Brittany Fox

Brittany Fox Project Manager

P: 1 204 954 1967

Brittany is responsible for managing the marketing and sales consortium of Team Winnipeg, and broader tourism stakeholders’ programs and initiatives.

Julie Perrett

Julie Perrett Event & Project Coordinator

P: 1 204 954 1996

Julie provides support to the Tourism Winnipeg's Project Manager and Business Development Managers. She is responsible for administrative functions, maximizing sales activities, partner engagement and assisting with events that contribute to increasing the visitor economy.

Farnoosh Niroo

Farnoosh Niroo Sales Administrator

P: 1 204 954 1991

Farnoosh is responsible for managing the customer relations management system as well as supporting the sales activities of the Business Development Managers and expediting the bids and proposals in order to attract meetings, conventions, sports and special events to Winnipeg.

Marketing & Branding Team

Tyler Walsh

Tyler Walsh Director of Marketing

P: 1 204 954 1979

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Tyler is responsible for marketing as it relates to Economic Development Winnipeg. He executes strategic marketing plans to increase business investment and visitation to Winnipeg.

Karen Viveiros

Karen Viveiros Director of Communications

P: 1 204 390 5498

Karen leads all communications at Economic Development Winnipeg. She is responsible for managing our corporate messaging through our communication channels and media relationships.

Gillian Chester

Gillian Chester Communications & Travel Media Manager

P: 1 204 954 1977

Gillian is responsible for writing and editing tourism marketing communications, handling travel media requests, developing story ideas, and the travel media program. 

Mike Green

Mike Green Social Media & Creative Communications Manager

P: 1 204 954 1993

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Mike is responsible for development and execution of Tourism Winnipeg's social media plan. He is also responsible for all creative online and offline writing for various marketing mediums.

Kelly Krebs

Kelly Krebs Marketing & Communications Project Manager

P: 1 204 954 1963

Kelly is responsible for managing marketing and communications projects for the organization and leading website and printed publication development. She also manages Tourism Winnipeg’s leisure partnership opportunities program.

Maddy Reico

Maddy Reico Digital & Content Marketing Manager

P: 1 204 954 1968

Maddy is responsible for curating and creating digital and video content to promote and tell the Winnipeg story.

Anne Royal

Anne Royal Marketing Manager

P: 1 204 954 0770

Anne is responsible for managing marketing campaigns and projects, working closely with all business units to support the organization’s goals of increasing business investment, visitation and talent attraction to Winnipeg.

Karen Allen

Karen Allen Graphic Designer

P: 1 204 954 1964

Karen is responsible for the graphic design of the sales and marketing initiatives and maintains the brand standards.

Danica Hidalgo (On Maternity Leave)

Danica Hidalgo (On Maternity Leave) Digital & Content Marketing Coordinator

P: 1 204 954 1965

Danica is responsible for creating and distributing content on Economic Development Winnipeg’s digital properties and sharing Winnipeg stories to foster economic development for our city.

Abby Matheson

Abby Matheson Digital & Content Marketing Coordinator

P: 1 204 954 1960

Abby is responsible for creating and distributing content on Economic Development Winnipeg’s digital properties and sharing Winnipeg stories to foster economic development for our city.

Elisabeth  Harms

Elisabeth Harms Communications Coordinator

P: 1 204 954 1965

Elisabeth is responsible for creating and distributing content on Economic Development Winnipeg’s digital properties and sharing Winnipeg stories to foster economic development for our city.

Economic Development Winnipeg

Suite 810, One Lombard Place
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada R3B 0X3

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