As a people-centric, collaborative organization, our collective success is driven by the thousands of individuals who call Avison Young home. Our people embrace curiosity, foster creativity, and promote agile thinking. They leverage relationships, technology, strategic mindsets, and diverse experiences as the tools for success. At the end of the day, our people are the key to success at AY.
While we’re thankful for our people on the daily, our annual Avison Young Awards program gives us the platform to highlight our top talent who are delivering the best value for our clients, harnessing our collective intelligence, and making AY better day by day. Here’s to our 2022 Avison Young Canada Award winners – congratulations to you.
Managing Director of the Year Award
Todd Throndson
Managing Director | Calgary, AB
Todd is an outstanding leader and partner, and an integral part of the AY team. His competitive spirit pushes him, and those around him, to excel and deliver the best outcomes for clients. He has a clever way of seeing the brighter side, which brings out the best in people. Todd is very supportive of his flourishing team, creating an environment that encourages innovation, creativity, and collaboration. One of Todd’s great qualities is his focus on our young talent. He takes great pride in driving the future of our Calgary success by training, encouraging, and supporting our talent throughout their career. A tireless champion of the value of teamwork, Todd has empowered his team to fully engage with colleagues across the organization, to work together on pursuits and on growing business with existing clients. He is a strong advocate for leveraging our technology platform, collective knowledge, and relationships to help our clients and each other achieve success.
Above and Beyond Service Line Award
Olga Ratovskaya
HR Generalist | Toronto, ON
Olga is someone you can always count on and is a person you want on your team. She has consistently gone above and beyond for our operations, providing guidance and continues to do so with a high level of accountability. As a key member of the Human Resources team, Olga approaches every challenge with a smile, positive attitude, thoughtfulness, and collaborative spirit. She has a solutions-oriented mindset and regularly brings forward ideas that help drive improvements. Olga is tactful, responsive, and efficient, and has established herself as a trusted partner. She takes ownership of everything she does and executes critical task in a timely manner. Olga actively seeks to contribute and is detailed oriented, incredibly organized, and hardworking.
Above and Beyond Award
Circle of Excellence
Tanya Arsenault Ewa Filipek Natasha Griffin Ostap Hamarnyk Morena Ianniello Lukasz Kustusz
David Major-Lapierre
Chad March
Karan Parti
Githa Selamet
Christal Summers
Andrea Zviedris
2022 Principal Meeting and AGM team
Melissa Dinslage Rachel Heslop
Dalyn Hoffman
Jason Judy Harry Klaff Keith Knox Liz Lewis
David Major-Lapierre
Ashleigh Mavros
Jayne McColl
Tricia Mockenhaupt
Shella Scheller
Katie Woodside
Zachary Zedd
People Manager
of the Year Award
Marta Simoes
Principal and Director of Operations | Montreal, QC
Marta’s thoughtful, creative and supportive approach to work has helped her forge strong partnerships with colleagues across the organization. People will often seek Marta’s advice and opinions on various issues related to business, personnel, reputation and others – a testament to her strong business acumen and management skills. Marta’s positive attitude creates a supportive team environment and winning conditions for success. She is constantly engaging with colleagues to understand their challenges and exploring different approaches to improve operations and generate better outcomes. Her willingness to jump in to help is appreciated by all those who work with her. No matter the challenge, you can always count on Marta to assess the situation critically to understand the desired outcomes and recommend a course of action that is fair, responsible, and efficient.
Sean Faught Emerging
Talent Award - Canada
Jordan Boin
Sales Representative, Vice President | Toronto West, ON
Jordan was our top producing Emerging Talent in Ontario – he has a focused business development approach to the business and is a collaborator within the office and other markets. Jordan works collaboratively with senior and junior agents throughout the Toronto West office and has also worked with agents across the country referring business, particularly in southwestern Ontario. During the pandemic he took a leadership approach, being in the office and engaging as much as he could. As the Emerging Talent Ambassador, he made a concerted effort to engage with all the Emerging Talent and took the extra time to sit with new people joining the firm. He also helped to organize events and business development competitions in the office, keeping people engaged, focused on business, and adding to the culture of the office. Jordan has demonstrated excellent ethics and patience through his work and mentorship of younger brokers within AY.
Rookie of the
Year Award
Sean Clark
Associate Vice President, Sales and Leasing, Office | Calgary, AB
Sean is a positive influence in the office. He works extremely hard and is a champion of the Avison Young brand. He focuses on suburban office leasing and is predominantly a tenant rep broker. Sean did $455,000 in business in his second year of production. His biggest deal was for Fortress Engineering for 21,000 sq. ft. for 10 years. Sean has strong leadership qualities. He serves on the Emerging Talent Council and younger producers look to him for leadership. Sean is also an active member of the community serving in leadership roles with several charities.
Business Development Award
John Lecky
Principal | Vancouver, BC
John is very creative, unselfish, and team oriented by nature and his north star always has been and always will be his clients. He brings a team-oriented approach into all his business dealings which has greatly benefited clients. John is a strategic thinker who is always looking for ways to involve others in his pursuits. John has built a strong network within AY and proactively reaches out to colleagues regularly to discuss prospective accounts and open files. John is engaged in a variety of local pursuits and active files with eight other Vancouver brokers. His strength lies in fully utilizing the various company tools and resources while customizing the team to best suit the client needs. As is often the case, good players become good coaches and John has mentored three of our Emerging Talent into likeminded producers and ultimately, Principals.
Client Care and Delivery Award
Olivia Anderson
Associate, Client Services Coordinator
Montreal, QC
Joey Di Biase
Principal, Senior Vice President, Real Estate Broker
Montreal, QC
Pierre-Luc O'Brien
Principal, Vice President, Commercial Real Estate Broker
Montreal, QC
David Savard-Fortier
Commercial Real Estate Broker
Montreal, QC
The team of Joey Di Biase, Pierre-Luc O’Brien, David Savard-Fortier, and Olivia Anderson take a keen interest in their client’s business, challenges, and objectives. Over the years, they have established a track record and reputation for negotiating hard for clients and delivering solutions that clients appreciate regardless of the size and complexity of the transaction. The team gets involved with some of the biggest companies in the country and some of the biggest projects including transaction which occur in other provinces and countries. Clients rely upon and trust this team because they know that they will get honest answers and great executions. One example of a client that has been impressed with their approach is McKesson. The client asked to invoice them a significant fee which they felt they wanted to pay because of all the supporting services and attention that have been provided by this team.
Innovation in Action Award
Martin Jepil
Principal, Global Vice President, Enterprise Architecture | Toronto, ON
What if AY knew what AY knows? Martin Jepil wakes up every morning working on the data architecture of our system and mastering of the data in that system to better answer that very question. In early 2022 Martin undertook the multi-year project of master Company Name and Property data across AVANT, NetSuite and HubSpot. What Martin has done is set the foundation for there to be one single version of 100 Madison Ave that lives within each of those systems or one single version of JP Morgan Chase (and all of its affiliates) so we can accurately see our revenues and activity with that client. This may seem simple, but it is truly innovative work for the commercial real estate industry.
Collaboration Award
James Heaps
Executive Vice President | Calgary, AB
James is a true champion for collaboration. He is a creative problem solver who works very closely with several different business groups in Calgary actively looking at new ways to reach out to clients. He brings a different perspective that has helped brokers uncover many new lines of business (financing, structure, mergers and acquisitions, dispositions). He is always seeking opportunities to add value and help grow business. He is as focused on bringing work to others as he is in bringing it in for his team. James also recruited a partner from another company who had a focus on debt to help round out our service platform. Some notable wins from this past year include partnering up with Oliver Kershaw on Canopy Growth and brining in Kent Bacon on Chemex.
Real Estate Management
Services Leadership Award
Steve Harris
Principal, Senior Vice President, Operations | Toronto, ON
Steve has built a stable, professional team committed to service excellence while also building excellent client relationships. This past year, Steve led the renegotiation of fee agreements with many clients that directly benefitted our financial performance. Steve is detail-oriented and is never afraid to help colleagues make AY a better place. He also does not back away from having uncomfortable conversations but uses his diplomacy and intelligence to ensure beneficial outcomes.
Real Estate Management Services Team Member Award
Monica Lee
Supervisor, Business Processes
Toronto, ON
Constantin Negrut
Property Manager
Vancouver, BC
Monica Lee Monica is the consummate team player. While she has core responsibilities, Monica willingly and enthusiastically contributes to the greater team’s success wherever and however she can. She works tirelessly and is universally respected by all colleagues across the country for her professionalism and commitment to their success. Constantin Negrut Constantin demonstrates a commitment to excellence in all that he does. He appreciates and strives to provide clients with the highest level of service delivered professionally and efficiently. Likewise, he is a team player and works well with the entire office. He always maintains his composure in all situations. Most importantly, he is collaborative with the entire team. Clients appreciate his attention to detail, clear and concise communication and professionalism.
Project Management, Construction Management & Consulting Award
Nathalie Gagnon
Principal, Vice President Project Management | Montreal, QC
Nathalie is a natural leader and someone who is extremely committed to the organization and to her clients. She has high demands of herself and her team and is all in when it is time to develop a plan and find solutions. She creates a team environment that has enabled her team to excel. Nathalie is fully committed to executing projects regardless of their size, level of challenge, or complexity. Her expertise and skills are highly valued by the brokers she works closely with. She is recognized by her peers as a talented, knowledgeable expert, and one of the most professional people in the business. Her hard work has led to AY getting more business, having clients really happy with the quality of her work and commitment. Nathalie’s achievements have contributed significantly to the overall growth of the company. Her reputation has also positioned AY as the leading firm in PjM services.
Global awards
Join us in congratulating our team members across the world who showed us excellence over the past year.