Our Partners
Our clients are balanced between large, medium and small organizations who understand the need to remain evergreen and are amenable to co-create a vibrant future by developing new formats.
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Luigi Ferrara
PRINCIPAL OF CONIFER
Luigi Ferrara is the Principal of Conifer, a design, strategy, sustainability, and digital transformation company focused on creating new formats for the future through collaborative creation.
For 22 years he served as the Director and then Dean of the Centre of Arts, Design and Information Technology at George Brown College in Toronto. During his tenure he directed the renowned Institute without Boundaries for 20 years and then became the founding Chair and CEO of the Brookfield Sustainability Institute (BSI). He was President and is now a Senator of the World Design Organization which represents the global design professions, academic institutions, promotional organizations, corporations and design cities. He is a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, an architect and multi-disciplinary design practitioner who has worked in the fields of urban design, planning, architecture, interiors, exhibition, strategy, research and innovation, branding, product system service design, interaction design, software development and management consulting. He lectures on topics such as digital transformation, sustainability, collaborative design, design thinking and innovation.
Jacob Kessler
HEAD OF OPERATIONS
Jacob Kessler is Head of Operations for Conifer. Before Conifer, Jacob most recently worked with Luigi as Director of Account Management, Partnerships, and Content Production at the Brookfield Sustainability Institute.
For over 25 years, Jacob has built businesses and teams in the entertainment, strategy, marketing & advertising, retail commerce, and technology sectors. He is an award-winning branding and marketing strategist and producer. Jacob has worked on projects and campaigns with global organizations such as Audi, Live Nation, Abbott Labs, University of Toronto, Canadian Olympic Foundation, Spider-Man: The Musical, Rogers Sportsnet, Canadian Red Cross, Havergal College, and Renova. Interestingly, he has been a sought after creative specialist over the years focused on advertising in the real estate new high rise and low rise development market, working on branding projects for some of the top developers and sites in Canada, such as Toy Factory Lofts, One Bloor, Ice Condos, Pemberton Group, Empire Communities, and Maple Leaf Square. He is proud to have launched Plan Canada’s Because I Am a Girl movement across Canada, which won Gold at the Cassies Awards (the top advertising award for results) three years in a row. The program was eventually rolled out worldwide and influenced the UN to designate October 11 as International Day of the Girl.
About Us
The founders of Conifer Futures have dedicated their careers to elevating collaborative thinking and creating and producing of market ready solutions for clients and society at large.