Justine Fedak
A senior branding, marketing, and communications executive for more than 20 years, Justine is Pollara’s Chief Brand Strategist, lending her expertise to our team’s various brand development and redevelopment projects for a wide range of clients across all sectors. Leveraging the extensive experience she has gained designing and improving diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at the Instant Impact group – which she co-founded with Star Jones – she is also a lead contributor to Pollara’s DEI-related research studies for public and private sector clients.
Justine is an experienced, well-known speaker across the US and Canada, presenting her views and approaches to marketing and branding at hundreds of industry conferences. She is also sought after for her motivational keynotes and speaking engagements, where she shares her experience living with multiple sclerosis and her advocacy for healthy living.
Justine was a senior marketing and communications executive with BMO for over 20 years, including holding the position of Global Head of Social Media, Brand, and Sponsorships for BMO Financial Group. She has written a regular column in the Chicago Sun-times’ Splash, and recently published a book for children entitled The Happy Magic Chair. Justine holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Sociology from the University of Toronto, and an MBA from Dalhousie University. In 2015, she was honoured as the youngest recipient of Dalhousie’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
She has also been honoured as Out on Bay Street’s 2011 Leading Executive Ally (Toronto), the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s 2013 “Woman on the Move” (Illinois), the Chicago Business Journal’s 2015 Women of Influence, Chicago Sky’s 2016 “Redefine Possible” Women’s Leadership Award recipient, and the 2017 Cohn Weil Memorial MS Honoree.
She is a member of the Board of Directors of The Magnificent Mile Association, the Chicago Police Foundation, and is on the Executive Committee of the Chicago Sports Commission and the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association. She is the past Chair of the City of Chicago Municipal Marketing Advisory Counsel as well as other prominent boards.