Executive Biographies

John Fleming is President of CSDA and was the senior editor of Ornamentum magazine. Professor at the University of Toronto, he is retired from the French Department, having served as director of the Museum Studies program in the School of Graduate Studies (2004-2006), and as Coordinator of Graduate Studies at the Centre for Comparative  Literature (1999-2008).

His academic research lies between 18^th and 19^th century French novels, and the nouveau roman in 20^th century France. A secondary research field has been in museology and the material history of Canada. His book publications in this area have won first prize from the Alcuin Society of Canada in 2005, and the American Association of University Presses (best Illustrated trade books in 2005), and more recently, gold in the American Association of University Presses“ Best of the Best” category in 2013 (with co-author Michael Rowan) for Canadian Folk Art to 1950.    

Henry Wiercinski is Chair of the CSDA and practiced business law in Toronto at McCarthy Tetrault LLP,  for over forty years until his recent retirement.  His focus included financial services, structured products, project finance and infrastructure as well as transportation elements related to aircraft and rolling stock financing.  Interested in transportation and urban development,  he is currently Vice-Chair of Rail Safety First, a coalition of residents and business improvement associations that advocates for safe, transparent and accountable rail, Vice-Chair of the Annex Residents Association, and Director of Smart Commute North Toronto, Vaughan. Henry and his wife Faye are interested in a wide range of art and decorative arts. 

Martha Wilder has  over 25 years experience in non-profit organizations, in both professional and volunteer capacities.  Most recently  she was the Membership Secretary for the CSDA,  and  the Foundation and Corporate Giving Coordinator for a United Way agency, St. Stephen's Community House.  She served on the board of Canada's National Ballet School and volunteered with the ROM for more than ten years, actively involved in various committees.  She is currently a Director of the E.W. Bickle Foundation and a Trustee of the Bishop Strachan School Foundation.

Wanting to engage Canadians in their rich heritage, she developed an educational  history board game, called Trailblazer.  The games  were distributed through Fitzhenry & Whiteside publishers and subsequently sold through the Trans Canada Trail Foundation. (An American version soon followed.)  Although, now out of print the Toronto Public Libraries will be using the Canadian material as part of their on-line educational resources. Martha has always loved decorative arts and has a growing collection of drab-ware.

Jennifer Franks  holds an MA in the History of Decorative Arts via Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (Smithsonian Institution and Parsons, The New School for Design), focusing on 18^th-century European glass, ceramics and furniture.

She has worked at auction houses, museums, historic homes, galleries and appraisal firms. Employment has included Christie’s, NY;  the Philadelphia Museum of Art;  the National Trust & Rothschild Collections in the UK; and Georgia's oldest historic house museum. She is currently a Decorative Specialist for Art Peritus  and a "European Ceramics Expert" with New York Fine Art Appraisers. 

Jennifer recently moved to Toronto and is now well ensconced in the arts community. She chairs the Membership & Engagement Committee for the Gardiner Museum of Art and has just founded "Vertu Art & Design", which provides art consulting, appraisals, sales and design services. www.lifeofvertu.com  Her lifelong commitment to the arts has allowed her to inspire & connect people on local & global levels.

Susan Golets has spent more than 30 years working in the not-for-profit and public sector. She is an experienced leader with the Ontario provincial government, and  has worked in a variety of ministries. Over the years she has lead transformational change initiatives in complex policy and political environments by: conceptualizing strategic policy frameworks, designing integrated programs, building partnerships and effective relationships with stakeholders, and developing high performing teams to deliver timely results.

She is currently the Director, Sport Recreation and Community Programs Policy Branch for the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Susan has a Masters degree in Social Work from the University of Toronto and most recently, for six years, served on the board of the Fred Victor Centre, where she also chaired the Service Quality Committee. Susan and Nestor love to travel in Canada and abroad, and they are avid collectors of whatever moves them.

Steven Blevins originally trained as a Forest and then Parks Technician and worked for several years in the field in Nova Scotia. He went on to get a Bachelor of  Landscape Architecture from the University of Toronto and was employed with the Metro Toronto Housing Authority, as an in-house landscape maintenance consultant.  In 1995 he built his own home in the Muskoka area.

Inspired by his mother's love of antiques, Steven went into the antique business and was fortunate to learn from several professional dealers, including Peter Baker and Allan Clairman. He now deals primarily with folk art, ethnographic materials, high country furnishings and decorative arts.  Steven participates in numerous antique fairs and shows across Canada and the United States and has been  Secretary of the Canadian Antique Dealers Association for several years.  Steven collects bird sculptures by Jacob Epp and is currently building a second home in the Muskoka area!

Lindsay Rose-McLean holds a combined honours degree in English Literature and Fine Art History, as well as a M.A in Museum Studies from the University of Toronto. Following an internship with the City of Toronto, Cultural & Heritage Division, she curetted exhibitions in decorative arts and material culture for several  institutions including, Mackenzie House , the University of Toronto and the Canadian Automotive Museum in Oshawa. Subsequently, Ms. Rose-McLean worked as a decorative arts specialist at a prominent Toronto auction house, where she specialized in British and North American silver, ceramics and glass. She works presently as an independent consultant and appraiser and, in this capacity, has worked closely with institutions such as the Royal Ontario Museum, The Royal Alberta Museum,  and The Musee des beaux arts in Montreal, to provide valuations for major donations.

Ms. Rose-McLean joined the staff of Ornamentum magazine in 2009 as is the assistant editor and has steadily increased her contribution to the magazine. She joined the executive committee of the CSDA in 2012, and chaired the Local & National Program Committee for three consecutive years (2014-16), organizing various local events, as well as the annual national symposium. In her spare time, Ms. Rose-McLean volunteers also with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and is an active member of numerous arts-related institutions. Her collecting interests are diverse and range from Edwardian silver, to antique jewellery, to vintage barware, and she can frequently be found attending (or even working) an auction preview.

Gilles Latour, Treasurer - has contributed to the growth of the Canadian education sector for over 15 years as Chief Operating Officer of the EdCan Network - Canadian Education Association. As COO Gilles’s role included the management of budgets, oversight of all areas of membership, events management, sponsorship and patron development, circulation and publishing areas of the association. For his professional volunteering background Gilles is Past President of the Canadian Society of Association Executive Trillium Chapter – a non-profit professional association providing knowledge and resources to the association sector. Gilles has contributed greatly towards arts related organizations such as the Past President of Craft Ontario (formerly the Ontario Crafts Council), Past President of the Canadian Crafts Federation (CCF/FCMA). Past Board member of Visual Arts Ontario (VAO). Gilles currently sits and Chairs on a number of committees at the professional and arts volunteer sectors.