
We believe strongly in the work that we do.
We are committed to giving a voice to children with hearing loss. Auditory-verbal education requires many resources—money and technology, but also patience, perseverance, expertise, and, most of all, time. Our Foundation grants funding to Résonance Montréal to provide families with many of the resources they need to give their child the best chance for success in life.
Founded in 2001, the MOSD Foundation raises funds to help the school support more families throughout their child’s academic career. The Foundation permits the school staff and families to focus on what matters most: teaching a child with hearing loss to listen and speak.

Fundraising for children with hearing loss
Résonance Montréal is supported by the MOSD Foundation, an independently governed charitable organization led by a volunteer Board of Directors and dedicated staff. Through donations from individuals, corporations, granting foundations, and annual fundraising events, the Foundation provides essential funding that allows the school to deliver specialized services to children with hearing loss.
Thanks to this support, Résonance Montréal can offer more families the tools they need to navigate the challenges of hearing loss. The Foundation’s efforts help ensure that children are empowered with language and given the opportunity to develop their full potential.


Fundraising for children with hearing loss
Résonance Montréal is supported by the MOSD Foundation, an independently governed charitable organization led by a volunteer Board of Directors and dedicated staff. Through donations from individuals, corporations, granting foundations, and annual fundraising events, the Foundation provides essential funding that allows the school to deliver specialized services to children with hearing loss.
Thanks to this support, Résonance Montréal can offer more families the tools they need to navigate the challenges of hearing loss. The Foundation’s efforts help ensure that children are empowered with language and given the opportunity to develop their full potential.

Your donations have an impact
At the MOSD Foundation, donors are the superheroes. Thanks to gifts from benefactors like you, children with hearing loss receive the tools they need to learn to listen and speak. Children develop the fundamental skills to succeed not just in school, but in their professional and family lives. Your gift has a life-changing impact.
Thanks to your donations, the MOSD Foundation:

1
Provides the school with funding to support the audiology, early intervention and psycho-social services
2
Supports the professional development of the staff
3
Supports new technology purchases and upgrades to ensure our students are prepared for high school
4
Supports purchases to upgrade the school’s technology for online learning to be available at all times

The Board of Directors
The Foundation is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors and the day-to-day fundraising work is guided by our Executive Director and the team. This passionate team ensures that the MOSD Foundation raises money to help children listen and speak.

Stephen Hurlburt
Chair | Director

Stephen Hurlburt
Chair, Finance Committee | Member, Investment Committee
Steve Hurlburt is a retired businessman involved in the ownership and management of different businesses, most notably H.J. O’Connell Limited, a company specializing in mining and heavy civil engineering projects in the remote regions of Canada. Exposed as a chartered accountant to many different companies while with Coopers and Lybrand in the 1970’s, he was attracted to operations and the risk taking of corporate ownership and elected to accept part ownership of the construction company which he and his partners built into a heavy civil engineering business with the largest equipment fleet in Eastern Canada. Mr. Hurlburt was introduced to the MOSD in 2007 and was immediately intrigued by all that was being accomplished by the school in helping hearing impaired children to listen and speak. In 2010, he was appointed Chairman of the MOSD Foundation Board and has been actively involved in raising funds for the school ever since.

Randall Birks
Vice-Chair | Director

Randall Birks
Member – Governance & Nominating, Finance and Investment Committees
Randall Birks is Chief Investment Officer and Vice-President at Birinco Inc., a Montreal-based merchant bank. Mr. Birks holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a Master’s degree in Investment Management from Boston University, and completed his B.A. at McGill. Mr. Birks is very engaged with broad community issues, particularly around economic efficiency and childhood education. In addition to his work for the MOSD Foundation, he sits on the board of the MOSD. He is a Trustee of the Marchab Foundation, sits on the Board of Governors of the Montreal Economic Institute and is the Treasurer of Selwyn House School. Mr. Birks became engaged with the Montreal Oral School for the Deaf as he witnessed the organization’s success in the early support it provided to his daughter. He is proud to support a great team that helps students with hearing loss fulfill their potential in the hearing world.

Paul Copti
Secretary | Director

Paul Copti
Secretary | Director
Paul Copti is a Senior Vice President in the Construction & Infrastructure practice of Marsh Canada. For more than 20 years, Mr. Copti has helped large construction contractors, infrastructure funds, and international manufacturers manage their risk and insurance portfolio on a global basis.
Prior to joining Marsh in 2019, Mr. Copti was Vice President & Practice Leader – Risk Management at GPL – Gallagher. He has also held senior positions at XN Financial in Montreal, AXA in Paris, and Siaci also based in Paris.
Mr. Copti holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the École Polytechnique de Montréal and a Masters in Information Systems from the École Centrale de Paris. He is a member of the Ordre des Ingénieurs du Québec (OIQ) and is a licensed Damage Insurance Broker at Quebec’s Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF). In 2017, Mr. Copti joined the MOSD Foundation board, encouraged by Emeritus director, Marc Babinski.

Jason Tsadilas
Treasurer | Director

Jason Tsadilas
Chair – Investment Committee; Member – Governance & Nominating-Finance committees
Jason Tsadilas attended Selwyn House for 9 years and graduated in 1988, then attended Appleby College for grade 12 before returning to Montreal to attend McGill University, graduating with a B.A. in Economics while playing on the varsity football team.
Mr. Tsadilas was a portfolio manager at Citadel Investment Group (Europe) for 6 years, where he ran a global macro portfolio. He joined Citadel in 2004 in Chicago, before moving to London in 2005 to help establish the Citadel European platform (Citadel was founded by Ken Griffin and is one of the world’s largest alternative asset managers with more than $30 billion in assets under management). Prior to joining Citadel, Mr. Tsadilas ran the equity derivatives trading desk at the Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, and before that he spent over 4 years with the Bank of Montreal, from 1996 to 2001, running the interest rate derivatives desk in Montreal. Most recently, upon returning to Montreal, he joined Fiera Capital from 2016-2018 and launched and ran the Fiera Global Macro Opportunity Fund.

Susan McKinnon Bell
Executive Director

Susan McKinnon Bell
Executive Director
Graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Major in Management from Concordia University, Susan Bell began her philanthropic career in 2001, after a 25-year career in the banking sector. She has worked at numerous non-profits, primarily in the start-up of their foundations but also to significantly expand their donor bases.
Ms. Bell volunteers with a broad range of organizations: Canadian Tire’s Jumpstart program (where she is the District Manager for the Sud-Ouest borough of Montreal), Batshaw Youth & Family Services, Cedars Cancer Centre’s ‘The Bell’ Fund and the Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation’s annual telethon. She was Past Chair of Jesters Quebec and currently serves on Squash Canada’s Doubles Competition Committee.
Ms. Bell joined the MOSD Foundation team in 2016 and has helped take the school to the next level of learning through distance learning and technology.

Joanne Garfinkle
Director

Joanne Garfinkle
Director
Joanne Garfinkle is a McGill University (1986) graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Economics. She recently retired (from 1987-2017) from Mitchel-Lincoln Packaging Ltd., where she was Vice President, corrugated sales and marketing. Ms. Garfinkle is very active in her communities and has held the following positions: President (2002-2004) and active board member of the Jewish Public Library since 1994; active in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation since 1979.; Board member of the Mount Royal Tennis Club. Secretary and House chair from 2012-2016; Combined Jewish Appeal active member since 1998, helping the isolated and needy during these trying times; active volunteer at the Jewish Community Store (subsidized grocery warehouse for needy Jewish families); Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom active member; member of CAB (volunteer centre) Sutton in 2021 and a Certified Palliative Care Volunteer at Mount Sinai Hospital since 2014 where, since 2017, she has been a qualified pet visiting volunteer. The most important “job” she has held is being a mother to three amazing children who are all young adults and thriving in their studies and chosen professions. Thanks to MOSD board member Honora Shaughnessy, Ms. Garfinkle joined the MOSD Foundation board in 2016, and in her words “as a hearing-impaired person I wanted to help those afflicted to ease the struggle”. Recently married in 2019, Ms. Garfinkle and husband, Richard Stubina, unselfishly requested gifts to the Foundation in honour of their special day.

Sean Hurlburt
Director

Sean Hurlburt
Director
Sean Hurlburt is a graduate in anthropology from the University of Concordia. While pursuing his degree in the mid 90s, he developed a wide knowledge of AV-over-IP (audio-visual over Internet Protocol) systems and related hardware. The combination of anthropology and these skills was a good fit for his current position as sales & system integrator with Environnement Électronique, a job he has held since 2004. The company specializes in residential and commercial audio, video, lighting, window treatments, IP network and home automation products and installation. Mr. Hurlburt was introduced to the MOSD via his sister whose son Ben was born deaf. He saw how well they handled parental fear and uncertainty while providing a program and resources for the child and parents. This led to Sean’s participating in fundraising for the MOSD, and ultimately joining the Board.

Norman Jones
Director

Norman Jones
Director | Chair – Finance Committee; Member – Investment Committee
Norman A. Jones, CPA, CA is a Private Company Services Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Montreal, with more than 30 years’ experience in serving private companies, their owners and not-for-profit organizations (NPOs) across Canada. In the NPO sector he has served professionally both as auditor and business advisor. He has provided hands-on practical advice to many NPOs and private companies including governance, risk management, regulatory, financial reporting, accounting and tax planning. As a volunteer, Mr. Jones has also served in the roles of treasurer, board member, board chair, chair of the audit committee, finance committee and fundraising committee, trustee and president. Mr. Jones agreed to join the MOSD Foundation because he recognized the funding gap between the government funding and the amount required to deliver important programs for children with hearing loss.

Frank Settino
Director

Frank Settino
Director
Frank Settino is an investment counsellor with Kerr Financial Advisors. He manages investment portfolios for high-net-worth clients, while collaborating with Kerr’s financial and tax planning professionals to provide clients with a robust, integrated approach to investment management. Prior to joining Kerr, Mr. Settino spent 15 years as an equity analyst with a major Canadian financial institution as Vice-President, Canadian Equities. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a graduate of the John Molson School of Business. Mr. Settino agreed to join the MOSD Foundation after learning, from emeritus director Robert Kerr, how the MOSD has been instrumental in helping children with hearing loss, and wanting to contribute his expertise in support of the Foundation’s work.
Emeritus members
Marc Babinski
Claudio Bussandri
Consolato Gattuso
Robert Kerr
Reford MacDougall
Luisa Cordoba
Director General – Résonance Montréal
Liz Leahy
Finance Manager – Résonance Montréal