Bill 7 Award

A Post Secondary Scholarship for Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Two-Spirited and Queer Students in Ontario.

Trustees

The Bill 7 Award Trust is directed by a volunteer Board of Trustees, appointed by our current partner organizations: Supporting Our Youth (SOY) and the Community One Foundation.


Paul Ray

Paul Ray, Trustee, Chair

Paul works in the financial services industry with a focus on risk management and compliance. As a trustee and the Chair of the Bill 7 Award Trust, Paul brings experience as an auditor for Ernst & Young LLP. Paul obtained his Bachelor of Commerce from the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University and has been a Chartered Accountant since 2010. He is a long-time supporter of charitable organizations that make a difference in the lives of young people in his community.


Greg Johns

Greg Johns, Trustee

Greg is currently Senior Negotiations Executive for IBM. He has been a trustee of the Bill 7 Award Trust for the past 10 years. As a seasoned business executive and lawyer, Greg leads negotiation of IBM’s largest and most complex contracts and acts as a trusted business advisor to IBM senior executives. Greg is an Out Executive at IBM, a member of IBM’s Global LGBT+ Council and a sponsor of its LGBT+ employee network group. He also has a passion for LGBTQ charitable causes and is a founding member of exeQutive a Toronto group for LGBT senior leaders. Greg was called to the Ontario Bar in 1990 and is a graduate of the Faculty of Law at Queen’s University and the Ivey Business School at Western University.


Stacey Petersen

Stacey Petersen, Trustee

Stacey is a Vice President at RBC Direct Investing.  She is a recent (2019) addition as trustee of the Bill 7 Award Trust and delighted to be able to support the community in such a tremendous way.  Stacey is a proud member of RBC’s CEO Diversity Leadership Council and a strong supporter of LGBT+ inclusion through active participation in LGBT+ issues at work and in the community.  Stacey obtained her Bachelor of Science from Bishops’ University and her Master of Business Administration from the Rotman School of Management.


Ana Qarri

Ana Qarri, Trustee

Ana is the first recipient of the Bill 7 Award to sit on the Board of Trustees. She is currently pursuing a JD/BCL degree at the McGill Faculty of Law. Before law school, she held a variety of legislative and public policy positions in Toronto, including as a non-partisan intern to the New Democrats' Critic for LGBTQ+-issues. Ana is interested in making law accessible and welcoming for queer and trans lawyers-to-be; during her time at McGill Law, she has served as an editor for Contours, a journal for gender minorities in law. She was awarded the 2020 Women General Counsel Canada scholarship for her commitment to the advancement of women in law. Ana’s interest in law is primarily at the intersection of law and technology, including privacy issues that impact marginalized communities. As a first-generation Albanian-Canadian, she is excited to expand outreach efforts for the scholarship to reach a wider diversity of LGBTQ+ students across Ontario. 


Tatsuya Aoki

Tatsuya Aoki, Trustee, Treasurer

Tatsuya currently works in Finance at an operating entity of Brookfield’s Insurance Solutions business group. He previously worked at EY and was involved with EY’s LGBTQ+ professional network, Unity, from which he first learned about and became a supporter of the Bill 7 Award Trust. He was recently (in 2023) appointed as a trustee and treasurer of the Trust, bringing his financial reporting skills and technical accounting knowledge as a Chartered Professional Accountant. Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Tatsuya came to Canada for his undergraduate studies at UBC, where he earned his Bachelor of Commerce degree.