Speaker Bios
John De Benedictis, National Manager
TD Canada Trust Real Estate
John has over 20 years of experience managing large multi-location owner occupied buildings and property, and extensive real estate expertise in strategic planning, design, construction, facilities management, operations, outsourcing, business resumption and environmental management.
John has experience working with many well known local organizations early in his professional career including the Robert Hunt Corporation, University of Western Ontario and Bell Canada. During the 1990’s John honed his management skills with Canada Trust where he held several key positions and led the execution of many national initiatives. In the year 2000, when TD Bank merged with Canada Trust to become TD Canada Trust, John played a key role with the bank's retail merger and integration activities and was instrumental in the development of the bank's facilities management outsourcing strategy. John’s current major role is to help develop operational and environmental strategies affecting the domestic retail branch network covering over 6,000,000 square feet and over 1,100 locations, all from his London-based TD office.
In addition to his very busy career and family life, John also finds the time to volunteer with United Way, coach multiple hockey and soccer teams, provide real estate consulting expertise to non-profit groups and chairs the annual London Chamber of Commerce BizExpo committee.
John has experience working with many well known local organizations early in his professional career including the Robert Hunt Corporation, University of Western Ontario and Bell Canada. During the 1990’s John honed his management skills with Canada Trust where he held several key positions and led the execution of many national initiatives. In the year 2000, when TD Bank merged with Canada Trust to become TD Canada Trust, John played a key role with the bank's retail merger and integration activities and was instrumental in the development of the bank's facilities management outsourcing strategy. John’s current major role is to help develop operational and environmental strategies affecting the domestic retail branch network covering over 6,000,000 square feet and over 1,100 locations, all from his London-based TD office.
In addition to his very busy career and family life, John also finds the time to volunteer with United Way, coach multiple hockey and soccer teams, provide real estate consulting expertise to non-profit groups and chairs the annual London Chamber of Commerce BizExpo committee.
Larry Freiburger, DCT, LEED AP, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Environmental Technologist
AET Group Inc.
As a Principal of AET Group, Larry has over 35 years of experience in construction engineering and building in Canada and the United States, with 20 years pertaining to project management and sustainable design applications, and over 10 years experience in solid waste minimization and management. Responsibilities have included project management, site manager, senior review, site monitoring and technical support. Larry is an active member of the Ontario Environment Industry Association, Canada Green Building Council and a number of waste associations, including:
- Association of Municipal Recycling Coordinators,
- Municipal Waste Integrated Network,
- Ontario Waste Management Association,
- Recycling Council of Ontario, and
- Solid Waste Association of North America.
His waste management work has led to publications and speaking engagements with the Canadian Waste & Recycling Expo, University of Waterloo Environmental & Business Conference, and Vinyl Council of Canada.