Meet the Team
Michelle Weswaldi - Executive Director
Canadian born, Michelle displayed a love of the stage and performance at the age of six. She was one of the first Canadians to compete, and win, in beauty pageants in the United States, gaining such titles as 'Little Miss New York Model' and 'Little Miss North American Model.' She paved the way for Canadians in the American market of children's pageantry. As an actress, model and dancer she appeared in countless magazines, over 40 commercials, 4 of which were aired nationally, numerous TV Series and has performed at several charitable events.
Now in her 30s, Michelle has taken her passion for film/television/fashion and pageantry to another level. She has worked as a Talent Agent for a principal film/modeling agency, a Pageant coach and is now the Executive Director for the Miss Teen Canada - World Pageant, which is the official pageant to send a representative to Miss Teen World Pageant.
Notable title wins include: 'Miss World Canada 1996', 'Miss Intercontinental Canada 2000', 'Miss Earth Canada 2001'.
Shawn Cuffie - Choreographer
Shawn Cuffie has been active in the Entertainment industry from the age of 16. Since then he has appeared in Commercials, Movies, Videos, TV Shows, Live Shows and has toured many cities in Canada and the United States with professional recording artists.
By 18, Shawn skills had developed in training models & talent through dedication in attending many conventions, workshops and seminars in L.A and New York. Since then, he has perfected his trade - justifiably one of the most sought after professionals - called to work with hundreds of talent throughout Canada and the U.S.A. There is a number of talent after having worked with Shawn, had been placed with large international agencies. Among these selected, the work spectrum includes appearances in spectacular commercials and the gracing runways of the world - including work on Cover Girl Campaigns, Nike Advertisements, L'Oreal Commercials, prominent magazine covers, fashion channels around the world, not to mention designer campaigns and recording contracts.
Some of Shawn's direct efforts include large scale Model/ Talent Competitions in the U.S.A (IMTA) having won 20+ awards over a decade, Corporate Shows for Pepsi, TD Bank, Price Waterhouse Coopers, The Toronto Raptors, Concerts for Kiss 92.5, and hundreds of Fashion Shows.
Because of his keen business sense, will and drive to succeed, by 21 Shawn decided that he was ready for the professional side of the industry. Having started with his first dance rehearsals in his sisters' basement over 10 years ago – he struggled. With the help of friends and family, he was offered rehearsal spaces in church basements, shared lofts, then finally community centers.
Currently Shawn operates his entertainment enterprises in his High Park area studio and offices. With 10 years of passion and dedication, he shines in the Toronto and International Entertainment Industry.
Mr. Cuffie has also aligned himself with great friends in the industry such as record companies, international management companies, international models and the list goes on. These are the movers and shakers who manage large international recording artists and models and acts around the world.
‘As a young entertainer and entrepreneur, it is my dream and priority to help put Toronto on the map on an international level with regards to our Entertainment Industry.' Says Shawn.
Shawn's ultimate goal is to create a legitimate avenue to guide talent through their struggle in the industry with the help of the decision makers themselves.
Account Manager - Chris Binet
Chris Binet has a background rooted in the fashion industry, and he has also enjoyed working in the areas of medical, beauty, food and beverage and entertainment categories of the marketing and communications world. His commitment to growth, learning and excellence is exhibited by his return to Ryerson University in 2004 to complete his Bachelor of Design degree in Fashion Communications with a direct focus on Marketing, PR, event planning as well as graphic and web design.
This multi-disciplined expertise is a valuable asset when dealing with the wider range of clients in the En Course branding and marketing roster.
Chris is passionate and dedicated team member who brings insight, clarity and creativity to our clients.
Rob Campbell Social Media Director
Rob Campbell, CEO of Smojoe Social Media, is one of Toronto's foremost freelance web marketers. He brings over three years' experience building social marketing buzz and effective internet marketing for Canadian companies, Canadian film and TV properties. Smojoe also holds workshops for companies to educate and train on the ins and outs of Social Marketing.
Working with EnCourse/dkpr, Rob brings this valuable expertise to Miss Teen Canada-World's social marketing needs including creating an army of Finalist bloggers – an integral part of the MTC-W's marketing strategy. It is such a valuable marketing tool that blogging is now part of the scoring and evolving the rules to worth 5% of each contestant's final score. "The next Miss Teen Canada-World should be the most skilled communicator; may the best blogger win!"
Richard Carmichael
Executive Producer, FRANK Ideas and Execution Inc.
Richard is a creative guy—but also an influential connector who pulls together awesome groups of talented people to accomplish meaningful things on behalf of his corporate and not for profit clients. He is so inspired by the work of other social innovators and loves doing this so much that he blogs about it in FRANK's Social Innovation Blog.
Richard has been spearheading MTCW's migration into the realm of Web 2.0 and the possibilities created by next generation mobile internet and social networking technologies. Richard has the professional insight, design and execution experience only someone with twenty years in emerging media can bring to the table.
He and his crew at FRANK conceived and embraced the challenge of taking the search for Miss Teen Canada-World into the 21st century. To a world where the things we do every day can and do have a positive impact on those of us who are less fortunate many miles away. The task was to design and develop a brand new community engagement strategy that leverages the power of technology, community and social innovation to assist Miss Teen Canada-World in its effort to expand global awareness and raise more money than ever before for Free the Children in 2010 and beyond. Please Support our efforts and become a VIP today. You can make a difference and the best is yet to come.
Aaron Vegh
Principal, Innoveghtive Inc.
Aaron heads up a highly specialized web development team with over ten years' experience in the field. Trained as a publisher at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University, Aaron is an autodidact with a love for learning new technologies and applying them in exciting new ways. As the Principal at Innoveghtive, Aaron has executed hundreds of complex projects for a variety of clients, ranging from the financial services industry, to apparel and footwear, publishing and more. Innoveghtive's technology solutions provide content management, e-commerce and social networking tools, normally available only to large corporations and put them into the hands of innovative small businesses owners and not for profit organizations.
In collaboration with Innoveghtive, Smojoe and Boomboat, Aaron worked diligently and tirelessly with the team at FRANK to provide the backbone of the site and social networking platforms you see here today.
