Sun Peaks Resort

Director of Employee Experience & HR (Winter Contract)

Okanagan Elevator

Established business in Kelowna and expanded market reach, exceeding sales targets and tripling revenue through in-depth market analysis, business development and scaling processes and talent.

Developed and executed HR strategy in a challenging hiring market for the skills required, achieving zero turnover through retention initiatives.

Co-founder & Owner / VP People & Sales

BSharp Coaching & Consulting

- Executive and career coaching
- Business and board consultant
- Organization design and development
- Strategic development, process creation and continuous improvement

Consultant & Executive Coach

Numeris

Hired to transform from reactive research focus to a proactive data company; strategic workforce exercise to review company talent end-to-end, prioritize future needs and address skills/training gaps. 
•	Led and managed a multi-level team across Human Resource Business Partners, Generalists, Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, DEIB, Wellness and Recognition. Elevated the function to get out of reactive supervisor level thinking, into proactive strategic management.

Director of People & Culture

FreeAgent CRM

Recruited by Co-Founders to lead HR operations, focusing on talent acquisition and retention for CRM platform during a market downturn. CRM niche focused in the medical field. 
•	Launched and executed an employer brand campaign, increasing job applications by 300%, attracting top talent from Apple, Slack, and EA Games to an unknown B2B SaaS CRM start-up. 
•	Revamped employee relations and talent strategy for a remote and on-site workforce across India, Mexico, the US, and Canada. Restructured the sales organization and solutions consultants.

Head Of Human Resources 

Interior Health Authority

In the Organization & Leadership Development function:
Succession planning framework for a health authority serving 800K people in a forest fire-prone region. 

•	Assigned to complete a case study for recruitment for a prior Director, reviewing the health authority mandate, available data, high-level root causes, issues and make key recommendations to resolve. 
•	Uncovered talent reporting and succession data and insights that were previously unknown to the management team responsible for recruitment and L&OD at the time.
•	Proposed several tactics and plans to approach executive succession planning, and succession planning across Interior Health; including hands on support with a request process available to the entire organization, a full executive team review, and partnering with the VP and board. 

Contract role converted to permanent; left for a headhunted contract opportunity and promotion.

Consultant - Executive Succession Planning & Leadership Development

WestJet

During my tenure at WestJet, I was entrusted with leading the comprehensive People & Culture strategy leading up to the airline’s acquisition by Onex. This included developing and executing a global strategy, ensuring alignment with corporate goals, and optimizing workforce strategies. I spearheaded the creation of a P&C "war room" to facilitate complex planning, which later evolved into a COVID command center. 

In addition supporting the governance and all People & Culture board documents, I was deeply involved in shaping WestJet’s long-term people strategy, from improving organizational culture to enhancing employee engagement and leadership development. My proactive approach and ability to pivot under pressure helped the company maintain strong leadership during uncertain times.

People & Culture - Executive Strategy

Continuously promoted through over a decade long career in Aviation; successful in working across multiple verticals from HR, Operations, Commercial and Finance. Known for my approach to leadership and talent management, and mentorship program experience – recruited to help teams shift performance and strategy.

•	Promoted to oversee and support a 150-person team, developing a five-year people strategy to drive the airline's expansion. This included building a talent strategy to identify the critical skills needed for the future of the airline, while investing in improved technology and advanced network capabilities.
•	Creation and management of a $$MM department budget, and close collaboration with all business unit leaders across the company to ensure HR needs were met through budget and operations. 
•	Developed P&C metrics and a five-year scorecard and strategy with Power BI to help optimize and measure successful delivery.

Executive Advisor to the People and Culture team

•	Promoted to direct three teams across Canada (logistics, customs, dangerous goods). Created technical talent strategy for areas of expertise outside of my wheelhouse by building trust and relationships with the team, active listening and root cause problem solving. Identified talent needs, created a candidate pipeline, and put in place a five-year succession plan that went on to sustain the airline to present-day (on their third planned move of five, years after I left).
•	Reshaped team structure for scalability, accelerated recruitment process and hired new customs specialist to support the recovery of $1M in duties.

Manager - Global Logistics

•	Leveraged ADKAR and Prosci methodology, combining change management and project management approaches to drive the adoption of new initiatives. My approach was commended and used as a template for the organization roll-out. 
•	Led change management initiatives, including WestJet’s shift to a global airline, Office 365 implementations, and the transition from on-premises drives to Microsoft Teams, improving operational efficiency and collaboration.

Change Management Lead

•	Developed a cross-functional talent pipeline, guiding seven team members to 2-3 level promotions over two years by equipping them with new skills and career interests.
•	Implemented an AI audit vendor procurement that reduced the audit cycle from three months to three days and upgraded a custom industry platform to align with a new commission model.

Manager - Travel Agency Payment Services

•	Recruited, mentored, and developed team members, driving professional growth and elevating team performance from last place to 4th through data-driven strategies.
•	Developed a custom mentorship program for new leaders and large volumes of peak period coverage.
•	As a new leader in the department, identified a pattern in reporting of time theft and fraud. Collaborated with HR to address, leading investigations that resulted in the termination of 50 employees and then trained existing leaders in their system on fraud detection.

Leader - Contact Centre

•	Talent strategy for mid-to-executive level in multiple teams and over 50 locations: design and launch of innovative company-wide talent programs, both formal and self-serve, including planning and facilitation of leadership learning and conferences with 200 network leaders. 
•	Creation and facilitation of coveted mentorship programs, and other tactical development plans to address talent gaps in multiple difficult to hire regions – leading to 85% promotion rate. 
•	Successful in gaining executive sponsorship and funding for enterprise-wide cloud implementations related to global talent and recognition.

HR Operations Manager (Various roles and promotions in the same team)

- Workforce planning 
- High volume recruiting
- Scheduling relief duties
- Crew Chief & shift leadership
- Project based assignments, process optimization and change management

Various roles

BSharp Big Arts

An idea made into a colourful reality and social experiment to remind adults in a variety of corporate settings of the power of play in creativity and innovation. Large scale interactive art company partnering with TD Bank, GoPro and Travel Alberta and more. We wrapped up operations with the onset of Covid-19.

Co-founder & Owner

Kim Standeven Coaching

Business and Support Service Manager

Hilton

I cut my teeth in hospitality as a server and room service attendant. This was a fun role that gave me insight to hospitality and tourism and led to a 13 year career at WestJet Airlines in Calgary.

Server & Room Service Attendant

Executive Leader | HR Strategist | Community Builder | Creator of #Hirethishuman

With over 15 years of senior leadership experience across aviation, healthcare, research, tech, and startup environments, I specialize in aligning strategy, culture, and operations to drive scalable growth. From founding and scaling businesses, to leading remote work transitions and building talent pipelines with award-worthy culture programs, I bring a unique blend of strategic foresight and hands-on execution that elevates both business performance and employee experience. I’ve led enterprise-wide change in complex environments — from airlines navigating global expansion to tech startups scaling in volatile markets.

As a trusted advisor to C-suite teams and Boards, who also connects authentically with my teams and frontline employees, I’ve built high-impact organizations and functions from the ground up (E.g. Operations, Sales, People & Culture and Logistics), designed leadership succession models, and turned undervalued employer brands into talent magnets. I’ve led teams across Canada, the U.S., Mexico, India and more, always focused on fostering belonging with inclusive, high-performing cultures whether on-site or remote. My approach is both analytical and human — using data and insights to inform action, and empathy to build trust and resilience through change.

I’m currently open to executive, strategic and business partnering opportunities where I can solve real world problems and contribute to long-term value creation. Whether it's scaling a growing business, supporting founders through transformation, or bringing calm clarity to complex organizational challenges, I thrive at the intersection of people and performance. Let’s connect!

Laurel Burns

Exec Leader & Strategist | 15+ Years of Driving Org Growth & Transformation | Entrepreneur & Founder | Ex-Airlines/Research/Health Care/B2B SaaS | Creator of #Hirethishuman

West Kelowna 👇📚

One of my favourite times of year is here. A Friends of the Library sale! 

Today from 10 to 4pm at the West Kelowna Library.  

Check out your local Library and see how you can support them and related non-profits. Fun fact: at some libraries you can rent audio books, specialty tools like Cricuts and more!

Cheers to Tourism Kelowna for sharing this gem. 👏

I missed the Kelowna one and am excited to still have a chance to support this important cause in 2025.

The best part about working at Sun Peaks Resort? It's not just the people, the snow, golf, terrain park and perks. It is being part of a team who is excited to innovate! 

We were the first to bring the Snow Secure product to Canada. What a cool view of this behind the scenes magic as we removed the tarps and uncovered a mountain of the good stuff. 

Want to join us? We have lots of open roles posted, from Culinary to Avalanche Forecasting - the opportunities are endless! Reach out if you want to connect. Links in the comments below. 👇

Over the past month, our operations and grooming teams have uncovered our stored snow from last spring and spread it across the lower portion of OSV in the Nancy Greene International Race Centre.
 
We’re so pleased to see a snow retention rate of ~80-85% over the warm summer months. @snowsecure has developed an incredible product and we are thrilled to be their first partner resort in Canada.
 
This video showcases the much-anticipated reveal day on October 9. We’ll be dropping Part 2 in the days to come, showcasing the grooming team working their magic as they spread over 10,000 cubic metres of snow towards the Elevation lift base.
 
This weekend we start to welcome alpine race teams from across Canada, and even internationally, as they conduct their early season training in Sun Peaks!
 
For more on this project, click below: 
https://lnkd.in/gh77Qmga

Interesting watching this Canadian company grow and strategize. 

The Canadian Tire Corporation stepped up their game in Kelowna with a brand new super centre, built in the old Costco Wholesale location.

Curious to see how the roll out of the Hudson Bay line goes. From a consumer perspective, their adaptation and acquisition of Party City and Mark's over the years has been well executed (significantly elevating and diversifying the Mark's brand). 

I have long finished my MBA but always have a learning mindset. This would have been a strong case study for strategic M&A on Canadian soil in the last decade!

Kudos to the team who designed the Kelowna project for putting a piece of local tourism pride right in the entrance to boot. Simply inspired!

How you speak to children changes their world. Take this one further, and ask them their favourite way to play. 

Ask them what they are doing when they are lost in time and help them find more of what they are drawn to, in curiosity. 

It is completely possible to love what you do every day, and to solve problems along the way.

Okanagan community. 👇

This one is worth checking out. One of my favourite spots for a cozy patio and Bavarian cuisine. 

Gasthaus on the lake in the District of Peachland. 

They are open year round and have amazing spatzel, and near the holidays they have prime rib special with all the fixins (including yorkshire pudding). 

The 🎄 market is opening November 19 and has an eclectic collection of glass painted ornaments. 

Link below. 🍗

MindPeers

Counselling Psychologist

Sampoorna Manosthiti

Head Of Public Relations

Knight of Steel

Creator and Founder of a blog that spreads awareness on mental illnesses and its aspects.

Founder

Blogchatter

Content Creator

I’m a counseling psychologist and writer based out of Hisar, Haryana. Over the last 6 years, I have been working to make mental health easier to understand for laypeople through lectures, seminars, videos, and articles. 

Having fought clinical depression and suicidality during my teenage years, I try to put more emphasis on men’s mental health to help people and men understand what issues they face and how they can be overcome. 

I also enjoy explaining topics related to stats and research. I believe psychologists, before everything else, are scientists and should be well-versed in the scientific method. My aim is to take the fear of stats and research out of psychology students and replace it with confidence and applicable skills. 

I have also shared my experiences with clinical depression for JOSH Talks. You can listen to my story in detail here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BmyzKHJmHA

Reach out to me for help with research in Psychology or content writing for your organization.

Arjun Gupta

Read the headline and I wouldn't blame you for expecting a funnily frivolous complaint from a man seeking divorce. Read the content and you will see a different picture emerge. [LONG POST ALERT]

The story is of a man whose wife brought home stary dogs in their flat, even though the society didn't allow pets. Presence of these dogs led to fights with neighbors. The man was expected to cook for the dogs and clean up after them. He was also expected to support his wife with activism work even though he wasn't comfortable with it. One time, his wife pranked him by accusing him of having an affair on public radio. 

He simply wants a divorce and to live his life in peace. He gets rejections from the court and a misleading headline by one of the most popular newspapers in the country. 

It will be International Men's Day next week. There will be loads of posts asking men to speak up. How do I ask them to do the same when a man seeking a divorce is seen as a punchline even by the media?

Telling men to speak up is easy but putting in the work to actually listen and understand is difficult. I would say I expected better from The Times Of India but I honestly didn't. This is on brand for them. 

Cannot wait for the "Its okay to speak up" articles they'll publish on Wednesday.

Men’s Mental Health | Research & Stats | PhD @ GJU, Hisar

The co-founder of Netflix, Marc Randolph, is a distant relative of Sigmund Freud. 

I do not know what to do with this info and how to process it.

Netflix

Netflix Co-Founder, Entrepreneur, Mentor & Investor

NCAHP has released the curricula for 13 fields right now like Optometry, EMT, Occupational therapy and Applied Psychology. Most of these fields have NEET as an admission criteria but Applied Psychology is NOT one of them. 

Linking the curriculum for Applied Psychology released in April here. Unless they change it in the next few days, I don't see any reason to think NEET will be mandatory for admissions to Psychology from next year.

NCAHP Curriculum

Influencers are criticized for brainwashing their audience, but what if an audience could brainwash the influencer as well? 

This is called "audience capture", a phenomenon where a creator gets captured by an audience into giving them what they want in exchange for more engagement and loyalty. Its brainwashing - but in reverse. 

For example, I once posted a reel where I talked about strengths of qual research. People loved it. They wanted more. In the next reel, I posted the strengths of quant research. People weren't happy. They wanted black and white content. Not multifaceted, complex views. That's how it happens!

To experience the same high, the creator has to do something even more outrageous, more extreme than last time. For this performance, the audience rewards them with a loyal defense, superhigh engagement metrics and the occasional monetary support. 

This is also why you often see very normal creators become more and more extreme over time. 

The creator that started out as an influencer doesn't realize that they are now the one being influenced by their audience. Performing for a void that will abandon them at a moment's notice. 

Have you seen any examples of audience capture in your life?

Google seems hellbent on making your research easier. In the last 3 days, they have made two updates that have made reviewing literature much easier. 

1. Google Scholar AI Labs: 

Remember having to come up with the right keywords for a Scholar search? Scholar Labs makes it easier to search a query using AI. You enter a prompt and receive 10 most prominent results. I have been using this since yesterday and am surprised at how much I didn't know about my own topic. 

2. Scholar PDF Reader: 

A chrome extension that combines the Scholar database with the paper you're reading. Makes it easier to go through papers and find related ones. Yesterday, they updated it to also allow highlighting some sections of the paper. Everything you highlight gets saved to your Scholar Library. 

Please remember that these are ultimately just tools. It comes down to how you use them, but a hammer makes it easier to build a house than having to do it by hand. 

What tools are you using in your research work right now?

There are people in my network who have tried looking for research assistants, or research interns but struggled. They find it difficult to find students with the right skill set. 

At the same time, in my workshops, I have seen loads of students who have a knack for learning and research. They struggle to find the right roles for themselves. 

Is there a way to bridge this gap? Are there any skills in particular that organizations are looking for that students are lacking? Is there a lack of transparency in the hiring process from the organizations? 

Tagging some folks who I know run such projects, where can students be doing better? 

Arjun Kapoor Gunjan Bhutani Vipul Paliwal Pattie Gonsalves Dr Chinu Agrawal, Ph.D

In the response to the young boy's death by suicide in Delhi, there is a repeated call for counselors in every educational institution. I want to take a moment to ask my colleagues who have worked as school counselors about their experiences in the role. 

In conversations, I hear stories of administrative overreach, compromise of ethics and blurred boundaries. Is that your experience too? 

If you're worried about confidentiality, you can share your experiences over DMs but its something worth talking about. Will more school counselors change things if those already there aren't allowed to work properly?

[Might make a long form video out of this too]

The British Psychological Society has some decent guidelines on how members are expected to conduct themselves online. They're not very descriptive but they lay down some frameworks that can help you navigate social media content creation without compromising on ethics.

BPS Guidelines for Social Media

It's always easy to criticize the outgroup over the ingroup. As a psychologist, I will find it super easy to list 100 things wrong with other professions, but ask me to list 2 things wrong with psychology or psychologists and I will struggle. 

I will be more careful in my words. I will be more apprehensive in any criticism. 

Ingroups give us a sense of belonging and community. Criticising the ingroup risks being excommunicated from it. 

But criticism is not a bad thing. 

Without criticism, groups are more likely to fall for groupthink or experience risky shift. 

Critcism, discussions, debates and disagreements help groups grow. The question is if you are willing to take the risk, or conversely, if you are willing to take criticism directed at you well.

The more I have known, the more I have realized how much I don't know.

When I understood what the p-value was, I thought now I knew most of what was there to know about statistics for research. 

I dug deeper and Andy Field's book made me realize how powerful regression can be. Then I felt again, that now I know almost everything there is know. 

Currently, I am learning about SEM and network analysis. Now I wonder what else I will find after this. Maybe there is a singular apex concept I can learn that will subsume everything else. Maybe that is just a fantasy. 

All I know is that this is probably going to be a lifelong process.

Hello, I am doing a snap online workshop on men's mental health next Sunday. This will be calibrated towards therapists and early career professionals trying to improve their outcomes in therapy with men. 

Over time, I have observed huge gap between the literature on men's mental health and the practitioners. I hope to bridge the gap a little with this workshop. 

Please DM if you would like to join!

More and more reason to believe that the media will happily drive wedges between groups to get a 2% higher click through rate ft. men's mental health. 

I read The Times Of India article on Raghu Ram's views on men's mental health, feminism and high suicide rates in men. It left me frustrated. Why is such an influential person blaming women for suicide rates in men?

Then I watched the podcast from where the clip is taken, understood the context of the conversation, understood the format of the show, and how guests are expected to be while on the show. And things make a lot more sense. 

But that doesn't matter to the folks at TOI. They have succesfully created a pointless debate about who should be 'blamed' for male suicides. 

My friends, you genuinely have no idea how corrupt the media is, and what they are willing to do to make people hate others. Take everything you read with a grain of salt.

The Times Of India

I'm regularly asked," How do I make my guy friends talk?" Listening, good listening can be different for different folks. These differences should be respected.

Wrapped up a small workshop on masculinity and mental health, especially what we keep getting wrong when discussing men's mental health. It was encouraging to see so many therapists share nuance and insights in to how they work with men, while I got to share what empirical evidence has shown to be useful. 

The evidence-practitioner gap ultimately gets bridged when both sides come together for discussions and co-learning. Thank you to everyone who joined!

On the occasion of International Men's Day, I sat down with John Barry from The Centre For Male Psychology to talk about some common myths about men's mental health and how they relate to masculinity. The following is an article shared by Dr. Barry. I hope you find it valuable. 

#mensday #mensmentalhealth

On the occasion of International Men's Day, I sat down with John Barry from The Centre For Male Psychology to talk about some common myths about men's

Open article: Three problematic myths about men's mental health | International Men's Day Special by Arjun Gupta • 4 min read

Three problematic myths about men's mental health | International Men's Day Special

There are some professions that are seen with a sense of omniscience from the general public. They treat people who follow these professions as all-knowing, all-good entities incapable of doing anything wrong. Medicine is one example. Psychology seems to be another one. IAS could be one more(?)

A client comes in with expectations of some divine knowledge or the perfect perspective that the therapist possesses automatically. Similar to an oracle knowing what ails you, and its treatment before anyone could say a word. 

I have been trying to understand this expectation. Why is it limited to some professions and not all of them? Seems like something psychoanalysts will have deep literature on. Any ideas or thoughts?

Hi, small follow-up from yesterday. Responses got a bit overwhelming so streamlining them in a single form. 

I am trying to understand the experiences of psychologists who have been working as counselors in schools or college settings. The form is also open to students who have availed counseling services offered to them at an educational institution. 

The responses shared here will be confidential and anonymous throughout. A written or video content piece may be generated from it. Your identity will remain safe throughout. 

Open to both positive and negative experiences to have a balanced view. 

You can fill the form here. 

https://lnkd.in/g9x3Egf6

If you want to make some impact on the ground while learning from some experts in the field, this is your chance! The Punjab government is teaming up with TISS, Mumbai to combat substance misuse in the state. You could play a part in it too!

Registrations will close on 7 December. Take the opportunity that I cannot :')

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