Our Story
At Trella, our mission is to support and guide the growth and harmony of families. Our interdisciplinary team works together so that you can weather storms and surmount challenges. Trella uplifts your family enterprise, providing clarity and understanding, so that you see progress and success. As a family with or without an operating business, achieving your vision is our mission.
Trella is a source of resource and respite for enterprising families, including family businesses and families of wealth. Our team of consultants and educators comprises strategic thinkers and experts in varied backgrounds to provide you with thoughtful guidance and individual pathways to growth.
United by our mission, we are dedicated to yours.
Take your family enterprise to the next level
Trella offers a private, confidential environment of highly skilled interdisciplinary advisors. We can help families of wealth and family businesses overcome difficult and sensitive issues and take advantage of future opportunities so you continue to grow and evolve.
The Trella Team
Consulting
Judi Cunningham
Judi is passionate about working with families as they manage wealth, operate businesses, and strive toward deeper connection and long term strength. She has dedicated her career to helping families of wealth and business families thrive. With a holistic view of their needs, Judi facilitates alignment and decision-making processes with strategic thinking and adept facilitation. It was these career-long commitments that led her to form Trella. With a Masters degree in Family Systems Counselling and over 20 years consulting with complex enterprising families, family offices and professional advisors, Judi is a creative and deep thinker. She started the Business Families Center at the University of British Columbia and launched the Family Enterprise Advisor (FEA) program and designation. She is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) and on the Advisory Board for the Purposeful Planning Institute (PPI).
Judi loves adventure and visiting new places. Born in Montreal and then growing up in Vancouver, Judi currently calls Toronto home.
Designations: MA, FEA, CEPA
Email: judi.cunningham@trella.ca
Todd Garretson
For over 20 years, Todd worked in corporate leadership roles at companies such as Newell Rubbermaid and Hunter Douglas. Moreover, as a third-generation owner and executive in his family’s manufacturing business, he has both the skill and the experience to help facilitate the growth of both people and their organizations without losing their stability. As an advisor, Todd works with executives, leaders, and teams that span industries such as financial services, retail, hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, and more. A seasoned speaker and facilitator, his expertise and commentary have been featured in publications including CEO.com, SmartBrief, Axial Financial Forum, and many others. Todd is a unique blend of architect and builder, possessing both the skill to envision possibilities for those he works with and the practical know-how to make those ideas come to life.
Todd lives in Atlanta with his wife and four children. In his free time, Todd enjoys spending time with his family outdoors, coaching youth sports, and trying to stay fit.
Email: todd.garretson@trella.ca
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Katherine Bright
Kathy has worked with enterprising families for nearly twenty years. As a consultant, educator and board director, she works with families to help them thrive across generations. In addition to this, Kathy guides professional advisors to better understand the complex needs of their family business clients. Her range includes hands-on experience with strategy and governance and she has served on numerous family business and public company boards. She has acted as the President and an Officer of the Board for Family Enterprise Canada and Director of the Board of the Business Families Centre at UBC’s Sauder School of Business. Kathy offers insightful consulting perspectives, with interests in leadership, succession and continuity planning, strategy, risk management, governance structures, fiduciary responsibility, and the development and maintenance of positive relationships in enterprising families.
Kathy lives in Vancouver with her husband, two children and their puppy.
Designations: MBA, FEA
Email: kathy.bright@trella.ca
Russel Baskin
Russel brings a human development background and a passion for family enterprise to her consulting and coaching work with families and advisors. Over the past 20 years Russel’s career has included consulting with enterprising families, as well as leadership roles in marketing, business development and the not-for-profit sector. Before joining the Trella Advisory Group, she was the National Director of Education and Programming for Family Enterprise Canada. As consultant with the Trella, Russel brings grace and compassion to working with families understanding the interconnected relationship between the needs of the individual and the well-being of the family. A creative thinker and direct communicator Russel is committed to success and excellence of all her clients.
Russel has travelled extensively, and has lived and worked in England, Hong Kong, United States, and Canada. She maintains her dry British wit, and considers a sense of humour, especially the ability to laugh at oneself, an essential component to life. She now calls Toronto, Ontario home.
Designations: CEC, CPRC, FEA
Email: russel.baskin@trella.ca
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Laura Barton
With over 20 years of experience, Laura specializes in improving communication, strengthening team dynamics, and building relationships across family enterprise systems. By incorporating holistic wellness with her practice, Laura facilitates the personal and professional well-being and efficiency of those that she works with. Among the first licensed practitioners for Insights Learning and Development in Canada and a member of a think tank led by its founder, she has also spoken at various conferences and co-chaired the Executive Coach Summit (U.S. and Canada).
Laura designs and implements peer advisory groups for a variety of organizations including the Sauder School of Business and the Young Adult Forum. She teaches on varied family enterprise-based topics, including: developing capacities; constructive conflict; leading change; managing stress; and generating trust.
Laura lives in Michigan with her husband and commutes regularly to Canada to see her two grown daughters.
Designations: MA
Email: laura.barton@trella.ca
Dave Galloway
Dave believes that family enterprises have a unique opportunity to work together at a higher level by addressing how each member functions in the overall system. With over 15 years of training and experience with Bowen Family Systems Theory, Dave has counselled numerous individuals and families. In his work, Dave helps families resolve complex and emotionally charged issues by encouraging each person to differentiate themselves and clarify the goals they have for themselves and the family. Dave’s unique skill set combines his counselling background with extensive business experience working for startups that have become successful enterprises.
Dave is certified as a Clear Leadership trainer and has the FEA (Family Enterprise Advisor) designation. He co-facilitates Clear Leadership workshops and programs at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
Dave lives and hikes in North Vancouver, BC with his wife of 41 years. While having Scottish roots, he loves Paris. If he’s not writing, he’s scanning journal articles for new research on what it means to be human.
Designations: FEA, Clear Leadership
Email: dave.galloway@trella.ca
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Robyn Hooper
A chartered professional accountant with more than a decade of experience supporting families, Robyn handles the unique and complex needs of enterprising families with insight and precision. She is an experienced steward for families with wealth, and is adept at translating the complex languages of financial structures for the family enterprise systems she works within. In addition to her CPA, CA and FEA designations, Robyn has also completed level one of the CPA Canada In-Depth program and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, Accounting.
Having worked in both the private and public spheres, her passion is in working with families through the complex financial considerations and decisions that they face, within their family systems, businesses, and everything in between. She is passionate about supporting families of wealth and business families as they work to deeper satisfaction, and is particularly committed to facilitating their efforts in areas of philanthropy and social enterprise.
She lives in Vancouver with her husband and two children, and a supportive extended family.
Designations: BBA, CPA, CA, FEA
Email: robyn.hooper@trella.ca
Dawn Schooler
With more than 30 years of experience as a coach, counsellor, facilitator, and teacher, Dawn is also a business owner who became focused on the unique challenges of Family Enterprise about a decade ago. Dawn’s background in Business, Counselling, and Psychology allows her to quickly understand the dynamics within systems and facilitate meaningful discussion and solutions for individual members of business and ownership groups, as well as the whole family. Her willingness to engage in difficult conversations creates a safe atmosphere in which to confront issues often arising in families who are in business together.
With a natural inclination to engage in ways not commonly seen in traditional counselling settings, Dawn is continually humbled by every invitation into the inner workings of families who desire deeper reflection and connection in their work and their lives. She is also currently completing research for her doctoral dissertation on “The role of gender across leadership, transition, and succession processes of Family-Owned Business in Canada” at Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC.
Born and raised in Alberta, Dawn has called Vancouver, BC home since 1988.
Designations: MA, DBA (candidate), FEA, RCC
Email: dawn.schooler@trella.ca
Julia Chung
Julia loves combining big picture thinking with technical knowledge and values-based decision making. As a member of an entrepreneurial and academic family, she grew up navigating the complexities of families with shared wealth and business interests. Since then, she’s gained over 25 years of experience working in finance and more than a decade in entrepreneurship. Julia’s unique experience and education allows her to help families find understanding in the complexities of their own systems, and develop frameworks for decision making built around their value systems.
Julia has founded five companies and a non profit organization, written three e-books in addition to numerous articles, and is a Board Director for Family Enterprise Canada and the Financial Planning Association of Canada. She is a voracious learner, with education in tax, estates, personal and business finance, change management, leadership, mediation & conflict resolution, risk management, and much more.
Julia lives in South Surrey with her cat, as her son is now independent and building businesses of his own.
Designations: CFP ®, CLU, FEA, TEP
Email: julia.chung@trella.ca
Operations
Carly D'Orazio
Operations Manager
New to the Trella team, Carly has taken on the role of Operations Manager.
After graduating from the University of Western Ontario with honours Carly entered the recruiting industry to pursue her passion for people and sales. In her role at two international recruiting firms Carly was responsible for working closely with C-suite executives of Fortune 500 companies to support their human resource needs and assist in the acquisition of exceptional candidates to add value to their business. Driven by her entrepreneurial spirit Carly co-founded an Ecommerce jewellery company in 2021 where she has developed the skills to succeed in business management and ownership.
A detail-oriented and organizational master, Carly has a great understanding of the important work that happens behind the scenes that is pivotal in the success for both the company and client.
Carly enjoys traveling, reading, cooking and spending time with family and friends. She resides in Toronto with her fiancé and dog.
Email: carly.dorazio@trella.ca
“We moved from the intuitive to the intentional.”
Enterprising Family with $2B Diversified Holding Company
Speaking Engagements
Trella advisors are well respected in the family enterprise community and are often engaged as speakers or subject matter experts at industry events such as conferences, university centers, and industry associations. We have speakers available for topics that include:
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Succession Planning
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Exit Planning
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Building and Managing Effective Governance Structures in the Family Enterprise
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Building Capacity in the Rising Generation
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Aligning Family Business Owners’ Interests
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The Unique Role of Family Business Directors
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Building a Multi-Generational Mindset
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Organizational Strategy and Culture Building
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Organizational Performance and Engagement
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Coaching and Leadership Skills for Managers
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Developing Leadership in the Business
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8 Dimensions of High Performing Teams
Interested in having a member of our team participate in your event? Please contact us to arrange the details.