Celia Smith is the CEO of Luminato Festival, Canada’s leading multi-disciplinary, international festival of arts, culture and creativity that takes over the GTA region with big, bold, contemporary work every June. She is also chair of the Toronto Arts Council; faculty at Schulich School of Business, co-founder of the League of Toronto Festivals, along with the leaders of Pride Toronto, Salsa on St. Clair and Toronto Caribbean Carnival; co-founder of LEAN (Leadership Emergency Arts Network), a national pro-bono response to help arts organizations across the country during COVID. In former lives, she was the COO of TAS, a community-focused mixed-use private developer; President of Artscape, a non-profit housing and community hub creator; and General Manager of the Canadian Stage Company.

Olivia Ansell is the Artistic Director of Luminato Festival, presenting her inaugural festival programme in June 2025. She concluded her tenure as Festival Director of Sydney Festival, completing her fourth and final festival in January 2025.  Previously, Olivia spent three years as Head of Contemporary Performance for Sydney Opera House Presents. A graduate of Queensland University of Technology, the Australia Council’s Executive Leadership Program and Chief Executive Women Leadership Program Sydney, Olivia was voted one of Vivid Sydney’s Top 100 Creative Catalysts. She is also a lecturer in Movement for the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Con Opera School.

Douglas Knight is a member of the Order of Canada and serves as chair & CEO of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, and as a senior fellow at Massey College. A graduate of the University of Toronto and the London School of Economics, he was a senior media executive and a leading digital media strategist in Canada and the United States for 40 years. He served as president of St. Joseph Media, publisher & CEO of The Financial Post and the founding chair & CEO of ImpreMedia LLC in New York. 

He has served on corporate, industry, community and cultural boards for many years, including serving as chair of the Business and the Arts Awards and of Opera Atelier, vice-chair of the Toronto Symphony and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, a trustee of the Arts Foundation of Greater Toronto and a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the Faculty of Music of the University of Toronto.

maxine bailey (she/her) is a dynamic member of Toronto’s arts community, her passion for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility for all runs deeply in everything she does. She currently serves as Executive Director of the Canadian Film Centre (CFC). Previously, maxine served as the Vice-President of Advancement at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) where she founded Share Her Journey, a five-year fundraising commitment to achieving gender parity both on and off-screen.

She also co-founded the Black Artists Network in Dialogue (BAND), which showcases Black cultural contributions nationally and internationally, and currently participates on the advisory boards and steering committees for the Toronto Arts Council/Foundation Advocacy Committee, the Canadian Academy, Luminato Festival Toronto and the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund. maxine was named one of NOW Toronto’s Local Heroes and as a voracious reader, she sat on the juries of the Scotiabank Giller Prize as well as the Trillium Book Award.

Peter A. Herrndorf CC O.Ont, served as President and CEO of Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) from 1999–2018, and served as Luminato’s Chair from 2018 – 2023. Among the many accomplishments during his tenure, he was instrumental in establishing the National Arts Centre Foundation, the NAC’s Indigenous Theatre Department and leading Canada’s largest performing arts organization through a $225.4M architectural and production renewal project that modernized the NAC’s 49-year-old building. Prior to joining the NAC, Herrndorf was Chairman and CEO of TVOntario and held various programming and executive-level roles including Head of TV Current Affairs Programming, Vice President of Corporate Planning and Vice President and General Manager at CBC’s English Language Radio and Television Networks. He also served as Publisher of Toronto Life.

In 1992, he and his colleague Brian Robertson created the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards (GGPAA). His other awards and distinctions include the inaugural Peter Herrndorf Arts Leadership Award (Business for the Arts); Diplôme d’honneur (Canadian Conference of the Arts) for outstanding service to the arts in Canada; William Kilbourn Award (Toronto Arts Awards Foundation); John Drainie Award (Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television); and honorary degrees from 10 Canadian universities and colleges.