New CanadaHelps Board Members

CanadaHelps is thrilled to welcome two new members to the CanadaHelps Board of Directors.  Ashu Avasthi is the National Practice Leader - Digital Transformation at Grant Thornton LLP, and Leen Li is the Chief Executive Officer of the Wealthsimple Foundation.

As a public foundation, CanadaHelps is governed by a dedicated, volunteer Board of Directors who follow best practices for board governance, and provide broad strategic oversight to ensure that all of our resources are used in pursuit of the organization’s Mission and mandate. As a technology organization serving charities and donors, CanadaHelps strives to have expertise representing the charitable sector and tech and digital business. 

Both Ashu and Leen bring deep expertise in technology and start-up environments, as well as a passion for supporting charities and are excited to be part of CanadaHelps’ next stage of growth.    

Meet Ashu Avasthi and Leen Li

• Ashu Avasthi is a Partner with Grant Thornton LLP in their Business Consulting and Technology practice. Over the past 20 years, Ashu has held senior management positions leading Product and Sales teams with the goal of helping organizations grow their revenue through the development and execution of innovative sales strategies. Ashu’s journey has taken him through assignments in Product Development & Management, Marketing, Sales Operations, Direct Sales and Management Consulting. At Grant Thornton Ashu’s key responsibilities are the development and execution of business transformation initiatives for clients in key areas such as technology, revenue growth and operational optimization.

“Working with other not-for-profit organizations in my capacity at Grant Thornton and helping them succeed in their mission, I am excited to have the opportunity to work with CanadaHelps to amplify impact to the other thousands of not-for-profit organizations in Canada that are improving the lives of Canadians everyday.

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• Leen Li  is the Chief Executive Officer at Wealthsimple Foundation, a charity with the mission to enable a brighter future for everyone in Canada through access to post-secondary education. Previously Leen was the Chief Financial Officer at Wealthsimple, a leading financial technology company on a mission to help everyone achieve financial freedom by providing products and advice that are accessible and affordable.  Leen was part of the founding team and led finance and operations at Influitive, a marketing technology startup in Toronto, and has held a number of positions at HSBC Canada, Eloqua (acquired by Oracle in 2012) and China Construction Bank. Leen is actively involved in the community and has a passion for education, healthcare, technology, and advocating for women and people of colour. She sits on the board of the George Brown College Foundation, and the advisory board of MoveTheDial and Medchart. Leen holds an MBA in Finance from Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University.

“Fundraising is time consuming and distractive for many charities, and CanadaHelps offers a digital solution to help thousands of charities focus on advancing their mission instead of administrative tasks. I am super excited to be part of CanadaHelps to continue supporting the entire charity community in Canada.”

Read more about our full board of directors on our website https://www.canadahelps.org/en/why-canadahelps/board-of-directors/