Through its team of independent consultants, HR Proactive is able to provide the services of knowledgeable, experienced industry professionals with impeccable credentials. HR Proactive’s affiliates share HR Proactive’s values of integrity and commitment to quality.

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Profile of Diane E. Mason

Diane E. Mason is the President and founder of HR Proactive Inc.

Diane has a wealth of experience in the field of human rights having practiced extensively as an investigator, fact finder and mediator. Diane has investigated and/or mediated well over a thousand cases since 1990 both for the Ontario Human Rights Commission and in private practice. Diane has handled cases involving all prohibited grounds of discrimination and harassment under the Human Rights Code. Diane has worked in the specialized area of intranet and e-mail investigations. Diane is a member in good standing with the ADR Institute of Ontario, and has a background in Social Services and has received a certificate in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Diane’s fifteen years of experience in various employment settings across Ontario assisting employers with workplace disputes and her commitments to work excellence and quick turn-around time is why her firm is highly recommended by school boards across Ontario as being the best firm to train their employees and manage their workplace disputes. Diane currently oversees new product development and day to day operations.

HR Proactive associates are responsible for investigating complaints of harassment and discrimination; developing and implementing human rights related training and supportive human resource management policies; conflict resolution; facilitation and mediation and for the design of conflict management systems. The HR Proactive team has developed a comprehensive line of human resource management training products for today’s diverse workplace with a focus on creating respectful workplaces.


Profile of Cheryl Henshaw

Cheryl is available to assist HR Proactive clients with investigations of human rights and other work-related complaints, as well as dispute resolution.

After practicing law for 15 years in Windsor in the areas of civil litigation, employment law and administrative law, Cheryl decided to apply her skills as a lawyer in a less traditional career as the human rights commissioner and Ombuds for the University of Windsor. As the human rights commissioner for the University of Windsor for 8 years, Cheryl was responsible for investigating human rights and other work-related complaints, as well as complaints of unfairness in decisions, policies and procedures. In addition to her duties as an investigator, Cheryl was responsible for assisting in the resolution of complaints and for developing and delivering educational training initiatives. She served as a resource to managers, supervisors and union leaders about rights and responsibilities under human rights laws as they applied to labour relations matters.

Cheryl’s received her B.Sc. from the University of Toronto and her law degree from the University of Western Ontario. She has completed courses in investigations and dispute resolution, including Advanced Investigative Training for Administrative Watchdogs sponsored by the Ombudsman Ontario Office and a mediation course at Stitt Feld Handy Houston, affiliated with the University of Windsor. She has a reputation for integrity, fairness and courtesy and for exercising her functions in a fair, impartial and independent manner


Profile of David Griffin

For more than twenty years David Griffin has provided strategic leadership and guidance to Canadian organizations in a variety of sectors and roles. A proven leader with significant labour relations, governance, and management expertise, David provides dynamic training workshops for HR Proactive clients on their obligations under Bill 168.

A former police officer, over the course of his career David’s labour management experience has included collective bargaining, grievance administration, discipline tribunals, workplace complaint and dispute resolution, and presenting cases before boards of arbitration. He has extensive experience in the interpretation and application of legislation, government policies and directives in quasi-judicial environments and tribunals, representing persons and organizations presenting to boards of arbitration, disciplinary hearings, tribunals, and legislative and parliamentary committees.

David has served on advisory boards and committees for provincial and federal government departments and agencies for a variety of initiatives, including public safety, legislation and policy, police training, and employment equity. David served for over five years as a member of the Ontario Police Arbitration Commission, which oversees the dispute resolution process for Ontario’s police services, including conciliation, mediation and arbitration.

From 1999 to 2009, David served as the Executive Officer for the Canadian Police Association in Ottawa, where he established successful non-partisan public policy advocacy and public relations practices through effective relationship management and communication skills. David enjoys public speaking and has been a regular witness before committees of Parliament, as a passionate advocate for public safety and policing issues. He has authored numerous briefs, position papers and presentations, and is a frequent guest speaker at conferences and events.

David’s areas of expertise include pensions and retirement planning; having served as the Chair of the Board and Director with OMERS, one of Canada’s largest public sector pension funds. In addition to OMERS, David was also Chair of the Board and Director for two labour sponsored venture capital investment funds. His governance expertise has been developed through experience as a member of board governance, executive, audit, management, compensation, valuation, investment, pension, and constitution committees.

David holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Ottawa, and is currently completing the Directors Education Program of the Institute of Corporate Directors and Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He has completed numerous workshops and courses of study in labour relations and workplace issues, including collective bargaining, harassment and discrimination, employee discipline, pay equity, employment equity, pensions, governance, and retirement planning, David has attended and also presented at the Police Labour Seminar at Harvard Law School. David is a member of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD), the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI), and the Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE).


Profile of Lauri Sue Robertson

Lauri Sue Robertson, holds degrees in Social Work, Criminology and Human Resources. She is a former prison guard, social worker and has 15 years of experience as a human resources manager. Since becoming disabled by arthritis in 1993 she has been developing and delivering disability awareness training, consultation and site audits for clients who seek to create accessible environments.

Lauri Sue is an expert resource on the accommodations needed by those who live with speech, visual, physical, intellectual, psychiatric, neurological and learning disabilities, as well as those living with chemical sensitivities, facial differences or hearing loss.

Clients include government agencies, banks, hospitals, major corporations and private industry. She has developed and delivered extensive training programs in the banking, tourism entertainment, and transportation sectors, and provided site audits in retail, hospitality, manufacturing, hospitals, tourism, recreation and office environments.

Lauri Sue writes for newspapers and magazines and speaks frequently to public and private organizations, on the issues of sensitivity and accommodations for people with disabilities. She is a past President and Vice President of the Diversity and Employment Equity Professionals Association. She was on the provincial committee for the Employment Standards of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, and has written many training manuals for the province. Lauri Sue created the provincial program for customer service for people with disabilities, and the Talk to Me video currently in use by the province to introduce the training concept to employers.


Profile of Susan Jostman

Susan Jostman has over twenty years of experience working exclusively in the human rights and employment fields in both the public sector (Ontario Human Rights Commission - OHRC, Ontario Ministry of Labour – MOL, Employment and Immigration) and the private sector as a consultant.

Susan has extensive experience in public speaking, education, training, policy development, investigations and mediation related to workplace discrimination, harassment and conflict resolution. She has investigated hundreds of human rights and employment complaints filed with the OHRC and MOL and managed a staff of Human Rights Officers with extensive investigation and mediation caseloads.

A graduate of the University of Toronto (honours B.A. Political Science), Susan has formally trained in mediation and investigation and has taught investigations at the Ontario Human Rights Commission and in conjunction with the Ontario Police College (Aylmer).


Profile of Owen Mahoney

Owen assists employers with workplace investigations and also conducts training and develops customized training modules for HR Proactive clients.

Owen Mahoney served for sixteen years as a human rights investigator with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, specializing in complex cases in the area of disability and systemic discrimination. In addition to his duties as an investigator, Owen worked on a number of Commission policy initiatives, including AIDS, the impact of changes to credentials in the nursing profession, mandatory retirement, accommodation for post-secondary students with learning disabilities, and access for women to non-traditional work. He was also responsible for coordinating the Commission’s initiative that led to an agreement with the government to provide barrier-free access to the province’s courts for persons with disabilities. Owen also has extensive experience speaking to employer and other stakeholder groups on a wide range of human rights issues, and has written a number of articles and speeches on human rights.

Owen’s formal education includes a B.A Hons. from Concordia University in Montreal, and an M.A. from McMaster University in Hamilton, in English and a Ph.D (all but dissertation). He also taught English for three years at the University of British Columbia, before moving on to work in curriculum development with the Hamilton Board of Education prior to his work with the Commission. While at the Commission, Owen completed studies in investigation at the Ontario Police College in Aylmer and mediation at Stitt Feld Handy Houston, affiliated with the University of Windsor.


Profile of Mark Hertzberger

Mark’s primary focus with HR Proactive has been to provide harassment investigation services, both in Ontario and out of province, to municipalities, school boards, private manufacturers, the transportation industry, and the pharmaceutical industry. His approach to investigation is thorough and mindful of the dignity of all parties.

With over 20 years of Human Resources experience, Mark’s other areas of expertise include workplace communications, interpersonal conduct, harassment prevention, performance management, leadership development, and policy research and development. He has designed and delivered workshops for management and staff on these topics and has conducted workplace audits and reviews.

In addition, he has provided conflict mediation services as well as team facilitation, coaching, and planning services to assist managers in addressing performance, interpersonal, and teamwork issues with their employees.

Mark also has experience in developing and implementing accommodation plans for staff who are returning to work after illness or injury, and has been involved in the development of initiatives under the Ontarians With Disabilities Act and policy and procedure regarding the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.

Mark has his Human Resources Management Certificate from the University of Guelph as well as a BA in psychology from the University of Waterloo. He is a member of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Institute of Ontario, the Stratford Chamber of Commerce, and the Grand River Human Resources Professionals Association. Mark is also a volunteer mediator for Community Justice Initiatives of Waterloo Region.


Profile of Deana Maric

Deana worked with the Ontario Human Rights Commission for five years as a bilingual human rights investigations officer where she expanded on her private sector experience as a fraud investigator and added enforcement and rights laws.

As a human rights officer, she received extensive training in Advanced Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) and Conciliation techniques, Racism and Racial Discrimination policies, cultural perspectives training, to name only a few. She is also trained in Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) for trauma survivors.

Earlier in her career, Deana learned investigative techniques from organizations such as the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and developed her own investigative and data mining techniques for an untouched market in Canada that led to criminal and professional actions and contributed to millions of dollars in savings. Deana presented her approaches at conferences to international groups on health care provider fraud.

Deana attended Champlain College where her focus was psychology and where she developed a passion for the field of abnormal psychology. She subsequently attended Concordia University where she studied International Relations and Communications and the Political Sciences.


Profile of John Curtis

John graduated from Queen’s University Law School in 1995. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 1998, following which he practiced civil litigation, primarily in the areas of Personal Injury, Long Term Disability Insurance, Employment and Landlord/ Tennant.

John’s career has been anything but conventional, although successful in multiple dimensions. After earning a degree in philosophy and prior to attending Law School he was a Member of the Canadian Sailing Team for 4 years. During this time, he set his sights on representing Canada in sailing at the Olympics, and only narrowly missed qualification for the Barcelona Games in 1992.

After two years in the practice of law, it became clear for John that mediation was frequently a much better way to manage conflict than the traditional legal approach. In 1998 John completed his formal mediation training with courses offered by CDR Associates of Boulder Colorado and The Conflict Consensus Institute in Barrie, Ontario.

In parallel with this new career direction, John felt the call to give the Olympic dream another chance. With several years of sustained high-level effort and training he got that opportunity, representing Canada in Sailing at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.

After the Olympics, John accepted a one year position as High Performance Manager and General Counsel to the Canadian Yachting Association – the national governing body for the sport of Sailing. This was an excellent window into the world of Sport Administration, allowing him to develop a specialization in that area of Sport Law. He has continued his work in this field as a legal consultant for several National Sport Organizations and the Canadian Olympic Committee.

John has recently added the practice of Conflict Coaching to his ADR repertoire. He now applies many of the same conflict resolution skills and his mediation experience to the one-to-one context of Conflict Coaching.

John has delivered a course on Conflict Resolution at the Canadian Forces Base Kingston, and many workshops for teachers and students in the local high schools and University Clubs. He continues his teaching activities as one of the regular instructors for the Courses in Negotiation and Mediation Skills offered by The Mediation Centre of Southeastern Ontario. John is currently teaching a Course in Negotiation at the Queen’s University Law School.

Combining his skills as a lawyer, mediator and coach with the discipline, dedication and passion that established him as an Olympian, John now helps organizations enhance their own success through training, mediation, coaching and legal consulting.