Hamilton-Niagara's Top Employers (2025) Magazine - Flipbook - Page 14
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SPONSOR CONTENT
HAMILTON-NIAGARA’S TOP EMPLOYERS (2025)
Conservation Halton invests in future leaders
W
hile in high school,
Devan Shimada volunteered part-time
at Conservation
Halton as a snow school apprentice at its Glen Eden ski hill during
the holiday and March break
camps. He progressed to a paid gig
as a snow school instructor, a job
he held throughout high school,
and continued working with the
conservation authority part-time
while in university.
Seventeen years later, Shimada
is the coordinator of recreation
programs at Conservation Halton,
a role in which he supervises
more than 325 seasonal staff and
volunteers annually.
Shimada attributes his long
tenure to a supportive workplace
culture that has given him the
opportunity to grow professionally while collaborating with
like-minded people.
“You feel like it’s not just a job –
the people are all looking to create
the same success for the parks and
the programs,” Shimada says of
the organization, which operates
eight parks in Southern Ontario
and offers a diverse range of programs and events. “You get to work
with passionate, friendly people
who want to collaborate and hear
your ideas.”
Shimada’s career trajectory
reflects Conservation Halton’s
emphasis on nurturing young talent and promoting career growth.
Each year, it hires hundreds of
summer and seasonal students,
many of whom go on to become
full-time, long-term employees.
“An important responsibility for
a conservation organization like
ours is training and mentoring
the environmental leaders of
tomorrow,” says president and
CEO Chandra Sharma, who has
25 years of experience working
for conservation authorities. “We
do this through our parks and
restoration and other watershed
programs, aiding local schools
and universities in bringing young
students to expose them to the
work of a conservation authority.”
Internally, Conservation Halton
cultivates talent through an
emerging innovation leaders program offered in partnership with
the DeGroote School of Business
at McMaster University. Shimada
credits this program with exposing
him to high-level business concepts while enabling him to team
up with a wide cross-section of
people from the organization.
“It provides a different lens on
how we do things, and there’s a
lot of interdepartmental learning
that goes on,” he says, adding that
a benefit of the program is that it
takes place during work hours.
Employees on the visitors services team at Conservation Halton welcome guests at Kelso/Glen Eden in Milton.
This program builds on a workplace culture that Sharma says
values fearlessness and openness,
qualities she embraces. She speaks
proudly of Conservation Halton’s
innovation hub, which supports
staff in bringing new ideas to the
organization, cultivating a “growth
mindset” among employees.
“We want to empower employees to learn about and pursue
technology-focused solutions
across the organization,” she says.
You get to work with
passionate people who
want to collaborate and
hear your ideas.
— Devan Shimada
Coordinator, Recreation
Programs
The Emerging Leaders program
is one way Conservation Halton
supports employees both
professionally and personally. The
organization’s mission to connect
people with nature is expressed
through unique benefits that
extend to employees’ immediate
families too.
These include complimentary
season passes to Glen Eden
ski resort and a free annual
Conservation Ontario parks
membership that includes access
to all conservation authority parks
across Ontario.
Conservation Halton actively
promotes physical and mental
wellness through benefits such as
free premium access to the Calm
mental health app, a wellness
fair, free yoga and meditation
