Members of the Board

CHAIR

BRIAN SMEENK

Mr. Smeenk has over 40 years of experience in employment and labour law, across the broader public sector (both Ontario and federal) and the private sector.  He began his career as a neutral Fact Finder appointed by Ontario’s Education Relations Commission to report on several school board-teacher bargaining impasses, before turning to private practice.  He is a Past President of the former, tripartite Toronto Area Industrial Relations Association.  Brian was inducted as a Fellow of the tripartite College of Labor and Employment Lawyers in 2015.  He has been ranked as a leading lawyer in the area of labour relations and employment law in various legal publications, and listed in Best Lawyers in Canada since 2010.

Mr. Smeenk is the founder and President of the Merit Award Bursary Program, which provides support to deserving youth in Toronto and Peel, to help them pursue a post-secondary education.

Members

THOMAS KUTTNER

Thomas Kuttner, Q.C. has been a law professor at the University of New Brunswick (1979-2010) and at the University of Windsor (2010-2020) where he taught Administrative, Constitutional and Labour Law. Throughout his academic career he has been active as a third-party neutral in labour disputes as a conciliator, mediator and arbitrator and has sat as a part-time Vice-Chair on labour boards in New Brunswick, the federal sector, and currently on the Ontario Labour Relations Board. He has appeared several times before the Courts of New Brunswick and the Supreme Court of Canada.

MARILYN NAIRN

Ms. Nairn was called to the Ontario bar in 1982 and practiced labour law in Toronto until 1987 when she accepted the position of counsel to the Ontario Labour Relations Board. In 1989 Ms. Nairn was appointed a Vice-Chair of the OLRB, where she served for three terms. Since 1998, she has acted as a private labour arbitrator and mediator. Ms. Nairn is a member of the National Academy of Arbitrators, is a past president of the Ontario Labour-Management Arbitrators' Association, and has held various positions on the executive of the Labour Section of the Ontario Bar Association. She has taught at both the college and university levels, has appeared as a speaker on panels and at conferences in the areas of labour law and human rights, and has been appointed Commissioner to various judicial remuneration commissions.  She was appointed to the Grievance Settlement Board in 2001 and was appointed as its Alternate Chair in 2018.

ALLEN PONAK

Allen Ponak has been arbitrating and mediating since 1984. His practice is national in scope and he is a listed arbitrator in national and regional collective agreements including manufacturing, public service, and professional sports. Until 2006, Allen was a professor of industrial relations and the author of numerous books and articles on labour and employment. He has an undergraduate degree from McGill University, a Master’s from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. In 2015-16 Allen was president of the National Academy of Arbitrators and in 2015 was the recipient of the Bora Laskin Award for his contributions to labour policy and law.

ANDREW TREMAYNE

Andrew has been a full-time arbitrator and mediator since 2014. Before that, he practiced labour and employment law in Ottawa for over 20 years. Andrew is on the Ontario Minister of Labour's list of approved grievance arbitrators (the "section 49 list") and the Federal Minister of Labour's list of eligible grievance and unjust dismissal adjudicators, and he regularly mediates and investigates workplace complaints and disputes of all kinds. He is also the Integrity Commissioner for the Township of Edwardsburgh/Cardinal and the Town of Prescott on an as needed basis. Andrew received his J.D. from U of T Law School in 1991, and he is a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the Canadian Bar Association, the Council of Canadian Administrative Tribunals, and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute of Ontario.