Hosted by Jon Cornish at Spruce Meadows, Celebration of Sport brings Calgary’s sport and business community together for an afternoon honouring the athletes, volunteers and clubs who make this a city that plays.
The world is coming to Calgary. The question is what it leaves behind.
Big games are won on the field. Their impact is decided everywhere else. This year’s panel brings together the people who sit on both sides of that line: the leaders who bring major events to Calgary, and the ones who catch the kids those events inspire. They will talk about what actually happens after the crowd goes home. Who shows up at the club the next Monday, who cannot afford to, and what this city has to build now so that hosting the world in 2028 turns into a generation of Calgary kids who get to play.
A highlight of the event is an inspiring panel discussion exploring the journeys of athletes and leaders, and how grassroots sport drives the next generation of leadership, both on and off the field of play.
Don’t miss this inspiring and engaging preview of the next Winter Games!
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 10:45 AM | Registration Opens |
| 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM | Networking & Lunch |
| 12:00 – 12:15 PM | Welcome |
| 12:15 – 12:40 PM | Awards |
| 12:45 – 1:25 PM | Panel |
| 1:25 – 1:30 PM | Closing Remarks |
| 1:30 – 2:00 PM | Networking |
Jon Cornish played nine seasons for the Calgary Stampeders, winning two Grey Cup championships and earning CFL Most Outstanding Player honours in 2013. That same year, Cornish became only the second football player to win the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year. Cornish was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2019, and the Jon Cornish Trophy — awarded annually to the top Canadian in NCAA football — carries the name.
What Cornish built after football matters just as much. After earning a CFA charter, Cornish established his wealth management practice at RBC in 2019, the cornerstone of his philanthropic endeavors. In 2022, Cornish was elected the University of Calgary’s 15th Chancellor — the youngest university chancellor in Canadian history — serving a four-year term that concluded in June 2026.
Cornish founded the Calgary Black Chambers after learning that child poverty ran three times higher for Black children in this city, and that half of Black students didn’t believe they could afford to finish university. The organization has since delivered more than $400,000 in scholarships and skills training for hundreds of high school students. Cornish has volunteered with Wood’s Homes working directly with at-risk youth, volunteered playing video games with patients in the Alberta Children’s Hospital, chairs the Calgary Foundation’s Doc Seaman Hockey Fund, and championed the You Can Play Project so that every athlete feels safe in a locker room.
Cornish sees a barrier and asks what it would take to remove it. That’s the reason Cornish is on our stage.Host, Celebration of Sport 2026
Canadian Football Hall of Famer | Chancellor Emeritus, University of Calgary | Portfolio Manager, Seetal Cornish Wealth Management, RBC Dominion Securities
Panel, Celebration of Sport 2026
President, Calgary Stampeders
Jay McNeil was appointed team President on January 23, 2024. The former Stampeders offensive lineman had returned to the organization on September 22, 2022, in the role of Vice-President of Business Operations.
McNeil played for the Stampeders from 1994 to 2007, earning Canadian Football League all-star recognition on three occasions and West Division all-star honours six times. McNeil was a member of Grey Cup-championship teams in 1998 and 2001 and was twice voted by teammates as the winner of the Presidents’ Ring for excellence on and off the field.
After his playing career, McNeil remained in Calgary and built a strong business career, leading sales and business operations for several companies including Trinidad Drilling, Tervita, Secure Energy and most recently in the role of COO for Cleantek Industries.
McNeil also maintained strong ties to football, serving as a trustee for the CFL Players Pension Plan and as Vice-President of the Canadian Football League Players Association. He also continued his association with the Stampeders, acting as a community ambassador for the team’s alumni association.
McNeil has a Bachelor of Business Administration from Kent State University and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Fredericton.
Panel, Celebration of Sport 2026
Co-founder, President and CEO, Calgary Wild FC
Founder and Owner, Ryan Murphy Construction Inc.
Panel, Celebration of Sport 2026
Executive Director, Calgary Minor Soccer Association
Carlo Bruneau is a sport executive and community builder with more than 15 years of experience in amateur sport, recreation, and organizational leadership. As Executive Director of the Calgary Minor Soccer Association, he is focused on growing the game, expanding access to sport, strengthening partnerships, and advancing the facilities and infrastructure needed to support Calgary’s rapidly growing soccer community.
Carlo believes sport has the power to build confidence, connection, resilience, and leadership in young people. His work is driven by a commitment to collaboration, community impact, and creating meaningful opportunities for athletes, families, clubs, coaches, referees, and volunteers.
Through strategic partnerships, advocacy, and long-term planning, Carlo continues to help position soccer as a powerful vehicle for community development and youth leadership in Calgary.
Logan Ruzycki is an experienced flag football coach, former competitive athlete, and business professional dedicated to developing young athletes and growing the sport in Alberta. Having played flag football since the age of nine, he has spent the last six years coaching at both grassroots and provincial levels.
Since joining the Calgary Youth Flag Football League (CYFFL) in 2020, Logan has advanced to a Lead Coach role and has led multiple travel teams. Most recently, he guided the U14 team to a championship at the Edmonton Regional Tournament, helping athletes succeed both on and off the field.
At the provincial level, Logan has served as Head Coach of Football Alberta’s U14 Girls Flag Football Team for the past two seasons. Under his leadership, the program became the first Alberta flag football team to win a medal and the first in Football Alberta history to earn medals in consecutive years, helping establish Alberta as an emerging force in Canadian youth flag football.
Off the field, Logan graduated with honours from the University of Calgary with a double major in Finance and Political Science and a minor in Sociology. After working in corporate finance, he joined his family’s business, helping oversee operations across multiple retail locations in Alberta and British Columbia. Whether in coaching or business, Logan is committed to building high-performing teams, developing future leaders, and creating opportunities for individuals to reach their full potential.
Peter Judge grew up in Calgary and spent nine years competing internationally in the 1970s and 80s, taking the world championship in the 1983 general rankings.
He moved to coaching, leading Canada’s national freestyle program from 1985 to 1997. In that stretch he earned five Longines Coaching Excellence Awards and was twice a finalist for Canadian Coach of the Year. He was head coach in 1988, the year freestyle skiing appeared at the Calgary Olympic Games as a demonstration sport — in his own city, on the edge of the program rather than in it.
Most of his career since has been spent closing that gap. Judge co-authored the original FIS rules for the sport and chaired the FIS Freestyle Rules and Technical Committee for fourteen years. He served as CEO of Freestyle Canada from 2004 to 2014, a tenure in which Canadian athletes won 19 Olympic medals, 69 world championship medals, more than a thousand World Cup podiums and nine FIS Nations Cups. He was instrumental in adding slopestyle and halfpipe to the Olympic program for Sochi 2014, where the Canadian team recorded its best-ever result with seven medals.
Alongside the competitive record, he worked on the parts nobody sees: better facilities, and stronger technical support for the coaches who develop athletes long before anyone is watching.
After Sochi he left to become Director of Winter Sport at Own the Podium, succeeding Ken Read. He returned to Freestyle Canada as CEO in 2018. He is an honoured member of the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame.
A demonstration sport in Calgary in 1988 is a full Olympic discipline today, with a national system behind it. That did not happen on its own.
Moderator, Celebration of Sport 2026
Broadcaster and Founder, JALD SE
Creator, Coach Santa and the 10-20-30 Project
Rob Kerr is a Calgary-based broadcaster, consultant, and community builder with more than 25 years in sports media. A former television voice of the Calgary Flames, he was the 2019 recipient of the Bell Memorial Award and was inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame. Today, through JALD SE, Rob works with sport, charitable, and community organizations on strategy, partnerships, events, communications, and program development.
Rob is also the creator of Coach Santa and the 10-20-30 Project, programs that use sport to teach young people about leadership, teamwork, respect, kindness, and community involvement. His work is built around a simple belief: sport can do more than develop athletes — it can help develop better teammates, stronger leaders, and more connected communities.
Sport Calgary greatly appreciates the sponsors that support Celebration of Sport 2026.
The theme of the afternoon was Driving a Path Forward. With an engaging panel discussion exploring the journeys of athletes and leaders, we discussed how grassroots sport drives the next generation of leadership, both on and off the field.
