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The Team

Board Members
Executive Team Members
Residential Supports Managers

Louie Surdi

Louie Surdi has over 30 years of finance and accounting experience and is currently Senior Principal, Finance at Finastra (formerly D+H) a financial technology company since 2016. Previously Louie held senior roles with Deloitte Consulting, Connolly Canada and Toronto Argonauts and prior to that spent 10 years with HBC as Vice President, Shared Services Finance Louie sits on the Boards of SurexCARE and White Ribbon, is a graduate of the University of Toronto and lives in East York with his wife and two sons.

Ruta D’Hondt

Ruta D’Hondt has been married for 40 years to the same great guy and has two grown children. Her daughter, son in law and granddaughter reside in Vancouver. Her son, 32 years old, resides at home and has Down Syndrome.
Ruta is active! She is involved with her church, activities at the PanAm centre, organizations dealing with individuals with disabilities, gardening, quilting, cooking, and playing bridge.
Ruta is a remote caregiver for her sister who also happens to have Down Syndrome and resides in a group home in Ottawa.
She received a BSc. and an MSc. from the University of Guelph.
In her brief professional career Ruta did product development work for Effem Foods. Ruta gave up her career when her son was born in order to stay home and be his caregiver and advocate. Not a life that was planned or anticipated, however, a life richly rewarded through the special people she has met along the way. Patience, gratitude, faith, and kindness are the lessons Luke has taught her. How lucky she is.

David Stein

SurexCARE Board Member

Lee Failes

Lee Failes is the mother of a developmentally challenged adult daughter and over the years has met with many other individuals with disabilities and their parents. She has volunteered for several organizations including North York General Hospital, Meals on Wheels, Red Cross, TDSB, and most recently as a volunteer grief facilitator at Bereaved Families of Toronto. Her professional background is in Human Resources where she worked for several Canadian corporations. She has a BA from York University, majoring in Economics.

Patrica Steward

Patricia Steward joined the SurexCARE board after retiring from a teaching career spanning thirty-five years.
Since retiring she has enjoyed many years of travelling, her favourite holidays being river cruises.
Patricia is an avid reader and enjoys a wide range of genres.
Her other hobby is searching her ancestry tree. This has proven to be very interesting and exciting. Through Ancestry she has reconnected with relatives, discovered new ones and her ‘tree’ is becoming a ‘forest’.

Bob Engel

Bob Engel graduated from the School of Social Work in 1971. Subsequently he was employed by Jewish Family Service in Montreal as a front line family therapist and by North York General Hospital in the Children’s Mental Health Department. In 1977 he became the Administrator of a social service department for Durham Region where he stayed for twelve years. In 1988 he became the Executive Director of Oolagen Community Services, a Children’s Mental Centre in downtown Toronto. He stayed there until 2013 at which time he retired.
Bob is married with two children and three grandchildren.

Aruna Ogale

Executive Director

Aruna Ogale graduated with a degree in Criminology in 1982 and has continued her studies in non-profit management over the years. Most recently she completed Leadership Training at the Ivey School of Business in 2017. Aruna began her career in the charitable sector as a summer student and never left the sector. She first became Executive Director in 1990 with ACCES for New Canadians. She moved to Kingston and while there was the Executive Director of Quinte Vocational Support Services – an agency providing vocational and avocational programs for adults with developmental disabilities. While at QVSS, Aruna initiated a social enterprise named “Red’s Place” – a restaurant that provided training and employment for QVSS program participants.
Red’s Place is still in operation today. Upon her return to Toronto, Aruna was the Executive Director of ThinkFirst/Pensez D’Abord Canada; Ontario Camps Association and until joining SurexCare she was the Executive Director of Bereaved Families of Toronto for nine years. Aruna is pleased and excited to once again work in Developmental Services.
Aruna is married with two children and two granddaughters.

Lily Smith

Director of HR

Lily Smith serves as Director of Human Resources, bringing over 20 years of human resource experience to the team. Prior to serving Surex, she held human resource positions in the automotive industries and in non-profits. Her overall goal is to ensure adequate human resources, to meet the strategic goals and operational plans of the organization, to value, encourage, and support a diverse workforce, and to continually improve organizational effectiveness. It has been most personally rewarding for her to work with a team of employees who has a desire and passion to make a positive impact in helping people with developmental and intellectual challenges.

Derek Johnstone

Director of Finance

Derek started at Surex in November 2020.

Michelle Floyd

Senior Manager

In order to work in our field and succeed, you need passion, commitment, humility most importantly, humour. Well maybe not as important as hard work. This is where Michelle’s journey started in 1991 after graduating from the Child and Youth Worker Program. Her first employment opportunity came at Brantwood Community Services, where Michelle worked for 2 years, before eventually joining the Surex team as a Primary Counsellor at our Military Trail location. In her 8 years working frontline it was during these years when it was evident it was time for Michelle to join the Surex Management team in 1999. From this point on Michelle has managed 4 of our residential locations and also managed our community supports program. Recently Michelle has become a Senior Manager, overseeing the overall operations of our residential programs.
If you were wondering where to find Michelle, you can find her often behind her camera taking photos at Surex events and when she is not working, Michelle is an avid dog lover and enjoys looking after her friends’ pets.

Melissa Pateras

Senior Manager

Melissa studied Law Enforcement and graduated in 1997. After starting her career in Federal Corrections, she moved on to work with the Durham Children’s Aid Society as a Program Director of residential youth programs for assessment and treatment where she stayed for 7 years. In 2004 she joined the management team at SurexCARE.
Melissa has managed 5 of the 9 residential programs at SurexCARE. Melissa is now a Senior Manager and oversees the operations of the Community Supports Program.
Melissa and her partner are proud parents of 3 children.

Sarah John-Baptiste

Residential Supports Manager

Sarah began her career with Big Sisters Youth Services in Hamilton, gaining unparalleled experience in the social service field while also establishing herself as a respected Youth Counsellor.
Currently working as a Program Manager with SurexCARE since 2010, Sarah is widely known for her passion for caring for others, advocacy, life skills, mentoring and coaching skills, and a passion for growth and development of others.
Sarah enjoys a good challenge and does not shy from work. Sarah is a devoted single mother of twin teen girls. Sarah is proud to call Toronto home.

Radica Dhanpaul

Residential Supports Manager

Radica has had the opportunity of working at Surex for over 23 years. She started as front line staff with a passion for enriching the lives of people with differing abilities. Her personal and professional growth lead her into a management role that she has been in for the past three years.
Radica graduated College with a Developmental Services Diploma and obtained her Project Management Certificate. Radica has completed the Safe Management Trainer Program, and is a certified trainer at Surex. Radica is a life long learner.
Radica’s greatest personal accomplishment is raising her daughters, who have been seen around the Surex Community, as fair, honest, supportive and caring children.
Radica enjoys charity work, woodworking, gardening, martial arts, cultural dancing and travelling.

Jason Ebrahim

Residential Supports Manager

During Jason’s early college years, he was at a crossroads, not sure what he was passionate about and what his purpose in life was. It was during the winter of 2008 where, after a lengthy conversation with his family, his answer was in front of him this whole time. What Jason got passionate about, what drove him and what motivated and inspired him was his sister, whom at birth was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. In the fall of 2009 Jason enrolled in the Social Service Worker program at Centennial College and never looked back. After a successful run briefly working and volunteering at Springboard, in May of 2012 Jason was hired by SurexCARE. Over his 8 years with SurexCARE Jason worked as a Part-Time Counsellor, Primary Counsellor and Team Leader with always having a mindset of being compassionate, hardworking, passionate and driven. Now on to the next step of the journey, Jason is a Residential Supports Manager committed to lead, empower, listen and enhance those around him. When Jason isn’t working, he enjoys video games, exercising and loves to cook.

About Us

The Team

Louie Surdi

Ruta D’Hondt

David Stein

Lee Failes

Patrica Steward

Bob Engel

Aruna Ogale

Lily Smith

Derek Johnstone

Michelle Floyd

Melissa Pateras

Sarah John-Baptiste

Radica Dhanpaul

Jason Ebrahim

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