About Us

Patrick Bermingham is a polymath—sculptor, inventor, entrepreneur—as a teen he worked at McMaster University’s hydraulics lab, later studying and working with world-famous sculptor Anthony Caro.  He graduated from  London’s St Martin’s school of Art and now spends his time on public art projects. Bermingham's inventions have won awards  from the American Society of Civil Engineering and were sold in 44 countries around the world; one was created in partnership with the Dutch National Research Council. In 1997, he sold shares in his family business to 12 key employees, increased its value by 20X and sold it to Vinci. Bermingham organized A day on the Bridge, closing The McQuesten Bridge for a city-wide party,  raising awareness and $300,000 for The Cootes to Escapement Eco Park.  He served on the board of public company Firan, McMaster Art Gallery’s acquisition Committee and currently advises The Art Gallery of Hamilton and Incite Foundation for the arts. 

Amy-Willard Cross, is a former author, writer and editor (Chatelaine and Saturday Night), who founded  Gender Fair. a public benefit corporation based in New York. Gender Fair rates brands, colleges,  B2B vendors and nonprofits so people can align their dollars with their values of equality--and was praised by Melinda Gates in her book.  Cross is what’s called a connector who loves to convene people for business or fun—sometimes they do deals, start companies or hire one another to her immense pleasure.  Since 2012, she has hosted Lady Business Dinners in Toronto & Hamilton and as well as events for various candidates and charities--and a few weddings.  Since 2015, Cross has been a charter activator in Coralus (formerly SheEO) which has $20M under management and does interest free loans to woman owned (or non binary) businesses that support the SDGs.

With over 25 years in digital and two successful exits in health tech, Cynthia brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Kind Works members. Cynthia's early career experience included strategic oversight of website development for Canada Newswire, TD Bank, CIBC Private Clients, BCE Emergis and MDS Laboratories. She was Vice-President at Leo Burnett and Discovery Canada, where she led CME development for several blockbuster drug launches. In 2005, she started an educational platform for pharmacists, called rxBriefCase.com. Within 4 years, she attained 90% marketshare before selling her equity stake back the parent company in 2010. From there, she co-founded BestLifeRewarded Innovations, the market leader in corporate wellness. When BestLifeRewarded was acquired by People Corporation (Goldman Sachs) in 2021, the SaaS platform supported >6 million Canadians. 

Assistant Professor, Program Chair, Civil Engineering Infrastructure Tech; Program Chair, Management at McMaster U

Rated in the top five Leadership Workshops at Microsoft’s global conference for the last four years, NITA’s Communication Specialist and regular at corporate team building events, Nancy Watt delivers powerfully creative and memorable sessions. Her communications speaking engagements and workshops have been delivered to Engineering and Science departments at Harvard University, Princeton, MIT, Rutgers, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, and McMaster University. Her ‘Pracademic’ approach applies evidence-based research with experiential learning using the tools and techniques of improv. Her dynamic workshops on communication, leadership and collaboration directly impact any institution that needs to deal with unpredictability, build mental agility and foster innovative students. Nancy is busy in the business, healthcare, and education sectors. Her work is referenced in academic papers for pedagogical experiential learning.