Headquarters:
Executive House, 275 Ontario St., 3rd Floor, Kingston, ON K7K 2X5
Year founded:
1937
Number of employees:
13
Phone:
1 888 858 7838
Email:
irc@queensu.ca
Website:
https://irc.queensu.ca
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/queens-university-irc
Leadership
As director of professional programs at Queen’s University IRC, Alison Darling oversees the strategic direction of this award-winning centre. She has a wealth of international and leadership experience, having worked in the UK, Germany, Turkiye, Japan, and Canada. In her role, she collaborates with industry leaders, organizations and University colleagues to create programs that meet the needs of leaders across sectors and industries.
Darling’s expertise lies in the areas of cross-cultural leadership, operational effectiveness, HR, and labour relations. She is a strong business development professional who is passionate about leading with compassion and prioritizing team well-being.
Director, Professional Programs
Alison Darling
Lindsay Van Zuylen is a seasoned sales and marketing manager, spearheading strategic initiatives to bolster business growth and optimize organizational performance. Leveraging her extensive experience, Lindsay collaborates with senior leadership to devise and execute comprehensive plans for new business recruitment and course development.
Van Zuylen’s previous roles as a client advisor and proposal writer honed a client-centric approach, fostering robust partnerships and elevating client engagement. Her dedication extends beyond professional endeavours, as she actively contributes to community welfare through volunteerism, notably as volunteer coordinator for a local children’s thrift sale, supporting military families.
She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Kennesaw State University and a Professional Master of Education from Queen’s University.
Sales and Marketing Manager
Lindsay Van Zuylen
Jennifer McGann brings over 18 years of experience in event and program management to her role of program team manager. Throughout her career, she has contributed to a diverse range of organizations, including the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Second Harvest, the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival, and CAUBO.
McGann is deeply passionate about professional development, valuing its power to transform lives across professional and personal realms. She holds a BA(H) from Queen’s University in History and Film and a postgraduate certificate in Public Relations from Humber College.
Program Team Manager
Jennifer McGann
John Craig is a partner at Mathews Dinsdale & Clark LLP whose practice focuses on labour, employment, and human rights law. He is widely recognized for his work in the federal sector and has acted as counsel in many of Canada’s leading constitutional labour law cases.
Craig holds master’s and doctoral degrees in comparative and international labour law from the University of Oxford and serves as co-director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s Professional LLM in labour and employment law. He is a frequent speaker, author, and advocate on workplace law issues in Canada and internationally.
Program Director, Osgoode Professional LLM in Labour and Employment Law and Osgoode Certificate in Labour Law
John D.R. Craig
John Archer is manager, technical claims within NZ broker and specialist claims at IAG New Zealand. A life member of NZILA and recipient of the ANZIIF Lifetime Achievement Award, he brings exceptional depth of expertise to complex and high-value claims.
Known for his strong customer empathy, Archer is highly regarded for his claims negotiation and dispute resolution skills, consistently delivering fair and timely outcomes in challenging environments. He leads high-performing teams with a focus on efficiency, quality and customer-centric claims handling.
Manager, Technical Claims
John Archer
Marina Christopoulos is a highly experienced professional with more than 30 years in the banking and insurance industries. Throughout her career, she has developed deep expertise across sales, underwriting, claims, project delivery and relationship management. Christopoulos is recognised for her collaborative approach, strategic thinking, and commitment to building lasting client and stakeholder relationships. She is passionate about achieving fair and balanced outcomes for customers while driving positive business results. Her broad industry knowledge, combined with her dedication to service excellence, has enabled her to contribute successfully across a wide range of roles and initiatives throughout her career.
Claims Relationship Manager
Marina Christopoulos
Courtney Mills is the NSW/ACT claims relationship manager within commercial property and specialty claims at Vero, where she has worked for three years. She builds strong broker relationships, promotes best-practice claims service, and supports complex and escalated matters. With 19 years of industry experience, Mills has worked across property, commercial and heavy motor, contract works, ISR, corporate travel, accident and health, recoveries, and investigations, bringing a detail-oriented and collaborative approach to delivering effective claims outcomes.
Claims Relationship Manager
Courtney Mills
Frank Hillerich has more than 20 years of insurance industry experience across customer service, property claims, assessing and claims leadership. Since joining Vero in 2017, he has supported brokers across Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, drawing on his extensive claims expertise to build strong broker relationships, promote best-practice claims service, and assist with complex and escalated matters.
Claims Relationship Manager
Frank Hillerich
Stephen McMillan first entered the financial services Industry when he joined GE Capital as a finance analyst in 2008, from which he progressed through roles working both onshore and offshore. From there, he moved into Pacific Premium Funding as a financial planning and analysis leader in 2012 and was a key resource in the evolution of the business, first with the successful sale to Macquarie Pacific Funding and then the following progression into IQumulate Premium Funding, where he is now the commercial manager.
As commercial manager, McMillan leads a team that is responsible for commercial analysis and business support, identifying and reporting improvement initiatives, and the securitization and treasury functions of the business.
Commercial Manager
Stephen McMillan
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QUEEN’S UNIVERSITY INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS CENTRE (IRC)
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Stephen McMillan first entered the financial services Industry when he joined GE Capital as a finance analyst in 2008, from which he progressed through roles working both onshore and offshore. From there, he moved into Pacific Premium Funding as a financial planning and analysis leader in 2012 and was a key resource in the evolution of the business, first with the successful sale to Macquarie Pacific Funding and then the following progression into IQumulate Premium Funding, where he is now the commercial manager.
As commercial manager, McMillan leads a team that is responsible for commercial analysis and business support, identifying and reporting improvement initiatives, and the securitization and treasury functions of the business.
Product Manager
Claire Watson
Stephen McMillan first entered the financial services Industry when he joined GE Capital as a finance analyst in 2008, from which he progressed through roles working both onshore and offshore. From there, he moved into Pacific Premium Funding as a financial planning and analysis leader in 2012 and was a key resource in the evolution of the business, first with the successful sale to Macquarie Pacific Funding and then the following progression into IQumulate Premium Funding, where he is now the commercial manager.
As commercial manager, McMillan leads a team that is responsible for commercial analysis and business support, identifying and reporting improvement initiatives, and the securitization and treasury functions of the business.
Commercial Manager
Stephen McMillan
“We stay close to the people we teach. Participant feedback, facilitator expertise, industry partnerships, and our own HR trends research all feed into how we design and update our programs.”
Lindsay Van Zuylen, Queen’s University IRC
“Most of our facilitators are practitioners, not academics. They bring lived experience into the room and the scenarios are based on situations participants could actually face. That makes the stakes feel real – and when participants leave, they go back to work with practical tools they built themselves, not ones they were handed.”
Lindsay Van Zuylen,
Queen’s University IRC
Queen’s University Industrial Relations Centre (IRC) has become a fixture in Canadian HR Reporter’s Readers’ Choice Awards, earning recognition since 2013. For an institution approaching its 90th year, that consistency reflects both the breadth of its programming and its commitment to evolving alongside the changing realities of Canadian workplaces.
Queen’s IRC has built its reputation on the belief that professional development is most effective when grounded in real-world practice. Across its human resources, labour relations, and organizational development programs, experienced practitioners use live case studies, simulations, and applied problem-solving to equip participants with actionable strategies they can immediately apply in their workplaces.
Adam Basaldella
Manager – Claims
Pam Chhabra
Manager – Residential Strata
Frank Hillerich
Claims Relationship Manager
Courtney Mills
Claims Relationship Manager
Marina Christopoulos
Claims Relationship Manager
John Archer
Manager, Technical Claims
John D.R. Craig
Program Director, Osgoode Professional LLM in Labour and
Employment Law and Osgoode Certificate in Labour Law
Jennifer McGann
Program Team Manager
Lindsay Van Zuylen
Sales and Marketing Manager
Alison Darling
Director, Professional Programs
This approach has translated into strong and measurable outcomes. In 2025, Queen's IRC achieved:
a 96 per cent participant satisfaction rate
an 18 per cent increase in repeat participants
a 38.5 per cent increase in custom program delivery between 2022 and 2025
Queen’s IRC also offers customizable certificate pathways designed to support flexible professional development for practitioners across Canada, regardless of where they are in their careers. Since 2022, more than 5,900 digital credentials have been issued, providing professionals with a portable, verified record of their learning and achievements.
Under the leadership of Director Alison Darling, the centre has focused on staying ahead of the forces reshaping Canadian workplaces. This has included investing in curriculum modernization, strengthening industry partnerships, and launching new offerings such as AI-Powered Workforce Planning and Advanced Workplace Investigation Skills. These programs were developed in response to growing organizational needs related to workforce transformation, AI adoptions and the increasing complexity of today’s workplace.
Thought leadership is another pillar of Queen’s IRC’s strategy. In its 2026 HR Trends Report, the IRC takes a pulse of the challenges, priorities, and opportunities shaping workplaces across Canada. The report drew on insights from more than 500 professionals across the public, private, not-for-profit, and quasi-public sectors, identifying key trends related to communication, leadership development, HR technology gaps, and organizational effectiveness. The findings help inform programming decisions while contributing to broader conversations about the future of work.