Meet The Speakers
BAM Conference 2026

Merari Pena is the driving force behind Forever Crystals, a jewelry brand that beautifully illustrates the integration of faith and business. A native of Puerto Rico from a missionary family, Merari originally stepped into the family jewelry business to support her father’s ministry work in Cuba. What began as managing two small kiosks has since evolved into a thriving international enterprise. Today, Forever Crystals operates nine company-owned retail stores, seven franchises in Puerto Rico, and a distribution network extending to Costa Rica and the Caribbean. Under Merari’s leadership, the company employs nearly 90 people and is known for its "affordable luxury" and high-quality Swarovski elements. It is a business embedded in its Latin culture. Forever Crystals celebrates the spirit of Latin American women, embracing their beauty and flamboyance and desire to make a bold statement. Forever Crystals is quite open about their missional aims. Apart from sharing the gospel message directly in their stores, it also shines through all of their business ethos and operations. Company materials explain, “Our responsibility with clients, employees and shareholders goes beyond just simply providing a product. We strive to give back with grace what has been given by grace to us. We provide this in many ways that include but are not limited to, strategic partnership with missionary organizations, providing employment in a dignified and creative environment and using our operation towards helping in the progression of the great commission.” From holding prayer within the company to feeding the homeless and supporting Operation Christmas Child, Merari demonstrates that a business can be profitable, sustainable, and a tangible vessel for God’s missional love.

João has been an organizational leader his entire adult life. Having co-founded and co-led a global church-planting organization for over three decades (an org that has planted nearly 6000 churches in unreached people groups), he currently leads BAM Global as founding associate and executive director and serves as Catalyst for Business as Mission at the Lausanne Movement. He serves as co-founder, co-owner or board member of several BAM businesses, as well as on the boards of several NGOs and educational institutions. João is known as a passionate communicator and has spoken and ministered in over 60 countries. He has authored, co-authored, and contributed to multiple books, including the Lausanne Occasional Paper on Business as Mission; World Christian Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed.; and Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (Brazilian Edition), as well as co-edited or contributed to several study Bible and encyclopedia projects including the Bíblia Missionária de Estudo (Portuguese and Spanish) and the Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South. With doctorates in Intercultural Studies (D.Int.St.) and Religious Studies (Ph.D.), specializations in entrepreneurship, management, leadership, and intercultural communication, an MA in Religion and a BA in Sociology, he designs and teaches BAM-related courses at several universities, in addition to teaching organizational leadership and intercultural studies. João is a global catalyst with a pastor’s heart and a strategist’s mind. A missional entrepreneur, academic mentor, and missiological creative, he lives at the intersection of faith, business, and the Great Commission. Whether mobilizing church leaders, championing Business as Mission across continents, or teaching students from around the world, he carries a holy ambition: to see the Great Commission fulfilled among all peoples and through every vocation for God’s eternal glory. João is married to Sophia, a personal trainer, and they have two adult children (an engineer and a law student). They live in Curitiba, Brazil.

Josh Davis, Chairman & CEO of JL Davis Enterprises Josh Davis is an entrepreneur, business acquirer, and operator who builds businesses with a long-term focus on people, systems, and culture. He is the Chairman & CEO of JL Davis Enterprises, a purpose-driven family office that acquires, operates, and grows a portfolio of businesses. Josh and his wife, Loretta, have built companies together from the ground up, including leading a high-growth startup from inception through a successful sale to a private-equity-backed buyer; an experience that shaped how they approach leadership, marriage, faith, and work–life integration. Josh believes in servant leadership; that leaders exist to serve their people, not themselves. Through his family office, he oversees operating businesses and a consulting platform, including Talent Harbour; helping companies put the right people, leadership, and systems in place so they can grow the right way. Guided by his faith, Josh believes business is a responsibility entrusted by God. As a husband and father, he is committed to building businesses that honour family life, supporting children at risk, and helping build the next generation of leaders. Josh has been recognized with Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 and Business in Vancouver’s Forty Under 40. Loretta Davis, Co-Founder & CTO of JL Davis Enterprises Loretta Davis is an entrepreneur and technology leader who builds the systems, processes, and infrastructure that enable businesses to scale with clarity. She is the Co-Founder & CTO of JL Davis Enterprises, a purpose-driven family office that operates a portfolio of businesses. Loretta leads technology, systems, and process design across the portfolio, ensuring growth is supported by strong operational foundations. Previously, Loretta co-founded and served as CTO of a high-growth startup alongside her husband, Josh. She led the development of the systems and award-winning software that enabled scale and supported a successful sale of the company to a private-equity-backed buyer. Her work in innovation and operational excellence earned her Innovator of the Year at the BC CTO Awards. Selling their company created the flexibility for Loretta to work from home while raising their growing family, reinforcing their belief that business should serve faith, marriage, and family, not compete with them. Guided by her faith, Loretta is passionate about her role as a wife and mother. She mentors other mothers, helps children grow strong in their faith, and invests in the next generation of women leaders. She is a graduate of the UBC Sauder School of Business.

Sandy Rosen is the owner and Creative Director of Bez Arts Hub. An interdisciplinary artist herself— singer/songwriter, dancer and writer—Sandy has spent more than 20 years organizing, directing, producing and performing in multiple areas of the arts as well as mentoring emerging artists. Her husband Russ Rosen, is Bez’ Artistic Director and Promotions Manager, is a veteran singer-songwriter and touring musician with more than a dozen albums and hundreds of original songs to his credit, created over his 40 years of musical experience. Bez Arts Hub is a community-oriented creative arts venue offering classes and pre-professional development for emerging artists of many disciplines. Their unique approach to talent development highlights the need to cultivate a community of compassion rather than competition—and their growth to 20 staff and partnerships with local businesses and Creative BC shows that it works. Together, Sandy & Russ share a history of creatively connecting people to Jesus through the arts in youth ministry, camping ministries, and national & international missions. They once spent 5 years living on the road with a mobile theatre in tow (in the form of four semi-trailers) using the arts to communicate the message of hope and reconciliation.

Adrian Di Francesco is a marketplace leader, workplace theology teacher, and practitioner at the intersection of faith, work, and leadership. With nearly two decades working at Loblaw Companies, Adrian held senior roles across e-commerce, supply chain, and national process improvement, supporting operations and teams across Canada. He currently works with O2E Brands, helping WOW 1 Day Painting franchise partners navigate process standardization and organizational change. Adrian holds a Master’s degree in Leadership, Theology, and Society from Regent College, with a concentration in Workplace Theology. He is passionate about equipping Christians to live integrated, faithful lives in their everyday work. Adrian lives in Vancouver with his wife, Tatianna, and is an active member of The Way Church where he teaches about work and theology.

Patrick Elaschuk grew up in an entrepreneurial family, helping run a business that imported industrial electronic parts from Asia to supply factories, sawmills, and retail stores. After finishing a business education, he surprised his father, and charted a different path by choosing vocational ministry instead of taking over the family enterprise. For over 35 years, Patrick has served in full-time ministry while also launching mission-driven ventures. One of these is Hope Philippines, which emerged through years of perseverance and deep community engagement. What began in an urban poor neighborhood has grown into a sustainable social enterprise rooted in dignity, faith, and local leadership. Patrick currently serves as Global Missions Pastor at Tenth Church in Vancouver, walking alongside partners in 12 countries, with a long-standing focus on Cambodia, Mexico, and refugee communities since 2006. He lives at the intersection of structured church life and entrepreneurial imagination, and has found that redemptive entrepreneurship offers both language and practice for transforming tension into possibility. Patrick is passionate about helping visions born from real community needs take shape through strategy, collaboration, and deep trust in God’s guidance and provision. He coaches leaders who desire spiritual depth while supporting innovative, sustainable social enterprises that serve the common good.

Rosaline Oh is first and foremost a follower of Christ. She constantly asks unsettling and hopeful questions: How can business bring life to dead places and freedom out of bondage? How can companies—not just individuals—live out the Gospel in the way they design, hire, produce, and profit? How do we confront and undermine strongholds of darkness embedded in markets, industries, and communities? These questions have followed her through founding, working for, incubating, and consulting for social enterprises—from sustainable agroforestry in the Amazon, to affordable housing in Mexico, to adventure tourism that heals—and she is still asking them today. Rosaline currently serves as Program Manager at Kaleo Labs and is founding AHAVA, a redemptive social enterprise walking alongside women carrying trauma from war and displacement. Her dream is to become a grandmother with a twinkle in her

Sherry Lali, her husband Sat, and a partner started Lago Apparel in Langley BC in 1987 out of their garage. It has now grown to 50 employees and over 2000 customers across Canada. Sherry and Sat have 4 grown children and 6 grandchildren. When Sherry visited the factories in Bangladesh for the first time in 2017, God placed a burden in her heart for the plight of the factory worker. The Lord miraculously led them to connect with missionaries in Cambodia to begin a redemptive business that employed women who scavenged garbage in the dump. To God be the glory—He is the one who empowers these missionaries and draws Christians from around the world to grow this and other businesses which have seen lives changed in ways that are more than we (or the people we serve) could ask or imagine.

Alex Thompson is the executive director and founder of Power For All, a charity offering nature-based occupational therapy services to clients of all ages and abilities for the last 16 years in the Fraser Valley. The vision for Power for All is to reconcile people to themselves, to their communities and to the land. Alex has a rich background in early years and school age education, outdoor recreation, adventure therapy, mental health, trauma, self-regulation, and occupational therapy. She shares her passion and knowledge for an accessible world by teaching at the University of the Fraser Valley in the department of education. She is a speaker at conferences and offers training at various local Parks and Recreation departments, private and public-school districts, various health authorities, community and early years organizations nationally and abroad. She has worked in Inuit communities as a pediatric school therapy consultant for the University of Manitoba and the Government of Nunavut, and she is a published author and researcher in the journal of Disability and Rehabilitation. In her spare time, Alex is dedicated to being in nature, spending time with her family and friends and volunteering to social justice causes in her community and abroad.

Jee-Woon is the co-founder of J’s Kitchen, a homeless ministry in Vancouver, BC, focused on seeing displaced lives restored through meeting physical and spiritual needs. Outside of the ministry, Jee-Woon is a Personal Finance Instructor at various institutions, a Financial Advisor for faith-based financial planning, and a deacon at Evangelical Chinese Bible Church. He enjoys writing music, playing sports, and is getting married in March to his fiancée, Sarah.