Our team

Carla Leon

Carla Leon is an innovator. When approached with the opportunity to become part of Just Like Family Home Care, she spearheaded the first social acquisition by charities in Canada. With her vision, JLF has been transformed into a Social Enterprise, with the majority of profits going to charities.

During her career, Carla has provided leadership, coaching, mentorship, and education to thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners—experience she brings to Just Like Family Home Care. She strives to make a social impact, transforming home care across Canada for franchise owners and the families they support. She holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from University of British Columbia.

Carla believes success comes from collaboration. She has a long history of creating partnerships that transform organizations and people. Her greatest sense of satisfaction comes from using her skills to make a positive impact on those whose lives she touches.

Sarah Bowder

With more than 20 years’ experience managing business operations, Sarah Bowder not only knows how to run a successful business, she knows how to run a successful business better. Prior to joining Just Like Family Home Care, Sarah specialized in Project Management in the energy sector, ensuring the success of multi-million dollar projects. At Just Like Family, Sarah uses her innovative spirit and analytical thinking to find the best ways to support franchise owners and the people they care for.

Drawn to Just Like Family Home Care because of her desire to use her skills and experience to make a difference in people’s lives, Sarah believes true success is a group dynamic—that a business thrives when everyone is successful and works together to achieve their goals. As she says,

“I would like every interaction people have with Just Like Family Home Care to leave them feeling acknowledged, appreciated, and respected. I want to make a difference in the way a business is labeled as ‘successful’. Success doesn’t come from stepping on others—it comes from lifting them up, and in that way, we become a win/win culture, honouring and respecting each person along the way. The value of relationships is put ahead of profits.”

As Chief Operating Officer, Sarah ensures the systems and processes are in place to deliver top-notch customer service, exceptional care for seniors, and rewarding employment opportunities for caregivers and franchise owners. While clients and caregivers may not meet Sarah face-to-face, she is working hard behind the scenes to ensure that everyone touched by Just Like Family thrives.

Jeff Szeto

Jeff has over 15 years of extensive experience in leading and growing finance functions in high-growth entrepreneurial businesses. He was previously the VP Finance for a high growth SaaS company where he played an instrumental role in creating a scalable finance team and led the organization to an exit to a billion dollar PE firm.

Jeff currently serves as the CFO of Avana Capital, an organization that provides fractional CFO, and accounting services to a variety of investment holdcos, not-for-profits, and entrepreneurial ventures. He is also the Managing Director and Lead for Alder Capital Sustainable Ventures, where his focus is investing in high growth ventures in the ESG space.

Gordialin Ferguson

As a multi-business entrepreneur deeply rooted in her community, Gordialin (Lin) Ferguson brings over two decades of diverse business expertise to her position at Just Like Family Home Care. She presently serves as the Executive Director of a global foundation while simultaneously owning a consultancy firm specializing in strategic planning, community engagement, corporate leadership, and more.

Lin’s infectious excitement and passion for helping others fuels her ambitious nature. Becoming a part of Just Like Family was a natural progression for her. Drawn to the organization’s commitment to social impact, she takes immense satisfaction in applying her wealth of knowledge and experience to positively impact the lives of those she serves.

Lin believes that:

“In the world of franchise development, our mission is simple but powerful: nurturing dreams, expanding opportunities, and creating a ‘family’ of compassionate entrepreneurs who care, just like family. Together, we’re building a brighter future, one franchise at a time.”

Tom Auger

As a C-suite executive for nearly two decades, Tom has managed and empowered technical and creative teams to design, develop, and deliver customized solutions in product, startup, and services contexts. Tom has that unusual dual skillset of the seasoned creative and the technical guru, which allows him to think big while weighing realistic implementation details.

In addition to supporting, growing, optimizing, and mentoring cross-functional teams, Tom is an animated and enthusiastic facilitator, regularly collaborating with senior stakeholders and clients in design thinking or technical solution architecture workshopping in real-time. Tom endeavours to leverage his considerable business acumen gained over decades of strategic work across nearly all sectors to bring discernment and 360-degree thinking to even the most tactical issues.

Tom is a first-generation digital native who thrives in highly creative, strategic engagements where his broad range of experience can be brought to bear holistically on the problem space. Having a complete hands-on grasp over the past 30+ years in software architecture and development, IT, web design, IoT, digital experience design, interaction and user experience, fabrication and prototyping as well as very strong communication, facilitation and illustration skills, Tom is equally at home in the boardroom, the scrum standup, the conference stage or the classroom.

Tom is a fervent advocate of equity, inclusivity, and accessibility, and actively seeks opportunities to lend his values and training around DEI and universal access to create, support, or amplify positive organizational and cultural change. He is passionate about the social enterprise and innovation space and is dedicating the “back half” of his career to pursuits that bring true social and cultural value into the world.

Alana Breen

Alana brings more than a decade of experience in the healthcare industry to her role with Just Like Family Home Care, with significant time spent in elder care and retirement homes. She possesses a degree in Global Health Promotion and Disease Prevention from York University with a special focus on aging populations and aging in place. Her passion lies in empowering others, building relationships, and making a positive impact in the lives of others.

Alana loves being part of a team (or as she calls it, a “mini-community”) that is based on common values; wearing their hearts on their sleeves and showing up when, and in the ways, that truly matter.

She says:

“Here at Just Like Family, I truly want to make everyone feel like a member of our family. In-home care shouldn’t feel transactional—the relationship between the client and caregiver can have the same warmth you offer to family members. I love that we value this type of connection at Just Like Family.”

Maria Lopez

Maria works closely with franchise owners to help them implement systems and processes to ensure their business thrives.

Originally from Medellin, Colombia, Maria Lopez supports our franchise partners in their first year as a member of Just Like Family Home Care. Every step of the way she connects them with resources and is their biggest cheerleader in the first stages of getting their businesses off the ground. She brings experience working with a nonprofit health care organization and a degree in Healthcare Administration to her role.

Maria enjoys working with others and contributing to team success. As she says,

“I love to be of service to people, helping them through any process and coming up with solutions. My own success is found through integrating my values and helping others find their success.”

Gigi Hoang

Gigi Hoang is the Franchise Development Lead at Just Like Family Inc. since September 2023.

She started her entrepreneurship journey in the wellness space as a Mind & Body Connection Coach over the last 7 years and has her Life Coaching Certificate with Flow Institute. She has facilitated group workshops centred around community healing and held over a dozen events.

She is a part of the SETSI Coalition network as a Brand Coach and Strategist. In 2020, she helped successfully launch “The Brandon Gonez Show” as well as Gonez Media and created campaigns with multiple brands such as UberEats, Huawei, Hennessy etc.

Due to the nature of her work as a Wellness Coach, she realized how disconnected the “business” world was, it was a journey to in itself to find a balance between impact & income. Now working with Just Like Family reaffirmed her belief that it is possible for all of us to win, and the secret is in collaboration, integrity, and collective growth.