Seneca News

New Stakeholder Engagement and Business Development team members

Welcome to Seneca Abidah Lalani and Ragetha Ratnam

Sept. 12, 2022

Mohamed Dhanani, Seneca’s Vice-President, Stakeholder Engagement and Business Development has announced two new members of the Stakeholder Engagement and Business Development team:

Abidah Lalani is the Director of Government Relations. In this role, she will work to create a competitive advantage for Seneca through collaboration and long term relationship building with government, industry partners and community leaders.

Abidah brings to Seneca more than 10 years of experience working with federal and provincial governments to advance and improve policies and programs. Most recently, she was the National Director of Government Relations and Advocacy at Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Canada, working to advance public and private coverage of diabetes technologies across the country.

Abidah Lalani

Before joining JDRF Canada, Abidah was the Manager of Government Relations at the MS Society of Canada and National Manager of Building Citizenship at the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. She has also served with various disability rights organizations, including the Ontario Caregiver Coalition, Ontario Episodic Disabilities Network and the Ontario Working Group of Neurological Health Charities Canada.

Abidah graduated with distinction from York University with a bachelor’s degree in political science. Currently, she is completing a bachelor’s degree in law at the University of London.

As well, Ragetha Ratnam will be joining Seneca as Executive Assistant to the Vice-President, Stakeholder Engagement and Business Development.

Ragetha brings more than nine years of experience working for not-for-profit organizations in healthcare and child welfare, where she provided a range of senior and executive level administrative and support services.

Most recently, Ragetha was with York Region Children's Aid Society (CAS), where she coordinated high-level administrative work and project management for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department. She also supported the implementation and policy development for CAS’s Child Protection Information Network, Indigenous reconciliation and restoration of jurisdiction profiles.

Ragetha Ratnam

Ragetha holds an honours bachelor's degree in health studies with a specialization in health management from York University.