The Team
Artist:
Helga Schleeh
Helga Schleeh is a practicing multimedia artist with approximately 40 local and international exhibitions to her credit, including exhibits in Beijing, New York, Montreal, Miami, Washington, DC. and Toronto. She has received many grants, including the Canada Council, Unesco, the Chalker’s Foundation, the Charles Bronfman Foundation, Engrenage Noir, ArtSmarts among others.
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Helga graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She was the representative for Canada for the first world wide exhibition of art online. She worked with the United Nations - both in New York and for the UN conference in Montreal, giving workshops, talks and exhibitions regarding the use of art for peace and for the environment. Her video on the beauty of the creation of the planet (sponsored by Unesco and the Canada Council), was featured at the 2005 Conference for the United Nations on Climate Change.
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Helga's meditation work includes the World Council of Churches and the United Nations for Peace. In her 30s, she spent 3-10 hours daily meditating. She studied Advaita with Nirmala for 6 years, is an accredited leader of the Dances of Universal Peace. Helga has led workshops bringing together Jews, Muslims and Christians and has also studied Saadi sufism with Dr. Neil Douglas Klotz. She also does awareness counselling and intuitive readings.
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Helga has given art workshops all over the world, including Costa Rica, Italy, Spain, France, Bahamas, Vietnam, Cambodia, Canada and the US.
Event Producer:
Leslie Martino
Leslie Martino began her professional career in New York in fashion marketing working for clients such as Perry Ellis, Nino Cerruti and Pierre Cardin. From fashion, Leslie segued into event planning working for one of New York’s leading event professionals, Ronnie Davis of Washington Street Cafe. Working with Ronnie, she had the opportunity to plan high profile events such as the Time Warner Grammy Award parties, Luciano Pavarotti at Lincoln Center, film premiere parties and Broadway openings. Apart from corporate projects, Leslie also planned many upscale weddings, private parties and non-profit events.
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Leslie moved to Montreal in the early 90’s and since then has organized many freelance events and also collaborated with Marissa Nuss and Associates. The scope of the projects have ranged from weddings to large corporate events for the pharmaceutical industry, American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Tree Nut Council and the 100th anniversary of the Mount Royal Tennis Club.
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Leslie has also been involved in many non-profit and community endeavours such as the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, The Museum Trustees Association of North America, Westmount Community Events Advisory Board, Special Event Director on the Board of the Mount Royal Tennis Club, the Montreal chapter of Room to Read, Camp Amy Molson as well as the Terry Fox Foundation.
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Location Owner & Partner:
Dimitra Malea
Dimitra Malea holds an MBA from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She began her professional career in marketing at one of the biggest international companies operating in Greece, Mars Inc., where she reached the position of Marketing Manager.
She subsequently completed a four-year training course on Existential Psychotherapy with the Hellenic Society of Existential Psychology in Athens, Greece and is now an EAP accredited psychotherapist with a private practice focusing on oncology patients. She has been an active volunteer for the past 10 years at major hospitals in Athens where she is supporting oncology patients and their families.
During the summer months, Dimitra is running a boutique hospitality business at the family property on Zakynthos island, Greece. Along with her husband Nicholas Mitsakis, they acquired Lithalona estate in 1999, which was originally used as a private retreat for the extended family and friends. In 2016, they decided to venture into tourism and from that point on “Lithalona Villas & Houses” was created and opened to guests from all over the world.