Reimagining Women in Leadership: Virtual MBA Conference & Case Competition

Alifia Doriwala. Ms. Doriwala is a Managing Director and Partner at RockCreek. She is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee, co-CIO on multi asset class portfolios and is involved in portfolio management, asset allocation and investment decisions across alternative and traditional asset classes. An active investor, she sources directs, and manages relationships with top-quartile public and private investments on behalf of endowments, foundations, and pension funds. Ms. Doriwala works closely with the Investment Committee and Boards of Institutions in managing their investment portfolios and is in regular dialogue with investors. Building on a life-long interest in advancing mission-oriented work, Ms. Doriwala integrates impact, ESG, and diverse investment opportunities across various portfolios managed by RockCreek.

Prior to joining RockCreek, Ms. Doriwala was an Equity Arbitrage Trader at Wolverine Trading, L.P., where she was responsible for sourcing, analyzing and modeling equity linked trades together with equity options. Areas of focus included equity spread trading resulting from corporate transactions and relative value pairs trading based on fundamental company research. Ms. Doriwala started her career as an Investment Banking Analyst at Merrill Lynch. As a member of the Financial Sponsor Group, she assessed the suitability of potential targets for private equity portfolio companies. Transaction work at Merrill Lynch covered mergers, acquisitions, initial public offerings and other corporate activity.

Ms. Doriwala graduated from Georgetown University magna cum laude with a B.A. in Economics and English and holds an M.B.A. in Finance and Marketing from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She is a Trustee Board Member and Chair of the Investment Committee at The Langley School as well as a board member for the Teach for America-DC Region and a board member of the Georgetown University Global Business Initiative. Ms. Doriwala is a frequent panelist and speaker at investment conferences focused on sustainable investing, diversity and alternative investments. She supports various non-profit organizations focused on education and women’s initiatives. Ms. Doriwala recently contributed to the RockCreek IFC research study entitled “Moving Toward Gender Balance in Private Equity.”

Farhana Mahbub, Director, Strategic Initiatives at RBC Capital Markets, is a delivery-oriented professional who is passionate about transformational change and developing world-class implementation capabilities. Prior to RBC, she worked at CIBC, Canada Life and Teva Pharmaceuticals. In these roles she led large scale programs and change management in risk, regulatory compliance and retail functions.

She hold a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from University of Toronto and Masters in Business Administration from Ryerson University (Ted Rogers School of Management).

Farhana, who is passionate about philanthropic work and advancing women in leadership roles, gives back to the community by volunteering at Women in Leadership Foundation as Toronto Chapter Head and Aiza’s Teddybear Foundation as an Executive Director.

Rebecca Pang is the Vice President, Commercial Financial Services at RBC where she leads a team of relationship managers with a focus on Asian markets in Toronto. They provide commercial banking services for example business loans, commercial mortgages, and cash management.

Previously, she was the Senior Director, US Strategic Business Development for RBC, where she led the development of strategic planning and investment initiatives for traditional and emerging U.S. banking sectors through Innovation and Mergers & Acquisition. Prior to this role, she had held various progressing roles at CIBC including the head of retail channel analytics to drive and support recommendations on various retail channel strategic initiatives, as well as the roles of director of Strategy & Corporate Development and director in mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to coming to Canada 13 years ago, Pang has also worked in China Netcom as assistant to the CFO and Investor Relations Officer where she led the first ever outbound acquisition by a Chinese State-owned enterprise. She has also worked at McKinsey and Company in Hong Kong.

Pang received her MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and later earned her Chartered Financial Analyst and Chartered Business Valuators designations. Pang currently serves as the board of Toronto Zoo, Yee Hong Foundation as well as the Advisor for the Ted Rogers Leadership Centre. She was previously appointed as the Dean Council Member for Ryerson University Ted Rogers School of Management.

Dr. Diana Brecher is a clinical psychologist with 30 years of experience at Ryerson University. Diana spent her first 25 years at Ryerson working in the Counselling Centre as a therapist, supervisor and director. She has 22 years of experience teaching graduate courses in psychology. More recently, she taught a Mental Health and Wellness in the Workplace course designed to introduce graduate students in the MBA program at Ryerson University to positive psychology.

Diana developed a four-session resilience-based training program and created workbooks and other resources found at ThriveRU for students, faculty, and staff.  Diana co-developed Thriving in Action, a ten-session resilience program and an online resource that incorporates flourishing strategies and progressive learning strategies. Students learn optimism, self-compassion, gratitude, mindfulness, and resilience, entwined with time management, efficient studying, empowered test-taking, collaborative group work. Over 400 post-secondary professionals across Canada have been trained in this program, and most are adapting it to their own settings.

Stephen Brown
Partner - Deloitte Consulting

Stephen has been a Consultant with Deloitte for 25 years serving global companies as they transform their businesses and improve operations. He has a supply chain background and began his career in the military. Outside of work he is a Father of 3 girls, has been married for 29 years and does charity board service. He is into endurance sports and meditation and is keenly interested in well-being. 

Dr. Nasreen Khatri is an award-winning registered clinical psychologist with over 15 years of professional experience. She is a gerontologist, neuroscientist and educator who specializes in the assessment, treatment and research of mood and anxiety disorders in older adults. A graduate of McGill University, from 2001 - 2004 Dr. Khatri completed her clinical internship and CIHR-funded post-doctorate at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). From 2004 to 2012, she led the Mood and Related Disorders Clinic and founded the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) service at Baycrest. Baycrest was recently ranked as a global leader in geriatrics (external link, opens in new window) .

In 2012, Dr. Khatri joined The Rotman Research Institute, a cognitive neuroscience institute fully affiliated with The University of Toronto, where she studies how depression impacts the aging brain, the neural link between depression in mid-life and the subsequent onset of dementia and innovates non-drug treatments for depression and anxiety in older adults, such as cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and exercise. She is a Scientific Officer of the Centre for Brain Health and Aging Innovation (CABHI) at Baycrest.

Dr. Khatri’s research has been funded continually since 2006 by, among others, The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), The Alzheimer’s Society of Canada (ASC), The Ministry for Health and Long-term Care (MOHLTC), The Government of Canada and private donors.  In 2013 she was awarded the Women of Baycrest Innovators in Research Award. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals including PLoS ONE, Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Canada (JOGC), Psychiatry Research, Journals of Gerontology, and Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Dr. Khatri has completed over 400 presentations, including keynote addresses for the McGill Road to 200, Bell Let's Talk Day Workplace Wellness, The MaRS Discovery District, The Conference Board of Canada, Aging 2.0, CIBC, RBC and TD banks, Tiger21, CanWIT, The CIBC Women's Thought Leadership Series and The Toronto Public Library Thought Leadership Series.

Dr. Khatri consults on Psychological Health and Safety Standards in the Workplace to the public and private sector. She is a content expert for health app and website development, including Stress Strategies (external link, opens in new window) , Her Nutrition and the  (PDF file) Senior Friendly 7 (SF7) Toolkit (external link, opens in new window) .

Dr. Khatri and her work have been cited in the media, including CBC - The National, CTV News,The Globe and Mail, The Wall Street Journal (US), The National Post, The Toronto Star, The Daily Mail (UK), Zoomer Magazine, The Vancouver Sun, Canadian Living, Chatelaine and 20 other media outlets. She blogs for The Huffington Post on the topic of Mind your Mood: Depression and the Aging Brain and writes for CBC News: Parents website.

Dr. Khatri serves as a mental health expert and keynote speaker for Bell Let's Talk Day.  She is the Mental Health Advisor for Girls E-Mentorship (GEM), The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), SciSection, Evidence Exchange Network for Mental Health and Addictions and past Mental Health Advisor for Canadian Health and Lifestyle Magazine and The Women's Brain Health Initiative (WBHI).  As well, she has provided advisement and content for The Canadian Coalition for Seniors' Mental Health (CCMSH) and CAMH programming.   She was a member of the Board of Trustees of The Psychology Foundation of Canada (PFC, (2012-2018) and currently serves as a member of the Bell Community Fund Advisory Committee, Co-chair of the McGill Women, Leadership and Philanthropy (WLP) Board and a Director of the Canadian Friends of Herzog Hospital Board (Israel).

Dr. Khatri received the 2016 Government of Ontario Leading Women, Building Communities Award for her "remarkable insights into mental health and reducing the stigma of mental health issues" and "the enormous impact of her work" as a psychologist and gerontologist at Baycrest.

In 2019, CREST.BD, a UBC-based research network of which Dr. Khatri is a member, was awarded the CIHR Gold Leaf Prize, among the highest honours that can be bestowed for excellence in health research and its translation into benefits for Canadians.

In 2020, Dr. Khatri was invited to serve on the  New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) Multidisciplinary Review Panel for transformational research.

Dr. Natalie Senst, ND

Dr. Natalie Senst (external link, opens in new window)  is a board-certified Naturopathic Doctor operating a women-focused medical practice in downtown Toronto. Her practice emphasizes education and empowerment of women over their own health. Drawing from her own experience as a mom, an Ironman triathlete and a former litigator, Natalie supports other women to live with greater energy and resilience.

Cornerstones of her naturopathic practice include digestive health, hormonal health and mental health. She also has clinical training in pediatrics-specific conditions as well as experience in a busy multidisciplinary community health centre in Parkdale. She is a member of the Ontario Association of Naturopathic Doctors and the Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors. Natalie is a medical consultant for St. Francis Herb Farm, a Canadian herb company based in Combermere, Ontario.

Dr. Donna Smith is the Director of the Ted Rogers MBA program. She is a dual Canadian/US citizen, having been born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Smith teaches Managing Customer Value and the International Experience Capstone in the Ted Rogers MBA program. She has included leaders of forward-thinking organizations into her classroom to share elements of discovery and challenge with her students. From a research perspective Professor Smith examines social media from B2C and B2B perspectives. Her most recent survey examines inter-organizational trust between social media platforms and their business partners in the US. She has a forthcoming article with two colleagues, Dr. Jenna Jacobson and Dr. Janice Rudkowski, Employees as Influencers: Measuring Employee Brand Equity in a Social Media Age, in the Journal of Product & Brand Management. The research develops a method to measure employee brand equity on Instagram and tests the method on a US-based fitness company, SoulCycle.

Dr. Smith had a successful career in the retail industry in Store Operations and Learning and Development prior to joining Ryerson University. She was initially recruited into the School of Fashion in 1987. She launched Canada’s first School of Retail Management in the Ted Rogers School of Management in 1998. With the help of a committed Advisory Council, she raised over $10 million for innovative programming, scholarships, and online course delivery. In 2003 she became Associate Dean, Faculty of Communication & Design and left that position after three years to return to Retail Management as a professor and to pursue and complete a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree. In 2019 she was appointed Interim Director and in 2020 was appointed Director, Ted Rogers MBA program.

About Hoame  

Carolyn and Stephanie are master’s level mental health clinicians with over a decade each of experience in emergency medicine, community crisis, and private clinical practices. Both academics and researchers, they hold teaching appointments at a number of universities and colleges, namely Wilfrid Laurier University, McMaster University, Humber College, and Durham College. Both have published research in a number of peer- reviewed scientific journals.

Over the years Carolyn and Stephanie became increasingly concerned by the growing mental health crisis plaguing society. They also realized that much of what they were seeing clinically was a direct result of today’s modern stress-filled lifestyle. Their desire to combat this epidemic led them to the study of mindfulness and meditation. They obtained the relevant certifications and started weaving these powerful philosophies and teachings into their personal and professional lives.

In 2018, Carolyn and Stephanie opened Hoame, North America’s largest modern meditation studio. Hoame represents a shift away from the traditional reactionary approaches to health and wellness and a movement towards a modern and preventative approach to wellbeing. Hoame created a splash when it opened, garnering over 150 million media impressions and the attention of top Fortune 500 companies. Hoame regularly works with leading global and Toronto based corporations to provide innovative wellness based solutions, disrupting the status quo of corporate mental health.

In a unique and ground-breaking partnership, Hoame has partnered with McMaster University to present Mindfulness in Modern Society, an online certificate of completion program in mindfulness. This program is one of the first online offering through a post-secondary institution.

Dr. Kristyn A. Scott is an Associate Professor of Human Resource Management and
Organizational Behaviour at the Ted Rogers School of Management. She received her
B.A. (hons) in Psychology from the University of Calgary, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in
Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Waterloo. Her primary
research focuses on leadership with a particular interest in gender bias, perceptions of
leaders, and emotional reactions to leaders. Her current focus is on how dominance,
authoritarianism, and moral values impact the perception of women leaders, how power
and ambition influence leadership perceptions, and authenticity as it relates to women,
leaders and leadership. She also studies the impact of negative organizational attitudes,
such as organizational cynicism, on leader-follower relationships. Kristyn teaches
leadership at undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels and is a Senior Fellow at the
Ted Rogers Leadership Center.

Steven Boms
Executive Director of Financial Data and Technology Association of North America

Steve Boms, Executive Director of the Financial Data and Technology Association of North America, has more than 15 years of experience working inside government, public and private companies, trade organizations, and the technology industry, and assists member companies and clients in working with policymakers in Washington, in statehouses across the United States, and internationally. Steve has spent his career focused on complex financial services public policy issues, having worked in the United States Congress on the committee with jurisdiction over banking issues. He has led advocacy efforts and public policy teams globally for equity options exchanges, large U.S.-based financial institutions, and leading fintech firms. A recognized expert in the intersection of financial technology and public policy, Steve has testified before the United States Senate, the Senate of Canada, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development regarding financial services and technology.

In addition to working directly with FDATA North America’s members, he is a frequent conference panelist and his perspective is solicited by reporters on the technology, financial services, and regulatory beats.

Steve is also the President and founder of Allon Advocacy, LLC, a public policy firm that helps technology, fintech and financial services firms navigate complex public policy and public affairs environments around the world.

Geneviève Bonin – P.Eng. FCMC, MBA

Geneviève is a Partner in the Toronto office of McKinsey & Company. She leads the Social, Healthcare, Public and Education practice for the Canadian firm. She advises public sector organizations at all levels of government in solving complex problems to bring value to society. She specializes in economic development, strategy and innovation and has led numerous complex transformational programs from strategy through value realization.

Geneviève is a thought leader on the topics of diversity, mental health, leadership and talent management. She is a global citizen who has advised clients in numerous countries, serving on global boards, studying and serving as a member of the Royal Canadian Navy in Canada and overseas.

Geneviève is actively involved in the professional and broader public community and serves the boards of the True Patriot Love Foundation, Toronto Global, and the Royal Ottawa Hospital Institute for Mental Health Research. She is the past Chair of the Advisory Council for the Ted Rogers School of Management. She is a member of the Young President Organization, the Treble Victor Group, the Royal Canadian Military Institute, CMC Canada, and the Professional Association of Engineers of Ontario. In recognition for her philanthropy work, she has received the Telfer School of Management Philos award and the Veterans Affairs Ministerial medal for distinctive contribution to society.

Geneviève is an entrepreneur who built a successful chain of retail stores in the Ottawa area. She holds a Bachelor of Chemical & Materials Engineering from the Royal Military College and a Master of Business Administration from the Telfer School of Management. She is a mother of four children.

Hilary Borndahl is the Founder & CEO of Miix Analytics Inc. (external link, opens in new window) , a Marketing Analytics company that takes a fresh approach to blend world-class consulting with agile data analytics. Hilary is an industry veteran with 20 years of experience on the supplier side of Marketing Research informing many top brands and fortune 500 companies on the value of Marketing. She is not only passionate about helping clients uncover their ROI but also plays an active role in the community promoting the advancement of all women. Hilary is the Partnerships Lead for the Network of Executive Women, Toronto Chapter. In her spare time, she co-leads an Oakville charity group called WishList, which raises funds to support larger charity organizations such as Food4Kids Halton and Home Suite Hope.

Jessica Chan
Global Communications Director, Michael Kors

Having grown up in Thornhill, Ontario, Jessica didn't have her sights set on a career in fashion. Originally pursuing a career in Medical Sciences, followed by a brief stint in lab management at a Diabetes research lab and ultimately landing a philanthropic fundraising job at the Heart and Stroke Foundation, it was through her experiences at Heart and Stroke that she came to the realization that her dream was to pursue a career in Fashion Marketing in the mecca, New York City. That was 2011.

Fast forward 10 years and she is now the Global Communications Director at Michael Kors having first moved to New York following her acceptance at Parsons The New School for Design Fashion Marketing Program. While working through her Fashion Marketing degree at Parsons, she secured an internship at Michael Kors and then slowly worked her way up through the ranks from International PR Assistant, PR Coordinator of International Markets, Global Communications Manager, and finally Global Communications Director over the course of 9 years. She now oversees the communications strategies across the corporate and product related initiatives at Michael Kors, ensuring consistent brand messaging in over 28 markets.

Dan Dickinson
Senior Vice-President and Chief Information Officer at Equitable Bank

Dan is Senior Vice-President and Chief Information Officer at Equitable Bank in Toronto, Canada’s ninth-largest independent bank. He is responsible for all technology strategy, delivery, and related operations at Equitable.

Dan joined Equitable in 2013 as VP Digital Banking and launched EQ Bank, a digital-only bank, in January 2016. In January 2017 Dan took over technology for all aspects of Equitable Bank, and in 2018 also assumed responsibility for project delivery. Prior to joining Equitable, Dan was Managing Director, Online & Mobile Banking at BMO Bank of Montreal.

Tara Elliott
Vice President (VP), Legal at Interac Corp.

As VP Legal, Tara Elliott is responsible for leading a team of legal professionals at Interac Corp. Working closely with the innovative business units at Interac, Tara champions a legal business partnership model that focuses on thought leadership and strategically informed outcomes.

Tara has a breadth of experience in the payments industry. She brings more than 20 years of combined business and legal experience (including significant Fintech eco-system roles) and has been successful in building and leading high-performance teams. Prior to joining Interac, Tara practiced law as Director, Senior Legal Counsel at Moneris Solutions Corporation, one of North America’s largest payment processors, where she provided support to various business groups within a finance technology company. A graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, who also practiced at Osler LLP in Toronto prior to moving in-house, Tara’s areas of practice include corporate-commercial, M&A, and various technology arrangements.

Tara is a frequent contributor and participant on various legal and industry panels speaking to Interac’s forward-thinking approach to innovation in Fintech, complex operating environments, and legal leadership in an age of uncertainty.

Keith Jansa
Executive Director of the CIO Strategy Council

Keith Jansa is the Executive Director of the CIO Strategy Council. He works with Canada’s most forward-thinking public and private sector Chief Information Officers to collectively address the pace of digital transformation and advance Canada’s position in the global digital economy. In his previous role as Vice President of Standards and Innovation, Keith provided executive leadership in the design and successful accreditation of the Council’s standards-setting process to drive the creation of national standards to advance Canada’s digital economy.

Among his previous positions, Keith led a team of specialists in a crown corporation devising many winning standardization strategies designed to accelerate market access for Canadian companies and their innovative technologies; managed a trade association standards program advancing strategic priorities in the interests of member companies and their customers; worked as a standards specialist for a leading standards development organization; and served as a board director for a non-profit organization providing strategic direction, overseeing financial reporting and enhancing the quality of life of those with mental health challenge.

Keith holds a Bachelor in Health Sciences honours degree from the University of Ottawa. He is married to his university sweetheart, Kayla Jansa, and loves chasing after his 3 children.

Hwan Kim
Canadian Open Banking Leader, Deloitte

Hwan is an advisor to financial institutions that aspire to lead the future of the industry. Hwan helps financial institutions navigate the future landscape, craft strategic responses, and develop innovative offerings with differentiated value proposition. His work spans across long-term planning, corporate / business unit strategy, value proposition development, and go-to-market delivery.

Hwan leads Deloitte Canada’s Open Banking practice and is part of its global Open Banking leadership team. He has also led Deloitte’s collaboration with the World Economic Forum on disruptive innovation in financial services since 2014 and co-authored the report The Future of Financial Services.

Elena Litani
Product and Technology Executive (KOHO, nanopay, TD Bank, IBM)

Elena is a product & technology executive with over 20 years of experience across multiple industries: banking, technology services and fintech. In her latest role, Elena led an engineering team at KOHO, Canada’s challenger bank, reinventing the everyday banking experience for Canadians. Elena also serves as a member on Stakeholder Advisory Council, Payments Canada and on Global Community Council, Women in Payments. Elena holds a Bachelors in Computer Science from York University and previously led blockchain initiatives at TD, and IT strategy at IBM, working closely with partners to build and adopt cloud-based, and distributed technologies to enable technical modernization and innovation.

Zoe Marks
Director, Finance Canada

Zoe Marks leads the Financial Services Innovation team at the Department of Finance Canada. She leads policy work on the changing nature of financial services in the digital economy, including developments on open banking and stablecoins. Zoe has more than 10 years experience with the Government of Canada, working in a variety of fields including labour market policy, tax policy and international finance. Zoe holds a Master's degree in Economics from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor's degree from Dalhousie University.

Ian McDonald
Chief Customer Officer – Growth, Innovation, Partnerships | Communitech

As Chief Customer Officer at Communitech, Ian is responsible for the Start & Scale, Corporate, and Data & Advanced Technology teams - and coordinating the services of Communitech and our partners to support growth, innovation, and partnership opportunities for our customers.

Ian previously led enterprise innovation and innovation labs for TD Bank group, and has worked with numerous startups, scale-ups, and corporations including InFlight Corporation, Aeryon Labs, BlackBerry, Hyundai Auto Canada, and Sandvine. Ian has international experience designing and commercializing new solutions, building commercial alliances, developing new markets, and growing companies.

Jennifer McDonald is COO at Moka, the app that helps you achieve your financial goals by making it easier to save more, spend less and invest smarter.  Moka automatically rounds-up everyday purchases and invests the spare change, and is launching new ways to reduce monthly bills, pay down debt and get financial advice.

Jennifer is passionate about building inclusive products and teams. For over 20 years, she has leveraged her expertise in strategy, product and operations to increase financial inclusion globally. Before joining Moka, Jennifer led development of mobile financial products reaching over 1.8m people in emerging markets from Colombia to Nigeria. She believes that technology and innovation can help people increase their financial security.

Hugh McKee
Head, BMO Partners

Hugh McKee is Head of BMO Partners, BMO’s Enterprise partnership team accountable for using strategic partnerships and investments to help accelerate innovation and growth across BMO. He is accountable for developing partnerships with Fintechs, Bigtechs, financial services consortia and innovation accelerators. Prior to his current role, Hugh was the Vice President of Enterprise Strategy in the Office of Strategic Management where he led Enterprise strategic initiatives.

Hugh has also held a number of operating roles within BMO including President and CEO of BMO Mutual Funds and Vice President of Customer Segment Management. Before joining BMO in 2007, he was a Global Account Manager for Monitor Group, a management consulting firm, where he was a leader in the financial services practice. Hugh holds an Honours BA in Economics from Queen's University and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario.

Aayaz Pira
SVP, CIBC Digital Banking & Innovation

Aayaz Pira is the Senior Vice President, Digital Banking and Enterprise Innovation at CIBC. In his current role, Aayaz oversees all things digital for the bank including client experience, innovation, sales and banking. Under Aayaz’ leadership, CIBC Digital has been recognized as the top mobile bank in Canada for six consecutive years, the top Consumer Digital Bank in North America, Banking Innovator of the year and one of Canada’s 50 most innovative workplaces.

In his previous role, Aayaz was responsible for building and launching CIBC's direct banking businesses across North America including Simplii Financial and CIBC Agility in the US. In 2020, Simplii Financial was recognized as one of the world’s best banks by Forbes magazine. Aayaz has been recognized as the “Digital Banker of the Year” by American Banker, awarded the Ted Rogers
School of Management Alumni Trailblazer award for his contribution to the school/community and has also been profiled as a “Next Gen” leader in Toronto.

Oscar Roque
VP, Strategy, Trends & Emerging Solutions

Oscar leads the Strategy, Trends & Emerging Solutions group at Interac Corp. He leads enterprise strategy, innovation partnerships, and is responsible for identifying and exploring new technologies and opportunities in areas including consumer-directed finance, digital payments and value exchange, blockchain and fintech. He has over 15 years of experience in bringing to market new innovations and leading strategy, product management and delivery teams across multiple industries such as financial services, banking, telecommunications and technology services. Oscar has spoken at numerous high-profile international conferences including Collision, Elevate, IBM Think and SIBOS. He is also a contributor and frequent participant on various industry panels and thought leadership platforms. He can speak to Interac’s forward-thinking approach to research and development as it relates to social innovation, as well as provide deep knowledge of existing digital payment and financial technology infrastructure.

About Interac Corp.

Interac is Canada’s payments and digital information exchange and is chosen an average of 18 million times daily to pay and exchange money. We operate an economical, world-class debit payments system with secure, broad-based acceptance, reliable technical infrastructure, and a history of bringing the ecosystem together. For more than 35 years, Interac has been one of Canada’s most trusted financial services brands with one of the lowest rates of fraud globally.

Rhiannon is the CEO, and owner of The Economic Club of Canada and Founder of The Jr. Economic Club of Canada. Rhiannon is redefining what it means to be a corporate leader in this country. She is passionate about highlighting the most important issues our nation is grappling with – from Truth and Reconciliation to racism and exclusion on Bay Street, Rhiannon is challenging corporate Canada to see its role in creating a more prosperous and equal future for everyone. Rhiannon has hosted countless thought leaders and changemakers at The Economic Club through the years including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Former First Lady Michelle Obama, and human rights advocate, Amal Clooney. A go-to for Bay Street, tech, healthcare, domestic, and international political leaders, The Economic Club is a public policy platform for the 21st century, where the leaders of today and tomorrow connect.

Rhiannon has been a tireless advocate for youth, developing seven national programs under The Jr. Economic Club banner that have impacted over 50,000 young Canadians and provided over $150,000 in academic scholarships. Rhiannon may mingle and do business with the C-suite crowd, but she definitely shouldn’t be confused with the establishment. Inspired by her own lived experience with child poverty as the daughter of a single mother, Rhiannon has become a warrior for women and youth facing barriers.

Rhiannon is the proud mother of two young boys, Luke and Bennett, and enjoys exploring Toronto with them in her spare time.

Awards:

• Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Business (2013, 2015, 2017)
• Change Agents, Canadian Business Magazine (2016)
• Bay Street’s “Power 50”, Bay Street Bull Magazine (2018)

Kashmera Self
AVP, Strategy & Emerging Solutions Delivery 

Kashmera Self helps determine the role Interac plays within the Canadian innovation ecosystem. She leads the evaluation of opportunities on emerging trends and technologies and through enterprise strategy development determines what that could mean for Interac. Her focus today is on future-looking initiatives, specifically digital commerce, open banking (aka consumer-directed finance), data exchange, blockchain, connected cities and social commerce. She has twenty years of experience in product management and leading go-to-market strategies within the payments, financial services, and travel industries with her career concentration on the digital economy. Kashmera was the recipient of the Women in Payments Rising Star Award and is often called upon to speak at industry conferences where she has contributed to the dialogue on innovation and transformation both within Canada and abroad.

Kashmera can speak to various topics including: emerging trends and payments innovation within digital commerce, open banking (aka consumer-directed finance), blockchain, connected cities and using technology for social good.

About Interac Corp.

Interac is Canada’s payments and digital information exchange and is chosen an average of 18 million times daily to pay and exchange money. We operate an economical, world-class debit payments system with secure, broad-based acceptance, reliable technical infrastructure, and a history of bringing the ecosystem together. For more than 35 years, Interac has been one of Canada’s most trusted financial services brands with one of the lowest rates of fraud globally.

Lakshmi Sundaram is a Managing Director at CIBC leading the US Retail and Digital Banking Group. Prior to this at CIBC (previously The PrivateBank), she led the Regional Retail Team and Michigan Municipal Funds Group, collaborated on various strategic projects and led and directed the Bank’s Michigan operations.  Prior to this, Lakshmi was with the Commercial Banking Group at LaSalle Bank Midwest, N.A., (now part of Bank of America, N.A.) subsidiary of ABN AMRO Bank N.V, a $500 billion global bank. She served as an internal consultant fielding wide-ranging responsibilities including strategic evaluation of operations to validate business model and alignment with corporate strategy, operational effectiveness, credit evaluation, risk management, financial reporting, performance management and improvement, business continuity and disaster recovery preparedness and implementation of regulatory compliance. Lakshmi also spent over a decade cultivating and managing a portfolio of syndicated multi-bank and single bank middle market commercial relationships.

Lakshmi has been a volunteer for the IRS’ VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) program for 21 years. Lakshmi is a co-founder and past board member of the Detroit Chapter of The IndUS Entrepreneur (TiE), a non-profit global network of entrepreneurs and professionals. She has also served as chair of the Strategic Planning and Membership Services Committees and played an active role in Membership Recruitment, organizing and executing Seminars and Programs of Inforum, formerly known as Women's Economic Club of Detroit.

Abraham Tachjian
Director, Digital Banking, PwC Canada

Abraham is a former lawyer turned digital banker. These days, he’s a consultant focusing on digital banking and he was previously one of the founders of Standard Chartered’s virtual bank Mox in Hong Kong. Prior to that, he was a director in digital banking in the Singapore office where he was responsible for the implementation of emerging technologies as well as making banking simpler and more intuitive. He’s a frequent speaker at conferences where he focuses on emerging topics in financial services such as challenger banks, regtech and open banking. He also writes about industry developments on atonfintech.com (external link, opens in new window) .

As a common law and civil law qualified lawyer, he offers a multidisciplinary approach bridging the gap between banking, technology and law.

Sandeep Tatla is the Chief Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Fasken. As a member of the firm’s leadership team, she is responsible for the design and implementation of the Firm’s equity, diversity and inclusion strategy.

A catalyst for change, Sandeep is a forward-thinking executive leader with demonstrated experience successfully leading diversity, equity and inclusion change strategies across different and complex industries. Her focus is on systemic and sustainable change.

Prior to her role at Fasken, Sandeep has held leading roles in the field, including with an industry leading global financial services firm, provincial regulatory body and most recently at one of Canada’s largest privately held technology companies. Sandeep’s work and views on diversity and inclusion have been published in the Harvard Business Review and HR Professional as well as through interviews with journalists from several major news outlets including: The Globe & Mail, National Post, Financial Post and CBC Radio.

Prior to specializing in diversity and inclusion, Sandeep practiced labour and employment law for several years focusing on employment, human rights law and equity legislation.

Marilyn Whittingham
Vice President of Experience Design | The Working Group

With over 20 years of experience in user experience (UX) design and digital marketing, Marilyn connects the dots between business challenges and customer-centric solutions across a range of platforms. Working closely with clients, Marilyn assists them in translating their strategic roadmaps into effective customer journeys that achieve key business results.

Throughout Marilyn's career, she has developed and delivered innovative digital and user experience solutions for global and Canadian organizations, including American Express (UK, US, and Canada), Sun Life Financial (Globally), HomeTrust/Oaken Financial, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Slate Asset Management, Toronto Community Housing (OCHE), City of Mississauga, Canadian Blood Services, Kids Help Phone, and Rogers Communications Inc. In all cases, helping to advance their businesses by producing engaging end-user, brand, and digital solutions. In her current role as VP, Experience Design TWG she leads and collaborates with an exceptionally talented design team transforming the way organizations define, design, and build software.

Lastly, being an active participant in the technology community is important to Marilyn. She frequently participates in industry events as a keynote speaker and panelist on topics such as the Leadership of all Women in Technology, Design Ethics, Inclusive Design, Data-Driven Design, and Black Tech Networks via BPTN.

Amy-Lynne Williams is a founding member and partner of Deeth Williams Wall LLP. She practises exclusively in the area of information technology law.

For 40 years, Amy-Lynne’s areas of practice have included outsourcing transactions; electronic payments agreements; systems acquisition, distribution, licensing, technology transfers, electronic commerce, privacy, electronic publishing and software development.  She represents both producers and users of information technology in private industry and government.

Amy-Lynne has written and spoken on many aspects of IT law, including outsourcing, system acquisitions, joint ventures, technology acquisitions, security, electronic commerce and copyright.  In addition, she has testified as an expert witness on the drafting, interpretation and negotiation of IT contracts and has served as an arbitrator on a panel dealing with an international IT dispute.

Amy-Lynne is a Past-President of the International Technology Law Association and a Past-President of the Canadian Technology Law Association and has been recognized in several legal publications including: Best Lawyers in Canada, Lawyer of the Year for Information Technology Law (Toronto), 2021, 2016 and 2013; Who's Who Legal, Thought Leader in Data, Information Technology; Best Lawyers in Canada, Lawyer of the Year for Information Technology Law (Toronto), 2012 and 2014; Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory, Most Frequently Recommended for Computer & IT Law; Chambers and Partners Global Guide, Band 1 - Information Technology Lawyers in Canada; Lexpert/American Lawyer Guide to the Leading 500 Lawyers in Canada, Leading Lawyer in Computer & IT Law; Who's Who Legal, Global Leader in Data Privacy and Protection and Information Technology; and Who's Who Legal, National Leader in Data.

About Deeth Williams Wall

Founded over 25 years ago, Deeth Williams Wall LLP has grown from seven lawyers to close to 20, covering all aspects of IP prosecution, commercialization and enforcement; technology law; emerging technology protection and commercialization; privacy and data breach protection, management and coaching; litigation; and regulatory law. The firm acts for a number of large businesses, including an international oilfield services company, a provincial government, a major inter-bank data network, a top-tier hospital, an international soft drink company, an international retailer, and a number of Canadian tech start-ups. The firm has acted for several international drug companies on patent litigation, PM(NOC), and regulatory matters.  It also provides day-to-day patent and trademark advice for major food, chemical, automotive and retail companies. Deeth Williams Wall and its lawyers have been ranked as an industry leader both in Canada and internationally by Lexpert Magazine, Canadian Lawyer, Best Lawyers of Canada, Who’s Who Legal, Legal 500, Chambers Canada, and several other publications.

Hanna Zaidi
Director, Regulatory Operations | Wealthsimple

Hanna is a regulatory strategist that has worked for a wide range of financial institutions from big banks to early stage startups. Hanna has advised early stage fintechs on go to market strategies and product compliance. Hanna is currently Director of Regulatory R&D at Wealthsimple and has supported the launch of new products in areas such as prepaid cards, hybrid savings and spending account, the first crypto trading platform approved by securities regulators and a P2P product. Hanna also is a Board Member at Open Banking Initiative Canada.